When you meet a webcomicker at a con, there’s always some degree of pitch involved. Sometimes it’s smooth banter, designed to garner your attention and get you involved in conversation. Sometimes it’s a degree of surprise and gratitude for your trouble at dropping by in the first place. And sometimes, you’re caught in a metaphorical headlock of enthusiasm.

Case in point: Corey Marie Parkhill, is a compact force of nature in a hoodie. Before you know it, your hands are full of literature, your head is spinning as rapidly as all the projects she’s got in play, you’re converted into a committed reader, and you have the vague feeling that, somehow, you owe the Mob a favor. Seriously, webcomics scientists need to find a way to extract the purified essence of this woman and bottle it, and the obscurity issues of the medium would be gone forever.

So what is Parkhill (along with husband Tod, who possesses some truly amazing muttonchops, which could well displace me in the webcomics facial hair meme struggle, but I digress) cookin’ up over at Young American Comics? In addition to the webcomics, you’ve got the various open-invite anthology books (this year’s theme: What’s In The Box?), group projects (Lost Lunches and Crash! Bang! Boom!, submissions open until 1 October), and today we see the launch of the previously-mentioned 52 Comic Challenges — once a week for the next 52 weeks, artists and writers will be invited to meet specific challenges in a collaborative, feedback-rich environment.

Not quite ready to launch, but maybe most interesting from a webcomics perspective: Yesterdave, which is going to be a Choose Your Own Adventure-style comic; Dave’s a time traveller, and as readers vote the story will change. I’m not aware of a medium other than webcomics that could tackle this sort of thing. As much as Brad Guigar may claim (with respect to his Blank Label comrades), The world will be dominated shortly, I think at this point I’d have to give odds to a tiny woman from Richmond.

In other news:

• Shishio writes to let us know of a Talkcast by Something Awful goons/webcomics creators.
• For the moment, at least, Girl Genius and Octopus Pie have mitigated their bandwidth issues (related to being too popular because they’re awesome) … but for how long?
• Latest to take a whack at micropayments: Amazon. Perhaps a key difference from previous attempts — if I’m reading this correctly, Amazon’s offering a code solution instead of creating a company around a service to be provided. More on this when people who are better at programming than me have time to pick it apart.

By the time you read this, Ryan Estrada will be five days into his current big adventure. As you may recall, Estrada announced plans to start a comics commune in Mexico about two months back, and when I met him on the last day of San Diego, those plans were coming to fruition.

“I got turned down for a visa”, he told me, “so tomorrow I’m going to walk across the border as a tourist, which gives me 60 days to figure something out. I’ve heard it’s easier to change your status if you’re already in the country.” Monday morning, he and fellow artist John Campbell did just that, and if you’ve been following his LiveJournal, you know they’ve made it from Tijuana to Chihuahua (I can still never type that word without hearing the pronunciation of Les Nessman).

Estrada’s serious about the art — in addition to posting via WiFi, he’s carrying a portable studio that he built into an oversized piece of luggage, all Q Branch-style. He described lovingly the custom foam cutouts in the case for his laptop and other gear, and was somewhat wistful that he couldn’t go all the way and make the case sleek, brushed aluminum. Given the possibility of theft and having his experiment come crashing down, it’s a rather ordinary piece of luggage.

And he’ll need those supplies, since he has plans to conduct business from wherever he ends up. On 30 August, look for the launch of his custom comics business. And not just any custom comics: a fixed price will get you a custom 24 hour comic, straight from the heart of Mexico.

And because this is Ryan Estrada we’re talking about, there’s never just one piece of amazing news at a time. Starting tomorrow, CNN Headline News will be running Ryan Estrada Expeditions episodes as part of their weekend News To Me program. Tune in and let Mr Estrada know that we all hope he doesn’t get shot up by banditos (riding raptors or otherwise).

Nothing to do with Estrada, but it’s timely (thanks to alert reader Brian for the heads-up) … Warren Ellis is doing a webcomic:

Autumn 2007. On the web. Weekly. Free. freakangels.com.

Curiously, no comments as of this writing. With good reason, it appears.

Weekend Happening Alert! Sam Brown, and Andy Bell (capital fellows, both) have a gallery show called Progress running through October, but if memory serves the openings of these things usually feature BEER. So if you’re in Burbank this Sunday Saturday, check out the awesome.

