Help These Scurvy Dogs (as mentioned on Digital Strips Episode 251)

Do you love webcomics? Do you love board games? Do you love funding Kickstarter projects? Then you’re probably one of the 13 people who have already contributed to seeing this game through to completion.

Dern and O (only in webcomics, right?) of Hello With Cheese have decided to create a pirate board and card game called Scurvy Dogs and they’ve taken to the now ubiquitous funding brand for help. They’re even bringing along friends Jamie Noguchi (Yellow Peril) and Lar DeSouza (Least I Could Do, Looking For Group) to help illustrate the whole thing. It all sounds like a promising project and one I’m very interested in purchasing when/if it’s funded.

So stop by the KS site and give what you can!

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Digital Strips Podcast 251 – Harvey Nominees 2011

This is the ChromebookWhat up guys, I’ve been having computer problems all morning, which is a lame reason for a lame show write up but hey, what can I say, Jason is totally lame.

This week, we do our annual look at the Harvey nominations for best online comic. As much as I piss and moan about how big timey awards don’t get webcomics, I do think they’re starting to, and I’m super glad they’re at least trying. This year’s list is certainly not what I would have picked, but it’s a good one and it gives us a lot to talk about.

We start by talking about how hot it is in various places and why Jason can’t play games. We then get into how Steve may buy a Chromebook which gets Steve talking about his latest love Fumbbl and invites you all to kick his butt at playing a pretend sport with pretend types of people.

The music for both breaks this time is “You Are My Sunshine” by Reflector.

News is pretty limited this time around. We talk about Chickenhare’s (7:00) possible animation deal and Steve’s definite racism towards ogres is revealed. The only other news is a blip about Hello with Cheese (9:00), Lars deSouza, Jamie Noguchi are making a board game which gets us off topic onto bored games and somehow to another podcast of Jason’s recommendation, Totally Rad Show (9:45)

Talking about other podcasts gets us thinking about a throw down we had weeks ago so we finally get into the Day[9] vs Giant Bomb discussion and other podcasts we like, such as Filmsack.

Harvey talk starts at 19:30, I’ll just list the comics nominated since we jump back and forth between them a lot:

Guns of Shadow Valley
Gutters
Hark! a Vagrant
LaMorte Sisters
PVP

Bonus points if anyone can find the point where the friggin chickadee started chirping out side my window.

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Digital Strips Podcast 250 – Book Club – Order of the Stick – 3rd Edition (There Sure Are A Lot Of Animated Movies About Dinosaurs)

The Land Before TimeI can’t think of a snappy intro, so just imagine Jason in a Hawaiian shirt and a straw hat with a couple comically over-sized maracas singing “Zombie Jamboree.” That way, you’ll be entertained and we don’t have to worry about copyright infringement.

It’s Book Club time again and that means (for the foreseeable future) more Order of the Stick. Before we dive deeper in to the monster and punchline-filled catacombs of this comic, however, we idly chitchat about how Jason thinks he looks like Harry Potter and probably thinks he looks like everyone else in the world. Meanwhile, I’m just happy to be awake for this episode.

We then mention the milestones recently hit by Dinosaur Comics and Girls with Slingshots and I get a little pissy about how there’s no chance for me to high five all the comics creators I’d like to. We then talk about a couple interesting examples from both sides of the spectrum on the art theft that recently happened to The System (although now I found the story and it wasn’t as much of direct copy as I was led to believe, you can read up on it here) and Hijinks Ensue as well as a comment by Scott Kurtz on the whole issue.

Jason does a quicker version of his recap and we get into the comic by around the 21 minute mark. We then talk about character development, the growing relationships, and how sometimes, a silly comics about adventurers can lead to some pretty in-depth discussions about philosophy and morality. Or at least how they can for me.

The music this time was “Airbrushed RAC” and “Mess”, both by Anamanaguchi. As always, we live for feedback, please leave it below.

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Digital Strips Podcast 249 – Review: Gingerbread Girl (You Could Catch Her, But You Probably Don’t Want To)

Crazy... but that's how it goesI promised myself that I wouldn’t do another of those cheesy intros that I do here, where I say something like “This week on Digital Strips, you’ll actually learn something..” and then proceed to reveal that all you learn is something bad about Jason. And I could totally do that this time too, in the first five minutes we learn that he’s a weiner, an old man and kind of a pervert. But really, we already knew all that and it also comes up that I’m a bit of a creeper, so I’ll just leave it be.

This week we’re talking about Gingerbread Girl by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover, where we meet Annah Billips and her twin ripped from her own brain, Ginger. It’ll make more sense if you read the comic.

We start out this week with all those discoveries mentioned above, then jump into Google + and social media in general and why I just don’t get it.

We then go off the rails into the first break with a cover of “Crazy Train” by Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls.

Next it’s news, where we cover:

The next break is a version of “Send Me an Angel,” by Emily Zisman and Ryan Avery.

Finally we get into the actual comic. We talk about the spastic storytelling style, why too many narrators is bad, the difference between a story and a set up and how bad navigation can make you hate a comic. We also hit on the art, the portrayal of Portland and the interesting set up contained therein. And we write me into the comic, so I can do some much needed bodily harm to a character or two.

Please, drop us a line about what you think.

