Discovery of the day: High Maintenance Machine, by Matthew Reidsma. I stopped into Hub Comics, the new comics shop in Somerville, MA, on Friday, and they had his adorable mini-comic on the rack. I snapped up the last one and went to the website for more. It’s a deceptively simple diary comic about married life. Well worth a look.

Thinking about the Eisners? Given the number of really strong webcomics out there, I thought last year’s selection was pretty weak. So by entering your work not only do you have a shot at winning, you may actually improve the gene pool. Here’s the procedure:

Entries are also being accepted for the category of best webcomic. This category is open to any new, professionally produced long-form original comics work posted online in 2007. Webcomics must have a unique domain name or be part of a larger comics community to be considered. The work must be online-exclusive for a significant period prior to being collected in print form. The URL and any necessary access information should be emailed to jackiee@mindspring.com.

Over at Fleen, Gary Tyrrell is trying to subvert the process for his own selfish ends. Just ignore him!

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Odd comic of the day: Exploding Head Man, which is worth a look for the interface as well as for the comic itself. (Found via The Comics Reporter.)

With Fishtown getting ready to go into print soon, The Daily Crosshatch talks to Kevin Colden about where the story came from and why he turned down a Xeric grant in order to keep the comic online. (Found via The Beat.)

A Maine newspaper talks to new neighbors Joey Manley and Josh Roberts about their plans for a new, comprehensive webcomics space. Related: ComicSpace is looking for a senior web designer.

The march of print comics to web distribution continues; the latest defection is Brian Wood, who put his Public Domain: A Channel Zero Designbook up for free download. He has quite an assortment of other comics and samples up at the site as well.

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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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A few webcomics links to start off your week:

The Eyeskream collective is looking for new members. Submission information is here. Also, you have until January 31 to cast your ballot in the Skreamie Awards.

The first regularly scheduled webcomic by a Zuda.com winner is up on the site. Check out High Moon, by David Gallaher and Steve Ellis, and get an inside look at how the sausages are made at the creators’ blog.

Purity Brown just doesn’t get Achewood.

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One of the best uses of the web, IMHO, is to post older comics that otherwise would never see the light of day. Today, the always informative Journalista links to this post on Big Boy, the iconic cartoon restaurateur. The post includes photos of a Bob’s Big Boy (it was Azar’s where I grew up), menus, some truly horrible black-and-white photos of salads, and an entire Big Boy comic. Because that was the best thing about Big Boy—the food was pretty good, but you got a comic with it. Of course, the comic was free, only about 16 pages long, and cheaply produced, so most people threw them out; I don’t have any of my copies, which is why I was so tickled to see one on the web. 

The allure of most of these comics is not so much nostalgia as the surreal gloss that the years have given them. That’s certainly the case with two classic Christian comics, Hello I’m Johnny Cash and The Gospel Blimp, Continue reading →

Awards time: WCCA nominations close today. If you’re a webcomics creator and somehow missed the memo, get on over there. We’ll wait. Meanwhile, Xavier Xerxes interviews WCCA chair Frank “Damonk” Cormier at Comix Talk. 

In other awards news, Broken Frontier gives their Best Webcomic Creator award to Ursula Vernon for Digger.

Alexander Danner takes a look at webcomics readers (interfaces, not people) at Webcomics.com.

Will webcomics kill newspaper strips? The McGill Tribune uses that as a teaser for a nice survey of the world of webcomics.

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First webcomics get booted off Wikipedia, now this: Diamond has rejected three webcomic-related comic books that were planned for this year’s Free Comic Book Day. Johanna Draper Carlson has the scoop at Comics Worth Reading, and she interviews Keenspot Entertainment co-owner Chris Crosby about the decision.

Keenspot has been participating in FCBD since 2002. Crosby is also affiliated with ComicGenesis.com and Blatant Comics, both of which have also participated in years past. Blatant’s planned 2008 FCBD issue would have promoted a print graphic novel scheduled to come out this spring. Keenspot planned an anthology of its print comics, and ComicGenesis, which is a webcomics hosting site, was putting together an anthology of webcomics plus a how-to guide.

But no. According to Crosby, Diamond’s FCBD committee rejected all three titles on the grounds of Continue reading →