The webcomics blog about webcomics

Books!

Oh my goodness so many books to talk about.

  • You got yer massive sale to make space for a secret project over at Exploding Dog. Seriously, ten bucks for 250 pretty pictures? When people ask you what it’s about, tell them It’s about half a kilo of awesome.
  • You got a street date for Jellaby: Monster in the City. April 21st! I’m torn between grabbing this one as soon as it hits the shelves and buying it direct from Kean Soo at MoCCA in June just for the pleasure of handing him crisp money in exchange for his wares.
  • You got Howard Tayler crankin’ out a dozen-plus illos a day for the next month so he can provide the drawings for (and publish!) a dungeon-masterin’ book. For those that dated in high school, Tracy Hickman (author of said book) is a big name in circles that feature dungeon masters, so this is a pretty big deal for Tayler.
  • You got business majors across the country wanting to get a good look at the books of Topatoco (see what I did there), as we see their talent roster expanded by two names in the past two days (with promises of three more this week). Topatoco’s pretty much in charge of the webcomics merch business at this point, which makes founder/exalted leader Jeff Rowland that most mythical of all creatures in these challenging times: a small business owner who’s creating jobs. I am utterly convinced that each time Rowland falls into fitful slumber he wonders How the hell did this happen?

There’s even a few non-book things going on; think of them as “stages of a webcomics life” sorta thing.

  1. (Re-) Birth: I met Shoolhouse Daze creator Mike Ciccotello at a bookstore event in my town about two years ago. He’s gotten his strip into a major college paper (with a circulation of 17,000+), experimented all over the place, taken hiatus to retool and sharpen his skills, and now relaunches better than ever tomorrow, April 1st. Get in on the new ground floor, y’all.
  2. Difficult teenage years: Help Desk turns thirteen damn years old today. And it hates you! You never understood it! It wishes you were dead! If you really want to infuriate Help Desk, pay attention to it in public in front of its friends (the RSS feed is particularly handy for this).
  3. Starting the career: As of yesterday, Daisy Owl creator Ben Driscoll has left the world of “paychecks” and “benefits” to make his living by his wits and his webcomic. For now, signed strip prints are all that he can sell you, but let’s hope that we see a nice, beefy collection in book form soon.

Look at that, we’re back to books. Enjoy the rest of your day.

[…] Everything I said about Topatoco yesterday is now outdated. Fleen congratulates Rowland for selling out when the selling was good, and hopes that the dumptruck full of money he received is enough to fund both his smiles and his dreams. […]

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