Good news first: webcomics are gettin’ more respect than ever at the Eisners. We’ll start with the most obvious category, Best Digital Comic:

• Bee, in “Motel Art Improvement Service,” by Jason Little, beecomix.com
• Girl Genius, by Phil Foglio [as cited on the Eisners nomination site; should probably read “Phil and Kaja Foglio”], www.girlgeniusonline.com
• Minus, by Ryan Armand, www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus1.html
• Phables, by Brad Guigar, www.phables.com
• Sam and Max, by Steve Purcell, telltalegames.com/community/comics/samandmax/issue-3
• Shooting War, by Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman, www.shootingwar.com

Interesting thing about the Sam & Max nod: you could almost consider the chapter-oriented game (and BONE, also from Telltale and the forthcoming PA game) to be a form of digital (playable) comics themselves. Interestingly, rumor is that the S&M people approached a pair of webcomics writers at SDCC last year to write for the series. They got blown off, but still, interesting.

Other webcomics-related nominations:

• Mom’s Cancer, by Brian Fies (Abrams) for Best Reality-Based Work and Best Graphic Album—Reprint
• American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang (First Second) for Best Graphic Album—New and Lark Pien for Best Coloring
• ¡Journalista!, produced by Dirk Deppey (Fantagraphics)
  for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism;Deppey has had a “digital comics” section from day one of the blog’s revival

Some good stuff here, and it’s worth noting that webcomics (or webcomics-related items) aren’t just getting shovelled off to the side; they’re getting nominated in the regular categories alongside traditional works. And all this in a year that didn’t see a new Flight anthology, so just wait ’til next year to see a bunch more web creator names on the nominations list.

Of course, all that creamy, Wheatony goodness (and I can tell you truly that I never in my life thought I’d type those words) portends ominously for webcomics. Recall our discussion on webcomics and St Elsewhere from last year? Well, consider this (found via the TV Tropes webpage, which has branched into webcomics as well; please note our description there — I’m so proud).

Scared? Hell, that diagram isn’t even complete! Wings will connect you to Duckman, for crying out loud. Now consider:

1. ST:TNG is linked to the St. Elsewhere/Homicide:Life On The Street axis;
2. St. Elsewhere never happened

Conclusion: ST:TNG never happened. QED.

In a similar vein:

1. Overcompensating portrayed the death of the Universe;
2. Contrary to T Campbell’s fears, Jeff Rowland isn’t a real person, so no carryover to our existence;
3. BUT Wil Wheaton is a real person, and has appeared in Overcompensating and multiple other webcomics;
4. Those webcomics are linked to each other in a chain of reference that makes the St.E/H:LOTS axis look simple and untangled

Conclusion: at the very least, Wil Wheaton is imaginary (and from there it looks pretty bad for the rest of humanity). T-Rex’s antisolipsist theory may be true after all? This spells doom for all of webcomics, with the possible exception of Filth Hole.

Which makes it almost a moot point, but Shishio from One Liners writes to inform us of a new collective launching today:

Intravenous Comics launches today.

IV Comics was originally founded in October 2006 by Shishio, Kevin Sanchez, Lando Fitzgerald, Phillip Seals, and Nick Wright. The group has been live since February, but now that everything is finalized to everyone’s liking, the group is making it official.

Current members and their comics are:

Shishio and -U!: One-liners

Phillip Seals and KL Sanchez: Steve and Mac

Nick Wright: Treading Ground

Henshin: Henshin does not have a comic of his own, but he has worked with Shishio on some guest strips for Treading Ground, (He also did a few on his own.) and one for Yirmumah! He also created the Intravenous Comics mascot.

John Keogh, David Rothlein, and Ross Armstrong: Lucid TV

Keryn Everett: Brink

Kate Lin: Institute of Metaphysics

(Lando has since left the group to pursue other venues.)

The Intravenous Comics website also has a sampler page for our readers’ convenience. All the group’s members have selected five or six of their best strips/pages to familiarize new readers with their comics.

I like that last point a lot — the sampler page is a terrific idea, and I’m surprised that every collective doesn’t do it. One question remains, though — as recently as ten minutes ago, Shishio’s (former?) collective, Bomb Shelter, listed him as a member. With the membership status question sitting there, those with knowledge of the situation are encouraged to comment and fill us in. Shishio, asked for comment¹, replied:

Aw, what the hell does it matter? All that work, the sample page, we were gonna get groupies, and now it’s all shot because webcomics don’t exist anymore. Thanks a lot, Wheaton!

Similarly, Sugarskull introduces three new comics this week, so be sure to check out First Kingdom (zombies!), Goldenbird (Jazz Age!) and SPQR Blues (decadent Roman fish-pickle sauce!).

¹ Not really.

