USA versus Algeria. I'm not even sure this site gets any traffic from Algeria but regardless… go USA!
Let's start off with a bit of hypey mchype today. Webcomics went through a phase of experimenting with comic-ness without necessarily worrying about the story or appeal of the comic and more lately maybe the impression is that expermentation is dead. Well I'm not sure, but when I do see someone smartly taking advantage of the web in webcomics without letting it get in the way of making a good comic I think we should pay attention. So, Ornery Boy by Michael Lalonde which is really already a very funny comic – a sort of slacker version of the Adams Family (not really but that'd be my teevee pitch). Lalonde actually uses Flash to add little bits of animatin' and other layered in stuff that adds to the comic without sacrificing the comicness of it. Do you need the extras to enjoy the comic — probably not, but I guess you don't need color in comics either and yet… Lalonde is using what could be just obnoxious experimental techniques in a very intregated way that completely serves a very funny and accomplished comic. Check out these two recent installments: #432 and #431 for some examples of what I mean.
ARE ELECTRIC SHEEP A RENEWAL RESOURCE? Remember when I kept reminding everyone to consider committing to Patrick Farley's KICKSTARTER drive so we could get him back to making webcomics? Well it's bearing fruit — Scott McCloud blogged that Farley has started to re-serialize his groundbreaking comic The Spiders. This alternate history of the Afghan war is fascinating.
CHASING THE TITANTIC: Gene Weingarten is getting a big push from the Washington Post for his new comic strip Barney & Clyde. He created it with his son and there was a nice story on their relationship. Weingarten is actually usually pretty funny in his weekly column but I'm curious to see how that translates to the comics. Still it looks like it's only getting launched in 3 papers? There's something horribly, amusingly wrong with a corporately controlled artform (which comics strips in the newspaper definitely is) where a big corporation can't even properly launch a new product…
INDIE ROCK PETE I CHOOSE YOU! Richard Stevens the 3rd asked YOU and maybe you for questions for his Diesel Sweeties characters to answer in a comic.
THE ADVENTURES OF HANNAH SOLO: Lucy Knisley's sorta-journal, sorta-musing webcomic is quite good and the latest is great. I do think there seem to be more stories featuring girls doing things (as opposed to just going along for the ride or worse waiting around to be saved) but as a guy it wasn't until I had daughters that I really thought about how tilted the traditional roles in stories were towards guy=action and girl=inaction. I hope comics is getting better. From my webcomic perspective, it's actually pretty good.
OH PRETTY PICTURES! Paul Taylor of Wapsi Square did a great bit of fan art for Mike Malhack's Cleopatra in Space webcomic.
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