Spotted at my friendly local comics shop, How To Make Webcomics, which means my pre-ordered copy should be arriving soon. Since the Halfpixelites didn’t have any review copies to toss my way, I had to make do with a quick flip-through yesterday; noted then:

• Immediately interesting thing #1: I noticed that each chapter is written by a different author, but the other three chime in regularly with concurring & contrasting opinions, accompanied by little cartoon heads to let you know who’s kibbitzing. Interesting way to have a primary voice to a topic while still allowing discussion.
• Immediately interesting thing #2: rumors in the latest Webcomics Weekly podcast of a Brad Guigar centerfold (we at Fleen understand that the pre-order artist editions omit the black censor bar). Remember, ladies — he’s taken!

Spotted in my mailbox: Octopus Pie! It would be difficult to offer a comprehensive review of this book without sounding like a total suck-up, so let me point out that it’s full of the same awesome humor and art you see three times a week on the web; that it’s released under a Creative Commons license that allows artistic experimentation; there are more asymmetrical eyes (scientifically proved to be 37% funnier than the regular variety) than you can shake a stick at; and that it’s chock full of moustachy goodness on every page. No? Just my copy? Weird.

Since I can’t really be objective about this book (after all, Mer did our masthead, and has been involved in my pseudo-journalistic efforts since before I started this gig), let me just point out who did provide objective praise. The back cover features blurbs from names like Larson, Kibuishi, Allison, McCloud (“My favorite new webcomic”) and the New York Daily News. I simply can’t wait to see Mer and tell her in person how much this book was worth the wait.

Which, as it turns out, will be Saturday, as the SPLAT! symposium takes place in New York; the organizers have graciously tossed a press pass my way, and I’ll be giving y’all a rundown next week.

The WCCAs were announced on Saturday at MegaCon; the winners (in a new, more compact form) can be found here and here. Big winner this time: Girl Genius.

In other news, this page has written many times of Michael Rouse-Deane and his various projects for good causes. So when Rouse-Deane wrote to me and said, “I’m thinking of doing a webcomic that’s all guest strips,” that caught my attention. Given the caliber of talent that Rouse-Deane has been able to attract to his various pursuits, I think we’re going to see some really quality work out of what will presumably be called The Guest Strip Project, or, Ryan Estrada Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

Look for the new strip to launch on April 1st, and in the meantime, play along with the internet’s new fun-time game: Guess That Guest Artist!

Many things today. To properly express my amazement at how many things, kindly imagine everything I’m writing is being voiced by the manic (and possibly psychotic) Marlon Fraggle.

SPLAT! A Graphic Novel Symposium, will be happening in New York in about ten days time. Registration‘s a bit steep ($125 standard, $75 for students), but the panels look hella interesting. I’m going to try to attend this one, but haven’t been able to find out if there’s a provision for press or not. If you’re interested in attending, the location isn’t anywhere on the SPLAT! website, so thanks to Dave Roman for letting me know it’s the NY Center for Independent Publishing, 20 West 44th Street.

The Cros is giving out hints of what the new Keenspot will be like:

Keenspot has announced a new system that allows Keenspot creators to retain and control 100% of the advertising revenue they generate for their sites….

“With the rise of highly-effective new ad networks and exchanges, we believe few know better than a comic’s creator about how to maximize their ad sales and target the best-paying ads to their site,” said Chris Crosby, CEO of Keenspot.

How will Keenspot as a business generate ad revenue under the new arrangement? “Keenspot recoups its costs by running in-house advertising in creators’ unsold default impressions,” said Crosby. “This set-up ensures that Keenspot doesn’t make a dime until after the comic creator has.” Keenspot will also continue generating 50% of ad revenue from some sites under the original contract, as certain creators aren’t interested in handling their own ad streams. Thus far, roughly half of Keenspot’s members have switched over to the new agreement.”

Books: Dr McNinja 2 (Electric Boogaloo!), Evil, Inc 3 (Incorporate Harder!), and Achewood VIII (I got nuthin’) all available for your early-ordering pleasure. One should note that the Achewood collection, despite its calendar range, will not feature The Great Outdoor Fight. Instead, that saga will be published in September by Dark Horse, in what one presumes would be a handsome, cofeetable-compatible format. Between GOF, Beards of Our Forefathers, the Penny Arcade books, and Colonel Sweeto, it appears that Dark Horse are carving themselves out a nice little niche in webcomicky goodness.

