Press embargo over! Jon Rosenberg and his lovely wife Amy had twin boys yesterday. ‘Twas a tough pregnancy (you can glean details from Rosenberg’s twitterfeed of the last few months) that featured a whole lotta medical care. New babies, big sister Norah, and a pair of sleep-deprived parents all reportedly doing well.

Surprisingly, the American medical insurance industry has yet to finalize the specifications for the Webcomics Creator’s Gold Plated Insurance Plan¹, so if you’d like to help Alec “Guinness” and Benjamin “Kenobi” Rosenberg (aka Team Babies) avoid a lifetime of debt indenture, maybe a purchase from Rosenberg’s Dry Goods Emporium might be in order?

• Missed it yesterday: the ladies of Pizza Island got a two-page spread in New York magazine (referenced here), and it’s now available for your online enjoyment. As a reminder, they’ll be at the MoCCA Fest this weekend, with a passel of other webcomics types. I hope all the good stuff lasts until Sunday, when I can make it to the show. If nothing else, I think I need to get my copy of Machine of Death autographed by as many contributors as I can.
• Time to drop some science. Received earlier today:
  

  My name is Mia [Wiesner] and I am a graduate student at the University of Applied Sciences in Leipzig. As part of my dissertation on digital comic books in the US, I am conducting an online survey until May. Would it be possible to post the link [to the survey] on Fleen?

  Done and done. Ms Wiesner’s survey is on the expectations and opinions held by readers about digital comics (granted, “digital comics” is a term which is a bit nebulous, and every respondent is likely to have a slightly different interpretation, but I don’t think it will skew the results appreciably). Ms Wiesner’s offered to share the results of her survey with us, which will only be worth the electrons it takes to email if there’s enough data to achieve statistical significance.

  Translation: take five minutes out of your day and fill out the survey; the more responses, the more we can trust the dataset. For my part, I was pleased to have a place to offer up the fact that I’m annoyed by excessive “media” involvement in comics (motion, sound, interaction, etc), almost as much as I am by DRM issues. I imagine you have your own pet peeves about the format, so go forth and provide data.

• Received a while back, kept getting bumped: in what appears to be one giant leap for webcomickind, a copy of Krishna Sadasivam’s PC Weenies collection, Rebootus Maximus, has been carried to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. Said peak being, of course, the highest elevation above sea level in Africa, leaving Sadasivam only six more mountains (including some really hazardous climber-killers) to become the first webcomicker to not merely have books carried to all seven continents (I think maybe Ryan North probably won that one), but carried to the peaks. Anybody going up one of the other six summits? I think I know a guy that might send you a book.

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¹ Premium: $50/month, covers absolutely everything, no benefit limits or co-pays, and patients receive soothing foot massages from disgraced former Blue Cross executives.

It’s a real day for revelations in Webcomickia.

• Firstly, why is there a countdown on the Machine of Death webpage? Answer, from the Machine of Death webpage’s latest update — because that’s when the first ever Machine of Death talent show will take place. It’s in LA, it’s free, it’ll be streamed live for those of you that can’t make it to LA, and it could feature you:
  

  Just submit an audition of whatever you want to perform. Anything is allowable — a song, a performance, a reading, a dance, a video, you name it. The guidelines are:

  • The act can be a maximum of five minutes in length (shorter, punchier = better)
  • Related somehow to MOD or to the concept of a death prediction
  • Performable in front of mixed company (no nudity, Nazi uniforms, or both)
  • If you want to perform live, you must be willing to come to Los Angeles. Otherwise, we can show a video.

  Send your audition (which, if you can’t attend in L.A., will be the video we show) to: submit at machineofdeath dot net. A link to YouTube or Vimeo or something is fine. The deadline for submitting an audition is April 18. That’s not very long! Get going! [emphasis original]

  David Malki !, when cornered by me weekend before last, was very coy about what the countdown timer meant (although he gave some fascinating hints about what it wasn’t, given some of the other things that the MoD Squad seem to be working on but can’t talk about yet), and this announcement exceeds my expectations.

  Also, I think now I know why Malki !’s been taking that machining class he’s been Twittering about for the past couple of weeks — you guys I think he is going to make an actual MACHINE OF DEATH. Just remember that the card that it spits out for you says SMOTHERED BY BUNNIES, I was totally the one to think that up.

