Some little news notes that have been floating around:
Zuda news: a second chance for previous contestants to get picked up via the Zuda Invitational and a new strip by Dean Haspiel, STREET CODE which is an “instant winner.”

3. The much talked about ZUDA COMICS INVITATIONAL is on! Celebrating the one-year anniversary of our announcing Zuda at the San Diego Comic-Con we’re going to have a competition featuring comics from the previous years worth of non-winning comics. I’ll blog about this in more detail but basically if it ran on Zuda and didn’t win its eligible to participate in the Invitational. Send your picks for which comics you want to see get another shot at the brass ring to FEEDBACK (in the upper right corner there, by the login)! The Invitational will be our July competition.

§ The Same Hat kids reveal a new project, an English edition of Yusaku Hanakuma’s TOKYO ZOMBIE. The book is planned for September release from Last Gasp but may ne out in time for San Diego:

Tokyo Zombie is a self-contained story featuring Yusaku Hanakuma’s two characters Afro and Hage. It was originally serialized in AX Magazine in 1998-1999, and was collected and published the year after by Seirinkogeisha. Seirinkogeisha is an incredbile indie/underground manga publisher, and publish the vast majority of Same Hat favorites including Suehiro Maruo, Takashi Nemoto, Shintaro Kago, Kazuichi Hanawa and many, many others.

§ Similarly Warren Ellis reveals a pair of new books from Avatar later this summer.

Aetheric Mechanics

and No Hero.

Technorati Tags: Warren Ellis

The long awaited Act-i-vate websitehas finally gone live. And Eisner-nominee Mike Cavallero’s new comic LOVIATHAN has also gone live. Check it out.

Dean Haspiel is editing a new online comics anthology for SMITH Magazine:

“Everybody has one. And, no matter how close or how far, we all live next to someone, and we all have a Next-Door Neighbor story,” says NDN Editor Dean Haspiel. “With this in mind, I asked some of my favorite storytellers and cartoonists to create their favorite NDN stories so that we at SMITH Magazine could share them with you over the next year.”

New installments of Next-Door Neighbor will appear every two weeks on online storytelling community, SMITH Magazine.

The first wave of stories launches with an urban “daymare” titled “Next-Door Neighborless” written by novelist Jonathan Ames and illustrated by Nick Bertozzi, whose graphic novel The Salon, was hailed as among the best comics of 2007. Upcoming stories feature the talents of Kevin Colden, John Cebollero, Joan Reilly, Ed Piskor, and Miss Lasko-Gross. The second wave will be announced in June and includes a super-secret, special first-time writer/artist matchup.

While the April Zuda competition won’t be up until next week, the December winner, Pray for Death by Nick Doan and Daniele Serra is now updating, with a significant change to the art style.

March’s winner was Black Cherry Bombshells by Johnny Zito, Tony Trov, Sacha Borisich and Alex Bruno. Frankly, we’re a little sad that a strip about “Ultra-violent girl gangs fight for supremacy of a doomed future where all men have been mutated into flesh eating zombies” beat Wes Molebach’s Litterbox Chronicles, because nothing is funnier than a cat searching for a litterbox, but it’s a new era in webcomics.

After coming in fourth in their Zuda competition, Jim Dougan and Hyeondo Park’s SAM & LILAH is moving over to ACT-I-VATE starting May 1. The Dougan/Park team began collaborating at the Chemistry Set and will continue to appear there, as well. Sam & Lilah is a “romantic modern-day mythology with a touch of manga flavor. When a budding love affair between two fashionable urban twentysomethings is imperiled by a gypsy curse, slice-of-life meets the supernatural - in Technicolor.”

Girl-a-matic, the female-friendly webcomics site was five yesterday. We were sick and couldn’t post, but we still wanted to mark the occasion with a press release:

It’s been an entertaining ride these last five years. GAM has seen it’s share of ups and downs and has happily been the online home of many an excellent comics creator. Sure, we’ve had some growing pains and toddler tantrums, but we’ve also had some supremely shining moments, and I wouldn’t trade a minute of it for anything.

For the rest of this week, March 31st through April 6th, GAMmers will be posting their birthday cards to the site. At the end of our anniversary week, readers everywhere will have the chance to vote for their favorites in the following categories:

Most “HOLLYWOOD-SHOULD-TOTALLY-BE-ON-MY-SPEED-DIAL”

Most “I-AM-MY-OWN-EVIL-TWIN”

Most “MADE-ME-SNORT-X-BEVERAGE-OUT-MY-NOSE”

Most “I-TOTALLY-PWN-THOSE-MENSA-DORKS”

Most “ISH-KA-BIBBLE”

GAM’s next open call for submissions begins on May 1st, 2008. Ladies and gentleman, sharpen your pencils.

free ringtones blackberry pearlbleach astreik ringtoneeyes ringtone preview blueboltblue ringtonesfree ringtone boombasticclub ringtones breakfastbrewers ringtoneringtones pride brown Map

Dark Horse has been kind enough to give us a peek at the cover of their first collection of Achewood strips by Chris Onstad: The Great Outdoor Fight.
This will look strong on our shelves!

