You know what I don’t talk about enough? Dicebox, by Jenn Manley Lee. It’s right over there in the blogroll, its story is nothing short of brilliant, and the art — so much detail, so much depth to the color, so much work goes into every panel (see the piece written by my erstwhile cohort Jeff Lowrey more than five years ago on this very page), and it’s been going on for so long, one just assumes the brilliance is obvious and takes it for granted. Mea culpa.

Let’s expand on that “it’s been going on for so long” idea a bit, shall we? Book 2 of Dicebox began two days ago, which means that Book 1 is complete, and that means that Book 1 (of a planned four books) can be printed as an undivided single unit. Pre-orders went up on 10 January, and as of about six hours ago (at the time of this writing), Lee reports that more than 10% of the books required to make the print run viable have been pre-purchased.

And you’ve got some choices with those books — much like Dylan Meconis did with Family Man‘s first book, there are different editions at different price-points, with varying degrees of goodies attached. These range from The Simple (US$25 plus shipping, for a signed copy — which one should note is a freakin’ bargain, given it’s more than 300 pages, 8″ x 10″ in size, and probably several new printing technologies had to be invented in order to get the depth and subtlety of color properly reproduced) up through The Sponsor (US$500, with the book upgraded to hardcover, and including a hand-colored tip-in sheet, a print, actual dice in a cup, and your choice of story pages recreated by Lee in watercolor just for you). It’s like a Kickstarter, only without the progress & countdown bars.

Even if you’re only enthusiastic about Dicebox (as opposed to rabidly enthusiastic — there really aren’t any other kinds of Dicebox readers, near as I can tell), you ought to pick this one up. After all, somewhere in the indicia, there will be a mention of where the book was printed, and then all webcomickers will find out which company is willing to print 300 pages at a very reasonable cost, and then we’ll get a lot more full-color, thick books from all of our favorite creators. Win-win-win, QED.

• Speaking of Kickstarter, there’s one I’d like to direct your attention towards, offered by Michael Gianfrancesco, to fund a new comic anthology to be titled Show and Tell, a Comic Anthology about Learning and Teaching. Alexander Danner (who is on the editorial board for Show and Tell, and who tipped me to the story) informs us:
  

  This anthology is part of a larger project that we are very excited about — the New England Comic Arts in the Classroom conference, which will be held March 26th in Providence, Rhode Island. Guests at the con will include Raina Telgemeier and Tracy White.

  Comics, naturally, have an affinity in the classroom, if only to judge by the many uses of them around the world to teach language and literacy. We will be following both the conference and the anthology closely.

• Once more back to Dicebox — if you look carefully around at Ms Lee’s store, you might notice something that most stores don’t have: a blog. It’s pretty short (given that the shop’s only just opened), but having this sort of mechanism within the store itself to communicate with your readers is a pretty damn good idea. Something similar just launched over at the Transmission X storefront, making it easy to note specials, low quantities, sold out items, etc.

  In the past week I’ve noticed creators from Box Brown to Rich Stevens tweeting or posting on their main pages about store special offers (Stevens) or imminent out-of-print status (Brown). But if a customer missed those announcements and just wandered over to the store directly? Just seems to me if it deals with your merch and it’s worth mentioning, it’s worth mentioning again where the merch is presented. Heck, TopatoCo’s landing page focuses on new items, shipping deadlines, special announcements, and whatever weirdness is spilling out of Malki ! today. If they can do it, you can do it.

• Lastly, it’s getting a lot of attention right now — a manifesto on not being a particular type of internet jerk in webcomic form, courtesy of Rosscott and Caldy. See Something? Cite Something has already spawned shirts based on the bottom two images in the flowchart, one of which has been objected to by a copyright owner. Irony? Or ultimate manifestation of the message in the strip? Regardless, it’s been pulled in accordance with the copyright holder’s wishes, and no need for C&Ds or legal threats. So that’s all right, then.

