I was going to mention this yesterday, but all the Diesel Sweeties hoopla kinda shoved it to the back burner. No matter, still worth mentioning that Mohammad Haque and Ananth Panagariya have done a soft reboot on Applegeeks. Rather than retconning the previous strips and starting in a whole new direction, they’ve accelerated the slow evolution of what was once a wacky-hijinks comedy fest into a deeper, richer, more character-oriented work.

In case you hadn’t been reading, comic #300 ended with an earth-shattering kaboom, followed by a week or so of downtime while the new site (version 3.0) was brought up. Monday started out bright and clear with comic #301, and the revelation that six months have passed.

It’s not yet entirely known who survived, who didn’t, and who changed; give it a couple of strips, and we ought to be able to see how the new direction will play out. My guess? Fewer Ramadan hunger dreams and Mac fetishisms, more personal conflict. And if it took a big-ass asplosion from a robot Mac girl destroying a giant mechanical Godzilla to provide the necessary hook to shift to the story to what Haque and Panagariya want to explore, well I’m all for that.

Only part I don’t like? The archive strips don’t show titles anymore. But the transitions are cool. Nice job, lads.

Too much to think about, so just quoting this one verbatim. From the very sexy R Stevens 3:

Starting on January 8, 2007 Diesel Sweeties is going to be running in newspapers through United Feature Syndicate. These syndicated strips will also be showing up on comics.com, A.K.A. the best URL ever. Web-only and archived strips will still be here, same as always. We signed the papers a couple weeks ago and I’m still kind of shell-shocked. I’m working hard to finish the sample strips. The newspaper comics are going to be all-new strips with the same characters, seven days a week.

It’s a pretty cool deal: I get to do newspaper comics, while still maintaining my own copyright, website and t-shirts. The best part for me is that there will still continue to be new comics here on the DS site! A big part of how I maintain my “sanity” is by staying up late writing comics and posting them the moment they’re done. Continuing to have that flexibility in addition to working weeks in advance for syndication is really important to me and I’m extremely glad to still have it.

I’m psyched to get to do the one job I really wanted as a kid, while still maintaining my identity as web cartoonist. Throw in a pony and I’ll have burned through all three wishes in one go.

I still get chills every time I think about making Sunday comics. I just finished my first two last week and it was … surreal. They were Sunday comics, but I got to write and draw them. Insane. I honestly never thought I’d ever have a chance to be in papers. You readers should make out pretty well, too. There’ll be more comics to read and hopefully I’ll grow as a writer by working in new formats. Your thoughts are welcome, as always.

We at Fleen will be attempting to get a proper interview with Mr 3 as soon as possible, as we have a bit of interest in the idea of webcomics/syndication ’round these parts.

But judging from the initial announcement, I draw your attention to the key phrase maintaining my own copyright, website and t-shirts. The best part for me is that there will still continue to be new comics here on the DS site. Ladies and gentlemen, this may be the webcomics version of The Golden Temple of the Himalayas right here.

Not one, but at least two webcomics had strips drawn & queued before the news of Steve Irwin’s death hit the wires. Strips that be considered at least vaguely crocodile-themed.

In the words of T-Rex, Spoooooky!

T, buddy, you can stop work on version 2.0; the definitive tome is already being written.

Happy Labour Day everyone!

Midtown Comics is the one place I’ve ever bought my funnybooks on a regular basis that hasn’t gone out of business, lost a lease, or carried such an embarrassingly-narrow range that I couldn’t get what I wanted. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and their frequent-purchaser plan just saved me $20 on Lost Girls. Bonus: they’re about two blocks from the office where I usually work.

Ultra-mega-super bonus: in one week, they will be hosting Scott McCloud for one of the first events of the year-long Making Comics 50 States Tour.

Here’s where I might embarrass McCloud a bit — he told me he’s a little concerned that the first signing of the tour might get overlooked. He mentioned the scene from Spinal Tap with a slight shudder of dread. I assured him that New York has at least a couple of people that like comics.

Now Midtown’s a big store, and I don’t want to look like a liar here; if you live within commute distance of Manhattan, come on down on the 8th. We want that room packed with people buying books, and to set the tone for one hell of a tour. If you don’t live near NYC, well, there’s lots of other cities where the metaphorical bus will be pulling in, so expect to read more stories of McCloud clan adventures on their extended trek.

