Blógünder Schlock

We arrived in Toronto a day early with some of the other guests, and so it was that Chris Golden, Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Sandra and I all found ourselves at loose ends at dinner time… and it was Kevin’s birthday.

We piled into a taxi van and ate out, celebrating with Kevin, and talking about business stuff. It was very, very educational for me. I contributed anytime we touched on teh intartubes, but Kevin, Chris, and Rebecca don’t pronounce it that way. We ate at The Keg, and I had the very delicious prime rib. It’s good to be a carnivore.

Back at the hotel we got to meet the rest of the ConCom, and Sandra and I had a great conversation with Liana K. of the “Ed and Red’s Night Party” show. It’s not every day you meet a charismatic, buxom redhead who confesses to collecting comics, and creating her own roleplaying game (so that all of her friends favorite characters could all come together under one roof.) Sorry guys, she’s taken.
It was a reminder of how lucky I am to have Sandra, who is similarly geeky, every bit as beautiful, and (most importantly) sticking with me through the best and the worst of the last fifteen years.

Anyway, I bounced the idea for the “Filler Strip” April Fools’ gag off of Liana, and she thought it was a fantastic idea. Sandra and I were both a little trepidatious, but it turned out Liana was right. She and I and the late-night remains of the ConCom talked and talked until about 2am, discussing the things we’d cover on our joint panels, and basically revelling in group nerd-dom.

Friday was a rest day. Sandra and I both slept in a bit, and then had breakfast with my friend Jim Zubkavich (”Zub” if you collect Udon comics like Street Fighter or Exalted). We made arrangements to do dinner with Jim just before opening ceremonies.

Fast-forward through a couple of naps, some badge-collecting and schedule-memorizing, you know, the basic “just before the convention starts” drill…

The evening with Jim was awesome. He drove us to downtown Toronto, and we got to see the very webcomic-friendly comics store called The Beguiling. They have Schlock books in stock, and I’ve defaced the backs of them. Be warned, however… there are only two of each!

After buying some swag there at The Beguiling, we went for sushi a few blocks up the road. Mmmm… sushi pizza! Good stuff. Jim’s girlfriend Stacy joined us, and she and Sandra hit it off right away. More hardcore nerd-fu among the ladies… it became something of a recurring theme for the weekend.

We got back in plenty of time for the Opening Ceremonies, at which I got to meet Yvonne Gilbert and Danny Nanos. Yvonne was the Artist Guest of Honor (I was the Sequential Artist GoH), and had never been to an event like this before. I tried to explain fandom to her, but I’m not sure my explanation took. I worry that she may have spent much of the weekend worrying about whether any of these people were sane.

Back in December the editor at ComixTalk, Xaviar Xerexes, posted a call for questions” for Blank Label Comics (the webcomics powerhouse in whose machinery I am but a cog.) The questions led to an interview, and now that interview is live!

Go have a look! I think I may have said two funny things, as well as several very dry and potentially educational things. Fortunately, Xerexes spiced it up with pictures.

This has been a big week for Webcomics news:

1) Melonpool is back! Blank Label Cartoonist Steve Troop was one of the very first webcartoonists, and Melonpool is one of the longest-running properties online. He’s been burning the candle at both ends professionally puppetteering for the last several months, but he’s back on his inkin’ game now.

2) Comicspace and Webcomicsnation announced a merger. I had some conversations with Joey Manley about this during the summer and again a few weeks ago, but had to keep my mouth shut. Interestingly, I STILL have to keep my mouth shut. Their stuff is really that cool.

3) Zudacomics.com, DC’s big foray into the world of online comics (and buying intellectual properties for peanuts and page-views) launched on the 30th. Their launch was HUGE, with over 23,000 pages viewed in just one day. (Ummm… yeah. To put that in perspective, you people view over a quarter-million pages at schlockmercenary.com each day. DC may get more traffic from this blog post than from their launch.)

