Stopovers at two "Dies and is 'Ded' Laughing" moments

As you all know, I've been busy recently and even went for a spate of time without reading webcomics. Now that I'm bent on catching up, I'd like to share two moments from two of my favourite comics where I laughed so hard I choked:

The first is from LinT, where great drama and strife is being enacted.

Both moments need context to understand, so I'm going to be obliged to give a quick background blurb. Naturally, spoilers abound!


At the moment, Sangwine, the blond elf is confronting his long-time rival, Al'bert, who taunts him back by professing he knows where Sangwine's house fairy (long story), Hope, has been taken. The result is Sangwine flying off the handle and threatening Al'bert with the worse fate that can ever befall an elf.

And I'm not talking about balrogs here.

(Clicky to see full sized page at source)


Next is Nahast, which managed to impress me by not pretending, like most fantasy comics do, that long flowy hair can hamper vision, and women do not need support while running around:



So while the girls go off to do their erm... supporting, Xu're, the shaman and his spirit guide, Thunder, arrive at the lighthouse where Tzelan is training the girls...



I suspect the thing that makes both jokes work so well is because they're so subtle and told with an entirely straight face. Ironically, it because these two comics are primarily fantasy comics, unlike the humour strips that people call the 'funnies', that makes the joke all the funnier for being unexpected.

On another note, most of you should notice that the current theme over at Comixpedia is Mystery comics, which alone should tell you why I asked for recommendations to Mystery-themed comics last post. Thanks for your suggestions so far, and keep em coming. Even if they're not used here or there, the recommendations will come in handy next time I'm bored and want to sink my teeth in a big fat mystery!

Year #1: Ping's Favourite Finds of 2004/2005!

It took Eric Burn's Websnark to remind me, but Webcomic Finds turned 1 year old on August 12th... And I completely missed it.

Which annoyed me really, because I had a feature planned for it and stuff. I wanted to summarize the picks of the year.

Better late then never I guess.

A little over one year ago, I thought what a great idea it would be if I started reviewing comics. I liked doing it. I'd often done them in forums. But I wanted something more official. I considered doing a review site by proxy, with a drawn comic instead of a review (You'll recognise my prototype for the comic that eventually became "The Essence of..."), but then I decided there were review sites enough already. I really didn't have anything I wanted to add to them and reviewing in comic form has its limitations.

Then I got one of my ideas. You know, one of those weird notions. I was rereading a Dalton Wemble article over at Comixpedia, when Dalton mentioned several topics, including the importance of having people recommend comics through links. Then suddenly it stuck me what an interesting experiment it would be if someone explored the world of webcomics through the links page. Where would you go? How many new and interesting comics could you find from the links page of a comic that you like?

And Webcomic Finds was born.

There's been some misconceptions about Webcomic Finds, the main one being that it's a webcomics commentary site like Websnark and many others. It's not. This is my travel journal, and my journey is webcomics. Occasionally I might talk about other stuff, but the main focus is exploring webcomics and finding new ones.

Now that I've had a year of exploring, I've covered a staggering number of comics, some which were ok, some which weren't and some which were unmissable. It's time to go over the list and pick out my favourite Finds of the year. This is something I'll be planning to do every year, by the way.

Firsly, this is not a top ten list. This is the ten favourite new FINDS list, which means these are the top ten new comics I discovered last year than I am very glad I did. This also explains why old favourites of mine like Fallen Angels Used Books and Count Your Sheep aren't in this list. Love em to bits, but I did know about them waaaaaaay before I started the blog, so they weren't new. There are a lot of comics I like that aren't in here, many for different reasons, ranging from me knowing about them earlier or hiatus or rough spots. Doesn't mean I don't like them, but the ones in the list are the ones that I check religiously for updates.

Now to make this a little more special, I decided that instead of just I list, I'd add a little fanart for each entry. It's not much, and I do apologise for the quality (I'm just learning markers) but it was great fun all the same.

Without further ado, we have, in alphabetical order, the ten comics that made the past year of writing this blog worth while for me:

Catharsis was the comic featured on the 32nd Leg of Webcomic Finds. One of the few webcomics online that prove suitable for all ages, it tells the story of a girl and her dragon... and naken squirrel... and dirt bunnies... and gargoyles... Well it's complicated. Catharsis is charming, well written, and overflows on the cute. It's got a huge archive, and if you like whimsical, heart-wrenching, imaginative humour, you owe it to yourselves to plow through this baby.

Copper didn't win WCCAs for nothing, but back then at the 16th Leg, I didn't know that. Although some reader of the New York Times accused Copper of being a shameless clone of Calvin and Hobbes due to the story being about a boy and his non-human companion, other than the initial premise, there's not THAT muc similiarity, really. It's pretty much as much similarity as between say... Batman and Spiderman). Watterson deals with nostalgia, imagination and real-life. Kazu deals more with fantasy, philosophy and intellectual symbolism. Despite the infrequent updates, each page is good enough to stand alone, so it's worth your time to look over the small collection, and enjoy the thoughtful writing and fantastic art.

