Newspaper features editors (the friendly, beseiged folk in charge of the comics page) really do have the worst jobs in the world. How do I know? Because an almost throwaway bit of minor kindness cut through the usual heap o’ shit that features editors labor under, and had a tremendous impact. I wrote the following last Friday:

I realize that most letters concerning the comics page are unhappy ones for you [the features editor of the Newark Star-Ledger].

This is because people like the comics page to be static and eternally the same; any change is bad, and prompts angry letters to the features editor, demands that Captain Goofball be returned to its rightful place, threats of cancelled subscriptions. Of course, once Captain Goofball is returned, whoever always secretly hated it is outraged, and demands that it be killed again. Thus, I continued:

So let me break the usual pattern: I am writing to thank the Star-Ledger for having introduced a new comic strip, Diesel Sweeties.

The result of this five-minute courtesy? I got a reply that positively gushed with thanks, because I represent proof positive that a risky move did not, in fact, piss off every single person on the face of the planet. And (although this was not the purpose of writing), I’ve likely created a positive association in that editor’s mind between Diesel Sweeties and Made my day. Barring a member of the powerful Star or Ledger families ordering the paper to pull DS, it’s likely in for the long haul.

The moral of the story? If you’re reading Diesel Sweeties in your local and you like it, drop ’em a note of thanks. You might not actually become a better person, but you’ll feel like it.

This page has previously wondered when webcomics might shed the weight of their past and focus on what’s truly important in life: food, glorious food. This is particularly important on a day when I’m living through The Great Smell of Aught-Seven (and one NYC disaster was all I needed, thanks), and eager to think about something that’s more appealing than the stench which is only now disappating.

Thus, major props to Greg Dean for tossing a little food porn to those of us that appreciate the virtues of good cooking. He could have staged today’s joke in lots of ways that were less food-nerdy, but this one hit exactly the right note. And all those who were not familiar with the Maillard reaction learned something, too. Well done, Mr Dean, well done (and naturally, by well done, I really mean, not a shade over medium-rare, Slappy).

It looks like Hockey Zombie has gone the way of all (rotting, undead) flesh. That’s too bad, but you have to admire creators that wrap things when they aren’t feeling the love/quality anymore. After all, we don’t want webcomics turning into Blondie.

On a happier note, Wizard talks to Nicholas Gurewitch, creator of The Perry Bible Fellowship; is it just me, or are these online interviews much better than the actual print magazine?

On the philosphical side of things, Colonel Joey is wondering out loud: How many webcomics are, there, really? Best comment is from William G, asking if we count all the two-week-wonders in the total. (Don’t forget that Mr G’s very cool Bang Barstal resumes a weekly schedule next Thursday.)

And, behind the cut, my final letter to a newspaper regarding Diesel Sweeties; I’m one of those people lucky enough to live in an area served by the early launch (although apparently, not all agree with my love of the strip), and that deserves a letter of thanks to the editor responsible.
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Some upcoming events:

• Andy Bell‘s new show, Hot Curry, debuts tomorrow at Rotofugi in Chicago, with more info here. Anybody that wants to brave the wind & wuthering of Chi-town should check it out.
• Vericon, at the hallowed halls of Hahvahd, will feature a webcomics panel on 27 January with Shaenon Garrity, Jeff Rowland, Rich Stevens, and Paul Southworth. Go pepper ’em with questions, get some photos, gather embarassing stories. If you write it up, you too could be a Fleen Field Reporter!
• Creators! The deadline for being part of the statistical analysis project is 31 January; we’ve got about 30 responses, but we’ll need 100 or more to make it statistically significant. To recap: all raw data (minus site names/identifying details) will be made available, along with statistical methods.

In other news, it looks like the Jeph Jacques/Sam Logan cold war is getting hot again; from the aforementioned Mr Logan:

Jeph may be the Lex Luthor to my Superman (or at least, my Jimmy Olsen), but you can always count on him whenever you need a hilarious guest strip.

Here are some other things about Jeph that you can count on. Jeph Jacques ate all the chocolate out of your neopolitan ice cream. Jeph Jacques stole your lunch money in fourth grade. Jeph Jacques does think you look fat in that dress. And despite how his last name sounds, Jeph Jacques is not French. He just wishes he was.

And from the mailbag:

• Hot off the presses (in the sense that it showed up while I was typing this post) from Friend-o-Fleen Bill Barnes comes this:
  

  Unshelved was asked to do a Read poster for the American Library Association, and it was just released. This is actually a pretty big deal. More info on our blog (there’s also a reminder about our Pimp My Bookcart contest).

  I hope to make another big announcement by end of month. How’s that for a tease?

  Pretty mean with the tease, Bill. Hope the poster catches on with librarians as much as Terry Moore’s iconic image.

• Alert reader “LostRock” writes:
  

  Well, it’s been over six years…and I believe that Josh Mirman’s Stubble has finally ended.

  We at Fleen missed this, but it looks like you’re right. Stubble has gone & joined the ranks of “concluded webcomics”. Now we get to find out if Alexander Danner liked it.

