The webcomics blog about webcomics

Turns Out They Don’t Work On Snow

I would have been willing to spend two or even three of my Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys coins but it turns out blizzards (70.3 cm of snow!) don’t work that way. My spine and I are going back to bed as soon as we’re done here.

  • Scott McCloud will be teaching a two day class on comics at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art on 20 – 21 February (that’s a Saturday and Sunday) in Van Nuys, California. It’s US$495 for the course, but it’s probably equivalent to at least a semester’s worth of classes at Art School™ if you want to make comics, so jump on that.
  • First noted during the blizzard thanks to the work of Fleen Senior French Correspodent Pierre Lebeaupin, cartoonist extraordinaire Boulet had released a do-it-yourself avatar-o-matic, the products of which I’m already starting to see pop up on Twitter. I’ma have to play around with this.

    FSFC Lebeaupin is also staying on top of the ongoing Angoulême story, and we’ll be looking to him for his reactions on the eventual winner of the Grad Prix, and whether or not the voters take the opportunity to leave off for a year.

  • This makes so much sense I’m surprised it didn’t happen before today: Angela Melick, engineer and cartoonist, now has a Patreon. Jam’s one of the best — do support her.
  • Of course Jim Zub is announcing another series that he’ll be writing for Marvel (Thunderbolts this time). It’s what he does.
  • Diana Nock (of Intrepid Girlbot fame) is launching a new webcomic, Wonderlust, today-ish, with five pages, so be sure to scroll back to the beginning. It’s too soon to make a recommendation, but Nock’s past work makes this worth a look.
  • There’s a new Science Comic from Dante Shepherd, this one illustrated by Matt Lubchanksy on the topic of heat exchangers.


Spam of the day:
So, you guys know that I’ve been in an ongoing dispute with Verizon, which is why it’s especially amusing that they sent this:

Jonas is coming, are you ready?
The most common storm-related occurance is a power outage which can affect your Fios® by Verizon services.

Consider:

  1. I don’t have FIOS. They know this, despite the fact that they’ve been trying to upsell me FIOS in lieu of fixing my DSL, and oh yeah — FIOS isn’t available in my area.
  2. They sent this oh-so-helpful prep email approximately 03:11 on Sunday, after the snow had been stopped for some six hours.
  3. They sent it again twelve hours later.

So in addition to an ongoing dispute, Verizon apparently believes I have the ability to go back in time by 36 – 48 hours.

The Good News Is, I’m A Customer Service Ninja

Ten ninjas, even. Through a combination of patience, taking names, insisting politely on being referred to supervisors, patience, refusing to accept a disconnect or promise of a call back, and patience, I have penetrated to the fabled fourth tier of Verizon customer support¹ and am in the channel to talk to somebody at the policy level.²

But my DSL is still borked. Since Sunday afternoon (when I was told things would be fixed in 24-48 hours; we’re now at 72 and counting) I’ve been capped at approximately 2585kbps, and for periods of time I’m down to actual, literal double digit numbers of “k”. The only thing missing from this late-80s early-90s experience is the shrieking modem handshake sound³. Oh, and the original problem, the one that keeps mutating into worse problems, is still there. Fun!

So I’m not real up on webcomics at the moment. Please take some time to enjoy this latest Channel 58 spookathon from Kris Straub, which looked very spooky and creepy except everything is buffering and that is the absolute destroyer of mood and suspense. But it’s Straub, so it’s creepy, I can tell you that on faith alone.


Spam of the day:

Travel in Style! Amazing-Priced Private-Jet Flights.

Maybe if I win the Powerball tonight (not that I’ve bought a ticket or anything).

______________
¹ Which is actually a contract shop in the Philippines.

² And if that doesn’t work, I have tracked down the Verizon exec in charge of consumer business to a public social media account.

³ Kids, ask your parents, or click here.

Is There Any Other News Today?

