Webcomic News Roundup: Penny Arcade, EZ Street and Election ’08
It’s that day of the week again, folks — the one where I hastily cobble together a bunch of posts to run this weekend while hoping no one notices that I kicked off my own “Happy Hour” several hours earlier. Oh, and it’s also the day when I wrangle a few items of note for you to take notice of from the online side of the comics scene, too.
This week, the Penny Arcade duo notified readers that their corner of the InterWebs was recently named one of Time magazine’s “50 Greatest Websites of 2008.” You can also vote for which of the 50 sites is ranked #1 — so consider this some encouragement to stuff the holy heck out of that ballot. Go ahead and make your webcomic-reading vote count, choose or die, or just rock the vote. Whatever works.
Since it’s an Election Year here in the U.S., another item of note on the voting side of things: Not only did our very own EZ Street series wrap up its 38-issue run this week, but it was also nominated for a Harvey Award as “Best Online Comic.” Congratulations to creators Robert Tinnell and Mark Wheatley, who were recently interviewed by Scoop about the finale of the series and their future plans. Keep an eye out this week for a Q&A with the EZ Street team here on ComicMix.
Newsarama — yes, Newsarama — recently posted a fairly lengthy group interview with a variety of people in and around the webcomics scene on the topic of “Economics and Comics: How Do Webcomics Fit In?” Keep in mind that I’m linking to the article with a warning of sorts about its true informational value, as most of the more prominent experts on the subject of webcomics and their economics were conspicuously absent from the discussion. In fact, I don’t believe any of the creators they spoke to actually create webcomics as a full-time job. It gets a link, though, because it’s nice to see the folks at ‘Rama take notice of webcomics’ existence — even if their attention is a bit wide-eyed this time around.
Over at ComixTalk, however, there’s a great interview with Faith Erin Hicks, the award-winning creator of webcomics Demonology 101 and Ice, as well as the recently released Zombies Calling graphic novel from publisher Slave Labor Graphics. Hicks was recently named “Favourite Canadian Comic Book Creator – English Language Publications” at this year’s Shuster Awards, and she deserves the recognition — her series are really quite good.
Finally, another week, another link related to Anders Loves Maria, as actor Haley Joel Osment (or a facsimile thereof) recently provided a video endorsement of ALM creator Rene Engström’s “Sketch-A-Thon.” Funny how these types of video pleas keep popping up, eh? I’ll admit, though, I dig this trend immensely.
Oh, and if you missed my interview with Goats creator Jon Rosenberg this week, here’s your chance to go back in time and change all of that. Screw that “butterfly effect” nonsense.