So I got an email about two weeks back — in celebration of several birthdays that are pretty close to each other (one being that of the very sexy Rich Stevens, who turns 34 today), there was gonna be a party at the Eastworks building (lunar base of Dumbrella, TopatoCo, and more comics types that you can shake a stick at) featuring all the arcade games that Stevens and his mailroom minion Melissa have been acquiring in anticipation of opening a cafe/arcade. Said party took place this past Saturday, and there were snacks, and booze, and machines on freeplay, and awesome times to be had. I also picked up an interesting piece of intel regarding a book deal and thought, Huh, that makes perfect sense; in fact, it’s so obvious I must have heard it elsewhere previously and everybody knows it. Hold that thought a moment.

Said intel, it turned out, was not common knowledge, and was broken by The Spurge as a scoop (since confirmed by the principals) this morning, which left me smacking my head in exasperation because honestly, sometimes I don’t even rise to the level of hack webcomics pseudo-journalist. Clearly, I haven’t pseduo-journalised enough, and must pseudo-journalise more. Said scoop, naturally, being that Kate Beaton (everybody’s favorite) has been picked up for publication by Drawn & Quarterly (again, just about everybody’s favorite) for the publication of a fancy hardcover collection of her work. However, the interesting-est part of Spurgeon’s report was, for me, this tidbit near the end:

Beaton’s representative Seth Fishman has sold UK rights to the book to Jonathan Cape, and will further represent the work to international markets.

Which, again, is just one of those things that makes sense. For the past couple of years everybody that speaks English and talks about [web]comics has been raving about Beaton’s work, so why shouldn’t it have appeal around the world? We at Fleen congratulate D&Q and Beaton for their partnership, and Tom Spurgeon for actually having journalistic instincts. For myself, I will just note that I was indulging in a couple of happy–making influences, so perhaps it was inevitable that it slipped my mind.

(By the bye, today being the actual birthday of Mr Stevens, he’s got a free shipping sale until the day is up, and a special story for your enjoyment.)

• In other news that I am not the first person to tell you, the first Dark Horse collection of Axe Cop is wonderful (yes, I’m weeks late, but my local shop just got it back in stock). When the creation of Los Bros. Nicolle was brand new, I wrote the following:
  

  Having thoroughly enjoyed AXE COP episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 0, and 5, I am only left to wonder a) at how good they are, and b) if all of us were that creative at age five and just had it beaten out of us.

  It’s that second thought that came back to me as I was reading Ethan Nicolle’s between-chapter notes in Axe Cop Volume 1 — at one point, he describes his work with Malachai as “a race against puberty.” At some point, Ethan figures, Malachai will lose that anarchic, creative streak (or maybe discover girls) and then there’s no more Axe Cop. Here’s hoping that the feedback and encouragement that Malachai’s receiving means that his imagination doesn’t get tamed.

• Last bit of bears-repeating today — the latest iteration of Super Art Fight hits home turf The Ottobar in Baltimore next Friday, 21 January, at 9pm. And although not a sanctioned event, SAF will be at MAGFest 9 in Alexandria, Virginia this weekend in its portable aspect. Details, as usual, at the SAF website.

Expecting that 48 hours from now is going to be firmly in the “no fun” category. How about we grab some laughs while we can?

• Wigu’s back. Gonna be an interesting day, what with the media convinced young Master Tinkle is the son of God and all. Economically, Jeff Rowland has told you everything you need to know about Wigu and his family (involving more than 1000 strips across nine years and three days) in a mere ten panels. Even if you’ve never read Wigu before, you’ve got an operating sense of the crazy distilled down into a single page (arguably, a single panel, that of the MacaTaCaHodo 360), rendering you into a fit state of mind to see what happens next. Strap in, it’s gonna be a bumptacular ride (MWF until Rowland gets the hang of story cartoonin’ again).
• Via the twitter of a police officer with a woodland hand tool (and hopefully his first book will be back in stock today and I can finally pick it up), news about a new webcomic worth following from the very beginning:
  

  Fair warning, @tennapel is starting a web comic. First page goes up [today]: http://bit.ly/gco5eW Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

  In this case, @tennapel would be Doug TenNapel, creator of Earthworm Jim and The Neverhood, contributor to Flight 2, and creator of a literal stack of wildly creative comics. The webcomic in question is Ratfist, and we appear (with all of one page to judge from) to have a Batman wannabe that’s about to find his crimefighting and romantic lives collide in spectacular fashion. Don’t wait for a backlog of strips to pile up — get in on this one now.

