So the fine men and women of the United States Postal Service finally got me my copy of Howard Tayler’s first Schlock Mercenary book today (postmarked the 15th, I swear they were faster when they sponsored Lance), so look for a review in the coming days. Also, if rumors are to be believed, the long-awaited and completely non-controversial The History of Webcomics may be dropping in the next day or so; that one will probably take a bit longer. And today, it’s City Limits, the latest webcomics-artists-anthology, this one edited by George Rohac and Katy Ullman.

Like its predecessors, Flight and Disposable Parts, there’s a theme to this collection, although perhaps a bit less abstract than stuff flies or robots. CL focuses on a fictional city made up in a room full of creators at last year’s Otakon (many of whom may be seen here), which leaves a bit of room for crossovers — a bit of background gag in one story becomes a foreground plot point in another. This is a nice touch, and it would be nice to see if these little nods become a regular feature of creator anthologies.

Like all anthologies, it’s going to be somewhat uneven in tone and style, and no two people are going to agree on what the best parts are. You got horror (funny from Mookie Terraciano, creepy from Dan Kim), dumb action movie fun (in three parts from Brian Caroll and two from Ryan Estrada), science fiction (from Bob Gandy and Haque/Panagariya), and so forth. There’s probably something here to your taste and something that makes you go meh.

One thing though, and all future anthology editors should take note: not all the work reproduces equally well in the B&W printed medium. Justin Eger’s moody, somber story is well served by Rickey Winrick’s art in Reunion which probably looks great on a screen or color repro, but here the shading is muddled a bit around the edges. Similar issues and a distracting pixelation affect the splash pages of Bob Gandy’s contribution, No Moving Parts. By contrast, Mohammed Haque does his usual magic in Disconnect — the man knows how to get the thinnest lines and subtlest shading differences to display clear and sharp.

And if you clicked on those links above, you probably can’t see the flaws that I mentioned — maybe it’s an artifact of paper, maybe it’s to do with the source materials not having a high enough resolution, maybe it’s just that somebody produced a pre-press master on a day with an “R” in it — but it seems a shame that the image quality isn’t uniform throughout. No idea how to fix that, but there’s lots of people that read this that have prepared work for press; perhaps they could enlighten us.

If you haven’t heard by now, today is Oozy Tuesday. Jeff Rowland and the infamous Poopmonster, aka: R. Stevens are declaring today a national holiday of raunchy, squirt gun fun. If you’re not sure what I’m speaking of, I’ll fill you in.

Hasbro has released a new summer toy, called “The Oozinator.” It is basically a water gun, but instead of water being shot out, a milky-white substance is sprayed instead. If you don’t believe me, then check the commercial out. The internet doesn’t lie.

So in honor of Oozy Tuesday, J-Ro and R. Stevens have created an homage of comic strips showing how wonderfully disgusting this new toy is. I’m heading to Toys’r’us as soon as possible to pick up my own ejaculating squirt gun.

Political comics are a dangerous place to make a stand. In general, I feel that political commentary in comics isolates people who both agree and disagree with you and then runs the risk of not making a sticking point or being uninformed. It feels too much like grandstanding and its’ rarely funny.

Monkey Law is a fairly old (as far as online comics go), fairly unknown comic about monkeys and the lives they lead living together under the fascist regime of the U.S. White House. The comic has clearly defined character concepts, archetypical heroes, stoners, little girls and hipster girls. There is a continuation in all the storylines that is predictable and relatively well scheduled. Without handing out adjectives like a Pez dispenser, I can say that Monkey Law is a good comic. This is a good liberal comic. It takes everyday political woes out of the op-ed section of the newspaper and puts it into the everyday lives of a household of monkeys who represent the basic framework of the every-man.

There is no doubt that the creator of Monkey Law, Brad Hawkins, is smart. His brain is integral to the play out of his comic. I’m concerned about his political commentary though. More than one storyline is a rehashing of something I read on Google news or in someone’s Livejournal. Very little of the actual political commentary is a unique perspective when it should be a microcosm of the whole U.S. political problem in the living room of his monkeys. At its most generic it resorts to Bush-bashing, a sport I am not unfamiliar with, and at its worst I’m not even sure what issue he’s trying to stick. Sometimes it feels like he doesn’t know either. During Hawkins’ most shining moments though, I know he gets it. I’m just not sure why it feels so muddy in the interim.