Darken was one of my numerous stopover comics, and at that time wasn't updating very frequently. Now that the creator Kate "Komiyan" is in the 3-times-a-week "Lazy Grind", updates have been coming in thick and fast, and this comic has been nothing short of engrossing. A medley group of stock fantasy characters (Warrior, Dragon-priestess, Thief, Dark Elf and Black Widow) are out on a quest. The twist is: their quest is to take over the world of Darken! Finely balancing humour and adventure, if you can bear the roughness of the first few pages, this comic will have you in love with the fantasy genre all over again!

Digger. Everyone's been rhaspodising about it, and with good reason. Digger is the wombat who by an arcane twist of fate, gets tunneled into a world entirely different from her own. Now she's lost in a world of oracular slugs, dead gods and metaphorical pigeons, and with no way to get back to her warren. Other than the spell-binding black-and-white art, the writing... well... this comic can somehow be charming and macabre at the same time, sweet yet scary, funny yet tragic, and Ursula Verson shows you how! Unfortunately at this time this comic requires a subscription over at Graphic Smash, but for those who would prefer it, Digger is now also available in print format. Stopovered due to metaphorical pigeons...

LinT, the full name of which is "Life in Tehran" harks back to a time when comics were simpler and most importantly, FUN. The story is a praody of the typical DnD adventurers-on-a-quest set-up, but the heroic 'heroes' have been subtituted with the silliest, craziest and most lovable bunch of characters ever. From midget dwarves to wise orcs and sock-stealing theives, the characters go through adventure after adventure in the most unheroic ways. And although there's the occasional spare moment of drama, it never gets too far before the slapstick humor pops in to remind you this is all about fun, and that's the way comics should be.

Magellan Justice Academy. Fans of superheros who have gotten bored of the incessant rehashes and ret-cons will find a breath of fresh air in Magellan. Kaycee is the underdog 'norm' hero who is accepted into Magellan Justice Academy, a training academy for superheroes. How can she hold her own, especially when things in Magellan seem to be going into odd directions? It's hard to but a finger on why Magellan works so well as a superhero comic. I think the reason is that the superhero facet is a secondary aspect of the characters, and who they actually are the first. It's less about who has what power and super-ability, but who has the guts, the responsibility, and the good sense. Rule One of good writing: Make the audience care about your characters. Stephen Crowley succeeds massively at this, and Magellan as a result is addictive and compelling. Graphic-Smash only, but with lots of free samples. Stopovered!

Nahast: Lands of Strife has been struggling with updates lately, but you can tell creator Alexander Melchor is really trying. Another one of the fantasy comics, Nahast is different in that it has its own world and high level of world-building. The story behind Nahast is serious, and intricate, with the occasional light moment. Humour really isn't the central theme of the comic though. This is a epic fantasy, though it reads more like mystery and mythology wrapped into one. It's hard to put my finger on why this comic is addictive as it is, but if you don't mind the filler and sporadic update, give it a try and maybe you can find a better way of describing it. Discovered through a stopover.

No Rest for the Wicked is one of the most brilliant fantasy concepts online. Basically, it takes traditional european fairytales, interwines the plots and retells them in the most ingenious way imaginable. The moon has been missing, and Princess November, the Princess from "The Princess and the Pea" can find no rest until it is found. Accompanied by Little Red Riding Hood and Puss-in-Boots, they set out in search of the moon and her grave. The art for NRFTW is manga-styled, but creator Andrael has taken pains to make it her own personal variant of it. NRFTW is one of my favourite comics of all time, and if this comes out in print, I'm getting it. I like it that much. Found on the 6th Leg.

Shivae! by Tiffany Ross is an anthro comic. When I first found it back in one of my stopovers, I was surprised that something this good had managed to exist this long and elude me. Shivae! is an interesting look at a non-human centric world of creatures known as Shivae, which are sort of part-dinosaur part-winged-horse-like creatures (that's a lot of dashes, isn't it?). When aliens start showing up and invading their world, the Shivae come into conflict with the settlers and more often than not, are hunted for the treat they present to the settler's livestock. Their only solution is to run, but how far can they run if the settlers keep spreading? Other the cute character design and the gorgeous colouring by Tiffany's colourist, Flowerlark, the writing is compelling, yet touches on a lot of serious issues in a non-preachy way. Definitely worth a read.

Reviewed back in the 2nd Leg, The N00b is a tongue-in-cheek jab at the world of Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming. Our protagonist is a newbie who has just embarked on an adventure in the world of Clichquest, a cumulative parody of games like Worlds of Warcraft and Ultima Online. While the rougher language may turn a few people off, and The Noob's writing is ingeniously funny and more than make up for any shortcomings in any other department. When you hear an RPGer explain with a straight face that "deus ex machina means "God without a car", you know that Gianna Masetti is an evil evil genius.

That concludes my list. There were many many more comics that I would have loved to include in there, but sometimes a line has to be drawn. But if there were only ten new comics I could recommend to you, these ten would be it.

Looking at the list, I can't help but notice a really high percentage of fantasty comics in it. I must make a mental note to expand my reading tastes the next year. We'll see if things change. My agenda for Year Two is to have more random picks. I'm also thinking of doing more reader-interactive picks. We'll see.