• Hey, guess who got a Xeric Grant? Steve LeCouilliard, of Much The Miller’s Son. LeCouilliard’s retelling of the Robin Hood legend (which, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern style, focuses on the POV of a minor character that most people had never heard of) shows you what all the famous types were really like: variously drunk (Friar Tuck), politically naive (Maid Marian), perpetually horn-doggin’ (Robin, natch), murderously larcenous (Will Scarlet), delusional (Alan a’ Dale) or Lenny from Of Mice and Men (Little John).

  Poor Much might be the only sane one among them (at least, he’s got a healthy sense of self-preservation), and if not for that unrequited crush he’s got on Marian he might actually get the hell out of Sherwood and settle down to a nice boring life of not getting the crap kicked out of him or being hunted by the sheriff’s goons. It’s a hoot. And now, book three of Much’s adventures (I was lucky enough to pick up 1 & 2 from LeCouilliard in San Diego this year) will now be underwritten by the award. With luck, Much 3 (tentatively named Nobody’s Vault But Mine) will see print by summer, but if you can’t wait, it starts here, with interspersed pinups, guest strips, and gift art.

Almost more than one can keep up with today. Let’s dive in, shall we?

• From Tony Piro‘s twitterfeed, news that Calamities of Nature is one of the twelve finalists in the Washington Post’s “Riffy” Awards, webcomics division. One might note that two of the nominees, xkcd and Jesus & Mo are in the running for the overall Best Comic (Any Medium) award.
• Speaking of the Riffies, one might also note that one of the nominees is The Oatmeal, the status of which as “comic” or not formed a great deal of the discussion on the latest Webcomics Weekly. Yet another of the nominees (Scott Kurtz for PvP) has Opinions on this, and outs himself as a curmudgeon in both the podcast and yet another comment thread at The Daily Cartoonist. Even more remarkably, Kurtz and his nemesis, Ted Rall, find themselves in agreement towards the end of said comment thread! In other news, the end of the world has been moved forward from 2012 to next Thursday.
• Book alert — the first Girl Genius novelization (first reported about six months back), Agatha H[eterodyne]. and the Airship City has been in release since the first, but 12 January (which by amazing coincidence is Professora Kaja Foglio‘s birthday) is Girl Genius Day. If you intend to buy the book but haven’t yet, make your purchase that day and make a bit of a splash, hey? After all, there is precedent.
• How does Warren Ellis do it? Today marks the 120th 6-page update of FreakAngels, which makes it the last update to be a part of the fifth reprint collection (each of which consists of 24 updates of 6 pages), which is due for release on 8 February — a mere 32 days from today. That’s called not letting your audiences have to wait to give you money. Granted, Internet Jesus has the advantages of an established name and no backlog of stories to work down, but damn. That’s some organization right there.
• Darryl Cunningham, who did such a wonderful comic about Andrew Wakefield (whose falsified vaccine “research” almost certainly caused children to die of preventable diseases) back in May was well ahead of the curve — the British Medical Journal are reporting on Wakefield’s actions (they mince no words, calling it fraudulent) this week, and Wakefield is finally getting the attention he deserves. Too late for some of those kids, of course, and no matter how thoroughly he’s discredited he will still have those that believe him uncritically (no links, not giving them any traffic), but it’s good to know that investigative cartooning has a valued place. How valued? Cunningham tweeted that the BMJ wants to reprint his cartoon in the student version of their journal. Well done, Mr Cunningham.
• Family News — via webcomics überfan Michael Kinyon (seriously, I read five or six dozen webcomics regularly; he reads several times that), the news that the irregular postings and hiatuses over at Digital Pimp Online are done. Creator Kevin Gleason’s son, Alexander, has had multiple health issues and surgeries in his short life, and now he’s healthy. Congratulations to the entire Gleason family. Oh, and congrats as well to Greg and Liz Dean, who are expecting their first child. If Real Life is a bit sporadic over the next decade and a half, I hope you’ll understand.
• Finally, late-breaking news that Kate Beaton has been invited to Yale University for the purpose of a Master’s Tea Q&A with the The Yale Record. The fun kicks off at 4pm on Monday the 24th, at the Pierson Master’s House, 231 Park St on the campus of Yale.

