Ted Rall reports that he was laid off as the comics acquisitions editor at United Media; the inevitable shit–fight between webbers and strippers in The Daily Cartoonist fora has actually been pretty evitable so far, but the day is still young.

Whoops! Took too long to edit this. Wiley Miller’s made it all about webcomics and while Randy Milholland’s possibly defused the situation, there’s every possibility it could erupt again. Monkey-boys and -girls, prepare your poop for flinging.

It’s probably way too soon to declare any lessons from this situation, but let’s try anyway:

• The one syndicate editor (that I’m aware of) that was aggressive about finding new strips that don’t look like every other legacy strip on the comics page is out
• The chances of making it as a new syndicated cartoonist just officially fell even further
• Losing your job sucks; yes, Rall is a professional gadfly and I am not the only person who cannot not reconcile his in-person demeanor (amiable, considerate) and considerable journalistic courage with his public persona (which can be charitably described as slash and burn, and don’t get me started on his near-religious adherence to the idea that Only print pays), but it’s a shame that he now faces the financial difficulty that comes with job loss

Speaking of jobs, more job postings should contain the words lunkhead, nunchucks, and MWA HA HA HA. This interested in working for free developing valuable skills as an intern for a possible madman, David Malki ! is looking for some help.

Anybody else finding Gmail acting weird stuff on Opera today? Odd bits of formatting & display that go away in the Basic HTML mode? I don’t think it’s just me because it’s happening on multiple computers, and sudden mysterious behavioral changes have happened before. Anyway, webcomics:

• The Stumptown Trophy Awards for 2009 (does anybody call them “The Stumpies”? If not, they should) have been announced, and it looks like a big day for Templar, AZ creator Spike. She picked up the Outstanding Art, Outstanding Writing, and Outstanding Webcomic awards. I’ll also note that Ellie Connelly creator Indigo Kelleigh was recognized for his outstanding work creating the Stumptown Comic Fest edit to re-add accidentally deleted clause: and Oustanding Design winner Jeffrey Ellis for Historyonics, a Vancouver webcomicker anthology, which kind of cements the idea that Indy Comics and Webcomics are pretty much the same thing. Time for a new word to describe the genre, rather than the distribution channel? Answers on a postcard.
• Holy crap KC Green is putting up a sketchbook for auction which is (as of this writing) only fetching $61. If you’re familiar with Green’s webcomics work, you know he’s got an incredibly fluid, organic quality to his linework, but that’s absolutely squat compared to seeing his actual ink-on-paper. Right now this moment, this sketchbook is the bargain of the year. Next week just before the auction closes and it’s going for many hundreds of dollars? Still the bargain of the year.

There’s other stuff I wanted to talk about, but Gmail’s straight-up bitchassedness (that has quickly become one of my favorite words) means my story-ideas emails are inconvient right now. Hopefully, Google will stop futzing with the code and it’ll magically get better again.

Updated to add (and clarify the link trail): Heidi MacDonald has been pointing towards Van Jensen, who read Platinum’s annual report so you don’t have to, but go ahead and read it anyway. My favorite part was this little gem (bottom of pg 10, spilling over to pg 11):

We believe that the success of WOWIO is dependent on a number of factors, including the ability of the Company to sustain an aggressive marketing campaign to attract readers, a multi-pronged effort in business development to attract corporate sponsors, and an outreach program to attract more publishers. These efforts require an infusion of capital until the revenues can make the endeavor self-sustaining. Due to a number of factors that include 1) a global economic pull-back, impacting all industries, including the online advertising market, and 2) an inherited liability to pay WOWIO publishers royalties for the quarter immediately preceding the Company’s acquisition and subsequent inability to pay off such obligation, the Company faced unforeseen factors that required a cessation of marketing, promotional, and sales activity for WOWIO. The Company kept WOWIO in a maintenance mode with the intention of re-charging the efforts in 2009. [emphasis mine]

That bolded bit? I’m not a securities lawyer, but I think that’s legalese for Webcomics content creators, you are never getting paid what WOWIO owes you.

Listed under “Risk Factors”, I noticed (pg 22):

IF WE DO NOT MAINTAIN THE CONTINUED SERVICE OF OUR EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, OUR BUSINESS OPERATIONS MAY BE AFFECTED.

