You may wish to back up and read Friday’s edition if you missed it; it’s been a while since Chris Onstad threw a simple three-panel strip at us, and it was a marvel of simplicity, hilarity, and revulsion at Lyle‘s behavior. He’s a bit feisty for a guy who was thrown out of Mr Band, isn’t he?

Today, Mr Bear‘s language is supple and Shakespearean. Téodor is kindly in his concern for others and gets to use the word teabagged. And we all learned a little something about Taleggio.

In other news, it’s a bittersweet Valentine’s Day coming up, what with Bruno wrapping and all. But you can cheer yourself up immensely come Wednesday if you get in on the pre-orders for The Case of Atlantis, which means that you could get life-size Sheriff Pony Temporary Tattoos! And nothin’ says romance like a space pony that craps vanilla ice cream inscribed on the body of your beloved.

So with the Wikibattle now engaged further and further from the realms of logic. Short form:

1. Ugly Hill is not notable and should be deleted
2. Ugly Hill is published by Viper Comics
3. Therefore, Viper Comics is not notable, and therefore also should be deleted

How about some good news instead? Alert reader Geiseric sent us a link to the Yale Daily News, about a program at the New Haven Free Public Library that’s using webcomics to teach literacy and writing skills. Project creator John Baird previously used the technique when teaching English in Taiwan:

“The breakthrough occurred when I came across [a comic] … with the text blanked out,� he said. “Students then filled in the blank comics in English using whatever language skills they possessed.�

No clue what [a comic] means, but there’s been a prior example or two of webcomics being used to this end, both overseas and stateside, so I can offer a guess. More good news:

Although it has only been a few months since the program began, Baird said, he has noticed his students’ writing skills improve significantly. He encourages students to observe cues in the pictures when writing in dialogue — a method he feels teaches them how to creates scenes that are situation-appropriate. If the students see an angry person in the comic, he said, they learn not to use words that connote happiness. With time, they are also encouraged to draw their own comics.

Of course, you can see where this is going:

1. Yale Daily News reports on a program at the New Haven Free Public Library involving webcomics
2. By Wikipolicy, the vast majority of webcomics are not notable and should be deleted
3. Therefore, Yale Daily News and the New Haven Free Public Library are not notable, and should be deleted

This chain of logic will eventually encompass everything and everyone that you know, love, or might love you someday. To spare the Wikicrowd any further anguish, I’m pre-emptively declaring both Fleen and myself to be non-notable. However, given the perversity of the situation, I rather expect to be getting emails that I’ve been duly enshrined, and proposed for deletion. You know — just another Friday afternoon.

Update: The Fleen Request Line just got a dedication request. “Owen” sends out todays Beevnicks to “Brad” and “Paul”.

Looks like Evil, Inc. has been un-un-un-deleted, and may exist at Wikipedia again. But Ugly Hill is apparently “on the bubble”, as the sports types say. I may be a bit biased on this one, but what the HELL people? Printed material, association with a publisher, an honest-to-god sex scandal, what more do you want?

As fun as gettin’ into crap-fights on the internet can be, it’s ultimately self-defeating. So here’s the solution: let’s just all agree that Wikipedia isn’t interested in our little slice o’ culture; that’s fine, and they’re probably still smarting about the chickens thing. Then we get them to keep one page up that says, Look, we don’t like webcomics, so if you’re interested, go to Comixpedia’s fork and we’ll call it even.

Redirect every article on webcomics to that portal page, and just like some horribly, deranged Lucy episode, we draw a line down the middle of the Internet They can have their half, and we may then spend our days not being annoyed at people who apparently think that — despite the number of people who create and read webcomics daily — we just don’t measure up to the standards of notable and worthy culture.

So it seems that the First Great Webcomics Wikipurge of Aught-Seven (hmmm, is this web-based video non-notable?) is back on again; Howard Tayler first raised the alarm on behalf of his BLC-mate Brad Guigar and others on Monday. By yesterday, strips were restored, then later yesterday more deletionists hopped on the bandwagon. So Byzantine is the logic behind this dustup that Tayler appears to be on the verge of a frothing, white-hot rage (please note that Tayler is about the most polite guy I’ve ever met outside of Canada, so frothing, white-hot rage needs to be read as in comparison to his normal, placid state).

