We at Fleen have been writing about How To Make Webcomics since it was announced at SDCC last summer; after multiple readings (and waiting for a time when we knew we needed postings in the bank), we’re ready to tell you how well the book meets its own goals (from the back cover): everything you need to know to make, post and profit from your own online comics.

Answer: pretty damn well.

With four authors on the book, it would be easy for the individual POVs to be lost, but the HalfPixel Crewe have done well — both by dividing the chapters between them, and by feeling free to drop in commentary in chapters written by another. While this leads to a slightly disjointed presentation (they don’t all use the same formatting, and with each chapter primarily overseen by one person, there are more typos than one would like), it does serve to keep the tone of the book as one of a conversation.

The authors are also to be commended for the division of topics along natural boundaries — Dave Kellett’s business past shows when he talks about audience interaction and monetizing comics; Brad Guigar’s many years of convention showing inform his practical tips for conventions (and give the reader a game they can play — find Guigar at a convention, and see if he’s following his own rules … if he’s not, he owes you a donut¹); and Kris Straub’s technical background nicely supplements his chapters on website design and the ugly details inherent in making comics your job (legal niceties, protecting your IP, etc.).

For me, though, the biggest surprise came in Kurtz’s chapters on characters and writing; I’ve been around enough [web]cartoonists for a long enough period of time to know that drawing is a learned, practiced skill, but never thought about the writing of a comic strip in those terms. All of the funny people I’ve known in my life have always seemed to be that way naturally, and the idea that you can learn to write funny — although obvious in retrospect — was somewhat revelatory to me. Along with the chapters listed above, Kurtz’s presentation on character and writing constitute a Strunk & White for the aspiring webcomicker.

But that does leave a few weaknesses to be resolved if there’s ever a second edition, most notably in chapters 3 and 4. And although the chapters are on very different topics (Formatting, and Image Preparation, respectively), the weaknesses all fall neatly into one category: examples, or the lack thereof.

At the start of the Formatting chapter, Straub looks at different layouts used in [web]comics (single panel, horizontal strip, full page), but oddly chose to illustrate each one with a graphic that featured the same aspect ratio. The “single panel” example was essentially a horizontal strip with the interior panel borders missing, and the “full page” was a horizontal strip with more than the usual number of panels. Similarly, a really helpful discussion of word balloon (and balloon tail) placement lacked a visual, and the chapter (which was essentially about artistic/visual decisions) abruptly transitioned to a discussion of schedule in the last two pages. Granted, there may be nothing as important as a committed schedule, and there may not be a better place to discuss it than the Formatting chapter, but … jarring.

Similarly, Guigar’s chapter on Image Preparation (essentially, Photoshop tips ‘n’ tricks) had the requisite mess o’ screencaptures, but the choice of what got displayed was somewhat baffling. A seemingly-terrific discussion about adjusting levels (and I don’t mean to sound snarky here … I don’t know Photoshop at all, so much of this went over my head) featured many shots of the dialog boxes that controlled the levels, and none of sample art showing the outcome of the commands. I’m willing to say that this chapter wasn’t for me, but I have to think that a newbie creator with a computer that runs Photoshop s l o w l y might want to see some visuals indicating what the described techniques would do before committing to sitting down and trying it out.

But I’ll be fair about this — I learned in Guigar’s chapter on “Books” that only certain page counts are practical for a strong binding, and there may not have been room to add space-consuming pictures to satisfy my desire for examples. And honestly, if the worst that I can say about the book is that I wanted it to show me more precisely what it was describing, that’s not a bad problem to have. It hooked me thoroughly and left me wanting more from the lads. In fact, I was so happy with the book overall, I won’t even mention page 149 where Guigar implies that page 10 in your book will be followed by page 10 again, then page 12. Nope, not me.

So let’s summarize — I wanted a bit more detail (or a different focus of detail, if you will) in a pair of early chapters, and the rest left me hungry for more from the HalfPixelites. My only concern with the book now is finding the opportunity to get all the creators to scribble in it, as I’m not going to Emerald City or San Diego this year, but that needn’t stop you. If you see any of the Gang of Four, be sure to say howdy, buy a book, and thank them for sharing so much insight and information — whatever profit they see from the sales of HTMW will certainly not make up for the increased competition they see from new creators who read it and take its lessons to heart.