Our success is substantially dependent on the performance of our executive officers and key employees. Given our early stage of development, we are dependent on our ability to retain and motivate high quality personnel. Although we believe we will be able to engage qualified personnel for such purposes, an inability to do so could materially adversely affect our ability to market, sell, and enhance our products. The loss of one or more of our key employees or our inability to hire and retain other qualified employees, including but not limited to development staff, business development staff, digital publishing staff and corporate office support staff, could have a material adverse effect on our business. [emphasis original]

No comment. And I’ll leave note 2 on pg 53 as an exercise for the reader.

Hard on the heels of last week’s Twitshirt … I think we can safely use the word fiasco … comes a new player. While Twitshirt is circling the wagons (its website has had a parking page for about three days now that seems to indicate a wholesale abandonment of its core business model), a new group called Fair Trade Tweets has popped up to try to fill the void; information is sparse at this time (that link contains all known policies and practices of FTT), but if even half of what they’re promising is true, Twitshirt is dead as the proverbial dodo.

The lesson here? Things move fast here in the future, social media are quick to anger/slow to forgive, and when roused must be placated with the blood of their enemies. Those who would tread these territories, go carefully.

• Today’s Hey Kids! [Web]Comics! story comes from the venerable New York Times with news of the first xkcd print collection. Is it just me or do they get it almost completely wrong? Is anybody in the webcomics world (or more broadly, digital media) so enamoured of bits and pixels that they would turn down the chance to do reprints? The Times seems puzzled that Randall Munroe would even consider collecting strips into a book. Hey, Times, those of us that live on the internet still like books, honest.
• Even further into the realm of paper, Gunnerkrigg Court makes the leap to classroom reading to second graders in Thailand, prompting the creation of puppets on sticks (be sure to check out all the video). The poster teaches English and was looking for other strips that might be appropriate for youngsters.

  Although it’s not laid out page-style, but I’m going to suggest Little Dee. And Copper doesn’t have a plot per se, but might be usable. And fun as Lil’ Mell is, we don’t want the kids getting ideas. So the best recommendation I’ve got is Jellaby. Any ideas? We got comment space right down there.

• Lastly, quick note that the Wallopers of Koalas have gotten a little more wallopy as Bear and Kitten (which I like a lot) and The Secret Knots (which I don’t know but will be checking out) join up.

No reason, it’s just nice and sunny today in New York, and I’m wishing I had my sunglasses with me.

• Update: Frank Frisina’s niece safe.
• Titans of Small Town chat with O.N.S.T.A.D. transcript now available; click here for the PDF.
• Chris Sims of The Invincible Super-Blog (referenced last week on this very page) spoke to Valerie D’Orazio about comics, of the print and web varieties:
  

  I’m also a huge fan of Rich Burlew’s ORDER OF THE STICK and Chris Hastings’ DR. McNINJA, which is probably the best thing the Internet’s ever given the world. I don’t read them regularly, but I’ve been picking up the print collections that Dark Horse has been doing for ACHEWOOD and WONDERMARK, and those are both fantastic as well.

  In fact, Sims reviewed the latest Dark Horse Wondermark book on his own site; both the interview and the review are good reads.

• So … Twitshirt. I’m wagering that somebody there knew copyright law before yesterday, but just to make sure here’s the short form: I create it, I own it, I don’t have to opt out of crappy IP-farming schemes.

  Yes, there are exceptions for Fair Use, but note the language regarding transformation and amount taken. But just to be sure, I sent this to their contact page (inaccessible right now, as the site appears to be down — perhaps due to the massive backlash that I imagine is brewing). If that doesn’t do it, I have a boilerplate C&D right here ready to be sent to the Twitshirt brain-trust known as Airbag Industries LLC. Oh, look! A contact email address!

• Let’s end on a happy note, shall we? Some webcomics love, courtesy of The AV Club.

Update to add: She’s safe.
Frank Frisina, partner with Ryan Estrada’s on Life’s a Bluff, is having a nightmare right now. His 14 year old niece (that’s her above) is missing since Saturday night from her home in Colorado. Details here.

We don’t seem to have “sticky” capability for posts, so if the dates on this one keep changing, it’s to keep it at the top of the page. Regular post later.

Seriously, all the connections to the Land of the Rising Sun today are creeping me out.

