Whole lotta people taking the week off, or going to reruns, or just being quiet. I figure that dearth of fresh entertainment (apart from a new Dresden Codak, which I almost didn’t notice as Aaron Diaz¹ and I have been busily corresponding on the minutiae of both published and unpublished hobbity lore) is what brought you here, desperate for even my opinion-mongering.

Well, no opinions today. Instead, I’m going to point you towards two updates today that (to me) show a total of three creators really hitting their stride and doing a killer job on their story arc-heavy webcomics.

On the one (somewhat bloody) hand, Magnolia Porter’s Monster Pulse has veered from slightly menacing conspiracy against plucky kids² with pet monsters into something much darker, while never ignoring the fact that these are children. No matter how grown up they try to be, they’re not able to bear these burdens without hurt. Start from the beginning, read forward, and read the current chapter twice.

On the other hands, Christopher Bird and Davinder Brar have been working away quietly on Al’Rashad, an infuriatingly slowly-revealed look at a world that might be described as fantasy, except for the distinct lack of fantastical elements. No magics (okay, maybe some abominations that used to be dead men, but I’m still not convinced they’re undead; maybe some kind of will-sapping drug like historical Haitian zombies), but quite a lot of extremely well thought-out political games, as nations (one Vikingish, the other Arabic) poke and prod at each other while factions within each play power games.

Nobody comes out and says PAY ATTENTION TO THE NARRATION HERE IS WHAT’S GOING ON, meaning we learn things alongside the characters in bits and pieces³, leaving us (okay, leaving me) hungry for just one five-page infodump to learn more of the history and shape of this world. It is hooky and sticky and original and if Brar and Bird could figure out some what to give it to me more than one page a week that would be awesome.

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¹ The Tolkien Scholar Par Excellence.

² It can’t be toomenacing or otherwise kids couldn’t stand against the conspiracy, and all our suspension of disbelief is already taken up with the monsters.

³ Which is not to say that it’s a Bendis-style decompressed story. Al’Rashad moves, but nobody has all the information

She finally did it. There are googly eyes staring at me as I write this. Send help.

Things to keep an eye (so to speak) out for:

• Well done, ghost of Ryan North, you’re officially the most-funded publishing project in Kickstarter history, more than doubling the second-place contender. Also, what was up with raising more than US$101,000 in the last full day of the campaign? That is nuts and the people that support you, we they are nuts.
• Want to drive yourself crazy? Check out the 19 page preview of Cameron Stewart’s next project, NIRO. Crazy, because now you need to see the rest of the story, and Stewart hasn’t released it yet, ha ha ha¹. 180 degrees removed from the psychological drama of Sin Titulo, NIRO appears to mix some apocalyptic setting here, some unspeakable danger there, and a loner with a moral/religious code trying to do the right thing right about … h’yahhh. NIRO will release as choose-your-price (99 cents or more) digital issues starting early next year, culminating in a print collection.
• Erika Moen has been doing a public service behind the scenes for a good while now, studying to become more knowledgeable about how human sexuality works than anybody this side of the Kinsey Institute for the purposes of putting together a graphic novel that’s an educational resource for teens. It’s slow work, though, and she’s dying to share helpful information with the reading public before 2015. What to do?
  

  I’m thinking I’ll start up a smaller comic to run in the mean time. I’m thinking a sex toy review comic. WOULD YOU READ THAT?

  I am asking everybody reading this now to contact Moen (her Twitterpage should suffice) to say Yes, please, let us see this comic of yours as often as you can produce it!

Several subsets of Alliday will be dropping in the next week or so — whichever things you might celebrate or find comfort in, enjoy the heck out of ’em. We at Fleen will do our best to scrape up news in the coming days, but it may be kind of scarce on the ground.

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¹ If I get driven crazy from the cliffhanger, you’re all coming with me.

To quote the ghost of Ryan North:

boom

That would be the formerly-living Nexus of All Webcomics Realities (Great White North Division) ceasing to exist in our plane of reality as he sploded a little more than an hour ago. Astonishingly, I can only assume that North’s backers had murder on their minds, as his Kicktraq pledge history shows that today is already his single highest-grossing day with some nine hours still to go¹, a situation which I’ve never observed. Kickstarters are always frontloaded, and yeah you’ll get a tick upwards at or near the end, but to have your highest daily totals then is unheard of.