And I have a feeling that’s exactly the way they want it.

_______________
¹ Not really.

Note: Edited to fix an incorrect photo; Fleen thanks Leah Schnelbach for her eagle eye. Gina Gagliano is shown second from left here, along with Alex Cox of Rocketship, Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly and PW Comics Week, and John Shableski of Diamond; all but Cox were members of the organizing committee.

So SPLAT! was a big success. Big props to Gina Gagliano, who had the idea; Leah Schnelbach (on the right, during the raffle) , the assistant director of the New York Center for Independent Publishing (who graciously allowed me in), Karin Taylor, the director of the NYCIP (who kept everything running) and the entire organizing committe (especially Dave Roman, who tipped me off about the event, put me in touch with the organizers, and had to miss the day due to illness — we’re glad to hear that he’s feeling better).

As I told several people on the day, it didn’t feel like the first iteration of a conference; things went smoothly, the panels were informative and had a heady mix of guests and topics, and the library of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen (“By Hammer & Hand All Arts Do Stand”) was a beautiful venue. In fact, the most serious complaint I can come up with is, that in a building that in part houses a plumbing trades school, I’d have expected the hot-water faucet in the loo to work.

The symposium itself was divided into three tracks — one on the what & why of graphic novels; a second on making them; and a third on graphic novels in schools and libraries. I spent most of my time on track one, but crossed over to three — having no pretensions of artistic ability, I left the “how to make ’em” sessions to those that would benefit.

In terms of presentation, the Who Reads Graphic Novels? and Webcomics: A Primer seemed to run most smoothly; this was probably a function of the panelists present and the moderators — wrangling smart, opinionated people is an art form, and Evan Narcisse and Colleen Venable just seemed to do the best job of it (it doesn’t hurt that Narcisse has both a conversational style and voice very similar to that of Elvis Mitchell).

The most purely fun session was probably that with Margeaux Del Guidice and Michael Lizardi, a pair of school librarians from Long Island speaking on Comic … In A School? Using Graphic Novels to Enhance Student Achievement; they had some terrific info for teachers and librarians looking to get past the legacy of Seduction of the Innocent. In fact, by my estimate a good 20 – 25% of the attendees appeared to be from the school/library field, which I found to be encouraging. Talking with Charles Brownstein (executive director of the CBLDF, and a panelist in the schools/libraries track) confirmed my suspicions — the librarians and teachers and there looking for a path to build their graphic novel collections. That want this material, and they’re pushing to include it in their collections; everybody who’s doing comics and isn’t Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum, take note.

We’re going on a bit long here, so the detailed recap of the webcomics panel will have to wait tomorrow. But I’ll leave you with one teaser — Ted Rall was in fine form, and he’s no longer couching his dislike of internet archives solely in terms of editorial cartoons.

Quotes of the Day:
Scott McCloud, feelin’ the early-morning hungries — Oh my God, they have donuts!
Calvin Reid (R), in the keynote interview with McCloud (L) — [Meredith Gran’s (R) Octopus Pie collection] looks terrific, by the way.

But it looks like you get a double-shot of Anders Loves Maria today, which is odd because I’m quite angry at Rene Engström.

Wait, that’s a terrible topic sentence. Let’s back up to the beginning. I’ve been following Anders Love Maria ever since this gorgeous guest strip ran when Paul Southworth was slackin’ off (something about spawning, I dunno). Combine art that beautiful, that many webcomics cameos, and make fun of a Disney flick, and I am officially intrigued — but there was no URL associated with the strip.

So a name search led me to a blog, which deepened my intrigue; after all, we are talking about a woman who shares her most shameful perversions in comic form. And I still wasn’t to the webcomic.

