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!

More and more of the alerts I’ve been getting seem to be more about webcomics getting more coverage on Google than ever before. Out of the past 12 I’ve looked at 5 of the alerts were for comics I had never heard of and 5 were for xkcd. Yeah, I’m starting to get a little sick of it as well. Reminds me of the advertising blitz they did for Avatar. If only that movie had turned out less than fabulous I could continue with my righteous anger.

Kate Beaton came out with a new book a few weeks back. This is the third time I’ve seen some sort of link to “Hark, a vagrant” in as many months, so it has just ended up on my list to review and possibly visit in one of our adventures.

There’s an update on Stephanie McMillan’s children’s book. She looks to be nearly finished and has put together a short video preview of the beginning, with narration by Derrick. The book has received more than $1400 of the $6000 goal so far, through partnership with Kickstarter as a fundraising tool. For thos who would like to contribute go here.

Looks like the guys behind Bat & Wolf are having trouble finding additional help as well. For the past year it has been almost impossible to find other artists or writers interested in teaming up. It’s almost as if the medium is having a backlash from all the brotherly love of last year with the great collective rush. Anyone else having trouble finding good team players?

I was going to skip by this but apparently Jonathan Moo has been doing so much leg work that I have to applaud him. What caught my attention was this post about how to advertise your webcomic for free. The seven things he covers are forums, directories, showcasing, bookmarking, link exchange, mirrors, and articles. The advice might be common knowledge but he puts some common sense behind it that’s worth reading.

Well amongst all the hubbub of last night, we recorded a show. DJ Coffman sat in and vented and it was a good time.

Until I tried to put the show together and everything went to pot. I haven’t been able to get the audio files to mix together. If anyone really wants to know what was said, I can probably throw together a really rough cut, but its almost more entertaining to imagine what Mr. Coffman would have to say about it. You can also read this article by Eric Burns-White. He has a lot to say about paywalls, two months before the Webcomics.com switch.

What I really wanted to mention here though is yesterday also marked the end of an institution. Teaching Baby Paranoia began ten years ago today and after a decade of entertaining and educational comics, creator Bryant Paul Johnson has decided to move on.

I’ll be honest. TBP has never been a constant feature in my readings. And yet, every year or so I’d rediscover it, read a couple strips and just be blown away. It remains in my mind a truly unique creation. Nothing was like it when it started and the pattern holds true today.

I love the art and the clever footnotes. I loved how I learned while I read it. I loved the name. I have no idea why I never loved it on a daily basis. Fortunatly, there is plenty to read on the comic’s page over at Modern Tales.

In a way, it’s kind of nice. There’s something almost scholarly about a comic coming to a planned end. There are a lot of great strips that have made a full run. Rice Boy, 95 Gallons and the recently concluded Dar (which I also need to read) spring to mind.

Join me will you. We could have like a Book on the Month Club sort of thing where we all read together and talk about it. Let me know if you’re interested. That’s the comments are for.

EDIT – Eric has Websnarked an article all about the Webcomics.com switch. Check it out.