They’re well-done, with professional-level art, and I like the extra touches: cover design and a back page that explains the genesis of the stories and tells a little bit about the creators.

It was previously self-published, but as so many others these days, Young found that the economics didn’t work well for him in print:

Like every other deluded, quixotic creator entering the field with their head in the clouds, I was expecting immediate riches and rewards; that all the wealth, fame and glory I deserved would fall directly onto my lap … When you’re putting out a 24 page black & white comic, you wouldn’t need to sell that many copies to break even; and not that many more to turn a small, if not minuscule, profit (of course, this is only if we’re talking about printing costs). You sell about 2500 – 3000 copies, and you’re in Breaking-Even-Land. Do enough research, and you’ll find dozens of cautionary tales about self-publishing. You read them over and over again, and you think, “Oh, please! That ain’t gonna happen to me! I’m the next Jeff Smith!” Or Dave Sim or Terry Moore or whoever else you admire. Anyway…I ultimately learned, the hard way, just how rare it was to get pass the gates at Breaking-Even-Land.

So now he’s putting his original miniseries and its sequel online as a webcomic. It’s updated on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He needs to do some cleanup and tweaking on the site (navigation buttons at the bottom of the image, not just the top; clearing out the test posts; making sure all the dropdown links work), but I enjoyed what I read, and I like his line and his character design. Even if reading about that many cats made me start sneezing.

I’m tempted to volunteer to help with Marissa’s likes, but that might be scary.

Goats: Infinite Typewriters
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Given my tastes and habits, a book is a good idea, since I wouldn’t have tried the series without it. Over a decade of archives becomes rather intimidating to someone interested who isn’t even sure what the strip is about. (That problem is shared with the author, who says, “There’s no good way to summarize it.”)

The strip started by telling slice-of-life gags, but after a storyline in 2002, it took a turn to science fiction/cultural parody with ongoing plotlines. I think I might have preferred the earlier version, because I admit, when it comes to the strips here, I don’t get it. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that I’m not interested. None of it really clicked with me.

There are two guys, a talking chicken named Diablo, his violent son Oliver, two aliens, and a fish in a beer glass (my favorite character). The goat of the title is Toothgnip, who pulls Thor’s chariot. The cast hang out in a pub and talk about religion, science, and life, then they meet God or Satan or build destructive machines or visit comic conventions.

The point seems to be the dialogue more than the events. The characters talk a lot. The art is serviceable but not particularly attractive, and it’s often pretty static. Although I think the strip’s longevity is an amazing accomplishment, I found the actual content boring and self-indulgent, although I admire the imagination involved. (Update: Given how long it’s been going, it’s clearly got an audience who sees things in it I’m missing. If you’re at all curious, you should check it out for yourself. It’s a webcomic. All it will cost you is time. If you like it, consider buying the book, because:)

The book itself is very impressive. Thick white gloss paper makes for a book with heft; it feels very solid and substantial. The square proportions allow for three rows of strips per page. Since they’re often three panels each, that makes for a simple, easy-to-read grid.

I do find it a little disingenuous for Del Rey to be publicizing this book as “Goats … collected for the first time”, given that there are three previous self-published volumes, but those will only be available until this book’s publication date, June 23. And it’s true that this book does contain never-before-published strips from the later, more current era.

This is the first of three books to be published by Del Rey. The Corndog Imperative is due in December, with Showcase Showdown following. (A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

Galaxion Book 1: The Jump
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I can’t approach this story objectively, because I was a fan of the previous incarnation (as discussed in an interview with the author). It’s been so long, though — over a decade — that these characters seemed fresh yet familiar, like old friends I hadn’t seen in a while and needed catching up with.

Fusella captains the Galaxion, which has been taken away from her temporarily. She’s been told that it’s for an engine refit, but the changes are too drastic for that to be solely the case. It turns out that her science ship has been enlisted for an experimental hyperspace jump, along with her crew. Among them are Aria, a geologist on the survey team, perhaps the most level-headed of the cast. Darvin is the officer leading the renovations, while Zan’s a young inventor.

When the experiment doesn’t go as expected, the ship’s crew has to figure out where they are. Everyone gets down to work to solve the mystery, which may be related to history of other ships.

