Would it be possible to comb through the entire archives of XKCD? A couple of years ago I managed to accomplish this but that was without the past 2 years of updates on top. At this point it would take more than a week. That doesn’t stop some people from saying they have read all of them and know which are the best ones. It’s your turn to read through and find out if he got it right.

The Escapist took submissions for a huge contest. Apparently it was so big they secured help from webcomic industry veterans Ryan North, creator of Dinosaur Comics, Brian Clevinger, founder of 8-Bit Theater and Shamus Young, the man behind Stolen Pixels to be judges for the event. The contest submissions were due no later than noon EST on February 28th. Due to the great response, winners will be chosen and posted this week.

Has anyone taken this survey?

The official word from the bird himself:

Can’t get enough “Imagine THIS”? Yes, I know. It’s truly hard to live without the mediocrity.

Well, now you can take the mediocrity with you — on your phone!!

Just point your mobile device’s browser to: gocomics.com/imaginethis and, BAM!!!

Can’t pass up that fun, now can you? Let me know when I can view this on my brand spankin’ new iPad and we can talk more seriously. And yes, it is great to be such a delusional fool.

We take a look at two new comics on the Internet scene. Jason picked Retail by Norm Feuti which offers an indepth look at the hardships endured by the faithful retail army of the First World. I, on the other hand, chose Not Invented Here which shows the true trials face by people who sit at desks and think about Star Trek all day.

We hit a couple of big comicy topics this show. Like art, pacing and go back and forth on the issue of can a Web comic read like a Newspaper comic. I also learn a big lesson in podcasting etiquette that I’ll try to keep in mid for future shows. Come along and learn with me.

Show Notes
Diesel Sweeties
Legend of Bill
Legend of Bill show
Bear and Tiger
Ugly Hill
Unshelved
Monsterplex
Imagine This

If you’ve never read A Softer World, I highly recommend giving it a try. In a world of copy-cat Web comics, this is something truly unique. I’ve often criticized photo comics because I don’t think they can capture action at all. Photos have always been meant to take a single moment in time and make it last forever. A Softer World uses this to it’s advantage, as each comic is just a small moment in time, incredibly created from a bit of clever text and an excellent but often only loosely related photo. There’s nothing like this anywhere else. You owe it to yourself to at least give a try.

Much thanks to our good buddy Funny Ninja for pointing us to the interview. We love getting notes like this, even though sometimes we drop the ball, we do like to use them on the site when we aren’t being lame.

Aoi House Review

Aoi House is a completed webcomic manga that was adopted and serialized by Seven Seas for publication because of its success. It has some similarities to Love Hina by Ken Akatmasu, the manga novel that has a world-wide success. 2 guys, by the names of Sandy and Alex, stumbled into a club with lodging which are full of girls, and they were thinking that this club was an ordinary club that features otaku crazed hobbies such as anime and manga viewing.

However, thought it was just “Aoi house”; as it was intended by some members when the name is formally supposed to be “Yaoi house”. If you do not know, “yaoi” is a genre of manga which focuses on guy to guy relationships. Despite this, this manga isn’t about these, so relax; it just so happens that the author tries to create comedy by using that name.

So the girls tried to turn the guys into gays, or rather make them fancy their craze for yaoi otaku.

And of course it is hilarious.

Why do I say it resembles Love Hina? That’s because its about being surrounded by a group of beautiful girls again, forced to stay in close quarters with them, and they each have an animal mascot; a flying turtle for Love Hina, and a perverted hamster for Aoi House.So if you do like Love Hina as a manga, Aoi House is good for you as a webcomic manga.

The story is light hearted, harem, and a little ‘ecchi’. Again, due to its suggestive nature, I recommend this manga for older teens. It is still generally safe. The mascot hamster is ridiculously adorable. I really liked it!

Other opinions

I picked Aoi House up for review because it is a successful and completed series. As I was browsing around the Internet, I find that there are many incompleted webcomics lying around, which have potential, but stopped usually due to the lack of funding, popularity and support from fans.

I know how hard it is to do draw and publish weekly, as I tried a little with my own blog. So I actually can feel for the webcomic authors. However, if you are really good at what you are doing, you can really be picked up by a well known company, and be proven successful. And with this webcomic, I hope to encourage you to that.

Here’s MTV speaking a little about Aoi House:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I don’t exactly like the song itself, but I am happy for a manga webcomic that has its own MTV mention, which is rather rare.

Enjoy!

Some points to note:
1. Ecchi genre for manga means to be suggestive in the sexual department, but not usually explicit. It is generally suitable for older teens.

Bear is every straight man you’ve ever read, only he works in the Soviet Army, hangs out with an abominable Snowman and a crotchy old man dog that used to be a girl and the bane of his existence is his Tiger commanding officer who won’t stop kicking him in the nards.

Is this enough to carry a strip? Does there need to be more? Is there more? Is Jason really slow on picking up puns? All these questions and more shall be answered with in the walls of Digital Strips Episode 187.

Show notes:
Ice Ice Baby
PATV
DLC
Woody After Hours
Odari Park
Max Vs Max
LitterBox Chronicles
Devils Panties
SMBC
XKCD
SMBC theater
Funny or Die
Captain Excelsior
Snowflake
Much the Miller’s Son

If you’re reading about webcomic news chances are better than normal you’re using a Mac, and chances are outstanding you know how to use a Mac. Does that mean there’s going to be a revolution in webcomics with the release of the iPad? The general consensus is a big flat no. Comics Alliance did a decent round-up of creators and perhaps my favorite comment came from Ryan North: “All I can say now is that any device that makes webcomics easier to read in bed and on the toilet is one that gets a thumbs up from me.” For me it’s a chance to get a full screen portable machine. The iPhone has been providing that but frankly that tiny screen drives me nuts. Perhaps with the (max)iPad someone will get serious and develop a Photoshop app.

