If Lewis Carroll and Edward Gorey were to team up and make a webcomic, it might look like this.

Comic for 07-01-05

I usually end up doing the most research for the least-likely of strips.

These tracks would be seven flavors of cool all by themselves, but the fact that all the instruments were played by one person makes them all the more impressive.

Better catch these comics before they’re gone.

Comic for 07-04-05

One of the panels in today’s comic is coincidentally festive.

Follow the bouncing fish.

Comic for 07-06-05

Drawing aluminum foil is more difficult than I realized.

Well? What else would they have on their coffee mugs?

Continuing with the theme of yesterday’s comic, look at this.

… and check out the rest of the comics while you’re there. But, uh, try not to get distracted by the ads.

The Web Cartoonists’ Choice Awards ceremony (man, that’s a mouthful) is now online. Check out my presentation for Outstanding Short Form comic!

Also, a round of applause to Ryan Estrada for pulling the whole thing together (this satisfies my monthly link-to-Mr.-Estrada’s-website requirement for July).

Comic for 07-11-05

Many years ago, I actually used to be pretty happy with instant coffee. Mainly because it was the only form of coffee I knew back then.

The Ditty Bops are my current musical infatuation. You can listen to their songs through their website, or check out these other recordings.

Comic for 07-13-05

Take a load off.

I don’t know where this story is going, but the potential for awesomeness is undeniable.

Comic for 07-15-05

Don’t try this at home.

“We cool?” “We cool.”

Comic for 07-18-05

Perhaps I should join Alliteration Addicts Anonymous. Although, I guess they wouldn’t call it that.

Here’s the comic!

If you’re into old-school crime-fightin’ comics, this is some quality stuff.

Comic for 07-20-05

Comic is up. Over and out.

…he’s, uh, fantastic.

Comic for 07-22-05

So much text, so little room for character art.

Haven’t found any interesting new webcomics today, so here’s a doodle:

So, I read this article that says that Yahoo! has acquired Konfabulator, and I think, “Neat! Konfabulator’s a nifty program.” Then I read on to see that they’ll be releasing it for free, and I think “Double neat!” And then I go the Konfabulator website… just to, you know, see if they have anything to say about this development. And what do I find?

A statement. In webcomic form.

Done by Vera Brosgol, of “Return to Sender” fame.

Comic for 07-25-05

Meanwhile, back at the coffee shop

About halfway through drawing today’s comic, it occurred to me that I may have been subconsciously-inspired by this Websnark entry.

And about two-thirds of the way through, I had to scramble to find a replacement keyboard after a green tea disaster.

Whenever I wander through archive.org, I usually find something pretty cool. Like this collection of vintage cartoons.

When your webcomic is set to last for 80 pages, you need to make each one count.

Comic for 07-29-05

There sure are a lot of folks reading the comic today. Hello, Websnark people!

One of the things that readers new to the comic have made fairly clear is that they’d appreciate a way to skip the whole “To Catch A Rabbit” storyline. So, I’ve dusted off my PHP skills and added a “Skip ‘To Catch A Rabbit'” link to the bottom of said comics. To all those who’ve braved the archives without benefit of such a link, I’m so very sorry.

While I’m at it, I suppose I should offer up my own feelings on the whole “To Catch A Rabbit” storyline. I never really expected it to go on for as long as it did, but a fella’s gotta go wherever the muse takes him… even if it means chasing after rabbits for months on end. That said, I almost didn’t do it. I considered skipping the whole story outright, and maybe have Milton and Co. give some commentary on the episode but never show any of the actual cartoon to the reader. Since that felt like chickening out to me, I said, “To hell with it,” and started writing rabbit noir.

About halfway through and with no end in sight, some readers suggested (very politely) that it might be best if I cut-and-run, as it were. It was good, sound advice that a more seasoned and, indeed, saner cartoonist might have followed. But, you need to understand that “To Catch A Rabbit” is the very first story (in comic form, at least) that I’ve ever told to completion; it has a beginning, a middle, and, eventually, an end. It was important to me to finish it, just so that I could say that I did and be at peace with myself; if I’d skipped out in the middle, I’m certain I would’ve regretted it.

As for the end result, it’s neither terribly good nor entirely bad. Some people liked it (I’ll put them in the “Lily” camp), many others did not (the “Jack” camp). If nothing else, those who couldn’t wait for it to end now know where Jack’s antipathy is coming from. He really was a trooper for sticking around through the whole cartoon, wouldn’t you say?

And me? I learned a lot about drawing and a little about storytelling. I got something out of my system that I needed to and came to the conclusion that, in the future, I probably shouldn’t put one story on hold in order to tell another, as it isn’t really fair to the reader. Overall, however, I’m happy with the story I told and the decisions I made.

Now go chase some rabbits of your own.

The newly-launched Webcomics Nation service already has a pretty good list of member webcomics going, a fair portion of which don’t have much more than a “Coming Soon” page up. Still, you’ll find a few gems if you look hard enough. I liked this one just for its cheeky concept.

(On a side note, I was surprised to see how large the “Religious/Spirituality” section was. Then I noticed that all the comics there were made by the same person.)

As far as the service itself, folks seem to have a favorable opinion of it. Me, I think ten bucks a month for unmetered bandwidth, free advertising, and a wide array of helpful doodads is a pretty sweet deal. The only downside is that you seem to be somewhat limited in how much you can tinker with your website (you’re supposed to use the custom Webcomics Nation engine for everything) and I’m the sort of person that enjoys a good tinkering. Still, the service is new and bound to grow and evolve, so perhaps Mr. Manley will decide to make it more tinker-friendly in time. And if you could care less about such things and just want to post some comics on the internet, I’d certainly recommend giving WCN a look.

On an unrelated note, if you’re the observant sort, you may have noticed a new link below. A kindly reader has set up a LiveJournal feed for Tweep, and I’ve been meaning to link to it for awhile. I’m not entirely sure who to thank, but as there are only two subscribers to the feed at the moment, I will just thank them both.