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!

Edited to fix missing link the second item.

Heya. Some good comments coming out of yesterday’s musings on angels; I was particularly glad of Chris Baldwin‘s story of his experience with capital-raising. I hope that with the current credit crunch, such bank loans are still available for deserving creators. Several more items related to webcomics bid’ness today:

• Von Allan wrote an extensive analysis of his readership growth over the first three months of the road to god knows. New strip creators, pay attention.
• Dawn Douglass writes with an appeal; her comic-aggregation venture is looking for VC backing, and she’s looking for input. For the record (and I told her this), I think she’s got a logical flaw in her argument that free “alienates creators from their art” (for views that nicely parallel my own, see Kevin Kelly again: free is a means to an end). But the point is, she’s looking for cartoonists — specifically editorial cartoonists — to take a look at her ideas.

  And now that I’ve typed out the words “editorial cartoonists”, I think that I see the source of the disconnect between her ideas and mine; most cartoonists (and with the arguable exception of maybe Penny Arcade pretty much all webcartoonists) are not editorial cartoonists. They’ve got their own concerns that can contrast deeply with the average (aspiring?) webcomicker.

Announcements!

• Darren J. Gendron writes to let you know that The Expert’s Guide on How to Kill Things That Go Bump in the Night recently wrapped its first major story arc. It started with an army of vampire cheerleaders, took on The Shat, and wrapped with the help of the Dozen Dead Elvises and Dead Monkey Elvis. It that doesn’t get you to read the damn thing, I don’t know what will.
• Quick two-fer from Wes Molebash:

  Boxcar Comics is redesigning its site, launching creator-hosted podcasts, building up the jam comics, and going to be hitting the conventions with vigor previously unknown to western science. And Molebash’s The Litterbox Chronicles has scratched out (see, it’s about cats, so that joke is funny) a number one position on the Zuda hit parade, but needs your love to stay there. Like Tinkerbelle.

• And finally, Rick Marshall informs me that a new interview with Fleen Fave Rene Engstrom is due to go live at ComicMix in about … now-ish. Get clicking.

Since I keep seeing referenced everywhere in the blogodrome, I guess yesterday’s link to the 1000 True Fans piece was worthwhile. It’s gotten me thinking a lot about the economics of independent artistic types. See, I’ve had a particular conversation with multiple webcomickers that roughly runs, “I want to do x, but I have to raise the money for it first.”

Fill in x with whatever — merch, books, animation, print. They’ve got a fanbase, they’ve got an idea that will definitely sell, but to get to that point they need seed money to actually produce x. On the one hand, that’s the beauty of pre-orders — you can gauge demand and raise that money and have an idea of how much you might make on the back-end.

But the downside is that pre-orders take time and effort — both of which prevent the creator from making other stuff, and delay the earliest pre-orderers from getting their stuff while waiting for the Okay, fire up the presses threshold to be passed.

So I’m wondering if what The Webcomics Biz needs isn’t some sort of cross between angel financing and Grameen Bank. Somebody with some bucks to burn fronts the money, takes a cut off sales until repaid with some profit and (this is the important part), runs the proceeds back into a cash pool for the next use. Couple-few iterations of that, the original seed capital’s been repaid, and the pool could be self-sustaining. In a perfect world (Ha! I crack me up sometimes), this could allow creators to work on riskier projects, with longer times to the break-even point.

While theoretically this is the sort of thing that the members of a collective could do, most of them don’t have a formal legal structure set up, being arranged instead around circles of friends. And we all know the old cliche about loaning money to friends. Really, it needs an outside to offer the service to the community at large. Hell, I’m tempted to make a run at it myself, but whatever shaky journalistic ethics we at Fleen have would be sorely strained by having a financial stake in particular webcomics.

Still — is this a totally stupid idea? Or might there be some part of it that could actually work? Let’s get brainstorming, peoples. I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but we very possibly might be able to look in our work and say I dunno, Larry. It’s a wacky idea, but it just might work!