I like that the cast is distinctive and realistic, probably the characters most like real people I’ve ever found in science fiction. They bicker and chit-chat. They’re diverse in attitude and personality and cultural backgrounds. (How refreshing, to see so many women working in technical jobs, too!)

And they all have really neat hair, in styles and shapes I recognize (instead of odd outlines created because the artist is taking shortcuts). The expressions are well-observed and pictured. The backgrounds are rich and solid, three-dimensional rooms and settings.

The dialogue’s great for revealing what the reader needs to know to follow the story. There’s clearly a lot more here than we’re getting on the page right away, a detailed history that we’ll find out more about as the story progresses.

If you read the previous series, you’ll know more about what the crew is going to face, but the story’s different enough that I enjoyed this new collection, and the art’s more accomplished. This volume also includes a stand-alone story (previously published as part of a promotional flipbook with Amy Unbounded) and some alternate pages. The book does end on a cliffhanger, so follow up at the website or hope, as I do, that the next volume won’t take as long!

She’s just put out her first print collection of the webcomic version, so I thought it would be a great time to catch up.

What’s in your new Galaxion collection, and how can people get it?

Galaxion Book 1: The Jump
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Galaxion Book 1: The Jump contains the first three chapters of the Galaxion webcomic, the 17-page “Fusella vs. Interplanetary Patrol” story (also known as the Flipbook story), and some odds and ends of original content. All told, it’s 144 pages. It will soon be available direct from my website, and also through all of the various Amazon sites (.com, .ca, .co.uk, etc.), as well as BarnesandNoble.com.

How does it relate to the print comics of last decade? Are they the same story?

Probably the best way to describe it is as a relaunch. I stopped making the print edition in 2000 because I started a family, and I quickly discovered, to my dismay, that I was not one of those amazing women who can make babies and comics go together! But by the time my kids were both old enough to be in school, I’d realized that I wanted very much to return not only to the story, but to comics as well.

After being completely absent from the scene for six years, and on top of that making the decision to move from print comics to the new medium of webcomics, I’d figured that no one would remember Galaxion and I’d have to start over from the beginning in order to reach a new audience. (Turns out I was kind of wrong about that—a lot of people remembered Galaxion! I’m still getting emails from people who are just discovering the comic online and want to tell me they’re happy the story is still going.) In the intervening six years, I’d added a lot of new ideas to the story, and I was keen on having a chance to put them to use!

So to (finally) answer the question, the basic plot is the same, the main characters are more-or-less the same, but many of the details are quite different. Everything has been rewritten and redrawn, and I’ve chosen different scenes and some different points of view to tell the story this time around. There’s more focus on character development, which is some of my favourite stuff to write! Although the webcomic is written to attract new readers, I like to think that people who’ve read and enjoyed the earlier version will find lots to interest them in the new version.

How does the Galaxion serialization work?

One page a week, plus an extra update on the first Friday of the month. It’s not very speedy pace, but I’m just not a speedy artist! There is a definite end to the story, though it will likely take me more than a few years to get there. It just feels like it’s forever ongoing.

Who is your target audience? Who enjoys the strip most?

It’s a funny thing, target audiences. Like many writers, I write what I enjoy, so I had initially imagined that my target audience must therefore be people like me—adult women who enjoy romantic space opera, Star Trek, and perhaps have a bit of fondness for anime of the ‘80s like Space Cruiser Yamato.

I suppose there must be some Galaxion readers like that out there, but overall I seem to have more males than females in my audience, judging by the feedback I get. Perhaps this is because there are still more males than females reading comics in general? It’s probably fair to say that the percentage of women reading my comic is growing.

On the other hand, I’m also hearing more and more from parents who tell me that their daughters are fans. At first I was surprised by this news, but I’ve come to realize I’m also quite pleased. I don’t write specifically for kids—my characters are all adults—but by force of habit I’ve kept it pretty clean and nonviolent, about a PG rating. Within the science fiction genre, especially on the web, this appears to be a bit of a novelty. Most dramatic SF in recent years has been leaning towards dark and gritty, whereas Galaxion is more bright and friendly. That’s what I like to write, and it just so happens that it’s appropriate for preteens to read! The young adult market was not among my initial goals, but I think it’s one worth pursuing. For many years I’ve felt that while there’s a wealth of good fantasy stories for the 9-14 age group, there’s very little good science fiction out there, comics or otherwise. I wouldn’t mind helping to correct that unfortunate deficiency!