Yep. Not much going on out there. Oh, wait, there is one thing!

Wonderella creator Justin Pierce and Multiplex creator (and my sometimes nemesis) Gordon McAlpin announced they’re going to do a joint signing in Chicago on Saturday the 22nd. Please note that this is an appearance by creators, so despite what the flyer might imply, Jason, Melissa, Kurt, Wonderella, and Hitlerella will not be there. Dr Shark, though, has been known to make impromptu, unannounced public appearances, so maybe.

The end of the year’s always dead time for webcomics, what with people wanting to enjoy holidays and eat pie and all, but a few things happened while we were all away. A bunch of us got buried under a metric crapload of snow (66 cm ’round these parts), I got severely behind on news, and by the time I came up for air, I just said “Screw it” with respect to writing any kind of year-end retrospective. But we’re back now, and ready to get back to the absolute finest in webcomics pseudo-journalism.

• From the Holy Crap He Did It Desk, word that Ryan North Estrada (edit to add: Dammit! Stop invading my subconscious, Ryan North!) finished his one month animated feature (animation portion) on Wednesday the 29th, and dropped straight into the post-production portion of the work (working through New Year’s Eve). The plan had been to finishing the rendering & compositing over the weekend and release today, but it didn’t quite all come together:
  

  There are still a handful of scenes to composite, but there’s no way we can get them done, uploaded, downloaded, edited, rendered and posted in time.

  But screw that — for all intents and purposes, Ryan Estrada made a feature-length animated film in one damn month, and shortly we’ll all be able to see the fruits of his labors. We at Fleen know that we are echoing all of you out there in Fleenland when we say Well done, Ryan.

• From the Hooray, I’ve Been Waiting For This Desk, Minus pre-order? Minus pre-order! One of the most justly-acclaimed webcomics of the past five years is finally coming to print form. Let’s let Ryan Armand give you the details:
  

  Hi! It is two and a half years late but I was finally able to manage something decent so suddenly there is a minus book available. It’s 141 pages, 9×12 inches in size, weighs almost two pounds and has a new story plus a couple of extra comics included somewhere in the middle. Will be taking preorders through January and should be able to ship the books out by the middle of February. It costs $40 before shipping in the US and a little more for outside the country to make up for extra shipping costs. A sketch will be included with all pre-orders and… I guess that’s it?

  Pick up GREAT Volume One while you’re at it.

• From the Not A Ryan, But Still Really Talented Desk, I (like a number of you) discovered The Wormworld Saga last week (it went up on Christmas Day), and hoo boy is it good. Long story short — Daniel Lieske is a German digital artist, and he’s launched an online graphic novel (first chapter now available) about a boy named Jonas, a secret room, and a summer break adventure that’s just about to be much, much more than he expects.

  If it starts a bit slowly, it’s only because Lieske has really excelled in conveying what life is like for a 10 – 12 year old — all boredom and adults and droning and waiting until you can start the fun you’ve been looking forward to all year. We’re just at the beginning of Wormworld; imagine Dorothy or Alice looking back at their childhoods and relating what happened on that fateful day with the rabbit hole or the tornado, but didn’t quite get as far as the fantastical.

  At this point, it’s an open question whether it’s Jonas or the reader with the greater sense of anticipation to see what happens next. Just be assured that a) the characters have got me hooked, hard; and b) the art is gorgeous. Go read it, and settle yourself in for what looks to be a a long, complex, deeply satisfying story to reveal itself over the coming months and years. The Wormworld Saga merits my highest possible recommendation, and just set the land-speed record for getting added to the blogroll over there to the right.

