A while back I wrote about comics that were some of the best but had fallen by the wayside and hadn’t been updated in months or years with no notice from the artist. One of those comics was Fallen, written and drawn by Aido. At the time I told you that this was a unique storyline, straight out of the imagination of its creator, and that the dreamy art style left deep impressions on its reader. The last update was in September of ’05 and there hadn’t been so much as a guilty apology for not having updated in so long.

Well, that all changed last night. After what seemed like an eternity, Aido has finally offered up another update. Her art style has changed a lot, and I think it lost just a little bit of what made Fallen feel so dreamy and imagined. Don’t get me wrong though, it is still beautiful art work and the characters themselves seem hardly changed. I hope this means that we’ll be seeing Fallen regularly again, and that this isn’t some bored, half attempt to feed her fans. I’d like to think she misses us as much as we miss her.

I know I’ve written about Count Your Sheep recently, so I’m glad your attention is on it. For those of you whose attention isn’t on it, go check it out starting here. Adis! has changed the style to honor of the third year anniversary of the strip. It’s a return to the roots, as it’s Katie and Ship in Katie’s bed, Katie in her PJs and Ship ready to help her count to sleep. (In fact, it seems to be mirroring these two strips.)

Originally, the strip was meant only to be Katie and Ship, and only jokes about counting sheep. But soon Katie’s mother was introduced, and we’ve gotten glimpses of Laurie’s past. Then there was the More Than Cute campaign, which brings the characters even more depth. They’re brilliantly strong female characters, and I love them.

Note the distressed eyebrow tweak on Ship. It’ll be interesting to see how Adis! plans to send up his own strip for its anniversary. I’m excited.

Remember way back when I was musing on the possibility of Hollywood produced web comic movies? Yeah. That was fun. Anyway, as it happens, there is something out there that seems to resemble the antics of certain gaming comics caught on camera, but perhaps not to Hollywood standards. It is called Mega64. Perhaps you have heard of it.

These guys are out there physically doing the funny stuff that we’re used to seeing portrayed by cartoon cats, and it entertains. As long as you can forgive some pretty dodgy camera work and sometimes equally dodgy sound (I’m personally fine with it, since those things are my own primary mode of expression) then you’re in for a treat. In particular, the Hitman, Metal Gear and Shenmue episodes have been huge hits with those who have wandered past my monitor. Beyond the funny (and a lot of it is really funny), it’s also a pretty good message to be sending to the kids. The Mega64 guys often wind up getting in trouble with someone or other for their antics, so maybe the message here is that you can’t just go out and act out your favorite video game without getting in trouble. Unless maybe it’s Tetris.

The public’s reaction to Hitman may be a cause for concern however…

Today’s Two Lumps reexamines a universal truth you learn in most art appreciation classes and British literature classes. Many great masterpieces in literature, music and art can be directly attributed to an artist’s opium addiction, hallucinations, insanity or blood poisoning from paint. We feel compelled to look at deeper meanings in these works, but the truth is we need only go as far as our nearest Introduction to Psychology class. It’s nice to see Two Lumps back to their regularly scheduled programming after what seemed like an eternity of literature rewrites.

I’ve decided to surface from my room, after numerous hours of honing my Guitar Hero skillz. What pulled me out of my gaming stupor was today’s Diesel Sweeties strip. Protesting furries and and goth chicks dressed as kitties always get my attention.

I love it when artists do their own newspaper spins, they never cease to amuse me. The newspaper at DS is the “Yiffington Star-Tribune”, which is all up in arms over the horrible presence of furries in our society. I personally have nothing but mad love for furries. Who am I to judge if a person wants to get it on with a bear-man? Another plus for the DS newpaper is the story “Snakes! Are they on your plane?” I hope not.

Anyways, I enjoy R.Stevens and his wonderfully pixalated artwork. Especially when it’s talking about weird sex practices. And the strip raises yet another provocative question, do bears have natural enemies? If so, who are they and are they armed?

I think a Bald Eagle with Adamantium claws could take a bear down, and look totally extreme while doing it. Note to self: develop Bald Eagle with Adamantium claws.

Nobody’s ever happy, everybody can find a reason to turn on somebody helping them, and the only emotionally-consistent characters are sociopathic black-ops agents for videogame manufacturers. I think that Dave Sim has been beaming his, errr, unique view of gender relations directly into the script-writing center of Fred Gallagher’s brain.