What do you aim to accomplish with Galaxion, and how successful do you think you’ve been?

Well, since I write primarily for my own enjoyment, my main goal is to get to the end of the story! I’ve had these characters kicking around in my head since I was twelve—that’s well over two decades past—and after all this time, I want to do right by them and get their story told. Other goals like fame, fortune, and being able to draw as well as Carla Speed McNeil (or Wendy Pini or Colleen Doran or any number of manga artists whom I admire) are all part of the mix, but finishing the story is really the driving force.

By that yardstick, success is still years away….

Galaxion is a long-form webcomic, with a serialized story. What are your thoughts on that approach compared to shorter gag strips?

As a reader, my first love is long-form stories. I know conventional webcomic wisdom tells us that daily strips have the greatest chance of success because our internet attention span is microscopically short, but I’m able to follow long-form webcomics like Girl Genius, which updates three times a week, without much difficulty, so that gives me hope for the format. More updates are better, obviously, but I can manage to keep track of once-a-week stories like Family Man.

For a long-form comic presenting on the web, the ideal would be for each individual update to be enjoyable on its own, while still advancing the plot of the story. It’s a bit of a tricky balancing act, but now that I think about it, it’s probably not all that much different a challenge from the balancing act we try to achieve in comics between the words and the art!

This will be, by my count, the fourth time you’ve told this story. (First making stories for yourself as a teen, then minicomics, then print, now web.) Why do you keep going back to it? What have you learned? Do you have plans to make other comics or stories? 

Yeah, heh, that does seem kind of insane, doesn’t it? All of those reboots seemed to make sense at the time…. Well, mainly each one happened because of a format change. From a novel, to a 13-page-per-issue minicomic, to a 20-page-per-issue full-size comic, and finally to the web, I needed to change the way I presented the story each time to make it fit. (Well, in retrospect I now know I probably didn’t need to change anything to put it all up on the web, but I didn’t realize that at the time.) And each time I started over I used the opportunity to refine the plot, the script, and the art.

It’s not really a process I would recommend—it’s kind of a trap, to keep returning to the same material because you want to improve it. It’s best to keep going forward. You learn something from every new page you complete. Why do I go back, then? The short answer is, because I’m not finished yet! Both in my head and on paper these characters have grown and matured over the years just as I have, and I’m fond enough of them that I don’t mind they’re still hanging around after all this time. Though that doesn’t mean I’m not looking forward to the day I finish the story and get to kick them out at last!

Will there be other comics or stories? Sure. I’ve worked on a few diversions already, most recently Roberta’s Space Adventure, a story about the Canadian astronauts for grade six kids, part of Scholastic Education Canada’s “Moving Up with Literacy Place” program. Hard as it is for me to imagine a time when I’m not working on Galaxion, I know that once I’m done there’ll be plenty of other stories to, um, obsess over. As most writers will tell you, coming up with new ideas is not the problem!

First, it’s remarkably bawdy and explicit. Erika is not shy about dealing with bodies, her own or others, and physical functions like sex or farting. Her portrayal of these are both funny and honest. You’ll know from the first few strips whether you can keep up with her — the first is illustrations of various things that make her orgasm, while the second is her playing with her man’s penis. But for every adults-only subject, such as a visit to a strip joint, there’s a remarkably sweet or emotionally affecting strip, like the one about kissing your love while drinking tea.

Some you can relate to. The idea of a simple treat like cookies making the day better matches most people’s experience. Some are really thought-provoking, such as “Autobiography”, where the artist tackles the question, “Is it hard to write about people you know?” Some of the full-nude strips can be unbearably cute, a juxtaposition you rarely see. The one about shaving her cat (”The cat is a euphemism”, the strip helpfully points out) is a wonderful use of the comic format in a way no other medium could support.