I am only today back to a normal, non-hurty, awake state. Embloggenation will resume next week as normal, or as close to normal as we get around these parts.

In the meantime, please refer yourselves to The AV Club‘s review of Machine of Death, and know that this is the one place on the internet where it’s safe to read the comments, which already contain references to tripped balls, prescriptive language, and Chuggy G. Both the review and the comments are the chuggiest.

What with this, and other, holidays coming fast and furious over the next week or so, don’t expect updates every day. I’ll probably miss one or two in there, particularly considering the fact that I’ve got about 72 hours of EMS duty between now and next Wednesday, and we might get hit with a major snowstorm smack-dab in the middle of it. Did I mention the part where everybody senior to me is going to be out of town? My first tour as senior officer and we could have an actual Weather Event. By this time next week, I may have significant grievances, so I guess I’ll take a raincheck today.

Anyways, webcomics.

• When I saw that the lads at Penny Arcade had released their children’s story, The Last Christmas, as an iPad animated storybook benefiting Child’s Play, I got a hankering to re-read that delicious mash-up of Lovecraft and Christmas. Imagine my surprise to discover that the story in question (which I was sure was just a year or two old) was actually released in 2004. But yep, there it is in the archives, and in my copy of The Case of the Mummy’s Gold. Time flies, etc., but if you want to grab a copy of The Last Christmas, it’s free in the iTunes store, and you can drop a few bucks to Child’s Play (which I note is over US$1.8 million for the year, with an excellent chance of cracking The Big Two).
• Late breaking news: Box Brown’s Everything Dies (about which I really can’t say enough good things) got a last-minute-before-Christmas delivery, meaning that issue #5 is now available for your purchase. To be clear, there is no way you will get this delivered in time for Christmas, but the sooner you order, the sooner you get to read it, and that’s not a bad deal.
• Speaking of Everything Dies, it made a pretty distinguished list today: Lore Sjöberg’s Best New Webcomics of 2010 That Are Mentioned In This Column over at Wired. Good choices, and I learned about a couple I wasn’t familiar with before. And on the off chance that isn’t enough Lore for you (and honestly, can there ever be enough Lore), check out the Hall of Lores. In the Lore Project Giggle-Inducement Hierarchy I keep in the back of my head, it’s just under Speak With Monsters and slightly above Sean & Wormwood, the Friendly Satanists. For the record, though, the greatest things that Lore’s ever done are the (seasonally-appropriate) Nine Inch Noës and Kitchen Floor, because there is no way that anything is better than a depleted-uranium beholder. No. Way.

And what’s cheerier than cheesecakes? See, years ago when this site was merely a gleam in the admittedly evil eye of Mister Jon Rosenberg, much planning and plotting took place over beers at a holy place known as the Peculier Pub. The chief barkeep, Stephanie, was a semi-regular in Rosenberg’s comic, and she both terrorized us and gifted us with plentiful beverages. She’s not at the Peculier anymore, and what with distance and kids, Jon and Phillip and I haven’t been there in ages. But habits die hard, and at these merry times, I still feel the compulsion to buy off Stephanie for another year with custardlike desserts on graham cracker crusts. I may have made enough of a habit of it for it to be immortalized in comics.

• On the way, I intend to hit up my friendly local comic shop and pick up the first Axe Cop trade, which (by one of those peculiar corinsidences normally seen only in scripted entertainment) comes one day before Axe Cop’s birthday (not to be confused with his first episode appearing online, which happened in January — this is when Malachai and Ethan Nicolle first drew Axe Cop, 23 December 2009). Lot of stuff can happen in a year, but I think it’s safe to say that Malachai Nicolle will someday go to a pretty good college.
• On the off chance that you aren’t one of those people that like Axe Cop (i.e.: somebody who hates awesome things), I can perhaps interest you in something else. Namely, grumblers that wonder when Aaron “Latin Art-Throb” Diaz will get around to posting a new Dresden Codak update now have an answer. “It’s just art!” they protest, “How long can it take?” Well, given the thought he puts into his design process, as long as it damn well takes.