It's been a long year, with many ups and downs. I've made a lot of new friends writing this blog, which I'm grateful for. No doubt I've made a few enemies too, but that's life, I can't please everyone. It also got me a number of of requests from numerous webcomic artists requesting for reviews (I'm working through the list guys. It's long. I'll get through it eventually) and invitation for other groups to write for them (which I would consider if I had more time).

But most of all, I'd like to think most of you out there liked reading Webcomic Finds, and I sincerely hope I've managed to introduce you to one of two new comics that you liked.

And that's the most important thing, really.

Stopover at The Tenth Life of Pishio the Cat: This is me waiting far too long to write about this.

Several months ago, there was a completely new comic that debuted on Graphic Smash.

It was called The Tenth Life of Pishio the Cat. Other than having an incredibly long title, it also had something many other comics didn't... a refreshingly original plot for a webcomics and non-human centric characters.

From the very first few pages, I fell in love with Zack Giallongo's amazing art and set-up. This comic, I knew, was something special, and did something very few comics manage to do within their first few pages: Get bookmarked immediately.

I would have written about Pishio long ago, but seeing that the comic had barely started, I resolved to wait a while for a substantial archive to build-up. (My magic number is 20 pages).

However, in that time the comic had managed to get a WCCA nomination and recently went independent, moving from Graphic Smash to WebcomicsNation.

A perfect time to start writing about it, since the archives are free now. ;)

The premise behind The Tenth Life of Pishio the Cat is simple. Pishio the Cat has been carelessly squandering his nine lives. When his luck finally runs out one day and he finds out that he's dead, he strikes a bargain with the powers-that-be for a last chance. Unfortunately, that involves risking his life-on-loan doing a dangerous task that even the powers-that-be cannot do. Can a cat find redemption?

With the recent NYT article and it's subsequent Slashdotting, a number of complaints about webcomics surfaced. While I am rather skeptical about the NYT article's viewpoint due to the writer's position, the discussion on the Slashdot thread I found more interesting, as a lot of them were from the viewpoints of the actual audience webcomics target. But anyway, one particular complaint was the lack of good-quality artwork in the webcomics.

Personally I think there's plenty of stunning artwork in webcomics. But because webcomics are learner's medium, the masterpieces get drowned in a lot of practice works, so the means the skill level of art is dragged down. It's a price we pay for not having editors.

All that said, the art Pisho is what you get when the comic artist in question is a professional illustrator from the start.

(Cat and Cock fight! (Yes, I'm aware how dirty that sounds) Click the thumbnail to see the original page).

The art speaks for itself, and in many cases, the writing as well. Zack is obviously from the the school of "show, not tell", so dialogue and narration are kept to a "need to know" basis, and never so much that the reader feels info-dumped. Instead, he prefers to let his composition and illustration skills do the talking and you get page after page of silent panels, where the reader is let to decide for themselves what they are seeing. Most of the time it works pretty well.

Those who need dumbing-down of their reading material and the main character narrating exactly what's going on so the reader gets it probably won't like Pishio. But those who like doing their own interpretation, a little bit of thinking, and lightning-bolt casting squirrel shamans will love Pishio.

All in all, Pishio is good from the get-go, and continues to be good so far. I'd even go so far as to call it a completely original, less-whimsical and more-violent cousin to Ursula Vernon's Digger. Given that Digger is one of my favourite webcomics ever, consider that high praise indeed.

Stopover at No Rest for the Wicked and Nightfall Yonder Bremen: Well, I'd say it's a pretty good indicator...

Ok, there are few comics out there that I can genuinely admit to waiting breathlessly for updates because they have me hooked so badly. But I can certainly say Andrael Peterson's No Rest for the Wicked is one of them.

For those of you who need an introduction to NRFTW, I point you towards the 6th Leg of the blog, which is where I fins stumbled across it (and was very very very glad I did).

But what I want to talk about today isn't NRFTW. Instead it's the little bit of news that's currently on the front page of NRFTW.

You see, No Rest for the Wicked now has its own fancomic.

It's called Nightfall Yonder Bremen, and while it has barely started, it shows a lot of promise, seems competently executed and most importantly, tries to stay faithful to the original material.



I can't help but wonder how many webcomics out there have their own well... fancomics? Heck, some of the more popular webcomics out there ARE fan-comics (See Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi). Sure, many have had guest comics and fan art. A few have fan-works like fanfiction... but a fancomic of a webcomic?

At the very least, it does say something for No Rest For the Wicked. I'd say that it's a pretty good indicator of being a good read. ;)

Stopover at Astronaut Elementary: The WCN Effect

I'm not sure how I missed it, seeing that it was on Websnark, but Dave Roman's Astronaut Elementary apparently moved from GAM to WCN, which is the webcomics equivalent of shifting rooms in the same building, except that one is behind the subscription curtain and one isn't.

I like Dave Roman and his stuff, and naturally his being able to unleash his creativity unrestricted upon the rest of the webcomics world can only be a good thing in my view. But I can't help but wonder about this new shift in direction, especially when I know Dave isn't the only one to be/who will be doing this.

From the point of view of Joey Manley of course, it probably wouldn't make that much of a difference, because whether it's Girl-a-Matic or Graphic Smash or WebcomicsNation, they'll all under the Modern Tales umbrella. Still, I can't shake off the feeling that things are going to change a lot after this. Like it or not, the WCN effect is in motion, and I highly doubt that there is much anyone can say or do to change that.

