Webcomics Weekly News Roundup October 22, 2008

» The WebComic Reader Choice Awards were announced. Read the press release or visit Comixtalk for a nicely formatted list of the winners.

» Pinkerton’s That’s The Smell Of Freedom collection is now shipping from Th3rd World Studios for only $3.99

» Fans of John Lotshaw’s webcomic Accidental Centaurs will want to visit his site tomorrow. Have tissue handy.

» Moonbase Press announces the publication of Historic Kevin & Kell: Treasury Volume 1. This title, the fourteenth edition of Bill Holbrook’s groundbreaking webcomic Kevin & Kell“, is a treasury edition combining the contents of the first two Kevin & Kell volumes (along with a large portion of the third), along with some material that has never been in print. Get it at Bill’s online store.

» DJ Coffman had a cameo spot in Sore Thumbs which took on the topic of Platinum Studios financial problems. Speaking of DJ and Platinum, DJ and PVP creator Scott Kurtz engaged in a short spat over DJ’s involvement with Platinum in the comments of DJ’s blog which prompted DJ to create and sell (briefly) a T-shirt and mousepad with a caricature of Scott’s face with the words “Scott Kurtz is still a deuce bag” – proving once again that with webcomics, it’s not the comics that make money, but the merchandise sold along with it.

» Xaviar Xerexes over at Comixtalk.com has sleuthed around available tracking sources and has compiled what might be considered the “most read” webcomics. Top five include: Cyanide and Happiness, Penny Arcade, xkcd, Ctrl+Alt+Del, Looking For Group The Order of the Stick. Check out the full article for the rest of the comics.

» Barkeater Lake has a story arc about a successful webcomicker that moves into the sleepy Barkeater Lake town and manages to tick off the main character. The feature’s creator, Corey Pandolph, tells me that the storyline was motivated by the snarky nature of the web. Story began last Wednesday and runs through today.

» Farley Katz at the New Yorker challenged Randall Munroe, creator of the popular XKCD to a cartoon-off. See the results. Speaking of Randall, XKCD’s creator, he recently spoke at Yale University.

» Derik A. Badman writes over on ComixTalk.com about knowing what to look for in a webcomic the criteria for sticking with or dropping a comic.

» Benjamin Gordon writes on his blog The Floating Lightbulb about webcomic collectives.

» Comics Worth Watching reports that Marvel Comics has launched “never-before-seen digital comic titles” for their Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited subscribers.

» Th3rd World Studios has announced that they are offering The SuperFogeys free to alternative and college papers across the nation in exchange for exposure.

» From the department of congratulations comes three items: Steven Cloud, creator of Boy on a Stick and Slither has now passed the 1000 mark of comics created; Mike Witmer’s Pinkerton has hit 300; and finally a big congratulations to PC Weenies who celebrates its 10th birthday.

» The following individuals have launched webcomics that they think are worth your time: Bob Rittick does a feature called Windsock; Kevin Hodgson, a sixth grade writing teacher has created Boolean Squared; Bob Scott, an animator for Pixar has a comic called Myron over on Comics Sherpa and TJ Hill’s In Cold Blood is both on Comics Sherpa and his own site. Check ’em out.

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