4) Blank Label Cartoonists Brad Guigar, David Kellett, and Kristofer Straub, along with BLC Unofficial Advisor Scott Kurtz bid a fond farewell to Blank Label. They’re doing their own things, some of which will be done jointly under the Halfpixel banner. This fission leaves Blank Label Comics with Melonpool, Real Life, Ugly Hill, Wapsi Square, Shortpacked, and of course Schlock Mercenary.

5) That Wikinews article about webcomics and notability (the one I blogged) got slashdotted. As did I, I suppose. Traffic here blipped up by about 8%. Webcomics have come a long way since the days when Slashdot could actually hurt our hosting. More importantly, however, the discussion under that article has lots of very meaningful, articulate posts, and only a few all-caps trolls.

Of all of this stuff, I’m sure the folks at DC would like to think their news is the most worthy. Personally, I think the WCN/CS merger (Item #2) is the biggest news. If comics were geopolitics, that merger is like if England and France teamed up to colonize the Americas in 1530. Zuda is like if Columbus arrived in America in 1906 and tried to announce that he was discovering it. And then unloaded a sack of beads and asked if Manhattan was still for sale.

1997. The term “weblog” is coined. Netscape is the browser of choice for 72% of users. Titanic crashes into theaters. And David Willis posts his first “Roomies!” comic.

It’s now called a blog. Netscape hit an iceberg of its own. And we still love “Shortpacked!” — the popular daily comic that arose from Willis’ first comic production.

On the Web, ten years of regularly-updated entertainment is a significant achievement that precious few can boast. Blank Label Comics is proud to salute David Willis as he celebrates his tenth anniversary in webcomics.

To help celebrate, here’s a Top 10 List of the all-time favorite storylines year-by-year from David Willis:

• 1997: “Obligatory Flashback Sequence”
• 1998: “Sexuality and the Modern Joyce”
• 1999: “Beer Necessities/No Regrets”
• 2000: “Puppy”
• 2001: “Guess Who’s Coming to Denver”
• 2002: “Round Two”
• 2003: “The Best I Could Do”
• 2004: “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”
• 2005: “Mrs. Greg Killmaster”
• 2006: “The Drama Tag”

Congratulations, David!

My buddy (and fellow Blank Label Comics cartoonist) Dave Kellett has a new book out: “62% More Awesome: The Third Sheldon Collection”.

The collection features every single strip since the previous Sheldon collection — “The Good, The Bad & The Pugly” — and includes extra strips he couldn’t fit in the last book! Special, awesome-sauce content includes the ‘Coffee Cup Lid Challenge’ strips, and an expanded version of the Saturday-only space storyline (including bonus stuff you can’t read online)! This book is, indeed, 62% More Awesome.

Order one right now at the Sheldon Store. The Sheldon Comic Strip can be read daily — for free — via the website, RSS, and e-mail delivery.

Fellow Blank Label Comics Cartoonist Kristofer Straub is releasing another book. We’re all excited to see Starslip Crisis, Volume 1. Collecting Starslip strips from the very beginning to June 2007, the 176-page book contains over 500 strips. Fans of Straub’s razor-sharp wit and cool, clean drawing style will be pleased to have the most complete collection of his Starslip work available. And they will be thrilled to see extras like a cast page, a map of the known universe, a Cirbozoid anatomy lesson, and early designs of the ship and crew!

With a foreword by Scott Kurtz, this book is a must-have for legions of Starslip fans. If you order now, you can get your book signed. If you order quickly, you can get one of a limited amount of numbered books that will ship with a signed, inked sketch.

Congratulations, Kris. Way to make me feel behind schedule on my own book…

Everybody’s favorite carbosilicate amorph has been spotted as a mud golem (we can only HOPE that’s mud… dirtamancers have a spotty track record) over in Erfworld today.

More than a few of you have emailed me. Rest assured, the very first person to tell me about it (and who wins the “I shall blog you” prize) was Rob Balder, who called me on the phone to tell me about it. Since he writes Erfworld, as well as Partially Clips (and filks up a storm to boot), we had lots to talk about. He even made me almost late for Church.