Heck, his projected total is trending upwards for the past couple of days, and it’s entirely possible he could hit US$550,000² before things finish tomorrow morning. HE’S ALREADY DEAD YOU BASTARDS, YOU CAN’T KILL HIS CORPSE ANY MORE.

As amazing as all of that is, the most amazing part of this month-long rollercoaster was revealed earlier today by the onetime tallest man in webcomics on what used to be his Tumblr, regarding a man named Tom Helleberg:

… who is the nicest guy. Sorry everyone else, but you’re all tied for second place now. About a week after To Be Or Not To Be launched I got an email from him that congratulated me on the success of the book, said I now owed it to him to make it the best book it could possibly be, and concluded with the fact he’d been talking to publishers and shopping around his own idea for a book without success for the past two years: also a choose-your-own-path version of Hamlet.

It took me two days to write him back, because I kept putting myself in his shoes (I’m about to launch my Kickstarter when Quirk³ or someone announces Tom’s book) and it feels awful. Just awful. What could I say to him? When I did write him back I basically said those things: I felt terrible, and I couldn’t believe we’d both come up with the same idea and had such different experiences with it. Again, Tom was the nicest guy (he thanked me for being a decent human being: honestly touching, and he said he was dismantling his large-scale revenge photocollage about me: also nice) and he mentioned was actually relieved to be done with the project and able to move on to his next idea — and when that’s done, would I be willing to supply a quote for the back of the book? [emphasis original]

Reached for comment, the late Mr North remarked that he had tried to find a definition for “explode” in the OED that would forestall his gruesome death, but was unable to do so before his demise, where witnesses report a couple was observed to be high-fiving. We at Fleen extend our condolences to North’s wife, family, friends, dog, and to Mr Helleberg, who will now have to find somebody else to write that blurb.

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¹ In today’s totals that is; there’s still some 17 hours in all for the campaign.

² Also known as “2750% of goal”, or “getting pretty damn close to double the previously highest-funded publishing project in Kickstarter history which was done by marketing guru Seth Godin, dang yo”.

³ Editor’s note: Quirk are the publishing house behind such ventures as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and it’s amazing that they didn’t announce such a think as choose-your-own-Hamlet already. Tough luck, Quirk. Maybe you can negotiate with North’s literary estate for the rights to mass-market editions once the Kickstarter rewards are all distributed.

In the most reckless stretch goal of all time, North has promised that his final stretch goals for TBONTB:ACFABRNAAWST will be:

$425,000 = another 25 books sent to libraries and schools!
$450,000 = another 25 books sent to libraries and schools! Also I will … create a pizza that looks like Hamlet and… eat it?
$475,000 = another 50 books sent to libraries and schools!
$500,000 = I will literally explode [emphasis original]

Judging from the uptick in support in the past couple of days, it appears that he just might do it. Please, people, think of Chompsky! Do not cause Ryan North to explode, if only because he is a giant of a man and the pieces would require immense cleanup .

• You know who’s a stellar (pun intended) guy, just an amazingly wonderful representative of all the best that [web]comics offers? Dave Roman. Sometimes he gets lost in the shuffle when his wife, the fabulously talented Raina Telgemeier goes and dominates the New York Times YA bestseller lists for two or three years at a time, but just look at the stuff that Roman’s done (oftentimes with partner John Green): Jax Epoch. Teen Boat¹. Agnes Quill. Fantasy, goofball teen angst, mystery — all genres and audiences find something by Roman to call their own.

  And, as he has for some time now, Roman also brings in the youngest readers with the Sci-Fi school days adventure of Astronaut Academy, the second collection of which is rapidly approaching. This is the book I give to kids just starting to read longer books for pleasure; when they’ve outgrown it, there’s plenty more Roman to keep ’em busy. So thank you, Dave, for all your varied work, and keep doing what you’re doing.

• Today’s reason to keep on going in an uncertain future: Tracy White’s return to webcomics:
  

  About to start drawing my first new comic (online only) in three years. #goodtobeback

  I’ll got out on a limb and guess you’ll be able to find the new work (as yet unnamed) at White’s main site, Traced. Given the two and a half years since How I Made It To Eighteen was released, I’ll go out on another limb and say that White’s got some stories building up just waiting to be shared with the world. Keep your eyes peeled and your hands inside the car at all times.