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.

Good news, everybody! There’s a happy resolution to the Jess Fink/Hot Topic saga; from the LiveJournal of El Finkensteino:

I FINALLY got an email from Hot Topic.

The person who wrote me back was the lady who originally bought the shirts from the rip off artist/designer “NewBreedGirl” she had some very nice, apologetic words to say and she told me Hot Topic would like to make amends by removing the shirt from their website, and no longer selling it in their stores.

She said:

“I would like to first and foremost, appologize for this situation. It is very important to us to support artists and their ventures and it just makes my stomach turn when something like this happens. We in NO way would have written this artwork if we had known it was someone else’s design. We work with many vendors that sell us “generic” artwork and we put our faith in those vendors to not sell us stolen or immulated artwork.”

On top of this she offered that they would like to buy some of my designs.

I don’t know if I will in fact do the designs for Hot Topic or not yet, but all I really wanted in the first place was for the shirt to not be sold and so I think I am satisfied with how this all turned out, and that I didn’t have to take it to court.

…

MAINLY I just have to say that my frosty fart-filled heart has been warmed by the response from people about it and I don’t think it would have worked out at all if I didn’t have you guys on my side.

Well done, internet! Now, one more thing for you to do. Remember the phone number I posted a while back for the Hot Topic buyers? Here’s where the second part of corporate customer satisfaction ninjitsu comes in: if you called the number before — and even if you didn’t — I want you to call Hot Topic again and thank them. We complained, they did the right thing, and that should be acknowledged.

Believe me, corporations hear honest appreciations so rarely, this positive reinforcement will be as important — maybe more so — for keeping them from buying suspect designs in the future as all the complaining was. So one more call and you can rest … and y’all done good.

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.

News! Items! Stuff!

• What’s more awesome than Lore Brand Comics? How about Lore Brand Video? Okay, it’s really the video implementation of Lore’s Alt-Text column at Wired, and feels more than a little bit like The Book of Ratings, but I (for one), will take it. And Lore, if you’re reading this, email me.
• Art lovers in LA will want to mark tomorrow on their calendars, as the latest iteration of what tickles Andy Bell‘s id opens at Gallery 1988 (Melrose & La Brea, reception starts at 7:00pm; they usually have booze and snacks at these things). Some day the medication is going to kick in and we won’t get to look at this stuff anymore, so enjoy it while we got it, peoples.
• Wizard may not think that webcomics interviews are a worthwhile game, but fortunately others disagree. ComicMix talks to the Little Gamers guys about the strip and their game. In the immortal words of ComicMix Online Managing Editor Rick Marshall, Rock the f’ on.
• On the Zudafront, admitted webcomicker Wes Molebash created a new strip that has been accepted into the March Zudacontest. The Litterbox Chronicles is about a couple of sassy cats (Stella and Sophie by name) and plays rather less comic-booky than anything else I’ve seen on Zuda. Really, it’s the first contribution over there that I’ve seen (disclaimer: I haven’t been following every contestant every month) that would do well in an all-ages-safe type presentation for DC. If Zuda want to help develop the next generation of comics readers, they’ll need more like this.
• Ever notice that sometimes one of the more important items goes last in these lists? Sort of a and Veronica Hamel as Joyce Davenport kind of thing. Today, the coveted Joyce Davenport slot goes to Superosity, with congratulations for nine years of basic insanity as of this past Saturday. May the brain mites that cause Chris Crosby to produce the wacky never cease their frontal lobe gnawing.

Short on time. Sorry.

• It’s like JD Salinger decided to write a book on how to make a living as a writer:
  

  Coming up in the next weeks: updates on the status of the Great Outdoor Fight hardcover I’m doing with Dark Horse, Achewood Cookbook II, the “how to make a living off web-comics” book I hope to distribute as a PDF soon, and a really kickin’ version of the 1969 GOF announcement poster. (I am trying to at least do one of these from each decade.)

