… Tatsuya Ishida! Also, PJ Hart, who has been absent from these pages due to a dangerous mix of personal and professional problems. Anyway. Let’s talk more about the new Sinfest.

When I first started here, one of the first things I did was get on Tat’s back about his extended absences. I was close to bringing it up again when out of nowhere, a new comic appeared along with a brand new website! The new site itself oozes simplicity from html pores that were once clogged with clutter, and today’s strip is old school Sinfest, just the way you remember.

It’s worth noticing also that  there is no trace of Keenspot anywhere on the site, so that’s another loss for them. I wonder if Tat will get snapped up by any of the other comic collectives. My money is on Blank Label.

Ok, so is String really a tantric god, or is that just a rumor? Over at Bad Shape they are calling Sting a “Tantra Jedi”. I’m so going to have business cards printed up with that as my profession.

On the topic of sexiness, Pintsize at Questionable Content considers the possibility of hermaphrodite keytars. If the guitar is supposed to be phallic and a keyboard is yonic, then I guess it makes sense. But I’m sure a hefty debate can be raised on the topic of instrument sexes.

Few more panels of note, y’all.

Saturday

12:30-1:30 Flight: A New Kind of Comics Anthology— The critically acclaimed Flight anthology has begun paving the way for a new vision in comics. Flight artists Kazu Kibuishi (Daisy Kutter), Phil Craven, Kean Soo (Jellaby), Jeff Smith (Bone), Steve Hamaker, and special guest Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics, Making Comics) talk about creating comics for a new generation of readers and artists. Room 9

4:00-5:00 How to Make Compelling Web Comics— Lee Marrs (Pudge, Girl Blimp, Indiana Jones) will present the most direct methods and pitfalls of creating both webcomics and interactive hypercomics, with demonstrations and examples. The direct-from-the-trenches “Marrs Hypercomics Recipe� will be shared by this Inkpot Award winner and Emmy Award–winning TV art director. Room 3

This appears to a usage of the word webcomics somewhat different than you and I are used to.

Sunday

10:30-11:30 History of Webcomics— Join writer T Campbell (Penny and Aggie, Fans, Rip and Teri) and some possible surprise guests to discuss 13 years of online comics, the challenges, conflicts and controversies of chronicling them, and where the project goes from here. Room 9

Unfortunately, gonna miss this one — my flight home is Sunday morning. Anybody want to do some feet-on-the-street reportage? Click the contact link.

The SDCC panel schedule is getting close to finalized, and two more items of note have popped up. In addition to the previously-Fleened Dumbrella and Webcomics 102 panels, we have:

10:30-11:30 Blank Label Comics — The groundbreaking independent comics co-op offers a look at its unique recipe for success and explains why “webcomics” are dead. Moderated by the hosts of the popular Blank Label Comics podcast, Dave Kellett (Sheldon) and Kristofer Straub (Starslip Crisis), the panel will include David Willis (Shortpacked!), Paul Taylor (Wapsi Square), Howard Tayler (Schlock Mercenary), Steve Troop (Melonpool), and Brad Guigar (Evil Inc.). Room 1A

and

6:00-7:00 Keenspot 2006: Spotlight on Awesomeness — The world-renowned Internet powerhouse that makes webcomics history with every new pixel returns to Comic-Con for its 6th annual panel discussion! Keenspot creators who may very well appear (assuming no cool Star Trek panels overlap with this one) include Dan Shive (El Goonish Shive), Jennie Breeden (The Devil’s Panties), Aeire (Queen of Wands), R. Smith (Funny Farm), and Darren Bleuel (Nukees). The panei will be moderated by Keencast hosts Chris Daily (Striptease) and John Troutman (Flint Again), who will be podcasting this panel. Hear Keenspot’s late-breaking big announcements and preview their newest comics and animation projects before anyone else! Free Keenspot giveaways for everyone who attends. Room 9

That makes at least three collectives that will have the soapbox to tell us what they’re up to these days. Will we see the Twin Towers holding forth on behalf of Dayfree Press? Or some announcements about what’s happening at Graphic Smash and Modern Tales? There’s still a lot of hours across four days that don’t have webcomics events, so get cracking, collective people!

Also, it’s starting to look like my schedule will prevent me from attending the “Spotlight on Awesomeness” (you really sorta have to respect somebody that can come up with a line like that with a straight face), so if anybody wants to do the stringer thing for us and grab some dirt, feel free to click the contact link up there.

Holy shit Jeffrey Rowland! Is that the one and only Samuel L. Jackson wearing your “Snakes Flying a Plane” T-shirt?

Damn, you are smooth.

I’m glad your creepy-ass dream has inspired you to go to Comic-Con. I must admit, I was surprised when you first announced that you weren’t going to attend this year. But when the Badass Motherfucker demands that you go, I guess you can’t say no. Or he’ll slice you in two with his purple lightsaber.

