It seems that Greg Carter was following The Great Web/Print Comics Convocation of Aught-Eight and wondered, “But does this conversation apply to people not doing strip/gag type comics? Are the considerations different for those working in long-form comics?” Answer:

Some of us long-form webcomic folks are starting a discussion that’s NOT about strip comics as the other huge conversation has been. It’s just getting started.

Insert obligatory Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in! joke here. Actually, some good stuff over there at Panel and Pixel, so you may wish to check it out.

Geoffrey Golden wrote to point us towards a review by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame; if you’re not familiar, he does terrific reviews of videogames in animated form, which are insightful, snarky, and pretty much dead-on correct in all regards. Also very, very rude, which makes them even funnier. But GG’s interested in Yahtzee’s take on something else:

Did you see this blog post by Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame? [dated 23 March 2008, no permalink]. He dissects and digs at Control Alt Delete pretty harshly.

Now if this were just another harsh review of a webcomic, I don’t think I’d be running this; there’s plenty of sites that specialize in that. But Yahtzee’s not only harsh, he’s analytical as to why he doesn’t like CAD, and he’s brief. As much as we all get a nice shot of schadenfreude from reading Your Webcomic Is Bad And You Should Feel Bad, I’d like to point future negative review writers to “You CAD” as a model to emulate: there’s a mangeable number of specific reasons the author dislikes the comic, a couple of links, some conclusions, a bit of unnecessary cruelty, and he’s out. Nicely done, and I hope to see Croshaw turning his jaded eye towards webcomics more regularly.

To Fool or Not to Fool? Chris Crosby pointed us all towards an April Fool’s gag that wasn’t, with the announcement that his brother, the loquacious Bobby Crosby, scored a Hollywood deal. Check it:

Benderspink is adapting Last Blood, based on Bobby Crosby’s comicbook centered on a band of vampires protecting the Earth’s last human survivors of a zombie apocalypse.

Last Blood was co-created by siblings Bobby Crosby and Chris Crosby but Bobby penned the comicbook alone.

Benderspink has a variety of comicbook properties set up including “Power and Glory” and “Y: The Last Man” at New Line.

Now before you run out to buy tickets, be aware that the road from option to actual movie is long, twisted, and madness-making (cf: the excellent Fortune and Glory by Brian Bendis for a primer of the non-logic that is Hollywood). But for now, Fleen congratulates Los Bros Crosby on their achievement.

While terms of the deal have not been announced, it looks like Ted Rall’s assertion that There is no chance of any webcartoonist becoming a millionaire is on shakier ground than it was just five days ago.

Okay, let’s see: Mr Buffer claims to have a filler, the wordy trio are playing rotational games, Mr Pixel is drawing by hand, Mr Grumptacular is celebrating 11 years, the Swedish Reprobates have run afoul of the Motion Picture Ass. of America, the Dreamcrusher is also drawing by hand, and Ryan Estrada is nowhere to be seen. Yep, April Fool’s Day.

In serious news, the Guest Strip Project launched today, which ordinarily would not be reason to add it to the blogroll over there, but it’s got a few unique things going for it. For starters, there’s a roster of immense talent associated with it (starting with today’s first strip, courtesy of Christopher Baldwin), and the fact that it’s a limited-run strip. One year, and it’s gone. Keep an eye on the store for special merchandise offers during the next year, all for the benefit of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

And mark your calendars, everybody: May 22, Wigu returns with a hard reboot.

It’s died down here and at The Daily Cartoonist, but there was one last hurrah in The Great Web/Print Convocation of Aught-Eight — an open conference call set up by Scott Kurtz last Friday, leading to Webcomics Weekly #29. From Kurtz:

So I set up a conference call via Talkshoe and invited everyone in last night. I was granted permission from the group to record the session and the resulting two hour debate is this episode of Webcomics Weekly.

A word of warning: This is a 2 hour podcast. I’m not sure of the audio quality because I used Talkshoe’s built in software to record it. At times, everyone is LOUDLY talking over each other. EXPLICIT LANGUAGE WARNING: Some of us curse. Mostly me. Sorry.

I was hoping that more of the print/syndicated cartoonists would show up. But mostly it was us web guys. Ted Rall called in shortly after we started and so did Matt Bors (who does editorial cartoons and is a part of Ted’s Attitude cartoonists). Halfway through our own Brad Guigar shows up and later in the podcast we hear from Rich Stevens and Meredith Gran.

I don’t want to say too much. I’ll let you listen yourself. A lot gets brought up and we don’t really solve any of the world’s cartoonists problems. But I think we make some headway in understanding each other a little better.

I’ve only had time to listen to the first half hour or so, thus far. It’s a bit random at first, as everybody gets used to talking without visual cues (as the veteran of many corporate con-calls, this is a very common thing). I’m reliably informed that the quality of the conversation ramps up once everybody’s figured out how not to talk over each other.

