Controversies? Not Here, Buddy
Two items today that might have the potential to possibly get blown out of proportion and maybe cause just the teensiest bit of consternation. Onwards!
As PJ mentioned down below, Adventures Into Digital Comics is hitting the festival circuit. For a bit of historical context, recall that the last time this film was in the news (or at least the subset of news that concerns itself with webcomics), it caused a shitstorm of epic proportions, with all and sundry holding back nothing in their opinions. Remember, this was teh drama where Scott Kurtz was the calm one, and Scott McCloud got so het up that he later depublished irate verbiage. Calm and good humor returned relatively quickly, luckily.
So now we all have the chance to see the damn thing. When you do, remember to breathe, people.
In other news, last night the National Book Awards were presented in New York, and Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese did not win in the category of Young People’s Literature. That honor went to MT Anderson for The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party. We all know that some feel that Yang didn’t belong in such august company (the reaction to which opinion was satisfyingly brutal and swift), but you know what? I’m okay with last night’s outcome.
I haven’t read Octavian Nothing, but I’ve heard good things about it. Unlike Mr Long, I won’t judge a book unworthy without having read it, and it’s my feeling that for Octavian Nothing to have bested American Born Chinese, it must be pretty damn good. As I’ve stated before, my only complaint is that Yang was nominated in the category of Young People’s Literature, as I don’t think that his work is specific to any age group. Regardless, Fleen congratulates Mr Anderson, and continues to hold Mr Yang in the highest of esteem.
Speaking of Mr Yang, he’s on a mini-tour of sorts right now, so if you’re in Sacramento or Nashville, keep your eyes open. And speaking of on tour, the McCloud Family Death March returns to the US this week, with a side trip to Nashville on Sunday (hmmm, wonder who else might be there) and a lecture at NYU on Monday (no details yet, but we’re working on ’em).
She’s A Good Gal, ‘Cause She Always Does What She Otter! Ah, I Got A Million Of ‘Em!
Some quick notes from the BLC front, where it’s Real Life‘s 7th anniversary, Ugly Hill has one of those sweet, sweet lines that’s pure distilled Funny, and Howard Tayler has declared Sheldon‘s “mission accomplished!”
Speaking of politics, not many webcomics do; oh, sure, there will be the occasional injection of such, but a full-bore, long-term, story-oriented (as opposed to what’s happening in the world today?) approach, not so much. One webcomic that devotes itself pretty much exclusively to political ideas is A Girl And Her Fed, of which we’ve spoken previously.
Recently, AGAHF introduced a most unique character, Mr Speedy. Yep, a hyperconservative, genetically-engineered, mutant koala. And may I add that some subset of “hyperconservative, genetically-engineered mutant koala” would make a great name for a band?
Anyhoo, AGAHF creator Brooke “Otter” Spangler is looking to support the strip by doing some pretty cool projects; these side stories are not integral to the overall plot, but are intended to fill in background details. She sent me her first, Speedy’s Story, which tells the tale of exactly how you create a hyperconservative, genetically-engineered, mutant koala (for those of you with free time this weekend). It’s not quite merchandise, since it’s a PDF that you’re getting; it’s less ephemeral than “bonus art” or “wallpaper”, though. Here’s the deal from Spangler herself:
I’ve promised AGAHF’s readers that I won’t hold any information hostage in these stories … This character’s backstory is irrelevant to the central plot – he’s a genetically-engineered koala bear, plain and simple. However, if someone wanted to know the origins of the character, they could either take me out to dinner for a good, long conversation over drinks, or they could purchase the PDF. Five bucks is certainly the cheaper option.
The story is nicely done, and it looks great; if you like AGAHF even a little, give up 1.32 fancy-ass drinks at Starbucks this week and check out Speedy’s story. Or for a few dollars more, you can get a printed copy with an extra page (which is still a bargain compared to what the drinks would likely cost). And whatever you do, don’t let a koala get at your email password, if you know what’s good for you.
It’s Idol-riffic!
From Sean Conchieri, news of the Bomb Shelter Comics competition, Webcomics Idol:
Bomb Shelter Comics has selected its top ten submissions for the First Annual Webcomics Idol Contest! We’ve got a damn good group of contestants here, and one of them will get free hosting, membership, and other goodies the collective can provide! To see the top ten, and to vote, check the link
Guest judges will start reviewing the contestants next week, but in the meantime you can look over the comics and express your opinions as to which part of the herd should be thinned. Head over to the page and decide who you think should NOT be in the running. As a side note, the BSC crew had a tough job, as a full 68 comics were in the running for WCI, and there are some worthy contestants in the final 10.