And the webcomic is why I don’t think I like Rene Engström. It’s a romantic non-comedy, about Anders (photographer, in love with the idea of being in love, with a tabloid-fodder famous mom) and his girlfriend Maria (younger, less focused, in love with Anders but still able to get pissed at him when he’s an asshole). They have a comfortable relationship together when Anders drops a bombshell: he thinks they should have a baby. Maria recoils, an old girlfriend comes into the picture, Anders feels the tug of temptation, and Maria gets pregnant inadvertantly. It’s messy, they’re confused, but love wins out in the end. Fade to credits.

Yeah, that’s Hollywood’s version of romance; this is Sweden — we’ve only covered two days of story, and life hasn’t begun to get complicated yet. A brush with the law sends the couple to the far north, to Maria’s family, who treat Anders poorly (’cause let’s face it, he’s a pussy). Old crushes and old enemies enter, all concerned make bad decisions, and we’re reminded that nobody can hurt us as much as somebody you know loves you — but doesn’t like you very much right now.

And that’s where we are, on the cusp of 100 strips (my usual threshold for a review, but it appears that Anne has forced my hand; I shake my fist at her, thus!), with a pair of protagonists that I feel emotionally drained by. They act so utterly, confusingly, exasperatingly real, that I want to comfort them, scream at them, advise them, and kick their asses. Engström has put me through this wringer, leaving me enraged and empathetic towards her creations at the same time. The last time a character left me this deeply conflicted, he wore a red ski cap and a Speedo (for the record, that’s a very good thing to remind me of); seriously, I halfway believe that Rene Engström is really just a front for Wes Anderson. There is a precedent, after all.

One last thought — I’d emailed Engström earlier in the week that I was possibly going to hold this review to sometime past strip #100; I was waiting for a point of resolution in the story to say, Okay, here’s a good break, jump in. She pointed out that I might be waiting for a while if I was waiting for these latest emotional wounds to close — they aren’t even fully open yet.

And that right there is why I adore this strip — just like real life, there are no clear intervals in the story, there is no upswell of music at the end of the reel, there never will be a neat resolution where everybody gets to go Awwwww. There’s just more life and the choices we make, and I guess I really do like Rene Engström after all. Read Anders Loves Maria, and you’ll like her, too.

If you haven’t listened to the latest Webcomics Weekly podcast (number 21, yo), pay special attention to Alex Guigar (age five!) at about the 41:40 mark, where he implores his dad to engage in the age-old ritual of beating another kid’s dad with his mad comic drawing skills. Note the quiet confidence in Brad Guigar‘s voice as he assures his son of victory.

In non-ass-handing webcomics news, I’ve been emailing back and forth recently with Kate Beaton, to whom I really must apologize for not mentioning her before today. She’s been doing some kick-ass journal-style comics (did you check out her tales of returning to the family homestead for Christmas?).

Beaton’s also been doing some challenge projects; much like John Campbell‘s famed 50 questions, Beaton asked for historical topics and did comics on the first 20. Astoundingly, it turns out that Benjamin Disraeli may in fact be ripe material for the webcomics treatment.

Anyway, historical figures and events, ranging from Tesla to Emperor Norton, from Canadian Heritage Minutes (my favorite: “This nation’s name is Ka-Na-Da” with a close second to the Springhill Mine Disaster of 1958) to Good Queen Bess, with a soupçon of Pope and naked CBC personalities. Come for the history, stay for the awesome.

Hey kids, it’s almost December 8th, and that means it’s time for this year’s Pretend To Be A Time Traveller Day, as dreamt up by Latin heartthrob Aaron Diaz.

Much like the zombie walks that pop up from time to time (although like all right-thinking individuals, I loathe the undead), the idea here is to engage in a bit of public theater, acting slightly anachronistic in your dress and choice of words. If you want the easy route, pretend to be from the past:

… dress in period clothing (preferably Victorian era) and stagger around amazed at everything. Since the culture’s set in place already, you have more of a template to work off of. Some pointers:

• Airplanes are terrifying. Also, carry on conversations with televisions for a while.
• Discover and become obsessed with one trivial aspect of technology, like automatic grocery doors. Stay there for hours playing with it.
• Be generally terrified of people who are dressed immodestly compared to your era. Tattoos and shorts on women are especially scary.

More advanced types will want to pretend to be from the future (either u- or dys-topian variations are fine), but be sure to have a skewed idea of what typical modern dress is like. Having a compatriot around to take photos for posting is also good.

