Shishio sends word that Adventures In Digital Comics is apperently finished. For those of you not in the know, AIDC is a film by Sebastien Dumesnil about, you guessed it, web comics and comics in general. More information about the film, which was nominated for the Best Documentary Award at the Tel Aviv Film Festival, can be found on the website.

In particular, I found the interviews section very informative. Be sure to check it out if you’re looking for some interesting opinions on the medium of comics in general and the role the internet is playing in the industry.

Some quick notes from the BLC front, where it’s Real Life‘s 7th anniversary, Ugly Hill has one of those sweet, sweet lines that’s pure distilled Funny, and Howard Tayler has declared Sheldon‘s “mission accomplished!”

Speaking of politics, not many webcomics do; oh, sure, there will be the occasional injection of such, but a full-bore, long-term, story-oriented (as opposed to what’s happening in the world today?) approach, not so much. One webcomic that devotes itself pretty much exclusively to political ideas is A Girl And Her Fed, of which we’ve spoken previously.

Recently, AGAHF introduced a most unique character, Mr Speedy. Yep, a hyperconservative, genetically-engineered, mutant koala. And may I add that some subset of “hyperconservative, genetically-engineered mutant koala” would make a great name for a band?

Anyhoo, AGAHF creator Brooke “Otter” Spangler is looking to support the strip by doing some pretty cool projects; these side stories are not integral to the overall plot, but are intended to fill in background details. She sent me her first, Speedy’s Story, which tells the tale of exactly how you create a hyperconservative, genetically-engineered, mutant koala (for those of you with free time this weekend). It’s not quite merchandise, since it’s a PDF that you’re getting; it’s less ephemeral than “bonus art” or “wallpaper”, though. Here’s the deal from Spangler herself:

I’ve promised AGAHF’s readers that I won’t hold any information hostage in these stories … This character’s backstory is irrelevant to the central plot – he’s a genetically-engineered koala bear, plain and simple. However, if someone wanted to know the origins of the character, they could either take me out to dinner for a good, long conversation over drinks, or they could purchase the PDF. Five bucks is certainly the cheaper option.

The story is nicely done, and it looks great; if you like AGAHF even a little, give up 1.32 fancy-ass drinks at Starbucks this week and check out Speedy’s story. Or for a few dollars more, you can get a printed copy with an extra page (which is still a bargain compared to what the drinks would likely cost). And whatever you do, don’t let a koala get at your email password, if you know what’s good for you.

From Sean Conchieri, news of the Bomb Shelter Comics competition, Webcomics Idol:

Bomb Shelter Comics has selected its top ten submissions for the First Annual Webcomics Idol Contest! We’ve got a damn good group of contestants here, and one of them will get free hosting, membership, and other goodies the collective can provide! To see the top ten, and to vote, check the link

Guest judges will start reviewing the contestants next week, but in the meantime you can look over the comics and express your opinions as to which part of the herd should be thinned. Head over to the page and decide who you think should NOT be in the running. As a side note, the BSC crew had a tough job, as a full 68 comics were in the running for WCI, and there are some worthy contestants in the final 10.

In fact, let’s give a little love to the finalists. Ladies and gentlement, may we present:

• Zed Reckoning — zombies galore!
• Random Domain — rudeness abounds!
• The Bean Men — entrails a-go-go!
• On The Edge — devilish therapy!
• What Birds Know — birds are weirdly interactive!
• Intergalactic Law — litigiousnesssss in spaaaaaaace!
• Hector! — mythology with a twist!
• One-Liners — pseudoautobiographical!
• Stark Reality — they must put something in the water in Australia!
• Amazing Superzeroes — with the power of … EMO!

As of this writing, there are 136 votes total; we’ll be sure to bring you the winner when it’s all decided.

For Part 2 of my ongoing interview series, I caught up with Danielle Corsetto. Danielle writes, draws and publishes the webcomic Girls With Slingshots, previously reviewed, and is the creator currently behind The New Adventures of Bat Boy for the Weekly World News.

A quick note about my interview series before we get into the intimate details of Danielle’s story. I am aiming to do one interview a week, publishing on Tuesday. Next week, look for a very special Thanksgiving edition.

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Editor’s note: This is the first of the Fleen Guest Reviews; this came about because Scott Thornton suggested that we review some particular comics in under-represented genres, and he seemed enthusiastic enough about it that we suggested that he write ’em up himself.

Scott, by the way, is an Australian malcontent living in Melbourne. Aged 25, he began his interest in sequential art via TinTin and illustrated zines and likes to focus on genre fiction webcomics. He is currently working on the weekly webcomic blog, Zhi, which is some good reading. Want to join in the fun? Throw us a suggestion, we’ll ask you to send us some copy; just like the Op-Ed page, if it doesn’t require too much fixin’ we’ll run it.

Webmanga has traditionally gotten a bad rap from the mainstream webcomic community (case in point: look at Combustible Orange‘s characterisation of Fred Gallagher as a sex-crazed pervoid). If all you read is slice of life webcomics, every otaku is a possible bishie-obsessed stalker. If you’re unsure about manga then Daniel Kim’s Clone Manga is an expose of his talent, it comprises a smorgasbord of his short stories. Most of them have a bent towards the supernatural and fantastical and from the site the reader can slowly digest them at their leisure.

Kim’s art isn’t ultra smooth or slick and it’s more ma! ngaesque or manga influenced with a more realistic use of scale and softer linework. It’s a haze of black and white, and likewise the various narratives within the confines of Clone Manga are fantastical shadowy meanderings of the human condition. Thus, it’s a westernised translation of manga and for the beginner this makes it an informative entry point into what looks like esoteric madness.

