Sometimes, there’s just a window where it’s all Big Players that announce/do things.

• In terms of audience, influence, and longevity, Penny Arcade is the biggest deal in our corner of the web, no? I figure over the next 1 – 3 years that statement will become less definitive, but for now, they’ve been doing it bigger and longer than anybody else (and get your mind out of the gutter). Having produced the comic, custom content for game publishers, a game series, a scholarship, a convention series, and a multi-million dollar charity, there really wasn’t anyplace else to go besides reality TV.

  So they did that.

  The pilot episode is up now (with what looks like six more episodes in the works), including the year’s biggest Awwwww moment as Jerry Holkins introduces his new daughter to the world. If you enjoy the kind of TV that doesn’t involve pretty people eating gross things and scheming in “alliances” (but I guess Alliances are okay), take a gander.

• In the world of print comickry, DC are one of the proverbial Big Guns, and their move into webcomics has proven to be both more long-lasting and influential than I figured it would be (but, for the record, the interface is still pretty hateful on my browser). There’s a pretty good interview/article (it’s sort of midway between the two) at the blogsite of a Louisiana TV channel with Zudaboss Ron Perazza. Perazza’s a really nice guy, genuine in his goals and intentions (and if he and I don’t have entirely parallel viewpoints on webcomicking, that doesn’t mean that either of us is deluded or wrong). I particularly want to recommend the interview to you because it’s got an unusually good bit of reportage behind it — there’s none of the (hopefully, formerly) obligatory “Biff! Pow!” nonsense, nor the mistaken assertion that comics-on-the-web are a brand-new phenomenon spearheaded by forward-thinking publishers. In fact, I quite liked the second ‘graf:
  

  Today, companies are still trying to find the most user-friendly mode of consumption and more importantly, the right business model. Digital comics, or Web comics as they have become known, have been highly successful for many independent creators with comic strips, but have not been much more than a glorified marketing gimmick to the major players in the industry.

  Don’t worry, Zudafans, the remainder of the piece focuses on how the majors reacted to that state of affairs; in fact, the majority of what’s in the piece won’t be a surprise to anybody that regularly reads this page, but it’s the first I’ve seen out in the wider world that acknowledges that there are different approaches to comics+internet that will work differently for different constituencies of business, creators, and readers. Hell, that’s something that we at Fleen could stand to be reminded of from time to time.

• One of the larger hosting companies out there, at least in that it hosts an unusually large number of webcomics, is Dreamhost. Unfortunately, that can create what paranoid types like me call a Single Point of Failure, and problems there can have outsized consequences. Late last night (or early this morning, or perhaps a bit past tea-time, depending where you are), Dreamhost did a wobbly and while the core failure seems to have been contained in about three hours, lingering aftereffects were reported a good twelve hours after initial report. If you couldn’t get to your preferred free entertainment last night (or this morning, or tea-time), give it a while. And as this isn’t a new occurence, there may be some shifts of provider in the near-to-medium term.
• Finally, it’s well understood that the world’s greatest (indeed, the Cartoonist Extraordinaire) is Bill Connolly. His videos on how to draw have inspired more people than Bob Ross and Commander Mark put together. Now, a bunch of artists have created a new website in tribute to Connolly’s most well-loved lesson of all. Thus, the Beautiful Asian Lady Collection is ready for your adoration and participation (thanks to Yuko Ota for letting the world know about this marvel).