Topical humor always tickles my funny bone. I live in Michigan, and in Michigan there is a certain reputation for being frigidly cold. Now, like every other place, they also say that if you wait five minutes the weather will change. But for the last two days (and tomorrow as a third) it has hit 90 degrees with a heat index in the mid-90s.

Michigan doesn’t get heat indexes.

I thought I would share with you a particular story-arc from the archives of Loserz – strangely enough, a webcomic set in Michigan. I am lucky enough to have friends with cars who also have parents with pools. Good thing, too, because there weren’t enough people around this weekend for a proper waterfight.

Loserz, created by Eric Schoenek, is the story of three friends who are (according to the header) “Cynical Punk-Ass Teenagers.” They love video games, Jodie loves Sex, Eric’s hat is always changing, and Ben is lovesick. They’re the best of friends (but not in an ooey-gooey way). But that’s neither here nor there, because we’re talking about a WATERFIGHT.

Jodie, Eric, and Ben are joined by Max and Cecil, and the entire thing has a vaguely Calvin and Hobbes-esque feel to it, which the author admits in his commentary. But what makes this arc most enjoyable is not the jokes, but when it gets read.

Enjoy it as a beginning-of-summer treat. Hopefully, there will be other romps in the park like this one, all over the internet, which can take our mind off the fact that computers like to shut themselves down when they over heat.

I don’t have a lot of time to talk comics today for several reasons relating to impending academic failure. Conveniently enough though, the reason for this potential failure is a comic. So we can at least talk about that.

When Gary linked the first strip of Something Positive in his post on Friday, I doubt he had any idea that he was placing my University career in dire peril. At least, I hope he didn’t. Well, ever since then I’ve been dedicating every free sober moment to it’s deliciously evil charms. I even received a late birthday present in the form of a Trade Paper Back by one of my favorite writers, which will probably go unread until I have burnt through the SP archives.

I don’t think this has happened to me since I discovered White Ninja. Is it a common phenomenon, or do I just take my web comics way to seriously?

Those of you who make a habit of checking your favorites even on (US) national holidays perhaps noticed this bit of news from Chris Baldwin:

I will tell you though, in brief, the news I hinted at last week. Soon Little Dee will be moving to comics.com. I have entered a web-site agreement with United Feature Syndicate in this regard. This does not mean I’m syndicated, but it is the next step in that potential. They’ve been kind and generous to me, and I am excited at this development.

Regular readers of Fleen will recall our previous conversations with Dave Kellett, and his dealings with United Features Syndicate‘s web-only syndication model.

Fleen will be continuing the discussion on [semi-]syndication, as Baldwin has graciously agreed to an interview on this very topic; watch for it shortly. In the meantime, since we all know that nothing brings eyeballs like controversy, let us all hope that Messers Baldwin and Kellett violently disagree about everything, giving Fleen the opportunity to sponsor the first San Diego Comic-Con Steel Cage Deathmatch (with the winner taking on Bil Keane, who will in all likelihood hand the youngster his ass).

Well, it is late late on Friday night. Saturday morning, really.

Just getting in from your hot date? Decided to check your blog before you hop into bed? (Hopefully with your hot date?) That’s hot.

Dating is an all consuming topic on many levels. For teenagers, it is something that has to be navigated in very precise manner. For example, there is always the possibility that you’re hanging out with the wrong person and everyone else might decide that you’re gay.

Now, of course, you have your hot date. But others are not so lucky and have to worry about finally going on the date of the girl/boy of their dreams. Make sure they don’t see your blatant celebration. They may think you’re interested.

And then there’s the problem where if you are gay and then other people are uncomfortable it. Or aren’t uncomfortable with it, but have just had bad experiences involving it. Or are fundamentalist Christians and disown you.

Then again, your girlfriend may be exorcised and then blown up by old ladies who don’t want you to fall into sin. At least the best part about this is that when your good friend is nearly killed in a drive by shooting, she’ll be there to greet her in the underworld.

Keep this all in mind when you decide if you still like your hot date in the morning. Beer goggles are dangerous instruments.

Books. Words and pictures printed on bits of dead trees, stuck together and sold to you, the consumer, as a form of entertainment and/or eductation.