• Reva Sharp informs us:
  

  After a 3-month hiatus, the webcomic Synchronism by me has returned to the web.

  To ring in the new year and the return of the comic, I’m also holding a small contest. The winner will receive an inked drawing of the Synch character of their choice. More details for that can be found on Synch’s news page.

  Hey! Free stuff! Get enterin’, peoples!

• From Krishna Sadasivam:
  

  The PC Weenies site finally gets an updated look, streamlined for easier navigation and such. This is the fifth revamp of the website in over 8 years. Come on over and tell your readers, too. Let the fiesta begin!

  Hey! Free fiesta! Get fiestin’, peoples!

• From a one mister Daniel Turcotte:
  

  I have a daily webcomic at www.loserbros.com. I started on October 13th and have over 50 strips up now. Sundays I put up sketches or other stuff, but still.

  Still, indeed. Interesting, loose, cartoony style at Loser Bros; reminds me a bit of Kyle Baker, and that can’t be bad. Get loserin’, peoples!

• A small request from Wing:
  

  Can you plug my new project so I can have some people testing it?

  The basic idea is that you e-mail me via that site, I give you access to a spreadsheet, and you (and a bunch of other people) go to that spreadsheet and color cells to make pretty pictures. It’s something like a collarborative art effort. Right now I only have 4 people testing it and it ain’t too exciting. So it’d be awesome if you can plug it and so we can have 500 people collarborate and make some sweet spreadsheet art.

  Interesting idea, Wing. Could be like Time Friends, or the late, lamented The Bench. Get collaboratin’, peoples!

• Steve “presumably no relation to T” Campbell wrote:
  

  Hey Fleen, you should check out Toyzville. It is a funny comic done by a friend of mine named Larry Merrill. He is really hitting his stride and more people should be reading it. Plus he is a good guy, and sometimes I write comics for him.

  Noted, Steve. Go check out a guy hittin’ his stride, peoples!

Okay, be honest — how many of you actually read all the way down here? Really? Cool.

Okay, it’s become traditional for the end of December/beginning of January to be mythic exposition time over at Wapsi Square. You got Monica learning about chimerae, Shelley learning about her part in all of this otherworldly drama, and now new & unquestioned powers as the two of them learn about keys and clocks. Wait … keys? Keys and clocks?

I was disputed (by a colleague, no less) the last time I speculated that Tina had something to do with the mythic aspects of Wapsi, but I think it’s becoming more and more indisputable.

So I spent some time over the extended every-religion-you-can-shake-a-stick-at’s holy season getting caught up on the webcomic at Russell’s Teapot. The name of the website from a quote by Bertrand Russell:

If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

… so it’s not a surprise that the site is generally oriented to those who are (shall we say) unconvinced by theistic philosophies. Just as unsurprising, the webcomic features Jesus as a main character. Much like Shabot 6000, the focus at Russell’s Teapot is on what Binkley would have called the sneaky inconsistencies (and outright idiocies) inherent in religion(s). Okay, a lot of it probably counts as the same sort of impertinent questions that got me smacked back in Sunday school, but even the faithful (with a sense of humor) ought to enjoy the issues raised.

The art is the same sort of deceptively simple (yet expressive) stick figures that you find in strips like Order of the Stick. Curiously, following the navigation from “Start” to “End” results in strips that are progressively less polished and wobblier; given the focus on religion, an archive navigation that moves forward by reverting back to ever older and more primitive material makes for a surprisingly subtle commentary on rational thought. Either that, or they use the buttons in a sense that’s backwards from the usual convention.

Of note, the creator of the webcomic (and the contributor(s) to the other sections) is not named, so I can’t tell you even if it’s a he or she that’s drawin’ the doodles. In any case, new comics on Monday, pretty brief archive, and worth a look.

Webcomics in a moment; time for me to abuse my position just a little and go off-topic. We’re updating a bit late today because I’ve been helping to look for a lost dog. If anybody reading this is in central NJ, and comes across the miniature dachshund shown above, contact me please. She got spooked by fireworks at midnight on New Year’s Eve, and ran off without her collar and tags. Her name’s Daisy, and you’ll know it’s her because she loves people, demands attention, and will pee on anything and anyone that sits still for even a minute. As you might guess, the owner is distraught beyond belief and there is a reward. Found!

Okay, webcomics: yesterday (or Saturday, depending on how you want to count) saw the end of Narbonic, and what sure as hell looked like the end of Irregular Webcomic! In fact, neither is quite gone, and I don’t mean in an as long as we remember them, they’re still with us kind of way.

Narbonic is rerunning from the beginning with Director’s Commentary and promises of weekly podcasts & such. So look for that to run … about six more years. Irregular Webcomic!, on the other hand, did wrap up after four years, with David Morgan-Mar promising to let us know what his next project would be. Turns out, it’s the fifth year of Irregular Webcomic! Sneaky bastard, that Morgan-Mar.

