There are some great partnerships in creative life, and sometimes a great one gives way to a greater one. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were an unstoppable combo platter in the world of musical entertainment that would never be topped — until Rodgers partnered with Oscar Hammerstein II re-invented entertainment in their first collaboration and kept surpassing themselves for almost twenty years.

What I’m trying to say is, just as Rodgers & Hart led to Rodgers & Hammerstein, Straub & Malki ! have inevitably given way to Straub & Malki, the latter being David Malki !‘s mom, who filled in for her absent son on episode 47 of Tweet Me Harder and demonstrated a fundamental truth about parents: they shape who we are by teaching us what we know, but they don’t necessarily teach us everything they know. In this case, Mrs Malki knows about the Dewey Decimal System, ninjas, cats, ninja cats, and stinging insects. Maybe if she’s not available for some future podblast, Kris can have David back as a sub.

• Out today: How I Made It To Eighteen. My thoughts on the book are here. My question to you: Do you have a better use for seventeen bucks? Food, rent, stuff like that, you get a pass. Otherwise, this is your next purchase.
• Or maybe The Blood Cloud should be your next purchase, featuring KC Green’s own brand of special thoughts and guest strippers galore. Pre-orders up now.
• He was talking about making radio, but Ira Glass’s thoughts on wrongness are worthy of your consideration:
  

  Totally. One of the reasons I was interested in doing this interview is because I feel like being wrong is really important to doing decent work. To do any kind of creative work well, you have to run at stuff knowing that it’s usually going to fail. You have to take that into account and you have to make peace with it. We spend a lot of money and time on stuff that goes nowhere. It’s not unusual for us to go through 25 or 30 ideas and then go into production on eight or 10 and then kill everything but three or four. In my experience, most stuff that you start is mediocre for a really long time before it actually gets good. And you can’t tell if it’s going to be good until you’re really late in the process. So the only thing you can do is have faith that if you do enough stuff, something will turn out great and really surprise you.

When you teased this, you didn’t tell us it was going to be this amazing. Cry havoc, and let loose the fanfic.

In other news that broke over the long weekend:

• Our Kate continues to tear up the world of cartooning, with contributions accepted by The New Yorker, the first of which is due to hit the newstands today.
• Recently received in the mail: Little Dee volume 4 (now that pre-orders are done, expect it to move to TopatoCo) and Recklessly Yours, the eighth and final Scary Go Round book. Both worth the wait, and your money, and both with quick notes attached — Little Dee will start re-running from the beginning next Monday, with director’s commentary; Scary Go Round strips that wouldn’t reproduce well in the book are presented as PDFs online, but you’ll have to buy the book to find out where, ’cause I ain’t tellin’.
• Speaking of books, Jon Rosenberg’s Showcase Showdown has been in bookstores for a week, and hits local comic shops on Thursday (as soon as I grab my copy, expect a review of the full Infinite Pedergast Cycle); give it a read so you’re all up to speed for Rosenberg’s new venture, which has been mysteriously code-named SFAM. The mystery makes it a better value for your retina-humorgland intersection needs.
• HeroesCon this weekend in North Carolina, and plenty of webcomickers in the Indy Island section of the floor, but heck — you knew that already. For those looking a little further out, Jamie Noguchi will be at SPX with a new minicomic about … well, it’s a secret for now. But I’ve had a peek and can assure you that anybody who enjoys cute cuddly things and/or tales of vicious revenge will enjoy … PANDOOM.

(There may or may not be an update on Monday, depending on how much grilling needs to be done; my guess is: A Lot.)

• Speaking of weekends, start making your plans for the first one of November, because New England Webcomics Weekend just announced its first tranche of guests, including transoceanic visitors Becky Dreistadt & Frank Gibson and John Allison, as well as transcontinental visitors Aaron Diaz and Erika Moen, ‘long with various out-of-staters MechaYukoAndAnanth, Chris Hallbeck, Danielle Corsetto, David McGuire, Evan Dahm, and Meghan Murphy. Also, some guy who lives upstairs. Many more will be added, and it’s going to be crazy-awesome.
• I’ve been emailing back and forth with Colin Ferguson of Snakehead Games (makers of Star Pirates) for a little while now — as you may recall, Starpirates did a lot of its advertising with various webcomic creators, and Ferguson has had the community on his mind. To that end, Snakehead are offering some recognition to the community, along with fabulous prizes:
  

  We worked with the owners of the coolest online comics to have their communities play in our games. And they did. So we’re throwing a thank you back to the creators of the comics AND their communities. So we already have a first round vote to get 20 webcomics that our community liked. Now we’re going to ask for a round of feedback on their best strip. Best meaning the most “Online Game-y” or “SciFi”. Of course, we’re doing it with a twist.

