To Fool or Not to Fool? Chris Crosby pointed us all towards an April Fool’s gag that wasn’t, with the announcement that his brother, the loquacious Bobby Crosby, scored a Hollywood deal. Check it:

Benderspink is adapting Last Blood, based on Bobby Crosby’s comicbook centered on a band of vampires protecting the Earth’s last human survivors of a zombie apocalypse.

Last Blood was co-created by siblings Bobby Crosby and Chris Crosby but Bobby penned the comicbook alone.

Benderspink has a variety of comicbook properties set up including “Power and Glory” and “Y: The Last Man” at New Line.

Now before you run out to buy tickets, be aware that the road from option to actual movie is long, twisted, and madness-making (cf: the excellent Fortune and Glory by Brian Bendis for a primer of the non-logic that is Hollywood). But for now, Fleen congratulates Los Bros Crosby on their achievement.

While terms of the deal have not been announced, it looks like Ted Rall’s assertion that There is no chance of any webcartoonist becoming a millionaire is on shakier ground than it was just five days ago.

Like all good souls, I was looking forward to today’s release of David Malki !‘s long-awaited movie, Expendable. Unfortunately, it looks like the release will be pushed back a week, so mark your calendars for 23 January when it debuts as part of the Now Film Festival. Now all we need is a Wondermark movie (score by Kris Straub), and all will be well.

Also! If you didn’t make it to MoCCA for Infinite Canvas: The Art of Webcomics, you’ve officially missed your chance. But you still have time to get your ass to the Cartoon Art Museum in San Fransisco for Shaenon Garrity‘s Cartoonist-in-Residence gig this Saturday.

Items of some note:

• When I think awesome, one of the first things that pops to my mind is insane webcomics experiments. And the current gravitational center of insane webcomics experimenters may be found at a commune in Mexico where Ryan Estrada and John Campbell cackle with glee each time they come up with a new mad scheme:
  

  hi gary!

  john campbell here, from the cartoon commune, pictures for sad children, etc. i’m starting my third year of hourly comics, which is this thing where i make a little journal comic every hour i’m awake for a month. they’re going up at hourlycomic.com. i’m wanting to see what journal comics look like if they are kind of preposterously detailed. because with daily journal comics i rarely feel like i get a grasp of what the author’s average day is like. the comics go up each hour i’m awake with a 24 hour lag time. which is part of this thing where i was wondering what if a website updated hourly is that something that is interesting (it is not all that interesting).

  On my first reading, I actually thought that Campbell would be trying to stay awake for a month, and a new comic in every hour would provide us with documentation of his descent into madness. Alas for my sense of schadenfreude but luckily for Campbell, a more careful reading reveals he’s actually doing a comic for every hour that he would be awake anyway. But there is an upside!

  the important thing is that you will get to see ryan estrada say and do what i am sure will be all sorts of dumb things.

  I am so there.

• Chris Hastings, abetting the beffudlement of through-drivers everywhere.
• An epic story started here (or possibly here), ended here, and now offers a jumping-on point for new readers here.
• Looks like 500 strips on January 3rd 2008 wasn’t just a Karenic Phenomenon. Behold.
• Finally, Friend O’ Webcomics Brian Warmoth has finished his escape from the Den of Satan Wizard‘s website to a different sort of diabolical situation. As of yesterday, Warmoth is now the new Marketing Manager of Devil’s Due Publishing, and will handle marketing, publicity and convention responsibilities. We at Fleen hope to see Warmoth on the convention circuit, and urge all reading to drop by the DDP booth to say “thanks” for all the great interviews he did.

Got tipped off by the always clued-in Rich Stevens about a piece by David Byrne in the latest issue of Wired; he’s talking about the management of musical careers (vis-a-vis, how much do you want to give away to other people in exchange for their help). It’s designed as a comment on the music industry, but it’s really applicable to any kind of creative endeavor, such as webcomics.

Particularly interesting is his breakdown of six different models (with examples) of how to get your music (webcomic) out to the listening (reading) audience:

1. The 360° or equity deal; the creator is a brand that’s owned entirely by the publisher lock, stock, barrel, and they manage the entire thing for you (or without you)
2. The standard deal; ownership of the creation goes to a publisher, and the creator gets paid by them (after costs)
3. The license deal; the creator retains ownership, and a publisher has the rights to market/exploit the material for a period of time, after which they revert to the creator who can then exploit or shop them around
4. The profit-sharing deal; minimal upfront cash to the creator (who retains ownership), publisher performs marketing and distribution, and they split the proceeds
5. The manufacturing and distribution deal; the creator does everything except make and ship the final product, and the publisher is pretty much reduced to fee-for-service
6. Not a deal, but self-distribution — the creator does it all, but just as importantly, keeps all the money; with digital distribution costs of music approaching zero, look for this to be much more popular in the future

Right now, the traditional syndication of comic strips exists somewhere between 1 and 2;, comic book work-for-hire and Zuda-type deals straddle 2 and 3; I’d like to see the new ComicSpace do something like 4 or 5 (which would be the Aduz model of publishing); and most self-supporting webcomics artists live in zone 5 or 6 (depends on whether they ship themselves, or farm out fulfillment to someone like Topatoco).

