Got an email detailing an interesting new role for webcomics — museum outreach. On the Lower East Side of Manhattan one will find tenements — block after block of sometimes improvised housing that served the vast waves of immigration since the days of the Civil War. It’s where you will find the Tenement Museum, which seeks to document and inform on the immigrant experience. And now they have a webcomic.

For Real is a webcomic documentary about the lives of three modern-day teens, their lives, their families, and their ambitions. It’s sort of a journal, sort of a biography, sort of an interview, sort of a Studs Terkel book, but what it reminds me of most is David Isay’s StoryCorps oral history project in pictures instead of audio (appropriately, one of the original StoryCorps StoryBooths is located in Lower Manhattan).

For Real is credited to Marianne Petit and Tracy White; the comics have a single visual style that, while not credited seems in line with White’s Traced. Traced uses a mixture of panels, text, and digital tricks (the kind that make McCloud all warm & fuzzy inside) to tell her stories, and while For Real has a similar approach, it seems to be relying mostly on the illustration. The home page promises that For Real will include stories of immigration from the past century, so keep an eye out for updates.

And how’s this for a wacky coincidence? The Tenement Museum was once the place of employment of a woman named Lynda, who has been somewhat related to webcomics herself. And while it’s been a while since she’s made an appearance, her influence on webcomics is significant (in that her providing of beer was a major influence on the development of Goats).

On the off chance you really don’t care about immigration history and personal history, how about memes? Hooray for the Basques!

Edit: See? Basques are the new hot thing!

Señor McCloud’s Happy Fun Comics Talking rolls into Indianapolis tonight, and to celebrate the local daily talks webcomics. One reader-submitted comment that caught my eye included this bit of encouragement:

Here’s to the new freedom of the web, where success isn’t measured by corporate suits, but by the quality and creativity of the cartoonists willing to work hard for their fans.

It’s mostly a surface discussion (and highlights the Star‘s predilection for finding a local angle in everything), but it’s also probably the first time that a lot of people have heard of webcomics, so yay.

In other news, it’s Press Release Day ’round here:

The lads at Unshelved, perhaps taking a cue from their fellow Washingtonians, have become the second (to my knowledge) (edit: looks like third, at least — see comments for more info) webcomic to get themselves a dedicated business strategist. No electronic version I can find, but the short version is:

Jim Demonakos brings a variety of experiences to this newly created position. Most recently he was Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator for Image Comics…. Demonakos is also organizer of Seattle’s immensely successful Emerald City ComiCon, and owner of the Comic Stop chain of comic book stores in the Seattle area.

I’m guessing this means that Unshelved gets a good booth at Emerald City.

Next up, Howard Tayler lets us know that his next book will go back to the early days of Schlock, when his art was, um, rougher than it is today. Thus, he’s looking to pretty things up a bit:

I’m looking for guest artists for the next Schlock book. I know that lots of webtoonists might be interested in this opportunity. I make no promises about inclusion, obviously. Still, the way I count it there is room for at least 20 guest pieces, including a full-page piece or two (assuming something worthy shows up.) The details are here.

At Onezumi, there’s a new art blog called Onezumiverse. And over Ugly Hill way, the previously-referenced Medieval Friday t-shirts have made an appearance. In fact, they may be sold out by the time you read this, so be certain to let Paul Southworth know if he needs to do another print run.

So I was sitting at SPX a couple of years ago, talking with Harvey Pekar about jazz (he called me “man” twice — I’ve never been cooler in my entire life). He’s passionate about it, something that I’ve seen in all committed fans of the art. Part of that jazz afficionado passion comes from feeling a bit beseiged — you know all about this stuff that’s absolutely great, and the Unwashed Masses could give a shit, and no, Kenny G doesn’t count, goddammit. The potential defensiveness is matched only with an evangelistic fervor that if only you listened, you’d see how brilliant this stuff is.