As of last night, it was claimed that at least the Evil, Inc. article was back again “for good”, but as of this writing (7 February, approximately 16:42 GMT), it ain’t showin’ up for me, and I’ve got a clear cache so the problem’s not on my end. In any event, it appears that there’s only one way to fix this:

1. Invite the various Wikieditors to San Diego Comic Con 2007 under false pretenses
2. Direct them to section of floor bounded by booths 1129, 1137, 1329, and 1337
3. Profit! We rumble, Broadway-style; dibs on the baseball bat

On that happy note, we at Fleen would like to thank Sam Logan for the floor map, which does indeed show this year’s Sexy Lagoon; Logan sends along the following color key:

• Pink: Dayfree
• Orange: PA
• Yellow: Blank Label
• Green: Keenspot (naturally)
• Light Blue: Dumbrella
• Reg. Blue: Rooster Teeth Productions (ie: Red vs. Blue)
• Dark Blue: Del Ray/Random House
• Maroon: Phil Foglio

Not sure who that is in the gray; hope they like awesome, ’cause it’s gonna be in high concentrations in this part of the floor. But Logan wonders politely in his email (and I agree), When will SDCC expand the space offered for webcomics? That’s a lot of creators (from at least four countries, by my count) with a lot of fans crammed into a small space; next year may require a larger zone be set aside to avoid crushing crowds.

Editor’s note: It seems that there is an interview this week, Jeff‘s assertions to the contrary notwithstanding. Everybody thank Fleen Guest Interviewer Paul Southworth for stepping up to the plate, and turning the tables. Looks like another Southworth-related dollar will be hitting the mail this week.

(more…)

You still have time to get webcomics-themed Valentine’s Day cards; in addition to those previously announced, you now have some from Keenspot stalwart Chris Daly‘s Striptease (and if you’re rushed for time, there’s no shipping on this one; Daly sends you a PDF and you print ’em yourself).

And while not strictly for Valentine’s Day, there are awesome greeting cards featuring T-Rex available from Quack!Media. Seriously, it’s right there in the URL: awesomedetail.php. If you get your order in time, cards 1, 2, 3, 6, 10 and 12 are V-Day appropriate.

The mailbag is gettin’ a mite full of webcomics that cry out for review; rather than taking the time to go through each thoroughly and do a full writeup, we’re grabbin’ random strips and doing the free association thing. The validity of these minireviews is highly suspect, but it’s not fair to leave ’em in limbo forever.

Popped Culture, by Justin Stewart: The problem with pop culture gags is, even when your audience hasn’t heard them before, they think that they might have, so it’s tough to stay ahead of the curve and come up with jokes that get past the meh stage. That being said, little bits of weirdness (like season salt) help Popped Culture feel fresher than you’d expect. Also: velociraptors, so all former NASA roboticists are advised to stay away.

Random: Do you love Canadian webcomics and want them to win awards?

Natural 20s, by Tyler and Mimi: The art in this thing appears to be the perfect intersection of a Nintendo Mii, Scott Pilgrim, and Genndy Tartakovsky‘s sketchbook. Into this oasis of cute is thrown a surprisingly sharp sense of humor, what with screwin’ unicorns and all (no permalink to that strip yet, but odds are it’ll eventually be #59). Plus, check out the moustache on that guy! It’s like looking in the mirror.

Random: Weirdly rambling hate mail to Rich Stevens.

Captain Excelsior, by Zach Weiner and Chris Jones: Ever wonder what a bitter, washed-up Superman hittin’ on chicks would look like? Well, you don’t have long to wait, ’cause that happens within the first three strips. Our heroes are just as rotten as we are, so they’ve got no possibility but to improve as metahuman beings. Great fun potential.

Random: Wapsi Square has gotten pretty darn dynamic in its staging; Paul Taylor’s had some significant challenges in his personal life over the past year (hopefully improving), which may account for the simpler layouts that’ve been seen for a while now. Coincidentally, Girly creator Josh Lesnick trepidatiously took Taylor to task not long ago over the (in his view) unnecessarily-static turn the art had taken, so perhaps the feedback and art changes are related? In related news, apparently I’m a moron who dishes out blinding praise to Taylor, which is apparently unwarranted and unhelpful. I just report ’em, folks.

