This is a week later than I expected the story to break, but that’s life. Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge grim survivor contestant Michael Payne happens to be a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, which give out this little thing called the Nebula Award that you may have heard of. Payne is, in particular, a member of the jury for the Andre Norton for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, given out annually by the SFWA for the best YA SF/fantasy novel of the year. In addition to the open nominations voting process, the collective members of the jury can add up to three titles to the nominations list, and:

[T]his year I asked Amulet Books to send around copies of Barry Deutsch‘s Hereville ’cause it’s been one of my favorite comics since he started posting it at Girlamatic all those years ago. After reading all the books submitted to us, the jury agreed on two titles to add to the Norton ballot, and one of them was indeed Hereville.

Hereville‘s not on Girlamatic anymore, but you can still find the original 57 page story online. Consensus is that this is the first time a graphic story has been nominated for a Norton (and perhaps the second time for any of the Nebula categories), but I’m more interested in the fact that this appears to be the first Nebula (which is a rather respected literary award) nomination for what’s ultimately a webcomic.

This page has opined in the past about the declining difference in meaning between “webcomics” and “just comics”, and Deutsch’s work underscores this, I think. The Nebulas don’t have a separate category for comics, much less webcomics — Hereville is being judged the peer of works in different presentations and forms, and we’ll see more of this in the future. Not because [web]comics are getting better (although certainly some of them are, and some of them are crap, and some in past were masterworks that were overlooked), but just because more people (like Payne) in the future will have had experience of them, and not think it odd to say, Hey, we should consider this, it’s really good.

It’s not about agendas or secret campaigns or undue influence, it’s about familiarity. We may have turned a corner, this funny little subniche of a popular-yet-marginalized artform, and it’s possibly one of those corners you don’t turn back from. Like it or not, the best of [web]comics is going to have a seat at more tables in the future.

Anybody else remember the Henry Mancini-penned “Viewer Mail” theme that Letterman had back on NBC? I once saw the Red Army Chorus sing it with awesome Russian accents. That was great.

• Gingerbread Houses, by Alexander Danner and Edward J. Grug III reached the end of its story. Two years and nearly 100 updates in the making, it’s a modern twist on the Hansel & Gretel story, with a particular focus on the question, Okay, we’re back home with parents that tried to kill us — now what? One may note that both Danner and Grugg are webcomics vets, and a two year story is kind of like a warmup for them; Danner’s got plenty of comics work on his website and Grug came within a half-dozen guys of winning the Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge, racking up more than five years of longevity in the ultimate contest of Man and Machine. No, wait, that’s the Indianapolis 500. The DGIMC is the ultimate contest of Cartoonist and Internet. Anyway, congrats to Grug and Danner, and don’t forget that if you liked Gingerbread Houses, mini comics (three so far, fourth and final coming soon) are available for your purchase. Any chance of a collected volume, guys?
• Discovered recently: Death At Your Door; it’s been running since last May, but I only heard about it via an email from creator Rod Salm recently. It’s interesting in that it almost entirely reminds me of other things, yet manages to appeal on its own merits. The art is reminiscent of early Chex-N mixed with (really dating myself here) Angst Technology and a soupçon of Larry Marder’s Beanworld. The main plot point — that Death (that’s capital-D death, and no perky Goth girls here) gets to live in the ‘burbs with housemates — reminds me of the situation with Mort over at Chris Eilopolous’ (perhaps permanently hiatused) Misery Loves Sherman. But somehow DAYD feels fresh.

  I think the likeliest candidate for that fresh feeling became pretty apparent on Monday. DAYD has a sense of place; it’s firmly set in Manitoba and while it doesn’t go out of its way to beat you over the head with that fact, it does show up just enough from time to time to root the strip in a way that lots of comics don’t. They could take place anywhere, but that just means that they aren’t really taking place anywhere. DAYD might have brought up Louis Riel Day, but that’s just the icing on the Prairie Provinces cake. Much like Octopus Pie‘s Brooklyn, or Alien Loves Predator‘s Manhattan, DAYD’s Manitoba is almost a part of the cast.