In fact, let’s give a little love to the finalists. Ladies and gentlement, may we present:
- Zed Reckoning — zombies galore!
- Random Domain — rudeness abounds!
- The Bean Men — entrails a-go-go!
- On The Edge — devilish therapy!
- What Birds Know — birds are weirdly interactive!
- Intergalactic Law — litigiousnesssss in spaaaaaaace!
- Hector! — mythology with a twist!
- One-Liners — pseudoautobiographical!
- Stark Reality — they must put something in the water in Australia!
- Amazing Superzeroes — with the power of … EMO!
As of this writing, there are 136 votes total; we’ll be sure to bring you the winner when it’s all decided.
Monday Morning Afternoon Facial Hair
Still having computer problems, so this is gonna be quick.
Behold! The power of moustachery! It’ll get you written up in the tabloids.
Sent to us by the totally excellent Ryan Estrada:
So I’m living in India, right? A country that steals 90% of it’s intellectual property from Hollywood movies and American TV shows. Well, I open up my newspaper, and what do I see? Now they’ve started stealing from webcomics.
Over England-way, we’ve got a couple of weeks of John Allison filling in the blanks; two years of backstory and mystery are about to be revealed!
Also over in England, the delightful Ms Cusack informs us that she’ll have her first English gallery show this Saturday. In the not-too-distant future, I hope to have a review of the Stuff Sucks iPod skin for y’all, too.
And a bit later today, the first of Fleen’s Guest Reviews will be going up. It’s sort of an experiment, which will hopefully complement the triumphant return of Jeff Lowrey and his Tuesday Interviews. I just saw the one that’s on tap for tomorrow, and it’s coooool.
Behind The Scenes At Child’s Play
Editor’s note: It’s been a little less than three years since Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins announced Child’s Play over at Penny Arcade. What seemed like a nice little ad-hoc plan quickly grew out of all proportion, resulting in an estimated $175,000 of toys and more than $27,000 cash being raised in less than six weeks.
Two years ago, they did it again, raising over $310,000; last year, $590,000. Add ’em up, and you’re looking at nearly $1.2 million. There have been black-tie charity dinners and auctions; large corporations sponsor the effort; one hospital grew to five, and the list has since gone international. Behind all that good is the work of a lot of volunteers, and the coordinating efforts of Kristin Lindsay, who was kind enough to take the time to talk with me, despite having recently produced a small human being using only time and basic household items.
Fleen: Let’s start with a little bit about you. How does one become the Child’s Play and Events Coordinator for Penny Arcade’s vast empire? I don’t recall anything like that in the Big Book of Grownup Jobs that my high school counselor showed me.
Kristin Lindsay: I was lucky enough to miss the class where our counsellor showed off the Big Book of Grown-Up Jobs. I’m up in Vancouver, Canada, essentially a stay-at-home mom, married to a game programmer, and we’re part of the new trend of X-Treme Geek Families. Penny Arcade has always loomed large for us, and when the opportunity to serve as a volunteer for one of the early Necrowombicon fan conventions (the precursor to PAX), I jumped at the chance.
I became close friends with the Necrowombicon organizer, and was able to take a more active role as a volunteer the next year. When Penny Arcade founded PAX back in 2004, they asked me if I’d like to pitch in with that, and I was honoured to accept. I now serve at PAX every year, and am better known to much of the PA community as ‘Princess RedDot’, the Enforcer Wrangler and registration manager for the annual convention.
Working in that capacity segued into my ‘office job’ as the Child’s Play coordinator. Between PAX and Child’s Play, I work pretty much year round for Gabe and Tycho’s Dark Empire! I’d also like to point out that I’m currently the only female employee at Penny Arcade, which I mention as a shout out to all the girl gamers out there. :)
News Of The [Webcomics] World
Apologies for the late update today; got some computer woes at home, leading to late and irregular access to email and my trawl list, and likely to remain that way for a little bit. Let move onto some happenings in the wild, wild world o’ webcomics, shall we?
- Regular readers of this page will know that I loves me some Digger, with a special spot in my heart for Ed the hyena. Per today’s setup, looks like we got some Ed on tap. Now all we need is more Digger print collections, and all shall be well.
- Steve Troop is continuing his 24 hour comic experiment. Has anybody else tried this on such a regular basis before?