In case you missed the announcement the other day, Modern Tales has added five new comics this week:

• Alma Mater, about a prep school for girls
• Bellen, a relationship story about a couple named Ben and Ellen
• Minus World, about a video game studio; this one is co-created by the fantastically talented Bill Mudron, so skip it at your peril
• Nice Work, about Hollywood in 1960s; really interesting concept and some real visual flair on display here
• Steverino, inspired by the incredible true story of a nerdy guy

As usual, MT editor/webcomics dynamo Shaenon Garrity will greet her new chums with a series of interviews over at Talk About Comics, which starts today with Alma Mater’s Whitney June Robinson.

And, in a less happy vein, Fleen Fave Bernie Hou informs us today that he’s cutting back his schedule from Tuesdays & Fridays to when time permits. Tantalizingly, he hints about “new projects” being in the works; right thinking folk know that Hou’s work is worth waiting for, so subscribe to his newsletter or RSS feed to make sure you don’t miss any installments or announcements.

I ought to go back and retitle this thing, since I wouldn’t want to get any of another Episode I on what Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub, and Blind Ferrett have produced; this goes by the subtitle High School Daze, and is described thusly:

Francis worries about high school; Brent and Cole relive their glory days.

This episode starts off with the same 90 seconds or so (Office! Cubicle! Office! Cubicle! Fire!) that formed the series preview … certain things that were a bit awkward in the teaser trailer (like background noises at too high a level, which made the offices of PvP Magazine sound like a much busier place that it’s ever been shown) have been resolved. Brent’s voice (which to me was the strongest part of the trailer) sounds a bit more confident in the first installment, and the animation features a broader range of framings and motions than the preview. HSD proper starts immediately after the title logo and obligatory panda mauling.

There’s boobs, and barfing, and a bleeped naughty word, and you’ve got characters acting as you’d expect, but… It doesn’t entirely feel like PvP. This is probably because Skull doesn’t appear in the episode at all, which seems an odd choice given his key role in the strip. Sure, it’s just the first episode, and there’s nothing that says he has to appear in every one — but to not have Skull feels weird, like we’re watching a pilot for a new TV show that hasn’t found its groove yet.

The story itself plays like a PvP strip stretched out in time, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Think about it this way: a three-panel comic strip is like a three-act story; there’s the setup in the first panel/act, the reaction in second, and resolution (usually with comuppance) in the third. In this respect, the shifting from three panels to three acts gives time to put more in than could possibly be accomodated in a regular strip offering, and allows for a smoother story than a comic strip arc could. When comic strip stories continue from day-to-day, you usually have to sacrifice at least part of panel #1 reminding people what they read yesterday; without that 24-hour-delay-and-reminder everything moves more smoothly, and the characters don’t have to act like they have low-level anterograde amnesia.

And yet, I’ve always thought that both Kurtz and Straub have done their best work when they set out to tackle longer story arcs; as their comics grew from daily gags to week-long themes to full-blown plotlines, they became much more interesting. I have a feeling that as they become more confident in their writing for this new medium, we’ll see stories structured less like a strip (in the sense of a single-day’s comic), and more like a strip (in the sense of an ongoing thing with character development and a sense of backstory). Given that Kurtz & Straub have spoken of the series as having “seasons”, I suspect that we may see an overall theme, like the year in PvP when Jade & Brent broke up, and many shorter story arcs were part of a buildup to their eventual reunion. I’d love to see a story that plays out in multiple installments (without the obvious crutches of cliffhangers) and becomes a coherent whole; that’s tough to do when you’ve only got 5 minute chunks to work with, but it can be done.

So bottom line — let’s say that the pilot’s been picked up, and we’ve got a 13-episode committment. And while Kurtz & Co. were kind enough to comp me a subscription, based on this first episode, it would have been a worthwhile risk to plunk down the cash myself. There’s potential, and Kurtz & Straub have the chops to build on it, and we just have to see if they can translate those chops to the world of sound & motion.

Okay, what with all the responses I got for what Chris Hastings (congrats on getting past those ‘bandwidth exceeded’ errors, Chris!) called the science fair project, 48 of you were willing to share data. Deadline was a touch over 10 hours ago, with only one contact since the 11th.

For statistical significance, I wanted a minimum of 100 respondents; since 48 < 100, my life just got easier in that I don't have to crunch numbers. If it turns out there really is a demand for this sort of analysis, I'd be willing to revisit the issue, but for now, we at Fleen will not be going ahead with the project. Many thanks to all who offered to share their data. Things were shaping up to be a nice cross-section of genre and audience size, and much as I hate calculating skews and kurtoses, getting the numbers would have been more than a little interesting.