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¹ Obligatory warning: do not ever Google the words “teen boat” without appending the word “comic(s)”, and especially not image searches. Just … just trust me on this one.

The thing about Rich Stevens is, even when he’s just tossing ideas around on Twitter with little to no intention of following up, it’s a hoot and a half to read. As agile as he runs his business¹ (and he’s nothing if not agile), his mind is running faster still, bouncing from brilliant idea to brilliant idea, mining only the barest minority of them and turning them into something beautiful.

Case in point: A rude ashtray begets temporary tattoos and possibly sweatpants. Case in other point: speculation about existing media properties that aren’t making comics leads to genius ideas that would make a million billion dollars. Or maybe “Gumby” is just as fun to say as “smock”: Gumby, Gumby, Gumby, smock.

So as we approach the end of the year, looking forward to our long crawl back into a season of growing things and new possibilities, know that the closest thing to an actual Spark or mad genius is in Western Massachusetts, mainlining robot juice and dreaming up crazy things to do purely because they’ll amuse you and also him. Mostly him². We should all be so lucky.

From the Charity Front:

• Some year, Child’s Play will not raise more money than the previous year … that will not be this year, seeing as how they’re now up over US$3.3 million with plenty of time to clear the US$3.512 million achieved in 2011. To put this in perspective, this will mean that 2012’s total will be more than the cumulative amount raised in Child’s Play’s first five years, and will likely clear US$16 million over the ten year history of the project. Well done Ms Lindsay, Ms Dillon, Messers Holkins, Krahulik, Khoo, and everybody that’s made this possible.
• Far less organized, but no less impactful: Kiva’s Team Webcomics (founded by Ryan North and Zach Weinersmith, who just so happen to have written two of the most successful choosable–path books in history) has lent more than US$321,000 to micro-entrepreneurs around the world, contributing to the bettering of the lives of entire families and villages.
• Somehow we missed checking in on Worldbuilders, the Patrick Rothfuss-run charity that benefits Heifer International, in 2011. That’s a shame, as there’s usually some primo webcomics creators contributing fabulous prizes to be won via the Worldbuilders auctions, lottery, and store.

  Just announced: a slew of webcomicabilia from the recently-held Webcomics Rampage in Austin, plus jam art, books, plushes, prints, and more. Jacques! Watson! Willis! The aforementioned Weinersmith! DenBleyker! Sohmer & DeSouza! Weaver! Corsetto! Melick! Krahulik & Holkins! Casalino! Foglio & Foglio! And introducing Randy Milholland as Chewbacca’s Family.

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¹ And the thing about agility is, you can’t keep it going forever — patterns get engraved, The Right Way of Doing Things becomes The Only Way, and you stop reinventing yourself. Stevens, by contrast, has been a blur of motion for more than a decade because he doesn’t know what he can’t do, therefore he does it.

² In my less-rational moments, I imagine that when Frank Zappa died, his Dada-anarcho tendencies wandered the world until deciding that Stevens was an appropriate host body.

Especially long-time readers of this page may recall that David Malki ! has, on occasion, been referred to on this page (not entirely seriously) as “The Dreamcrusher”, due to his role in rejecting a piece I submitted to the original Machine of Death open call lo these many years past. Crushed I was, all my dreams leaking dream juice because nobody would ever read anything I wrote ever. Sadface.

Well, the day has come to officially recant that particular nickname (though I’ve not used it in a good long while), and that’s because yesterday I did something creative and personally amusing that I never would have without Malki !’s example. Specifically, to aid my wife’s semi-required departmental holiday decorations (theme: Nations of the World; her assigned country: France), I constructed a diorama I like to call The French Revolution Comes To The North Pole, having been inspired by the cardboard-constructed Machine of Death that Malki ! took to conventions in 2011.

For inspiring me achieve an entirely different dream¹ in cardboard and tape and festive wrapping, I thank David Malki !, and apologize for ever characterizing him as somebody who would crush dreams of any sort. Feel free to hum either La Marseillaise or Wind Beneath My Wings if you like.

