There’s nothing more to say about The Far Side.

PorkWrench tries to say it anyway.

Petie Shumate seems to have.. Well. No. Perspective is not there, good linework is not there, the best that can be said about the artwork is that it’s consistent.

For a gag strip, most of the jokes are trying too hard. Or too obscure.

Move along, nothing to see here.

It’s not clear how long Mike Reed has been cataloging the various forms of Flamers out there.

But his work is just hysterical. The art is really well executed, and he’s got a consistent style and a lot of visual appeal. The writing is pithy and to the point.

I like this a lot.

This is a complicated post to write. It’s a follow-up to an earlier post about ClickWheel.

And between then and now, T Campbell and I have had some mostly unnotable miscommunications. So I’m hesitant to write negative things, because in general I prefer not to be misunderstood and it might seem that I’m making a personal attack (which, I promise, I’m not).

But I can’t worry about that – I have to write what I think needs to be written.

ClickWheel, as it stands, is not providing any value to the end user.

None. There is nothing that ClickWheel itself is providing that gives me, as a reader, any reason to come back.

I said I would follow-up on ClickWheel when I’d given it a fair trial, and looked at the comics on the iPod screen. I’ve done that, but I can’t say I gave it a fair shot. I couldn’t.

The download process takes too long.

Flat out, it takes too long and involves too many non-intuitive steps. If I want comics on my iPod, I want them there for the same reason I want everything else on my iPod – for later use. And unlike movies or videos, I can’t imagine reading the same three-page gag strip more than… twice. So the only thing that I’m going to put on my iPod is stuff I haven’t read yet, that I want to read later. Like on the bus to school, the train to work, at the airport waiting for a plane, etc. But I don’t want yesterday’s comics, or comics from last week. I want today’s comics. And I don’t want to spend twenty minutes copying them all to my iPod, one at a time and manually – because I’ve got to catch that bus!

The process of copying a comic to your iPod is as follows.

1. Go to ClickWheel.
2. Find the feature you want, and the episode or set of episodes you want.
3. Click the download button.
4. Receive a zip file, or perhaps on a Mac an archive in a different format.
5. Unpack the zip file.
6. Import the directory into your iTunes photos.
7. Sync with your iPod.

At least, this is what I’ve had to do. Nowhere on the ClickWheel site, or in their forum, have I found actual instructions for the end-user.

Nowhere.

Everything I see is focused on the comic creator, not the reader. The FAQ is focused on the creator. The marketing message is focused on the creator. The end user appears to be an afterthought – if we build it, they will read?

The only value that ClickWheel provides at all to end users is the content. And there are some big names providing content, so a lot of it is probably pretty great. But it’s too painful to get at. How many of you would read as many webcomics per day as you do now, if you had to manually download and extract each strip?

But here’s the thing I’ve realized. ClickWheel is Beta. It says so right there on the main page! It’s not the modern bazaar style open source development use of the word beta – where beta means “The things that work, they work the way they are supposed to and everything else doesn’t break anything”. It’s the old-school use of the word beta – use at your own risk and let us know everything that breaks, cause we’ve still got a lot of work to do.

So the problem I have is mainly expectations.

I expect that someone with a name as wide-spread as T Campbell won’t waste that name by rushing to grab mind/creator share before there’s something of use and substance. Although, let’s be clear, T Campbell is only the editor of ClickWheel – so he’s not responsible for the technology. He’s responsible for helping creators explore this new and possibly valuable channel for their content – or whatever it is that a webcomics “editor” does these days.

And I expect that something that claims to be “a whole new way of using your iPod, and a whole new way of reading comics” would actually have some technology behind it above and beyond basic CSS/HTML, with some RSS thrown in. (And the RSS doesn’t seem to be sufficient for the RSS reader in iTunes to respond in a more natural way – perhaps because of the archived format of the content?)

Neither of those expectations have been met, but that’s because I read “Beta” with the new meaning, not the old meaning. In the old days, nobody ever installed anything that was labeled “beta” unless they got paid for it, and had an extra computer.

So I’ll follow-up with ClickWheel again, when they are out of beta.

In the mean time, I wonder what the creators who are signing up are expecting? If someone like me, who is very technical in many ways, finds this tool so cumbersome to use… What are the regular iPod users going to do? How many comics readers who got a shiny new video iPod for Christmas are going to use this to explore the new (to them) world of web comics? And how many regular webcomic readers are really going to go through all the hurdles to make the jump here, when the content is so frustrating to get at?

About four weeks ago, we mentioned that RStevens was teasing us with a reunion of Maura & Clango.

Today, it happens.

But he’s still playing with us. The title of the strip is “To Boink, Perchance To Scream”. And Maura does not seem pleased to wake up next to her old toaster. In fact, Clango doesn’t look ecstatically happy either.

There’s more going on in today’s strip that it seems at first. For something that pretends to be as much of a gag strip as it possibly can be, Diesel Sweeties goes very deep into complex relationships between people – without turning it into DRAMA. It’s one of Rich’s gifts as a writer, to express intricate emotional nuances and the interplay between people without being gratuitous about it. I suppose it helps that most of his characters are shallow, and thus not as willing to indulge in the dubious joys of high drama, but Rich still brings a deft and subtle touch to this aspect of writing.

And now I wish I knew if International Brotherhood of Naked Ladies had a local chapter in my area…

John Allison is now selling his first poster/art print.

It’s quite excellent.

Jeffrey Rowland bitched the other day that “nobody noticed” his “six year” anniversary.

Jeff Rowland is not married.

Jeff Rowland ran When I Grow Up for three years.

Then he ran Wigu for three years. Then he did something else for three weeks or so. Then he returned again to Wigu, and then he switched completely to Overcompensating. (I’ll believe a long form version of Wigu when I see it, Mr. Rowland. And even then, only when there are several episodes!)

Six years?

Pheh.

He’s only been in the business for two years.

We completely ignored his four year anniversary.

And now we’re not even linking to his site!

Fleen had a recent opportunity to speak with Dale Beran, the writer for A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible, over beer and burgers.

We have edited out all of the extended and well-informed commentary from Dale about the quality and meaty essentiality of his burger and what the juice felt like as it washed across his tongue and slid down his throat, and what remains is a conversational interview about his comic and his process. We hope we’ve maintained the character of his conversation, but are saddened that we can’t convey the timbre of his deep manly voice.
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Aaron William‘s Full Frontal Nerdity is a weekly comic strip about three four role-playing gamers.

If, somehow, you’re geeky enough to be reading a daily (or mostly daily) blog about webcomics, but have never actually played any role-playing games, then Full Frontal Nerdity will give you the complete experience, from the friendships with your fellow gamers to the cameraderie you develop, and the pleasures of sharing food to the thrill of the games themselves.

If you have role-played before, then this may remind you of the good times

It’s a faithful rendition of a tedious experience.

We previously mentioned Malfunction Junction when talking about an odd occurance of Trent Reznor.

Today’s comic brings up the ongoing American flag-waving impetus to “Support Our Troops!”. And it puts it in a pretty good perspective, too. Nobody knows what it really means to support our troops, and nobody really wants to write their Congressman to raise taxes to pay for more body armor either.

Malfunction Junction suffers from the same things that other journal webcomics suffer from – the comic is only as interesting as the (usually exaggerated) life of the person doing the comic. It’s a mixed bag with Matt Milby – sometimes this is interesting and sometimes not, but usually he manages to find something funny in everything (even if a bit juvenile).

In general, Malfunction Junction is a good read with decent art, and deserves some of your time.

Also, Matt Milby has a Sheriff Pony wallet.