Quick notes before the main feature:

• Congrats to Steve Troop, Puppetmaster.
• This was a special kind of brilliant
• At PenguiCon this weekend, please join Randy Milholland, Rob Balder, Eric Millikin, and The Ferrett at the greatest-named webcomics panel ever — How To Offend An Audience.
• Scrabble for nerds. Cute.

Now, to business. We’ve spoken previously about the prevalence of crossovers and cameos in webcomics; mostly it’s individual characters migrating to other strips for a hearty laugh-chuckle. Sometimes it’s cameos of real people.

Sometimes, it’s former teen idol and geekly author Wil Wheaton.

Seriously, is there anybody that gets cameoed as much as Wil? Off the top of my head, you’ve got Goats (both oblique and direct references), Overcompensating, a Rich Stevens sketchblog entry, Questionable Content (textual only), and Dork Tower (maybe a cheat since it was initially created for print). Add in another print comic reference here and one forthcoming here, and you have the beginnings of a movement.

So the question is, what is it about Wheaton that makes him so [web]comickable? Seriously, I’m puzzled here, because crossing Wheaton with webcomics opens up all of reality as we know it to possible extinction. More on that tomorrow.

Table of Malcontents (formerly the blog of some guy with sunglasses and booze) entertains with a story of meeting Todd Goldman in person. Reading this makes me believe that Toddster (not to be confused with The Todd) really could have been the one to send that deranged email. Slightly related: Chris Jeffrey at Cartridge Comics has just wrapped up a five-day bundle of contempt for Goldman. So, open question #1: does mocking Goldman ever get old? Discuss.

Open question #2 comes from Shishio (who, by the bye, is a collective-mate of Jeffrey):

Hey, I’m looking for any research on the ability of comics to improve literacy. If you or anyone on your staff knows of any good papers, studies, etcetera, (I imagine Anne will.) I would be most grateful if you could point me their way.

Damn good question, Shishio. Off the top of my head, there was the story about the New Haven Free Public Library, detailed here. Anybody else know of specific programs? Comment thread is right down thataway.

The Kea is back to webcomics blogging; maybe not forever, but anything he brings to the table is worth a gander; speaking of the Antipodes, Gavin Aung Than wrote to point us towards his comic, Dan and Pete; it appears weekly in The Sunday Times, Perth, Oz, and Gav has put it on the web for all to enjoy. Hats off to the editors of The Sunday Times for not standing in Than’s way — I’m sure it will garner far more readers now that it’s more easily accessible. Thus, open question #3: is everything made better by the presence of Aussies and/or Kiwis? Cite examples and show your work.

Follwing up his brokering of the Diesel Sweeties syndication deal, United Feature Syndicate comcis talent scout/right-wing critical darling Ted Rall has brought Steven Cloud’s Boy on a Stick and Slither. UFS’s web arm, comics.com, lists BOASAS as starting on April 25th; Cloud informs us it will be a web-only syndication deal, similar to that accepted by Chris Baldwin‘s Little Dee last year (perhaps significantly, Cloud will start one week before Baldwin’s contract with UFS ends, which he says will result in either syndication or leaving comics.com).

Key features of the deal:

• It’s for a year, after which UFS can either call BOASAS up to the big leagues (print syndication), or the parties can walk away
• The BOASAS site will run strips after a several-days delay
• Cloud gets to keep control of his archives and merchandise

That last point is probably the most important, and the big one that the syndicates seem to have finally recognized is critical — when readers can go through extensive archives, you can build and keep their loyalties more easily. And when creators can control their financial affairs, more of them will be willing to do business with you.

With the Kelly/Goldman brouhaha into its long waiting stages (and goodness — less than a week since it started … we were just getting full into British Tabloid Mode around here), it’s time to mention a few other things:

Peripherally Related To Kelly/Goldman Item One: As reported here, there were questions raised regarding some designs from t-shirt vendor Dirty Microbe. Christian von Kleist wrote from Dirty Microbe wrote to us:

Hi! This is Christian from Dirty Microbe, and I came up with the pixelated skull design and approved the Cutty one. I saw your post when I was doing a Google search for “dirty microbe” (to check our AdWords ads). I’d be totally happy to address the questions you have in your post! We definitely haven’t stolen any ideas knowingly, and I have a good relationship with two of the comic artists in your post and its comments. So… Shoot me back a line and I’d love to chat about stuff!

Props to von Kleist for being willing to answer questions instead of attacking, and we at Fleen are going to take him up on his offer. If you have questions or concerns about the designs or process at Dirty Microbe, send them to me (come on people, you know the address by now) and I’ll forward them on.