Rassin-frassin Verizon throttling me down to 2585 kbps and now they’ve got me down to friggin’ dial-up speed¹. And on top of that I made a major mistake in logic in yesterday’s post so be sure to click back and read the correction. Is there any good news today?

  • Actually, yes. Today is the day that we acknowledge the birth and continued existence of the very sexy R Stevens Three. Long may he continue to consume oxygen, coffee, and the envy of weak mortals that require sleep. Stevens, of course, is ever-changing, ever-adaptable, and ever-present wherever webcomics are known, and thus will be figuring out new guerrilla marketing strategies for viral merch after the rest of us are food for worms. Let us praise him with great praise, may his deeds never be forgotten while the thrones of the Valar endure!²
  • Speaking of good news, I finally noticed the back cover of Invader Zim issue #6 — written and drawn by KC Green and available at fine comic shops near you since last Wednesday — wherein I learn that Green’s Graveyard Quest (the last long story arc from the now-finished Gunshow) is fixin’ to be published by Oni Press. I’d known that, I’d even written about it, but I’d completely forgotten it. Thank you, house ad on the back of Invader Zim #6, for letting me know we’re a mere eight weeks or so away from the Graveyard Quest print collection!
  • And speaking of webcomickers and work that will appear in the spring, news came today that MoCCA Fest (the 14th iteration of same) will feature a show poster by none other than Noelle Stevenson, and boy is it purty to look at. As a reminder, MoCCA Fest will be in its second new home in two years (owing to last year’s space getting snagged for condos, screw you runaway NYC residential real estate market), the Metropolitan West event space, at about 12th Ave (way far west) and 46th. Panels will take place at the Ink48 hotel at 10th & 48th.

Spam of the day:

What would happen to your family if you died today gary.tyrrell?

I’m guessing a massive party with hookers and blackjack. Why? You got a good supply of either?

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¹ Seriously, I’m metering out at 28 to 40 kbps right now.

² I seem to be channeling Aaron Diaz, the Latin Art-Throb.

This Is Happening Via An Unstable Network Connection

See yesterday, grrr. I won’t be able to say as much as I’d like, and let’s not try to get pictures up, but there’s things I want to point you towards.

  • Via Ryan North from yesterday, news that basically every comic creator from Toronto is having a party:

    What are you doing this Thursday night [editor’s note: that’s the day after tomorrow, 17 December 2015]? I sure hope it involves coming to The Fifth-Ever Beguiling, Dinosaur Comics, Squirrel Girl, Jughead, Kaptara, A Softer World Holiday Party 2015!!

    Details at the link. Secret Santa, y’all.

  • Via the Boston Comics Roundtable, news that there’s still a month to submit to their their upcoming science-based comic anthology, Boundless. Deadline to submit is 15 January 2016, with full submission guidelines here.
  • Kickstarter has had more than a few high-profile projects go bust in its time, sometimes for reasons outside the control of the creators, sometimes likely because projects were too ambitious and they couldn’t see that, sometimes possibly because they were big ol’ scams. They commissioned a report about fulfillment, which you can read here, and definitely should read if you’re a creator or backer. Basically, everybody.
  • Compare and contrast the uncultured swine declaration (from Mort at the very beginning of KC Green’s The Anime Club) with the ignorant swine declaration (from the unnamed character in today’s SMBC by Zach Weinersmith, but you’ll have to press the big red votey button to see it). Discuss.

Spam of the day:

<blinky hearts emoji />Jody29 wants to Golf with you!<blinky hearts emoji />

I don’t play golf and I doubt the very well-upholstered and very naked young lady pictured really does want to ‘tee off’ with me.

Thanks On A Quiet Day

I don’t know if it’s because yesterday was Canada Day and Canadians are still dealing with the aftermath of their celebrations, or because tomorrow is the observation of Independence Day and Americans are getting a head start on their celebrations, or because San Diego preview night is less than a week away, but it is dead out there today.