In other news, Spike’s totally awesome Templar, Arizona makes the jump to Keenspot, which means that as of today Reagan is scientifically proved to be 38% sassier.

And finally, a very happy 12th birthday to Help Desk; that is a long damn time, even factoring out “internet years”. May the malevolent boss of Ubersoft give you a break today, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.

Okay, did NOT see that coming. Pudú!

Should have mentioned this earlier, but I missed it: You’re a nerd (don’t deny it), which means that you a) have a deep and abiding love for Terry Pratchett, and b) have heard of his embuggerance. Shaenon Garrity wants you to step up and help reduce future embuggerances:

Through the month of April, I will be selling original daily strips from my comics Narbonic and Skin Horse for the low low price of $25. All proceeds from the sale will go to The Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

Read the rules & conditions at the link above. Speaking of art sales for good causes, check out the bargain of the year over at the Estradadome:

This summer, I’m gonna climb Mount Kilimanjaro. My sister will be there on a research project studying hyenas, so I’m gonna meet up with her, and the two of us are gonna make it to the top, or die trying. But it seems you can’t climb without a registered guide. And one of those is gonna cost us a pretty penny.

If you donate 5 bucks for me to climb Kilimanjaro, I will mail you as much original art as I can fit in an envelope. I have a whole drawer full here…. Flight pages, guest strips, fan art, custom comics…. anything I’ve posted in the last year, chances are it’s here. I’ll try and make sure you get a complete story. If you have any specific requests, I’ll do my best (you can ask if something’s available beforehand if you want it) Keep in mind that most of this is just ink on cheap copy paper, with white out all over it, and I do a lot of finishing digitally. But you send me 5 bucks (if you’re in North America), I’ll send you a stack. You send me ten, I’ll add in some random presents from Mexico (that deal goes for anywhere in the world).

Dresden Codak is sporting a website redesign, with a new sketch-a-day blog. It’s no secret that Aaron Diaz has been challenged by his goal of weekly updates (that’s some damn complex artwork he’s sportin’), so hopefully having small updates will make the wait for new installments go more smoothly.

Finally: another week, another in the nameless series of webcomics interviews from Rick Marshall, this time with the inimitable R Stevens. Enjoy the weekend!

Coming Monday, Paul Southworth brings us a new twist on guest strips in the form of Tales From the Ugly [Hill rejected story] Files; let’s hear what he’s got in store:

There exists a text file on my computer that contains every idea I’ve had for Ugly Hill since it started way back in 2005. Every. Single. Idea. It’s pretty darn big. A lot of those ideas get either forgotten or rejected for one reason or another, and since I’m taking next week off, I thought it might be fun to throw a little twist on the boring old “Guest Week” we’re probably all so tired of.
…
The guest artist [writes] a single strip around [a rejected story] concept, showing what they think would happen in that situation.

All of the slots for next week are filled, and anybody that contacts Southworth now will get relegated to Fan Art; after Southworth’s ALM guest strip, I can’t wait to see if this was enough to tempt Rënë Ëngström to cut short her UK vacation (hint: I’m guessing it wäsn’t).

In other news, Meghan Murphy writes:

The first 100 strips of Kawaii Not (the Comic for Cute Gone Bad) are now available in book from F+W Publications at Amazon and hopefully your local bookstore.

My local bookstore is sort of aggressively anti-cute, but I’ll be sure to mention it to ’em, Meghan.

The book also includes a Kawaii Manifesto, a Kawaii Horoscope, a “How Kawaii are You?” quiz… and two pages of stickers! Hooray!

Man, stickers. Definitely gonna mention it to ’em now.

As of this writing, the great print/webcomics meeting of the minds is now up to 80 comments here at Fleen, followed by 175 at TDC, meaning that just keeping up with progress on the issue has exhausted me but man there’s some good stuff there. For anybody wondering “How do I make money online”, let me refer you to the relevant chapters of HTMW, which right now are the closest thing to a Strunk & White on the topic (if only Guigar & Kellett & Kurtz & Straub weren’t so dratted unwieldy!).

Finally, nothing to do with webcomics (at least not yet), but remember Baryshnikov in White Nights, the panic when he realizes his plane is crashing in the USSR after he’d previously escaped? Well, some of us remember, and that’s exactly how I’m going to feel about flying over Indiana from now on.

You may recall Dawn Douglass from her previous mentions here at Fleen; her social network/syndicate idea is presently launching over at Inkswig, with an initial push towards electoral cartoons.

If you haven’t been following the brouhaha over at The Daily Cartoonist, it looks like a sort of uneasy détente has been reached between the various sides (and all it took was Dave Kellett metaphorically pantsing himself); it’s not quite to the point that the various opiners are gathering ’round the campfire to roast weenies and sing Kumbaya, but one can hope.

Anyway, it seems much of the early (more rancorous, less productive) discussion stemmed from a cultural divide, with editorial/gag cartoonists not having the same terminology as the (more strip-oriented) webcomics mavens. One point that seems to be close to consensus is that the editorial cartoonists are boned in the internet age.