Peripherally Related To Kelly/Goldman Item Two: There were a lot of mentions in various place in the past week (including comment threads here at Fleen) that Kelly should try to involve the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in his quest for righteousness; one person even suggested getting the Fund to back a class-action suit against Goldman. I’ve been a volunteer with the CBLDF and know a number of the decision makers there, and while what I’m about to say is my own conjecture only and doesn’t represent anything official on the part of the Fund, there are a few things people ought to know about the Fund and how it chooses cases. Key words to remember:

1. Comic Book. The Fund has not yet chosen to accept a case outside of the print realm; partly this is practical (the law of the internet is unsettled and international in scope), and partly because there’s not consensus that webcomics are within their remit.
2. Legal Defense. The Fund has come to the defense of creators, but Kelly would have to have been the plaintiff in any case he might have brought.
3. Fund. It’s limited, and frequently taxed by current efforts. Some cases can be addressed relatively simply and in conjunction with other groups, and some requires years of effort and massive amounts of capital. There could be a lot of cases that merit Fund attention that crop up tomorrow, but the ongoing Gordon Lee defense (which to date has cost more than $70,000) is taking up so much time and money that they might not be able to accept. On a related note, because the Fund doesn’t want to have to fight the same case over and over, they tend to pick cases where a binding precedent can be set; that’s not usually the applicable in civil law.

Maybe there needs to be a WCLDF, maybe not. Maybe there needs to be a consensus from webcomics creators that support (monetary and otherwise) be given to the CBLDF in a big way, leading to an incorporation of our unique interests into the Fund’s sphere of influence. But as things stand today, webcomics are mostly on their own.

Peripherally Related To The Last Webcomics Shitfight: The countdown to Wondermark‘s deletion from Wikipedia starts … Now!

Not Peripherally Related To Anything But Awesome On Its Own: You could call this the Tao of Webcomics, courtesy of Rich Stevens.

Promoted from the comments thread so that it’s visible. From Dave Kellett, friend of the oppressed:

Man, I am way late to this party…as I’ve been travelling, and just now heard about this.

But let me make an honest-to-God offer: if someone will mail me the Keenspot comic, I’ll gladly take it over to the LA gallery that’s showing Goldman’s work. I’ll even take along a severely pissed off Kris Straub — two web cartoonists for the price of one!

The printed/dated/copyright work will carry more weight in a gallery owner’s mind than if I were to just print out a webpage. Sadly, I don’t have a copy — hence the request.

If anyone has it, and wants to mail it along, send it to:
Dave Kellett
Sheldon Comics
PO Box 881195
Los Angeles, CA 90009

Some things threatening to get lost in the shuffle, so let’s take a few minutes to send some love in deserving directions:

• Today’s Little Dee (only good for 30 days, it’ll be in Baldwin’s archive eventually Now in Baldwin’s archive!): oh hell, yes. Hey, newspaper editors? This is what you want in lieu of BC cut-and-paste jobs.
• Lauren O’Neal has made a webcomic as a final project for a class. First of all, mad props to whichever professor at Stanford accepts webcomics as final projects. Second, O’Neal would like to apologize for the ugly URL; I wasn’t going to pay to host a final project, you know? No worries, Lauren, but if you create any more webcomics in the future, check out the hosting services.
• Okay nerds, ‘fess up — you’ve been arguing over whether or not female dwarves have beard since you first read LOTR in Junior High School. Answer: yes. Now get to work on the whole Balrogs/wings thing.
• You can never have too many dinosaurs; the tall one looks like a cross between late-Cretaceous hadrosaurs and dragon-man Trogdor. He also quotes The Princess Bride, so that’s all right.
• And from Chris Jones, news that Neil Swaab’s Rehabilitating Mr Wiggles is moving to a new domain by name of mrwiggleslovesyou.com. I’m actually getting an error when using that address, but I’m sure it’ll just take a day or two to propagate the address. Then 400+ strips of psychotic teddy bear love will be all yours.
• Okay, a little Goldman-related: Two Lumps adds their two cents today, and Penny Arcade may be stepping into the ring as well (but we’ll have to wait for Tycho’s post to load to get the full impact).

Helpful correspondent Zoe sent me links for a t-shirt company called Dirty Microbe which advertises on a lot of webcomics sites. She’s wondering if their Cutty the Razor owes anything to Randy Milholland’s Rippy the Razor, or if their pixel pirate shirt resembles that of R Stevens. My opinion? Cutty and the pirate shirt would be tough to prove, but the fact that the Jolly Roger there is composed of pixels when the rest of their line isn’t is somewhat telling.

Since the ire of the webcomics community is now well and up, I’m wondering if we need a clearinghouse for suspected webcomics theft sightings. On the one hand, the word could get around that webcomics creators and their fans won’t stand for theft of their property. On the other hand, it could devolve into mindless bitching over what constitutes parody, fair use, and reworking vs. outright theft. What do y’all think?

Per William G‘s suggestion here (and related suggested in the SA forum thread), there appears to be a desire for setting up a legal attack fund for Dave Kelly to take out Todd Goldman’s kneecaps in a proper fashion.

Anybody know anybody with the expertise to set such a thing up? On behalf of Fleen, I’m pledging $200 (US) to any such fund that Kelly acknowledges.