Finding webcomic news during Thanksgiving is probably the hardest time of the year. It’s not hard to figure out why when I see how much effort I put compacted into a couple of days instead of the months used for the end of the year. Mainly it’s exciting that The Geek is back with a new person in the world. Have to publicly give him Congratulations since I have such a public forum.

There are so many of these out there but this one is slightly different because it doesn’t try to be anything more than personal opinion. El Santo went through and picked at least 4 I heavily enjoy, another 3 I’d not heard of before and one I never understood why people love it so much. Have to say I disagree on a couple but then El Santo picked 2 that are no longer updating, but definitely deserve to be on everyone’s must have read list.

Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan bring you a sweet story for children, old Mrs. Johnson lives happily alone in the forest. She loves to knit sweaters and mittens for her grandchildren in the city. One day her solitude comes to an end when her mischievous forest neighbors reveal themselves in a delightfully colorful fashion. Who took her yarn, and what have they done with it? “Mischief in the Forest” will be 40 full-color pages. The story is written by Derrick Jensen and illustrated by Stephanie McMillan. The money raised here would be used for printing the book, and if they raise an amount higher than our goal, they’ll use it either for a higher print run and/or promotional costs.

The 2nd Annual Calamities of Nature guest strip contest has begun. Can you feel the excitement in the air? After last year’s contest, Tony decided to do it again and picking the 3 best strips submitted by December 11th. The 3 winners will have their comics featured as the December 14th, 16th, and 18th updates. These comics will get a place in the archive, along with a link to the winner’s website (for examples, see last year’s three winning comics). In addition, each winner will receive the choice of a signed copy of the volume 1 collection or a shirt. If you don’t win, you’ll still be compensated for your hard work. All other submissions (of reasonable quality) will be featured individually in the blog on Tuesdays and Thursdays and have their comics saved in the gallery.

Given how readily giving webcomics readers have proven to be already, I’d say we need plenty more strips just like this one. Daniel Lafrance has started a new webcomic with the specific purpose of raising money for the Starthrower Foundation, a charity geared towards providing the means for young Haitian adults to finish their educations and move out into the workforce and out of the poverty so many are stricken with.

The strip, titled Starthrower in Haiti,  has already been praised by Brad Guigar, so you know that Daniel is doing at least something right in this endeavor, and a quick glance shows that the art and story are at least competent enough to warrant passing along some money to this great cause. Read a bit more about the comic straight from Daniel himself and make sure to give at least a little in this season of glad tidings:

Starthrower in Haiti, a Fundraising Webcomic

We are thrilled to announce the launch of a webcomic completely dedicated to raising funds to a charitable cause!

Starthrower in Haiti (www.starthrowerinhaiti.com ) introduces us to the work of the Starthrower Foundation, a Canadian-registered charity in Haiti.  All funds raised by the webcomic go directly to sponsor young Haitian adults who wish to complete their education and/or apprenticeship enabling them to move into the workforce, and out of poverty.

Starthrower in Haiti is created by Daniel Lafrance (www.danlafrance.com ), a professional storyboard artist working in animation for over 24 years.

[…] Starthrower in Haiti is updated twice weekly.

I would be a total failure of a web comics blogger if I didn’t whip the sleepy new dad gunk out of my eyes and post about this. Penny Arcade, the masters of all things digital are make the transition to reality TV.

Now I’ll be honest. I hate reality TV. As a guy who gave up his dream of being a screen writer, I hate to see TV made without a some one typing madly on keys while worrying about subtext. Plus 95% of reality TV is whining and crying and blurred out boobies, all things that piss me off. So this show already starts out in the whole for me. But on the other hand I love any and all things Penny Arcade. Their podcast, their charity, their other podcast and they even have a comic out there too.

So the up and down cancel out and I’m going to have to judge the show on it’s own merits. I got about 1/2 through the pilot and was so over come with jealousy towards these two men that I had to stop and go back to word editing this month’s Zuda Watch. You guys all do the same and we’ll chat about it in the comments together.

