The thing about Kristofer Straub is, he knows how to cut through the crap. Puff yourself up with pretension, and he provides the pin. Create a genre that’s rife with cliches, he subverts them. He understands human nature, and just what we’ll do for decent dental coverage. And he knows that sci-fi is how you can talk about things that piss you off right now, without losing the funny.

And he brings plenty of the funny with his first collection of Starslip Crisis, A Terrifying Breach of Protocol. Covering about five months and a half-dozen storylines, it sets the stage for the strip and leaves lots of doors open for later visits. His clean, open character style presents well at almost any monitor resolution, but it especially looks good in the larger size that the book permits; given about 30% more space to stretch, the art is even easier on the eyes than online. Characters are boldly designed, contrast between foreground and background is nice and high, and there’s never a confusing panel or word balloon layout, no matter how busy the page. Additionally, it’s great that the overarching trope of Starslip Crisis is art, since Straub is a master at mimicking styles; the man is the webcomics equivalent of that serious art student you see in the Louvre, doing reproductions of the Great Masters. Not to mention the little extras that you get add when publishing a book; the excerpt from the Starslip drive instruction manual is brilliant.

The book itself is well put-together, something I’ve come to expect from Lulu; there are other small presses out there that deal with webcomics that have sold me multiple titles that fell apart on the first read, but ATBOP feels solidly bound and not likely to crap out on me. This page has spoken before on the need webcomics creators have for reputable vendors that will allow merchandise channels to stay open, and it looks like Lulu may fill one of those needs.

To sum: good strip, good art, good basis for future stories, good quality print. In fact, the only reason to not completely love this book is that there’s a nagging fear in the back of my mind that Straub may be annoyed that we’re encroaching on his turf. It’s a terrifying thought, ’cause he’s got that killer shovel, man.

At the back of the first Penny Arcade book (long since passed into the realm of legend) is this bit of dialogue:

Guess we know who won that disagreement. For lo, these many years, I’ve clutched my copy of the Year One book, wondering when, oh when, Gabe and Tycho would be able to once again publish their stuff. And at last my local comic shop got my copy in (they’re pretty much sold out), so Fleen can now bring you a review of Attack of the Bacon Robots!

First impressions: the vertical trim on AOTBR! is much more convenient for reading than the horizontal Year One. It’s got more than twice as many strips, is cheaper by about $20, and presumably Dark Horse are kind enough to actually give Gabe and Tycho money, instead of attempting to screw them sideways in the ass like their insanely Michael Jackson emulating first publisher did. The colors are vibrant and the printing quality is noticeably higher, with 7 year old strips coming in crisp and sharp instead of washed out and fuzzy. Tycho’s intro is a hoot, as is that of comics-page fellow geek traveller Bill Amend. But what struck me most was the afterword.

You don’t read afterwords? Read this one. It’s somewhat ambitiously titled The Webcomic Manifesto, and goddamned if it isn’t the finest piece of writing Tycho’s done since the famous Carrot Cake Soup. It’s wrong to try to excerpt it, because every part of the argument he puts forth in the manifesto is strong and compelling and part of a whole; we’re going to anyway, because it’s hard to find the book right now, and more people should read this:

Typically when people discuss the “ramifications” of Webcomics (capital W, proper noun) … the dialogue tends to focus on how digital distribution of comics alters the power dynamic between creators and publishers.

I guess so.

The most startling change we’ve seen hasn’t been betwen creators and publishers, it’s between creators and readers.
…
Most of the people considered “big movers” in Webcomics are considered so not because they have substantially contributed work to the medium — indeed, they might not even produce a regularly updated comic. No, they are thought of with reverence because in each case they laud some new barrier between people who read comics and people who write them. The barriers they’re so proud of take a number of forms, but Byzantine pay mechanisms and subscription-locked archives are two of the more celebrated anchors.

If you are using systems like these, I need to ask you why you don’t trust your readers.

What are you afraid they’re going to do with your comics? Read them?
…
When you’re ready to stop treating readers like thieves, come check out this Web they’ve got going. I hear it’s going to be big.

There’s a window of safety glass that separates the adherents of different business models in webcomics; roughly speaking, they’re divided into those who think that Understanding Comics was the better book, or Reinventing Comics was (Me? I’m the guy who kinda liked The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln). It gets breached every once in a while, slammed open so that angry exchanges can fly back and forth, then closed again and calm returns once more to the land. That crunching sound you just heard? That was the firebomb that Tycho just chucked through the window. Now go buy a copy of the reprinting and see if you agree with his argument or not. But for the love of all that is good and holy, base your opinion on the full argument, not the excerpt above. And no burning my consulate.

Review time, kids! The webcomics library is growing by leaps and bounds, and over the next week or two, more items should be in our hot little hands. Up today: the reprint of Looks, Brains, and Everything, Scary Go Round book 1.

LBE (as the cool kids call it) contains what has become known as the Zombie Shelley storyline (which actually starts here, but damn I love that photo); since for many people, Shelley is the favorite character (and probably the soul of the strip, but I’m starting to take a real shine to Dark Esther), doing a story like this so early in the strip’s run (it comprises online chapters 2, 3, and 4) was an ambitious move on Allison’s part.