  What’s up for Grabs?

  1) Cash prize of $1000

  2) $1000 in free advertising on Project Wonderful : www.projectwonderful.com is the way that most comics monetize…and a way we’ve found works for advertising the games!

  Current standings in the polls show a statistically-insignificant difference bewtween Girl Genius, Legostar Galactica, and Schlock Mercenary in the top position, with everybody else a pretty healthy margin behind, so it’s pretty likely one of those three will win a chunk of advertising credit. For the cash prize there’s a pick-a-name-from-the-hat mechanism, so one lucky webcomicker from the list could be having a really good 4th of July cookout beer fund. Good luck to all the contestants.

• It’s been a bit more than three years since I first came across Tracy White’s Traced, and now she’s got a book out; thanks to Gina Gagliano (who sets me up with all the best :01 Books and Roaring Brook Press releases), I have a copy of How I Made It to Eighteen and all I can say is Whew.

  We say things casually — I’m so depressed or I’m going crazy — without any real understanding of what mental illnesses are truly like for those that suffer from them. Whatever the cause (too many drugs, chemical imbalances, bad parenting, childhood trauma, or any one of a million others), the resolutions aren’t easy, and require support from a society that isn’t comfortable acknowledging that such conditions exist. To change the patterns of a lifetime and be taught new ones has to be among the most difficult undertakings a person can be forced into, and White shows just what that process was like for one person.

  Like her webcomic, How I Made It to Eighteen is “guaranteed 95% true”, and it’s a spare, gut-wrenching look at what happens when mental health finally gives way after too long a period of too many stresses, all at the ripe age of seventeen years. Although the names have been changed, White (or “Stacy Black”) doesn’t shy away from the harsh parts of her story — nobody comes through this tale with their hands entirely clean, from the distant and perfectionist mother to the asshole controlling boyfriend to friends that did less than they could, but especially Black herself.

  It’s a remarkable achievement, well served by the very minimalist art and brief text — the largest blocks of words are in the form of responses by Stacy’s friends, answering questions about their friendship, her situation, and how they saw or didn’t see it developing; we learn about Stacy in dribs and drabs from others, while she tells us very little about herself. The reader is forced to fill in a lot of details between the panels and words, trying to make sense of the story with not quite enough input; as Stacy Black progresses towards understanding herself, we progress along with her, and are left relieved that she (and we) made it through the experience. How I Made It to Eighteen demands multiple readings, and will stand as one of the most striking memoirs of mental illness and recovery ever written.

Most days, the stories, news, and emails suggest a sort of commonality, but it’s not working too well at the moment. Let’s see if something pops up as we go along.

• Winning the Best Title of 2010 award in the prestigious “Fleenies”, Vepo Studios presents Whazamo! State of the Art: Webcomics, a profile of webcomickers at this year’s TCAF. Ramón Pérez, Hurricane Erika, and The Toronto Man-Mountain are featured in the five-minute mini-edudrama.
• The Best Creator’s Pitch Fleenie goes to Chris Eliopolous for the best possible reason to read Misery Loves Sherman:
  

  Just go read my damn strip already. It don’t come any cheaper.

Nope, haven’t got any more of those, and we all know you need at least three things to make a theme. But we do have some comings and goings to note:

• Dirk Tiede’s Paradigm Shift is due to return from hiatus on Tuesday, 1 June, as Part 4 kicks off the start of Act II. Considering that Act I took more than ten years (including the self-publishing of three books) to complete, a half-year hiatus ain’t so bad.
• Over at Hello With Cheese, it appears that co-creator and artist-half Bryan Prindiville has moved on; thanks to the extensive buffer, Prindiville actually stopped drawing two weeks ago, but the new artist doesn’t start for a few weeks yet. Prindiville will bow out on Almost A Big Round Number strip #250, on 4 June.
• Having wrapped up Act I of Operation: 3-Ring Bound, the mysterious creators of the spy-themed webcomic Eben07 (of whom no photographs are known to exist, and who are believed to sport modified finger- and iris-prints) will be on break for a month or so.

  Signals intelligence has them taking time to put their report of proceedings through review and classification before distribution to the appropriate departments. It is imperative that copies be obtained and decoded — you are authorized to sacrifice your own life (as well as those of your teammates and any friendly assets) if necessary to meet this objective. Do not fail, or the world may never recover from the consequences.