If there was ever a diamond in the rough in the world of webcomics, then Much the Miller’s Son would have to be that shiny gem. The recently reviewed comic doesn’t rank with the best in terms of web design, but the comic itself is top-notch and, at the end of the day, that’s what really matters.

Since we’re now BFFs, Steve has let us know about a promotion he has started which will benefit all involved. Take a listen:

From now on, if you donate $10 or more to Free The Children I’ll send you a free copy of my book! Just fire me an e-mail at stevelec (at) hotmail.com or a Facebook message with your mailing address and I’ll mail you a copy. Also, if you aren’t comfortable with using your credit card to donate, you can twitter or blog about what I’m doing or about the organization or set up your own fundraising page and I’ll consider it a fair trade.

I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do for the kids!

If there’s one thing the webcomics community has proven it can do better than anyone, it’s get behind a cause and see it through to a positive end. Help Steve do the same with this very worthy, Colbert-approved organization!

Back in the Spring of ’08, Brigid, Steve, and I sat down to review Josh Way’s Chronicle, a newspaper-style strip about a young man named Charles and his riches-to-rags-to-more-than-rags tale about trying to bring a struggling newspaper back from the dead and survive the local riff-raff in the process.

While we certainly didn’t see eye-to-eye on the strip itself, we all agreed that Way showed a lot of promise in the webcomics arena and would someday be a force to reckon with. The short name of the comic kept it fresh in mind, fresh enough to pick the title out of my Google News Alerts when it scrolled by yesterday.

Turns out our own former Digital Stripper, Brigid Alverson, tracked Way down for an interview about the ending of Chronicle and the subsequent beginning of his new comic, Strewth!, which starts November 30th. Check out the interview for an in-depthness only Brigid can deliver and make sure to check out Strewth! when it launches later this month!

Did you attend the first annual Webcomics Weekend is beautiful, sunny Easthampton, MA? Did you know someone who did? Did you live on the West Coast and lament that you just couldn’t give up the gas mileage to make the trip? Well then NEWW organizer and webcomics superstar Meredith Gran has some GREAT news for you!

By the way, do you live in Portland, OR or a city nearby? My studiomates Aaron, Luke and I are having an open house on Saturday, December 5th, and it’s open to all! Merch will be for sale, schmoozing will be had, and you can see where and how I get my cartooning done. We’ll also be joined by some awesome guests.

RSVP on Facebook if you wanna go! It’s going to be lots of fun, so I hope to see some of you there.

And this here amazing event poster gives you all the juicy deets, as well as some tasty pixel art for each creator. If you live in Oregon, have heard of Oregon, or just want to finally see the United States, make it a priority to be there!

Imagine that intro in my best Tom Bergeron impression and it will have more impact. And I feel sad for the one person in our audience that got that reference.

There’s a new strip to check out, and it’s by the enigmatic, ever-present, all ’round nice guy, Wes Molebash. It seems wherever we go, Wes is there to provide a real-life moment with warmth and humor like no one else. There was the webcomic, You’ll Have That, a large body of work that is highly recommended if you’re in need of some uplifting stories, and Wes even dipped his fingers into the Zuda waters with The Litterbox Chronicles.

Now, Wes has returned to writing human characters with Max vs. Max. This comic looks to cover the same territory as YHT, with perhaps a stronger emphasis on faith and its role in today’s hectic, selfish world. Here’s the word straight from Wes himself:

It would seem that Maxwell Stanton’s worst enemy is, well . . . Maxwell Stanton.  Recently divorced and struggling to find direction in his life, Max does his best to stay optimistic while wrestling with his insecurities and feelings of guilt.  Fortunately for Max, he has an awesome group of friends and a loving family to help him out and kick him in the pants.

Max vs. Max is about the underdog in all of us – that determined feeling we get that urges us to conquer the world even when the chips are down and the light at the end of the tunnel is still several miles away.  Max is proof that seemingly insignificant people can do very significant things.

If anyone can write down-to-earth, human tales of perseverance, it’s Wes. When you just need a good smile (and really, who doesn’t?), make sure to check out Max vs. Max.