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Help Name Lucas Turnbloom’s Adorable New Character

Help Lucas Turnbloom name this adorable new characterInvolving the audience in the making of a comic has long been a method of involving them on a more personal level with the stories that they enjoy reading. Scenes From a Multiverse has been doing that since it started, asking the readers to vote on which universe gets a stay of execution and which will float away into the ether, (likely) never to return again.

Well now it’s time to throw on those thinking caps and help Lucas Turnbloom give life to his newest creation, a cute panda bear birthed of the Build-A-Bear Workshop in lieu of main character Clovis’ recent disappearance.

The prize up for grabs is a signed copy of the newest Imagine This collection, “Toys in the Attic”, which debuts at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Get to thinkin’ and get to writin’, the deadline for the contest is midnight next Wednesday. Full contest details can be found in this handy post.

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Digital Strips Podcast 248 – Horizons Watch: Free Mars and Oyster Wars (That Should Rhyme, But It Doesn’t)

Mario NOOOOO!!!It’s a holiday here in America. I really don’t think I need to say that though. We Americans are pretty outspoken about our holidays. I don’t think too many people are caught off guard by any one of them any more (except Mother’s Day, which sneak attacks thousands of men every year). This goes along with the general theme of being American of “non-sublety.” We are not a nation of ninjas, I’ll tell you what.

Anyway, it’s time for another episode of Digital Strips Horizon’s Watch. This month we bring two more quality up and comers to the Brotherhood of Web Comics for your approval. First we do Free Mars by Dave Pauwels and Nicolas R. Giacondino, a grungy, flowing and epic tale of the rock and roll and the revolution of Mars. Next we go back in time to the days of Reconstruction, wood ships and piracy with Oyster War by Ben Towle one of those neo-oldschool comics that I love so much.

We also talk about Mario and video games in general for a bit. I share a little life lesson I learned about eavesdropping on old people and Jason raves about having a Mac.

We then hear the first of our Mario themed songs, “Pipes” by Seventh Epic.

We then go to news. Jason mentions a couple new comics. Bucko and Cochlea and Eustachea (Jason couldn’t say it properly so I can’t find it, if you can translate his babbling into a link, let me know EDIT: Link now present and working. You’re welcome. – MIDNIGHT). Then we talk about Kate Beaton, Meredith Gran and Carly Monardo take on “Strong Female Characters” and about how I apparently don’t know enough dirty words.

We then hit the latest book releases from Scenes from a Multiverse and Imagine This.

The mushroom popping tunes continue with “Monstrous Turtles” by Zircon.

We finally get in to the reviews, giving both comics the what for. We also mention Spacetrawler, Ellie Connelly and Rigby the Barbarian. We talk a lot about scope and how some stories don’t have a good sense of it.

Sorry, I’m wrapping this up. It’s about time for me to celebrate the birth of my nation by eating pancakes in the park. God bless America. And pancakes.

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Strong Female Characters Is The Best Heroine-Starring Comic Of The Last Millenium

As a long-time reader of male-centered superhero comics, I found it to be a personal affront to stomach the commentary at play in the Beaton/Gran/Monardo joint, Strong Female Characters. Hardest to swallow is the fact that, regardless of the skintight leather and fishnet tights these bomb-blasting bombshells don whenever a crime is perpetrated, underneath they are all just really, really, really stereotypical cutouts written and drawn by men who have convinced themselves that they know how to convey the intricacies of the female condition in just a few panels of long legs, emaciated waistlines, and heaving, almost comical bustlines.

These three female creators, on the other hand, have decided to take these men to task by lampooning that which they have crafted. While perusing all the SFC goodness (and there is hopefully more to come), remember: under all those boy shorts and plunging neckline tops, these women hurt just like the rest of us.

And yet it cuts like a knife

Strong Female Characters, Kate Beaton – Hark A Vagrant

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Hans Rickheit Continues Freaking Us Out With Cochlea and Eustachea

The article to which this post owes its life, from the Robot 6 blog, puts the art of Hans Rickheit in the category of alt-horror. This is likely because the art of Rickheit is likely to be alternative to anything else you might see and these images could be described as horrific in their ability to invoke feelings of, “What the $%#! is that?!?”

Cochlea and Eustachea, Page Two, Panel 4Ectopiary, named Best Webcomic 0f 2010 by MTV’s Splash Page blog (and quickly, enjoyably digested by myself prior to writing this post), brings to mind the fantastical horrors that Guillermo del Toro is best known for breathing life into. Like del Toro, Rickheit also juxtaposes these fictional bits with problems grounded in real life, often in a grotesque, almost morose manner (not long after the comic begins, child protagonist Dale witnesses a procedure being performed on her mother that is cringe-inducing to say the least). I’ve always found it to be incredibly engaging to not only get invested in the humanity of a story, but to also entertain the notion that better, more incredible things are happening in the world which will take the edge off the pain and suffering induced by the real world.

Here’s to hoping that Rickheit is bringing that same engaging sense of wonderment and terror to the newly launched Cochlea and Eustachea. The comic is only two updates deep, but already we have witnessed a bird-like creature crawling out of an anteater-like figure (depicted, left). So, yeah… I’d say we’ve got a good start towards that goal.

Start Reading Now | New webcomic from Hans Rickheit – Robot 6 blog

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