Due to the closing of Smartgroups, the WCCA planning commitee has been forced to do a little last minute scramble to create their own, original voting system for this year. So, unfortunately, the actual nomination mechanism won't be in place until next Monday (January 8th). However this is a perfect opportunity for everyone to take the time to familiarize themselves with the categories and procedures. By taking this time to research and plan your nomination suggestions, you'll help us all by making the best choices possible to create the best results possible.

Ballad is now free to read on Modern Tales. I've had it moved from subscriber to free content, and have also gone through the archives and fixed missing pages and such, so it ought to be readable.

Shaenon Garrity wraps up her webcomic Narbonic with a googlepalooza of guest artists today. Next year she will be rerunning the strip with commentary.

Garrity also posted on her blog that she celebrated the completion of Narbonic by getting a Narbonic heart tattoo. Click through for pictures.

Always thought you knew everything that happened this year in the news? Webcomics in Print is testing your brain with its first annual Big Bad Webcomic Quiz. With 50 questions spanning the entire year's news, events and even a few trivia questions, do you think you can figure out the answers in time? You've only got until New Years Day before the answers are revealled... Good Luck!

I've been scribbling out ideas for webcomics the last couple of months and I've been trying to get into the habit of sketching again. Before starting Comixpedia back in 2003 I was an update-delinquent, barely average webcomics creator. Well I don't want to rehash my history of making comics here so much as to let folks know that I'm going to use my "user blog" here at Comixpedia as a way to post updates on what I'm working on webcomic-wise. I won't front page these posts so you won't have to read them unless you seek them out. (Although I've been considering writing up my "efforts" to re-enter webcomics creating as a column to try and pass on what works and doesn't)

Debt On has joined the lineup of the political webcomic collective Spinzone Comics.

Other comics in the collective include Line Item Vito, Monkey Law, Idiot Box, Fighting Words, Death of the Party and Cosmic Awareness.

It's a day late but we haven't forgotten E.C. Nickel's The Long Vigil over at BVC and I'm sure you haven't either!

This week's original Portuguese page is number 5 (of 8) so we're past the half-way stage now ... and, of course, the full comic in English is still available if you still haven't read that yet!

We used to do a comparison of early to more recent editions of longer running webcomics called First and Last. Here's a thread for noting some webcomics that improved this year - art is easier to spot, but it could be art and/or writing.

I'll start it off with Home On the Strange which started off pretty funny, but has improved its ability to blend story and funny. The art has also gotten better if you compare today's strip with the first strip back in January of this year.

HEADLINES

• Both the New York Times and the Baltimore Sun covers the charity Childs Play started by the Penny Arcade duo. I just checked the site and they may clear $900,000 in donations by the end of this year. Wow. That's an amazingly good thing.
• Tim Buckley posted a couple of videos showing the entire process of him creating Christmas art for his webcomic Ctrl-Alt-Del (as Buckley says the action is "sped up 600%"). Man I really want a Cintiq...

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

• Image Comics' Nightly News #1 is online for free.

INTERVIEWS

• Newsarama interviews T Campbell and Amy Mebberson about Divalicious their new comic book for Tokyopop. (link from Journalista!)
• An interview with Stephen Pastis, creator of Pearls Before Swine: lawyer, cartoonist, Renaisance Man!
  

REVIEWS

• A review of Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese at Monsters and Critics. (link from Journalista!)
  

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

• Here's an effort to link up cross-overs between webcomics in a sort of "one-world" kind of way.
  
• Wax Intellectual talks about comedy in comics.
  
• Ask Slave Labor Graphics publisher Dan Vado questions about the comics biz.
• Kris Straub explains how to submit your own version of Time Friends.

The Gigcast Talks about the Webcartoonist's Choice Awards with Mark Mekkes of Zortic. We discuss the Nomination and Voting Procedures, and go over the timeline.

Along with the usual mix of community news and info and the music of Johnathan Coulton, Friction Bailey, and Mario Ajero.