It should be no surprise to any regular reader of this here blog that I’m a fantastically huge Ursula Vernon fan, so it should also be no surprise that I’m telling you all to give her a hand while simultaneously obtaining a fabulous piece of art. You really don’t want to know what the tax code for freelance artists looks like, but even with pre-payments every quarter, Vernon’s getting smacked hard come the 15th. So she’s doing a limited edition print in honor of the bill she’s got to pay, and you can pick one up for just 25 smackers plus shipping. Details at Vernon’s DeviantArt page or LiveJournal.

Okay, at this point, you should just be assuming that somewhere around Friday afternoon, Rick Marshall is putting up a new webcomics interview, generally about five minutes after my Friday post goes live. This time: Nick Gurewitch on life after hiatus. Also, it looks like the good Marshall will be joining me in haunting panels at NYCC, so come see us hopefully not act like complete doofuses.

For those keeping track, it’s been at least 37 hours since Ryan Estrada had a flash of major inspiration, so we’re due. Saturday the 12th he’s declared to be 12 Hour Comic Day at the Commune. As he put it, it’s the “quick creative kick in the nuts” that you’ve been needing.

Stephanie McMillan and Ted Rall will be hosting a multimedia extravaganza (that’s Web 2.0 speak for “slide show”) of their latest editorial cartooning work — Bluesotckings Bookstore on the 14th, and Idlewild Books on the 21st (both in New York) are the locations. As an added bonus, Fleen will pay a dollar to the first attendee to get Rall to admit he’s wrong about it being impossible that a webcomicker could ever become a millionaire. C’mon, getting one of the most opinionated people in comics to change his mind? How hard could it be? I’ve got the dollar right heeeeeeere!

Finally, Greg Carter and Gina Biggs did a panel on webcomics and business at the Atlanta Comics Expo back in February, and they’ve now got a recording that you can check out. Why are you still here? Go listen.

Lots of various news items to amuse you this weekend.

• From the ever-alert Christopher Baldwin, Stumptown has prompted Mayor Tom Potter of Portland to declare Portland Comics Month:
  

  The proclamation officially recognizes both the cultural importance and creative influence of this vibrant art form on the entire city.

  To champion and support Portland Comics Month, the Stumptown Comics Foundation has catalogued a staggering number of comics-related events in the Portland metro area for the entire month of April.

• Paul Southworth’s new-style guest week wrapped up with five entirely distinct Ugly Hill entries; look for the overflows to show up in Southworth’s fan art page.
• From the Webcomics Inspiring Big Things Department: Tiny Ghosts prompts a movement for a national peace memorial:
  

  One day while Stumbling on the Internet I came across a kind of photo blog. I found it here if you would like to check it out. The blog has two photos on a webpage which on the left picture of a Washington DC monument says “All the monuments they built were dedicated to war.” On the right on the 2nd photo of a peace sign spray painted on the side of an ordinary concrete wall it says “We had to make the monuments to peace ourselves.”

• After a few fits, starts, and attempts, Alien Loves Predator has returned to its weekly ways.
• And over at Unshelved, a question: is it product placement? Has the boundary between comic and commerce been breached? Bill Barnes responds to the controversy by explaining that it’s not an ethical violation here, then promises to be more careful about giving that impression here.

  To my eye, there wasn’t any kind of ethical lapse that went on, but kudos to Barnes & Ambaum for taking the criticism as a genuine expression of concern from faithful fans and not as an attack. It may not have been necessary, but it’s the sort of action that says the Unshelved lads know who they’re serving, and they’re willing to go out of their way to do it right. Good customer service never goes out of style.

It seems that Greg Carter was following The Great Web/Print Comics Convocation of Aught-Eight and wondered, “But does this conversation apply to people not doing strip/gag type comics? Are the considerations different for those working in long-form comics?” Answer:

Some of us long-form webcomic folks are starting a discussion that’s NOT about strip comics as the other huge conversation has been. It’s just getting started.

Insert obligatory Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in! joke here. Actually, some good stuff over there at Panel and Pixel, so you may wish to check it out.

Geoffrey Golden wrote to point us towards a review by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame; if you’re not familiar, he does terrific reviews of videogames in animated form, which are insightful, snarky, and pretty much dead-on correct in all regards. Also very, very rude, which makes them even funnier. But GG’s interested in Yahtzee’s take on something else:

Did you see this blog post by Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame? [dated 23 March 2008, no permalink]. He dissects and digs at Control Alt Delete pretty harshly.

Now if this were just another harsh review of a webcomic, I don’t think I’d be running this; there’s plenty of sites that specialize in that. But Yahtzee’s not only harsh, he’s analytical as to why he doesn’t like CAD, and he’s brief. As much as we all get a nice shot of schadenfreude from reading Your Webcomic Is Bad And You Should Feel Bad, I’d like to point future negative review writers to “You CAD” as a model to emulate: there’s a mangeable number of specific reasons the author dislikes the comic, a couple of links, some conclusions, a bit of unnecessary cruelty, and he’s out. Nicely done, and I hope to see Croshaw turning his jaded eye towards webcomics more regularly.