Finally, try not to get punched out. Diaz has managed to pull of PtbaTTD in Alabama, so you ought to do fine, just don’t go overboard, ‘kay?

In other news, it’s not on my regular trawl so I missed this one until alert reader Michael Kinyon pointed it out, but Home On The Strange is wrapping up imminently. Fleen congratulates creators Veronica Pare and Ferrett Steinmetz on 300-odd installments, and look forward to jumping in on the next project from the beginning.

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.

Although I don’t show up in any of the photos from the Zudaparty, I was there. I drank deep of the proffered beer and had one large and damn good margarita. I met with Ron Perazza (Director of Creative Services at DC), saw the tool, asked some questions. I still have more questions than answers.

The sample Zudasite itself is very slick — it had very intuitive controls for navigating comics, perhaps made somewhat easier by the dictate of a 4:3 aspect ratio. All in all, IBM has provided a very nice human interface for the reader of Zudacomics (although we’ll have to see how well it performs when the broadband gets a bit chokey). But the obvious work and emphasis placed on the interface may be indicative of Perazza and his colleagues focusing too much on surface issues.

I asked if the 4:3 ratio wouldn’t limit creators who might prefer to work in different ways; by way of example, I pointed out how Penny Arcade usually runs a straight 3-panel strip, but when the gag (or in the rare case of filthy continuity, the story) demands, any shape can be put to use.

Perazza answered by discussing topic matter, not the flexibility of presentation. The toolset is uniform, not the content, he said. He continued that Zuda’s not interested in “recruiting” Penny Arcade or other established strips — they want to build up unknowns. Great, I said, but I’m not talking about content — everybody already reading webcomics is aware that they can follow any genre or story type. What about the fact that a creator may want to stretch outside the 4:3 box just this once (or maybe from this point onwards) because it suits the comic better?

That prompted Perazza to talk about the virtue of the 4:3 box — it makes for a uniform interface, regardless of which comic occupies the space. Still not what I was asking, and he conceded that the box restriction would make print easier.

This brought us to the heart of the matter — Zuda provides print and publishing services to creators. But what’s the value added there? There’s plenty of tools and hosting available for new creators; when it’s time for print, there’s companies that exist for that purpose and a deep well of already-done-that creators to ask for guidance. Perazza countered that not everybody would have the patience or desire to do things in addition to creating comics, and that by Zuda taking up those tasks creators can concentrate on the comics. It’s not for everyone, but exactly right for some people is how he summed it up.

What Zuda wants to do, Perazza said, was to bring the audience to deserving creators. This raises a crucial question — there’s a finite number of people that have computers and network sufficient to make following webcomics practical. This is the potential population that Zuda has to draw from; what fraction of that population that doesn’t already read webcomics can Zuda entice to pick up the habit? Those that already read webcomics would find deserving creators without Zuda’s intervention, so who is the new audience that Zuda can bring?

The readership of traditional comics (which would be the cohort that Zuda could most easily access) is small and rapidly shrinking … assuming they could be converted en masse to webcomics (and keep in mind, that would be spread across the entire spectrum of webcomics), would that even provide a noticeable blip in the overall readership?

Perazza answered, We’re not entirely sure what the audience we’re going to be drawing from is. Honest answer good, being this close to launch without that aspect of the plan locked down not so good. Continuing, Perazza said that his big goal for Zuda is transparency — instead of the initially-promised October date, he’s pushing DC’s legal department to have the standard creator contract online and visible by the end of this month. At that time we’ll all have a better idea how much it will cost creators to get the toolset and publishing services, and we’ll be in a better position to judge if the benefits are justified (pre-emptive disclaimer: I’ll be reading those contracts closely, but I Am Not A Lawyer).