In other news:

• This is why I subscribe: Achewood interview in Wednesday’s print edition of The Onion. Pity I’ll be away from home when it arrives.
• Woulda missed it if not for Dirk Deppey: Steve Bennett on Webcomics as Harbinger of The Future. Interesting stuff.
• Hey! Another Chris Baldwin interview! It’s almost like the guy is super-talented or something.
• And an interesting themed sketchbook from SDCC: Santos Gaitan at Paperninja.net with sketches on the theme of grass (heads-up courtesy of Jason “Phatcat” Castillo).
• And finally, to all those Questionable Content fans who were horribly offended by Randy Milholland‘s brilliant guest strip, you probably ought not check out today’s even funnier offering from Chris Hastings and Carly Monardo. In fact, if you’re offended by these strips, you really ought to consider one last quote from last week at Comic-con:

Jeph Jacques, on people about to be offended by these strips — I wouldn’t run ’em if I didn’t think they were hilarious. I love it when [guest artists] abuse my characters.

Slowly getting back into the swing of things; some interesting comments on webcomics sessions, but if you want to be in the running for the contest prize, be sure to send your suggestions as an email.

• I tried to keep it quiet so that you would not find your lives filled with despair, dear readers, but Kris Straub has revealed the horrible secret: webcomics were wiped out last week in San Diego.
• Curiously enough, Jeff Rowland has also perfectly captured the full con in six panels, albeit without any crashing spaceships.
• How’d I miss this? Guess that’s what I get for not reading the Civ forums any more.
• Good news today from Randy Milholland: Midnight Macabre is returning from its hiatus. I really enjoyed reading his take on artistic struggles and can’t wait to see how it grows when it returns in two weeks or so.
• And you knew it was just a matter of time: get your inner Jennie on.

Check out that swag, huh? Not a bad haul. For the record, this year’s pile consists of:

• Books from Scary Go Round, Wapsi Square, Sheldon, Starslip Crisis, Dr McNinja, Exploding Dog, The Devil’s Panties, the Flight crew, and Girl Genius
• Samplers from Zach Weiner, Lars Brown, Jeff Smith, and Ryan Sohmer & Lar DeSouza
• A new deck of cards
• Gorgeous auction art
• Zudanotes from the Zudaparty about the Zudacomics deal
• New issues of Queen and Country, Elephantmen, and Amelia Rules (the last half-dozen pages of Amelia are emotionally devastating, it’s available for download, and you should do so right now then go buy it)
• A Making Comics t-shirt, size XL

That last item is a bit significant, as anybody who’s ever met me will tell you (apart from the obligatory moustache comment) that I’m not an XL-size guy. So it’s time for a Fleen contest, and that shirt can be yours. Here’s the deal:

If you read last year’s coverage, there were a lot of webcomics-themed panels. Some were what you might call personality driven (PA, Dumbrella, Blank Label Q&A sessions), some were about making webcomics. This year featured far fewer webcomic-centered panels and apart from the very valuable Khoo & Kurtz Show, they were pretty much of the personality variety. So I’m soliciting suggestions from you, the webcomic-lovin’ public, for what you think would be the best topic for a webcomics panel for next year. Can’t promise that it’ll get on the schedule, but let’s see what we can come up with.

Best idea in my email (that would be gary, who finds himself somehow in charge of a blog called fleen, which is not really a commercial enterprise) by midnight EDT on 15 August 2007 will win this shirt. Judges decisions are final, void where prohibited (sorry, Tennessee!).

Space prohibits a full listing of everybody I had a blast meeting or reacquainting myself with, so let’s just say that Jennie still has the kick-assest boots in webcomics, Josh is the guy you want passing you a plate of fettucine, Spike is cool in more ways than can be counted, Lewis is a hell of an info source, and Shaenon probably thinks I’m an idiot on account of how brain-fried I was when I introduced myself. Big thanks to the lovely lads of Dumbrella for giving me a home base during the week, and my deepest apologies to those hardy souls who insisted that I defile their sketchbooks with my non-existent artistic talent.

Okay, got one of those work-intensive travel weeks coming up, so expect lots of book reviews and other things I can write in advance. And remember: just 360 days ’til Preview Night 2008.

Checklist of things to do:

• Run down purchase list and decide exactly how badly the budget was blown (hint: me + Jeff Smith + CBLDF auction = expensive proposition)
• Organize photos
• Follow up story points with Gav, Khoo, and others
• Thank publicly those that took the time to talk to me, helped me out, and suchlike
• Catch up on webcomics; I pretty much haven’t read any in a week
• Sleep

Last quotes of interest from the Con:

• Winter McCloud, on being told the crowd of people coming in late to the “My Dad Is A Cartoonist” panel were actually there 20 minutes early for the Fables panel — [deadpan] Never heard of it.
• Terry Moore, on nothing to do with webcomics, but man it was hilarious — HULK LIKE DRINK!!