  Entirely apart from the talent show, there’s now a Machine of Death limited hardcover + goodies set, and any order from TopatoCo will get you a free death prediction card while supplies last. Here’s hoping they last until MoCCA Fest.

• Speaking of MoCCA Fest, the next answered question is, what will their programming be like? Answer: pretty cool. I won’t be able to make MoCCA on Saturday (my nephew will be recognized as an Eagle Scout that day), but the best panel looks to be on Sunday anyway:
  

  2:30pm Pizza Island: The Panel
  Moderated by Brian Heater
  Panelists: Julia Wertz, Sarah Glidden, Kate Beaton), Meredith Gran, Lisa Hanawalt
  Some of today’s brightest young cartoonists share a workspace in Brooklyn. Here is their story.

  Pound for pound, I think that’s the greatest concentration of cartooning talent in the world. Can’t wait to hear them talking about their experiences (although is Domitille Collardey not on the panel? must investigate).

• Speaking of Pizza Island, if you wondered who these amazingly talented cartoonists are, they’ve been kind enough to answer you in the form of self-portraits, which are pretty much the best things ever. Even better, they’ll be used in an upcoming piece in New York magazine, which will hopefully be less infuriatingly superficial than the last local press they received.
• Finally, speaking of Pizza Island again, lots of questions for Meredith Gran were answered in her brand new interview with Zack Smith at Newsarama. I particularly liked the discussion about the types of stories that Gran found herself moved to write while living in Portland, versus those inspired by Brooklyn. Good stuff.

My laptop’s VPN (via physical network cable) sudden died and my cell phone spontaneously rebooted at the same time. I’d call it a coincidence, except the same thing happened a few months ago with a different computer. And, um, a different phone. Still spooky. Also, my throat is killing me and I’ve got that general blah sense that makes me think I got all the way through winter without a flulike disease, only to be laid low now that spring is here. Let’s do this.

• Webcomicky signing for those of you in Portland: Mike Russell and David Walker will be hitting Bridge City Comics on Wednesday, 13 April. Also, Portland, you have too many nicknames. You can pick one of “Bridge City”, “Stumptown”, or “PDX”, and let some poor, undernicknamed midwestern burg have the excess.
• Speaking of events, the first book collection of SMBC, Save Yourself, Mammal!, hits Brooklyn on Sunday, the 8th of May. It’s a ticketed affair, and in keeping with the cheerful principles of capitalism (much the the cheerfulness with which he does everything), SMBC supremo Zach Weiner is offering you the chance to buy yourself advantages (better seats, priority position in line, physical contact with Weiner himself) at the launch.

  But in keeping with the cheerful principles of philanthropy (ibid.), all proceeds go to a pair of classroom charities via Donors Choose. In fact, Weiner’s flirting with filthy (albeit cheerful — passim) socialism, in that all proceeds from the sales of SY,M will be going to Donors Choose. Isn’t that worth your $10 to $40 (USD) (plus convenience fee)? (Yes.)

• One day, two webcomics, two hideous monstrosities from the deep. Such a coincidence hasn’t been seen since the crocodilian-themed coincidence on the day Steve Irwin died. Add that to the electronic coincidence up above, and I’m almost to the point of buying a lottery ticket. Almost.

I won’t say it out loud, I won’t say it out loud, I won’t say it out loud. Just leave my classroom already.

I listened to a good portion of Webcomics Weekly #78 on my ride to work this morning (but not the whole thing, as it clocks in at more than an hour and a half), much of which concerned itself with Chris Onstad’s recent announcement. Brad, Dave, Kris, and Scott had a rather different take on Onstad’s announcement than I did, which I guess comes more from the perspective of a creator than a consumer of these web-comical entertainments.

They were pretty unanimous that Onstad’s hiatus announcement was ungracious and unfair to his readers (which, as one of them, I didn’t pick up on) and I was puzzled by their reaction until a bit by Scott Kurtz nearly an hour in … I have to quote this part in full:

Now if a person who lives in a world where you’re lucky to have a job cannot find joy in occasionally repeating yourself when you get to do this for a living, then you need to take some of the money you made from your latest Dark Horse book and get some fucking therapy.