Also, Erika is a fascinating person. She’s an artist who also works as a live nude model. She identifies as a lesbian but fell in love with and married a man. (Her introduction, which covers the years 2003-2006, sums up this history. I’d like to hear a lot more about her choices and emotions in this area.) She’s clearly not shy when it comes to telling stories about any of these elements.

I’ve read other autobiographical comics about similar subjects where my reaction was “Too much information!” I wanted to avoid meeting the artist as a result, because it felt like I didn’t have the right to know so much about them when I’d never met them. With Erika, it’s different. Her personality seems open and accommodating and like she’d be a terrific person to hang out with.

Most importantly, she’s a dynamite artist. Her cartooning is fluid and accomplished. She uses tricks of the medium to capture motion when necessary and always just the right moment. Buy your own copy here.

Kevin, what made you decide to start doing webcomics?

Actually, it was Ross Richie at BOOM! Studios. Right at three years ago, he asked me if I wanted to write a webcomic that’d help promote their titles. We had a few people whose work looked good, but Birdie’s leaped out, and thus Nitroglycerin was born. After working together for a few months, Birdie came up with the idea of doing a comic strip in a comic shop, so I wrote up a bible, and here we are. In short, other people made me start doing webcomics and now I enjoy it. It’s sort of like eating Indian food for the first time.

What spurred the idea to spin off Lydia into a strip with a business setting?

After his stint helping out The Rack while Birdie was finishing up the book, Max Riffner made the foolish mistake of saying he’d draw her spin-off because he had so much fun drawing her. Being a stone-cold opportunist who knows how popular Lydia is in the fanbase, I came up with the idea of her leaving Yavin IV, asked Birdie if he was OK with things, and went for it.

As far as the setting, I wanted her in a place where Lydia would feel like her organizational skills and work ethic would be appreciated and she wouldn’t have to deal with retail anymore. And for those die-hards who can’t be bothered to read the ongoing strip but still like her, Lydia’s still going to appear in The Rack, just less often.

What do you envision for Lydia’s future? Is it planned to end, or is it ongoing?

I’m not going to discuss any future plans because I just plain don’t like getting anything close to a spoiler myself. I actively avoid most film discussion on the internet because of this phobia, and I don’t even watch the previews for shows I enjoy because I hate seeing jokes or plot beats getting ruined for the sake of hype.

Understood. So is Lydia (the strip) going to run as long as there are ideas for it?

I’ve got an ending in mind for Lydia, but I’ve got one for The Rack, too, and I don’t plan on shutting down that strip anytime soon.

How is working with Max?

We get along terrifically well, and it was one of those natural fits that you look for when you’re a creator.

Max, how did you and Kevin get together for Lydia?

Kevin and I initially got together via Twitter of all places — we both started following each other and he was really instrumental in getting attention to Drunk Elephant Comics early on. When he asked me to do some guest strips for The Rack, I jumped at the chance because I love the characters. I almost immediately started getting emails from fans. Many of them were comic shop employees who I thought didn’t even actually read webcomics, telling me how much they love The Rack and how great it was that I was doing some guest strips. Kevin also got a lot of feedback about my brief run, and between Kevin, Benjamin Birdie, and myself, we all thought that a spin-off was worth exploring.

What do you like best about working on the strip? And just to stir up trouble, least?

I absolutely LOVE drawing Lydia herself. The talented Mr. Birdie created such a great, original design for the character, so I have a lot to work with. The moment I first drew her, I think I emailed Kevin immediately and told him how much fun she is to draw! I think the thing I like the least about it is that, like Office Space or the novel Then We Came to the End, when you work in those worlds, it’s an uncomfortable mirror into your own life. Kevin really nails the environment. I’ve worked in places like that before. It’s simultaneously hilarious and sort of painful how close to real life ridiculousness Lydia’s office can be.

What do you see as the strip’s future?

Kevin has given me quite a few scripts so I can build a buffer, so I have a sense of where we’re headed. All I can say is that Lydia is in for an interesting time coming from the world of comic shop retail to the world of marketing.

Kevin, do you have plans to do collections or merchandise from your webcomics?

