Plenty of news to get this week started off right, including a big name comics publisher with more webcomics collections in the works and yet another plagiarism scandal, with the work being displayed on T-shirts this time around. Let’s get right to it, shall we?

– The biggest story in webcomics right now is, unfortunately, a negative one. Jess Fink, creator of the deliciously filthy Chester 5000 XYV and Dirty Limericks over at AdultWebcomics.com (links absolutely NSFW), has had a T-shirt design of hers (pictured below) stolen and sold to the folks at Hot Topic for sale in their shops. The crew over on Fleen, friendly rival and also-ran of Digital Strips, appear to have a LOT of free time and have written about the situation here, here, and here.

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As part of the Xbox Live XNA Game Studio announcement at the recent Game Developers Conference, a game based on the popular webcomic, Little Gamers, has been released as one of seven demos for possible future video games.

I’ve taken all seven games for a spin and though they offer a wide breadth of gameplay types, Little Gamers the demo is up against another game in its side-scrolling beat-em’-up genre, The Dishwasher. Both feature stylized graphics, though the gameplay of The Dishwasher stands out a bit more by offering more depth than the move left or right and hit attack straightforwardness of Little Gamers. Dan “Shoe” Hsu, current Editor-In-Chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly, sounds off on his blog by saying:

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Any time a famous creator from any medium, be it comic books, movies, or television, decides to grace the growing suburb of Webcomicville with their presence, it’s up to us, the media (stop laughing) to cover it. We are the ones who must ask the questions like, “Why use webcomics over the tried-and-true medium they usually work under?” and… ok, that’s pretty much the only question we need to ask.

But it’s a valid one and with the recent launch of Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield’s FreakAngels, a post-apocalyptic take of a partially-submerged London and the telepathic teenagers who may have submerged it, that question is also timely.

Luckily, this project is so huge and so anticipated, that bigger news outlets have conducted interviews with both Ellis and Duffield, interviews in which they asked this exact question. Chris Arrant of comics news site, Newsarama, found that Ellis’ answer in particular shows that he seems to understand the medium in which he is invading:

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As webcomics creators, many of us are happy to simply have an outlet for our creative energies. However, once you make it big, nothing gives you that high more than earning respect from your peers, especially the ones who have done it longer and bigger than you (or so I’m told). Recently, Scott Kurtz (un)officially joined that club of awesome creators.

The news was tucked away in a PvP blog post titled after the terrifying final words of Brad Pitt’s character in Se7en (What’s in the box?). After viewing a very satisfying strip in which Brent’s dad, being the heroic and steel-jawed man that he is, decides to single-handedly solve the “panda problem”, I got curious.  And being the curious fella I am, I scrolled down to find the aforementioned post, accompanied by a puzzling Garfield logo emblazoned on what looked to be a manila folder. I clicked through to investigate.

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Rather than make jabs about men raining down and unicorns galloping through the land, I’ll just let the headline speak for itself and get right to the gay-friendly, week-in-review goodness. Enjoy!

-Dean Trippe, the well-known creator of Butterfly, a webcomic about the life of a sidekick of a sidekick, has joined forces with assistant editor over at Dark Horse Comics, Rachel Edidin, to form Sequential Heart, an organization geared towards providing youth-friendly comics to programs and shelters serving homeless youth.

According to an article at PrismComics.com, over 20% of today’s homeless are members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transexual (LGBT) community, a startling statistic that has driven several people to take action. Trippe has championed other causes in the comics community and this just adds to the growing list for the socially-conscious creator.

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You’d be amazed by the kind of news you stumble on with a handy Google Alert in place. Here are just some of those stories, mixed liberally with my own Interest Piquers, and seasoned to taste.

-Scott DeWitt has announced with his January 28 update that F@NB0Y$, his gaming-centric webcomic, will be taking February off, returning in March. Here’s hoping it brings with it a more typographically-favorable title.

-By way of USA Today, it appears the New York Times bestseller, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, started out as a webcomic. Available for perusal at Funbrain.com, it’s even more proof for the argument that webcomics can gain you recognition, provided you’re good at it. Check out Wimpy Kid creator, Jeff Kinney’s, work at wimpykid.com.

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As the first webcomic talk I’ve felt compelled to write about in nearly two months, I felt it prudent to bring this up for discussion.

Via R. Stevens, via the PvP blog, Scott Kurtz found this little nugget dropped by Diesel Sweeties creator and well-rounded merchandiser, R. Stevens, on twitter.

As someone who writes, draws, makes a website, answers customers and helps pack merch … I don’t have much sympathy for striking writers. Want real royalties and freedom? LEAVE the studio system!

As a conversation starter that hopefully will not degenerate into the usual “You’re the bitch!/No, your mom is the bitch!” type webcomics arguments, I’m interested to see where those of you who fill the same shoes as Stevens (or more) fall on this debate. Do you side with the majority of the country in saying the writers deserve what they’re asking for, or is Stevens right in calling the writers out for wanting something they’re not entirely entitled to?

Discuss.

If you’re as curious about this whole DC Comics Zuda line as I am, then you’ve been getting the e-mail blasts from time to time.  Mostly consisting of “Hey, we’re working on it and it’s getting closer to completion” missives, these have largely gone straight to my Trash box.  However, the latest message relays that Zuda is finally ready to go.

Starting next Tuesday, October the 30th, the first Zuda comic will be presented for your constructive and/or destructive tendencies to vote on as you see fit.  After much speculation and derision, the Zuda machine will finally be put to the test and whether you see it as a boon or a bane to webcomics, you owe it to yourself and the community at large to check it out next Tuesday.

When it comes to the Interwebs, being part of a project does not necessarily exempt one from talking about that very same project. Extensively. For weeks. It’s called pimping, and I’m about to do it myself.

Tastefully Done, that deliciously wonderful calendar of nearly nude webcomics characters and creators, is completed and ready to be purchased at your local Lulu retailer. Brainchilded by the influential Michael Rouse-Deane of Webcomics-In-Print infame, the hit calendar is in it’s second year and not showing any signs of a dress code (outside the one big rule, no big censored bars).

After the jump, you can find out that the colorfully-blinding nudity is provided by:

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