Shane Johnson sent us a press release about his My Life In a Cube, which he updates “weeknights” (Monday to Friday, after work), and the second I saw it I knew I had to mention it here. I do actually work a job where some of the time I am in a cubicle, what with this excellent not very corporate for a corporate job gig that I have, and it’s actually…yeah, it’s my first corporate job and suddenly cubicle humor is, embarrassingly, funnier. (In my defense, I have a lot of webcomic-ey things up in the cube, including some extremely cool Teaching Baby Paranoia sketches.)

But in addition to funny (in that bleak cubicle humor kind of way), Johnson’s got this great, fluid style where the lines just seem to naturally flow. It conveys motion and and speech in a direct, immediate way, where the image is both simple and complicated. I also love that they seem to be created on whatever’s closest to hand. The site, like the comic, is simple and kind of spare–there are almost no archives and it seems very, very new, but you’d never guess it by the quality of the art and the droll humor of the comics.

Plus it’s got the best disclaimer ever: ” In no way does this actually reflect what I do at work all day. Obviously.”

I’m totally taken with it. Go have a look.

To Fool or Not to Fool? Chris Crosby pointed us all towards an April Fool’s gag that wasn’t, with the announcement that his brother, the loquacious Bobby Crosby, scored a Hollywood deal. Check it:

Benderspink is adapting Last Blood, based on Bobby Crosby’s comicbook centered on a band of vampires protecting the Earth’s last human survivors of a zombie apocalypse.

Last Blood was co-created by siblings Bobby Crosby and Chris Crosby but Bobby penned the comicbook alone.

Benderspink has a variety of comicbook properties set up including “Power and Glory” and “Y: The Last Man” at New Line.

Now before you run out to buy tickets, be aware that the road from option to actual movie is long, twisted, and madness-making (cf: the excellent Fortune and Glory by Brian Bendis for a primer of the non-logic that is Hollywood). But for now, Fleen congratulates Los Bros Crosby on their achievement.

While terms of the deal have not been announced, it looks like Ted Rall’s assertion that There is no chance of any webcartoonist becoming a millionaire is on shakier ground than it was just five days ago.

Okay, let’s see: Mr Buffer claims to have a filler, the wordy trio are playing rotational games, Mr Pixel is drawing by hand, Mr Grumptacular is celebrating 11 years, the Swedish Reprobates have run afoul of the Motion Picture Ass. of America, the Dreamcrusher is also drawing by hand, and Ryan Estrada is nowhere to be seen. Yep, April Fool’s Day.

In serious news, the Guest Strip Project launched today, which ordinarily would not be reason to add it to the blogroll over there, but it’s got a few unique things going for it. For starters, there’s a roster of immense talent associated with it (starting with today’s first strip, courtesy of Christopher Baldwin), and the fact that it’s a limited-run strip. One year, and it’s gone. Keep an eye on the store for special merchandise offers during the next year, all for the benefit of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

And mark your calendars, everybody: May 22, Wigu returns with a hard reboot.

It’s died down here and at The Daily Cartoonist, but there was one last hurrah in The Great Web/Print Convocation of Aught-Eight — an open conference call set up by Scott Kurtz last Friday, leading to Webcomics Weekly #29. From Kurtz:

So I set up a conference call via Talkshoe and invited everyone in last night. I was granted permission from the group to record the session and the resulting two hour debate is this episode of Webcomics Weekly.

A word of warning: This is a 2 hour podcast. I’m not sure of the audio quality because I used Talkshoe’s built in software to record it. At times, everyone is LOUDLY talking over each other. EXPLICIT LANGUAGE WARNING: Some of us curse. Mostly me. Sorry.

I was hoping that more of the print/syndicated cartoonists would show up. But mostly it was us web guys. Ted Rall called in shortly after we started and so did Matt Bors (who does editorial cartoons and is a part of Ted’s Attitude cartoonists). Halfway through our own Brad Guigar shows up and later in the podcast we hear from Rich Stevens and Meredith Gran.

I don’t want to say too much. I’ll let you listen yourself. A lot gets brought up and we don’t really solve any of the world’s cartoonists problems. But I think we make some headway in understanding each other a little better.

I’ve only had time to listen to the first half hour or so, thus far. It’s a bit random at first, as everybody gets used to talking without visual cues (as the veteran of many corporate con-calls, this is a very common thing). I’m reliably informed that the quality of the conversation ramps up once everybody’s figured out how not to talk over each other.

In other news, Spike’s totally awesome Templar, Arizona makes the jump to Keenspot, which means that as of today Reagan is scientifically proved to be 38% sassier.

And finally, a very happy 12th birthday to Help Desk; that is a long damn time, even factoring out “internet years”. May the malevolent boss of Ubersoft give you a break today, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.

