The webcomic news just keeps flowin’ in and I just keep lettin’ it sail right by! But lo, what’s this? I seem to have accrued a clog in my usually steady flow! Must be time to apply some WordDraino (patent pending) and unclog that stubborn drain. Here it comes, it’s Interest Piquers for the week ending 3/22/08!
– As most Americans know, driving anywhere these days is so expensive, it’s nearly idiotic. Bike, walk, do whatever you have to do to get to where you need to be, just don’t do it in a gasoline-fueled vehicle.
Well it will probably tick you off further to know that not only is Steven Cloud, creator of the existential short strip,
Boy on a Stick and Slither, not only is he doing a fair bit of driving these days, he’s doing it from London to Mongolia. Now I flunked world geography (I can barely find my way out of my neighborhood most days) but that sounds like a looong trip. Why do it, Steven’s Livejournal post?
Me and two other idiots are participating in the 2008 Mongol Rally which is a charity road rally (not a race) that covers nearly 1/3 of the globe. To make it more awesome, each team must drive a car with a 1 liter engine OR LESS.
Ah HA! So there’s a twist! Cloud goes on to say that donations of anywhere from $5 to $100 dollars are being taken at either the Will We Make It site, where your gracious fundage will go straight to the charity with minimum fees, or the more traditional PayPal link through the rally’s official page. Not only that, but Cloud and his band of cohorts will entertain the idea of pasting a sticker with your webcomic’s (or blog’s or TV show’s) logo on the car, NASCAR-style! (Still no idea if all those letters should be capitalized or not.)
– Richard Stevens, the man behind Diesel Sweeties, has decided that since his strips are awkwardly shaped and thus, hard to print, he’s giving his archives away for free. Along with celebrating the upcoming 8th anniversary of the strip, this move is extremely generous (HA! Knew I’d find a theme for today) and should be accepted graciously and hungrily by all.
You can find 200 archived strips each Wednesday at the Diesel Sweeties site. Just don’t use them for any commercial purpose and keep an eye out for a special anniversary art book once all the archives have been uploaded!
Now say it with me…
YOU GET AN ARCHIVE! YOU GET AN ARCHIVE! YOU GET AN ARCHIVE! YOU’RE ALL GETTING ARCHIVES!
– Ever heard of a comic strip born out of a forum thread? Me neither, not until I stumbled upon Awesome Justice Storm 41! Let those who began this experiment speak of how it came to be!
An off the cuff comment by a community member about the creation of a team, snowballed into a full fledged project. Community members submitted entries for the team, and then voted on membership for Awesome Storm Justice. The top eight vote-getters secured a space on the team.
Vote-getters? Team? Sounds familiar…
Anyhoo, a project like this deserves some scrutiny and speculation, so go check it out and let them (and us) know what you think!
– Remember the interview with Michael Rouse-Deane a few weeks back in which we discussed his newest project, The Guest Strip Project? Well, the new endeavor now has a website and a launch date! Expect the multi-creator
extravaganza to kick-off on April 1st and yes, I have it on good authority that this is NOT a massive April Fool’s prank to be perpetrated on the webcomic community.
The rules, however, do state that an artist can only appear once during the span of the strip and that the focus, at least to start with, will be the wild, wacky world of law enforcement!
Still, it will be April 1st, so… just be wary of liars.
You just never know.
Ooh! Also, stay tuned for exciting news regarding Michael Rouse-Deane and Digital Strips! Exciting times, indeed!
– The final news item heralds the reboot of the strip PCWeenies! Krishna Sadasivam, creator of the PC-geek love fest, has streamlined the site with WordPress (with Comicpress, natch) and it looks muy, muy pretty. Some of his earliest work is now gracing this sleek redesign, complete with director’s commentary and cutting room footage! It’s like a DVD for your PC!
I leave you with one of my favorite things to do on Saturday mornings: check my LJ RSS feed for the latest, greatest adventures of Wonderella! Enjoy and add it to yours today!
Image and characters therein Copyright Justin Pierce.