Funny that you should mention that! Yesterday’s edition of The Rack announces the print edition of our first year, which has been curated by Birdie and myself and features pinups from people like Jeff Parker, Dan McDaid, and TJ Kirsch along with an interview conducted by a real live university professor. The book is going to debut at MoCCAFest 2009, and we’ll be offering it online after that.

You have a Cover Girl collection out from Boom! Do you have plans to do more print comics?

Honestly, I’ve not pitched anything to anyone in about a year, mostly because I’d want to own whatever I do. Don’t get me wrong — I think it’d be great fun to write a J. Jonah Jameson miniseries or the like, but I’m at the point where I get the most joy from creating my own characters and worlds.

With Diamond having made some decisions that aren’t friendly to the small press, I’m of the mind that the web’s definitely the way for anyone to start doing comics. Outside of time, your production costs are minimal, and you can build up your audience slowly without having publication pressures on your back.

Which is your favorite Rack strip and why?

I think The Rack’s best strips are the ones that are driven by characters instead of industry punchlines. Danny sleeping with Lydia’s roommate, Jerry and Rick going to San Diego, Lydia’s departure — I’d count those among my favorites. That said, Alan Moore’s appearance is just a fantastic bit of cartooning from Birdie, and I have to hold myself back from just telling Batman jokes constantly.

Thank you both, Kevin and Max, for your time!

Congratulations on reaching your sixth anniversary creating Red String! When you started, did you expect to be going so long?

GB: Thank you so much! Honestly, no, but the more I would write for the planned story, the more the world of these characters opened up to me. I think it’s more that the characters lead me at this point. Late last year, I ended up expanding the planned story by one more volume (seven chapters) in order to flesh out a part of the story that really called for more attention.

How much longer do you plan to work on this story? Your website says 15 chapters to go, but how does that translate to months/years?

GB: Each chapter of the story takes about two months to complete on the site. I believe it works out to approximately two and a half more years of Red String, give or take. There might be a few side stories that pop up at some point, but not much else. I could keep going with the story, but one of the things I really appreciate in any form of literature is a beginning and an ending to a story.

What spurred your choice of this story? This format?

GB: I would have to say it started with my love of mythology. I am always reading up on folklore of other cultures. At the time, I was reading up on Japanese myths and the Red String of Fate caught my attention. It was just about this time that the TokyoPop RSOM contest was going on, so I created a story out of it. When I continued the story, it started to shift from a simple romance to a story about all forms of love.

Why do you think you’ve been able to continue so long? What do readers like about the comic?

GB: I think it’s continued so long for a good many reasons. It’s a story I have remained enthusiastic about after all this time, and I really enjoy writing the characters. Fan support has definitely helped keep me going as well. The thing I hear most from new readers is that they enjoy the realistic touch to the story, and they can really relate to the characters. There are a good handful of coincidences, but considering it’s a work of romantic fiction about fate, there are bound to be some of those. Otherwise, I try to write the story with the constant question of “could that really happen?” or “would that character really react that way?” on my mind. I like to think it helps keep the story grounded.

Your first three collections were published by Dark Horse, but you’re self-publishing the fourth. Why?

GB: First, I want to say that Dark Horse and I parted on excellent terms. The folks there are good people. The first volume’s sales performed on target, which is why they contracted me for the second and third volume. Unfortunately, sales of those volumes being what they were, a fourth volume was unlikely. I had also come to the conclusion that Red String would make enough money for me, but not enough for me AND a big publishing company.

Red String Volume 4 is due out this month, just in time for Animazement in Durham, NC. I will have copies with me at the convention, but you can also pick one up at my website.

Does the comic support you?

GB: I am making at least the same or a little more than when I was working retail, though not all of it comes directly from Red String. I do commissions occasionally and sell a good number of t-shirts and buttons unrelated to Red String at conventions.

Do you have a particular favorite page that you’ve done? Why is it your favorite?

GB: That’s a tough call! There are quite a few pages that stand out to me as favorites either for artists or emotional reasons, but I think it all comes down to love prevailing over everything else. In this instance, I’m not talking about romantic love. Miharu and her cousin have been at odds for quite a while in the series and this scene was something that really struck emotionally for me. Things may never be quite the same for the girls, they have overcome their problems and come together as family.