See you Friday between 5:00 and 7:00 pm; I’ll bring cupcakes. Seriously, I will.

Happy Birthday!

This page has spoken of ninjas before, about how they’re a key trope to webcomics (despite being the hated enemy of the noble pirate, beloved of the FSM). Well, for all who love ninjas, this week’s Shortpacked gives you a tidal wave of lurkers in the garden, culminating in today’s ninja-stravaganza.

Let’s see, that’s the Cardboard Tube Samurai (and not a ninja at all), a GI Joe ninja, a shirt ninja, and Dr McNinja. All you need now is for the food court in panel four to be serving from Ninja Burger, and the ninja-ness will be complete. My guess? We’ll see some dead cute ninjas before long.

So I was reading the news the other day when I came across this little gem:

WASHINGTON (AP)–The U.S. State Department says it was surprised by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah’s statement that he would not have ordered the abduction of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to a large war.

“It was a surprising statement for somebody who launched a war to say that he regretted launching that war,” Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

We’ll just let the irony of that quote sink in for a moment and allow you to wonder, as I did, if I had accidentally called up The Onion. I hadn’t, but sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Curiously, as regular newspapers become ever less real, the premier fake newspaper has become more like a real newspaper: The Onion‘s print edition has added a comics page! Like much of the rest of the paper, it’s intentionally wretchedly bad with pure genius mixed in.

Witness: there’s ham-fisted editorial cartoons (courtesy of The Onion Syndicate) and bad syndicated strips (courtesy of King Features), right next to Wondermark by David Malki !. This may be more significant than Malki !’s recent addition to the Modern Tales lineup, since even a niche offering like The Onion has the potential to reach people who would never otherwise come across webcomics.

Alas, Wondermark remains merely the second-best strip on the print edition’s comic page. As is true in so many aspects of life, nothing touches the sheer genius of Cathy en Español.

Graphic Smash emerged from its hibernation last night, and just in time, too — Tuesday is Digger day. The new layout is pretty similar to that over at Modern Tales, with the main differences being color scheme, and the fact that Tim Demeter‘s postings appear next to the “updating today” panel.

I think it’s a nice compromise — over at MT, the narrow column where blog entries are displayed makes for a very tall block of text to navigate, but this layout allows for easier-reading text as well as displaying all the day’s updates at a glance. Joey Manley says that GS will be using a new design in the coming days, but I kind of like it as it is. Manley, by the way, is also looking for feedback on whether or not the current MT layout is preferred by readers, so be sure to let him know.

In the meantime, it appears that Demeter has the reins of GS firmly in hand, and we at Fleen look forward to the inevitable announcement that he’s adding a dozen or so new strips. If this growth and renewal pattern continues, Manley’s empire may just dislodge Ryan North as the Nexus Of All Webcomics Reality.

Nah. And speaking of hiatus, colleges around the world are getting back in swing, so look for some of our writers to be a bit spare in their contributions until they’ve gotten over the epic return-to-campus drunkenings back into the swing of academia.

Been a coupla weeks now since Shaenon Garrity was announced as the new editor of Modern Tales. She’s been pretty busy in the meantime — today there are eight (Count ’em, eight! Attached to names like Migdal and Shadoian!) new strip installments up; given that not that long ago, MT would see the new day with Narbonic and maybe one other strip updating, this can only be a great thing.

Add to that the illuminating interviews that Garrity’s been doing with the new MT crewmates, and it’s a good time to be a webcomics reader. Plus! You can revel in previously subscription-only strips in their entirety! If you haven’t read Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order yet, what the hell are you waiting for?

Graphic Smash is down at the moment, presumably about to burst forth in a new and improved form. If T[im] Demeter is half as successful as Garrity in his new job as editor of GS, if will be a good day to be Joey Manley (say that in a Klingon growl for maximum effect).

Now if Manley would just consider making the full list of the day’s MT updates visible from the get-go, all would be well in the world. Yeah, that’s a lot of responsibility to place on the Colonel, but I think he’s up to it.