Which may be where Inkswig actually could work; my feedback to Douglass (public and private) is that the world has pretty fundamentally changed with respect to strip ‘toons and the web, but my reading of the (to be fair, pretty minimal at present ) info at Inkswig is that gag cartoons, freelance-type cartoons, and editorial could well be the niche where this model works.

Although I have to say, Dawn — any website that mentions “Web 3.0” is going to immediately elicit chuckles from me, and not the kind you were looking for. But if your “advertise here” tag actually works, I will take it all back and promise to be your best friend. We at Fleen are nothing if not practical and mercenary in our affections.

Speaking of mercenary, Jon Rosenberg has hit a new low in product placement, but dammit, it’s working on me.

Contests! Want fame, acclaim, and the imprimatur of the most Mancunian of all known webcomickers? Then enter the 2008 Scary Go Round Feats of Strength competition. Alternately, if fancy words and skellingtons scare you, try this on for size, from Ben Lehman:

The Game Chef game design contest is a very large annual tabletop RPG design contest, with pretty deep roots in the small press / indepedent RPG design community. This year, for our contest, we’re holding an Artists First! contest. This means that we’re asking artists to draw illustrations for a game that doesn’t exist, then we’re going to ask designers to design those games based on the illustrations.

It’s a good opportunity for small time artists who want to make some business contacts for illustration, and I know that there’s a fair number of those out there in webcomicland.

In other news, I assume everybody’s seen the cover art for the forthcoming Great Outdoor Fight book over at Heidi’s place, right? Gotta say, it’s a little human-focused for my tastes. Perhaps our society is both hetero-normative and anthro-centric, but at least one cat would have been nice.

Finally, our discussion of webcomics and the economics of free is winding down, but it’s just heating up over at The Daily Cartoonist. My favorite part is where Wiley Miller (a cartoonist) tells David Willis (a cartoonist) to make his point “without the snark” (which is the stock-in-trade of … cartoonists). The best points are presently being made by Kris Straub, and it looks like it might not devolve into a vicious cycle of Get off my lawn, whippersnappers! vs. As soon as you stop making buggy whips, Old Guy!, but one can hope.

Okay, so I got this email in my inbox yesterday, from no less a personage than Robert Khoo … it seems that the upcoming New York Comic Con is interested in a webcomics vs. traditional comics panel, with Khoo and Rich Stevens representing webcomics:

NYCC got back to me. We’re all good for a Saturday or Sunday panel with Gary [editor’s note: Yeah, I’m a little shocked they want me, too] moderating. Someone from Tokyopop and another from DC will also be representing I believe. Their suggestion for the name of the panel is, I shit you not:

WEBCOMICS: MENACE OR THREAT?

Guys, I want that to be the title so bad. Anyway, the full NYCC programming schedule will be here in the next few days, and we’ll let you know as soon as time, location, and participants are set.

In other news, ComicMix continues its webcomickers interview series with bizarre man-child Jeff Rowland; it’s about time that Rick Marshall came up with a name for these interviews, since he’s cranking them out every week.

Spotted on the shelves (and at the AV Club): Flight Explorer by the Kazu Kibuishi Crew, and Lars Brown’s North World (been waiting for that ever since Brown introduced himself to me at SDCC last summer). Spotted in my mailbox: Chris Hastings’s Dr McNinja — Surgical Strike. Reviews on all three (and How To Make Webcomics) just as soon as I can plow through ’em.

And better late than never, from Mr T:

This news is a bit old, but I was a bit sick last week. To celebrate the ninth anniversary of Fans on St. Patrick’s Day, we’ve repeated the offer we gave in our very first comic book before going digital: giving readers the opportunity to guest-star in the series. You can see the results in our ninth anniversary installment here.

All together now: Woo.

I guess Bitstrips was a hit at SXSW, and so we’ll likely see a temporary flood of interest in webcomickin’ from people who didn’t care previously. My opinion is that it’s a somewhat more feature-rich version of the late/lamented The Bench (resurrected archive here), only without the Open Source sensibilities. And it appears that even some pro-style webcomickers are putting it to … I was going to say ‘good use’, but that’s not quite right. Anyway, here’s a peek into the mind of David Willis. Be afraid.

Just so you know, Guest Strip Project countdown is at nine days and counting. More info available on the now-live GSP site, including rules (a given artist can only appear on GSP once), cast (it’s cop-a-riffic), and artist list (okay, that one’s still empty, although I’d guess that the links page is probably instructive in this regard). As with several of Michael Rouse-Deane’s previous undertakings, it’s for the benefit of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

So, anybody notice something weird on the cover of How To Make Webcomics? How about here? Looks like Kris Straub‘s been more successful in print than we thought. Curiously, Beamy doesn’t appear in the promo versions of the cover. Sneaky.

That’ll do it for today; if it’s Spring where you are, please enjoy it in the traditional manner, and we’ll see you back here on Monday.