Strip News Features 2-27-9

Reviews, contests, interviews, milestones and more…

• Applegeeks hits 500 strips. Wow. Marooned publishes Ashcan #1.
• You can’t blame me if you miss out on this Eyeskream contest. There are pretty open guidelines, a ton of prizes and a free year’s worth of adspace on the site. All you have to do is tell the origin of Skreamie in comic form. While you’re at it, also enter the Rogue Trooper Contest!  Create a Rogue Trooper comic and win a Wii and the Rogue Trooper graphic novels. And Project Fanboy tells us about some special comic subscriptions available.
• ComixTalk needs a cover image for March. Want to contribute?  You could also submit something to this anthology as well.
• And here’s a nice collection of links about NYCC and I learned about a new comic magazine.
• I’d like to see more of this, too. Say something constructive about another comic and get some constructive comments in return.
• Four words: Adam Strange action figure. Awesome.
• The NCN is now the ISCA and they’re having a convention in Ohio. It’s a little far for me to attend, but maybe you can. It sounds like fun.
• I’m thinking a movie based on the Suicide Squad has some cool potential and there’s also a Battlestar Galactica movie in the works. I’m not crazy about the details, though. Still, I have more hope for that than this. And I’m sure you miss watching Mazinger Z.
• You can now get Narbonic (vol 6) and This Week in Webcomics has a daily comic pick, so make sure you tune in to see what gets recommended. Art in Sequence looks at some comics that are still tried and true pencil-meets-paper comics as opposed to digital and the Webcomic Beacon covers Furry comics.
• The Geek covers You’ll Have That and I Am Legend reviews Brat-Halla and the Black Fox. And then there’s Planet Saturday Comics and comics for kids!
• MPD57 interviews David Gallaher and Scienteers brings us ten questions with Dave Roman of Astronaut Elementary. For a bonus, we can get some secrets of manga artists and we also see Newsarama talk Cow & Buffalo.
• Here we have a fifth panel from Boxcar Astronaut. You’ll have to read the story of these two images on the site but the question is: which is better? 
  

• Way, way down at the bottom of this Journalista post is a link to Panel Madness Week. You can see Madkinbeard’s panel analysis here.
• Todd and Penguin returns from hiatus and there’s a new comic called Frogtown.
• Finally, how to win at Monopoly instructions in comic form.

Having celebrated comicdom, I feel it’s best to mention this other, weighty matter right now. It’s clear that some so-called celebrity artists treat the world of online comics as their personal fiefdom. While not all webcomic artists want to be professionals, those that aspire to such ought to behave as such. I don’t normally point accusing fingers at other people but the persons mentioned in the article often show themselves capable of what they are accused of. Ignore their apparent success in the webcomic field for now… Just read their sites, their forum comments and listen to their podcasts for yourself. The attitude is there.

So do I suggest a dramatic, organized solution? Even though that would make for better copy, I don’t think it’s necessary. As a group, we can hold ourselves to a higher standard. And we should – a mild response from the majority to outlandish behavior will often be enough to correct any problems. Webcomicdom is made up of of individuals and there aren’t any institutions to enforce standards. It’s up to us to speak up when it’s reasonable.

I’m not writing this to tell you how to feel or what to think. There are some simple things we should consider. How will readers take us and the art form seriously if we don’t? Are there really pat answers about comics that aren’t entirely based on personal opionion, bias and experience? Do we really want to reward persons who behave improperly and tarnish our efforts as a whole?