It’s just one of those days, you know? Pretty miscellaneous.

• The next Erfworld volume is up for pre-order, and a break of two weeks or so to regroup before diving into the next section of story. I’ll give Rob Balder this — when he says “this story will be about 25 pages” and delivers “more than 30 comic pages and an equal number of text updates”, it’s hard to get annoyed that he might need some downtime.

  Also on the pre-order block: the newest Schlock Mercenary book from Howard Tayler (which I managed to spell correctly this time). As is usual, both books will feature signatures (and Tayler’s will included sketches) in return for the upfronting of cash, saving you potentially thousands of dollars to travel to a show that features the creators to get the same degree of personalization. Now don’t they look like bargains?

• Back in the news as the movie approaches completion: Gene Yang on whitewashing in The Last Airbender, this time in comic form. Confession time: I never watched Avatar when it was on, and I generally dislike Shyamalan movies, so I’ve got no dog in this fight; but it surely does seem like Hollywood went out of their way to honor the Asian aspects of the original stories in every respect except the characters. Feel free to quibble over how this is true or not true in the comments.
• Wait — did they just fly through the drive ring (00:14) when leaving the Denny’s? SCAD student Dave Taubert takes designs from Dave Kellett’s Drive and makes a little rendered fly-by movie out of it. I found the second half (showing some of the construction effort) to be as interesting as the first half; Taubert’s notes may be found here.
• Emergency sale at Box Brown’s place! Okay, not an emergency, but very exciting nonetheless.
• Finally, I’ve seen some papercraft models of various webcomics characters — Wigu Tinkle, Hawk, Truck-Ra (can’t find the model right now — anybody know where it is?), but after seeing these anime papercraft models, I’m starting to wonder what might be possible. Dan McNinja on fire? Cartilage Head? Fuschia and Baby Blue? Model Erika? Squatting Matthew Henson? The mind boggles.

Word came down the pike — Achewood‘s long-awaiting second cookbook, after months of production delays, was finally imminent. I’ve been waiting since the latterly parts of 2009 for it to appear, and the appearance of an excerpted recipe in the Portland Mercury had whetted my appetitie (so to speak). Unfortunately, it’s just like the end of 2009 in that I can’t order the damn thing yet. Call me crazy, but if the item description page reads:

The long awaited follow-up cookbook is now available for pre-order! Order your copy now, and help us figure out how many to print so there are enough for all…

… then adding the book to my cart shouldn’t produce:

• We’re sorry. That item is currently out of stock.

Somebody at Yahoo! stores does not get that “pre-order” means that it’s not in stock yet. If I complain, it’s only because I really, really want to give Chris Onstad my money, and nefarious individuals are apparently not on board with that plan; perhaps they were offended by his testicle cookery?

• By contrast, the pre-orders for the next Schlock Mercenary tome are clearly explained and (I’m guessing) will not give me any grief when I click back there next week. It’s been a good long time since Mr Tayler released his last book, but he’s had a lot of hands on this one — all strips were recolored (Tayler would be the first to tell you that Travis Walton, his colorist, has a better eye for such things that Tayler himself), a bonus story involved the efforts of Dan Willis, Brandon Sanderson, and Dan Wells, and Greg Bear wrote the introduction.
• Speaking of a good long time between books, it’s been (as of this writing) 2 years, 11 months, 358 days since Megatokyo‘s fifth book was released. I don’t have hard data to back this up, but I have to believe that Fred Gallagher’s very complex tale has a high incidence of wait for the book readers, and the long delay can’t be doing them any favors. Unfortunately, they may have a bit longer to wait.

  Book 6 was announced for release on 22 June, but in the past hour, news has broken that DC Comics will be shutting down the CMX Manga imprint as of 1 July. While that nominally gives a week’s breathing space to MT6, it doesn’t appear on a list of CMX titles to be released at the end of June. The DC statement says:

  The shuttering of the CMX line does not affect the best-selling series Megatokyo which will continue publication, now as a DC Comics title …

  … but is not specific if MT6 will release on time with the CMX trade dress, be released later in DC dress, or if the changes only affect reprints of existing volumes and (theoretical, given the update schedule) future volumes in the series. DC aren’t providing any more details at this time, so I guess we’ll all find out together in the next month or so. More on this as it develops.

Let’s see, you had the usual reprobates hanging around a hotel ballroom in the Jersey burbs this weekend, news of a new signing, books and reviews, and some news you can use. Let’s take ’em one at a time.