• Hey, guess who was a bozo and forgot to take photos on Saturday when visiting with Danielle Corsetto, Bill Ellis & Dani O’Brien, and Jamie Noguchi? That means you get to imagine the perfect Kane face when the lid to the mini-cheesecake I brought him got stuck. I’d often wondered how Noguchi manages to draw such incredibly expressive faces, and now I know — he’s constantly making them himself and his brain is translating the feeling of muscle here, skin there, a teensy bit of boiling rage for flavor, and telling his drawing hand what to do. It’s a rare skill, and it serves him well.

  In any event, many thanks to Wild Pig Comics for hosting the creators, and thanks to Corsetto, Noguchi, and Ellis/O’Brien for creating comics that entertain me for free; you should pick up all their books, as they’re quite good.

• Also obtained over the weekend: the post brought me copies of Tiny Kitten Teeth (it has an enormous trim size, and the textured cover stock makes it feel like a storybook from the 1940s) and The Abominable Charles Christopher volume 2 (with its beautiful red flocked cover, a “sketch” of an Asiatic Black Bear² up front, and two of my favorite Charles Christopher strips of all time inside). I am running out of shelf space with all these wonderful comics I’ve gotten, and I suspect that more will be arriving in the next ten days or so. Problems, man.
• With a bit more than three and a half days to go, Ryan North’s TBONTB:ACFABRNAAWST is approaching US$375,000 and if it were to stop accumulating money right now it would be the most-funded publishing project in Kickstarter history by some US$87,000. As it is, I think the Toronto Man-Mountain has a better than even chance of clearing US$400K in the 88 hours left to him (and I’m not the only one), which would make for a truly amazing end product. Well done everybody that’s pledged, and everybody else kindly get to it, as I want to see what that last unlockable goal is.

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¹ Namely, the dream of sticking it to corporate overlords that make it difficult to say no when told you have to go spend money to decorate your desk because Teamwork!.

² Because what Karl Kerschl calls a “sketch” any rational person would call a “finely detailed animal portrait”.

So it’s approximately the Fleeniversary ’round these parts; the official announcement of my entrée into semi-abusive opinion-mongering occurred in the old Goats forums on 22 December 2005, but I’d been banking postings as far back as 5 December, and was really into the daily posting routine (even though nobody was reading yet) around the 15th or so. Which is a long way of saying — today is as close to seven years of what the masthead calls The webcomics blog about webcomics as you’re gonna get.

If I’ve got all my dates right, at this time seven years ago Jon Rosenberg¹ was not yet staring down 40 and had never changed a diaper. Seven years ago, people were somewhat more justified in thinking that Yuko Ota was in her early teens. Seven years ago, Jeff Rowland had proved himself unkillable by mere killer spiders and had started the great and vast TopatoCo Empire, even tangling with weird t-shirt company perverts.

So many of the tools and services we take for granted in webcomics were missing; at that time, there was no Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Kickstarter, Project Wonderful, or :01 Books. Seven years ago, George Rohac had not yet sprung fully formed from the forehead of Zeus.

Return to Sender had only been on hiatus for a year, TCAF had only started to conquer the world, Commissioner James Gordon Hastings had not been whelped, the Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge had been going for less than a year, we had only just met Dan McNinja’s moustache, and the Great Outdoor Fight was still a month away from its stealthy beginnings, and further from its legendary majesty.

Rich Stevens was exactly the same, endless and unchanging, save only he is now married and likes dogs.

They say seven years in is when you get tired of things, but I have to say, I still enjoy the heck out all of this, so I hope you’ll join me as I start Year Eight of working out my thoughts on various matters — mostly webcomics, but no promises — where you can hear them. Also, if you happen to be in north/central New Jersey tomorrow, do drop by to see the webcomickers at Wild Pig Comics from noon to 4:00pm, won’t you?

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¹ Who, Svengali-like, planted the seeds in my head and made them bear the desired brainfruit that I should be writing all of this stuff.

Some of you may have noticed a brouhaha in the web-o-spheres over the past day or two regarding another webcomic scraper by another person that couldn’t be bothered to ask permission from creators before lecturing them how copyright works (his version: I can do what I want because I want to). I didn’t mention it earlier on account of the takedown requests were flying fast and furious and he was at least removing strips from his site (albeit with a lot of whining, as I understand it). Less attention given, the better.