Ps: I realise that with that last link I am admitting to reading the webcomics tabloid, but tee hee... that silly stuff is interesting sometimes. ;)

Stopover at WebcomicsNation

Webcomics Nation launched today. Granted, I've been a beta tester for WCN for a while so it hasn't really felt very different for me.

I do find myself in an interesting position of course, as you know I'm involved in Comic Genesis (formerly known as Keenspace) and now I'm also in the rival WCN camp. Given that CG is having humoungous teething problems at the moment (Teething? More like sabre-toothed Fangs) it probably couldn't be a better time for Joey to lauch WCN.

Personally, I think WCN is quite easy to use. People have been making comparisons to Blogger and Flickr, and they're almost spot on except the interface isn't as shiny yet. The only thing that recently I realised annoyed me about it is the dubious HCI-design aspect of it, where it commits a cardinal sin in HCI (Human Computer Interface) and has a shifting interface. Bad Bad Bad. You want all your navigational stuff to stay the same if possible.

However, putting up a comic in WCN is something like

1) Press button that says "Add New Page"
2) Press button that says "Upload Comic"
3) Enter date you want comic to display.

It's much simpler, though more restrictive compared to CG, but there are a lot of cool features, such as this "tooncasting" which I would use on a lot of my pages if the green "Hosted by WCN" text wasn't so big and ugly. Automated gallery and cast pages are pretty cool too, I admit. And having free advertising doesn't hurt either.

The price is $9.99 per month, which some people have mentioned as 'steep'. It'll be interesting to see if the price remains there or if it goes up or down.

All in all, I think WCN will be a good thing for webcomics. Anything that makes it easier to put up a webcomic is a good thing, certainly, and I like the idea that there's an alternative for Comic Genesis.

Granted I may have ulterior motives since I help run the Comic Genesis Help Center and less complaining is always welcome ;)

Edit: And it's ad free. I forget to mention that.

Stopover at Comixpedia and Ping Art

I forget to mention my latest "The Essence of..." column is up on Comixpedia. Also up are a couple of other articles, including "Feeding Snarky" by Eric Burns and an interesting soapbox by Kelly J Cooper.

There's also a Inverloch interview, for those of you who are Sarah Ellerton fans.

Speaking of Inverloch, I must say the writing really tightened up recently. I didn't think you'd be able to explain away the thieves code silliness, but as comebacks in writing go, that's pretty impressive.

I've also decided to keep an art journal so I can keep track of my progress in art, for those of you interested in such things. I'm rather explicit in stuff like what I decided to learn and draw today, as evidenced by the fact the first real entry is called "Drawing Man-Chest".

And that's the blurb for today. We're going to have the next leg of your long-postponed journey up next for your reading pleasure.

Stopover at The Green Avenger: There's Something About Abby

(Holy Crap! An actual Webcomics Find Post! Who'd have thought?!)

There are many reasons I like hanging around the Keenspace/ComicGenesis forums. The main one is I get to see all the budding talent first-hand, as most people start off at Keenspace and go indie when/if they get successful. Personally I think that's a great system.

Eric Burns wrote this long snark about the School of Keen a few months ago. Personally I always thought there was more learning to be done in Keenspace than Keenspot, because Keenspot is more of a business propostion, and Keenspace is there for well... starting out, experimenting, and making a comic for the hell of it.

Back to the topic, here's on of my finds discovered from hanging around Keenspace:



I think I've often mentioned I've not a devotee of superhero comics, so I wasn't sure what exactly attracted me to this comic. It might have been the art, there's something uniquely characteristic in the art style. Or that it gave off a different aura from what I expected from a typical superhero comic. I'm getting to be quite good at detecting those kind of auras.

So I checked out Green Avenger, and was amply rewarded for it. Green Avenger is an interesting hybrid superhero comic. There seem to be two kinds of comics, the story comics and the unrelated semi-autobiographical slice-of-life comics (which are usually sandwiched between the story comics, and are light bits of humour or commentary strips).

As far as I can tell, the story is about Abby, a girl who moonlights as the Green Avenger. How she got her powers and what exactly she's avenging isn't exactly clear. In fact I have a theory that she's not avenging anything, and calls herself the Green Avenger just for kicks, and doesn't really have a clue about superheroing. She also has a telepathic ex-superhero friend called the "The Purple Lavender Fey" who seems like sardonic and serious foil for the happy-go-lucky Green Avenger.

Back to the story, this seems to be a "how superheroes deal with real-life" kind of comics. The amount of humanization the characters are given makes The Green Avenger stand out from the rest. I'm pretty sure the following scenario rarely happens in the run-of-the-mill Marvel comic, for example:



The story seems to be taking a dark and more serious twist recently, but remains intriguing. A definite plus is that the creator is colouring the more recent strips, which makes all the difference in the world. Especially since the comic is called the Green Avenger, after all. There is something endearing and quirky about this comic that I can't quite name, but whatever it is, it's really growing on me, and I can safely say The Green Avenger is one comic that I'll be definitely watching in the future.

By the way, is it ok for me to spaz out happily over this? I remember reading Argon Zark when I was a little kid of twelve or thirteen, and getting a mention is just undeniably cool, even if it's so many more years later down the line!