Final thoughts, since there are no more panel announcements: It has been scientifically determined by me that Scott and Angela Kurtz are the most adorable couple on the planet. In all the craziness and stress of that noisy, nerdtastic slog, they found the time to be completely absorbed in the fact that they’re crazy about each other. I’d say that I wish I had a picture to share, but it felt too much like intruding.

Okay, you know what? It’s Sunday morning, I’ve been runnin’ on too much caffeine, marginal food (although last night’s webcomics gang dinner, organized by Jeff Rowland, was excellent and fun) and not enough sleep for days now, and yesterday was hectic. We’re making this one quick.

The Eisner on Friday night for Best Digital Comic went to Steve Purcell for Sam & Max, which is frankly a disappointing choice; Purcell himself seems to have recognized that there were problems with his win. In the face of nominees that were producing top-notch work thoughout the year, the voters went with a feature that had eight updates in 2006 on a random schedule that ranged from weekly to bimonthly. This is not an argument of quantity over quality, but it does beg the question exactly how little material one can produce and still be a viable candidate for best anything of the year (especially a year with Minus in the running). On the plus side, Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese was named Best Graphic Album — New, so we’ll say it’s even.

The Penny Arcade panel went as expected, though slightly short due to the previous session having run long. Disturbingly, When Krahulik and Holkins entered, they placed themselves at opposite ends of the table; rumors abound of vicious fights, separate limos, and a gun battle between rival entourages that left a local strip-club patron slightly wounded. Nevertheless, it was a funny, fast-paced Q&A session that all in attendance enjoyed. Speaking for webcomics hack journalists everywhere, funny, quotable guys like Mike and Jerry are a godsend on mornings like this one.

On the floor, keep an eye out for David Malki !, who is making a video documentary on the topic, Which is better, me or Comic-con? Much like superstar John Travolta, Malki ! is a licensed pilot, and if you ask him really nicely, he’ll give you a ride in his private jet.

• Steve Purcell, on winning an Eisner for Best Digital Comics — I’m learning a lot about webcomics. For example, your audience really appreciates it when you update regularly.
• Anonymous webcomic creator, on Steve Purcell — He won, webcomics lost.
• Andy Bell, on who you meet at this show — It’s good when animation directors for Dreamworks come up to tell you they start they day with your website.
• Jerry Holkins, on hearing “PvP” mentioned in the Penny Arcade session — [hissing noise] Breeders, destroy!
• Mike Krahulik, on being asked if Penny Arcade has any plans to produce tabletop-style games — A Fruit Fucker clicky would be pretty cool.
• Holkins, on the mass of non-comics media at Comic-con — I’m trying to figure out what kind of goddamn convention this is.
• Holkins, on whether fatherhood has dulled their risk-taking — When you see Monday’s comic, let me know if we’ve lost our edge.
• Krahulik, pulling out his Nintendo DS and creating some Pokemon — [to Holkins] I want you to tell your story.
• David Malki !, on what it’s like crushing the hopes and dreams of more than 600 people — Oh God, gives me a chubby.

Sunday Session Wishlist

Not much that’s explicitly webcomics-oriented today (have to see what we can do about that for next year), but the session at 1:00 in Room 8 with the children of comics creators looks fun.

Brief post today because it’s Saturday and exactly how much do you people want from me? Also because I’m still mulling over a lot of what I heard and saw yesterday and they’ll have to get a fuller treatment later. With that in mind, let’s get started.

The Business of Webcomics panel was different than any other I’ve seen at Comic-Con so far; Robert Khoo and Scott Kurtz set out with a goal of creating a viable, monetized property live on stage with the help of a whiteboard and a wireless microphone. While Kurtz called for suggestions from the audience and scribbled notes, Khoo wrote his ideas on the other side of the board.

First up — deciding on a setting. Kurtz is of the general opinion that webcomics are like sitcoms: the setting gives you flavor, but it’s the characters that drive things. That is, WKRP in Cincinnati isn’t really about a radio station, The Office isn’t really about the paper business … you get the idea. Suggestions flew fast and furious; in some cases they were already done (movie theatre!) and in some cases too tricky to implement (deep sea trench!). Ultimately, Khoo pushed for a setting he thought would be a challenge: A CASINO.