It’s a fascinating read, and if we envision the models on a y-axis (arbitrarily, we can put 1 at the bottom and 6 at the top), I fully expect to see musicians and non-independent [web]comickers climb up to the webcomics end of the scale. As the worlds of music, comics and movies all start to merge into a general art from digital tools, I hope that we’ll make newcomers to the world of self-managed creation feel welcome.

First up: Time is doing its ____ of the Year lists, and this go-round has a category for graphic novels. They handed that category to Nerd World blogger Lev Grossman, who has made his love for webcomics known over the past year. In what may be its highest-profile mention yet, Achewood took the #1 slot (despite not being a graphic novel, per se) and Erfworld the #6 position. Given that both are likely to see an uptick in readers, Grossman might have given Time‘s readers a heads-up concerning Achewood’s (shall we say) profane nature, but anything that gets readers started in webcomics is cool by me.

Elsewhere in the webby wilds, Clickwheel editor Tim Demeter wants you to please enjoy a present from him and his to you and yours. Christmas cards, printable and electronic varieties, are available featuring Demeter’s own Reckless Life, Joe Loves Crappy Movies, Random Encounters, Wonderella, and more. Wait, are they Christmas cards or Holiday cards? Pretty sure nobody cares!

Lastly, finishing out the “webcomics books making it to comic shops” trend of the past year, Spike‘s Templar, AZ is now available for order in the latest issue of Previews, under Diamond order code DEC07 3783. Don’t have it yet? Think of it as a present to yourself.

Hey, check this: Meredith Gran, creator of Octopus Pie (and our masthead) gets interviewed by The Sound of Young America, which concentrates on “things that are awesome”. Okay, it’s for the SOYA blog and not the radio show, but I bet that can be remedied. Hey Jesse Thorn, America’s Radio Sweetheart! Do an audio version of the long interview with Mer. You can produce it by speaking into microphones.

In other news:

• New Dresden Codak, combining references to The Simpsons, the Wonder Twins, Richard Feynman’s bongo dumming, and physical constants that can be used to derive the existence of black holes. Best part? After all that build-up, Kimiko has a solution to her problem that’s simple, elegant, and too marvelous to spoil here. Go read it and bask. Then read the archives and bask again.
• This week, Girl Genius has gone to a rotating splash page — very nice, but something else caught my eye in the redesign. I suspect it’s been there for a couple of days now, but I just this morning noticed a very matter-of-fact, no-attention-drawn-to-it link:
  

  Buy Girl Genius Collections as PDF files

  Hmmm. Very hmmm. It’s only the older volumes (so presumably pirating isn’t as much of a concern), and the Foglios are too canny with their business to be caught out in such an easily-avoidable mistake. Somebody might want to tell DC and Marvel that this is a much more painless way to read comics electronically than the Flash-based monstrosities at their online ventures.

• And the week-long xkcd arc that wrapped today seemingly existed for the purpose of imparting both a message and a horrible, awful, no-good pun that can only be excused by its relation to The Princess Bride. Damn you, Randall Munroe! Daaaaaaamn yooooouuuuu!

Slow news days, so time for the mailbag and linky goodness. Please enjoy.

• As noted elsewhere, the MoCCA website has been updated to include more details of the forthcoming webomics exhibit (including a more comprehensive list of show participants). God willin’ and the creek don’t rise, Fleen will be reporting from the gala opening next Thursday.
• For those of you following the Machine of Death project (first reported here, updated here), dream-crushers Bennardo, North, and Malki ! wish you to know:
  

  Due to our strict anti-spam policy, you will not get any future emails from us unless you specifically opt-in to our dedicated mailing list. You can either sign up for the new list right this second (which we highly encourage!) or subscribe to our RSS feed. Both will get you the latest machineofdeath.net updates sent to you automatically.

  Unless you subscribe to the mailing list or the feed, you will not receive any further notifications and updates from us. So please do! Because we’d hate for the book to come out and you to forget to check the site and miss it.

