The big news in webcomics has to be the PR maelstrom surrounding the fact that the fabulously talented Kazu Kibuishi has been selected to produce new covers for the US trade paperbacks of the Harry Potter novels:

The stunning art for the new editions is by critically acclaimed artist Kazu Kibuishi, best known for his #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel series, Amulet. Kibuishi is a longtime Harry Potter fan who called this opportunity, “more than a little surreal.” Each of the seven new covers will depict a distinctive and memorable moment from the respective book. The collection, which will also be released in September as a boxed set, will offer new readers just reaching the age to begin the series a glimpse of J.K. Rowling’s magical world and the epic story they are about to enter.

“The Harry Potter covers by Mary GrandPré are so fantastic and iconic,” said Kibuishi. “When I was asked to submit samples, I initially hesitated because I didn’t want to see them reinterpreted! However, I felt that if I were to handle the project, I could bring something to it that many other designers and illustrators probably couldn’t, and that was that I was also a writer of my own series of middle grade fiction. As an author myself, I tried to answer the question, ‘If I were the author of the books – and they were like my own children – how would I want them to be seen years from now?’

Even if Kibuishi wasn’t in the Scholastic family¹, there could hardly have been a better choice than Kibuishi, given his feel for the balance point between the fantastical and mundane, his appeal to YA readers, and his ability to convey flight better than anybody this side of Miyazaki².

We shouls also Note the fact that Kibuishi apparently serves as his own Secret-Keeper — some of his closest colleagues and friends are deep into Potter fandom and they didn’t know. One entirely plausible reading of a tweet would indicate that his wife didn’t know. Well done, Kazu, and I think I speak for all of us when I say I can’t wait to see the rest of the covers. Also, congratulations for finding the rarest of all things: a work for hire job that actually does provide high-profile exposure benefits for a career.

• Speaking of gorgeous pictures, it was actually a bit of a tough decision to put that Kibuishi piece up top, given that there’s also an Anthony Clark-designed Baffler! to share with you. Can there ever be anything as wonderful as Beartato with a pizza for Reginald and Harrison? No, there cannot, unless you maybe consider Conscience Cat riding a corgi by Sam Logan.
• It appears that Federal agents with chips in their heads that can see into the electromagnetic spectrum are now a thing, but answer me this: will the (as yet unpublished) YA novel or the TV series it’s inspired feature the ghost of Ben Franklin? Or a hyperintelligent, Machiavellian, and thoroughly chlamydia-ridden koala? Or a plethora of dick jokes? Stick with the original, and consider that this may have an upside: AGAHF creator K. Brooke “Otter” Spangler has commented that this will prod her to speed up the timetable for completing her spinoff novel, Digital Divide, the first three quarters of which is really good, you guys.

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¹ They publish the Amulet series [warning: potential time-suck once you discover how to make the characters conga the day away].

² I remain firm in my belief that the only reason that Kibuishi is not the living reincarnation of Miyazaki is that Miyazaki is still alive.

We at Fleen have long followed the career of Ryan North, the Toronto Man-Mountain of legend. Even his tragic death from sploding could not stop his relentless march towards ever greater creative endeavours, a march which is somewhat simpler today thanks to his recent re-embodiment.

Alert readers may recall that North took the precaution of constructing a mathematical representation of his physical body such that even the icy talons of death would not long grip him. After arcane rituals that are best left undescribed, a sacramental libation was poured into a representation of North’s skull, his ineffable life-force came rushing back in, bursting the vessel with his mighty essence and causing his physical being to spontaneously reconstruct from nothing, a process which was thankfully caught on video.

Doubters may feel that this account of North Re-Risen is implausible, and cling to the cover story that North never died in the first place, but merely exploded a model of his head. To those doubters I ask: If this is the case, why is the newly reborn North seen in the video at the 0:40 mark in a dry, clean set of clothes despite the slushy weather? Not so much as a waterspot or splash upon his person, or even his shoes!