In other news, I'm almost finished with moving house again. Maybe staying put for a couple of months will result in more blogging from me as I get back into the mood for more Webcomic Finding again.

Ever Get the Feeling You've Created a Monster?

Because between my initial tabloid idea, Minivet's fictional headlines and xmung's naming sense, I think we have.

Now if I can only stop laughing...

Stopover at Golden: The Opening of Pundora's Box

Some of you might be aware I'm currently involved in a multiple creator round-robin style webcomic project called Golden. Recently, it was my turn to carry on the story, so I had to rack my brains for an idea. Not being particularly good at humour (unlike the others on the project, who simply scintillate at this), I was willing to make use of anything that I could think of.

Punnery is for some odd reason, considered one of the lowest forms of humour available. If that's the case, then I must be the lowest of the low, because noting that the theme centered around birds, I produced this page. (Warning: Read this at your own risk. It's probably going to hurt)

It wasn't the first time my eccentric knowledge of ornithology stood me in good stead, but what I didn't realise was that by doing this, I pretty much declared open season on bird puns. Witness the following from Golden's Shoutbox:

moshunter: Owl owl my sides are hurting from laughing! Unexpected tern indeedy.
Komiyan: Oh man... Ping, you will be executed for crimes against punnery
Aja: That makes two penguin-related comics with a bird pun in the same day. (See link.)
Phalanx: De: *bows* Why, thank you! Aja: Ooh! I missed out on that particular bird pun...
Phalanx: I could have fitted it in really easily too! "The Fowl Forces of King Tuckiderby"....
Aja: No worries. It's already very emu-zing. **ducks**
Colby: Is there such a thing as "death by puns"?...
Phalanx: Quail-ly, yes. *rimshot*
Aja: Eh, there are worse ways to go. I wouldn't grouse about it.

Not to crow about it or anything, but when the comments are funnier than the comic itself, you know Pundora's Box has been opened indeed...

Personally I have spent far too much time laughing at this (And Aja's witty comebacks). You might knot agree with me, but bird puns rock.


...


Ok, I'll stop now.

Stopover at Count Your Sheep: Oddly approriate timing...

I'm a humongous Count Your Sheep fan. (Or Sheepheads, as some people call them). I was nuts about CYS back when it started, I'm still nuts about CYS now.

Now though CYS it deals a lot in nostalgic innocence and heart-warming moments, it's also a humour strip. And like most people who make humour strips know very well, it's hard coming up with a funny joke every day. I'm not sure I could do it, I have tremendous respect for those who try.

Humour strips are generally hit-or-miss affairs. Some days you get stuff that's so-and-so, and on other you get stuff that makes you laugh so hard you fall of your chair. CYS is no exception, but Adis has been on a roll lately, I really wanted to point out a couple of noteworthy strips:

Firstly, I really like the artistic experiment Adis tried with the background on this strip. It just works really well.

Secondly, there's last weeks Bruised Purgatory strip, which was responsible for a peal of very hysterical laughter from my room startling everyone in the vicinity. I use that particular phrase a lot myself, so it really strikes a chord. I wonder what people would think if I started using the other alternative? ;)

And then there's today's one-paneller:



With all the feminism talk lately, that was uncanny.

That just about sums it, really. The reason why I like CYS so much is that on a day of madness, it can still make me laugh.

Stopover at Golden: Long Live Shameless Self-Promotion!

I briefly considered announcing the existence of this (no longer) top-secret project on April Fool's Day, but the timing wasn't right and it wouldn't have been much of a joke anyway.

But now that we've finished an iteration, I can finally get to the shameless plug... I've recently had to make an iron-cast pledge not to take up any more comics projects, leading to me having to reject a lot of other stuff I would have loved to try my hand on.

Unfortunately, this vow lasted until Colby Purcell came up with this fun idea of a comic jam of fairy-tale proportions.

Literally.



It's said that seven heads are better than one. When six of those seven heads consist of my favourite webcomic artists:

Colby Purcell of LinT
J. Harper of Feyenne
Zachary Parker of Flatwood
Aja of True Magic
Komiyan of Darken
Andrael of No Rest For The Wicked

How can I say no?!


Now who wants to bet how long my renewed vow to not get involved in any more projects lasts this time around?

Stopover at Gossamer Commons: And because I really can't keep linking the UK Web Mini Comics Thing ;)

Eric's been talking about Gossamer Commons for so long, it's almost a relief to see it get started. I don't think my curiosity could have last much long ;) At the grand total of one page (one big page though) so far, I can't say much, but looks promising though.

Come on, it doesn't start with the usual fourth-wall breaking, a cliched joke copied from some other popular webcomic or a no comic today filler. ;) And I'm genuinely impressed by Greg Holkan's more realistic art style here, and his non-use of panels.

And... We have the other part of my UK Web and Mini Comics thing report!

...While looking for the Just1Page booth, I came across fellow ModernTales family member Roger Langridge. I introduced myself, but I don't think he had any idea who I was, even if it was originally his advice that made me seriously consider coming to this con in the first place...