Which is why I do want to mention a webcomic reader (an app this time, for iDevices) that’s Doing It Right. Comic Chameleon is the brainchild of Bernie Hou, creator of Alien Loves Predator, so he knows what a creator wants from an app. He’s contacted other creators and asked permission up front to include their work. Instead of being a glorified browser or RSS reader, the app permits panel-by-panel reading, so there’s actually a functionality value-add there.

Best of all, he’s worked out a revenue-distribution plan so that ads within CC itself end up paying the creators (granted, probably not a lot of money, and divided a bunch of ways, but still — it’s a choice that indicates the app is for their benefit, not his). Look for Comic Chameleon in early 2013, and check out the demo on YouTube.

• There was a very nice comment in yesterday’s posting by a fellow named David Welsh; as is my practice when I see a poster I’m not familiar with, I followed the link to Welsh’s site and found … okay, let me back up for a moment. Something you should know about me is that I cannot even think of certain scenes in stories without getting choked up; any time, any place, they will get to me without fail. Mayday, mayday, India-Golf-Niner-Niner is buddy spiked; It shames the armored cavalry to abandon a courageous warrior. Our squad wishes to ride in support of Princess Nausicaä; Let’s make sure history never forgets the name ‘Enterprise’; Su per man.

  At the top of that list, the top of the top, will always be stories (sometimes just scenes, but more often the entirety of the story) of extreme loyal dogs. I will seriously use this single issue to judge your entire worth as a person; there is something wrong with you, like sociopath wrong, if you can think about Seymour or Hachiko¹ without being moved to your very core.

  Which is a roundabout way of saying, when I followed Welsh’s link, it went to a new (fewer than ten updates) webcomic that he writes, the topic of which is the original loyal-beyond-death dog, Greyfriars Bobby. And just for topping on the heart-tugging, this version of Greyfriars Bobby returns to his master’s grave every night not just to guard it, but to fight supernatural beasties that would threaten all of Edinburgh. Extraordinarily loyal and brave? I’m not made of stone, people — I am in, all the way in.

  I should also mention that art, by Junelle Faye, treads the line between cute and threatening nicely, and hopefully both Welsh and Faye will be able to crank out more strips on a regular basis. Check out Greyfriars, and let the sniffles begin.

• Received at the comic store yesterday: the 300+ page Dr McNinja: Timefist and the concluding issue of Marceline. Two thumbs up for each of them, which requires me to borrow a couple of thumbs.
• Received in the mail when I got home yesterday: Benign Kingdom, Fall 2012, hardcover edition, plus additional goodies. I cannot begin to tell you how gorgeous this book is, and as soon as Danielle, Emmy, Anthony, or Aaron² can point you in the direction of sales, buy it. I suppose you could get the individual art books, but you don’t look like a chump, so get the very handsome hardcover to go with the Spring 2012 edition.
• Expected in the mail any day now, like tomorrow, because I got an email from TopatoCo: Tiny Kitten Teeth. Hell, yes.
• Not expected in the mail anytime soon because of time-sink potential: Either of the Homestuck collections, although I do not know what my deal is on delaying. I should just take the week between Christmas and New Years and binge my way through all 6000+ pages just like the mother of two who is powering her way through and has made it as far as the Midnight Crew intermission.

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¹ Don’t even get me started on service dogs like Endal or Comet.

² The Latin Hobbit-Throb.

That calendrical coincidence out of the way, let’s talk webcomics.

Meredith Gran is somebody whose cartooning skills I hold in the highest regard (and goodness, would today be the day that Marceline and the Scream Queens releases its last issue; yes, it would be), so when earlier this week she pointed me towards a webcomic that I wasn’t familiar with, that immediately went to the top of my to-do list. Seriously you students in the SVA webcomics course, listen to Mer, she’s super-smart.

What I got pointed towards was Rachael & Penny by Lauren Zukauskas, which has (for about ten months now) been telling the story of a hot new music star (Rachael) and her somewhat overwhelmed manager (Penny), trying to navigate the pitfalls of these things called Fame and Friendship and Life. There’s a lot to like in R*P, especially the fact that the storytelling follows the Warner Brothers model instead of the Disney model. Let me ‘splain.