• F’rinstance, you got Shaenon Garrity slacking off on Lil’ Mell because she was doing stuff at the Ghibli Museum and hanging with Miyazaki-sensei. To quote Ms Garrity,
  

  Holy crud.

• You also got news that probably the most important living creator of manga (and certainly one of the most prolific this side of Tezuka), Rumiko Takahashi, is going webcomic. Thanks to Gordon McAlpin for tipping us to the details:
  

  … a new manga series from legendary creator Rumiko Takahashi. The series, titled RIN-NE, will be launching simultaneously April 22nd exclusively in Japan in WEEKLY SHONEN SUNDAY magazine and online for North American audiences on www.TheRumicWorld.com, the brand new official North American web site for all Rumiko Takahashi-related news and information. Through this unprecedented collaboration, a new chapter of RIN-NE will be released each week for English-speaking manga fans to enjoy at the same time as their Japanese peers.

  Holy crud redux.

• Okay, let’s make it a three-peat. Know who’s got a Japanese name? Tatsuya Ishida. Dunno if you’ve been following his saga of a devil girl questioning her choices in life, but it appears to be reaching a crescendo. Gotta say, this story’s really making me go awwwww.
• Um … hey, look, new Dresden Codak! Starring a very young Kimiko! That’s a Japanese name, too.
• Okay, I’m out of even tenuous connections to Japan … how about a really nice review of Bellen! to wrap things up?

Listen well, my loyal minions, for I bring you wisdom that is great and deep.

• Firstly: Erika Moen. Y’all read DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary, right? It’s got adventures, surprising emotional depth, and BOOBIES. Also wang, buttsex, and precious bodily fluids, in a completely non-exploitative way (except for when it’s really damn funny).

  And now there’s a book! You are all instructed to go get it because there’s no way it’s not going to rock your face off. Also, update your links because Moen now has her own domain, www.darcomic.org, which makes this all kinds of a triumphant week for her. Even better, next week will be the joint book-release party with Dylan Meconis’s Bite Me, which is more awesome than one venue should be allowed to have.

• Speaking of books, a little bird tells me that Goats Book 1 has achieved physical form; release date is edit: see below prior to MoCCA, and you can bet that Random House sprung for the good paper stock on this sumbitch.
• New feature at MTV Splash Page from Friend o’ Fleen (and newly engaged guy) Rick Marshall — ADAPT THIS focuses on comics stories that would make awesome movie adaptations, and launches with Alex Robinson’s Too Cool To Be Forgotten (which, appropriately enough, really is too cool). If I may, this feature needs to look at a webcomic with appropriately epic scope & sweep, which logically means Templar, AZ.

  Tell me that a giant statue of Jimmy Carter wouldn’t look kickass on the big screen. Tell me that Reagan Mancuso isn’t the breakout role of the millenium. Tell me this sequence wouldn’t be the biggest laugh-chuckle in Oscar history. Hell, just do a short film of Reagan meeting her younger self — got a storyboard for ya right here, Bunky..

  Anyway, let Marshall Willenholly know what works you’d like to see get the treatment, and see you back tomorrow.

Ready for various good news? I am!

• Cat Garza has successfully intervened to get his art back under his control. A quick letter to the ISP of the page-rank manipulators has yielded positive results (a previous appeal directly to the malefactors having had no effect). Everybody be happy for Cat!
• Tom Brazelton caught a raw deal last week when some total jerks hacked his site and added a bunch of boner-pill hidden links to his footer. As a result, Google suspended him from search results for 30 days, and though he cleaned up the tags, was not being listed in the search behemoth. A quick petition and personal appeal (so quick that I didn’t have time to include it here among other breaking news … I figured a giant corporation would have taken a bit longer to react and I’d be able to summon the appropriate amount of high dudgeon) have resulted in Theater Hopper once again reclaiming its rightful spot in Google’s results.

  Those of you with long memories will recall that last summer, Brazelton provided us with a teachable moment about making backups; now he’s given us another on making sure that your site is clean of unwanted visitors. His unluck is your wakeup call — everybody both feel good for Tom, and drop him a note thanking him if you find any nasties in your site code.