After a while the Just1Page organiser showed up and told me the drawing would take place over at the portfolio section. So I wandered over to the portfolio section and started to doodle a bit to calm my nerves. While I did so I realised that the Scary-Go-Round booth was right next to it, tucked away in the corner! I'd resolved to get Mos (who likes Scary-Go-Round) something, so I went over and had a look...



John was sitting behind a couple of Sons of Morgors (the red doll things you see on the table) and signing a book for someone called Chikin (I remember that distinctly, because John said he had to ask how that was spelled).

I decided to buy Spy Girl instead of Heavy Metal Hearts and Flowers, but on hindsight I regret not buying out the whole table (the other John Allison fans who arrived later would not doubt NOT thank me for that if I had done that, since the Scary-Go-Round table was one of the first to sell out).

Speaking of Jon Allison, he really knows how to treat his fans! Incredibly nice guy, and when I mentioned how much I liked the chararacter of Fallon, he even did a quick sketch of her on the back of the Spy Girl Book!



Did I also mention each purchase came with a complimentary badge? If anyone wants to learn about merchandising, learn from Jon. All the stuff was fairly priced and of such good quality I was really wowed. I'm really curious how he managed not to sell this stuff at a loss!

Unfortunately I had to run off after this because the 24 minute comic was about to start! I was teamed up with Bridgeen Gillespie of Koniption for our page. Ironically I didn't even have time to get nervous any more, because the thing started barely right after we sat down!

I'd brought every conceivable kind of stationery I thought I'd need (even my brushes... just in case). Unfortunately, the only thing I'd left out was an... eraser. However, my partner was significantly more foresighted than I and lent me hers. After 24 minutes of frantic drawing, during which no one had any idea how much time there was left until towards the end, we produced this:



Yes... I am shameless *sticks out tongue*. Oh, and Roger Langridge did the cover:



After the event, I looked around and couldn't see any of the gang. For a moment I was wondering if they had abandoned me for a drink or something, and I was moving around when I spotted a woman with two friends in tow who looked vaguely familiar even though I'd never seen her before...

"Ping?!"



Yeah... you guessed it. T'was none other thanWednesday White!

We took this picture for the benefit of one Mr. Burns over at Websnark (No Jon Allison in the background, sorry... And I blinked! :( ) and I kept my promise of her getting a tasty tasty cookie for the Takeover series . :D

After this I finally found the gang busily drawing their hearts out in each other's sketchbooks in the portfolio corner (which we eventually proceeded to invade and takeover). Al Foreman's sketchbook was the envy of all (He has Clint Hollingsworth's sketches inside! Arrgh! I'm so jealous!).

Shortly after this I heard another accented voice behind me saying "Ping?" (again). It turned out to be Gianna Massetti of The N00b, who told us she only recognised us because we were drawing and she knew our drawing styles!

We all sat down for a nice long sketch session, then Gianna and I went for the Webcomics Panel, (Al joined in too)!

I won't comment on the webcomics panel until Wednesday does her piece for Comixpedia on it, after which I promise I will make a fool of myself by dissecting (or trying to) it. Politics are icky.

Post-webcomics panel, we were all feeling hungry and decided to go for a last round of the con and head for a place to eat. I was also very tired at this point, and although the crowd had thinned it was beginning to get to me and I just wanted to get out of the convention center.

I suppose I must have looked surprised when one of a pair of guys manning a table we passed suddenly stood up and said to me: "Hey, I think I know who you are... You're Ping, aren't you?". I was even more surprised to find out the guy was none other than the same Chikin who was next to me at the Scary-Go-Round table, and apparently reads this blog *waves*! To the guys from GreatVagueness.co.uk, thanks for proving me wrong that no one would recognise me, it was great meeting you guys, and sorry I couldn't talk much!



ps: If any of you guys want higher resolutions of the photo, send me a mail and I'd happily obliged. Same goes for anyone who's in any of my photos.

I'd also really wanted a Bunny shirt, but sadly none were readily available... :(



I did have time to get my copy of the 24 minute comic, a free copy of Just1Page, and it was out of the convention and to finding a place for some nourishment, which anyone who was with me at that time will agree, was an ardous adventure in itself!

So that's my report for the UK Web and Mini Comics thing. Many thinks to Patrik Findlay and everyone who made it happen. Just signing off with a couple of pictures of loot:



The Keenspace Deadly Bears Attack sampler. Keenspace may 'need better artists", but judging from the cover, methinks The Attacking Deadly Bears are doing just fine ;)


And a last shout to all the others: Just1Page Koniption, GreatVagueness.co.uk, Scribe and Reckless Youth.

Whew!

Oh, and I highly reccommend the UK Keen Rendevous site for sketches and many many high-res photos!

Stopover at Fallen Angels Used Books: Making sure you know it's there

Back in my early Keenspace days, (HA! Look at the way I just said that. As if I'm not still very much on Keenspace...)

Erm, like I was saying, back in my early Keenspace days, new comics came in batches as signups were approved in batches. Add to the fact that signups had been disabled for months and we were on a very long waiting list, it made for a very large batch of comics. Now to get to the point, I was from the (around) June 2003 batch, and among my batch were several comics, but the ones I remember the most clearly are Adrian Ramos' Count Your Sheep and John Fortman's Fallen Angels Used Books.