• Finally, I got an email from a gentleman (presumably) that signed himself (presumably) as -3-. Not the most obvious moniker, but hey — internet. Mister (presumably) -3- pointed me towards a webcomic known as eMT, which name immediately caught my eye and which (somewhat disappointingly) turns out to stand for experiMental Theatre.

  Pretty wacky stuff, sometimes verging on wacky for the sake of being wacky, but there’s something grabbing me. It’s like how a lot of people that work with aggressively experimental or alternative forms, it’s quickly clear that that’s all they can do? By contrast, -3-‘s work gives hints that there’s much more craft and technical skill lurking underneath. The bio page bears this out, revealing that -3- worked on a mess o’ videogames, can work in lots of different styles, and colored a now-concluded webcomic that I quite liked, La Muse. So we’ll see — as long as I keep getting glimpses of structure behind the experiment (after all, the scientific method teaches that experiments require rigor and formal structure), I’ll keep looking back from time to time.

Multiple disciplines suggest themselves in today’s stories; it’s like an Ig Nobel in miniature around here.

• Chemistry
  Back in my college days (ah, nerd school) we had a simple test to determine what items went in which department — things that fell down were Civil Engineering, things that moved around and made noise were Mechanical Engineering, things that made your hair stand on end were Electrical Engineering, and things that smelled funky were Chemistry¹.

  Years later, I found myself doing a week’s work at a manufacturing facility of a flavoring and fragrances company and I was struck by the near total absence of any scents whatsoever — like the magic of chemistry had sucked out all of the olfactory noise that would prevent testers from judging tastes and scents on an isolated, objective basis. I wonder if Kaja Foglio knows what I’m talking about.

  This isn’t some idle speculation — Professora Foglio likely has experienced the odor equivalent of a sensory-deprivation chamber because she’s recently wrapped up the development of ZOMG Smells (noted geeks perfumers) development of a line of Girl Genius perfumes. Whether you want to smell like a Jägermonster, a madboy Spark! I meant Spark!, or the aftermath of the Nuremberg Pudding Incident (not to be confused with the Noodle Incident), ZOMG Smells (and shortly, the Studio Foglio online store and con booth) have you covered.

  If anybody knows of another webcomic that’s inspired a line of perfume, let me know. Since we’ve had songs recorded by/about webcomic characters (cf: Deathmøle, Dinosaur Comics: The Opera), interactive animations (cf: MS Paint Adventures, Dinosaur Comics again), recipes inspired by webcomics (cf: Webcomics: What’s Cooking?) and now perfume, I guess the only sense left to tie in would be touch. How long before we see a line of Girls With Slingshots sex toys?

• Economics (it’s sort of a science)
  Speaking of Girls With Slingshots, one may note that Danielle Corsetto has a brand-new design to her website, complete with spankin’ new RSS feed, blog capability, twitterfeed, con schedule, alt text, and the works. If you didn’t read Corsetto’s intro to the new design (and kudos to Tyler Martin for his work — it looks great) you might be confused by the list of conventions for 2011 where she notes she’ll be at the Blind Ferrett booth. If you did read the posting, you may have noticed that GWS has joined up with Blind Ferret — hosting, storefront, merchandise fulfillment, book publishing, handy excuse to head to Montréal every few weeks for “business meetings” (and absolutely not to enjoy a fabulous city full of comickin’ people).

  This is a big deal for Corsetto, and possibly a bigger one for Blind Ferret, who are now branching out into the sort of webcomics services-for-hire that this page has called for (and international/binlingual in scope, too); between the seeing-impaired mustelids and the toxic sentient solanid, those top-tier webcomickers that need business services appear to be better supplied than ever. Exciting times.

• Temporal Mechanics (okay, it might be Star Trek science, but it’s at least sciencey, right?)
  Michael Payne wrote to point out something important is happening next Friday, besides the expected post-American Thanksgiving tryptophan coma: the Daily Grind Ironman Challenge will cross 1500 updates. There are still six of the original 56 contestants duking it out for the status of Last Webcomicker Standing and the fabulous prize of $1120. How long is that, really?