Now I get their point of view. Strong words, but illuminating. To fill in some info for other speculations that they had re: Onstad and willingness or reluctance to engage in commercial endeavors with his art (they were drawing from his refusal to run ads on his site), I can add the following:

• Onstad self-published regular collections of Achewood strips prior to the (three and counting) Dark Horse collections
• Judging from margin notes in the third Dark Horse volume, he miscalculated the costs of his first collection and sold at least some portion of the print run at a loss honoring pre-orders
• At least since the second Dark Horse collection (which contained the earliest strips, the first collection having been The Great Outdoor Fight) came out, I have not been able to find the self-published Achewood collections in print
• There appears to be no store associated with the Achewood site, and it has been some time since he ran a top banner advertising one of his shirts or other items of merchandise

Those last two are most disturbing to me — the last may or may not be a direct result of the Dark Horse deal (at three books and holding), but the next-to-last is almost certainly a result of his publishing agreement.

Speaking of books, we know that Meredith Gran’s Octopus Pie and Jon Rosenberg’s Goats weren’t picked up for further books by their publishers, and that Archaia’s Gunnerkrigg Court publishing was so badly bungled that it took approximately two years for Tom Siddell to be able to sell copies himself (via TopatoCo, where it promptly sold out due to unmet demand). I haven’t heard anything about a fourth Wondermark collection from Dark Horse, and their Sinfest collections have been coming out on an irregular and elongated schedule.

I really hope that Christopher Hasting’s Dark Horse Dr McNinja collections sell like hotcakes, smashing all known sales records, and that it doesn’t turn out that going to a big publisher means having less stuff to sell for the rest of his career. Hastings is a smart guy, and I’m certain he took all the best information and advice he could gather into this decision, but having another party in the mix means another set of priorities that may not mesh with his own.

I’m not trying to single out Dark Horse for criticism here, they just happen to deal with more webcomics properties than anybody else — but a publisher that deals with hundreds or thousands of titles will look at a book (or series) that doesn’t perform in a spectacular, record-breaking fashion year after year, and at some point will have to (by all the laws of economic reality) say, Well, time to let that one go. That point where it’s decided to cut losses (or more likely, cut something that generates too little profit to sustain the additional middlemen of publisher and distributor) probably does not come with the same criteria that a self-publishing creator would apply. It’s not evil, it’s not misguided, it’s not shortsighted … it just is.

• Hey, let’s look at some book news that’s less melancholy, yeah? Steve LeCouilliard, creator of the Xeric-winninng Much The Miller’s Son, wrote to let us know that the third print volume of his series is on the way. LeCouilliarad didn’t mention the title of this book (I’m hoping for Electric Muchaloo or Much 3: The Muchening), but he did mention:
  

  The new book will be in a large 8 5/8in x 12 3/8in hardcover format with full color art similar in presentation to a typical bande dessinée album. Coming in June 2011!

• Got an invitation to check out a webcomic called Tales Of The Brothers Three, which has been running for a couple of years and is nicely summarized here. I’ve liked what I’ve read, but I can’t stop thinking of the old Bag Brothers Three strip from the (presently, and perhaps permanently inaccessible Mac Hall). In case you don’t happen to recall with Rain Man-like precision a throwaway gag about cheap-ass Halloween costumes from seven or eight years ago, there’s photographic proof of cosplay. Of course there is.
• Know who will never take the whole comics creator thing for granted? Ryan North. Documentary proof courtesy of John Campbell.

So what happens when your comic is really, really long-running? There are archives that require more time and commitment than any rational person would want to spend in front of a computer, even with the help of Archive Binge. But even if taking print as a given, it seems to me that there are two strategies that can be utilized: the Completist approach and the Best Of approach; which will work I think will largely depend on the nature of the strip and the audience.

Case in point: Josh Lesnick’s Girly, which ran from April 2003 to September 2010. It quickly became a plot-heavy, continuity-driven strip, which is the sort of story that rewards very loyal readers, but is a challenge to newcomers (cf: John Allison’s perception of bleeding audience at Scary Go Round, and his decision to reboot into Bad Machinëry).