(Actually, I do know why it’s dead out there today. It’s combo of:

  • The news that Sonia Manzano¹, aka Maria from Sesame Street has announced that she’s retiring from the show after 44 years and we’re all preoccupied with thinking how much she influenced our lives while feeling bad for future generations that won’t get the same experience. Also, what about Luis? Oh my glob are they going to split up? Is Maria going to die? Next it’ll be Bob that goes away and they may as well pack up the set, I can’t even.
  • The fact that my internet is hell of acting up today, with certain sites — minor sites, like Gmail — intermittently refusing to load, while the work laptop is just fine when it’s on VPN and the phone is just fine when it’s on cell data. Yep, this one’s on you, Verizon, and since your phone process makes it basically unpossible to actually reach a human being (much less one that knows how to actually fix things), I’ll just have to ride this one out and I hate you².)

So let’s look at some things coming up a bit later in the month, yeah? They’re both at the Cartoon Art Museum because good on them keeping up the programming while simultaneously prepping for their involuntary move of location.

First up, Thursday, 16 July from 5:30pm to 8:30pm, CAM will be holding a master class in Comic Book Storytelling, conducted by Alan Gordon (who’s worked on some indie comics called Fantastic Four and Captain America). It’s going to set you back US$50 (US$40 if you’re a CAM member) and will teach you scripting and storyboarding.

And then a couple weeks later, from 27 July (that’s a Monday) to 31 July (Friday), you can send the late pre-snotty stage kids (call it 10 – 14) with intermediate art skills to Cartoon Boot Camp, each day from 11:00am to 1:00pm³. This session is on Constructing Comics, and will teach the full set of skills: developing a story, rough layouts, illustrating, and creating a final comic. They’ll look at different formats (comic book, comic strip, manga) and create an original during the week. This one costs US$135 (US$100 for members) and includes basic materials, but feel free to send your sprogs with their own sketchbooks and tools.

Both classes are at the Cartoon Art Museum, 655 Mission Street in San Francisco, which I must stress is a great space. If you possibly can, take the opportunity to check it out before it has to pack up for new digs. Oh, and if you’re going to be at SDCC next week, be sure to drop by the Cartoon Art Museum booth (#1930) and toss ’em a few bucks drop by to see curator Andrew Farago at one of the panels he’ll be moderating (Comic Strips in the Modern Era on Friday; Working Together: Writers and Artists and Kids’ Comics on Saturday). Feel free to thank him for the great work the museum’s done, too.

Oh, and remind me to drop a note of thanks to Sonia Manzano for teaching me to count to ten in Spanish when I was wee. My favorite number is still ocho.


Spam of the day:

Gut Bacteria Responsible for 170 Digestive Disorders — Go here to eliminate toxic gut bacteria and eliminate digestive problems in 2 minutes a day

You know what else my gut bacteria are responsible for? Keeping me alive. I think I’ll maybe not take your snake oil and maybe die as a result, thanks though!

_______________
¹ How did I not know until today that she was in Death Wish with Jeff Goldblum? Kids, do not go exploring her complete filmography unless your parents are around, okay?

²That you refers to the incompetent human being that Verizon won’t let me reach, not you personally. You’re lovely.

³ Actually, the reservation page says it’s until 2:00pm, not 1:00pm. Better check what time you need to be there to pick up your kid so you don’t get done for abandonment or something similarly stupid.

Confidential To Samantha And Shane: Congratulations!

So it’s a wedding-attending day for me, with much news likely to slide past as I’m getting all fancied-up (Three-piece suit? Check. Red Robot tie? Check. One-off moustache socks? Check.) for the fun times. We all have our crosses to bear.

  • Sharp-eyed readers of Friend of Fleen Lore Sjöberg may have noticed a few things of late: his website of varied delights (Bad Gods) is unfortunately 502ing, and his columns at Wired (Alt Text) have been featuring a variety of webcomics illustrators instead of art by Sjöberg himself.