Clearly, it can only be because he did not exist in that slushy alleyway, manifesting not only a new body but also pristine raiment appropriate to the climate. Clapping his hands to show appreciation to those that helped in this resurrection, one can almost hear his jovial thoughts: Good work everybody; thanks for helping me return from the Lands Beyond Living on account of my spectral form was freaking out Chompsky.

In any event, we at Fleen welcome North¹ back to the world of the living and will await with bated breath the wisdom that he brings. Not to mention the fact that having a physical body again will make it much easier to finish copy-editing TBONTB:ACFABRNAAWST, which appears to be well situated for an on-time release in May.

As long as we’re on a Ryan North kick today, we would be remiss if we didn’t note one of his other major projects², the Machine of Death anthology which is due in July to coincide with San Diego Comic Con.

North’s co-editor, David Malki !³, dropped some MoD news on us this morning with the announcement that the MoD structured card game (distinguishing it from the previously-available MoD cards which could be adapted to many play styles or just freaking out your friends) has been finalized and will be available via the obligatory Kickstart later this week. The Kris Straub-designed cards look like they perfectly straddle the line between amusing and morbid, which is no surprise to anybody that’s been reading Straub’s Broodhollow. Keep your eyes peeled for the KS announcement, and be ready to hop on this one.

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¹ All hail.

² You know, besides the all-time top-funded publishing project on Kickstarter and defeating Death Itself.

³ Who himself was named yesterday to the presentation staff at this year’s MaxFunCon

The last Wigu update went up over the weekend¹. In case you’re wondering, the story does lead to a natural scene, which may be found here. Click 1179 times and end up where you started, which is the best possible metaphor for Wigu Tinkle’s life I can think of — live, experience, grow, repeat, secure in the knowledge that being eight lasts forever.

• In case you missed it, professional comics funnyman and Twitter personality Anthony Clark has a new pay-what-you-want sketchbook available for your purchase and download. Few things in this world are as purely fun as Clark’s cartoons and even the briefest of his sketches is made from uncut joy. With a one dollar minimum, the 100+ pages you receive are the bargain of the year.
• Chris Yates continues Webcomics Baffler! Fortnight II with contributions from Scott C, Kate Beaton, Becky Dreistadt & Frank Gibson, and Chris Hastings, each better looking than the one before it. Furthermore, I have information that the most intricate of these Baffler!s is yet to come, so be prepared for some good old-fashioned bidding wars when they hit auction a week from today.

  And heck, as long as we’re talking about Yates and Baffler!s, even a blizzard couldn’t prevent the debut of the brand new dual-level production Baffler!s (from Ceaco) at Toy Fair 2013 in New York.

• There’s some hospital stories to share with you, not all good I’m afraid. Longtime webcomicker Michael Poe was hospitalized with acute renal failure on Friday, with his wife sharing the details on Saturday. Like so many self-employed creators, Poe lacks health insurance and delayed seeking medical help despite obvious illness since the beginning of the year. Those wishing to help Poe with what will surely be considerable costs are requested to make their way to his Etsy shop or online store.

  Meantimes, webcomicker Jeff “Zugs” Zugale and longstanding Friend of Webcomics Rick Marshall² found themselves in hospitals on opposite coasts over the weekend, helping to usher new people into the world.

  Young Miss Marshall, Young Master Zugale, welcome to the world. It’s noisy and bright and too warm or too cold and sometimes people are jerks, but more often they’re pretty nice if they have a chance to be. Enjoy the crap out of it, and when your parents get that glazed-over look in their eyes that says they’re asleep standing up? That’s the time to double down on the screaming adorably curl into a sleeping ball and let them have six hours of uninterrupted quiet.

• Finally, the results of last week’s impromptu contest to see who gets a copy of Johnny Wander volume 3. You may recall that the terms for entry were to leave the most convincing argument as to why a friend needs to read Johnny Wander, and after careful deliberation the book will be sent to “Root” to pass onto friend “M”, largely on the basis that “M” is a student librarian active in Young Adult programs, and thus has a great potential to spread the wealth around. “Root”, drop an email to gary in care of this here website with a shipping address and I’ll get the book in the mail.

