Got an email the other day asking if we at Fleen had a Twitter feed; sadly, the answer is ‘no’, because as a guy with a day job and a pretty high distractability rating, it would be enormously dangerous for me to follow … tweets. Still, nice to be asked.

Then I noticed the sender’s name and URL: Barry T. Smith and Inktank, respectively, and that sent me back. Way, way, waaaaay long ago (about 2000 – 2005), kiddies, he did a strip called Angst Technology (archives here), which was one of the earlier workplace comedy type webcomics. If my memory serves me, AT sort of faded out around the time that Smith left a coding job to attend animation school.

And it appears that since April Fool’s Day, Smith’s been back at the drawing board, doing a life-with-family-inspired comic called (naturally enough) InkTank. In case you were wondering what a webcomicker does after walking away from webcomics for a couple of years, the answer is apparently get sucked right back in. Welcome back to the game, Barry.

In other news, as we careen towards the Wedding of the Century, there’s a chance that you could get in on the action. If you have an original recipe that’s inspired by/related to Achewood, it could be included in the forthcoming second Achewood Cookbook. Details on the contest page; please note that the prize for winning essentially amounts to bragging rights:

By submitting, you grant Achewood the perpetual right to publish your material either in its original unedited form or in an edited form, either in print or online or in any transmission medium yet to be invented (including but not limited to Popgas Induction 3-tricretalin). Achewood does not pay you for this work, as it is understood that it is gratification enough simply to be included in such hallowed pages. In fact, merely by submitting their recipe via e-mail, the sender agrees to experience a sensation resembling extreme gratification.

Finally, new storyline started this week over at Ataraxia Theatre; by itself, an ordinary event, but what if I told you that creator Jospeh Hewitt had abandoned his full-page style in favor of a ligne claire style characteristic of Tintin? Intriguing.

Rich Stevens’ decision to end the print version of Diesel Sweeties has been the mouse that didn’t roar — very little comment other than “good luck” is to be found in the blogosphere, and unlike earlier incidences of cartoonists leaving semi-syndication, there’s been almost no followup questioning. Those that love [web]comics seem to be collectively shrugging, Huh. Guess that makes perfect sense. Still, if you have questions for Rich, send ’em in and he’ll answer them.

Look what’s coming my way; as cool as the POOP sign is, I think we all know where Mr Yates’s true genius lies. Speaking of Playground Ghostlies, David Malki ! would like you to remember that tomorrow is when Beards of our Forefathers hits your local comic shop.

Speaking of beards and other facial hair, this is the greatest headline since April 15, 1983.

For those of you distraught over Banished! being in black and white for past while, new colorist Vincent Rogers is on board and the comic is re-running the formerly B&W strips with a fresh coat of paint. You can now be officially un-distraught. Then again, Ryan Smith’s other comic, Funny Farm ends in August after nine or so years. I guess that means you can be re-distraught.

I hadn’t heard of Dribble For Kids before, but I’ve recently learned that creator Nick Nitro got robbed of his computer, which included his hi-res artwork for future print use. Thus, two items:

1. Two words: Off. Site. Trust me on this, I’m an IT guy in the day job. If you even think about the possibility of webcomics becoming more than a casual hobby, invest in something removable and then remove it from the vicinity of your originals. Hell, opening a mess of Gmail accounts under fake names and using the almost 7GB in each one works as a quick-and-dirty solution.
2. If the thought of off-site backups never occurred to you before today, you owe Nick like $5 for saving your ass in the event of future loss. Coincidentally, he’s got a sketch-art drive running now: $5 towards replacing the compy gets you art suitable for any application from the finest of museums to the door of the neighbor’s fridge.

Thing One:

Thing Two:

2008-06-30 12:33:08
Platinum Studios, Inc. (OTCBB:PDOS), an entertainment company that controls an international library of more than 5,600 comic book characters which it adapts, produces and licenses for all forms of media, today announced that it is in negotiations to acquire WOWIO, LLC, a leading online source for downloading digital books and comics.

