I just got done editing the show that will go up tomorrow, a review of “Boxcar Astronaut.” At the start of the show I made a comment about how it’s very rare that we – as Web comic reviewers – get to look at a completed comic as a whole instead of as a work in progress. That tends to be the nature of the beast with comics in general but especially when dealing with the Web variety that we love so much.

Generally, but not always.

Realm of Atland posted the final strip of Season One yesterday. No small feat considering this comic has updated almost every week for the past four years and change. This means that as of right now, the whole of the comic is one story arc: one long, epic, self-referential, beautiful story arc. I love it when this happens. When someone can start something so big, so long ago and see it through taking us along for the ride. It’s a beautiful thing.

This milestone has given me a chance to think about why completed stories as so special. They mean for once, we’re seeing the story as the creator sees it, fully realized. Plus, there’s the facts that we get some closure, loose ends get tied up and the whole story is laid before the reader.

Daku and Zampson reviewed this strip way back on Episode 70. I’m going to take some time this weekend to listen to what the old guys had to say then and reread the whole archive see how the strip compares now.

As I’ve started typing up show notes for each episode I’ve noticed that we mention RiceBoy a lot. Something I did not foresee when I first discovered “This poorly drawn comic that won’t get to the point.” But the whole was more that the sum of it’s parts, the comic was greater than the some of it’s pages. And as I read, Riceboy went from Internet oddity to Internet classic.

Realm of Atland is a lot the same. Each page is great. It’s amazingly drawn, well laid out and expertly written. But it’s when you take these pages, all 268 of them and put them in chronological order that you get an experience that will make you laugh often, tear up occasionally and more often then you’d like admit, get a little bit of a boner.

The great thing is, while this epic story-telling endeavor has come to a close, more is yet to come. On March 11th after a short hiatus the Realm of Atland will return with Season Two which means I should have something to read for the next four years.

As much as I’m looking forward to the new chapter, I’d be OK if it never came. Piekos has left Barry and crew at a very satisfying juncture, and if they have to live there in my mind for the rest of my life, it would be fine by me. Much better than if they were forever mid fight-scene after the comic faded.

That being said, there had better be an Season Two as planned and it better be awesome.

So if you’ve never heard of Realm of Atland, go check it out. If you have heard of it, but never got around to reading it, this intermission is a great time to go and catch up. If you’ve been to the site but wrote it off as “generic fantasy crap” or “gratuitous big-boobed trite” go check it out again. It’s so rare that someone in Web comics actually reaches their goal like this and we should celebrate it when it happens.

Especially when it happens with so much style.

Sure, I had no idea what a Xeric Grant did when I scoped this post over at Brigid’s Paperless Comics blog (the best Digital Strips alternative you’re not reading), so I checked out their About Us section. Looks like this foundation grants assistance to dedicated self-publishing comickers and if that title applies to any comic, Shi Long Pang is it.

When we took a quick look at this comic by Ben Costa, the DS staff was unanimously blown away by both the material and the lush, expressive artwork. Hopefully, this grant means more people will see Ben’s work as it truly a wonder to behold.

Our sincerest congratulations to Ben for his win, this is certainly a great thing to happen to a great comic.

Congratulations Are In Order (Paperless Comics, Brigid Alverson)

For the first time since the whole, grand experiment began, the ten contestant pool of Zuda competitors has been slimmed down to nine. For reasons that are still unknown, the number one strip as of this morning, The Thunderchickens, has removed itself from consideration. The official word from Zuda blogger and Vice President of Creative Services for DC Comics, Ron Perazza, explained the disappearance while leaving the details shrouded in secrecy:

Last night The Thunderchickens resigned the competition. I won’t go into the specifics behind the resignation other than to say that its a decision that Chad, 3iLL and the staff here mutually agreed was the best course of action given recent events.

The comment thread that follows this post is full of speculation and curiosity, but it seems no one is spilling the beans as to why The Thunderchickens suddenly dropped out of the competition. One thing is for sure, though: Zuda has lost a spectacular comic, as The Thunderchickens stood to win the whole thing when the contest closes out next Friday. The rankings have been shaken up even more since the departure of the former #1 contestant, so go check it out and let your voice be heard!

It’s become fairly commonplace for big news outlets to talk about webcomics like they know what’s up. It’s become even more usual for these same outlets to miss the point completely, talking up Comics.com strips instead of those that were birthed and cared for on the web.

Not so for The Washington Post. Their comics blog, Comic Riffs, put together by Michael Cavna, recently put out the call for the best webcomics of the last decade and receieved a bevy of great comics to load into a poll for the readers to vote on. Though it’s impossible to hit every note for every fan, they do an admirable job filling things in, with everything from Girls With Slingshots to xkcd, not leaving out Hark! A Vagrant or Wondermark! (a runner-up, but hey, a mention is a mention), and including Sinfest and Schlock Mercenary.

It reads like a who’s who or the big names in the industry, so peruse the list if you need to fill out your RSS feed and don’t forget to vote! The winner gets the handsome prize of having something nice to print on the back of their next book.

Ok, to be a hit, it probably would have to win the monthly contest, but come on! This sweet, charming, funny comic should have won that month, no question. Regardless, Estrada has decided to do what he usually does and just turn it into something amazing on his own.

Already in the works, The Kind You Don’t Take Home to Mother: The Motion Picture will be a 90-minute full-length animated tale spun out of the 8-page Zuda entry (found here or here, if you prefer the Flashed up, Zuda site version). The look will be both familiar and different, as the Estrada-produced cartoons will be laid over real-life backgrounds, shot in downtown Royal Oaks, Michigan.

All three of our ZudaWatchers (one former) agreed unanimously that this concept needed to continue in some form, so kudos to Estrada and the team he’s assembling to make this thing happen!