    The Bad Gods outage appears to be a side-effect of a sad story best told by Bob The Angry Flower scribe Stephen Notley [no permalink, so copy-pasting more here than I usually would]:

    Intent readers of angryflower.com might have noticed that the site was completely down and boned for a few days last week. As I understand it, this was because some bot-spamming jackhole decided to seize the lungfish.com servers [editor’s note: Slumbering Lungfish is another of Sjöberg’s sites] and commandeer them into asking millions of uninterested people if they needed their penises enlarged.

    This led to a full-on cruchplosion of said servers, and when stalwart lungfish host Lore Sjöberg changed the passwords to close off the flood, said jackhole retaliated by going back in and wiping the hard drives. Thanks, you irredeemable fucker! Dante’s whipping up whole new levels of hell for your punishment, you shitsack!

    Anyway, the end result was that lungfish got pwned, along with it angryflower.com, and Lore reasonably concluded he shouldn’t be in the hosting-other-folks-websites biz any more, as he had not the time nor inclination to spend on defending generosity against dinks.

    So! Angryflower.com has moved to a different web host, dreamhost.com, which I hope works out. I bid the fondest adieu to Lore and lungfish. Lore, author of The Book of Ratings, current writer for Wired, has been the generous patron of angryflower.com for close-on a decade and a half, patronage without which this humble site would’ve crumbled years ago. I urge all who have ever read this site to click the above links, follow Lore’s writings and buy Lore’s output. It’s great and worth it.

    I cannot but help agree with Notley’s advice that you all become immediate patrons of Sjöberg, but may I add an additional piece of advice? If any of you out there in the Hive Mind has any inkling of the miscreant that’s responsible for this turn of events, it would be awesome if you’d beat him/her until he/she can no longer crawl, see, or cry.

    With respect to the guest illustrations at Alt-Text, they actually started prior to this most recent unpleasantness, but it’s never a bad time to point one towards the work of Chris Hallbeck, David McGuire, or Box Brown (found respectively at The Book of Biff/Maximumble, Gastrophobia, and Everything Dies. Revel in the cross-pollination. Revel, damn you!

Lightning Round!

Monday. Things. You Know How It Is.

I have an iPod, though, and its screens look sorta like this. That makes me cool enough to eat lunch with you, right? Right? Dang.

First off, did everybody see this? Thanks to the generosity of various sponsors (large and small), Child’s Play 2009 started out of the gate with $260,000. Please note that this is not an excuse to not give, figuring that Google‘s got your contribution all taken care of.

Speaking of charitable efforts, there’s something that you really need to see: Starthrower in Haiti is a new, twice-a-week webcomic that exists solely to raise money for the Starthrower Foundation, which sponsors young Haitian adults who wish to complete their education and/or apprenticeship.

It’s created by Daniel Lafrance, a Canadian storyboard artist, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. There’s a soft, pencil-ish quality to the colors, mixed in with a masterful sense of character design that’s neither too fussy nor too simple; think Herge’s ligne claire¹ and you’ve got a pretty good idea what it looks like. Check out what’s likely the only charity-dedicated webcomic since the now-folded Guest Strip Project.

  • It’s November, and that means it’s National Novel Writing Month; you probably know somebody that’s giving it a go, and in case you don’t, head over to Help Desk and check out the widgets showing word count progress. Alternately, check out Later by Darcie Frederick; the webcomic’s been doing weekly updates for about a year now, but now it kicks into high gear as Frederick’s decided to tackle NaNoWriMo by doing 30 comics in 30 days. She’s, uh, actually a couple days behind right now, but I’m pretty confident she’ll catch up.

    Oh, did I mention that Later is the most trope-busting post-apocalypse webcomic you’re ever likely to see? No gangs fighting over the remains of civilization, no zombies, no widespread destruction. Just very few people, a lot of melancholy, and a cat named Simon. I like Simon.

  • Did somebody say webcomics iPhone app? I know, I know, you can’t spit these days without coming across some RSS scraper or other, but there are two you might be interested in. Howard Tayler (my evil twin — or am I his?) has a call out for those interested in beta testing the Schlock Mercenary iPhone app.