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¹ Although we’ve seen the end of Wigu before, what with things like the WIGU TV network channel comics, and the somewhat-related and entirely coincidentally predecessor strip, When I Grow Up. Also, has Romy ever loved Quincy as much as when she was watching him drive a tricked out van/mecha in a battle to the death with Space Mummy for the fate of the Earth? I think not.

² Willenholly.

Yeah, yeah, I know — sounds like an episode title from an especially enthusiastic anime series. It also describes what’s going on outside the window, so there you are.

• There’s still (as of this writing) approximately nine hours to get in on the Johnny Wander volume 3 giveaway. I want to have this thing in the mail before the JWv3 book launch party next weekend at Bergen Street Comics. Be there and, uh, I guess that means you don’t need a free copy.
• Speaking of Kickstarted books, Benign Kingdom Spring 2013 finished up last night a bit over US$45,000 (or three times goal) and Zach Weinersmith’s SCIENCE: Ruining Everything Since 1543 ticked over US$200K (with two weeks still to go) at about the same time and is closing on a stretch goal of hardcover books.
• Still speaking of books, you may recall last October that Stephan Pastis completely missed the point on webcomics which prompted me to offer a deal:
  

  Tomorrow, or this weekend, or sometime during the run of NYCC, I’m going to seek out Matthew Inman (whom I’ve met briefly, and liked quite a lot), who has a new book out, and I’m going to ask him if he’d be willing to release an approximate copies-sold total for that book for, say, the three months of quarter 4, 2012. Then come January we’ll run that number here, and Pastis can compare it to the first three months of whichever Pearls collection he likes.

  I didn’t have the chance to have that talk with Inman at New York Comic Con on account of the extremely long lines and crowding, but he’s gone and shared the to-date sales numbers with the world anyway¹ in a State of the Strip presentation:

  As of today, How To Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting To Kill You has been on the New York Times Best Sellers List for 17 consecutive weeks, and it held the #1 spot on that list for 7 of those weeks. We’re into our 11th printing, which puts us at over 450,000 copies in print. This has been drastically different from my first book, which saw strong sales at the beginning but then dropped off after all my readers bought copies. Instead, sales have been continually flourishing ever since the book came out in October. It’s mind-boggling for me to imagine nearly half a million cat books out there.

  For reference, Pearls Freaks the #*%# Out released at almost the same time as HTTIYCIPTKY; both books have appeared in the NY Times Best Seller List (Pastis under Paperback Graphic Books as seen here; Inman under Paperback Advice & Misc. as seen here), and I haven’t done any searching through the lists to find out how many times each has been there.

  But I did notice for the first time that PFT#O and HTTIYCIPTKY are both published by Andrews McMeel, so Pastis can probably work out if 450,000 copies is a typical run for a comics collection there, and probably figure that he and Inman are making a similar amount per book sold. That’s how you make a living at it.²

• Not that popular consciousness equals great wealth. Ethan Nicolle points out that a success on the scale of Axe Cop will get you the freedom to make comics and also a cup of coffee:
  

  I have made one giant step in comics and that is that I have managed to live off of creating my own material (for the most part) for the last few years. I have made an income that most people who went to college would frown on. That is to say I could probably make a similar income as a shift manager at Starbucks (in fact I could, I checked).

  Not that Nicolle is crying poverty to play for sympathy; his real goal is to spread an understanding of what the business is like:

  I think it’s good for aspiring creators to know that even with a lot of critical acclaim, you still have to do a lot of climbing and the battle is never really over. That is why it is good to know why you are doing it in the first place. Don’t blame those with success for your failure. Don’t do it for the success, do it in spite of the success. Do it because you love it and don’t know what else to do with yourself, and success or not, do it happily and gratefully because making art is a blessing.

  Well said, and the whole thing is well worth reading.

• More than once this page has discussed the proposition that ideas are a dime a dozen, and that art is more about the execution than the lightning-striking inspiration. On an occasion or two, we’ve even thrown out ideas for anybody to use that might want to. Got another one of those for you (I had some odd dreams t’other night), which you’ll find below the cut. If you want to use it, I waive any and all rights or interests in perpetuity, in all forms of storage and transmission current or future, and likewise release any claims by my heirs and assignees. Go nuts.