If you’re looking for standout stories then, frankly, Paper Eleven is the centrepiece of Kim’s website; it’s a convoluted and lovely exposition of a classic fairytale that pieces together slowly. Likewise, Penny Tribute is another example of Kim’s reissuing of the western fantastical within Clone Manga’s mangaesque atmosphere; it takes place in a menagerie of characters in a forbidding castle. However, if you’re tired of all the emo, here’s a lighter touch in Tomoyo42’s Room, both in artwork and doujinshi style silliness.

Still, if all you’re after is a quick gag during your lunch break or you speak L33T as a second language then you won’t find what you want here. If you’re after new visions of sequential art, then this is a good place to start your examination of the art that dare not speak its name within the webcomic pixelsphere.

Fleen thanks Scott Thornton for his contribution. Read his blog!

Still having computer problems, so this is gonna be quick.

Behold! The power of moustachery! It’ll get you written up in the tabloids.

Sent to us by the totally excellent Ryan Estrada:

So I’m living in India, right? A country that steals 90% of it’s intellectual property from Hollywood movies and American TV shows. Well, I open up my newspaper, and what do I see? Now they’ve started stealing from webcomics.

Over England-way, we’ve got a couple of weeks of John Allison filling in the blanks; two years of backstory and mystery are about to be revealed!

Also over in England, the delightful Ms Cusack informs us that she’ll have her first English gallery show this Saturday. In the not-too-distant future, I hope to have a review of the Stuff Sucks iPod skin for y’all, too.

And a bit later today, the first of Fleen’s Guest Reviews will be going up. It’s sort of an experiment, which will hopefully complement the triumphant return of Jeff Lowrey and his Tuesday Interviews. I just saw the one that’s on tap for tomorrow, and it’s coooool.

I like web comics. I like dead tree comics. I like my web comics mostly because they are like the dead tree variety, only free. I’m really not asking for much more, to be honest.

Despite this, I recently visited the Telltale Games website, to download something and discovered web comics the Telltale way. The Sam and Max Comic is interesting. You look at it and you say “what is this? where is my dialog and sound effects?” and then you unwittingly hover your cursor over a pane and lo and behold! Dialog! Sound Effects Etc!

This is an interesting approach, and one that is obviously only possible when utilising electronic media. Sometimes, when reading a comic, our eye is drawn to a boisterous sound effect in the last panel, which can ruin the pacing and set up of a strip. Same goes for dialog within a panel. Sometimes we can get distracted by dialog in bold or italics, and not read things in order, once again ruining the experience the author had in mind for us. In Sam and Max, this is not a problem. As you hover your cursor over a panel, the dialog and sound effects appear in the order that they were intended.

Personally, I am undecided as to whether this is genius or novelty. The concept is sound, I think, but having to manually hover over every single panel makes extended reading slightly cumbersome. A bit more like playing a video game perhaps?

Well, that’s understandable I suppose…

Editor’s note: It’s been a little less than three years since Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins announced Child’s Play over at Penny Arcade. What seemed like a nice little ad-hoc plan quickly grew out of all proportion, resulting in an estimated $175,000 of toys and more than $27,000 cash being raised in less than six weeks.

Two years ago, they did it again, raising over $310,000; last year, $590,000. Add ’em up, and you’re looking at nearly $1.2 million. There have been black-tie charity dinners and auctions; large corporations sponsor the effort; one hospital grew to five, and the list has since gone international. Behind all that good is the work of a lot of volunteers, and the coordinating efforts of Kristin Lindsay, who was kind enough to take the time to talk with me, despite having recently produced a small human being using only time and basic household items.

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Apologies for the late update today; got some computer woes at home, leading to late and irregular access to email and my trawl list, and likely to remain that way for a little bit. Let move onto some happenings in the wild, wild world o’ webcomics, shall we?

• Regular readers of this page will know that I loves me some Digger, with a special spot in my heart for Ed the hyena. Per today’s setup, looks like we got some Ed on tap. Now all we need is more Digger print collections, and all shall be well.
• Steve Troop is continuing his 24 hour comic experiment. Has anybody else tried this on such a regular basis before?
• Wigu is coming back. From J-Ro’s LiveJournal:
  

  I am “developing” new Wigu comics, and it’ll go something like this. On jjrowland.com, new comics will start running soon. These will be Wigu one-off strips, ones that are independent. Like “prequel” comics kind of. Before the madness set in.

  There will also be other comics on there, like American Platypus and stuff like that. Basically I still really enjoy doing Overcompensating, and will continue, but it gets boring to just write and draw what actually happens everyday. OC will probably scale back to like 3 days a week.

  Wigu Adventures will be the continuing Atlantis/Mars story that will be for sale on paper and added to the jjrowland.com/wigu/ area many, many months after sales of the print version dies down.

• Speaking of madness, Jennie Breeden brings all you ladies the treat of men in kilts all year ’round!
• And with the end of the year fast approaching, we at Fleen will be doing a list of the most interesting/notable happenings in webcomics, complete with suggestions by you, our loyal readers. Got anything you think was particularly cool? Email it to gary at this-here-website.com, for inclusion in the year-end spectacular.

what on earth Ryan North could do to follow up Project Wonderful, how about saving Wikipedia from itself?

RYAN YOU HAVE TO STOP HAVING IDEAS FOR A LITTLE WHILE WE CANNOT KEEP UP WITH YOU!!

Update: Ryan’s project shows up in El Reg.