    And Onezmui & Harknell, the creator/techie couple behind Stupid & Insane Defenders Against Chaos and My Annoying Life have released an iPhone app to aggregate all their various content (multiple strips, blogs, and podcasts) with a twist:

    We’re also making a (Stupid and Insane) offer to other webcomics–get your own version of our app for your comic for free! We’ve always tried to give back to the community and this is our biggest offer so far. More info on the service is here.

    Short version: it’s a service to allow creators build their own iPhone apps and get ’em in the iTunes store. Right now it’s based off the “Central” app (cf: “Chaos Central”, about 5cm up the screen), which is a consolidator of whatever kinds of content you put out that can be accessed via RSS or XML. I got to play around with Chaos Central a few weeks ago, and it’s pretty slick.

    Of course, as the owner of a G1 and not an iPhone, I can only hope that the collective nerdgasms last week over the new Motorola Droid means that there will be more interest in developing such apps in the future for the Android O/S. Until then, I guess all us Android users will have to eat lunch over here and someday ours will be the cool table. So there.

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¹ If anybody out there has the family name “Ligne”, I will pay you ten dollars American cash money to name any daughter you might have “Claire”.

Dumb News You Can Use

Things is happening over Dumbrella way; many people seem to think that Jeff Rowland doesn’t actually like Garfield. In other news, Rich Stevens is picking his battles; two shirts are going away on Friday, one may be hanging in there, but final disposition remains to be seen. On the positive side, Pixelween starts today with a little animation action.

Speaking of action, Jon Rosenberg‘s got an action figure, and if you pre-ordered one, you possibly have it now, too! At least, I do — waiting on my front porch when I got home last night. My wife was very amused by the back-of-the-box copy, and thinks that the little tiny Necronomicon (2nd edition) accessory is the funniest toy supplement ever. As an added bonus, I now have proof positive that as he was autographing my toy’s box, Jon ordered pizza. Bringing you the nutritional habits of your favorite webtooners is what we’re all about here at Fleen.

Speaking of my porch, I’m carving my annual webcomicsthemed Halloween pumpkins this week. One will be an Andy Bell design (and some day, I hope to be able to manage a devil bears and Esther tableau), and one is a mystery until I see if I can make it work the way I want to. Pictures coming soon.

Miscellaneous Items Of Note

Several worthy items today, campers, so let’s dive right in.

Firstly, if you didn’t scroll down far enough yesterday, you may have missed the debut column by the scintillating Ms Tuesday Crimson. To silence the mutterings I hear in the dark corners of the internet, no, I didn’t write that. For starters, Gary Tyrrell does not refer to himself in the third person. Ms Crimson is a real-life girl, and will be bringing us all the news of webcomics boning each Thursday.

Secondly, if you did miss Ms Crimson, it’s likely because you got caught up in the conclusion of Dave Kellett’s interview on syndication. He was brutally honest about how he sees the various models working for comics artists in general, and for himself in particular. Don’t forget to send in your followup questions for Mr Kellett.

Thirdly, because it’ll piss off this guy, the new Wigu book, The Case of the Missile Crisis, is coming so soon you can practically taste it. Jeff Rowland tells us that preorders will go live with the next update to Overcompensating, so keep your eyes peeled and your fingers on the browser refresh button.

Fourthly, the collected population of Webcomicistan offers its collective explression of relief that Roast Beef is alive and well. Repeat: RB is OK. In fact, as of this writing, links to Achewood are non-responsive, no doubt due to the overwhelming press of well-wishers. But how long can this happiness last?

Mostly, Fleen would like to thank founding contributor Jeff Lowrey for his posts to date. Circumstances dictate that Jeff start running in Deep Cover mode for a while, but we hope to see him pop up from time to time and lay some prime webcomics commentary on us. Or phat beats, whichever works for you. Jeff’s posting privileges will remain in good standing as long as there is a Fleen, except in the unlikely case of a conviction. We salute you Jeff, our very own Man of Mystery.