After a long-ass day at work, what I like to come home to is a nice refreshing cup o’ web comic. And nothing satisfies better than Rob and Elliot. If you check out the most recent update of the strip, you will be catching the end of a hard learned lesson on stealing. I enjoy it when web comics teach moral lessons, because it usually involves fake blood, squibs, and an old woman dressed like satan.

I think there should be more web comics that teach twisted, horrifyingly effective moral lessons. It could be like what Wonder Showzen did for Sesame Street. Do I dare to dream about such a web comic? Yes, yes I do.

Hey, look at that! Server all migrated and we’re back in business, just in time for me to write an entry before things consume my evening (none of which, sadly, involve the drinking of beer). A quick scan of the internets reveals that Goats, megaGAMERZ, Real Life, and Oh No Robot! have also made the transition safely.
(Edit: Slight delay getting graphics to load. Picture to be added up there shortly Added.)

So, something PJ wrote got me to thinking about what makes for a good webcomic — archives that you can easily (and freely) navigate are the key advantage of webcomics over their print brethren, despite certain business models to the contrary. Jeff once remarked on the importance of infrastructure, including navigation, forum, and blurb space. And I’ve written about the importance of legibility in artwork. But what else is necessary for a really good webcomic?

A quick scan of popular comics reveals that, much like there are essential elements to country/western songs (booze, death, adultery, Jesus, a train, and/or a truck), certain themes may be considered critical for webcomickin’ success; they appear to include:

• pixels
• pretty people talking
• ninjas
• cute fuzzy animals
• video games

Think of it! All of your big-time webcomics feature at least one of these. We may logically infer that a pixel comic of a fuzzy animal ninja that talks about videogames with its pretty friends is destined for megasuccess … it’s scientific! Dinosaurs would be good too, but that’s closed territory, my friend. Try to encroach, and you’ll get stomped. Even now, highly trained Disney™ Fungineers© are reading this, plotting to extend their dominance, coming for your children. In the meantime, Fleen welcomes your suggestions for comics that fulfill at least three of the Criteria of Wonderfulness.

Reading through my Wednesday comics, I came across Patches, which I keep around because it is quirky and cute. Today’s Patches is interesting for two reasons — it marks a slight change in style (though in the past darkness has been indicated by black, and shadows by hatch marks), as well as a tribute to David Bowie created in an ingenious manner. I think it makes for a really great joke.

Which made me think about another comic tribute to musical genius. There is the Planet Song (second post there, 9/14/05), which is a tribute/parody/filk to Sufjan Steven’s States Song, which I believe can only be heard in concert. Jeff? Any chance of getting the rest of the Planet Song?

I love pop culture references.

Today, I was browsing through the archive of PvP, trying to gather data with which to answer a question posed to me by Mr Kurtz. Anyway, I got side tracked and started to think about the different ways that different comics archive their strips and how important it is. PvP uses a fairly simple calender based archive, which is fine if you’re reading the whole thing through from start to finish, but is somewhat unweildy when it comes to finding specific strips or storylines. As I mentioned in my review, Irregular Web Comic has a versatile archiving system that makes it quick and easy to find your favorite strips. Penny Arcade also has a searchable archive. Beaver and Steve goes one better by having a searchable archive and a Wiki entry for nearly all of its strips.

I think a versatile archive is important to a web comic. If your fans like your comic then they will want to spread the word by showing their favorite strips to their friends. I hate having to search through the Mac Hall archives for like a half hour to show someone the car ninja strip. In fact, I wanted to link to the road trip/butt sex strip but I got pissed off looking for it so I linked the car ninja instead.

T Campbell resigns from Clickwheel, now controls only 94% of all webcomics endeavours. On a slightly-related note, we at Fleen are still looking for a copy of Campbell’s El Grande Historio del Webcomics, and would be grateful if anybody knows of a supplier in the New York City Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Jon Rosenberg discovers the joys of grilling meat on land he owns [jointly with his wife and a large financial institution], calls for guest strips as he gets into the homeowner swing.

William G. sends webcomics blog comment in re: the Girly contretemps, adds to quality of discussion. Mr G intended to add the comment to that posting, but since the discussion had scrolled a couple of pages long, he felt that it was a dead topic. However, other comments have arrived since he emailed us, and I think it’s an interesting POV, so I have copied it to that thread.

Lastly, DumbrellaHosting honcho/Fleen publisher Phillip Karlsson announces imminent server switch, promises he will be doing “stuff” to ensure easy browsing while the DNS changes propagate. If you see hiccups here over the next 24 – 48 hours, try to bear up and be brave in the face of it all. We know you have it in you.