Did you get started doing Red String?

GB: Red String was not my first comic, but definitely my longest. I put together an anthology series titled Fractured Kisses, though admittedly, the art and writing is so dated at this point. Love of Sausage remains one of my most emotional pieces I have written as it is an autobiographical piece about my mini dachshunds, one who is sadly no longer with me. Aside from Red String, I am also currently working on a series titled Erstwhile. It is comic version of the lesser known fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm.

What do you plan to do after Red String concludes?

GB: I am developing a few different story ideas at the moment. One of which is a fantasy tale and another is an American high school romance. I haven’t decided which will be my next webcomic, but I am excited about both ideas.

My thanks to Gina for her time!

I don’t think Ada Lovelace: The Origin!, by Sydney Padua, will help in that direction, but boy, did I laugh!

The idea that she was taught mathematics to avoid her “becoming poetical” is probably right, come to think of it. And I found the Twitter joke hilarious. That’s also why my friend David sent it to me, since he doesn’t get the fun of tweeting.

2-D Goggles is going on my reading list right now! There are more adventures of Lovelace and Babbage there.

The next book, The Truth About Doctor True, is due out at the end of July, but until then, Jack and Benny will be having adventures online at the rate of a new strip every other week. Plus, there are avatars, wallpapers, and news updates.

I was probably part of the problem, since I don’t follow webcomic collection sites, only individual webcomics, but when did Girlamatic.com stop being an active site? As of this morning, everything on the front page is labeled “no longer updating”, and the last editorial is a year old (although with the lack of dates on the site, it was hard to determine that).

The site, focused on comics by and of interest to women, was six years old as of March 31. It was one of a network of sites that gave free tastes but asked for subscription revenue for access to archives, a model that once worked but seems to have died out in favor of advertising and merchandise money.

Update: One of the contributors writes in the comments that there are some strips still updating weekly, and she recommends the RSS feed to keep up with them. So the site’s not completely dead, just pining for the fjords.

The whole thing, originally created from 2000-2004, is available to read online, or you can buy a copy starting at the end of the month.

Joumana Medlej is a Lebanese artist writing a fantasy superhero series about a woman born to end a war in Lebanon called Malaak: Angel of Peace. It starts with simple cartooning, but by the latest pages, the artist is experimenting with different techniques, coloring, and confidence.

Sara Ryan had a new installment of her Flytrap minicomic series, this time illustrated by Sarah Burrini. She’s a German artist who’s starting to get work here. In this chapter, “Performance Anxiety”, one of the acrobats winds up having to play her ex’s wedding. The dialogue and character work are terrific, as always, and the art conveys subtle, realistic emotion. Burrini’s quite a talent, and Ryan’s story makes some interesting points about the desire for attention. I wanted to see what happened when the circus showed up at the ceremony, but the real point of the story was friends talking through a tough time. (How nice to see something that passes the Bechdel Rule, too.)

I picked up a charming minicomic from Steve Rolston (One Bad Day, Queen & Country) called “Lost Souls in Love”. It was originally his attempt at a 24-hour comic, but he polished it into a wonderful romantic interlude with a strong sense of place, as two new friends explore a deserted beach.

Other than that, I didn’t buy much. I was looking for some older Archie comics for KC, but no one brings that kind of thing to a show where they have limited space. I did get the second Girls With Slingshots volume and the new Phables collection (strips abut Philadelphia) from Brad Guigar at the halfpixel.com table. I figured it would be a neat nostalgia trip, since I lived in the city for three years. Brad did a lovely sketch of Ben Franklin in the front, although he is not eating a cheesesteak. These full-page strips are based on observations about what makes like in Philadelphia unique, often based on reader submissions. Guigar’s style works very well with this slightly exaggerated real-life humor. Frequent subjects include trash, cars, family, crime, and tradition. Some are touching, some are scary, and some really brought back memories.

I’ve found I don’t do a lot of shopping at shows like this because most times, it’s just easier to order online. Especially if you’re worrying about what will fit in your suitcase on the way back! But I came up with a few new webcomics to check out. Like The Comfort Guide, twisted wordless comedy based on instructional-style images. Or Unemployed Pandas, cute and timely. Or Sea Freak, the story of a tormented undersea mutant who eats people but is really conflicted about it. Or Ellie Connelly, a young woman who investigates the paranormal in a historical comedy strip that’s just starting.