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¹ Not that I had anything to do with it.

² Also, Inman managed to wang his girlfriend’s website, but it’s back now if you like reading about coffee.

(more…)

Oh my goodness, so many things today.

• The final word on the place of webcomics in the larger comics world was offered by TopatoCo VP of Asskicking Holly Rowland:
  

  TopatoCo is between Oni and Dark Horse at ECCC. If there’s anyone still talking about the legitimacy of webcomics, I will pants them.

  Please, somebody, call her bluff. I’m begging you. Everybody else, have video cameras ready.

• Today marks ten years of Emily Horne and Joey Comeau making A Softer World; ten years and 931 instances of breathtakingly beautiful photos and profoundly arresting captions. In all of webcomickry, I can’t think of another example that simultaneously pulls in two so very different directions and expresses two so very different voices so very, very well.
• Once upon a time there was a simple acknowledgment of fact: any collection of webcomickers, impromptu or organized, was incomplete without at least one Ryan in the immediate vicinity. While Ryans Estrada and North have been publicly very busy of late¹, Ryan Sias of Silent Kimbly fame pulled back a bit, did some children’s books and storyboarding, and wasn’t so much with the webcomicking.

  Until today, that is, when Sias announced the return of the no longer silent Kimbly with new weekly adventures. One quick note: you get to The Kimbly Chronicles by using the address http://www.kimblychronicales.com/, with an extra “a” in the middle there. Just bookmark it and you’ll be fine.

• The countdown to Strip Search kicked into a quicker tempo yesterday with the launch of StripSearch.tv. Obviously no episodes yet, but you can meet the Artists, learn about the show, and puzzle your way through some rather odd numbers associated with the production. I don’t know what the whole pineapples thing is about², but I’m intensely curious. Hit the RSS feed and you won’t miss any Tuesday/Friday episodes when they start later this month.

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¹ Respectively involved in global trekking, single-person animation, and Korean comic translating (Estrada), and totally math comic book writing, Kickstarter record breaking choose your own Shakespeare adventure creating, and beloved movie novelization close reading (North).

² My own fault, I suppose. When Robert Khoo asked if I had any more questions, I specifically did not ask if any edible bromeliads featured prominently in the show. Mea culpa.

One of my favorite creators in any medium is Richard Thompson¹ and I’ve just heard a really great interview with him on New York’s public radio station, WNYC, with the always-entertaining Leonard Lopate. Lenny (as those who listen to him invariably refer to him) asked Thompson early in the interview about the nature of creativity.

When asked if he could describe the creative process, Thompson wryly noted that he’d … never heard anybody do that successfully. I just write stories. and when that prompted a question if he particularly approached songwriting by doing lyrics first, he said he will … do it both ways, start with music, start with lyrics, the hard thing is starting the process.

Then came the question that made me go back and transcribe a lengthy answer, and the reason I wanted to point out the interview to you in the first place. Noting Thompson’s prolific and lengthy career², Lenny asked if he ever gets writer’s block. The answer:

Today? Yesterday? The day before yesterday? Yes, I do. What I do to try to overcome it is to have something half-finished that I can be working on so there’s always 30 or 40 songs that are just one-verses and I can go in and think “I can just touch that up” … I just try to keep ticking over.

Want to create something? Keep moving, don’t pause, don’t wait for divine inspiration to strike. While it’s tempting to think that 1952 Vincent Black Lightning sprung from Thompson’s forehead fully formed, it sat around half-finished and embryonic same as everything else that is now complete and whole and wonderfully executed. And if you aren’t familiar with Richard Thompson’s work, for glob’s sake go listen to some (may I suggest you start with the Song-o-matic?), because he might be 63 years old and look like your grandfather, but he’s still got the nimblest fingers that ever saw a fretboard.

• Chris “Super” Yates³ has some more webcomicker Baffler!s up for your consideration, this time by KC Green. They’re tasty.
• Reminder! You still have two days to get in on the comment-enters-you contest for a free! copy of the not-yet-available-for-purchase Johnny Wander volume 3.