  Long enough that most of the Final Six are actually approaching 2000 to 3000 updates in their comics, since they were merely hopping into the contest with whatever comic was actually running at the time. Long enough for contestants like Dean Trippe, John Campbell, Brian Fukushima, and Natasha Allegri (to name but a few) to build careers since they got knocked out, careers so notable that it’s a surprise to look down the list and say, “Crap, they were in that contest five years ago?” Long enough that the contest had already seen its field winnowed by half before I started my hack webcomics pseduo-journalism.

  Heck, it’s even been long enough for Brad Guigar to grow a sweet moustache/chinbeard combo and get a pair of contacts (compare/contrast). So to all of the remaining Iron Men, we at Fleen say well done and geez, are you gonna make us wait another 1500 days to see who wins this thing. Just bow out together and split the money.

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¹ In large quantities, things that smelled funky qualified as Chemical Engineering.

For those that didn’t see Tim Tylor’s comment in yesterday’s post, there’s an arguably happy ending to the Hot Topic/Kawaii Not dust-up:

About Hot Topic: All Kawaii Not merchandise there is OFFICIAL – and is good news for me and Kawaii Not. Turns out there was a miscommunication issue between me and my licensing company, but that has all been settled. So the bottom line? If you buy Kawaii Not at Hot Topic, you support me and the craziness! Hooray!

Yay for Megan Murphy; I still say that Hot Topic needs to clean its procurement process the hell up.

• It’s specifically for days like this that I don’t require people who make things I like (or people I know personally, for that matter) to get along with each other — I can like them separately just fine. If Gabe & Tycho’s take is that Jesse Thorn is likely a serial killer, I can live with that. Heck, Rene Engström can’t stand Radio Lab (although I don’t think she’d accuse Jad & Robert of having heads in their fridge). I can be the one guy that likes webcomics and public radio, that’s cool. In fairness, Jesse’s take on the PA situation is here.
• Overdue public thanks: the fine people (mostly, Gina Gagliano) at :01 have put me on their review copies distribution list, and I am being presented with more fine graphic novels than I can keep up with. Recurring themes: plucky teen girls, World War II, awesome cover designs by Colleen AF Venable, and a number of webcomics-related artists doing fantastic work. Proper reviews to be worked up.
• Know what just turned five years old? The Daily Grind Ironman Challenge; five years on, and seven webcomickers are still in the running for more than a thousand bucks. Literal updating machines have been out of the running for more than four years, and the last challenger to fall by the wayside did so more than ten months ago. How long can they last? How long can this madness continue?
• As long as we’re acknowledging longevity, congrats to David Malki ! on 600 installments of Wondermark, with one of those optical illusion deals that never works for me. DAMMIT.

Dammit, I suck. The news of the new Webcomic Idol entirely slipped by me:

This years winner of the Webcomic Idol contest is Simulated Comic Product, congratulations and welcome to Bomb Shelter Comics.

As for Shi Long Pang, you left all of our judges very impressed. From the way the comic is executed, to your ability to incorporate constructive criticism into your strips so quickly. You put up one heck of a fight.

But at least I won’t miss a second milestone. Ladies and gentlemens, we’re coming up on 1000 updates of The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge. From Grinder Mike Payne

[The Challenge] began February 28, 2005 with 56 contestants. On December 26, 2008, the nine of us remaining in the hunt for the prize money will hit our 1,000th update.

This means different things to different creators–I mean, Brad Guigar, Andrew Rothery and Ryan Smith were doing their comics before the contest started, and Guigar and Smith ended those comics during the contest only to start up new ones without missing a day. Edward J. Grug III has done many different stories as his daily entries and is now the regular artist for T Campbell’s Sketchies, while I’ve been posting two pages a day in my continuing storyline and am therefore approaching 2,000 pages of comics!

Holy Crap. Seriously, what more needs to be said?

Editor’s note: Easter Eggy goodness over at Girl Genius today, and since it tosses a little love to The Devil’s Panties, I figured we at Fleen should do the same. Panties wrangler Jennie Breeden was kind enough to do an interview with us in the wake of the New York Comic Con last month, and it’s well past time that it ran.