I guess now we know why Platinum didn’t have enough money to pay its creators on time. If anybody with a WOWIO deal is willing to share their opinions on getting into bed with Platinum (or the quality of the “retooled” content agreements) , we at Fleen would love to talk with you (anonymously, if you like). Even if you don’t want to say howdy, we at Fleen would like to remind all WOWIO contractees to please check the rights clauses, especially if you are asked to sign something new.

Hey, weekend! And tomorrow afternoon I get to attend a summer cocktail mixin’ class and have a kick-ass dinner with friends! Hope your day is going as well as mine. Now, the news.

• Nothing Better is going on Summer Vacation — today sees the last page of Volume 2 posted (which means that the print version can take up residence on my shelf next to Volume 1 before too long, yay). Then it’s semester break as the strip posts guest comics every Tuesday/Friday until school’s back in on September 2nd. The fact that creator Tyler Page has a new bundle o’ fun (and biological needs) to occupy his hours is merely a bonus for him.
• Space Pirates are all the rage: Joshua Jericho has started a second comic, BlueStar Blues, about an unlucky loser who gets forced into being a Space Pirate. I hope he gets to say “ARR” a lot. Anyway, JJ decided to release the first 12 strips on day one, so you get a good taste of the story all at once.
• Contest! Von Allan is giving away a framed print to the lucky read of the road to god knows… for merely guessing what Marie’s middle name is.
• And to wrap us up, Gordon McAlpin will be in perma-celebration mode as Multiplex hit strip #250 yesterday, and will be hitting 3 years on July 10. That’s … two weeks worth of excuse-to-be-drunk. Well done, Gord!

Only print pays. — Ted Rall, SPLAT! Symposium, 15 March 2008

You may have noticed some sidebar text at Diesel Sweeties last night:

As of mid-August, DS is ending its run in newspapers and going back to being web-only! Why? Because I’m an optimist, I opted out.

You may recall the coverage this page gave to Rich Stevens and his syndication deal a year and a half ago. Now he’s decided that the newspaper isn’t the place for him, which is odd. We’ve been told that for a cartoonist, syndication is the end goal, but in the past two years, we’ve seen two traditional, all-ages strips leave semi-syndication and now Stevens is leaving the full-bore deal. We at Fleen decided to talk to him about it.

(more…)

One regret from my time travelling in Japan is that I didn’t get to visit Funajima, where a famous duel took place. No worries now, as Kate Beaton transports me back to a time of dudes and swords.

In news that is no less historical hysterical, POOP SIGNS! I have fond memories of Jon Rosenberg’s toddler daughter looking upon a stack of POOP signs and wondering … Should I? In any event, check out the POOP sign video and consider the fact that the weird guy with the Tintin hair is allowed to own power tools.

The only thing about Rick Marshall‘s interviews with webcomickers I don’t like is that they don’t come on the same day of the week. There were on Thursdays for a while there, but this week he released early, which means if I didn’t trawl regularly looking for this stuff, I might have missed it for a whole 24 hours! Anwyay, he’s talking with the Harvey-nominated creators of EZ Street, Mark Wheatley & Robert Tinnell.

Finally, Fleen congatulates Box Brown on Bellen! joining the lineup at Transplant Comics — those guys are growing by leaps and bounds, and Brown’s been on a tear recently (new print collection, excellent contribution to the Star Wars-themed Harvest Is When I Need You The Most anthology that was the hit of MoCCA). I’ve rarely seen a webcomic pick up so much popular momentum so quickly; right now, Bellen! is the odds-on favorite for Breakout of the Year. Thanks to Joseph Hewitt for the heads-up.

Confidential to Artistic in the Oilfields: I will pay American cash money for the original of that strip if you’re selling. Or, if you require a hard currency, I can also obtain Canadian funds.

A few weeks ago, this page wrote:

[DJ Coffman] was a very public supporter of Platinum when there was a lot of grief thrown their way about having never actually published a comic book; even in his posting announcing the hiatus [of Hero By Night], he was unfailingly gracious and thankful towards them.