Thanks Rob! Oh, and since Erfworld’s artist, Jamie Noguchi was the one who actually DREW this, thank you, too, Jaime. Schlock looks good in… brown?

I’ll be signing books, sketching stuff, and shmoozing with fans this Saturday, May 5th, at Dragon’s Keep for their Free Comic Book Day celebration. Yeah, I’m there all the time, but this Saturday I’ll be there with Jake Black, Tyler Kirkham, Chad Hardin, Mandy MacMurray, Dylan Johnson, and Overcast Studios. I don’t have full linkage for these folks, but I have it on good authority that their works include The Amazing Spider-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, the Ender’s Game comic, Superman, Wyrms, BloodRayne, Smallville, Fist of Justice, Strykeforce, The Gift, Tomb Raider, The Ashen, Dragonswitch, and probably a lot more.

We’ll be there starting from 10:00am to 3:00pm, and may stick around longer (the fact is they haven’t told me when I have to go home, so I’ll probably loiter until they throw me out.)

If you’re not in Utah this weekend (and who can blame you?) perhaps you’re in Dallas? The world’s largest Free Comic Book Day event is being held at Zeus Comics this Saturday — CAPE 3: Bride of CAPE, and the list of luminaries on-hand is too long for me to rattle off here. Dave Kellet, Kristofer Straub, and Scott Kurtz are among the featured guests. Fans of Sheldon, Starslip Crisis, Halfpixel, and PvP are in for a rare treat as these three brilliant cartoonists work their magic side by side.

Not in Dallas either? Well… there’s probably a comics shop near you doing something for Free Comic Book Day. Take some time out Saturday morning and check it out. Bring the kids, and have a good time.

Saturday, May 5th, is Free Comic Book Day. No matter where in the world you find yourself, there is probably a comics retailer near you who is participating. Click here to search for participating retailers, and click here for a list of available titles.

If you find yourself in Utah (”Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore”) you can come and visit me down at Dragons Keep in downtown Provo (”I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque”). I don’t have any freebies, unless you count free pencil sketches. I’ll be dishing those out on archival comic-book boards, and dropping ‘em into bags for you. That’s right, you can get 13 cents worth of bag-and-board absolutely FREE from me. View the sketch on one side, and store one of your free comics on the other!

Okay, that’s not much of a promotion, I confess. For now, though, it’ll have to do. I’m worn out from conventioneering.

Maybe… hrmmm…. maybe you’d like to see the inked strips that run from now until the end of the current storyline? A little read-ahead, eh? How’s THAT grab you, mister (and mizz) Hardcore Schlockfan? I tell you what: I’ll put those in my portfolio, and you can decide whether or not to read ‘em when you show up…

The Eisner awards are, bar none, the most prestigious awards in the comics and comic-book industry. Recently the Eisners were expanded to include a category for “Best Digital Comic,” and even MORE recently they announced the nominations for this year’s Eisners.

Included in that prestigious list is Phables, by Brad Guigar.

Brad is one of eight cartoonists I’m pleased to not only call “peer” but “partner.” His contributions to the craft span over seven years (have a look at Everything Cartooning, Greystone Inn, Courting Disaster, and Evil Inc.), and his contributions to Blank Label Comics have been critical to the success of our little co-op. And this year a small measure of those contributions is being recognized big-time.

Phables is about Philly. Philadelphia readers send Brad emails about life and times in the City of Brotherly Love, and he turns those into a weekly feature that runs online and in the Philadelphia Daily News. The strip is easily appreciated by anyone who has lived in any big city, though, so don’t be put off if you’re from the City by the Bay, the Big Apple, the Big Easy, Emerald City, or the Gateway to the West instead.

Congratulations are already in order, because a nomination is a very big deal. The competition is stiff, however (a certain Phil Foglio, who beat me out for an award earlier this year, was also nominated), and the air is rare up there. Good luck, Brad!