And look at the other parallels: a long-running series (although Gallagher has quite a ways to go to equal Sim’s 6000 pages of Cerebus) of black-and-white art from a single creator; divorce from a creative partner relatively early in the run (in Sim’s case, a literal divorce, in Gallagher’s, a parting of the ways with Rodney “Largo” Caston); and a tendency to long essays accompanying the art. They say that Sim rarely leaves his home, so who knows what kind of secret mind-control lasers he might be playing with?

So let’s talk crazy. Why not? Jeff Rowland is going to go out and pretend to be Chris Gaines; an entity that embodies craziness itself. We’re practically dealing with craziness squared here, people! What now? What indeed!?

Well, Jeff’s little identity crisis got me thinking. There are web comic artists out there that run more than one comic. Jeffery himself did it for more than a little while. Would it be more lucrative (if such a term can be applied to web comics without general guffawing) for a particular artist to create separate identities for each of their comics? Would it help or hinder their exposure? Heck, has it been done? Has any nefarious creator been caught out doing the very same? If anyone knows, it’s Fleen readers, so come on folks, do my job for me and tell the people stuff they don’t already know!

So we’ve all heard about the war between Dumbrella and DayFree Press. The big rumble at the Puck Building during MoCCA that ended in catastrophe is what caught my eye. Who knew that a humble web comic artist had the power to decimate all of North America? I say that’s pretty impressive Jeff, pretty impressive indeed.

I’m not sure if I could choose between Dumbrella and Dayfree. I love white ninjas, but I just can’t make myself side against the PoopMonster. He’d have my knees broken for sure.

 The only reason that I would suggest that Dayfree would win is because there are two, count em’, two ninjas on the team. Who could win against two ninjas? Not I. I’m not positive if the notorious Englishman could withstand that kind of fury.

What do you think, readers of Fleen? Who do you think should have won in the Great MoCCA War? Dayfree or Dumbrella?

I don’t have to tell you all about how wonderful Family Man is or how talented Dylan is or how I’d sell my soul to any number of devils to have that kind of talent. No, no, that can all go without saying. I’m all a-quiver with anticipation after last weeks nearly risque sleeping behavior between the brothers.

I’d like to draw your attention specifically to today’s comic though. After weeks and weeks stuck in the same night the comic begins in, we’ve finally moved on to the next day. This is where we’ll start to see things move a little quicker, I think. With updates spread out over the course of a day rather than many updates depicting a 10 minute time span which makes the comic feel as if it were at a stand still. Timing is a very tricky thing that artists have to juggle. To do a scene justice you must spend plenty of pages and thorough dialogue. Should you spend too many though, readers start wondering when things are going to actually happen and the exposition or the build up of suspense will finally climax.

On a final note I’d like to draw attention to Dylan’s use of text bubbles in the last panel. Text bubbles are often just bits of white space breaking up background art. But not here. Here the text becomes symbolic of action. Here, the text and the balloon become an artistic tool to experience noise, loudness/softness and tone. Dylan never fails to use her whole page to her advantage and that is an impressive feat.

Jenn Manley Lee says that Griffen and Molly of Dicebox walked into her head in 1990: their personalities, their dynamic, their situation. That’s a long time to know someone, especially fictional characters. Jenn’s familiarity with them is apparent in the execution of the first book, which she describes as a “slice of life� in her fantasy science fiction world.

The art is detailed, with specific colors for each character, and has been talked about before. Jenn even outlines it for the readers. I’m more interested in the story telling – and the way that Dicebox is driven by character dialogue. Griffen and Molly have the most impressive dialogue, which shows the intimacy between them in the details that are left out (because they don’t need to say them).

Jenn describes this first book of four as a slice of life, and it works well as one. Between Molly’s visions and missing finger and Griffen’s trouble making and duel identity (as Peggy Clevenger), we begin to see exactly how the world is constructed for the migrant workers that they are. They have to register for their citizenship every year; they decide between beer and beds, there are curfews and medical insurance woes. I’m not sure where the story is going – I suspect that it has something to do with their pasts – but as the next book is entitled Chase, it promises to be full of action.

So, anyway. Dicebox, updates Wednesdays, one page at a time. I’m really looking forward to the third book, called Tour of Duty, which Jenn says will be driven by political intrigue. That’s my favorite genre of anything, so I’ll be a faithful, patient reader until then. Check it out.