Latest webcomic memes: “Scientology”, “E. Gary Gygax”, and “lizards hanging on your face”.

Kevin Kelly on artists supporting themselves off of 1000 True Fans; still digesting this one, but it seems solid.

Finally, it’s not too strong a statement that I’m writing this because 25 years ago Wendy and Richard Pini were self-publishing. Fast forward to about a year ago at New York Comic Con, when I was hanging around the Dumbrella booth as Richard Pini came looking for Rich Stevens to pick his brain on how online behaves versus print. Now comes the news that the Pinis are putting their entire back catalog online.

Content starts going up on the 14th, with multiple chapters going online every Friday after; how long before all the old-school self-published graphic novelists follow the Foglio/Speed McNeil/Pini model? Answers on a postcard.

We mentioned the Andy Bell show in LA tonight (9 hours and counting) in yesterday’s post, but today we can point you towards what you’re missing if you don’t head over to Melrose & La Brea: photos of frickin’ awesome paintings and such. For my part, it’s a good thing I’m not in LA, because just browsing the photos has made me want to drop about three grand. I suppose I’ll have to settle for some of those vinyl toys at the bottom. Seriously, why do I want those so much? I have no explanation for this compulsion.

Mr T‘s looking for studies of various aspects of webcomics that he feels are understudied. If anybody wants to tackle #2 on the list:

Worldwide Webcomics. I know way, way too little about the pursuit of webcomics in cultures where English isn’t the dominant language.

… there’s a relatively new comic on the scene by a gent from Santiago, Chile. Is it just me, or is Warped kinda like Sugarshock as reimagined by Warren Ellis?

I know you’ve probably seen it already, but please to enjoy a nice meditation by Neil Gaiman on the value of free. Next time somebody asks how webcomics can possibly survive giving away their content, point ’em here.

February is making me SO-SAD, and without the benefit of a happy light. Here’s stuff:

• The mad genius behind Sinister Bedfellows, mckenzee, has sent me PDFs of his Cðulhuviða project, and news of a Cðulhuviða book available at Lulu. Still waiting to hear back if he’ll be able to realize his handmade book desires, but let me say this now — if such a book becomes available (I’d have to believe it would be a limited edition), I want one. One should also note that alongside the Cðulhuviða book, there are also available for purchase the NCWCC anthology and the Sinister Bedfellows collection.
• Reminder: Katsucon this weekend, with many webcomickers (Dr. McNinja, Evil inc., Onezumi.com, Applegeeks, and many more), and the Epic Webcomic Win.
• Two years of crappy job stories (that’s stories about crappy jobs, not crappy stories about jobs). On the one hand, I want Michael Moss to find a job that isn’t hellish. On the other hand, his hellish work experiences lead directly to my free amusement. This is a moral dilemma.

Catching up first with a friend of webcomics in general, and Fleen in particular: Rick Marshall — who along with Brian Warmoth successfully de-suckified Wizard‘s website and was dejobbed for his trouble — has landed at ComicMix, where he is contributing up a storm and taking on the position of Online Managing Editor. Heidi’s got the press release, we’ve got the good wishes, and Esbat apparently got the Marshall genetic legacy. I think that’s what they call win-win-win-win.

Catching up with other news:

• Greg Carter reminds all and sundry that Atlanta Comix Expo is this weekend, and he and Gina Biggs will be representin’ webcomics there, and conjunction with Dark Horse releasing the second graphic novel of Biggs’s Red String. And in a rather generous act, Carter also reminds us that also this weekend, two states to the north, Jennie Breeden and a mess of other webcomickers will be at What the Hell? Con this weekend with a ton of other webcomickers; look for strips including Carter, Biggs & Breeden doing con prep to show up at the site of Satanic Porn soon.
• Lori Henderson of the Manga Village portion of Comics Village would like you to know that there’s a competition on. You (yes, you!) could see your manga-style webcomic published online and in print, including distribution to UK bookstores, and through Diamond. Details here.
• I’ve been seeing lots of links around webcomicdom pointing back to The Scienteers in the past month or so. There’s a reason for this: the people that do the scienting have decided to merge the idea of webcomics collective with the idea of webcomics news site, with a particular emphasis on exposing little-known creations. Want some exposure? Send ’em announcements & news, and submit comics to be run on their website. Details on submitting news and comics here and here. Bonus points for especially good scientication.