Fresh off the news that his AMULET gn is getting the movie treatment, Kazu Kibuishi’s long running COPPER webcomic has been sold to Scholastic, ICv2 reports.

The Copper collection, planned for Spring 2010, will include both existing and new material. It will be released in both trade paperback and library hardcover editions. Judith Hansen of Hansen Literary Agency represented Kibuishi.

We would guess that the huge success of DIARY OF A WIMPY KID has webcomics on many book editors’ radar these days (yes yes it is not really a webcomic, but creator Jeff Kinney usually refers to it as such), and the idea of putting out a book based on something that people have been reading free for years is not really so daunting at all. Ya hear that?

Technorati Tags: Scholastic

Mike Cavallero has posted a teaser for his new ACT-I-VATE comicsLOVIATHAN, Coming in April.

Wow, there are more free things than EVER on the internet! What is the use of playing softball in the park or brunching with the girls when there is so much cool free shit?

First off, some that is NOT FREE, repeat NOT FREE, but it is pretty affordable: yesterday’s news BOMBSHELL: TEZUKA ON THE WEB! Japanese bookstore Papyless will make 448 stories from manga forefather Osamu Tezuka available, including ASTROBOY, BLACK JACK and NEW TREASURE ISLAND. Starting March 18th it will cost 105 yen, or about one dollar, to read a volume over 48 hours. You can buy it for keeps for 315 yen per volume. Hopefully with a little Googling and Paypaling we can finally read NEW TREASURE ISLAND which was to manga what D. W. Griffith was to filmmaking, technically speaking.

Technorati Tags: Dr. Goldfoot, Tezuka

(more…)

ESSEX COUNTY’s Jeff Lemire (interviewed this week in PW Comics Week by Laurel Maury) has a new mini comic up at his blog:THE HORSELESS RIDER.:

The Web Cartoonists’ Choice Awards were announced yesterday and you should just go to the link becayse it has links to all he nominated comics, and they deserve a click-through if you’ve never checked them out. Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio won many awards, including “Outstanding Comic.” Lackadaisy by Tracy J. Butler won several awards as well.

We think you will want to read this Kare Kare comic by Andrew Drilon at The Chemistry Set. Let’s just say it updates the “Incredible Journey” story for cryptozoologists.

Haven’t you always wanted a Marvel application for Facebook? Oh, of course you have! Marvel is getting deeper and deeper into this risky internet thing. It’s crazy!

What are you supposed to do with these things, anyway? Apparently our abandoned zombie mogul gets attacked scores of times a day. We just don’t have time to place WoW or Facebook, sadly. Anyway here’s Marvel’s exciting announcement:

On the heels of Marvel Entertainment opening its comic book vault to the masses in November with the launch of its online subscription service Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, today Marvel announced the launch of its first digital comics application on Facebook Platform, Facebook is the sixth most trafficked website in the United States. Marvel’s first official Facebook application immerses fans in the world of Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, the home of the greatest collection of Marvel Comics ever assembled online. This new application page will serve as a hub to the Marvel Universe on Facebook.

With the new Digital Comics application, fans can peruse the entire Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited collection—currently numbering more than 3000 comics, read synopses of many of the titles, pick favorites and share thoughts about the books with all of their Facebook friends.

(more…)

It’s the beginning of the month and that means a new bunch of Zuda comics. Eddie Sharam and James Woodhead’s ROAD was the winner, as voted by readers, for February.

This month’s line-up includes a new comics by Jim Dougan and Hyeondo Park — worth checking out. Also one called “The LItterbox Chronicles” and it’s what it sounds like, but we like kitty kats, so there. More in jump.

(more…)

Fox 2000 has optioned the phenomenally successful WIMPY KID books. Nina Jacobson will produce. According to the article, five books are eventually planned, with Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw to be published later this year.

Via PW

Big news for webcomics as Nicholas Gurewitch announces the strip is going on hiatus.

“It’s really not as big a deal as it might seem,” Nicholas said today. “I’ll simply be producing comics at a pace I’m more comfortable with.” Monday newspapers publishing his strip received the surprising announcement from the cartoonist. “I’m making this decision for a variety of reasons,” Nicholas told them in an email, “but mainly because I want to do other things besides be a cartoonist.”