I’ll leave you with the weirdest thought that’s occurred to me in the two weeks since my talk with Perazza: if Zuda meets its goal of bringing a new set of readers to the medium, those that benefit most may be those who don’t sign on the dotted line. Think about it — if Zudacomics accomplishes everything it wants and you sign the contract as a creator:

• you get publisher services
• plus audience
• but you must share ownership and/or monetary interest

and you’re happy with that equation, great. But when (not if) those new readers start straying outside the Zudayard into the wider neighborhood, then the pool of all possible readers for webcomics has grown (and for Zudacomics to be long-term viable, it’s grown by quite a bit). If you’re an independent creator who’s already making webcomics your job:

• you’ve got publishing and/or merchandise worked out
• plus you get new readers that you can convert to purchasers of your fine wares
• and you don’t have to give up ownership interest or monetary value

then who’s the real winner? In one of the ironies that make life worth living, the biggest beneficiary of Zudacomics could turn out to be Scott Kurtz.

In entirely other news, temporary shirt with dinopixels!

By the time you read this, Ryan Estrada will be five days into his current big adventure. As you may recall, Estrada announced plans to start a comics commune in Mexico about two months back, and when I met him on the last day of San Diego, those plans were coming to fruition.

“I got turned down for a visa”, he told me, “so tomorrow I’m going to walk across the border as a tourist, which gives me 60 days to figure something out. I’ve heard it’s easier to change your status if you’re already in the country.” Monday morning, he and fellow artist John Campbell did just that, and if you’ve been following his LiveJournal, you know they’ve made it from Tijuana to Chihuahua (I can still never type that word without hearing the pronunciation of Les Nessman).

Estrada’s serious about the art — in addition to posting via WiFi, he’s carrying a portable studio that he built into an oversized piece of luggage, all Q Branch-style. He described lovingly the custom foam cutouts in the case for his laptop and other gear, and was somewhat wistful that he couldn’t go all the way and make the case sleek, brushed aluminum. Given the possibility of theft and having his experiment come crashing down, it’s a rather ordinary piece of luggage.

And he’ll need those supplies, since he has plans to conduct business from wherever he ends up. On 30 August, look for the launch of his custom comics business. And not just any custom comics: a fixed price will get you a custom 24 hour comic, straight from the heart of Mexico.

And because this is Ryan Estrada we’re talking about, there’s never just one piece of amazing news at a time. Starting tomorrow, CNN Headline News will be running Ryan Estrada Expeditions episodes as part of their weekend News To Me program. Tune in and let Mr Estrada know that we all hope he doesn’t get shot up by banditos (riding raptors or otherwise).

Nothing to do with Estrada, but it’s timely (thanks to alert reader Brian for the heads-up) … Warren Ellis is doing a webcomic:

Autumn 2007. On the web. Weekly. Free. freakangels.com.

Curiously, no comments as of this writing. With good reason, it appears.

Brief post today because it’s Saturday and exactly how much do you people want from me? Also because I’m still mulling over a lot of what I heard and saw yesterday and they’ll have to get a fuller treatment later. With that in mind, let’s get started.

The Business of Webcomics panel was different than any other I’ve seen at Comic-Con so far; Robert Khoo and Scott Kurtz set out with a goal of creating a viable, monetized property live on stage with the help of a whiteboard and a wireless microphone. While Kurtz called for suggestions from the audience and scribbled notes, Khoo wrote his ideas on the other side of the board.

First up — deciding on a setting. Kurtz is of the general opinion that webcomics are like sitcoms: the setting gives you flavor, but it’s the characters that drive things. That is, WKRP in Cincinnati isn’t really about a radio station, The Office isn’t really about the paper business … you get the idea. Suggestions flew fast and furious; in some cases they were already done (movie theatre!) and in some cases too tricky to implement (deep sea trench!). Ultimately, Khoo pushed for a setting he thought would be a challenge: A CASINO.

While Khoo started thinking up issues of market segments, audiences, and industry pluses and minuses, Kurtz and the crowd started spitballing potential characters — the pit boss, the horrible Elvis impersonator who’s really Elvis, the bouncer, the guards and cocktail waitresses. Given the better potential for conflict (which would drive character design), Kurtz decided this was a crappy casino where the house manages to give away its advantage.

Meantime, Khoo’s working up his limitations. He wants to partner with representatives of the industry and they’ve got deep pockets, but they’ve also got a small number of potential partners/advertisers, and a built-in limitation of appealing to an adult audience: you can’t push to kids with the natural tie-in products. There’s also the thought that while a lot of people may think about gambling for a week when they’re on vacation, there’s not many people that make it a continuous part of their lives — and their lives aren’t necessarily in great shape.