While Khoo started thinking up issues of market segments, audiences, and industry pluses and minuses, Kurtz and the crowd started spitballing potential characters — the pit boss, the horrible Elvis impersonator who’s really Elvis, the bouncer, the guards and cocktail waitresses. Given the better potential for conflict (which would drive character design), Kurtz decided this was a crappy casino where the house manages to give away its advantage.

Meantime, Khoo’s working up his limitations. He wants to partner with representatives of the industry and they’ve got deep pockets, but they’ve also got a small number of potential partners/advertisers, and a built-in limitation of appealing to an adult audience: you can’t push to kids with the natural tie-in products. There’s also the thought that while a lot of people may think about gambling for a week when they’re on vacation, there’s not many people that make it a continuous part of their lives — and their lives aren’t necessarily in great shape.

Character design isn’t going to be really possible to describe here, but we can summarize Kurtz’s thoughts in two words: Bert and Ernie. Strongly visually contrasting characters work well together, as much as strongly contrasting personalities. It’s such a complex topic, in fact, that you really ought to wait until January, when Image will be publishing a book on this very topic and more (think of it as a how-to guide to webcomics) by Kurtz and Kris Straub.

Similarly, Bill Barnes‘s question on how the setting/design is to the business end was revealing. Khoo emphatically denied that he would try to influence things in any way at all. If Kurtz wants to use the strip (as he mentioned) to do commentary on the people who line up to cash their paychecks in chips, then Khoo’s got to find a way to work with that when pitching to that self-same casino for partnerships and advertising. Whatever the artistic direction of the strip, whatever the social responsibility issues, it’s up to the business guy to make it work without changing the strip.

At this point, the session went to straight Q&A; as I mentioned before, there’s going to have to be a fuller discussion of these issues, and look for that in the coming week.

The other session of note yesterday wasn’t a session — it was a party thrown by Zudacomics to introduce themselves. I have written of my skepticism regarding DC’s initiative, but let me say that the snacks were tasty, the open bar was top quality, and Ron Perazza (director of creative services) was honest with his answers. I’m still working up my thoughts on this one, and will talk about it as soon as I have the time to do it justice.

Finally, the Eisners were last night, and from the Dumbrella booth you can easily see both Phil Foglio and Brad Guigar, who were nominated for Best Digital Comic. Last time I spoke to them (Guigar before the ceremony, Foglio possibly after), neither knew if they had won or not. If you’re around, drop by and give each of them a hearty handshake/manly shoulderclap of congratulations, or a tender hug of condolence. Today’s sessions of note below the cut.

• Dave Kellett, on his favorite cookie — I Hoovered those things down.
• Robert Khoo, on collectives — This is not a knock on anybody, I think those guys are great, but I don’t think there is any collective right now doing it right.
• Scott McCloud, on me — Do you know there are no photos of you on the internet?
• Ivy McCloud, on driving distances — We got an oil-and-filter change at least six or seven times, and that was every 7000 miles.
• Sky McCloud, on forgetting an important story detail during the big slide show — Oh, frak.
• Ron Perazza, on which population Zudacomics is going to be drawing its audience from — We don’t know yet.
• Phil Foglio, on awards — We put a sign on the booth last year that said Eisner Award loser!

(more…)

Thursday has been conquered, but this morning brings news of new challenges at SDCC: word on the proverbial street is that in addition to Saturday being sold out (as was known), today also has no room at the inn. If we don’t live another day, tell my wife I love her.

Unfortunately, many of the sessions of webcomicky interest overlap or are back-to-back, limiting the ability of we at Fleen to attend even a simple majority, but we got to two yesterday. First up, the Scott [Kurtz] and Kris [Straub] Power Hour and a Half™ ran to a room of more than 300 people, with an unexpected bonus. Loitering outside the room waiting to go in, Kurtz and Straub were surprised to find Dino Andrade (voice actor of distinction, and portrayer of Skull the Troll) the head of the line. Andrade quickly found himself promoted from “first in line” to “on the panel”. Rounding things out were Ryan Sohmer of Least I Could Do and Blind Ferret, and two pairs of Aviators.

There’s an easy, funny give-and-take between Straub and Kurtz (the same one you find on their podcasts), and it was in full force as the conversating ranged across:

• PvP: The Series (Sohmer appears to have wondered seriously what he was getting into following his initial face-to-face meeting in Texas)
• the possibility of Starslip Crisis: The Series
• secrets of voice acting and getting into character
• whether or not drawing a Big-Two comic book would be something they’d like to do
• extras for PVP: The Series season one DVD (Skull fights Nazis on the moon!)