Mostly, I had good conversations. I interviewed Scott Morse, who was a gentleman and a lifesaver, letting me sit with him when I came over dizzy in the afternoon. Instead of convention sketches, he was doing mini-paintings, including one of Batman. It was some grey shapes, then I closed my eyes briefly, and when I opened them, he was putting black over top and it was the hero! I don’t know how he did it. Sheer genius!

A terrific time talking with two young women made me feel old and slow. They were full of information about their comics, creative costumes they made, all these activities they had going. It was inspiring. One was Rachel Dukes, who does several webcomics, but I didn’t catch the other’s name.

With Keith Knight I talked about the future of comics. I found out from Jeph Jacques (Questionable Content) that he’s planning to put out his first book before the end of the year. It’ll have at least the first 250 strips, but he hopes for 500 — it depends on the size and the cost, since it’ll be printed in color.

I also checked in with several indy publishers about their upcoming works. I had a bizarre but eye-opening conversation with someone at Oni about comp copies and why they’re sent as well as whether I should be considered more of a reviewer or an industry professional. It was one of those situations where you realize that how you view yourself may be very different from how others see you. I’ll always consider myself a reviewer first, but that doesn’t mean others agree. I assumed that someone who sent me comics wanted me to talk about them, but that’s not always the case, it turns out. Anyway, I was thrilled to get a copy of the convention-only Scott Pilgrim color special.

Brett at Top Shelf was eager to tell me about the books they have upcoming this year, many of which I hope to cover shortly, because they look nifty! Perhaps most exciting to me was hearing that there was going to be an Eddie Campbell Alec omnibus called The Years Have Pants coming out in September.

I saw a preview of North 40, an upcoming WildStorm miniseries — 6 issues starting in July — by Aaron Williams (PS238) and Fiona Staples. It’s about folks with superpowers living in a rural county, an interesting mix.

Oh, and the Seattle Convention Center has the best con food ever. There’s a creparie on the sidewalk just outside. For lunch, I had a ham’n'cheese crepe followed by a sweet chestnut with creme fraiche for dessert. Yum!

Now, it’s two days later, and there’s no sign of it, and no blog update. It looks like the announcement was an April Fools joke. This kind of thing is why I hate that day.

Update: I love Heidi’s reaction, complete with hand-done X-across-their-faces graphic.

The first two issues were published in 2007 and 2008 from Archaia Studios Press, but the last two were delayed due to that publisher’s funding problems. They’re now due out this summer. From the press release:

Lewis is urging people to consider nominating it for either “Best New Series” or “Best Limited Series” Harvey categories. “This is not meant to be quid pro quo,” Lewis clarified, emphasizing his desire more to get the work seen than honored. “I just wanted people who read the first two issues to feel as good as I do about how it concludes. If they end up enjoying it as much as Marv [mpMann, the artist] and I did making it, so much the better.”

There’s a new page every weekday. If you want to jump ahead to find out what happens, buy the graphic novel he’s reprinting online.

Starting around September, once this serialization is complete, he’ll begin serializing the new color series The Big Snow Job.

I’m very disappointed to hear that news. I enjoyed reading the strip, and I was very much looking forward to the hoped-for collection. I won’t criticize Jane for doing what she thinks is right, but I don’t see the problem with portraying historical attitudes.

What does set this project apart is the marketing scheme. Once you buy the file, you can set up a purchase link for others to use, and you get 50% of the take. (Just in case anyone wonders, I haven’t bought the manga, and I get nothing for mentioning it here. I’m talking about it only because I was stunned by the audacity of the idea.) The author pitches this as a way to actually make a profit, if you can pimp the work to enough of your gullible friends.

Also, I’m not sure what makes this a manga beyond the author naming it such. Visually, it reminds me most of Dave Sim’s Glamourpuss, with its photo-referenced art. In terms of plot, Alice is saved from a suicide attempt by a world champion arm wrestler (!), which leads to “international intrigue”. It sounds like a bad TV movie to me.