This is the audience that can (and will) go for a comprehensive reprint set, much like Lesnick now has up for preorder at Kickstarter — and a handsome set it is. Four books, slipcased, with tons of extras, and limited to a print run of 500 copies. As a wrapped-up story that grew ever more complex (the page counts for each of the four books is about the same, but each covers progressively fewer chapters than the one before it), Lesnick’s goal isn’t realistically going to be to bring as many people to this work as possible — this is a reward for the fans.

By contrast, PvP (May 1998 — ongoing) is a continuing strip with an intermix of noncontinuity gags and short storylines that weave together into a connected whole. Sometimes these longer story arcs play out over a considerable period of time (cf: the Brent and Jade Break Up metanarrative that wove throughout all of 2002), but a precise knowledge of all that went before is considerably less necessary than it would be for Girly readers.

In fact, PvP’s Scott Kurtz has in many ways the opposite problem of Girly’s Lesnick — by having many books in print, the logistics of keeping inventory, not letting older material cannibalize sales of new, and giving new readers a jumping-on point for the current strip made for a considerable challenge. Kurtz has mentioned the challenges of longevity on Webcomics Weekly, and hit on the solution to avoid the comprehensive back-catalog. Old strips will remain online, but that’s it for the older books — a new Best Of collection hits the highlights, sets the stage for the current stories, and clears the deck for the next ten years (or so) of periodic collections.

Also worth noting: no more books 1 through 5 in the store, no more having too much merchandise on the table (which can scare off potential customers), although you can still get the comprehensive edition while supplies last. Two situations, two solutions, and hopefully two happy audiences and two happy creators.

In other news, T-Rex posed a question today that, coincidentally, may have been answered in today’s Bucko. Fun threesomes for everybody! Bucko, by the by, has shifted from a Tuesday/Friday schedule to Tuesday/Thursday, and thus slots neatly into the space occupied by Digger until last week. Though you’d be hard pressed to find two webcomics less alike, my complete sense of bereavement has been temporarily assuaged by having a terrific new strip replace a beloved old strip in my daily trawl. Cancel the national emergency.

The rumor and innuendo swirling about was damn near impenetrable. Suddenly, a mysterious message appeared in my inbox, promising shadowy secrets in webcomics, and for once it didn’t come from Eben Burgoon. Who could the beardy figure in that photograph be? The possibilities are endless, although the filename — prof_smith — offered tantalizing possibilities, but nothing concrete. Then I just read the email and it was all obvious:

[W]e’re making a PHD movie! — Jorge

Yeah, probably shoulda just read the damn thing first ‘stead-a getting all worked up. Jorge Cham (for it was he that sent the not-very-mysterious email) tells us that it’s not yet decided how/when/where the movie rolls out, but if they went to the trouble to find a guy that’s such a dead ringer for Professor Smith, I’m guessing that the project is planned well enough to see completion on time, under budget, and without any hint of procrastination. Jorge would never procrastinate. Besides, if you look closely enough at the picture, there are playback controls, so I’m betting a significant chunk of the film is “in the can”, as they say in Hollywood (or Hollllywood as Bullwinkle tells us is correct, with “three or four Ls”).

Now, the only question is if Cham plays the (thus-far nameless) POV character in the movie.

In other news:

• New books have been announced by Rich Burlew and Paul Taylor. They would be, respectively, the special-to-Dragon-magazine monthly strips that ran outside of regular Order of the Stick continuity, and the post we-kicked-the-calendar-machine’s-ass strips from Wapsi Squre. For good measure, Burlew will be donating $1 per copy of Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales bought or pre-ordered this month to the Japanese Red Cross for earthquake and tsunami relief.
• Per The Beat, the nominations for the Stumptown Awards have been announced, to be held on 16-17 April in conjunction with the Stumptown Comics Festival in Portland “Stumptown” Oregon¹.

  What I found refreshing is that that Stumptown Award jury, in contrast to pretty much every other comics-related awards program — has essentially drawn no distinction between webcomics and not-webcomics. Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder: Voice (cf: here) looks to be the most-honored work, and it’s a web-to-print creation. But look at the multiple nominations for Emily Carroll’s His Face All Red, which is purely a webcomic.

  Carroll’s not up for Best Artist That Doesn’t Use Paper or Best Colorist That Works In Pixels, she’s up for Best Artist and Best Colorist, period. Heck, Ben Costa’s nomination for Best Colorist nod is listed as for Pang: The Wandering Shaolin Monk, but is that for the book or the webcomic? It doesn’t matter, and the Stumptown Awards are the first to really erase that distinction. Bravo.

