Just a reminder, I’ll be at SPX this weekend; if you see a guy with glasses and a moustache, it’s probably me. As AlP creator Bernie Hou and I have to get an early start on the driving, you’ll probably get a slight or missing update tomorrow; I swear I’ll totally make it up to you.

Speaking of events, there’s a new contest in the offing and you (yes, YOU) could win stuff. And we’re not talking about t-shirts this time; we’re talking genuine consumer-grade electronics. Take it away, David Davis:

My webcomic is about to transition into Cosmic Dash, and to celebrate, I am holding a drawing contest with the winner recieving a 30 gig Microsoft Zune as well as some original penciled pages and a character designed around the winners specifications. The contest is pretty easy to get involved with and lasts until November 5th, so check the contest page for details.

I just hope it’s not the poo-colored one. Regardless, if you want to get free stuff, fire up your art studio, break out the scanner, or at least see what you can put together with some webcomics tools from Strong Badia. Stuff’s awaiting.

So Sheldon [the Pig [Who Couldn’t Stay Put]] isn’t going to be Sheldon [the Pig [Who Couldn’t Stay Put]] any longer. Not to say that Sheldon will be staying put, he won’t (except in the sense that he’ll still be at Modern Tales). What I mean to say is that Sheldon [the Pig [Who Couldn’t Stay Put]] will be renamed.

But not Sheldon the pig. The strip about Sheldon the pig (who may or may not be able to stay put). Here, let’s let creator Kevin Moore explain:

I am hosting a contest to re-name this series. Don’t worry, Sheldon gets to keep his name, but the series needs something a bit different, wider in scope to reflect the growing world Sheldon inhabits. Or something like that.

The winner will receive a custom t-shirt with the new strip title and their favorite character on it, so that’s pretty cool. If you want to enter (or just vote on current entries), do so here.

And in less confusing news, Paul Taylor is joining Wonder Woman Day II, which is an art auction at the end of the month to benefit domestic violence shelters in Portland, Oregon and Flemington, New Jersey. Check out Taylor’s Wapsified entry here. I thought for sure I blogged about Karen Ellis‘s three awesome contributions in weeks past, but I guess I didn’t. Anyway, we’ll keep our eyes open to see what other webcomickers get in on the meme.

Hey, kids! Who’s goin’ to SPX next weekend? Webcomickers (and related types) to be seen there will include Blank Labellers Guigar, Kellet, Straub, Tayler, and Willis; Box Brown, who I completely read over on the list, sorry!, Nick Gurewitch, Bernie Hou, Jeph Jacques, James Kochalka, Carla Speed McNeil, Dave Roman, Joe Sayers, Raina Telgemeier, Colleen Venable, Chris Yates, and The Dreamcrusher.

Additionally, of that number, Sayers and Malki ! are up for the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Online Comic, along with Chris Onstad, Nick Bertozzi, and Kris Dressen. What I like best about the Ignatz is the physical form of the award — it’s a brick. And as long as you’re there, keep an eye out for the Josh Frulinger-moderated panel on the current state of comic strips, with Gurewitch on the panel

I should note that Gurewitch is on that panel as a cartoonist, not specifically a webcartoonist; in this, SPX has regarded the delivery medium as less important than the content. Give it a few more years, and we’ll hopefully see webcomics sprinkled throughout the categories of the Ignatzes (and the Harveys, and the Eisners), rather than segregated into one slot. Until then, come see what it looks like on an exhibit floor where webcomics are spread around instead of concentrated in one spot. It’s pretty cool.

I know it’s been Zuda, not-Zuda for the past couple of days, but I had to get this out there on its own. How to reconcile the following two things?

1. This message from Paul Southworth:
   

   My wife is scheduled for a c-section Wednesday, September 26 at 9am EST. Expect guest comics to start running soon after. I’ll post pictures here as soon as I can.

   Wish us luck!

   OH GOD
   (de-emphasis original)

2. The Ugly Hill strip from Wednesday, September 26?

You have just witnessed a cartoonist’s youth get snatched away and be replaced with crushing, adult responsibility. Bravo, Paul Southworth! I thought only Randy Milholland could write Schadenfreude this well. Speaking of which, I’ve got half a mind to buy that strip just so I can threaten to give it to the newest Southworth in the throes of the mid-teen I HATE YOU DAD angst stage. Good times.