• The inaugural Wild Pig Con took place Saturday and Sunday in Springfield, NJ, in a hotel featuring an in-lobby Mexican place with $4.00 margaritas (yay) that didn’t open until 5:00pm (boo). At any random time you might have heard Randy Milholland being told that he was responsible for con-goers getting married, seen David Willis molesting Danielle Corsetto‘s booth decoration, observed Ross Nover hosting Super Art Fight! (to an audience chock–full of webcomickers), or watched old Spider-Man reruns. Not a bad use of five bucks, honestly.
• Emergency last-minute signing! Seattle fans of Kellett, Kurtz, and Straub (which, weirdly, is not the name of a white-shoe law firm) should make their way over to The Comic Stop in Lynnwood round about dinnertime. Tell ’em I said Hey.
• News broke over the weekend of a review in the New York Times of Raina Telgemeier‘s SMILE, and just as importantly, the USPS finally delivered my copy of Erika Moen‘s DAR! A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary Volume Two. In case I hadn’t talked enough about either book/webcomic previously, they’re both as good as I can possibly express.

  For two works so very different in tone (for the life of me, I cannot imagine Raina ever producing work that isn’t all-ages friendly, whereas Moen had jerky employees at a printing plant refuse to work on her book because of its adult content), they have something in common — an honest, clear-eyed look at the lives of the authors as they try to figure out who they are. Plus, one of them has enormous sex toys and mystery poop.

• I’m assuming that by this time next week you’ll be able to go into any random Pearl art supply store, wave your hand and casually remark I’m a Webcomics Dot Com subscriber, and they’ll load you up with everything you need for a $5 co-pay. Okay, maybe not quite that far, but a nearly 40% discount on retracto-standing banners? If you were going to buy one of these guys anyway, taking out a membership at WDC means you’ll end up $50 ahead by the time it’s all said and done.

  Enjoy your purchase and savings in good conscience, as I’m sure Brad Guigar totally isn’t neglecting his family with all the time he must spend arranging these deals — if you hear his kids humming Harry Chapin songs, I’m sure that’s completely a coincidence.

I know that you’ve all heard already — curse you, Ron Perazza, releasing information on Friday afternoons [shakes fist in impotent rage] — but it appears that the Zudacomics contest is history:

The [contest] format absolutely has merits; engaging the community and giving them real decision making power, giving creators a level of exposure that they might not have otherwise had and encouraging an ongoing dialogue about storytelling, quality and what makes good comics. However it’s also had its shortcomings; accusations of cheating, confusion about the process, spamming in the the name of promotion and argumentative, dismissive or even aggressive behavior.

Is there a better way to achieve the former without having to endure or encourage the latter? I think so. The comic industry needs a steady influx of new creators and new ideas. We should consistently explore the medium, looking for new ways to tell great stories. I think that if we, as a company, are committed to those goals we would be foolish not to pursue them.

However, from this point forward, we wont be using the competition format to do it.

It will be some time before we see how Zuda’s new approach is shaped, and we’ll be sure to bring an appropriately critical eye to bear on the process. However, I think it’s fair (if the Twitter traffic on the topic is anything to go by) to say that the move is pretty much being universally regarded as a step in the right direction.

It can’t have been easy for Perazza and his staff to alter the fundamental model of Zuda, and they’re due every consideration for having the sense to consider all aspects of their business model as up for improvement and change. It’s a lesson that anybody in business would do well to remember.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about submissions that were in the pipeline at Zuda:

[W]e will still be reviewing every submission currently in the queue; however, at this point we’re only looking for Instant Winners. Further, at this time we’re not going back and reconsidering previous non-winning competitors. If you’ve got more questions I’ll be happy to try and answer them.

• In other news, a bunch of new webcomics books in the pipeline — the first book from Andrew Hussie’s MS Paint Advantures, Problem Sleuth Book One: Compensation, Adequate, is now available from TopatoCo Books (a wholly-owned subsidiary of TopatoCo, The Topato Corporation). Likewise, Kris Straub’s third Chainsawsuit collection is now up for grabs, and he ain’t messing with no pre-orders. You order today, you’re gettin’ that sumbitch now-ish.

  This is a new trend in webcomics books, which traditionally have relied on pre-sales to make sure the printer bills get paid. Much like Zuda, TopatoCo is acting not just like an editorial gatekeeper (only work of a certain level of quality need apply), but as a provider of publishing services (it would be interesting to compare the publication agreements of those two entities).

  Although it’s losing the contest aspect (which most set Zuda apart from the rest of DC, and by extension, the Time Warner megacorporation), my guess is that ZudaNew looks more like an imprint of DC, TW, or whomever, and one with its own rules for best dealing with the talent pool that is creator-owned webcomics.

