Ah, springtime, when the fancy of a webcomics blogger turns to webcomics. Yeah, well, it’s almost Spring in the Antipodes, so deal. I’m gettin’ my webcomics love on today.

• Why is it I like this guy so much more when he’s in heavy shadow? Memnon Vanderbeam was supposed to be the sort of stuffy buffoon that you could laugh at, and instead Kris Straub has had to once again go and remind us that even stuffy buffoons are people. With feelings. Add to that an artificial intelligence that’s likewise become a whole personality, and even a makeover to the site, and Starslip Crisis has moved up another couple notches in my Daily Read Order. This will make the sting when Straub is inevitably, tragically cut down in his prime (current most likely scenario: hit on the head with a rock from outer space) all the deeper. Damn you, Straub — why did you make me have to love you?
• Everything I just said about the sting of loss, by the bye, applies this morning to Digger, which has sprung several weeks of filler on us due to a cross-country shift of residence on the part of creator Ursula Vernon. Fleen wishes Vernon safe travels, fulfilling new opportunities, and dare we hope for a new Digger print collection?
• Man, I love the Pudu every time he shows up. To my eye, it looks like today he’s not trying to talk underwater, but sending up little floating written notes. I really hope those fish can read.
• Set your alarm clocks: at some indeterminate time tomorrow, David Malki !‘s hopes and dreams will come to fruition. No, not the charter plane service for webcomickers travelling to conventions (can you imagine Ryan North or Jeph Jaques trying to squeeze into anything smaller than a 777?). We’re talking about his long-in-the-making indy documentary slash tragic love story Me vs. Comic-Con: Who’s Better? From the delightful dream-crusher himself:
  

  You guys are going to love this stunning piece of cinema, in which comics luminaries go shockingly on the record serving up the real dish on the relative qualities of me vs. the world’s largest pop culture convention. Teaser: two separate people say that I’m hairier.

  Prediction: Malki !’s hirsuite ways will make him the darling of the festival circuit until his stunning sweep of every award at Sundance. If he can get Kris Straub on the soundtrack, you can throw in the Grammys for good measure. Then they’ll embark on a months-long coke bender with all their fancy new Hollywood friends, waking each morning with but one thought in their heads: don’t roll over don’t roll over Oh Jesus god please don’t let there be no skinny-ass chick with dry hair named Summer there.

• And lastly, why I love Jennie Breeden even more than Kris Straub — in a new interview, talking about the drive needed to succeed:
  

  [Her boyfriend] said that the world won’t end if you don’t update. But yes, yes it will.

  Words to live by, kiddies. See y’all tomorrow.

Understand that I’m a great fan of Japanese TV. I’m old enough to have seen the first dubbed run of Speed Racer in the US. I learned about Japanese ghosts and demons from barely-subtitled broadcasts of Gegege no Kitaro. Long before the Food Network had heard of it, I was watching untranslated Ryori no Tetsujin every Saturday night.

And nothing, I repeat, nothing has held me in wordless thrall as much as this one cracktastic game show I saw where two poor guys were held in a warehouse without sleep for something like 56 hours until they could win a competition whose rules were never explained and constantly changing. They were variously:

• threatened by a dozen fundoshi-clad men screaming and carrying a phallic mikoshi on their shoulders — a mikoshi that was shooting sparks
• held in a bathtub and pelted with boiling-hot noodles from a ramen vendor’s cart
• forced to ride public buses around Tokyo while dressed in ill-fitting clothing appropriate to an 8 year old (while a screaming middle-aged mother-type repeatedly slapped them for talking back)
• serenaded with the the theme to Space Cruiser Yamato (by the original vocalist, no less!) until tears of memory welled up in their eyes

Forget sumo, porn vending machines, random English on clothing, and the Great Buddha at Nara — this show was destined to be Japan’s cultural legacy to untold generations of the future.

Until now.

Bernie Hou (of Alien Loves Predator and The Burgg fame) reports that his identify-the-movie site was recently featured at length on Japanese TV. So watch in wonder as the in-studio panel on Webtama (including the obligatory token white guy) play guess-the-movie for a prize of delicious dumplings. Oh, yes.

A hearty welcome to any new readers directed here by Boing Boing (edit: and Penny Arcade); the stuff you’re looking for is thataway ↓.

From yesterday’s entry of the blog of the McCloud Family Intercontinental Vagabondage, courtesy of Ivy McCloud:

He signed and doodled on the copy of the book that Sky is having everyone sign for the CBLDF auction. He was Winterviewed (though, as always, Scott and I did not see any of it), we hung out with Lorraine while they were Winterviewing. He played us music on his cell phone.

For the record, “he” would be Neil Gaiman. This will be the first Winterview we’ve seen in some time, so here’s hoping that Sky’s laptop holds up to life on the road and that she can get it mixed down soon; I’ve got a feeling this is gonna be a good one.

In general tour news, this week’s stops in Illinois and Wisconsin will make 32 states + three countries visited since things kicked off back in September; 7½ months and untold miles on the odometer don’t seem to have any adverse effects on the Bravest Family in [web]Comics, so if you see ’em at one of the upcoming events, shake their hands for me.

I think that everything I might have said about our current situation has been said by at least one of you; thanks for your support. Rest assured that words are being crafted with fine precision, honed to a razor’s edge, waiting only for the moment that they may be unleashed in a maelstrom of righteous justice.

In the meantime, the most sincere of thanks to all of you for your support, and please enjoy some happy fun webcomics!