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¹ This time I’m not talking about Richard Thompson the cartoonist, but Richard Thompson the musician, although it occurs to me they have some similarities. Both of them excel at bringing unusually clear personal vision and POV to their work, and fly under the radar in popular consciousness. But if you ask a cartoonist who their favorite cartoonist is or a guitarist who their favorite guitarist is, all of a sudden the name Richard Thompson becomes a lot more prominent.

² His newest disk, Electric, was released yesterday, and was recorded in its entirety in four days, giving it a raw immediacy and energy that artists half his age can scarcely manage (cf: his cover of Oops I Did It Again). It might be his best since Rumour and Sigh

³ Not to be confused with “super yachts” unless, of course, you can’t spell.

Strip Search appears to be on the verge of going live, having graduated from a parking page to a test pattern. I’m not a betting man¹, but I’d wager that we’ll see the site live in the next day or two. Then it’s just a matter of how long Robert Khoo feels like teasing us before the first episodes start streaming.

• Webcomic? Check. Crossovers? Check. Print collection? Check. Original print series? Check. Card game? Check. TV show? Check. What’s left of Malachai and Ethan Nicolle to conquer? Judging from the photos tweeted by MTV² Geek, the answer would be toys. Weirdly, searching for “Axe Cop” at the website of Mezco Toys brings up a couple of Thundercats figures, so I guess they’re really early in the preview cycle for now. There’s a reference to Axe Cop in Mezco’s exhibitor profile for next week’s New York Toy Fair so I’d say wait for the summer’s big shows to see these generally available.
• To paraphrase James³ and Marque, Being broke sucks, and now Jerzy Drozd is the latest creative type to try to make it suck less. Tomorrow will see the Comics Are Great! show will do an on-air Google+ hangout, with special guests Laurianne Uy and Poorcraft scribe C Spike Trotman on the topic of smart frugality. If you can’t make the Hangout, tomorrow at 12:30pm EST (GMT-5), it’ll be up at the Comics Are Great! YouTube channel sooner rather than later. It’s a live event, so warm up your questions on how to make do with less for fun and profit.
• Surprisingly, nobody is in the running for a free copy of Johnny Wander volume 3, as per the contest announced last Friday. It’s not even in the store yet, people! You can only get this is you were in the Kickstarter! Free book, people!

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¹ It’s that whole “pretty good at math” thing.

² Who’re still on my list for the shameful way they treated Rick Marshall Willenholly, so you best watch yourself, Viacom!

³ History’s greatest villain.

We at Fleen have, in the past, mentioned the need for creators to keep backups of their work so that years of effort can’t be lost. We’ve mentioned creators who’ve had the bad fortune to run afoul of those who would use their sites for nefarious purposes. But last week took the proverbial cake as the main Blind Ferret hosting servers got taken down by nefarious types, seemingly not to host their own content, but for the sheer vandalistic joy of breaking stuff. I come to this conclusion because they didn’t just break the websites — they also wiped the local backups.

Have we ever mentioned how many webcomics are hosted by Blind Ferret? It was a week of creators scrambling to redirect URLs to secondary sites, wondering how much content might be lost, and sleepless night after sleepless night for the BF crew to try to restore as much as could be. It is my sincere hope that if the miscreants behind this attack are ever identified, they get to learn first hand exactly how many swords and crossbows Ryan Sohmer keeps around the office.

There were some bright spots — Danielle Corsetto got her site back, minus a big chunk of blogposts, comments, and alt-text for her comics. By coincidence, Bernie Hou was able to surprise her with the news that as part of his work for the imminent Comic Chameleon beta launch, he actually had all her alt-text and was able to return it to her — everybody send some good wishes towards Hou, on account of he did Corsetto a solid. But even more than Bernie Hou is a stand-up dude, the lesson here is Backups don’t exist unless they exist in multiple places.

There will never be a way to completely defeat those with server-murder on their minds, but you can make things more difficult for them and reduce their impact to you from A week of frantic workarounds with all the attendant loss of traffic, advertising, and audience to An inconvenience mixed with a bit of righteous rage.