_______________
¹ Stumptown, Stumptown, Stumptown, smock!

Long-time readers of this page may recall the name of Olaf Moriarty Solstrand, which ranks as possibly the best name to come up on this page — it’s just impossibly badass. In fact, if Solstrand and fellow Norwegian Øyvind Thorsby were to create a metal band, they would be halfway to success just on the basis of their names alone. But Solstrand has more to contribute than just a great name; you may recall his 100 Ideas in 100 Days initiative, his master’s thesis on the social dimensions of webcomics [Norwegian text], or his scripting of Disney’s Donald Duck comics. Today, he’s come back to us with data from an experiment on usability:

As part of the progress of coding a webcomic portal (not available anywhere in English yet), I decided to do some cheap usability testing on a couple of existing webcomic portals to figure out what conventions exist and how people use these websites. So I went to UserTesting.com (excellent website, by the way) and set up a user test where I asked the participants to go to DrunkDuck.com and ComicGenesis.com — which I assume are the two really big amateur webcomic portals out there — and do a couple of simple tasks (the most important one, “find a comic that looks interesting”).

Solstrand’s results are narrow (three testers took him up on the challenge, but consistent: three testers that don’t read webcomics at all found Drunk Duck easy to search and navigate, and Comic Genesis difficult. Certainly, a more directed task would be helpful (for example, how accurate are the filter categories on Drunk Duck?), but more in-depth investigation isn’t necessarily Solstrand’s priority (after all, they aren’t his websites). The videos make for must-see viewing (if you’re in charge of user experience for either of those portals), or at least an interesting curiosity (if you’re anybody else). As always, we at Fleen thank Solstrand for his research.

In other news, there are a number of talented creators that are looking for reader involvement of financial natures. Let’s run ’em down, shall we?

• By now, everybody in the world (and their dog) has undoubtedly heard about Evan Dahm‘s Kickstarter campaign to fund the second printing of Rice Boy. Not only is Rice Boy Dahm’s signature work, it’s one of the best graphic novels of the past decade; furthermore, if we help Dahm replace the rapidly-dwindling stocks, it will undoubtedly mean he’s got the financial wherewithal to keep with his comic making, just as Vattu has reached a critical point.

  Heck, while you’re at it, make sure to pick up the recently-released Order of Tales, book 3 while you’re at it (I’ll be getting mine at MoCCA or whichever show Dahm does next, as I like purchasing in person from him).

• Also on the world+dog list: praise for Daniel Lieske‘s Wormworld Saga, which you may recall debuted on Christmas Day and instantly captivated all who read it. Lieske dropped me an email with news of his own plans:
  

  You reported about the Wormworld Saga in the past so you might be inclined to help spread the news about the big leap I’m currently making by collecting funds for the creation of a Wormworld Saga App. I’m really trying to tackle this thing the independent way. It’s exciting times!

  Exciting times, indeed. Let me quote from the two most important bits of Lieske’s Kickstarter pitch:

  It took me the whole year 2010 to create the first chapter of the Wormworld Saga. I’m working on the project in the evenings besides my day job as a computer games artist. I time-tracked every single minute that went into the creation of the first chapter and I know for sure that I would be able to create 4 chapters a year if I could quit my job and work full time on the graphic novel.

  and

  The app is NOT meant to replace the free online version of the Wormworld Saga graphic novel. I firmly believe in “freeconomics” and the Wormworld Saga app is designed to be a premium content for true fans of the project.

  So go visit and decide if you can help or not; Lieske’s work is beautiful, and the prospect of four chapters a year (chapter 1 is 36 screenfulls, and each screenfull is about a page) would mean a hell of a lot of good comics get made.

• Lastly, no Kickstarter this time, just an appeal to help clear out some existing stock so that new stuff can be made. Chris Yates makes photocomics and the finest wooden jigsaw puzzles on the planet. Today, word came that the scrollsaw that he uses to make those puzzles gave up the ghost and will have to be replaced. We’ll make this simple: no scrollsaw, no new Bafflers!