Two big announcements rounded out the panel — from Sohmer, Looking For Group fans found a reason to go all gooey in the middle as he unveiled the teaser trailer for the 2008 LFG featuring-length film; it’ll drop on World of Warcraft sites for download in a couple of weeks, and with any luck, it’ll evade the scrutiny of Disney lawyers, because hoo-boy! I forget if it’s Alan Mencken or Howard Ashman that died, but whichever one it is, he’s rolling in his grave right now.

And from Kurtz & Straub, the news that PvP: The Series will be coming to XBox Live Marketplace, no longer requiring that you put down your controller in order to enjoy the antics, frolic, and cavortment.

Scarcely an hour after Aviators on Parade, the lovely lads of Dumbrella hit the stage, possibly the first time that all seven were on a panel at the same time. As is their wont, they went straight to the Q&A from the audience of about 250, where the topics ranged across:

• books each of the creators most enjoyed as a child (consensus: books about UFOs and Bigfoots)
• gender roles in webcomics and why aren’t there any women up there?
• building audiences and setting achievable goals
• getting on and/or feuding with other creators

It were a funny, touching, moving, brisk-paced hour of all the best that Broadway has to offer, and I highly recommend that everybody get at least matinee tickets to see the Dumbrella panel when it goes on national tour.

In final notes, I met a fascinating young man from Idaho named Lars Brown, who does a webcomic, provided a recent Octopus Pie guest strip, and who may have a very interesting announcement to make following the Oni Press panel (Saturday 1:30 — 2:30). Speaking of panels, those potentially full of webcomicky goodness are below the cut. And now, semi-decontextualized quotes!

• Howard Tayler, on you really had to be there — This is my crotch story. (Mr Tayler would very much like you to know that the my refers to the fact that it is a story he tells, and not a story about his own personal crotch.)
• Ryan Sohmer, on whether or not Starslip Crisis might be animated — If he [Straub] starts drawing it in color, yes.
• Jennie Breeden, on why she’s the most fan-accessible creator in history — I am welded to this booth.
• Scott Kurtz, on what Marvel/DC character he’d most want to do — 1970s, big-hair, Abba-era Dazzler.
• Jon Rosenberg, on childhood literacy — I’m a Jew, so I was only allowed economics textbooks.
• Rich Stevens, on typical comic book content — Hulk‘s not a male empowerment fantasy!
• John Allison, wistfully, on same — No, he’s just a guy getting by one day at a time.
• Sam Brown, on how to tell that you’ve achieved all your goals — I really don’t have any goals.
• Jeff Rowland, on why there aren’t any women in Dumbrella — Women are more rational [than us].
• Rich Stevens, on how fighting on the internet isn’t the same as hating people — If you can hate Tycho [in person], you’re a jihadist.
• Eisner Award nominee Brad Guigar, on why he is a deeply flawed person — Fleen is a major part of how I communicate with my wife.

(more…)

Preview Night has come and gone at San Diego Comic Con 2007, and things are due to begin in earnest in a few hours. Sessions to keep an eye out for today are below the cut, and any that don’t get the full treatment here can probably be found in some form at Wizard‘s site, as online editor Rick Marshall and I are comparing notes every chance we get. As was the case last year, webcam shots are being provided as a service of Dumbrella Hosting.

While the show is still building to a frenzy, there were some conversations Wednesday that nicely summed up the mood. Enjoy.

• Howard Tayler, on potential profits if he sells everything he brought with him — My wife pointed out that I made twice that in seven days sitting at home [on the Schlock Mercenary coloring book].
• David Willis, on whether the quoted price on his website for “licks” was to lick him or be licked by him — I haven’t decided yet.
• Jonathon Green and Laurel Hamilton, on finding themselves between the Dumbrella and Girl Genius booths — This is the area we will visit to renew ourselves. Webcomics are what get us through the day.
• Jennie Breeden, on getting through English Customs — That comic? It was verbatim.
• Brad Guigar, on pretty much everything — I have to be careful what I say because my wife reads Fleen.
• Mike Krahulik, on me telling him that I want to be the one guy each year that doesn’t ask for a sketch of the Fruit Fucker — Thank you.
• David Willis again, on whether or not he’d made up his mind — [points to disclaimer text on the Blank Label merchandise price list] The artist reserves the right to not lick dudes.
• Scott McCloud, on what it’s going to be like to wake up for a week in the same place, once the grand tour finishes — It’s gonna be weird.
• Dave Kellet, on oh hell it was a long story and you had to be there — I will be happy to service your wife.

(more…)