Funny thing is, the most fervent of the persecuted geniuses seem to be those who are most knowledgeable in their respective fields. I spent enough time in radio during my college days to develop an XTC habit, but my passion for them pales next to my sister’s boyfriend, an audio engineer who’s worked with a lot of acts — we expound on the virtues of the boys from Swindon at Thanksgiving to a generally disinterested family. Every time I read a quote about Frank Zappa (my favorite: “This guy was self-educated in composition, but he wrote music so complex that you have to be a virtuoso to play it, you have to have a Master’s in music theory to hear everything you’re supposed to, you need a PhD to understand it, and all anybody ever remembers is Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow.” I think there was a goddammit! in there, too), I’m astonished by the converatory credentials of the speaker. Eminent scholars of literatures are still seething over the inexplicable decision of the Pulitzer trustees to not give an award for fiction in 1974 after the literature prize committee unanimously selected Thomas Pynchon for the honor. Mind you, they didn’t just not give the award to Pynchon, they opted to not give the award to anybody (apparently, the ruling body had a problem with a poo-eating scene about 236 pages into Gravity’s Rainbow).

Seems like anytime you get enough people creating in an art, you get those works of genius at the fringes that casual fans of the genre may not appreciate, but the people who’re well-versed with the breadth and depth of the art all seem to concur — there’s something there. Which leads to the logical question for you, who know your way around webcomics: What’s the genius-level masterwork out there? What is it that will never make sense to most people, but has a richness and special meaning for those patient enough to dig for it. Let’s get quibbling.

Typing this while I can keep my eyes open.

Million things to do before I get on a plane tomorrow; next week’s updates at odd times due to time zone shifts.

• So, pointing out the flaws in a system by exploiting them is “deeply immoral”, and “shameful and disappointing.” Good to have that cleared up, Jimbo. Edit: But identity fraud? That’s cool.
• Lunchbox Funnies create-o-tron Ryan Sias has unveiled the very first t-shrit in webcomics history.
• R Stevens is asking an intriguing question, but I don’t have good data to answer it. Anybody got some good numbers we can play with?
• I feel no shame about hating Rachael Ray, scourge of all that’s good and tasty, and I’d so watch this show starring Anthony Bourdain.

And an uncomfortable observation at the end. You have been warned.

• There’s a new design over at the Dayfree Press site, which includes a new sketchblog.
• Alien Loves Predator creator Bernie Hou would like you to check out his new (previously hinted-at) project: The Burgg. Much like Time Friends, this one is driven by readers — do up some art that depicts a movie scene, post it, and people try to guess what you were thinking of. If they don’t guess, hope it’s because you were all obscure, and not because your art sucks.
• Everybody catch A Girl And Her Fed yesterday? Eyes!
• T Campbell’s recap of the “web comics” panel at NYCC is up; his report confirms my suspicions that it was entirely aimed at “lets put whole comic books into a digital distribution channel”, and not “let make content for the web on a continuous basis”.
• All this, and he’s an actor, too? Dave Kellett will be hitting the New York City stage as part of a production of one of his wife‘s plays. I’m so there.
• One of these things is not like the others.
• Man, Hastings and Eli’s mom — that outfit with revealed drooping navel is just … disturbing.

Couple of quick things, as there’s a lot on my plate at the moment.

• Bad news from Amsterdam, as Liz Greenfield reports a dead computer, severely limiting her ability to do comics for an adoring Internet public. If you’re going to The Thing in London on the 17^th, she will be bringing sketchbook-type material to sell (sadly, the hoped-for books 4 and 5 are on hold ’til the hard drive gets restored). It is your duty to buy lots of these sketchbooks so that Liz can get a new computer, please.
• The McCloud Family Trek continues unabeted, with new dates for the leg that takes them from the reaches of the Midwest all the way to the Atlantic Ocean and back (with a small side trip to California). Tomorrow: Clarksville, TN.
• Related question: what do you call kids whose godfather is Neil Gaiman, and whose father will officiate at the wedding of Amy Kim Ganter and Kazu Kibuishi? Fangirls. Of the Year.
• Does two years count as a Grind? Yes. Yes, it does.
• Longtime webcomickers Chris Daily (and formerly schoolmate/roommate/collaborator of both Jennie Breeden and T Campbell) has teamed up with fellow vet Aerie for Punch an’ Pie. It just launched Monday, but based on pedigree it’s worth a gander.
• And, naturally, Achewood. I think I need my name on that thing, and some god damned peanut butter.