Think back on the old WB cartoon shorts that we grew up watching on Saturday mornings — they’re still in rotation, 50 or 60 years later. By contrast, Disney was cranking out short cartoons as well, but very few of them persist in the popular consciousness. Seriously, right now I could rattle off titles and plot descriptiosn of probably 50 WB shorts off the top of my head, but I’ve got maybe a handful of Disney cartoons with that degree of stickiness¹.

I think a big part of it is because so many Disney shorts (despite being lushly animated) felt forced in terms of their writing. Mickey’s funny! Donald’s funny! Let’s invent a situation where they can be funny in the same place at the same time! We’ll call it Wacky animals go to a place and then do wacky things because they’re wacky.

The WB shorts, by contrast, were more commonly defined by character; Bugs and Daffy didn’t do things because they were wacky, they did things (okay, wacky things) because who they are demanded that level of conflict between them. It wasn’t a case of What happened to whoever happened to be there?, it was a case of Who was there, and who else and ohhhhh boy, that’s not going to end quietly.

Thus, Rachael is impulsive, a bit thick, and completely bought into the rock star lifestyle and its attendant behaviors; Penny is overworked, frazzled, sees herself as Rachael’s friend but holds herself at a professional distance², and is maaaaybe nursing a bit of a crush. Throw a complication into the mix (say, bad publicity to be overcome with a public good act) and let ’em rip.

Artwise, Zukauskas has settled very quickly (there are not quite 50 updates, each a page in length, from the start to the latest) into an adorably flexible style that echoes Bryan Lee O’Malley, Chynna Clugston, Faith Erin Hicks, Natasha Allegri, Vera Brosgol, and David McGuire; I’m not saying that Zukauskas is aping any of those styles, but that she has the same tendencies to shift from detailed to loose as the story demands. Examples: Rachael suddenly goes all scribbly (and that face-plant gag is great), Rachael’s eyes simplify to dots, anger is diffused by the power of caricature, and unexpected behavior shocks the world into black-and-white.

At present, Rachael and Penny updates weekly (Fridays), which means you’ve got a couple of days to get caught up before we see the fallout from the present situation (basketball game with Rachael, Penny, and a young lady who could best be described as a “hate-fan”), given who these characters are, who they think they are, and who they want each other to think they are. It’s going to be a fun, bumpy ride.

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¹ Um, you’ve got Der Fuehrer’s Face, that one where they’re in the car trailer that breaks away and careens down the mountain road, and … yeah, that’s all I’ve got right now.

² She always refers to her by surname: “Miss Amps”.

I can’t think of too many webcomics that could disappear for six-plus years and pick up right where they left off, but then again I can’t think of too many webcomics as influential and well-loved within the circle of webcomics creators as A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible. And hell if that isn’t exactly what Dale Beran and David Hellman did yesterday: ALILBTDII #42 has all the surrealistic grandeur that endeared it to its audience before going on hiatus in May of Aught-Six; if not the most widely-read webcomic that ever existed, it was surely near the top of the personal enjoyment list of people that make their living doing webcomics.

It’s as exciting to see Hellman and Beran reunite as it was to contemplate their return when it was teased half a year ago. At that time, Beran and Hellman described the return of ALILBTDII as a “one-off”, but we can dream, can’t we? The only return from the great hereafter that would make me happier would be Return To Sender, and I ain’t holding my breath on that one; like an actor who died too soon, these comics never had a chance to decline and will always look young and beautiful to us.

In other news, the Kickstarters continue to filter into creative fields, with varying results; the claim that you need 800 supporters to succeed on Kickstarter made here is surely skewed by the relative costs of filmmaking vs comic printing, and the lesser chance of indy filmmakers to have regular, excited audience members, given that you can’t crank out a film three days a week and have as regular contact with your supporters.

It’ll be interesting to see how Kickstarter eventually produces differing received wisdom for different creative communities, with (say) theatrical endeavours eventually settling near a requirement for x number of supporters, and fashion projects requiring y number. Something tells me that comics is on the lower end of the “entry and success” costs spectrum, and may find KS to be a more reliable tool in the business plan toolbox than (say) food or dance.