• In answer to the question that shows up regularly in our mailbox, “How do I get my new webcomic noticed?”, let me point you to a clever means to do so:
  

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
  CONTACT: Evan Nichols
  Email: pr-minion@AskDrEldritch.com

  WEBCOMIC ARTIST POSTS 300TH COMIC WITHOUT EVER BEING INTERVIEWED

  PORTLAND, ORE. – September 3, 2007. Portland photo-comic artist Evan Nichols has posted 300 episodes of Ask Dr. Eldritch without ever being interviewed about his work. Despite launching the comic on Labor Day weekend in 2005, its creator has yet to answer questions from a reporter, blogger or webcomics commentator. “When I started, I asked myself if the world needed yet another webcomic about an ex-vampire-killer turned advice columnist who lives in a spooky Pacific Northwest mansion with a troll in the basement, and the answer was a resounding ‘Yes,’� Nichols could have told a journalist, if he’d been asked.

  This streak was almost broken in May of 2006, when the commentary site Fleen.com mentioned “Ask Dr. Eldritch.� “My webcomic is a spin-off from my weekly humorous advice column of the same name, which addresses the problems faced by evil villains, superheroes, mythical creatures and ordinary people stuck in extraordinary circumstances,� Nichols might have replied to an inquiry, but none happened at the time.

  Additional details, such as the comic’s 100% on-time posting record, consistent #1 ranking on PhotoWebComics.com and presentation of an award in the 2007 Web Cartoonists’ Choice Awards, have also gone completely unexplored.

  # # #

  If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Evan Nichols, please email to pr-minion@AskDrEldritch.com.

  That’s the trifecta right there: originality, some snark, and a properly-formatted press release all in one, which caught my attention and made me want to learn more. Unfortunately, lightning never strikes twice so you don’t bother trying this trick yourself … you’ll have to come up with your own means of fostering attention. Look for Fleen’s in-depth interview with Evan Nichols no later than December, 2012.

• All kinds of wrong (today’s Digger; permanent link requires Graphic Smash subscription).
• And finally, what happens when you combine joblessness, a habit of reading Wigu, a rock band, and fumetti set to music (warning: sound)? The Boneless Children Foundation, a multi-media extravaganza courtesy of David Sophia. In practice, it works exactly as I described it, so if those ideas appeal to you, give ‘er a look/listen.

In case you hadn’t noticed, David Willis is counting down to the 10 year mark of Roomies!-slash-It’s Walky!-slash-Joyce and Walky!-slash-Shortpacked!. The big day will be, oh, in a week or so; drop some congrats to a guy who uses more exclamations than that Wondermark guy.

Okay, it’s not Satanic porn, just the Black & Decker kind: leafblower + kilts.

Short Things:

• Howard Tayler: DEVOURER OF SOULS
• New weekly webcomics podcast, featuring guys with a lot of experience.
• See? It was webcomics! Plus, watching Tony drink directly from the concentrated Twinkie™-filling delivery pipe at the abandoned Hostess factory was awesome.

Longer Thing: John Campbell, who took The Long Walk Into Mexico with Ryan Estrada to establish a comics commune has sent us a progress report:

dear fleen: john campbell here–i’m the dude who moved to mexico with ryan estrada. i’ve started a webcomic called pictures for sad children that updates monday-friday. i figured you guys should know about the first online output of the cartoon commune. it’s somewhere between silly and sad, like most of the things i make.

i made stevie might be a bear maybe and i also make hourly journal comics every january that culminate in hourly comic day. here are some other comics i’ve made so you know the sort of things that are in store.

i doubt a comic with a week of archives is cause for CELEBRATION, but i thought i’d make you aware! thanks.

Thank you, John Campbell! And you’re wrong about one thing — this experiment you’re running makes this particular comic with one week’s worth of archives of great interest and a cause for MEMETIC CELEBRATION. Good luck keeping the Internet running (or Buena suerte que guarda el funcionamiento del Internet, if Babelfish can be relied upon), and keep us in the loop with the big adventures.

Also, keep an eye on your buddy — I heard that Ryans are genetically predisposed to gettin’ whacked out on tequila and running off into the jungle, never to be heard from again. Either that, or Estradas are predisposed to unnaturally shiny teeth, I forget. Whatever, just take care of him.

The long-awaited Wondermark film is here! Thrill to the debate of [web]comics luminaries as they decide: [David Malki !] vs Comic-Con: Who’s Better?

Highlights include daring aerial footage, special appearances by comics legends Stan “The Man” Lee and Scott McCloud, and a loving, lingering, longing closeup on Dave Kellett‘s junk (07:56, for those of you playing along at home). The soundtrack includes the original song, Comic-Con (I Have Loved You) (music: Kris Straub; lyrics: Erica Stephens, performed by Kris and the Straubtones); it’s a tear-jerker that’s sure to dominate MOR playlists for the next five years.

After seeing the movie countless times, I give it eight thumbs up and recommend you run out to get the Special Edition DVD with bonus features just as soon as it’s released.

Confidential to Andy Runton: You faithless whore. You never told me your mom doesn’t like facial hair.