• Apparently taking the suggestion to mirror our content to heart, Jon Rosenberg has done so for at least one posting in teeny-weeny eyestrain-o-vision. The sentiment is appreciated.
• Y’know, as long as I’ve been doing the webcomics hanger-on thing, I’ve never actually met the fabled Sam Brown, and am all but convinced that he doesn’t actually exist. But his talent and disembodied voice are available for your listening/viewing pleasure in pursuit of a good cause. Click to launch, dude.
• Speaking of listening pleasure, check out Dave Kellett’s audio tour of Sheldon (scroll down jes’ a little); okay, it’s just him showing you ’round the features of his site, but for those of us that miss his regular Blank Label podcast, it’s nice to hear him again. Actually, I’d been kind of wondering which creator would get the idea to do something like this first, since recording quick podcasts is easy enough.

  The next logical step is DVD commentary-style tracks. I’ll throw out a suggestion: Kellett and the Unshelved guys should team up and give us the dirt on the now-famed Coffeelid Challenge. Gentlemens, let’s start quibbling.

• Forthcoming merch sighting: Shortpacked announces pre-orders for the first book of David Willis’s toy-related strips. I’m hoping that the back cover contains at least one of the following quotes:
  1. I did your mom.
  2. I’m Batman.
  3. Whores whores whores whores.

Semi-rhetorical question: What’s cooler than a Ryan? How about a Ryan that you can send on missions? Ryan Estrada may not realize what he’s letting himself in for:

Okay, so CAD and PVP have been adapted into an animated series, along with others … but if a journal comic is adapted into a live-action series, does that count as a webcomic adaptation? Or is it just a videoblog? I dunno, I’m asking!

But my Adventures comics have now become The Ryan Estrada Expeditions. A weekly video series where people send me missions, and I travel the world completing them. I’ve got a 24-hour adventure hotline set up, as well as an e-mail adress for people to send me missions. New episodes every Monday here.

I’m planning a big cross country road trip/film shoot across South India this weekend, and I’m looking for more missions! They can be sent to ryan {commercial at} ryanestrada {full stop} com, or left on my adventure voicemail at 1 (696) 593-RYAN.

I think the first question we all have right now is, Why don’t I have an adventure voicemail?, but we all know the answer to that: because we’re boring and we suck compared to a Ryan. But the second (and much more pertinent) question is surely, What should I ask Ryan Estrada to do? If you need inspiration, check out a prior missions webcomic (Interesting thought — does this now constitute a new genre? Discuss.) but don’t expect as many Klingons to show up in South India as in Tokyo.

Editor’s note: Been a busy year for Scott Kurtz, what with the Eisner, the convention travel, and the killer revamp on the PvP site. And Kris Straub‘s released four books, a CD, and a new website. So how else to deal with all those demands on your time other than diving into co-producing and co-writing a new animated series for the web? Kurtz and Straub were kind enough to take the time to answer some questions about the upcoming series, how to use Flash to good effect, and Scott’s Dad.

(more…)

Go check it out.

I’ve got a job, people. Anyway, Scott Kurtz has major news today — PvP is going animated. This is one of those ‘value-added’ deals that digital comics are capable of, one of the things you hear about all the time at San Diego panels, but don’t often see carried through to completion. In this case, it will involve traditional 2D animation (not Flash), with production and a voice-acting cast from Blind Ferret Entertainment (which is the shop of Ryan Sohmer, of Least I Could Do fame). From the esteemed Mr Kurtz:

Ryan [Sohmer] called on three separate occasions to talk to me about making a PvP animated seires.

And three times I said “No way!�

Saying “no� has been my default answer to anyone inquiring about animating PvP. Over the last five years I’ve had a lot of offers and inquiries from people in show-business, and had a total of four different representatives pitching PvP around Hollywood at various times. But, as always, I would rather bypass the normal route and do it myself. I want to retain ownership, start small and grow big. I want to learn the process. You can’t do that in Hollywood. But, I can do that with Blind Ferret. It just took Ryan a couple months to finally convince me of it.

Kris [Straub] and I are co-producers and co-writers on PvP The Series. We write the scripts, determine the direction, look and pace of the show. This is an incredible opportunity to learn the process, get our hands messy, work with animators, direct voice actors, learn script writing, work post-production and sound…all of it. This is a chance to take PvP and make a whole new animal with it, without having to sell it away to a faceless studio who doesn’t really understand it.

An opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime; how could we not take it?

PvP: The Animated Series is going to be a subscription feature, and it’s going to depend in large part on pre-orders to pay for all the animators and voice actors and production. Pricing for a year’s subscription will be $19.95 until January 1st, then jump to $29.95; the program is due to launch on February 1st.

Sight unseen, it’s too soon to determine if this is going to be a roaring success, a noble failure, or something in between, but given the pedigree of those involved, I’m tending more towards the “success” end of the scale at this time. We at Fleen will do our best to bring you interviews with the principals, and keep you up on the progress of the show.

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).

Shishio sends word that Adventures In Digital Comics is apperently finished. For those of you not in the know, AIDC is a film by Sebastien Dumesnil about, you guessed it, web comics and comics in general. More information about the film, which was nominated for the Best Documentary Award at the Tel Aviv Film Festival, can be found on the website.

In particular, I found the interviews section very informative. Be sure to check it out if you’re looking for some interesting opinions on the medium of comics in general and the role the internet is playing in the industry.