Find out from your server folks not only how backups are being taken, but how they’re being kept. If the answer isn’t On removable media in another room, and preferably another postal code, politely inquire what would be necessary to get a bit more of an air gap in the mix. Oh, and if your favorite webcomic is a bit clunky around the edges, archive not loading, things not absolutely perfect? Give ’em a break while they’re rebuilding.

Let’s finish up on something cheerier! Much like he did almost two years ago, mad scrollsaw maestro Chris Yates is going to spend a couple of weeks doing one-off Baffler! puzzles with designs by fellow webcomickers, then put the whole tranche up on eBay. The first entry of Webcomics Baffler Fortnight 2¹ is courtesy of Angela Melick² and features some seriously joyful bees. Engineers man, we get bees.

Anyways, the next two weeks will reveal who the other creators are/what their designs look like, and they’ll go up for auction on Monday, 18 February, so keep an eye on Yates’s Flickr set or the Baffler! store page, figure out what your budget and favorite puzzles might be, and best of luck to all in the bidding. Unless you’re bidding against me in which case I hope I bury you and salt the earth where you fall. Nothing personal.

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¹ Electric Baffaloo.

² Right-hand rule. Respect.

Feeling somewhat less insane today. Dunno what was up with that. Hey, is that a copy of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff? I gotta get on reading that!

• Speaking of books, I received this week my Kickstarter-backed copy of Johnny Wander volume 3, which is an awesome read. I actually was given a copy by creators Yuko Ota and Ananth Panagariya a bit more than a month ago (thanks), so I’ve decided to give away the copy that came in the mail. You (yes, you) know somebody that doesn’t read Johnny Wander and should; tell me about who that person is and why they need to read JW, and you’ll win the book. Best comment contribution by, let’s say end-of-day next Friday, 8 February, wins for their friend/relative/whoever.
• Speaking even more about books, the Young Adult Library Services Association has released their annual list of best graphic novels for teens, and there’s some familiar names on the list. In addition to the almost obligatory Raina Telgemeier’s Drama and Hope Larson’s adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time, you’ve got Chris Eilopoulos & Nate Cosby’s Cow Boy, and a whopping six entries from :01 Books: Hades: Lord of the Dead by George O’Connor, Broxo by Zack Giallongo, Legends of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks, The Silence of Our Friends by Jim Demonakos, Mark Long and Nate Powell, and Sumo by Thien Pham. That’s like one book out of three of their output in 2012. I’ll also note that Drama, Friends (boys) and Friends (silent) were also listed as among the top ten for 2013.
• Happy ten yeariversary to Dinosaur Comics and the nearly-resurrected Ryan North; highlights of the past ten years (from North’s perspective beyond the grave) are here¹, and you can see how far he’s come as an artist by comparing the first strip to today’s. Congratulations for being so awesome at comics Ryan and also for getting better at parties. In your hono[u]r, please enjoy once more this review I wrote of your first Dinosaur Comics book, composed entirely of quotes by T-Rex.
• East Coast (of the United States, that is) denizens! Make your way to New Haven, Connecticut and the Ivy League university contained therein by next Friday, as “Hurricane” Erika Moen will be speaking at the IvyQ conference. According to the conference schedule, that’ll be at 2:45pm in WLH 208; I’m told that “WLH” stands for “Harkness Hall” at 100 Wall Street on the campus of Yale, which is apparently the home of Yale’s LGBT Studies program. Tell Erika I said “hi” and “Hope you won Strip Search although I won’t know for months yet”.

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¹ Warning: features photos illustrating North’s fetish for oddly spherical dinosaurs crushing Admiral Ackbars. It’s kinda out there?

Publisher’s note: Usual Fleen scribe Gary Tyrrell was found curled in a small fetal ball, sobbing; he is now resting comfortably in hospital. The following was found scribbled on various pieces of paper near him, along with a Subway employee’s apron and hat.

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Publisher’s note: Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff is available from TopatoCo, while supplies last. Doctors indicate that Gary is detoxing nicely, and should be back to blogging with only mild perceptual impairments shortly. Rumors that the DEA is investigating SBaHJ for making readers “high as balls” could not be confirmed at press time.