The biggest shame of the whole weekend for this lucky reporter was missing out on not one, not two, but ALL of the panels that went on during the NEWW event. But hey, someone had to volunteer to keep people out of that parking lot across the street, am I right? Huh?

In terms of the panels, all were well attended and much enjoyed, though the most buzzed-about feature was easily the Halfpixel crew getting together for the first live taping of Webcomics Weekly. Every creator and fan I came across during NEWW had their own highlight of the panel, so now it’s time to make one of your own. The live panel is now available on the Webcomics.com site. Enjoy it for the first time (like myself) or relive the magic that was made on that fateful day in Easthampton, MA.

Also, join me in playing a fun little game: Where, during this panel, do you think it was that Brad Guigar made this face?

Sure, I’ve got scads upon loads of thoughts and impressions about this past weekend of webcomicky goodness, but I can’t be the only person out there who wants to reflect, can I?

Over at Robot 6 (via CBR), Bobby Timony, co-creator, co-writer, and artist of the Zuda winning comic, The Night Owls, has posted his thoughts about this historic weekend and you would do well to see what another creator thought of the festivities.

Webcomics journalism is growing, both in terms of those who only report on that facet of the art form (ourselves, Fleen, ComixTalk) and for other outlets who cover all comics and give webcomics equal time (and rightfully so). Rick Marshall, formerly of the Wizard online world, falls into the latter category.

I met Rick at the unofficial NEWW House Party (yes, there was a party full of nearly every big webcomics creator you could imagine and I was there) and we talked a bit about what it is he hopes to accomplish with the new branch of the MTV media blog, SplashPage, of which he is the editor. Regardless of your feelings towards the biggest music network not actually playing any music, the online arm (finger?) of the company is full of useful knowledge in each of several pertinent categories like video games and comic books.

Continue reading →

As Meredith Gran, creator of Octopus Pie and organizer extraordinaire of Webcomics Weekend is finding out, when you have guests stay with you for a long period of time, they will eventually start going through your stuff.

Guest strip by KC Green and David Malki!

Case in point: KC Green and David Malki! (of Horribleville and Wondermark, respectively) took it upon themselves sometime past the midnight hour to show their appreciation for everything Gran did to make this weekend a huge success (and believe me, it was a lot). And so, this guest strip was born.

I’m sure she’s flattered. I’m just curious what the webcomics world might come to should this collaboration continue. The mind is boggled…

The weekend has come and gone, but the attendees, they’re still Twitterin’ about the event! Thoughts, Flickr pools, actual pools, pub crawls, creator hugs, fan hugs, it’s all there and all yours for free! Hit the Twitter search engine and type in “neww” to be taken to the official thread for all things NEWW-related.

That should give you at least twenty pages of backlogged Tweets to slog through until I can get those interviews started this afternoon.

While we wait for Jason to file his Webcomics Weekend stories, here are some other bits of news from around the blogosphere:

Phil Foglio was one of the first creators to make the free webcomics model pay off in a big way, and he goes into the nuts and bolts of it at ICv2, explaining why the webcomics format saves him money and boosts creativity and giving actual numbers for web traffic, print runs and sales.

On the other hand, Indigo Kelleigh, the creator of Ellie Connelly, is facing some of the challenges that dog webcomics creators: he revealed on his blog that he has rebooted the promising adventure-comedy comic but put it on the back burner due to family problems, the pressure to do paid work, and a surprise appendectomy. We reviewed Ellie Connelly here a few months ago and really liked it, so I’m rooting for Indigo to make a comeback at the Emerald City Comicon.

At Blog@Newsarama, Kyle Latino and Lee Cherolis interview Casey Lau and Jeff Kwan, creators of Super Kaiju Hero Force, which debuted last week on the iPhone.

Here’s an interesting forum thread to check in on: Anime Vice writer Gia asks manga readers if they would switch from scanlations to legal e-manga if the price was right. There aren’t many answers yet, but I’m hoping for a robust discussion.

IDW is releasing iPod, iPhone, and Android versions of its Star Trek prequel Star Trek: Countdown, starting this week.

Sean Wang sci-fi series Runners has just launched as a free webcomic on the Runners World website.

Allison Bergh of the Newark Webcomics Examiner reviews a fairly new webcomic, Traitor.

At least, not as far as Digital Strips is concerned. You were promised firsthand access to all the goings on in Easthampton, MA, and by-golly, you’re going to get it! Interviews, impressions, reviews, new faces to watch, old faces to stay excited about, it’s all here, in my brain, and just waiting to be poured into the Interwebs.

I’m heading out now to gather some more interviews before heading out, but rest assured that for those of you who couldn’t make it, we’ll do what we can to put you there, in the crowd, sweating and geeking out with the best of ’em! Stay tuned for more NEWW coverage here, on Digital Strips!