• Hey, you know what’s due within the next week? Jellaby Know what else? Octopie 3, which has a book release party in two days, just in time for Stumptown this weekend. Hopefully, this will mean that a) my local comics shop will have Jellaby next Wednesday (if it gets released to bookstores first, I’m not above going to my local Borders), and Meredith Gran will have time to start sketchin’ and shippin’ when she gets home from Portland. Gonna be a good readin’ week.
• Mike Rouse-Deane, indefatigable do-gooder of webcomickry, is deep into production of a new Tastefully Done calendar (I’ve seen the cover and can’t decide if it’s a beauty or mentally scarring — damn you, Krishna Sadasivam!). While I have some definite preferences as to who might be a good contributor to the project, I realize that my tastes do not reflect those of the internet as a whole — if you have suggestions as to who you’d like to see (or if you’d like to participate yourself), I’m sure that Rouse-Deane would love to hear about it. Comments are down thataway, peoples.

So there the wife and I were in Brooklyn on Saturday night with nothin’ to do; might as well go see some major personalities of the webcomics world, we figgered. Thus, we found ourselves at 303 Grand St in the Williamsburg section at Titans of Small Town, with Ryan North, Chris Hastings, Emily Horne & Joey Comeau, and the remote telepresence of Chris Onstad.

Other webcomickers in attendance included Jon Rosenberg, Andy Bell, and a shockingly beardless Steven Cloud (all accompanied by their lovely wives). Organizer Tim Hwang (between the dapper dudes) was busy and everywhere during the evening; look for a talk with him here later in the week once he’s caught his breath.

The show started with an open mingle, allowing patrons to enjoy the art on the walls and meet the creators. For example, I was able to hear Comeau’s story about the book launch party for his new novel in Toronto earlier in the week, where the venue’s front door got jammed and the owner of the building had to kick in the glass. The Q&A featured a wide variety of questions, with choice quotes laid out below. Afterwards, a projector was set up and through the magic of the internet, Onstad participated in a chat with whoever wanted to type in questions.

Actually, now that I think of it, there’s no proof it really was Chris Onstad. It could have been an elaborate ELIZA-like program … the Ontological Natural Statement Turing-compliant Automated Dialog-o-matic or some such. Anyway, O.N.S.T.A.D. shared anecdotes about “his” favorite wine (whatever gets the job done) and amusing things “his” “daughter” did. Hopefully, the chat transcript will be made available and we can all decide if it passes the Turing Test or not.

In the end, the assembled creators collaborated on a piece of art on a large sheet of paper attached to the wall; it was unfinished at the time that I had to leave, but it featured both SPACEMEN RIDING DINOSAURS and MORE DINOSAURS, so you know it was awesome.

In conclusion, Titans of Small Town was a great success, and judging from the conversation Hwang, Rosenberg, and I had (on the topic of who should be invited to headline at the next one of these) (KATE BEATON, KATE BEATON, KATE BEATON DAMMIT), it will certainly not be a one-time deal. The End.

Overheard during the evening:

When I get home and my faithful hound (she’s nearly 9 and is becoming a literal grey-hound) comes over to say hi, I’m going to look her in the eyes and whisper, “You’re going to break my heart some day.” Then she’s going to lick me because she thinks I taste like food, and she’s going to get a million skritches. All those of you with dogs in your life will hopefully do likewise. Requiscat in Pace, Kirby; our condolences to Scott & Angie Kurtz.

• Okay, happy thoughts, happy thoughts — how about, new webcomic from some proven talents? What do you get when you combine an isolated orphanage deep in the Andes with a bunch of kids desperate to be elsewhere with new families? Judging from the launch strips of Snowflakes, the answer is “a laugh riot”. Tell me that the history of kid warfare tortures doesn’t make complete sense, I dare you. Snowflakes comes to you from Zach Weiner, Chris Jones (who previously collaborated on the now-concluded Captain Excelsior; Jones did Grumps and Weiner does Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) and James Ashby. And it’s all-ages friendly!
• You know what’s not all-ages friendly, generally speaking? Comics by Internet Jesus; case in point, the new-this-week Ignition City (which is where the space heroes of yesteryear go to drink and die) is full of colorful language and ray-gun evisceration. But the art is gorgeous and more than a little reminiscent of Kitty Hawk (which is somewhat more barnstormery, less spacey, and so far absolutely safe for work if a bit pulpy for the wee ones). If you like the one, try the other.

Time to go hug my dog. Have a good weekend, everybody.