And, for those of you in certain cities (like, anywhere in New Jersey where you can pick up a copy of the Star-Ledger), Diesel Sweeties launched a week early. The very sexy Rich Stevens celebrated by revamping his website, which now features tabs for ‘Sweeties Classic, Print ‘Sweeties, and more. You’ll also be able to catch Print ‘Sweeties at comics.com, which still lists the strip as “coming soon”. But Stevens tells us that when the launch occurs:

Here’s how it will work: the syndicated version of Diesel Sweeties will be launching in newspapers across the U.S. and Canada on January 8, 2007. These are original strips, designed for traditional comics pages and syndicated via United Feature Syndicate. On the day of publication, they’ll be appearing in print as well as on comics.com. (I’ll give you the link for that as soon as it’s live)

Approximately a week after a strip is in print, I’ll be archiving it here on my site along with all my webcomics. Everybody wins!

Hooray for Stevens! Hooray for Morgan-Mar! Hooray for Garrity! 2007 is off to one hell of a start.

In no particular order:

• The Great Outdoor Fight story arc was brilliant from beginning to end, spawned a wiki, and included such gems as It is recommended the bird be in the back of a dude’s car for up to half an hour. Chris Onstad set the bar high for webcomics in early in 2006, and webcomics responded.
• The tenuous relationship between syndication and webcomics became more involved this year, as Dave Kellett left an arrangement virtually identical to one that Chris Baldwin accepted, and both of them found it an improvement on their previous situations.

  Meanwhile, Rich Stevens will be hitting the newspapers in mere hours, with readers in Seattle and Newark able to enjoy the pixelated goodness a week early, thanks to FoxTrot‘s departure.

  The picture of syndication is murkier than it was at the start of the year, and we’ll maybe have a glimpse of where it could be shaking out this time next year. If about 3000 features editors grow a pair and decide that losing a shrinking demographic of subscribers over bumping Hi & Lois isn’t necessarily a bad thing, we might even see the long-sought-after resurgence of young people and reading the paper. Maybe.

• Or, if not the local paper, the perhaps The Onion; which has introduced a comics page into the print editions. There you may enjoy the comedic stylings of Cathy en Español, and David Malki !’s Wondermark.
• The McCloud Family Death March Book Tour is about ¼ done this fine morning, with miles to go ere they rest. In the meantime, check out the Winterviews, and Sky’s webcomicky A McCloud Family Christmas.
• There are few people as thoroughly woven into the fabric of webcomics as Shaenon Garrity, who in 2006 took Narbonic free (and will wrap the story in two days time), wrote a series of interviews and analyses about everything comicky, and a revamping (perhaps even revivification) of Modern Tales. And none of those things is even her day job! With her most high-profile creation going into that good night, perhaps Ms Garrity will find some time to sleep, but I’d bet she debuts three new creations instead.
• The wider world became a bit more aware of us this year, between established publishers like Platinum and Viper deciding to get in on the game, and Gene Yang getting a National Book Award nomination, and Scott Kurtz becoming an Eisner laureate/being named a Guest of Honor at San Diego. And this year’s Child’s Play has raised in excess of $963,000 as of today, with final accounting still to be done.
• And there’s lots more cool stuff that happened in 2006: RSSPECT; Project Wonderful; men in kilts and playing cards; iPod skins; action figures and toys; virginity loss; and brilliant comics rising from below the radar to widespread regular reading. Good year.
• But, on the down side, I still don’t have my cherub tree-topper. Let’s see what we can do about that in 2007, people.

We at Fleen join all on the wider inter-nets in wishing Clango Cyclotron a speedy recovery from his current injuries. Latest updates to his condition indicate extensive cognitive damage, but his caregivers continue to hope for the best.

Those familiar with Mr Cyclotron believe this to be an upheaval in his life with the potential for lasting repercussions, of a scale and severity not seen for several years. Meanwhile, police are searching for a one Mister Indy Rock Pete, who is wanted for questioning in the matter.

In happier news, did you see what the Old Grey Lady had to say about Child’s Play yesterday? Thanks to David Malki ! for the tip, who notes:

btw my own series of charity auctions raised nearly $750 for that organization, and ryan north‘s netted $553. WE ARE DOING OUR PART

Current total for CP’06 sits at $885,000 (US), with the various corporate & side-project contributions yet to be totalled. At some point this weekend, I hope to be able to tell you that it hit a number with six zeros attached.

In case you were wondering, this is why Bill Amend deserves your thanks. I can’t help but think that had FoxTrot come along later, or broadband earlier, he would have been one of us (heck, he wrote the foreword to Attack of the Bacon Robots). In style and sensibility, his work really was the precursor to the geek aesthetic that dominates so much of webcomics, and it’s good to know that he won’t ever be farming out his work.

In other news: General Zod may have a challenger for hilarious sci-fi cultural reference: Space dingoes stole my baby.

And from our own Jeff Lowrey: could this be a new source for webcomics merch? Coming soon: action figures of Tycho and Gabe. No, not cartoon Tycho & Gabe, but the Bunsen & Beaker-like real thing. They’ll be the first releases in a series of “Webcartoonists of the World” figures (coming soon from the Franklin Mint); the second wave will feature a short-packed Scott McCloud (new tour dates here, btw), with an in-scale Ryan North build-a-figure!