  I can speak personally to the quality of Yates’s work (having commissioned three Bafflers, and been blown away each time), so if you think that him (and his able assistant, Dan, a stellar fellow in his own right) being idle is a criminal waste of talent, browse through his store and see if you like anything there. Every purchase brings us closer to the day his mind-bending flights of fancy can be made solid once more.

For the past couple of years, one of the most successful and generally-agreed-upon-as-fun events that’s occurred in proximity to the MoCCA Festival has been the Drink & Draw Like A Lady meet-up. At least, that’s the report that I’ve always gotten, as (not being of the XX chromosomal persuasion, much less a lady) I haven’t been.

Event brainstormer Hope Larson won’t be at MoCCA Fest this year, but she’s passed organizational duties on, and arrangements are being ably handled by the likes of Raina Telgemeier and Lucy Knisley. If you are a lady who loves/makes/sells comics, head over to 192 Books (Tenth & 21st in New York) on Friday, 8 April, starting at 7:00pm.

• Have you guys been enjoying the between-chapters break at Curvy? It’s been sexy and occasionally SFW guest strips all week, from the likes of David McGuire, Erika Moen, and Megan Gedris. More than just a chapter break, these strips also honor ten years of webcomickin’ by Curvy creator Sylvan Migdal. If Curvy is the first of his work that you’ve read, go familiarize yourself with earlier works like Spork, Rho, Mnemesis (don’t be put off by the fact that the first page says “The End”), Ascent, or Where the Typos Og.
• I believe that I may have mentioned in the past that there are certain no-longer-updating pages that I always go back and check; I don’t care what anyone saw, some day Vera Brosgol will get the sudden urge to finish Return to Sender, and I’ll be ready when she does. Occasionally, these acts of extreme optimism pay off, as this morning when I noticed the following:
  

  Because there are more heartwarming childhood memories still to share … You Damn Kid returns on Monday, March 7 2011.

  Yes!

  Owen Dunne’s had — and returned from — numerous hiatuses (hiati?) in the past, but he’s always come back, and I’ve always been waiting when he does. Maybe it’s because something in his work speaks to me. Maybe it’s because the first webcomics purchase I ever made was the YDK print collection and a sketch of Jethro and the frog rocket wiener. Welcome back, Mr Dunne; also: Clippy!

• Let’s finish up with a quote that I found yesterday after reading Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1:
  

  “Zany” clearly does well on the Internet, and another graphic-novel-compiled webcomic, Dr McNinja, definitely embodies the word. It’s memo-olific, with pop-culture references flying a mile a minute. I super enjoyed realizing, “Hey! That’s a He-Man quote!” and patting myself on the back for being clever and “in”. The pace of this comic is super fast, and my mind was whirling in glee at some of the outrageous stuff that happened.

  That was reigning nerd-goddess Felicia Day, in the March 2001 edition of “Horsepower” (which runs on the inside back cover of Dark Horse comic books) in reference to the upcoming fourth overall/first from Dark Horse Dr McNinja print collection. Hey, Chris, now that you’re all buds with Ms Day, can you get her autograph for my wife? Awesome.

But first, how about that <oscar thing that happened>, huh? Boy that was <adjective>!

It’s just one of those days when similar things occur all at once; this time, it’s the announcement of books, books, books, and more books.

• Up first, the (why does she have to be so) young and talented Mary Cagle’s Kiwi Blitz, which have arrived just in time for this weekend’s fun-times in Seattle. The Kiwi Blitz store doesn’t have a listing for books (pre-orders having wrapped an’ all), but I’m guessing that whatever doesn’t go to pre-orders or get sold at ECCC will be showing up on that page in the next couple of weeks.
• Also imminently available (well, “imminently” given the timeframe of various delays by factors outside of the control of the creators), Erfworld Book 1 — which is weird, because the first part of the second book is actually in Rob Balder’s hands as we speak. After promises, and extra payments to entice his printers to actually, you know, ship the damn things already, Balder has now been told:
  

  I have just now (Feb 28th, 1:30 am) been told by our overseas printer that Book 1 is slated to arrive at my door March 11, 2011. This despite our agreement that 1200 of the books from the print run would be sent by air freight by February 25.