  Zuda and Aduz may be getting closer to each other, and (as long as we’re not working under Star Trek physics, which would cause the universe to explode if Zuda and Aduz came in contact) that’s probably not a bad thing.

• Finally, not webcomics, but I don’t care: Electron Boy saved Seattle. Awesome.

Andy Bell‘s Android figures were much anticipated by me. Then they went on sale and disappeared in minutes, leaving me a sad camper. Then Bell brought a small stock with him to MoCCA ’10 and I scored two of the blind-boxed wonders. Now, thanks to the generosity of a collector (and compatriot from the old Goats forums) who scored a stack, I have been given the opportunity to purchase duplicates and have nearly the entire set. They loom over my head as I type these words, menacing, casting off the volatile gases that constitute “new toy smell”, and ready to destroy me the moment I let down my guard. Hooray!

• Speaking of Goats, the third volume of The Infinite Pendergast Cycle, Showcase Showdown, is up for pre-order. This will complete the three-part saga that took the long-running webcomic from the two guys sitting around drinking beer story model that it pioneered (now, commonly found in webcomicdom) to the groundbreaking two guys alternately imperiling and vaguely attempting to save the universe, but they’d rather be drinking beer story model that continues to break ground (and occasionally my brain).

  With luck (and an assist from you), the three-book package (commissioned back before the economy went poof) will have done well enough that Random House will re-up for the next three-book set. These are handsome volumes, and as soon as I’ve got a copy in my hands, the megastory represented by these pages will get the long-overdue writeup here that is deserves.

• Speaking of both deserving things, and things wrapping up, did you see the latest costume redesign contest at Project: Rooftop has announced winners? Black Canary has her makeover, and I can’t help but notice that Carly Monardo is once again one of the top finishers. After her second place result in the Wonder Woman contest, and her giving BC a costume that I think would get a favorable critique from the guy who is correct about such things, I think it’s now official: DC and Marvel need to have Ms Monardo redesign costumes for their entire line of heroes.
• Speaking of heroes — Hey kids, do you know what tomorrow is? Besides the day that my rail fares go up by a tremendous amount, dammit (PDF)? It’s Free Comic Book Day, and you’ll find a variety of webcomickers doing things all over the damn place. Assuming you live in any of those places, give ’em some love, and remember: all those free-to-you books cost the stores money. Buy something.

It’s been a couple weeks (or, if you prefer, a couple months) that I’ve been faced with a dilemma — very worthy webcomics like Anders Loves Maria and Little Dee have wrapped up for good, yet there they sit in the bloglist (and, on a personal note, in my browser’s bookmarks). I may have to create a second list of webcomics that are complete, but worth your attention. How do you deal with no longer updating (but beloved) sites?

• Speaking of, Outside Infinity wrapped today after a brief but illuminating run. I doubt that Karl Schwarzschild actually met a snotty kid from the future, but damn if his maths on black holes ain’t pretty.
• Today’s PvP guest strip is even better if you hum the soundtrack to West Side Story. Given Ryan Sohmer’s love of musical theatre, I figure that’s at least halfway to authorial intent.
• Over at The Creatures In My Head, Andy Bell has shared some fascinating information on a project I was not previously familiar with:
  

  The Poster Cause Project produces posters and prints with the proceeds going to a number of reputable charities. They’re now offering screen prints, starting with my piece above!

  It is a 4 color 18?x24? print. (the dark grey you see there is a texture printed under the black, in case you are color counting), signed and numbered edition of 50, with 100% of the profits being donated to ACF/Action Against Hunger. Please help support a worthy cause, and get some nice art for yourself in the process!

  Well done, Mr Bell — I’m not sure if the good deed makes the screaming behind your eyes a little quieter for a brief respite from the madness scream scream skwaaaa, but here’s hoping.

• Finally, today appears to be the comic shop street date for three (count ’em, three) pieces of young adult graphic fiction from the fine folks at :01 Books. Thanks to their generosity, I’ve had advance copies for weeks now, and can confidently state that Resistance, City of Spies, and Foiled will make good additions to the collections of the YA reader in your life.

  Two of them feature plucky girls learning to be heroic, two of them take place in World War II, two of them features main characters trying to make life make sense via their own drawings. There’s monsters, Tintinesque adventure, tragedy, evil to be confronted, and even a bit of swashbuckling. Put ’em together, and it’s practically The Princess Bride. Books designs by the frighteningly talented Colleen AF Venable.