So I was reading the news the other day when I came across this little gem:

WASHINGTON (AP)–The U.S. State Department says it was surprised by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah’s statement that he would not have ordered the abduction of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to a large war.

“It was a surprising statement for somebody who launched a war to say that he regretted launching that war,” Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

We’ll just let the irony of that quote sink in for a moment and allow you to wonder, as I did, if I had accidentally called up The Onion. I hadn’t, but sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Curiously, as regular newspapers become ever less real, the premier fake newspaper has become more like a real newspaper: The Onion‘s print edition has added a comics page! Like much of the rest of the paper, it’s intentionally wretchedly bad with pure genius mixed in.

Witness: there’s ham-fisted editorial cartoons (courtesy of The Onion Syndicate) and bad syndicated strips (courtesy of King Features), right next to Wondermark by David Malki !. This may be more significant than Malki !’s recent addition to the Modern Tales lineup, since even a niche offering like The Onion has the potential to reach people who would never otherwise come across webcomics.

Alas, Wondermark remains merely the second-best strip on the print edition’s comic page. As is true in so many aspects of life, nothing touches the sheer genius of Cathy en Español.

Following up on the news about the Penny Arcade game, (can you tell I’m excited?) there is an interview with Joel DeYoung  of Hothead Games over on Firing Squad that answers a few preliminary questions, these answers being mostly “it’s too early to say” or “ask those Penny Arcade guys”. Two of the more interesting nougats:

FiringSquad: Will the game be a satrical look at the games industry or will it take a different direction?

Joel DeYoung: I think it’s fair to say that the game will deliver the kind of content that people have come to expect from the Penny Arcade strip. We’re definitely making this game to please the Penny Arcade fan.

and

FiringSquad: On the surface, it sounds like the game will be influenced by the classic LucasArts comical adventure games. Is that a fair assumption?

Joel DeYoung: At this time we’re not discussing any details of the gameplay.

Personally, I still have my fingers crossed for a LucasArts style adventure, but apperently we’ll just have to wait and see. I’ll talk about something else tomorrow, I promise.

Graphic Smash emerged from its hibernation last night, and just in time, too — Tuesday is Digger day. The new layout is pretty similar to that over at Modern Tales, with the main differences being color scheme, and the fact that Tim Demeter‘s postings appear next to the “updating today” panel.

I think it’s a nice compromise — over at MT, the narrow column where blog entries are displayed makes for a very tall block of text to navigate, but this layout allows for easier-reading text as well as displaying all the day’s updates at a glance. Joey Manley says that GS will be using a new design in the coming days, but I kind of like it as it is. Manley, by the way, is also looking for feedback on whether or not the current MT layout is preferred by readers, so be sure to let him know.

In the meantime, it appears that Demeter has the reins of GS firmly in hand, and we at Fleen look forward to the inevitable announcement that he’s adding a dozen or so new strips. If this growth and renewal pattern continues, Manley’s empire may just dislodge Ryan North as the Nexus Of All Webcomics Reality.

Nah. And speaking of hiatus, colleges around the world are getting back in swing, so look for some of our writers to be a bit spare in their contributions until they’ve gotten over the epic return-to-campus drunkenings back into the swing of academia.

I have a question, why does it seem like the web comic community doesn’t want to embrace Toothpaste For Dinner? It might just be me, but the lack of acknowledgement of this comic is surprising. Maybe some people don’t consider it a web comic, or maybe others just don’t like it.

I enjoy the comic, and is actually one of the first comics that got me interested into web comics in general. That is why I’m surprised that it is not mentioned more often, or referred to as a web comic by numerous artists.

I could be totally off-base with this idea, but I was just wondering if anyone else noticed that besides me? Or if you think I’m incorrect, tell me why it is not mentioned or spoken of more often?

Been a coupla weeks now since Shaenon Garrity was announced as the new editor of Modern Tales. She’s been pretty busy in the meantime — today there are eight (Count ’em, eight! Attached to names like Migdal and Shadoian!) new strip installments up; given that not that long ago, MT would see the new day with Narbonic and maybe one other strip updating, this can only be a great thing.