The art is even more gorgeous on the printed page than on the screen, and remarkably consistent with Allison’s current output (amazing considering that the youngest of these pages are three years old, and this is from the very beginning of Allison’s use of Illustrator); you would expect to see a ramping-up of quality or shift in style, but it’s always been as good as it is now. Allison has done a bit of tweaking in the story (he expresses particular discomfort with this page in the end-of-book material; the replacement page is much more melancholy); other additional pages also flow so smoothly that you’ll be hard pressed to find them without doing a page-by-page comparison against the online archives. On the necessity of these half-dozen additions, Allison sums up his feelings nicely in the Introduction:

Most artists I know view their old work with a mixture of horror, embarrassment and remove.

Like a teenaged diary rediscovered, it reveals the flaws and quirks you’ve spent the intervening years trying with all your might to hammer out. Those flaws are so gross and caricatured to our own eyes that we can’t see what people enjoyed about the stuff in the first place.

So I was pleasantly surprised upon revisiting this work to be reminded of a few of it’s charms…. While I can’t say thta I didn’t secretly want to re-draw every panel, the pages that follow seem good enough to let stand. These were the stories that helped me make comics my job.

Allison is being far too modest. The story and art are as full of charm as anything ever done in webcomics, dancing along your brain’s pleasure center like a zesty ranch dressing dances on your tongue.

Special note must also be made of the amazing job that Allison does in dealing with the business end of comics as a job: from the day that he asked if there was support for this book to the day he announced its availability was less than a month. One order via PayPal was processed the same day, and arrived across an ocean (and through the Great Northeastern Blizzard of Aught-Six) in one week. That’s a lot of logistics and follow-up to expect from one person working solo, and producing a comic five times a week. Given the disastrous implosion of Vault Distribution not so long ago, it’s good to remind ourselves what top-notch service in webcomics merch looks like.

In conclusion: LBE deserves an OBE. Yes, it’s generally understood that honors recipients are people and not objects, but Her Majesty will cope. She always does.

Ordering info is imminent. You NEED to buy this.

From Penny Arcade, a message from an insider on the world of viral marketing:

I actually hired a company called Hype Council…. Their technique is quite insidious. Let’s say they were hired to pump up PA (not like you need the buzz, but whatever…). Using one of the hundreds of shill accounts they have across the net, they post a new thread that says something like “hey guys, I’ve been looking for some new web comics to read. Anybody have any recommendations?” This is non-threatening, and gets the community engaged. They then wait a couple days and post again, this time with “Well, I asked some friends and they suggested I check out Penny Arcade (insert link). I thought it was pretty funny, although I didn’t like all the cuss words. What do you guys think?” Again, seeking engagement, they now have stealthily inserted the client’s link, thereby encouraging trial.

It’s all very insidious and, I’m sure, widespread. So much so that I don’t trust anything I read. Unless it’s a board where I “know” the posters, I always assume everyone on the board is a shill.

Fortunately, most webcomics types appear to be poor to the point of starving, so you need not worry that your favorite forums are the province of paid shills. OR DO YOU? The drunken Burnsian lament about us making fun of him (2 taps on the Page Dn should do it) and the followup comments name-checking us? Clever product-placement dollars at work, my friend.

On a cheerier note, the “Comics of Note” feature at The Onion AV Club has a brief review of On the Origin of PCs, the new book from The Order of the Stick. Highlights:

It takes a fairly geeky mind to properly appreciate all the gags in Rich Burlew’s thrice-weekly webcomic “The Order Of The Stick,” which follows a band of Dungeons & Dragons-style warriors on a series of quests, complete with occasional references to die rolls, skill points, and the fourth wall. But while the jokes are occasionally insular and the art is simple, the increasingly intricate and cleverly scripted adventures should appeal to a much wider audience….With its black-and-white art and character-introducing storyline, it’s really a fans-only release, but there’s never been a better time to become a fan.

Congrats to Rich Burlew for cracking the mainstreamish press, and if you’re a creator with a collection coming out? Throw a copy in an envelope to the press and/or Alyson Hannigan. Can’t hurt.

If you noticed Jeff Rowland’s initial announcements at Overcompensating regarding changes in how you get your crack Wigu, you saw that there was a super-official announcement forthcoming.

Here it is. Short attention span version:

Jeffrey Rowland, the most talented, handsomest, and strongest member of the Dumbrella alliance has recently announced that his formerly daily comic strip “Wigu” will be updating soon in a monthly format. This American Manga is planned to be released in paper format on a monthly basis, with the online version released a few weeks after the paper version is firmly planted in the hands of its insatiable readers…. Rowland has yet to decide on a printer for this independently published work of mind-boggling genius, but insists that it will be released by February 1 even if he has to hand-print each copy with his own wretched blood on shreds of stolen toilet paper.

In support of Mr Rowland, Fleen will be accepting donations of both blood and toilet paper. Contact us for details on where to send both.