  Part of why DC feels so immersive is because Diaz has thought about nearly every aspect of what shows up on the page (and even more that doesn’t, I suspect), if only judging from the thought he puts into character clothing. Every tutorial that Diaz has posted on his Tumblr artblog has been illuminating (and keep in mind that I don’t have the skills of an artist — those that do are even more appreciative that I).

  Speaking solely for myself, the title of this latest missive was the most revelatory part of the posting: Costumes, the Wearable Dialog. I’d never thought about it in those terms before, and it’s opened my eyes to a previously-hidden aspect in lot of very good comics (and made me realize why I found a lot of not-so-good comics unsatisfying). If you haven’t been reading Indistinguishable From Magic, you’ll never find a better jumping-on point — we might not all spend our days thinking about silhouette, expression, or perspective in everyday life, but you see clothing all the time. Read, enjoy.

Is this a first? I think it’s a first. Jennie Breeden‘s fourth collection of The Devil’s Panties (which are always massive volumes, capable of inducing blunt force trauma, jam-packed with comics) hits the shops this week, and it’s also available via alternative channels:

Devil’s Panties (Volume 4) on Iphone, Kindle, Ipad, Android and Blackberry

Some years ago I noted that Ms Breeden managed to release her (at the time monthly comic) regularly & on schedule, where the large comics companies were incapable of getting their top-name marquee books out on time. Is it any wonder that she’s managed to trump them on day & date releases?

• Speaking of happy tweets, the very sexy Rich Stevens has been dropping some uh-MAY-zing photos via his twitterfeed over the past:
  

  We’ve been adopting electronic orphans this Christmas. http://twitpic.com/3h5obq http://twitpic.com/3h5oat

  few:

  I swear, it followed us home. http://twitpic.com/3hn35f

  days:

  just working on my high scores you know how it is http://twitpic.com/3h9u3r

  What he’s doing is becoming a hero to fourteen year old me, as well as ensuring that I move in with him over the summer, not to mention eventually transfer my entire life savings to him, one quarter at a time. As evil plans for world domination go, it’s one of the best ones I’ve ever heard. And that’s before he revealed that my all-time favorite arcade game is on his buy list. It’s a Christmas miracle!

• It’s been six months since the last one, so why am I not surprised that there’s another comic scraper site that’s popped up — credit Frank Gibson for finding this one. In case you’re wondering why such a thing would prompt, say, Jeph Jacques to exclaim:
  

  whaaaat no way, i hate those fuckin’ aggregator sites >:(

  … it has to do with a couple of things. For starters, the comic is presented entirely by itself — today’s comic appears without Jeph’s comment below (which is often a place to promote new wares), without site advertising, and without links to Jeph’s store. Thus, Jeph receives nothing from the eyeballs that view his strip at the scraper site (indeed, since a quick peek at the page code shows that the image is being served from Jeph’s site, he’s actually out money every time somebody reads his work from said scraper).

  Ironically enough, it’s got Jeph’s copyright intact at the bottom of the comic. Now I’d hate to be the one to suggest mass action, but if one were to note the owner of the site in question and send a polite note (for reals now — be polite) explaining exactly why he’s on the wrong side of the issue, I’m sure that would be helpful.

  And if it’s not, hey — DCMA takedowns work for anybody, not just big corporations.

• Saddest tweet of the day — ¡Journalista! honcho and TCJ online editor Dirk Deppey has been dejobbed:
  

  I’ve been laid off from Fantagraphics. Wednesday will be my last day as The Comics Journal’s newsblogger.

  Deppey is a man that’s got Opinions. I didn’t always agree with him, nor he with me, but he was there in the midst of comics blogdom, gave a lot of attention to the webcomics side of the fence, and clearly put a lot of thought and damn hard work into his writing. I’m going to miss his contributions to the dialogue for as long as it takes him to land his next gig, which will hopefully very soon. Vaya con comics, Dirk.