Oh, and young William Joseph Southworth? Something coming for you in the mail. Be sure to share with Mom & Dad.

Sorry about the generally late posting; I’m home from work, sick with some kind of bug that’s taken up residence in my throat and generally reduced my day to napping and light web-browsing. Here’s the news.

• Tim Demeter reports the All New Clickwheel is up and running. Some interesting exclusives over there, so if reading comics on an iPod is your thing (my second generation Nano is pretty unsuitable), give ’em a look. Oh, wait! There’s now a built-in viewer, so also check it out if reading comics on an iPod is not your thing.
• From Pat Race, a link to photos of last weekend’s XKCD meetup. Looks like a lot of creative temporary vandalism at the park, with protections against raptors, red spiders, and fun for all in ample supply.
• Bomb Shelter Comics announces that the latest iteration of Webcomics Idol is now open:
  

  Each week, a panel of judges comprised of BSC members and guest judges give feedback on each comic and their work for that week, and then open it to the public to vote.

  The winner gets automatic membership into the collective, and all the promotion we can provide. In addition, we’ll host the winner’s comic on Bomb Shelter for free (if they want it) and even design a new site for the comic (once again, if they want it). That was the prize last year, and since Digital Strips is going to be a co-sponsor this time around, (more details on that as it progresses) there might be more for the winner.

  You don’t actually have to have a site for your comic. DeviantArt and Comicspace hosting is fine and will be given as much consideration as a comic with a site. Last year this got a lot of attention, and one competitor, who until then had gone unnoticed for a long time, was nominated for a WCCA that year. Even those who get eliminated are invited to a weekly BSC podcast promoting their comic.

  Judges this year include DJ Coffman, Xaviar Xerexes, pro colorist & webcomicker Wilson Ramos, and some hack semi-journalist.

Okay, 37 by the count of Fleen staff & readers, and I’d estimate that he probably did in the range of 50 webcomics; in fact, it appears that he hit everything this side of the chronically-underreviewed Simulated Comic Product. I suppose we’ll have to wait for Ryan to come back from India to get the official tally. How about some stuff that has nothing to do with the prolific Mr Estrada?

As promised earlier: photos from the MoCCA reception.

• It was warm in the musuem: Jon Rosenberg (left) and Scott McCloud (right) contemplate the availability of air conditioning.
• Wizard scribe Brian Warmoth commits journalism with the assistance of Rosenberg.
• No good museum show is complete without a statement of philosophy.
• Slightly less than half of My Obsession with Chess.
• The Massachussets section: Questionable Content, Something*Positive, and Wigu original sketches and color prints.
• From sketches to final rendering: Scary Go Round, Diesel Sweeties, Get Your War On, Young Bottoms In Love.
• Inconvenient flash reflection: PhD, minus one face.
• Now showing on the LCD: The Formalist, Order of the Stick, My Obsession with Chess, Pup Ponders the Heat Death of the Universe, Delta Thrives, When I Am King, and Five Ways to Love a Cockroach.
• Crowd scene with webcartoonist and Narbonic strip.

Last night, the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art in New York City opened its latest exhibit, and for the first time webcomics made it into the world of culture and connoisseurs. I don’t get to too many museum exhibition openings, but I do know one thing — when the room is packed wall-to-wall and the air conditioning is insufficient to cool the air from all the people, it’s not because of the snacks or the booze. It’s because people want to see the pretty stuff on the walls. By that criterion alone, the opening of Infinite Canvas: The Art of Webcomics would have to be judged an enormous success.

The show was put together by a MoCCA volunteer/Art History & Archeology grad student (Egyptology, I believe) named Jennifer Babcock; this was her first show as curator, and it featured a wide variety of genres and implementations of webcomics. Per the show’s title, the centerpiece was a vertical-hanging, mounted-on-paper-towel-rollers print of Scott McCloud’s My Obsession With Chess; in the days before the laptop, McCloud would unfurl the full 23 foot piece at the conclusion of talks, but here the height of the gallery space limited Chess to about the first 12 feet.

Gathered around Chess were pieces from webcomics with originals displayed next to final renderings (Goats, Scary Go Round, Wigu, PhD, Penny Arcade) to all-digital creations without preliminary work (Diesel Sweeties, Get Your War On). The displayed pieces ranged in age from a nine year old Sluggy strip to the very first Something*Positive to a Questionable Content from four days ago.