Character design isn’t going to be really possible to describe here, but we can summarize Kurtz’s thoughts in two words: Bert and Ernie. Strongly visually contrasting characters work well together, as much as strongly contrasting personalities. It’s such a complex topic, in fact, that you really ought to wait until January, when Image will be publishing a book on this very topic and more (think of it as a how-to guide to webcomics) by Kurtz and Kris Straub.

Similarly, Bill Barnes‘s question on how the setting/design is to the business end was revealing. Khoo emphatically denied that he would try to influence things in any way at all. If Kurtz wants to use the strip (as he mentioned) to do commentary on the people who line up to cash their paychecks in chips, then Khoo’s got to find a way to work with that when pitching to that self-same casino for partnerships and advertising. Whatever the artistic direction of the strip, whatever the social responsibility issues, it’s up to the business guy to make it work without changing the strip.

At this point, the session went to straight Q&A; as I mentioned before, there’s going to have to be a fuller discussion of these issues, and look for that in the coming week.

The other session of note yesterday wasn’t a session — it was a party thrown by Zudacomics to introduce themselves. I have written of my skepticism regarding DC’s initiative, but let me say that the snacks were tasty, the open bar was top quality, and Ron Perazza (director of creative services) was honest with his answers. I’m still working up my thoughts on this one, and will talk about it as soon as I have the time to do it justice.

Finally, the Eisners were last night, and from the Dumbrella booth you can easily see both Phil Foglio and Brad Guigar, who were nominated for Best Digital Comic. Last time I spoke to them (Guigar before the ceremony, Foglio possibly after), neither knew if they had won or not. If you’re around, drop by and give each of them a hearty handshake/manly shoulderclap of congratulations, or a tender hug of condolence. Today’s sessions of note below the cut.

• Dave Kellett, on his favorite cookie — I Hoovered those things down.
• Robert Khoo, on collectives — This is not a knock on anybody, I think those guys are great, but I don’t think there is any collective right now doing it right.
• Scott McCloud, on me — Do you know there are no photos of you on the internet?
• Ivy McCloud, on driving distances — We got an oil-and-filter change at least six or seven times, and that was every 7000 miles.
• Sky McCloud, on forgetting an important story detail during the big slide show — Oh, frak.
• Ron Perazza, on which population Zudacomics is going to be drawing its audience from — We don’t know yet.
• Phil Foglio, on awards — We put a sign on the booth last year that said Eisner Award loser!

(more…)

One thing about webcomics that I really love? Innovation. You’ve got a couple zillion really creative people grinding away out there, and when one of them stumbles on a clever idea, it spreads slowly at first, then quickly becomes just a standard part of a well-designed site. Case in point: social bookmarking.

Sites like Beaver and Steve and Little Gamers have had links to add particular strips to sites like del.icio.us and digg for a while now; Diesel Sweeties has feeds via RSS and a host of alternate readers/syndication sites for the main page (but not, as far as I can tell, for individual strips).

To that list add Sheldon, which this week added a tactical nuke-out of feed readers (15 by my count) to the front page (like DS, Sheldon appears to take the inform me when there’s a front page update approach, rather than the hey check out today’s installment approach favored by B&S and LG). My guess is that in two months, we’re going to see those little buttons on most of the high-traffic sites. For reference, the various links and readers are:

• Beaver and Steve: StumbleUpon, digg, del.icio.us, reddit
• Little Gamers: RSS, LiveJournal syndication, del.icio.us, digg
• Diesel Sweeties: StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Bloglines, LiveJournal syndication, My Yahoo, Google, RSS
• Do me, Sheldon: RSS, My Yahoo, My msn, Windows Live, Google, My AOL, Bloglines, netvibes, newsgator, Pageflakes, Rojo, Newsburst, feedlounge, LiveJournal syndication, StumbleUpon

Oh, and if we email and ask him politely, do you think Andy Bell will grace us with some pictures of Darth Creature?