Okay, did NOT see that coming. Pudú!

Should have mentioned this earlier, but I missed it: You’re a nerd (don’t deny it), which means that you a) have a deep and abiding love for Terry Pratchett, and b) have heard of his embuggerance. Shaenon Garrity wants you to step up and help reduce future embuggerances:

Through the month of April, I will be selling original daily strips from my comics Narbonic and Skin Horse for the low low price of $25. All proceeds from the sale will go to The Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

Read the rules & conditions at the link above. Speaking of art sales for good causes, check out the bargain of the year over at the Estradadome:

This summer, I’m gonna climb Mount Kilimanjaro. My sister will be there on a research project studying hyenas, so I’m gonna meet up with her, and the two of us are gonna make it to the top, or die trying. But it seems you can’t climb without a registered guide. And one of those is gonna cost us a pretty penny.

If you donate 5 bucks for me to climb Kilimanjaro, I will mail you as much original art as I can fit in an envelope. I have a whole drawer full here…. Flight pages, guest strips, fan art, custom comics…. anything I’ve posted in the last year, chances are it’s here. I’ll try and make sure you get a complete story. If you have any specific requests, I’ll do my best (you can ask if something’s available beforehand if you want it) Keep in mind that most of this is just ink on cheap copy paper, with white out all over it, and I do a lot of finishing digitally. But you send me 5 bucks (if you’re in North America), I’ll send you a stack. You send me ten, I’ll add in some random presents from Mexico (that deal goes for anywhere in the world).

Dresden Codak is sporting a website redesign, with a new sketch-a-day blog. It’s no secret that Aaron Diaz has been challenged by his goal of weekly updates (that’s some damn complex artwork he’s sportin’), so hopefully having small updates will make the wait for new installments go more smoothly.

Finally: another week, another in the nameless series of webcomics interviews from Rick Marshall, this time with the inimitable R Stevens. Enjoy the weekend!

Coming Monday, Paul Southworth brings us a new twist on guest strips in the form of Tales From the Ugly [Hill rejected story] Files; let’s hear what he’s got in store:

There exists a text file on my computer that contains every idea I’ve had for Ugly Hill since it started way back in 2005. Every. Single. Idea. It’s pretty darn big. A lot of those ideas get either forgotten or rejected for one reason or another, and since I’m taking next week off, I thought it might be fun to throw a little twist on the boring old “Guest Week” we’re probably all so tired of.
…
The guest artist [writes] a single strip around [a rejected story] concept, showing what they think would happen in that situation.

All of the slots for next week are filled, and anybody that contacts Southworth now will get relegated to Fan Art; after Southworth’s ALM guest strip, I can’t wait to see if this was enough to tempt Rënë Ëngström to cut short her UK vacation (hint: I’m guessing it wäsn’t).

In other news, Meghan Murphy writes:

The first 100 strips of Kawaii Not (the Comic for Cute Gone Bad) are now available in book from F+W Publications at Amazon and hopefully your local bookstore.

My local bookstore is sort of aggressively anti-cute, but I’ll be sure to mention it to ’em, Meghan.

The book also includes a Kawaii Manifesto, a Kawaii Horoscope, a “How Kawaii are You?” quiz… and two pages of stickers! Hooray!

Man, stickers. Definitely gonna mention it to ’em now.

As of this writing, the great print/webcomics meeting of the minds is now up to 80 comments here at Fleen, followed by 175 at TDC, meaning that just keeping up with progress on the issue has exhausted me but man there’s some good stuff there. For anybody wondering “How do I make money online”, let me refer you to the relevant chapters of HTMW, which right now are the closest thing to a Strunk & White on the topic (if only Guigar & Kellett & Kurtz & Straub weren’t so dratted unwieldy!).

Finally, nothing to do with webcomics (at least not yet), but remember Baryshnikov in White Nights, the panic when he realizes his plane is crashing in the USSR after he’d previously escaped? Well, some of us remember, and that’s exactly how I’m going to feel about flying over Indiana from now on.

Last week, while I was down with the weird miserable head cold I’ve been fighting, my friend Chris sent me a link to Maria Schneider‘s wickedly funny Pathetic Geek Stories. Like Jesse Reklaw’s masterful Slow Wave, PGS consists of reader-submitted material. Where Reklaw draws dreams, Schneider’s work is more the stuff of nightmares: true stories from readers detailing firsthand humiliating geekery. What’s not to love?

There’s a seriously impressive amount of archives to sift through, from rattails to inopportune giggles in class to falling asleep on the school bus and becoming the target for a prank. In addition, the FAQ is probably one of the more entertaining, well-written such documents I’ve seen on a webcomic’s site. Speaking of which, there’s also a subcategory–not illustrated–called “Functions.” You’re smart readers. You can figure out what’s happening there. I’ll merely caution that, depending on your workplace, it might be a little NFSW. Just so’s you know.

Submissions are welcome.