While driving home one fateful afternoon, I found myself listening in on an old Blank Label Comics podcast which featured hosts Kristofer Straub and Dave Kellett chatting with Scott Kurtz about anything and everything. They gabbed about Lost, enjoyed several inside jokes (seemingly a mainstay whenever Kurtz and Straub surf the airwaves together), and talked about the importance of printed works of webcomics. Kurtz stated that he took pride in his webcomic book collection and was thrilled at the thought of sharing these editions with his children and grandchildren, telling them of the time when comics first came to the Internet and the age of imagination and reinvention they brought to the stagnant artform.
Ok, so those weren’t his exact words, but the feeling was certainly there. And echoing that sentiment, I have begun building my own collection. And in the hopes that you will do the same, I hope to cover more printed collections here in this space, which I’m calling…
Looking For Group #1- It sounded too good to be true, so I had to check the date on the timestamped blog entry. April 10th! So it’s not just a cruel last bit of Liar’s Day prankery. Looking For Group, by Ryan Sohmer and Lar DeSouza, has announced, in a very non-chalant fashion, that their first 32 strips will be collected into a comic book. This was in the cards from the very beginning, which explains the layout consisting of the exact same dimensions. Ryan says the book should be ready in a week’s time, so check the LFG home page for the official release!
Brinkerhoff: I Bet It Tastes Like Licorice– Gabe Strine announced shortly before the Emerald City Comic-Con that he would have copies of this first Brinkerhoff collected comic book to sell at the event. The con came and went with no word on when those of us who couldn’t make it out to the West Coast might find a copy. Today, Gabe has updated the Brink site with news that he will have a few copies left over after his local comic shop gets their fair share. Again, you’ll have to keep refreshing his home page to get the full story on just when the embargo will be lifted, but I’ve found a little perseverance and a lot of luck can get you anything you want.
The Kid’s Book– Michael-Rouse Deane of Webcomics-In-Print has gone and done something quite remarkable. He’s gathering the biggest and brightest names in webcomics for a great cause. It’s called The Kid’s Book and the collaboration includes such names as Danielle Corsetto, Ryan Estrada, Dean Trippe, Joe Dunn, and Ryan North in the list of 58 creators who will help make this dream a reality. The process is simple: None of the creators know the storyline. They are only shown the page before theirs; in the case that their page comes after 30, they get a glimpse at what comes after. They craft what they think should continue to story and do so within a week. As one of the lucky creators, I’ve seen what makes up a portion of the story and I can truthfully say that this is going to be something special.
So get your pre-orders in now! The book will be printed in black-and-white with a color cover by Liz Greenfield. At least half of the proceeds go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the book will see a release in December of 2007. Chat it up with everyone you know and help all involved to make this a rousing success for webcomics! At a price of 6 pounds each (which I believe to be around 12 bucks for us across the pond), we need at least 200 preorders to make this thing a success!
I’ll be talking with Mike several times before the release of the book so stay tuned for all the developments right here! As for further Round-Ups, if you’ve got a web comic book coming out that you want to publicize, drop me a line at digital.strips@gmail.com with the subject line, “Web Comic Book Round-Up” and I’ll make sure you get your time to shine!
