It’s an incremental kind of day today — additional details here and there, but nothing like the big news we got yesterday. Let’s run down the list.

• Meredith Gran, Shelli Paroline & Braden Lamb¹, and the ghost of Ryan North got some recognition from media outlets that may pay no less attention to webcomics than we at Fleen, but it’s not their main focus. Specifically, Comics Alliance called out Gran’s Octopus Pie as one of the best comics of 2012 and The AV Club recognized Paroine, Lamb, and the late North’s work on Adventure Time in a similar fashion. Not much recognition of webcomickers elsewhere in those lists, but I see it less as token webcomics recognition and more of spectacularly talented creators hanging with the best that various comics media have to offer.
• Speaking of the best that various comics media have to offer, Jim Zub dropped some of his hard-earned wisdom (again!) at his blog, this time talking about why there are no overnight successes when dealing with big name comics properties². Highlighting his thesis for those that don’t want to read what’s clearly written:
  

  There’s no open spot waiting for you. You have to earn it. [boldface original]

  … which he highlighted with a quick rundown of a twelve-year process of getting to the point where 2012 could legitimately be called A Big Year For Zub (and 2013 potentially more so).

• Yesterday’s Strip Search news has been edited to add the name of contestant of Tavis Maiden, who was initially overlooked. Also, news came from Loading Ready Run regarding their role in hosting and producing SS, as well as a peek behind the curtains around the judging/elimination process from Mike Krahulik. Underscoring Robert Khoo’s mention of how unexpectedly connected the judges got to some of the art, Krahulik remembered:
  

  We had some no bullshit fights while judging a few of these comics. I remember one night, Robert actually had us all step outside to cool off for a bit after things got especially heated. The winner of this show will get fifteen thousand dollars and the ability to come and work at the Penny Arcade office for one year. So I expected Strip Search would be a life changing experience for the contestants, but I didn’t expect it to be a life changing experience for me.

  Krahulik also mentioned something in passing that caught my eye:

  As mentioned over on the Loading Ready Run site, the bulk of the show has already been filmed.

  Khoo wouldn’t say definitively if the SS filming was complete, or if some number of finalists were still subject to competition — reading between the lines, it appears there may be some filming yet to take place. Could be a final final elimination, or a reunion show, but I imagine we’ll get the skinny soon enough. And despite Hurricane Erika getting to indulge in the greatest cliche of reality shows³, it appears that the selection process really did avoid The Puck Situation. Something tells me when we get down to the ultimate winner/runner-up decision, the runner-up is going to be genuinely happy for the winner.

_______________
¹ It occurs to me that I have not always given Paroline and Lamb their due in noting the success of Adventure Time, having sometimes focused too much on their late, lamented writer. Assuming that the now-exploded North left behind sufficient scripts for them to work on, they should be able to show their work to even greater effect in future issues.

² One ought to note that there may be seemingly meteoric rises in the world of indy/webcomics, but while working for yourself may compress the timeline a bit, you’re still looking at years of honing your craft before suddenly launching that upwards trajectory.

³ In an unused detail from the interview, Khoo noted that sometimes the presence of reality show tropes and cliches is because they work.