Add to that the illuminating interviews that Garrity’s been doing with the new MT crewmates, and it’s a good time to be a webcomics reader. Plus! You can revel in previously subscription-only strips in their entirety! If you haven’t read Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order yet, what the hell are you waiting for?

Graphic Smash is down at the moment, presumably about to burst forth in a new and improved form. If T[im] Demeter is half as successful as Garrity in his new job as editor of GS, if will be a good day to be Joey Manley (say that in a Klingon growl for maximum effect).

Now if Manley would just consider making the full list of the day’s MT updates visible from the get-go, all would be well in the world. Yeah, that’s a lot of responsibility to place on the Colonel, but I think he’s up to it.

Editor’s note: T Campbell was offered the opportunity to respond to Fleen’s recent review of what was identified as The History of Webcomics — while this was the original title of the book, Campbell has pointed out that the actual title at time of publication was A History of Webcomics; Fleen regrets the error.

Campbell’s response to the review, received over the weekend, appears in full below.

Campbell Responds To Fleen!Drama!

Tyrrell handles his critical role as gingerly as a thermonuclear bomb with a busted timer, as if trying to be forthright and fair enough to compensate for the bad behavior of all the book’s other critics.

Relax, Gary. You took time to read the damn thing all the way through and worked off the actual text. You didn’t rely on lies, hearsay, illogical assumptions or character assassination. Just as importantly, you didn’t decide to like it because I seemed a decent sort, or because you’d read my other work, or because you thought I meant well. That already punts you into the top 2% of the bell curve.

Not that there’s not room for improvements on Tyrrell’s improvements. My biggest problem’s one that I didn’t expect to have: he doesn’t hit hard enough.
(more…)

As of me posting this, there is nothing about this on the Penny Arcade front page, so here it is incase you haven’t heard:

Penny Arcade and Hothead Games Join Forces to Create Video Games Based on the Penny Arcade Characters and Universe

A release date for the first episode of Penny Arcade Adventures is to be announced. 

So yeah… holy crap. Awesome.

Big things in store for Penny Arcade, apparently; we should know more after the reveal this weekend at PAX. In the meantime, Jerry Holkins wasn’t kidding when he said:

You may be wondering what happened to the lever that regulates the amount of fan-service that flows into a given strip. This lever has been tugged free of the housing. You can only pull it in the open air now, and it does nothing to staunch the flow. Before this thing is over, you motherfuckers will need scuba gear.

Boy, he’s not kidding. The fan service couldn’t be any more thick if there were tentacles. In just one strip today, you’ve got Frank, Charles, Anne, Jim, the Tycho Zombie, and a Cinnabon; if not for the fact that the CTS and Twisp & Catsby occupy their own realities, you’d see them in there too.

This is pandering distilled to its finest essence, and I mean that in a complementary way; after the promised epilogue, look for PA to revert to Gabe being raped by hobos.

Paul Taylor at Wapsi Square has welcomed a son into the world. Due to health concerns, explained here, he was born early.

He’s worried that his readers might not understand some spotty updates. If you’re a member of his forums, congratulate him and let him know it’ll be all right. If you’re a fan, leave him a note here. He’ll probably get it.

As from me: Don’t worry, Paul. I’m more than willing to wait a bit for your story.

So I was looking for something to write about for today when I noticed a certain trend in web comics that I haven’t paid attention to till now. The trend I’m speaking of is the gratuitous us of pirates, cowboys, ninjas, and any subsequent combinations of the three. Now I’m not complaining about the usage of these characters, I’m just interested on why they are the “go-to” characters in web comics these days.

Perhaps it’s because they are iconic personas in film, T.V., and radio. Or maybe it’s the amazing outfits, I don’t know. But these three character types are typically not used as serious hero figures in web comics, but instead as a vehicle for wacky humor. I’m not sure when pirates and whatnot became hilarious, I think it was around the release of the Princess Bride, circa 1987.

Whatever the case, I do enjoy a good pirate/cowboy/ninja joke. I am interested to see what the next stock characters of web comics will be though. I guess only time will tell.