Reinforcing the theme of “Infinite Canvas”, large screen LCD monitors displayed comics that spread beyond the traditional panel boundaries or existed in purely digital form: oft-referenced examples like When I Am King, Pup Ponders the Heat Death of the Universe, and Delta Thrives being joined by the likes of a particularly tall Order of the Stick. Nearby, a Narbonic strip that was drawn in four panels but assembled in a twisty, non-rectangular layout reinforced the theme.

While Babcock didn’t get contributions from all the creators that she wanted (specifically mentioning Kazu Kibuishi’s Copper), she did have more work than could fit on the walls. Those pieces that were gifted to the museum will become part of the permanent collection, she said, and will end up on display in rotation with the general collection, and as long as interest persists, she’d like to mount future webcomics shows.

She particularly mentioned a desire to explore the economic side of webcomics (how can a creator make a living by giving away the product?) and to see more female creators included in the next show (only Narbonic’s Shaenon Garrity and Finder’s Carla Speed MacNeil are to be found in Infinite Canvas). Intriguingly, Babcock would also like to include demonstrations of webcomics tools like Wacom Cintiq tablets.

Noted in attendance were Jon Rosenberg, Chris Hastings, Carly Monardo, David McGuire, Dean Haspiel, Wizard webcomic interviewer Brian Warmoth, surprise attendee (he realized he would be in New York the day before) Scott McCloud, and about a zillion other people. More photos of the event on Monday, after I have a chance to go through them.

Infinite Canvas runs until January 14, 2008. MoCCA is at 594 Broadway (just below Houston), 4th floor; admission is $5 (free for members) and the museum is open Friday through Monday, noon to 5pm.

Slow news day. Slow, slow, slow, slooooow. So, here’s a few items to tide you over until Thursday (which is statistically proven to be the most newsworthy day of the week):

• Jack Carter (he of the monkey-themed webcomics reviews) has seen a burst in activity of late. New reviews, an interview, and an obligatory post about Britney are waiting for you.
• Latest discovery: Naivety Incarnate by Sergio Torres; art reminds me a little of Amelia Rules! (always a good thing), and the tone is more melancholy about growing up than just about anything I can put my finger on right now. That, and it features the eternal promise of Super Mario Bros. 2, always a little out of reach. Come to think of it, that’s pretty melancholy, too.
• Don’t forget, webcomics invade the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art tomorrow night, 7pm; Fleen will be reporting live from the gala, and we hope to see you there.

Fifty!

Wrap party on Saturday, then the vain attempt (much like a scarred veteran of battles too horrific to recount) to reintegrate into normal society. Expect a spree at the Thousand Oaks FedEx Kinko’s no later than mid-October.

But since this is Scott we’re talking about, it’ll be a very polite and entertaining spree that everybody agrees illustrates the idea of sprees for a non-comics audience in new and innovative ways (and possibly garners an Eisner nomination for Best Spree) with group dinner to follow.

In all seriousness, Fleen congratulates Scott, Ivy, Sky, and Winter McCloud on their accomplishment, and wouldn’t wish another such tour on them on even our meanest days. Well done, and get some rest.

Okay, I get it, sort of. Dave Kellett‘s wired into the Hollywood Elite, attracting the attention of luminaries such as Neil Patrick Harris, Cobie Smulders, Alyson Hannigan, and his wife Gloria Calderón Kellett.

I get that being tied into that power structure allows you to have the contacts to do what normally only the the targets of front-page coverage of US Weekly and InTouch Weekly get to do: throw a party in swanky Beverly Hills locales and have other people pay for it. I don’t resent that he’s able to do these things and I’m not, nor that he hasn’t seen fit to throw such a party for anything less than the launches of his various books (although if he felt like throwing such a party for, say, a celebration of webcomics journalism, that’d be might awesome of him).

What I don’t get is, exactly what the heck goes into the drinks known as the Squee and the Sheer Awesomeness? ‘Cause I got a bar and shakers right here in my dining room and a fairly good collection of ingredients and tools, but I ain’t grindin’ up lizard or nothing. While we contemplate such, be sure to pick up your own copy of 62% More Awesome, which I believe you will find as compelling a purchase as I did.