It appears that Coffman’s graciousness was misplaced:

I had emailed the folks at Platinum to inquire if there had been any movement about the rights issue so that I could possibly get moving and publishing at least the webcomic on my own before the audience that we built for 2 years completely dropped off. I pretty much got this form letter sounding reply that included this statement:

…Please be advised that due to the controversy stirred up as a result of your recent blogging and interviews, all discussions between us regarding any potential licensing back to you of limited rights to Hero By Night are on hold. At this time, we cannot say when those discussions might be resurrected. – Brian Altounian

According to their contracts, Platinum are within their rights to do as they are doing. From a PR standpoint, it’s a disaster. There’s really no way to perceive this one without coming to an obvious conclusion that Platinum are being vindictive. Eric Burns (as he was then) had some enlightening things to say about this pattern of behavior a while back (although he the esteemed Mr Snark-White was referring to fictional characters), and I encourage you to study his examples.

In the meantime, it bears repeating: if rights reversions are not in your contract, they don’t exist. DJ’s taking a really painful hit to teach us all this lesson, and the least we can do is to pay attention and learn. Oh, and Platinum? That four bucks I promised for new HBN was to DJ, not you guys. You get nothing from me, ever.

In other news, if anybody at Wowio would care to expand on the following, we’d be grateful:

We are retooling the site and content agreements … The changes and updates will take a few weeks, but we will be back online in mid-July. [emphasis mine]

We at Fleen know a lot of webcomickers deriving (in a few cases, considerable) income from Wowio, and we are hoping that “retooling content agreements” isn’t PR-speak for “drop the payment rate through the floor”. But we at Fleen have read enough corporate announcements to recognize boilerplate, and this sounds an awful lot like either a) finanical reorganization, or b) merger/buyout. Anybody with solid information they’d care to share can contact us.

Ah, love, or at least physical approximations thereunto. Over here, you got a 500 stripaversary from Girls With Slingshots as Hazel makes a bad decision. Strip 501 is never quite a much fun as the one before, is it? And over here, we find webcomicker love blossoming as (scroll down) Ian McConville proposes … mawwiage. We at Fleen congratulate the happy couple.

But all of that is naught — naught, I say! — compared to The Great Halfpixel Intern Fight of Aught-Eight. It started when Dave “Sheldon” Kellett got hisself an official college intern named Stephanie and encouraged her to say hi. Kris “Starslip Crisis” Straub’s better half, Erica, intern, Magnolia Porter, decided that she’s one-up on newcomer Stephanie in the dream-following department. Naturally, Scott “PvP” Kurtz also has an intern in the form of his sister-in-law, Ashely, who ain’t having any of this smiles-and-lollipops nonsense. One might have hoped for a bit of sanity from Brad “Evil, Inc.” Guigar. Nope. Although I think I need to get Brad

1. a sign (in 16 inch letters) that says STUDMUFFIN;
2. the number of a good divorce attorney

Hey Brad? Your wife may not read your strip, but I have it on good authority that she does read this page, so maybe you shouldn’t have sent that note about your intern’s “pouty little face” (I swear that’s a direct quote). Just sayin’.

Maybe late postings next week, depends on net access. In the meantime, please to enjoy the philantropic stylings of Haley Joel Osment.

And that’s just about everything happening; half of webcomicdom is at HeroesCon this weekend, and the other half is laying low right now. A few stragglers are gonna be drinking in San Francisco tonight, and everybody but me is out enjoying the sunshine right now.

Rhymes With Witch goes multimedia. I’m still giggling.

Rich Stevens and Meredith Gran have been sighted in the vicinity of Google’s main campus. Googlians that see the pair are urged not to attempt to apprehend them, but instead to lure them with energy drinks into a conference room and attend their lecture on being awesome on the internet tomorrow. Presumably, video will be available here sometime after the event.

Thursday is the new Friday: “Rick” Marshall Willenholly turns in his latest webcomic interview, this time with Jon Rosenberg.

Word has arrived that Hyena Comics has added Calamities of Nature to its lineup. Congratulations to all involved, and thanks to the parents who worked so hard making the costumes.

Confidential to Eric and Wednesday: Congratulations on your forbidden love becoming legit. To paraphrase Zoidberg, no one could be happier unless it was also Valentine’s Day. Hooray!