For those of you who may not recall, at San Diego last year Breeden announced that she’d given notice at her day job and was making [web]comics full time. Six months in, how’s she doing?

(more…)

Yeah, so the Washington Post is doing that “Best Webcomic” poll thingy again (cf: last year’s version). I remain deeply ambivalent because it’s asking for categorization based on physical format — webcomic, comic strip (presumably newspaper, although most webcomics are strips), “graphical narratives” (I think that means graphic novels, or maybe comic books?) and animated film. So because of choice of distribution medium, webcomics are all comparable?

Think about this for a moment: comparing (say) Bucko against Family Man (which are produced in the same room, from adjacent drawing tables) makes about as much sense as comparing (say) Roger Langridge’s The Muppet Show Comic Book against Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose¹ because they’re both printed in color with floppy covers and staples up the middle.

So webcomics are all webcomics? Fine. I’m nominating Oglaf, SS Myra, and Get Fucked²; at least they’re more comparable than other comics would be to each other. Let’s see if WaPo acknowleges ’em.

• Speaking of Charles Christopher³, a double-size update dropped, along with this note:
  

  See you next week, for the exciting conclusion of Chapter 2!
  -karl

  Given that a chapter means the possibility of a new book, I’m all excited. Oh, heck, I was already excited because Luga showed up again last week, bringing to an end my worry and fretting of more than a month. The wheels of Luga’s justice may grind slowly, but I think in the end both the Chief and Sissi Skunk will have cause to regret their misdeeds.

• Following up from yesterday — the Bradster and the G-Man have revealed their collaboration at the ECCC site, in the form of a weekly gag strip about comic convention goings-on, out front on the floor, in the planning and backstage process, and the inevitable bar circuit. More from Guigar at his blog, but for me the most telling part was his explanation about a key piece of logic — this strip, if done well, will give people a reason to come back to the ECCC website all year round, and not just when they’re specifically gearing up to attend.

  The next EmCity Con isn’t until the end of March, and possibly only the hardest core of attendees are paying much attention to the daily announcements this far out … until now? That’s a lot to ask of a new webcomic, even from two established creators with built-in audiences, but it’s going to be one hell of an interesting experiment, one that I think will be repeated elsewhere in the coming years.

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¹ In the former case, the comic made me laugh; in the latter, the reviews.

² If I felt like doing more than just making a point, I’d have to go with Vattu, The Abmoninable Charles Christopher, and Octopus Pie, which are all character-driven, chapter-oriented, longform stories, and absolutely killing it, each update.

³ I was so, right there, in footnote #2; you think I write these for my amusement? Well, that’s where you’re right.

Does mail still come in bags? I keep hearing that the Postal Service here in the US is on the verge of nonexistence, so maybe soon there won’t be any mailbags except in the metaphorical sense.

• Following up on yesterday’s mention of convention codes of conduct, Fleen Publisher and Impressario-General Phillip Karlsson¹ emailed me to point out that this discussion is taking place in other communities. For those that want to see how the Perl coder community is discussing standards of conduct, make with the clicky.
• Also following up on yesterday’s mention of indy/webcomic-themed conventions in general, Rebecca Viola emailed me a bit ago to mention a newcomer to the con circuit:
  

  We thought you would be interested in hearing about our second annual comics show. Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE) is back and has a fabulous new website with tons of information about panels and new comic debuts! The show will be held Saturday, Sept 24 and is open to all ages with free admission.

  You thought right, Rebecca, and given the short duration, all-ages orientation, and free admission, I’d say that MICE is helping fill a niche that’s really only served by TCAF at present. I’ve spoken with some people that were at the inaugural MICE last year and they all had good things to say about it; if you’re in the New England area and are looking for creators the likes of Christopher Baldwin, Alexander Danner, or various TopatoCosters (not to mention what looks like a bunch of up and comers — people that we’re all going to be talking about in a few years time), make your way to Cambridge on 24 September.