Now that we’re all on the same page, (yes, I went there) lets talk about web comic books, just you and me. Basically, what I was thinking was this: are web comic books for the hard core fans or do they serve as a means for hooking in new readers? Certainly in the past I think the former was true. It used to be the case that the only place you could buy a comic’s collection was from it’s own website, so basically if you were buying a book, you already read the comic. Sure, you could lend it to your friends or “accidentally�? leave it on your brother’s bed side table, but at the end of the day, the people who were shelling out cash for the books were the fans of the comics.

This has changed. I don’t know about your dusty little corner of the world, but my local Forbidden Planet now sells a modest collection of web comic books. I am unsure whether this is helping the uninitiated discover the electronic gems of entertainment that you and I know and love, since (regrettably) I don’t work in the aforementioned comic store. Despite this, I would like to cautiously suggest that yes, yes it is. In our store, some genius has placed the Sinfest books right beneath that gigantic Calvin and Hobbes collection that costs about as much as a second hand car. So maybe, just maybe, some Watterson fan will look at that expensive collection, realize they can’t afford it, and browse the titles in the surrounding section. “What’s this?�? They may ask. “It’s kind of like Calvin and Hobbes, only with sex and swearing! I can buy both these books and still afford to feed my family!�? Thus, a new Sinfest fan is born. Maybe. Of course, it never hurts to rely on the curiosity of the common comic book reader. I, for one, have entered my local many a time with some crisp bills in hand seeking to buy something, anything. Why not an issue of PvP? Why not a copy of Book Club?

Well, because it isn’t out yet. But still.

The more comic shops that buy in web comic books, the more likely it is that said books will hook in new readers. That is, providing the books don’t look like ass. Your adoring fans might tolerate sloppy presentation in a printed product, the ignorant masses will not.

Okay, so I was wondering if earlier in the week I could work in this somehow, since it’s not a webcomic and therefore outside our remit. Prickly City by Scott Stantis is (like the excreble Mallard Fillmore) a lame attempt at rescuing the funny pages from the “liberal mainstream media”. “Why is this not funny and merely shrill and shrieky?” is a question for another day; today, let’s revel in the irony that the joke is a direct lift from a Doonesbury (that paragon of liberality) strip from 1975 (no image available, so this is from memory):

Zonker: So how’d you get the name “Macarthur”, anyway?
Macarthur: Simple. I was a war baby, born in 1942.
M: Actually, I almost got named “Hirohito”, but luckily my parents held off naming me until after the Battle of Midway.
M: As you know, the Japs really got stomped there, lost four carriers! After that, all the Samoan families started naming kids after the general.
Z: At least “Macarthur” is a nice name.
M: Tell that to my sister Doug.

Okay, we’ll be kind and call it an “homage”, set to the tune of Lobachevsky. But what the hell to make of Steve (or possibly Scott — that name is part of the domain) Dial? What we have is an entire website that’s devoted to redrawing (and sometimes not very much) Overcompensating strips and presenting it as original work. I really like the bit at the bottom of each page:

DIALnation and all it’s characters are a trademark of Steve Dial all rights reserved.

Oh, wait, my bad, there’s also a ripoff of the first Something Positive strip, so it’s not exclusively a Jeff Rowland fatal attraction. If you’re interested in seeing a really poorly done monument to plagiarism, do a Google search. No link here, this is some scary, stalker-level shit.

I once implored you to keep an eye on Jeff Rowland and protect him from Rupert Murdoch’s goons, but this strikes me as much, much more dangerous. Anybody that knows this guy is invited to tell him to knock it the hell off.

I love t-shirts. I love t-shirts because they keep me warm and show off cleavage. And, of course, there is nothing better than representing your favorite web comic with a sassy, sarcastic tee.

Most web comic artists have t-shirt stores so they can make a little green off their hard work and dedication to their craft. Some people believe that it should just be about the art, not making money off of it. I can see their point, except for the fact that our whole world revolves around money. Money is what clothes us, feeds us, and to an extended point gets us laid.

So why wouldn’t web comic artists want to make money? I see nothing wrong with an artist trying to make a few bucks off their hard-earned work. And if the artist doesn’t want to sell merch, more power to them. I just feel that sometimes the artist gets punished for wanting to do whatever the hell he/she wants with his/her own creation. I’m sure George Lucas can relate to this.

Either way, here are some kick-ass t-shirt shops that I’ve spent my money on: The delicious Diesel Sweeties, the eerily hilarious Exploding Dog, and the kings of geekdom known as Penny-Arcade.

Fruit Fucker represent!