Over at Webcomics.com, T Campbell posts the top webcomics for March, based on Compete and Alexa rankings. As usual, caveats and analysis follow. Also posted on WC.C lately: Elanor Cooper interviews Sarah Ellerton, creator of Inverloch and The Phoenix Requiem, and Alexander Danner plays “where are they now” with four webcomickers who have moved on to other projects.

I wish I had been able to get to this: Gary Tyrrell reports on the graphic novel symposium Splat!, and Karen at Pen in Hand posts her illustrated notes.

Rick Marshall of ComicMix talks to Wes Molebash about his Zuda experiences so far.

At The Webcomic Overlook, El Santo has a very thorough and entertaining review of the print version of Laugh-Out-Loud Cats, which we discussed briefly in our most recent podcast.

Eric Burns’ lengthy post on why he is bored by Kevin and Kell caused me to take a look at it out of curiosity, and I ended up really enjoying it. Go figure.

Vintage comic link of the day: Golden Age Comic Book Stories presents Fired! by Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta, from Crime Suspenstories #17, June-July 1953.

Are the Wikipedia webcomics wars over? T Campbell takes a lot of time to figure out that he really doesn’t know, but his analysis is still pretty interesting. There’s more at the Webcomics.com forum. Meanwhile Nicholson Baker has written a more general article on fighting “extremist deletion” on Wikipedia that includes a discussion of the webcomics controversy.

Gary Tyrrell muses on webcomics startup financing, which begs the question of what would constitute an investment-grade webcomic.

Here’s another link-worthy post on the business of webcomics: Von Allan takes a hard look at site stats and dollars. it’s interesting reading as a case study of a new cartoonist; he compares his popularity to that of Warren Ellis, looks at how his readership changes with time, and analyzes how he is using Project Wonderful to bring in readers.

The latest issue of Dark Horse Presents is up at MySpace.com; DH does a good job of not being too MySpace-y, with a relatively simple landing page and easily navigable archives. Plus the comics are pretty good.

The second chapter of the Cloverfield web manga is up, and Tagruato posts a translated version.

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The Webcartoonists Choice Awards were announced last night, in a live and online ceremony. The envelope please…

Outstanding Comic: Girl Genius, by Phil and Kaja Foglio
Outstanding Newcomer: Octopus Pie, by Meredith Gran
Outstanding Artist: Tracy J Butler of Lackadaisy
Outstanding Writer: Kaja and Phil Foglio of Girl Genius
Outstanding Character Writing: Templar, Arizona by Spike
Outstanding Long Form Comic: The Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew
Outstanding Short Form Comic: Perry Bible Fellowship by Nicholas Gurewitch
Outstanding Single Panel Comic: XKCD by Randall Munroe
Outstanding Comedic Comic: Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik
Outstanding Dramatic Comic: Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddel
Outstanding Layout: Copper by Kazu Kibuishi
Outstanding Use of Color: Dresden Codak by Aaron Diaz
Outstanding Black and White Art: Lackadaisy by Tracy J Butler
Outstanding Photographic Comic: A Softer World by Emily Horne and Joey Comeau
Outstanding Character Rendering: Lackadaisy by Tracy J Butler
Outstanding Environment Design: Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio
Outstanding Website Design: Lackadaisy by Tracy J Butler
Outstanding Use of the Medium: Dresden Codak by Aaron Diaz

Congratulations to all the winners!

ComiXology has a two part interview with Dorothy Gambrell, creator of Cat and Girl, in which she talks about making a living and reminisces about the olden days:

In 1999 I wasn’t even aware that programs like Dreamweaver existed. When Cat and Girl began everything on the website had to be sloppily hand-coded through telnet. Everything was harder then and we lived for three weeks on hard tack

And we liked it!

Wendy and Richard Pini are the latest old skool comics creators to jump on the digital bus: They will be putting all of the Elfquest backlist online starting next Friday. (Via Journalista, who got it from Fleen.)

I haven’t had time to look at this yet—expect some commentary when I do—but 741.5 Comics blogs about Steve Ditko’s Avenging World, which is available for download here.

At Webcomics.com, T Campbell lists webcomic articles he’d like to see. There’s plenty of blog fodder there—go take a look.

David Welsh reviews the print version of Louis Trondheim’s Little Nothings, which looks on track to be one of the outstanding comics of the year. If you read French, the original is here, and for Anglophones, publisher NBM has a good-sized sample on its site.

Jonathan Callan wraps up his interview with Kristopher Straub at Comic Book Resources.

Not really webcomics, but related to the general concept of giving stuff away for free in order to increase sales: Neil Gaiman responds to a bookseller who complained that he put an audiobook up for free download. (Via Comics212.)

If you’re planning to go to New York Comic-Con (I am!), check out their magazine, which you can download for free.

Ginger Mayerson interviews William Lidwell, the founder of WOWIO, for the Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society, and he talks real dollars and cents:

In terms of compensation, I believe we are leading the digital world. In the fourth quarter of 2007 alone, we paid out more than $500,000 in royalties. We regularly hear from our content partners that they make more through WOWIO than through any of their other digital channels of distribution—in some cases, more than all of their digital channels combined. The 2008 royalty rates are fifty-cents per download for books, and 25-cents per download for comics. These rates will be adjusted downward as the number of users grows, but the net effect will continue to be a significant opportunity for creators and publishers to receive incredible exposure and compensation for their work.

People unclear on the concept: If you haven’t heard of manga publisher Infinity Studios, don’t feel bad; it’s been a while since they last published anything, and their books were hard to find to begin with. Continue reading →

Attention, webcomickers: Irish blogger Purity Brown looks at the standard webcomics interface and finds it good; and she asks that if you deviate from it, please have a good reason for doing so. And she comes up with some user-unfriendly examples of dead tree media, too. Let me add my own: the MySpace comics page, which is sort of like Scans_Daily only not divided into, you know, individual posts.

Brian McTavish pens a nice story on Zuda for the Kansas City Star. It starts out a bit breathless at the notion of comics that aren’t about superheroes (get the smelling salts, Martha!) and people having dialogues in the comments, but it gets better once he starts talking to the creators. Meanwhile, DC’s Ron Perazza has asked folks how they think the site can be improved, and the discussion is hot and heavy. (Hat tip: High Moon writer David Gallaher.)

Mitch Clem is going to kill some trees! Yes, his indy music comic Nothing Nice To Say has been picked up by none other than Dark Horse for print publication. Also, Mitch has a new comic, My Stupid Life, that is quite funny and worth a click on its own merits.

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T Campbell has posted his latest webcomics survey at Webcomics.com, basing his rankings on Alexa and Compete, and he goes on to discuss the results in detail. The top ranking “comic” in the Alexa survey is I Can Has Cheezburger?, which some people may find disturbing but T thinks is a legitimate inclusion. PostSecret is in there too. But check the rest of the list; you might be missing something good.

Also worth watching at Webcomics.com are their featured webcomics; I checked out The Process yesterday and was mightily impressed. It’s beautiful, mind-boggling, and intelligently designed. The art is beautiful, closer to watercolors than cartooning, and everything ties together in such a neat way that you can’t help but admire the full package. There are just two chapters up so far, so it’s a propitious time to jump in and start reading.

At Fleen, Anne Thalheimer is very taken with Sin Titulo, which I think is perhaps the best of the excellent Transmission-X webcomics. It’s a mystery/suspense story with a simple look and feel that drew me in right away.

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