- Wigu is coming back. From J-Ro’s LiveJournal:
I am “developing” new Wigu comics, and it’ll go something like this. On jjrowland.com, new comics will start running soon. These will be Wigu one-off strips, ones that are independent. Like “prequel” comics kind of. Before the madness set in.
There will also be other comics on there, like American Platypus and stuff like that. Basically I still really enjoy doing Overcompensating, and will continue, but it gets boring to just write and draw what actually happens everyday. OC will probably scale back to like 3 days a week.
Wigu Adventures will be the continuing Atlantis/Mars story that will be for sale on paper and added to the jjrowland.com/wigu/ area many, many months after sales of the print version dies down.
- Speaking of madness, Jennie Breeden brings all you ladies the treat of men in kilts all year ’round!
- And with the end of the year fast approaching, we at Fleen will be doing a list of the most interesting/notable happenings in webcomics, complete with suggestions by you, our loyal readers. Got anything you think was particularly cool? Email it to gary at this-here-website.com, for inclusion in the year-end spectacular.
In Case You Were Wondering …
what on earth Ryan North could do to follow up Project Wonderful, how about saving Wikipedia from itself?
RYAN YOU HAVE TO STOP HAVING IDEAS FOR A LITTLE WHILE WE CANNOT KEEP UP WITH YOU!!
Update: Ryan’s project shows up in El Reg.
Again With The Email Outbox
Date: 8 Nov 2006
From: Gary Tyrrell
To: _______, Features Editor
Subject: Comics page
Dear ________,
Can I call you ________? Since I’ve written to you several times, I feel like I know you. I apologize if I’m being too forward. I haven’t heard back since I wrote to you on the 17th of September about the comics page, and how I hoped that you might revamp it soon (especially by including the forthcoming Diesel Sweeties by Rich Stevens). He’s starting to pick up steam, with major papers in major markets (I’ve been sworn to secrecy, but one of those markets rhymes with “eattle”) deciding to add Diesel Sweeties to their comics page lineup. I’m hoping that in the time since we last spoke, you’d given some consideration to adding the strip yourself; United Features Syndicate has a promo kit waiting for you!
Perhaps you fear that, coming from the wilds of the internet as it does, Diesel Sweeties is untested for unsuitable for the wider populace. If that’s your concern, I’d point out that this time next week, a reprint volume of a webcomic is up for a National Book Award. Other publishers are snatching up webcomics left and right, looking to print and distribute accomplished, quality creators not just into comics stores, but into major bookstore chains. Trade journals such as Editor & Publisher and Publishers Weekly now carry stories (sometimes entire sections!) on comics, webcomics, and manga on a regular basis. Next month, Business 2.0 will be doing a feature story on how being a webcomics creator can be a career. I know that newspaper publishing is by its nature an industry with a great deal of inertia, but these happenings ought to help convince you that there’s something of worth here.
If you’re still hesitant, maybe Mister Washington can change your mind … he has a brother, you know. If you can resist the siren song of cold hard cash, how about cookies? You like cookies? I’ll bake you cookies if you give Diesel Sweeties a look.
In any event, thank you again for your time. In all seriousness, I do want to help you find the best mix of comics for ________, and I really do think that Diesel Sweeties can be a cornerstone of that effort.
Gary Tyrrell
________, NJ
PS: Seriously, cookies. Mmmmm, cookies!
Editor’s note: Once again, I’ll let you know of any replies.
While He’s Out Of The Country And It’s Safe To Talk
Oh, man, I feel terrible even thinking this, but I think it’s time to toss Scott McCloud; he’s not holding up well, and it’s time for him to end up on the compost heap of, if not history, at least my back yard. Don’t look at me that way; it’s either this … or pie. While we’re at it, say a fond farewell to the Devil, too.
On a happier note, I’m thrilled (can you tell I’m thrilled? ’cause I am) that I was able to read Sheldon this morning. See, normally I have to wait until I get into work, because I don’t allow Internet Explorer on my computer at home, and comics.com would, 75% of the time, load ads and banners and no comic unless I used IE. Then I have to deal with ads, and banners, and pop-ups, and who knows what, and about twice a month, they wouldn’t bother updating the strip for two or three days anyway.
Not today. Today, Sheldon casts loose his shackles, and soars free like the majestic duck. For reference, the strip is still at comics.com until December 1st to accomodate paid subscribers. I’m not holding out much hope that United Media will tell those subscribers where to find Sheldon after the 1st, so if you happen to know any, tell ’em to clear browser cache (possibly give DNS a day or two to catch up) and swim in the new site design.