Sure, I’ve got scads upon loads of thoughts and impressions about this past weekend of webcomicky goodness, but I can’t be the only person out there who wants to reflect, can I?

Over at Robot 6 (via CBR), Bobby Timony, co-creator, co-writer, and artist of the Zuda winning comic, The Night Owls, has posted his thoughts about this historic weekend and you would do well to see what another creator thought of the festivities.

Webcomics journalism is growing, both in terms of those who only report on that facet of the art form (ourselves, Fleen, ComixTalk) and for other outlets who cover all comics and give webcomics equal time (and rightfully so). Rick Marshall, formerly of the Wizard online world, falls into the latter category.

I met Rick at the unofficial NEWW House Party (yes, there was a party full of nearly every big webcomics creator you could imagine and I was there) and we talked a bit about what it is he hopes to accomplish with the new branch of the MTV media blog, SplashPage, of which he is the editor. Regardless of your feelings towards the biggest music network not actually playing any music, the online arm (finger?) of the company is full of useful knowledge in each of several pertinent categories like video games and comic books.

Continue reading →

As Meredith Gran, creator of Octopus Pie and organizer extraordinaire of Webcomics Weekend is finding out, when you have guests stay with you for a long period of time, they will eventually start going through your stuff.

Guest strip by KC Green and David Malki!

Case in point: KC Green and David Malki! (of Horribleville and Wondermark, respectively) took it upon themselves sometime past the midnight hour to show their appreciation for everything Gran did to make this weekend a huge success (and believe me, it was a lot). And so, this guest strip was born.

I’m sure she’s flattered. I’m just curious what the webcomics world might come to should this collaboration continue. The mind is boggled…

The weekend has come and gone, but the attendees, they’re still Twitterin’ about the event! Thoughts, Flickr pools, actual pools, pub crawls, creator hugs, fan hugs, it’s all there and all yours for free! Hit the Twitter search engine and type in “neww” to be taken to the official thread for all things NEWW-related.

That should give you at least twenty pages of backlogged Tweets to slog through until I can get those interviews started this afternoon.

While we wait for Jason to file his Webcomics Weekend stories, here are some other bits of news from around the blogosphere:

Phil Foglio was one of the first creators to make the free webcomics model pay off in a big way, and he goes into the nuts and bolts of it at ICv2, explaining why the webcomics format saves him money and boosts creativity and giving actual numbers for web traffic, print runs and sales.

On the other hand, Indigo Kelleigh, the creator of Ellie Connelly, is facing some of the challenges that dog webcomics creators: he revealed on his blog that he has rebooted the promising adventure-comedy comic but put it on the back burner due to family problems, the pressure to do paid work, and a surprise appendectomy. We reviewed Ellie Connelly here a few months ago and really liked it, so I’m rooting for Indigo to make a comeback at the Emerald City Comicon.

At Blog@Newsarama, Kyle Latino and Lee Cherolis interview Casey Lau and Jeff Kwan, creators of Super Kaiju Hero Force, which debuted last week on the iPhone.

Here’s an interesting forum thread to check in on: Anime Vice writer Gia asks manga readers if they would switch from scanlations to legal e-manga if the price was right. There aren’t many answers yet, but I’m hoping for a robust discussion.

IDW is releasing iPod, iPhone, and Android versions of its Star Trek prequel Star Trek: Countdown, starting this week.

Sean Wang sci-fi series Runners has just launched as a free webcomic on the Runners World website.

Allison Bergh of the Newark Webcomics Examiner reviews a fairly new webcomic, Traitor.

At least, not as far as Digital Strips is concerned. You were promised firsthand access to all the goings on in Easthampton, MA, and by-golly, you’re going to get it! Interviews, impressions, reviews, new faces to watch, old faces to stay excited about, it’s all here, in my brain, and just waiting to be poured into the Interwebs.

I’m heading out now to gather some more interviews before heading out, but rest assured that for those of you who couldn’t make it, we’ll do what we can to put you there, in the crowd, sweating and geeking out with the best of ’em! Stay tuned for more NEWW coverage here, on Digital Strips!

Jeffery Rowland, creator of Overcompensating and proud occupant of the Eastworks building where NEWW is being held, has offered up a little teaser for the event in his comic.

As if I weren’t already excited enough, now there’s a murder mystery involved? The plot is afoot…

Here’s an opportunity for creators: The Tangled Bank is looking for speculative works, including comics, for an online anthology celebrating Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday. Read the guidelines for all the details, including payment. (Via Comics Worth Reading.)

Tim O’Shea talks to Warren and Gary Pleece about their new comic, Montague Terrace, which debuted last week on Act-I-Vate.

Spider-Girl returns to the Marvel Universe—the Marvel Digital Comics Universe, that is. Interesting use of the platform to promote a niche product—they have a couple of the older stories up for free, and a brand-new one coming that is online only.

For some reason, Toronto seems to produce an extraordinary number of good webcomics artists, so this webcomics panel, scheduled for April 7, should be really interesting.

Speaking of Toronto artists, Michael May reviews Karl Kerschl’s webcomic The Abominable Charles Christopher at Robot6.

New webcomic alert: Porterhouse, a gag strip about an aspiring comics creator by Tom Torre and Dr. McNinja inker Kent Archer. (Hat tip: ComixTalk.)

OK, we’re a bit late with this news, but Blue Sky reached its 500th installment in February. Congratulations to creator Jacob Bond.

ICv2 has a bit more on that Sony digital comics system for the PSP.

As informed by Brock Heasley’s Twitter feed (yes, we’re all over this brand-new, state-of-the-art tech), his strip, Superfogeys, about a team of super(retired)heroes has just hit 200 updates! 

And I mean just hit 200, Brock was even kind enough to Tweet about it at least 50 times in the course of this monumentous day. Just looking at this strip makes me want to read through the archives the moment I get a chance; the cartoony exterior is among the cleanest I’ve seen this side of The Venture Bros. and I can’t imagine the writing is anything but top-notch to match.

Look for a review (either in podcast or blog form) soon from yours truly and follow Brock (brockheasley) to congratulate him on the milestone!

Oh, right, the hash tag won’t work in a WordPress title. Gotten so used to doing it for my Tweets I must’ve slipped into autopilot.

Meredith Gran was interviewed by the Boston Phoenix about the Webcomics Weekend and those attending might be interested in checking out the brief, but insightful article. Sure, it’s full of things that most of you, as avid webcomics followers (not to mention loyal Digital Strippers) already know, but it’s always good to get that info out to the masses, right?

I especially like the “instigator” title interviewer Dan Mazur plants on Gran. It is true, all us webcomic types are always up to something.