Gurewitch cites the success of the PBF collection as part of the reason for the move, and in fact will live at least partially off the proceeds. The fact that he can do this at age 25 is about as big an indicator of the new metrics of cartooning as anything we’ve seen lately.
THe link above includes a hilarious account of an appearance by Gurewitch on Fox News (!) in which he reenacted one of our very favorite PBF strips. Does Gurewitch have a big future as a television personality? We wouldn’t be a bit surprised.

Last Friday Freakangels the new webcomic by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield debuted. It’s a steampunk tale of 12 specially powered 20-somethings that will appear in weekly installments of 6 pages. Ellis has already written several hundred pages, so hopefully Duffield is up to the task. More in this brief interview with Ellis.

Technorati Tags: Warren Ellis, Avatar

MySpace continues to put up some surprisingly cool comics, including, now a new story by Gilbert Hernandez for Dark Horse Presents . It’s called “Manga.”

Sheldon Vella’s SUPERTRON was the January winner and now ten new contestants have entered the swimsuit competition! As usual, the entrants are a fairly obscure bunch except for Kevin Colden, whom we’ve mentioned here many times before. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check out all the lovely contestants!

Title: Everyone Laughs at the Crocodile Man
Writer/Artist: Steve Steiner
Summary: Some people view The Crocodile Man as an oddity. Some view him as a menace and a monster. Yet others see him as no different than any other person. He deals with the same problems as any of us. He pays bills, goes to work, and has problems in his love life. Every once in a while though, his reptilian personality overwhelms his civilized side.

Title: Joe Comics
Writer/Artist: Chachi & Gabe Hernandez
Summary: Joe Comics is a satirical celebration of just how ridiculous super heroes and villains can be.

Title: Mountains of Dusk
Writer/Artist: Mani Magalhaes
Summary: Two tribes - the K´Tahi and the Elgyk – enemies, want to both rule the mountains. Who will win?

Title: The Passenger
Writer/Artist: Alexandre Vidal
Summary: Meet Alberto, an ordinary man who, in a drunken night, catches the wrong taxi and stops by an inter-dimensional crossroads. Now he has to find his way back home.

Title: Reno
Writer/Artist: Dan Thompson
Summary: Reno, a big rig trucker, defends a kind, young service station owner and her son who are victimized by a mysterious outlaw.

Title: Road
Writer/Artist: Eddie Sharam
Summary: Felix lives in a futuristic world where there is a road that you can travel down your whole life that will never end or repeat. Felix will attempt to solve the riddle of this Road.

Title: Starfish
Writer/Artist: Miguel Angel Sanchez
Summary: A 13 year old girl and her jet pack are the last hope against a dark energy influencing our world and ripping its way across the cosmos.

Title: Strangle/Switch
Writer/Artist: Kevin Colden
Summary: A chance meeting with a mysterious stranger, the arrival of a ghost from his past and an electric guitar of mysterious origin will put Geoffrey Blake in contact with a power he has never imagined.

Title: Teachers
Writer/Artist: Gabe Ostley
Summary: Only these eccentrics are brave enough to face the ancient evil that lurks on campus and be back in time to grade all of those papers before Friday!

Title: Will Wrestle: For Science
Writer: Jim Dedieu
Artist: Geoff Beaulieu
Colors: Alex Donnard
Summary: Today, just like any other day in the tumultuous life of Will Wrestle and his fellow Wrestlers, is the Future. Which means: Saving Your World.

Have we mentioned lately how much we love Apelad aka Adam Koford? Actually we did, but we want to say it again. His LAUGH-OUT-LOUD CATS webcomic is a multi-leveled satire that mixes the rich line work of classic comic strips with the patois of internet cat speak along with timeless hobo humor. In case you’ve missed it, Apelad’s conceit is that the strip is a recently unearthed comic strip from the turn of the 20th century that was the first appearance of all that “I can has cheezburger” kitty-net crap.

Plus, a “bindle’ is always funny.

Well, now a BOOK collection is available. Want!

Meet the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats! Kitteh and Pip, the hobo cat stars of the old timey comic strip featured on HOBOTOPIA.com, in their first compendium of over 250 comics. Also includes comments by Aloysius Koford and never before seen drawings.

Koford reports that his entries in the New Yorker’s Eustace Tilley contest also fared well — two will be featured on the New Yorker website and one will be published in the magazine. Go, kitteh!

We hear that DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES, the second volume of Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid series, will debut at #1 on this Sunday’s NY Times Bestseller list. Wimpy Kid book 1 holds steady at the number two spot. With Hugo Cabret at #3, picture books definitely rule.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid phenomenon is one that hasn’t been overanalyzed by the comics blogosphere — the books are very text heavy and are more truly called comics/text hybrids than straight out comics. However, the series has long been labeled a webcomic, and its sales success does prove you can give something away on the internet for free for a long time and still sell loads and loads of books — as long as someone wants to read it in the first place!

Alex Cox does Project Runway

Benchilada does Hemingway

We larfed.