Yep, I made up a word. Wanna fight about it? Since Daku beat me to the punch on the weekly round-up of news (courtesy of our new news board which you, yes YOU, can post to!), I figured I would write about the webcomics that piqued my interest for one reason or another this week. It’s bad, it’s good, it’s my weekly Interest Piquers!

– First off, for whatever reason, I’ve fallen behind on my reading of deadmouse’s Ballad over on Modern Tales (pay comics are ridiculous, by the way, but that’s a topic for another day). I was turned onto it by Digital Strips, natch, and I immediately fell in love with the amazing feel and forboding atmosphere that deadmouse is able to create. Through a link to Modern Tales I once again came upon this forgotten gem of my pull-list and quickly positioned it right back on top, where it belongs. You should do the same.

– How many webcomics do you have on RSS feed? You know, something you don’t wish to delve too deeply into, just a strip that’s good for what it is and no more? I’ve got many strips on my LiveJournal friends list and with each update, I find that I am always underwhelmed by the same ones. On my list, this includes Diesel Sweeties by RStevens and Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North, both strips that I started reading a while back simply because they were popular and, I assumed, required reading for anyone hoping to take webcomics “seriously”.

With the power to ignore at my very own fingertips, I find that I scroll right over each new comic every time, never feeling like I’m missing anything by doing so. The jokes (?) always sail over my head and seem more like really, really, REALLY obscure and inane conversations. So I say goodbye to both strips until my taste one day aligns with their own. Hats off to both creators, though, for producing very professional work; I can certainly see how far they’ve come on this World Wide Web, even if their content’s true intent eludes me.

– To restore balance to the Force, I’ve rediscovered Joe and Monkey. Nothing more to it than that, just something I’m happy to once again be checking up on from day to day.

– The biggie of the week has to Speechbubble Media. Before Monday, I had no idea who they were or what they did. Now, my webcomic has joined the growing ranks of top-notch webcomics in the hopes of someday being sold as a package deal to big names like Sony and Warner Bros. And now look: ads all over the place, news about it popping up on every webcomic site, news-related or not, more big names joining every day. If you’ve got a strip you think is at least halfway decent, you owe it to yourself to stop by and submit your work for consideration. Who knows? Someday it may net you a part of a very large sum of money.

And as we all know, money is everything. It can even buy dreams. And love.