  Balder’s being a really stand-up guy about the deliveries; having previously promised shipping before the end of February, he’s showing his printers what a promise actually looks like by standing by his word:

  Anyone who wants their money refunded and their order canceled, please submit your order number through our Customer Support Form and we’ll take care of that. Otherwise, expect all outstanding orders to ship by the middle of March. This, of course means that the $20 pre-order price will still be honored until I get books in hand on the 11th. i.e. the Pre-Order Price Now Goes to 11

  Given how extensive Erfworld Book 1 actually is — more than 150 color pages at A4 size (actually, the American equivalent of 8.5 x 11 inches) — the $20 pre-order price is actually a steal, and Balder is undoubtedly being cost money by these interminable delays. Here’s hoping that once he actually gets his goods, he’ll be kind enough to share the name of the printer that jerked him around as a warning to others to tread carefully.

• Speaking of pre-orders, A Girl And Her Fed is coming along nicely with the pre-orders for Volume 1: Rise Up Swearing, with some 64% of necessary orders having been filed. With AGAHF creator Otter eager to see her own copy, she’s willing to make it worth your while to get in on the pre-orders:
  

  Two weeks in and more than halfway to the goal is amazing; at this rate, I’m hoping to place the order-orders in the last week of March. I’ll make it worth your while … I’m all about tossing in some bonus content for people who preorder. Maybe a nice print?

  Disclaimer — Otter beats me up a bit in the introduction that I wrote for Rise Up Swearing and since I fear her googly-eyed vengeance, I beg you to not make her any more anxious that she might already be. For the love of all that you hold holy, order soon and order often.

• Finally, in the realm of pre-pre-orders, news dropped this morning about the first book from the Not Invented Here Kreative Krüe, Paul Southworth and Bill Barnes. While not expected to reach the reading public until June (once again, damn those printers that are affordable for being across wide oceans and requiring huge amounts of lead time), orders that get placed in March will be signed by Barnes and Southworth, and there are even hardcover (limited to 100 copies) & sketch editions (limited to 60 copies) available for in exchange for your purchasing dollars. Oh, and you get more than 20% off of the cover price if you order before the end of March, so even if you didn’t want signatures spoiling your pristine merch, you can always cover ’em up with the White-Out you buy with your savings.
• Finally, allow me to wish a Happy Fake Birthday to my Evil Twin. Howard Tayler claims to have been born on February 29th, a day which we all know doesn’t really exist, which makes me doubt his alleged status as a native of our planet. But what the heck, he’s got cool boots. Also, about the time the rest of us are all dying of old age, Tayler will just be getting into his lower 20s and living it up — well played, Mr Tayler, well played.

This is a week later than I expected the story to break, but that’s life. Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge grim survivor contestant Michael Payne happens to be a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, which give out this little thing called the Nebula Award that you may have heard of. Payne is, in particular, a member of the jury for the Andre Norton for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, given out annually by the SFWA for the best YA SF/fantasy novel of the year. In addition to the open nominations voting process, the collective members of the jury can add up to three titles to the nominations list, and:

[T]his year I asked Amulet Books to send around copies of Barry Deutsch‘s Hereville ’cause it’s been one of my favorite comics since he started posting it at Girlamatic all those years ago. After reading all the books submitted to us, the jury agreed on two titles to add to the Norton ballot, and one of them was indeed Hereville.

Hereville‘s not on Girlamatic anymore, but you can still find the original 57 page story online. Consensus is that this is the first time a graphic story has been nominated for a Norton (and perhaps the second time for any of the Nebula categories), but I’m more interested in the fact that this appears to be the first Nebula (which is a rather respected literary award) nomination for what’s ultimately a webcomic.

This page has opined in the past about the declining difference in meaning between “webcomics” and “just comics”, and Deutsch’s work underscores this, I think. The Nebulas don’t have a separate category for comics, much less webcomics — Hereville is being judged the peer of works in different presentations and forms, and we’ll see more of this in the future. Not because [web]comics are getting better (although certainly some of them are, and some of them are crap, and some in past were masterworks that were overlooked), but just because more people (like Payne) in the future will have had experience of them, and not think it odd to say, Hey, we should consider this, it’s really good.

It’s not about agendas or secret campaigns or undue influence, it’s about familiarity. We may have turned a corner, this funny little subniche of a popular-yet-marginalized artform, and it’s possibly one of those corners you don’t turn back from. Like it or not, the best of [web]comics is going to have a seat at more tables in the future.