The latter is what I want to talk about today.



This is the first page of Fallen Angels Used Books. I knew of John's work from his presence in forums, but on actually checking it out, I was incredibly impressed, blown away, and even (only now will I admit this) envious of his ability. The first issue of Fallen Angel Used Books was as ideal a beginning as anyone could hope for, and everything simply promised so much more.

Almost two years down the road now and seven issues later, rereading the archives of FAUB I see lot of things I missed the first time around. I'd thought this was a simple story about prejudice and conflict. As it turns out, there is a lot lot more. This is a very complex story, deceptively straightforward at first, then everything simply gets wierder and wierder.

More than anything, FAUB is a webcomic that makes you feel like you're reading a storybook, not a comic. Even the distinctive art style serves to enhance the urban fairy tale feel. It meanders and takes its own sweet time at telling the story. You feel like you're sitting by a fireside listening to the storyteller spin his tale. For a moment... perhaps a brief moment, you forget yourself and world beyond your computer screen.

The only problem with these kind of stories is that you tend to stay where you are until the story is finished, afraid that if you move you will break the spell. For an ongoing webcomic this is a bad thing, because the story is one of those that needs to be told in entiriety to have an effect on the reader, enough for that reader to go and recommend it to someone else. And as far as I can tell, this story still has a long way to go.

There was a snark not too long ago on websnark where Wednesday White debated whether links and connections are everything. I remember there were some lively comments to that post, in which I mentioned the direct opposite to that school of thought:

People who think if they slave away and produce good work, people will magically find out about their good work, even if said good work is never shown to anyone or displayed outside of the studio and they never tell anyone about it. Then they whine about how it's not fair someone less skilled gets accliam when they can do better. (Well duh!)

Which eventually got distilled down to:

They can't care if they don't bloody know it's there

John's been chafing at the slow growth of FAUB lately. So for the record, this is me making sure a few more people know it's there.

ps: For those interested, here is a guest cover I did for issue 4 of FAUB.

Stopver at Digital Strips

I'm a little late to be posting this, but the guys Daku and Zampzon over at Digital Strips did reviews of four Graphic Smash comics, and The Jaded was one of the lucky four!

Secondly, an awesome fanart from GiantPanda (a.k.a. Erik Melander)!



This one refers to my two phobias... dinosaurs and crowds... combined...

Isn't it cute?! Now is it just me, or do one of those dinos look like Snarky?

I'm still halfway through the next leg, but life is giving me a lot to do right now, so priorities come into play. Thanks for your patience.

Stopover at LinT: Unabashedly having Fun!

On a personal level, I can thank How Not To Run A Comic for many things. A surprising amount of educational fun, Adam, Srdjan, and me being branded the webcomic nazis of Keenspace (kidding!), and my occasional guilt trip for not being able to give HNTRAC as much attention as I should. (Adam, if I haven't said it before, you're a rock for doing most of the work! Thank you!) And to add to that, I think some of you may be thankful to it for the number of bad comics it potentially deterred from starting. I've been most surprised at the number of people who have candidly admitted they abandoned their ideas for starting a Megatokyo or Real Life webcomic clone after reading HNTRAC.

For the intents and purposes of this stopover however, I'm thankful to HNTRAC for introducing me to LinT by Colby Purcell. Sometimes, even in guest or parody strips, you can tell that you already will like the comic that person creates.

There are a lot of webcomics on my daily reads that I read for various reasons. Some I read out of habit. Some I read for the story. Some for the art. And some I read because they're just so much fun.


This is the panel that had me falling off the bed laughing. I think the cream of the joke here is that it's being told with such a straight face. Note the banana in Xylic's hand..

For pure unabashed fun and comedic gold, LinT probably comes the closest to dishing out that brand of irreverent humour I loved in Elf Only Inn (Sortelli, Sortelli... Wherefore art thou, Sortelli?).

The story is a madcap parody of the usual fantasy cliche of a motley bunch of heroes on a quest to save the kingdom from the threat of an evil overlord...blah blah you know. In this case however, we quickly realise that the quest is barely of any significance (A McGuffin, if you prefer).

The whole point of this comic is just to have fun following the misadventures of the Sangwine's Merry Little Band and their rivalry with the other band of 'heroes'. When you throw a pansy elf, a sock-stealing thief, and irritable empath, an amiable orc and a midget dwarf. (Yeah you heard me correctly... midget dwarf) together, things are bound to be interesting.

And boy it is! I won't spoil any of the stories or jokes by repeating them, but I will say it was this page when I realised how much I liked this comic.

The art, while starting out a bit rough (sketchy pencils and some use of cut-and-paste) rapidly smoothed out and the recent colour strips now look nothing short of yummy. I especially love the covers of each chapter (which are based on classic paintings, I think), I hope Colby keeps drawing them!

In short, while the main reason why LinT ranks so high on my favourite webcomics list is because it's so infectiously funny, the other is that it's also fun. There's no agenda to reach one gadzillion readers, no 'I'm going to make the Keenspot lineup by year so-and-so', no 'I want to make this work so I can quit my dead-end job and go full time'.

Just the pure intent of creating a webcomic to enjoy, and for people to enjoy.



Goodness knows, we really could use more of that nowadays.