• Speaking of things timed around cons, Kel McDonald wrote to tell me about an undertaking launching just after SPX:
  

  Right after SPX, Spike, Diana, myself, Lin Visel, and a few others are running this Tumblr contest. It’s kinda like the Ironman Challenge but with a time limit.

  Kel was hoping that I’d get my ass in gear soon enough to help promote the SketchBet so that there’d be plenty of participants, but her email came in during my Irene-prompted downtime. No matter, as the contest is full up with participants, so we can sit back and watch the fun roll in starting 17 September. See you there.

• Not email, but too cool to keep to myself: readers of this page may recall that I loves me some A Girl And Her Fed³, and I particularly love the character of Mr Speedy, a genetically-modified, ultra-rightwing, chlamydia-infested, viciously sarcastic koala. In case I didn’t have enough dick jokes in my life, I will soon be able to have a plush Speedy to prompt my recollection of his choicest word-bombs. Warning: they’re salty.

_______________
¹ For newcomers, Fleen is service² of Phillip’s company, Dumbrella Hosting (which also hosts a series of high-quality webcomics as well as Oh No Robot and Project Wonderful. He makes sure that everything on the site works, leaving me to be the vaguely entertaining blog-monkey, and the deal is that in return for churning out the word count, he buys my drinks anytime we’re in the same place. Given that he lives in Rhode Island and I live in New Jersey, and that my liver is not nearly as debased as his, this does not put an excessive crimp in his booze budget.

² Possibly even a public service ernouncemint.

³ Rumor has it that I may have written the foreword to the first AGAHF print collection, coming soon.

Brad Guigar + 8 years = today! Yep, it’s eight years of daily goodness from one of the nicest, most nose-to-the-grindstone, happy guys you’re likely to meet in this crazy bid’ness. How many other cartoonists do you know that produce eight separate installments (across three different titles, after the day job) to run online and in a newspaper that only publishes six days a week? For those scoring at home, 8 > 6. I submit, this guy is the Hardest Working Man in Webcomics.

Still with the math, we already know that Wondermark + The Onion print edition > Cathy en Español. But what about Wondermark + Dark Horse Comics? Judging from this page, it looks like that equation equals “$14.95, at quality bookstores everywhere in time for San Diego Comic Con.” It also appears that this is David Malki !’s second book, joining the hilarious and compelling Le Talmud et Ses Maîtres.

Finally, what sort of variables are best for the Zudacontest? David Gallaher (writer/co-creator of Zudaoffering High Moon) draws our attention towards a posting in the Zudaforum. At the moment, the greatest amount of discussion seems to be on the topics of genre competitions (gag-a-day strips not having to compete against storyline strips, for example), the viability of elimination rounds, and the possibility of all-star or second-chance contests. Zudatypes wanting to see how elimination rounds might work may want to check out Webcomic Idol, which uses such a format. In the meantime, those having feelings on the matter may wish to read and contribute to the Zudathread.

Couple of quick things, as there’s a lot on my plate at the moment.

• Bad news from Amsterdam, as Liz Greenfield reports a dead computer, severely limiting her ability to do comics for an adoring Internet public. If you’re going to The Thing in London on the 17^th, she will be bringing sketchbook-type material to sell (sadly, the hoped-for books 4 and 5 are on hold ’til the hard drive gets restored). It is your duty to buy lots of these sketchbooks so that Liz can get a new computer, please.
• The McCloud Family Trek continues unabeted, with new dates for the leg that takes them from the reaches of the Midwest all the way to the Atlantic Ocean and back (with a small side trip to California). Tomorrow: Clarksville, TN.
• Related question: what do you call kids whose godfather is Neil Gaiman, and whose father will officiate at the wedding of Amy Kim Ganter and Kazu Kibuishi? Fangirls. Of the Year.
• Does two years count as a Grind? Yes. Yes, it does.
• Longtime webcomickers Chris Daily (and formerly schoolmate/roommate/collaborator of both Jennie Breeden and T Campbell) has teamed up with fellow vet Aerie for Punch an’ Pie. It just launched Monday, but based on pedigree it’s worth a gander.
• And, naturally, Achewood. I think I need my name on that thing, and some god damned peanut butter.