The day before Jellaby Day!

It’s been more than 18 months since we first reported that Kean Soo‘s Jellaby would be getting the print treatment, and tomorrow all our waiting is over. Between this and Flight Explorer (due next month), it looks like plenty of the big purple monster about town to satisfy our needs, but for those of you that need just a little bit more, and are in Toronto, there’s two more things of interest:

Presented in association with THE BEGUILING and Scholastic Canada, Kazu Kibuishi and Kean Soo will be at the North York Central Library to debut their brand new graphic novels Amulet and Jellaby. Both Kean and Kazu will be interviewed on stage by The Beguiling’s Christopher Butcher.

That’s 6:30pm tomorrow, with a bonus signing event at The Beguiling by Kean & Kazu at 7pm on Wednesday.

In other news: new vinyl toy on tap from Andy Bell. Man, I love that guy’s designs, but what’s with all the butts? All his toys have lovingly-sculpted ass cheeks. Ominous.

Starting to see responses in the comments thread from yesterday about Eisner nominations. Yes, my minions — go forth and prod your favorite creators to submit themselves for consideration. And one of the called-up creatrixes (creatricies? creatrixii?) has informed me that she has thrown her metaphorical hat in the metaphorical ring.

Speaking of evil, we at Fleen are given to understand that some people don’t have a sense of boundaries, and so Rene Engstrom has been forced to take down her contact info and her charming “get to know me” comic, which her nickname referenced; a replacement is now needed — how does The Candianest Viking sound?

Hourly comics abound! I have it on good authority that fully 48% of those comics are actually drawn by Ryan Estrada.

Anybody read the posting at Wondermark today? The Very Nice Freelance Firearms Specialist Who Everybody Likes has essentially been transitioning to self-employed creative type (including webcomics) over the past year. Time to chalk up another one in the “pro” column?

There’s been a lengthy rundown of Marjane Satrapi profiles/interviews at ¡Journalista! … but how many of them have been in comics form? Mike “Culture Pulp” Russell leads the way.

In other news:

• Speaking of movies, wasn’t this an Achewood story last year? I bet in the movie there are no dudes that end up hella stabbed.

• Harknell and Onezumi are coordinating webcomics at Katsucon in three weeks, and will be conducting the extravaganza known as Epic Webcomic Win. Free stuff from more than a dozen webcomic guests! Entry form will be available at any webcomic guest table, with full details on the contest page.

• Missed it earlier this week: new Dr McNinja book announced; look for availability in about a month. Rumor has it the promised truly superior extra content will include free hugs from guest stars¹.
• Hey kids, remember Uncle Ghastly? Sure you do! His life hit a series of rough patches and the long-running Ghastly’s Ghastly Comic (often NSFW, in case you forgot) fell by the wayside. But he’s doing better these days, and has a new, Northesque journal comic to share with you. I’ve always believed that Uncle Ghastly was actually The Living Slackmaster, so be on the lookout for esoteric SubGenius wisdom as you follow his blogariffic adventures.

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¹ Not really.

When I started my trawl this morning it looked like a light day. Then lots of stuff popped up.

• Round numbers! Octopie #100 just went live, with extra backstory goodness Everybody dance!
• Fluffmodeus?
• Promoted from the comments thread so it’s more widely seen: McKenzee points out that the same weekend as Atlanta Comics Expo, Guildford College in Greensboro, North Carolina will be hosting the totally free What The Hell Con, which will feature a whole passel o’ webcomickers, including the omnipresent Jennie Breeden, the squidalicious Leah Riley, the recently re-networked Christopher B Wright, and many more. If I remember my con schedule, WTHCon is the one where Jennie Breeden abuses college boys at the geek auction (instead of abusing kilt-wearing boys with a leaf blower). Rumor has it that a webcomickin’ lady friendly with Mustelidae lives in the area, so keep your eyes open.
• Touché, Mr Malki !, touché! And I am pleased to note that the movie also did not suck; it’s a magical day of my dreams coming true. Note to self: making last-minute suggestions to certain creators works. I resolve to only use this power for awesome.