Stopover at Darken: Possibly the Lovechild of Zebra Girl and College Roomies From Hell?

My stopovers seem to be reading like "I Read Keenspace So You Don't Have To!" lately, but hey... that's what this blog is here for. Finding the more obscure (but still all goodness) stuff.

I came across this one via our previous stopvers (Nahast, if you recall). They had an amusing end-of-year crossover that was actually good (As opposed to the done-to-death A meet B, fight erupts between A and B, A and B call a truce and then join forces to whop the ass of C etc.). Anyway, it piqued my interest.



I must say, the art for Darken is deliciously distinctive. The closest I can come to describing it is what I have written in the stopover title: a cross between Maritza Campos' College Roomies From Hell (art style and colour) and Joe England's Zebra Girl (Use of crosshatching). Yummy I say!

Oh yes, I should tell you what kind of comic it is. It's basically action-adventure set in a fantasy world. Yes there are elves and drow and all that... and it IS about a motley band of adventurers on a quest.

"What's this?" You say? "Weren't you groaning about how unoriginal and cliched that set-up was a few posts ago?"

"Hah!" I reply. "But there's a twist here! You see, our motley band of adventurers are on a quest to... wait for it...

TAKE OVER THE WORLD!.

And presumably enslave the population and all that. And kill lots of things on the way."

Try beating that for a twist!

It makes me fall in love with the fantasy 'genre' all over again.

Stopover at Nahast: So good that I keep visiting the website and refreshing the page!

I remember my first fanmail.

Some of you who have webcomics may hate me for it, but it arrived barely a day or two right after I started The Jaded on... wait for it... my Onetel ISP webspace. I lost the mail long ago due to computer death, but one line in that mail has always remained in my head:

"I like the comic so much I keep visiting the website and refreshing the page, hoping for an early update."

While this may sound like hyperbole to some of you, let me assure you it really happens to people.

Me, for instance. I read a lot of comics, and some I like straight away, some I dislike at first but grow me on as time passes and some I initially like but get disenchanted with after a while.

And sometimes... very rarely... but sometimes, I run into a webcomic that I like so much that when it makes me do what the quote mentions: Keep going back to the site and refreshing the page.

It's sad, I know, but hey... don't any of you dare tell me you haven't ever felt the same way about something at one point in your lives!

Anyway, this happened to me yesterday... The comic that did it?

Nahast: The Lands of Strife


With a line like that, he pretty much had me hooked from first look. Generally I'm not a big fan of fantasy comics that are derivatives of Tolkien (That includes the DnD derivatives), but this just takes the concept and it doesn't just run with it... it soars like a Skrii'qek through the skies of Beldatz!

Alejandro, I'm sorry, but if you noticed an unsual spike in your pageviews yesterday... but yeah, that was me. *shamefaced*


ps: And here something cool... fellow webcomics bloggers Daku and Zampzon are doing something of an Internet Webcomics Talkshow/Podcast. I love the idea and definitely will be listening in every week! (And by some curious coincidence, it covers 4 webcomics I happen to read, and even mentions Keenspace at the end!) Oh and while you're at it, don't forget to check out the rest of the blog!

ps again: I'm almost three thirds of the way through Dinosaur Comics! Yay me!

Stopover at Comixpedia: "The Essence of..." debuts

I'm down with food poisoning, so don't really feel like talking much. Just a quick heads-up to check out Comixpedia for my odd little column-comic: The Essence of....

It was never my intention to start yet another project, but Xerexes tracked me down ;) Initially I wasn't keen on doing more reviews, but then I happened to have a brainwave that I wanted to try out... It should be obvious the first 'Essence' is a prototype, and the later ones will be quite different.

Anyways, YES, I am working on Dinosaur comics, just so you know. I'm about halfway through the archives now, but that archive is HUGE and the nature of the writing does not allow me to whizz through them like I'd be able to with a story comic.

Ok, I shall return to cussing cafeteria operators now.

Stopover at Pirate Queen Marianne: Well... how can you NOT like a comic about a smart, spunky, space pirate queen?

This is a relatively new comic I'd just stumbled across. The credit for me actually actually getting around to reading the comic was the spiffy Keenspace newsbox art that caught my eye. There's just something deliciously charming about that stylised artwork:



Check out that mastery of positive/negative space! I'd caught a few glimpses of Stephen Henderson-Grady's (more realistic) artwork before, but this is the first time I've sampled Katie Henderson-Grady's writing. I must say it's promising: mostly light hearted, with some gung-ho action and the occasional (but not overdone) dramatic moment.

There's some slight problems with choppy transitions and unanswered plot holes that may confuse the reader a little in the beginning, but starting from the second chapter things start to smooth out and the art just keeps looking better and better. I'm not sure if they're making full use of infinite canvas just yet, but all in good time I guess.

An interesting aspect of the comic is that it deliberately shuffles the story so it's not told in order. This could either be refreshing to the reader, or it could just plain annoy the conventionals to heck. Either one or other, you might want to decide for yourself.

The navigation could be better handled though. A calendar or comic index would go a long way to help us poor readers who aren't just reading from the beginning to backtrack them pages ;)

It's hasn't started long, and hasn't gone very far... but definitely worth keeping an eye on, this one.