If, on the off chance, anybody reading this knows anybody at Reed Exhibitions, could you please smack them? For a company that’s trying to go from zero to San Diego scope in the space of three years, they really need to rethink their entire approach to comic con management. From the floor layout to bizarre, unworkable line-wrangling, it was pretty badly done. That being said, even a poorly-executed convention (“Extrosion”, anybody?)can be a lot of fun, depending on who you’re hanging with. Random thoughts to help you get a feeling of having been there:

• The Digital Strips crew are commandos. In, get an interview, camera rolling, done, fwoosh! Gone in the blink of an eye. Can’t wait to see the footage.
• Speaking of DS, they spoke to old school indy creator Wendy Pini about her upcoming webcomic plans; interesting writeup, as I spoke to her husband, old school indy publisher Richard Pini on Saturday morning at the Dumbrella booth. He was very excited to see Diesel Sweeties make the leap to syndication, having looked at that route himself once upon a time. He also bought an Old School shirt, thus completing the theme.
• Had a tough time finding BLC representatives Brad Guigar & Paul Southworth, as the sign over their tables inexplicably read Dave Kellett. But they did well for themselves, with Brad having sold just about everything he brought, and Paul’s new Medieval Friday kicking ass. Oh, and confidential to Brad Guigar’s kids: Don’t get in the suitcase, no matter what Daddy tells you!
• Likewise, I missed meeting up with Jennie Breeden, but via the magic of email, the promised interview will go on.
• Ironic moment of the weekend (as reported by Chris Hastings): During the “web comics” panel Friday morning, a question from the floor touched upon the ads-and-merch model of revenue, practiced by so many independent creators. The panel (all corporate types) thought it wasn’t a good model, in part based upon their reading of T Campbell’s A History Of Webcomics. Ironic part: the question in question came from T Campbell. I’m sure that T will tell the story better, so keep an eye out for his report.
• I met a Dr McNinja cosplayer and the man who gave Paul Southworth lube. I did not get a picture of either. I did, however, purchase a handmade, alcoholic zombie cat, which is creeping my dog out.
• There was also the thing about Genital’s Discount Tittery and crying pterodactyls, but you had to be there.

But Rich Stevens managed to give me a link, no matter how tenuous, to the awesomeness that is This American Life. And if you read this page regularly, I have a feeling that you are (or should be) a fan of TAL, which is the best thing in any medium, ever.

If you live within a day’s forced march of in Boston, LA, Minneapolis, Seattle, or Chicago, you must (must, must, must) make your way to the appropriate venue, obtain a ticket by whatever means necessary, and attend the current live tour, Things I Learned From Television. Those of you in the New York area, you missed out, ’cause Ira Glass and the gang were here last night, and they killed. Now make your arrangements (and hop to it, Bostonians, the tour rolls in tonight), or we can’t be friends anymore.

Two strips worth talking about this morning. On the one hand, this from Chris Baldwin:

I have a favor to ask.

For two months I am not going to post Little Dee here at littledee.net.

My contract with United Media ends May 1st, so I will either be syndicated, or probably be moving Little Dee back here permanently.

So, I’m asking if you’ll excuse this and continue reading Little Dee at comics.com.

Anybody that’s read Fleen for more than about a week knows that I believe a few things strongly:

1. Syndication of comic strips is, in the main, horribly screwed up;
2. Little Dee deserves to be in front of millions of readers every day

In theory, item #2 can be achieved solely by Power of the Internets, but practically speaking? Most people will never find it if it’s not in front of their nose. United Media, to be fair, seems to be trying to shake things up and bring in new strips (as evidenced by their pickup of Diesel Sweeties, plus I hear interesting rumors of other webcomics as well), and in a right-thinking world, one of those would be Baldwin’s. BUT:

I know many of you prefer reading Little Dee here, so I hope you don’t feel this is too much of an inconvenience for two months. The thing is that I’ve received some vague hints from the syndicate that my stats numbers aren’t high enough on their site.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I actually do prefer reading at Baldwin’s site, because comics.com is a buggy, slow-to-load, popup-spawning horrorshow that hates non-IE browsers, but to help him I will brave the hideous design. And, in case you were wondering (like I was), you can still purchase Little Dee originals by looking to the left-hand side of the comics.com page for the picture link. I think I might call dibs on that one of Vachel’s harem.

In other news: GIRLFIGHT! This can only end in tears. Sexy, sexy tears.