• Passing this along ’cause I’ve got a niece that would dig it:
  

  Heavy Cat Multimedia is proud to present LADYSTAR: THE FURY OF THE VENOM LEGION a brand new color web comic featuring characters from the LadyStar(tm) fantasy adventure book series.

  One thing, guys — shorter titles, please. I know that things are sort of under control now, but if you don’t practice restraint, you’ll find yourself inadvertantly mimicking Stephen Colbert’s Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure, and nobody wants that.

• Pilli Adventure gets animated. It’s got booze!
• Noted in our logs: we got a link from immonen illustrations inc., home of Moving Pictures (which you really should be reading) by Kathryn and Stuart Immonen. Okay, The Bird Flu may write comics wherein people get kicked in the head until they explode, but Stuart Immonen is the guy that got to draw that. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we may have only 2000 regular readers here at Fleen, but they’re the right 2000 readers.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

First of all, Andrew Farago’s been neatly bridging the gap (in The Chronicles of William Bazillion) between weekly updates make me wish there was more and daily updates sometimes spread creators too thin by providing several pages once a week. For a serial-type comic, having more to look at makes the story more engaging.

His sense of ridiculousness has been hurting my brain by deliciously demented turns at least since the umlaut-happy mjonks showed up (at Svalbard, in a timely reference), but especially since Nixon was introduced. When the list of clones led to a familiar TV show, then a snippet of song (and then another), I knew I was seeing something unparalleled in modern science. But when a busy week resulted in not a simple “Sorry I have to skip this update” and instead provided a five-part I CAN HAS NIKSON lolthing, I can only use the word “genius”. Best. Filler. EVAR.

In other news, it appears that Keenspot will have a little less blue after today.

And lastly, it has been remarked on this page previously, I loves me some Digger; what has not been remarked on this page previously is how much I love primitive cave–style art. I mean, my favorite iteration of the Olympics was Lillehammer, because all the signage was done in cave-painting style (example here, on the slalom marker). Okay, also because of Dave’s Mom, but mostly the signage. In any event, Ursula Vernon is making me very happy just now.

Nothing new on the Jess Fink front today, which is a shame because I’m short on time and need something to fill this space. So I’m going to point those of you who haven’t been reading them to Eric Burns‘s systematic commentary on everything in his webcomic trawl lists. It’s a monumental undertaking because he’s not doing 600 word reviews like I do, he’s going full-gusto and rolling dice to see which one he does next. That’s some high-quality nerdery right there.

Now the “What I read” list that Burns is dissecting brings up an interesting thought — Mr Snark has 65 webcomics on his list, I’ve got a similar amount, I figure another 65 or so new webcomics get added to the net every day (of which, maybe a few update for more that a week), all of which means there’s no way a human being can keep up with all the new webcomics that are popping up (or, sadly, even all of the new good webcomics, a much smaller number). I’ll give a quick look at just about anything that’s thrown my way, but to sit down and make an effort to read? That link has to come from somebody whose judgement I trust. There’s just not enough hours in the day otherwise.

Which, to come back to Eric’s Essay-o-Rama, is why he’s doing us a solid. We know of a half-dozen of the items on his list (which range from meh to ZOMG!!!! on his personal enthusiasm list), and by seeing how his likes/dislikes map to mine, I can apply the necessary amount of salt to any recommendations he makes in the future. In that spirit, I’m listing out some of the strips that I’ve been recently pointed towards that I’ve found good enough to prompt repeat visits. I can’t say how long any of them will hold me, and I’m not going to lay out my reasons for liking them — just consider that if you like any of the stuff I’ve reviewed positively in the past, you’ll probably like these.

• The Fart Party
• Nobody Scores
• Tip Me Over Pour Me Out
• Rachel The Great (who, as it turns out, could use your help)

Enjoy.