Valentine’s Day Brad Guigar raised a toast to daily comics. His first comic strip, Greystone Inn, debuted Valentine’s Day, 2000, and updated every Monday-Saturday for 5.5 years. The day after it ended in June 2005, Evil Inc began. Both ran in daily newspapers, including the Philadelphia Daily News. Evil Inc appears in front of an estimated 1.5 million newspaper readers a week. Guigar also produces Courting Disaster, and for a year-and-a-half, produced a weekly full-page comic, Phables, that shared stories about life in Philadelphia. Phables earned Guigar a nomination for the Eisner Award in 2007 — the highest honor in comics. His obsession continued with one cartooning book, “The Everything Cartooning Book,” and co-wrote  “How to Make Webcomics”. Editor-in-chief of Webcomics.com where you can find the popular podcast, Webcomics Weekly, that he co-hosts. With over 13 print collections and his appearances at conventions across the country it’s surprisingly his wife of 12 years hasn’t divorced him.

Life is so busy for me that it is rare that news of our co-founder Zampzon jumps up and slaps me. Apparently he’s some kind of activist in his home in the lone state and has been featured on the Dallas Art News. In early December they were running a special feature called Webcomics Imitating Art where  webcomic artists use their characters and style to recreate a famous work of art. Instead of the six works they expected they managed to receive nineteen valid entries. This has led to a new guest webcomic artist program where each artist will have 4-5 strips displayed on a per week basis. There are rules of course, but only eight of them. The best one being “Webcomic artists will retain all rights to their work.” Amazing…

You can read more about her at her webcomic site here.

And one female friend of mine liked this webmanga after reading it, so do support Model Behaviour if this webmanga suits to your liking.

Take note that the following interview is unedited, and enjoy yourselves here:

/***START OF EMAIL INTERVIEW***/

1. Please tell us briefly about yourself: your name, which country you are staying in, some facts and figures, and how you became a webmanga artist.

My name is Jin Sun Oh. l live in the U.K. with my husband and our son. I am from Seoul, South Korea where I worked as an animator and a manga (manwha) artist. I decided to become a webmanga artist because I wanted to continue my original passion which is creating a manga for especially female manga fans.

2. What is your webmanga, Model Behaviour, about?

It’s about a man named Jack who works as a fashion magazine editor. He works with lots of beautiful women and is enjoying his life by simply being a womanizer but he kind of senses that he is somehow lost in life. It is basically his love story.

3. How did Model Behaviour come about, and/or what inspired you to begin Model Behaviour?

The story line was originally created more than 10 years ago when I was doodling around with ideas for my own project. I wanted to create something glamorous.

4. What do you hope to achieve through your webmanga. Model Behaviour?

I hope that I will be able to finish the story and would love to publish it. It would be great to see it on actual paper.

5. Any hints about how you are going to develop the story further?

There will be more characters appearing, especially Jack’s family and the readers will learn more about Jack’s inner side.

6. Your webmanga seems to be a little suggestive and mature in nature. Is this intended?

Yes, it was intended. Normally I don’t draw a male as a main character in my stories but in this case I thought it has to be… I felt it was necessary to show mature scenes to add more grown up elements to the whole story. Model Behaviour was created for young adult readers (not for younger teenagers).

7. Please tell us briefly how you prepare your webmanga for weekly updates.

I do all of my drawings by hand except for screentones which is done with photoshop.

8. What is the greatest challenge of being a webmanga artist for you?

It will be not missing the updates… I’ve got my hands full already as a full time mom. Sometimes I feel like I’m not even allowed to be sick. Hopefully when my little boy goes to school things will get easier.

9. What is the greatest sense of achievement of being a webmanga artist for you?

Being able to connect with readers, and being able to continue to do so. It’s a very long journey and hopefully that my manga is worthy enough for my readers to go through together till the end.

10. Any final words for our readers and aspiring webcomic artists?

There are always pros and cons in doing a webcomic. One of the good things is that you have total freedom of creating whatever you like to create and you can easily connect with readers directly. But it is a big commitment. Updating a comic regularly for a long time isn’t easy and readers can be easily bored if you miss an update. However if you are enjoying what you are doing and have creative ideas, why not? Go for it!

/***END OF EMAIL INTERVIEW***/

AnimeNewsNetwork recently shares that Shuho Sato Earns Y500,000 in Web Manga in 2010 So Far.

If you are interested in other related news (pretty old in fact), when Shuho Sato started his web manga online, he earned 100,000 yen on the first day of his launch! That’s about USD$1,090!

That’s something to look out for, if you want to be a professional webcomic artist along your journey of life.

Anyway, Shuho Sato’s webmanga is a “seinen”; which means it is catered for the mature crowd; so be sure not to look at it if you are not of legal age!

Also, AnimeNewsNetwork also reveals that manga publishers in Japan lose several billion yen last year.

This means that traditional manga magazines are losing its appeal. Maybe its time for webcomic to rise to popularity?

This is further acknowledged by Ken Akatmatsu, author of the famed Love Hina series, that says that tankobon sales fell 4.9% last year.

‘Tankobon’ generally refers to traditional paperback comics, where comics are published on paper.

Also, the manga industry in Japan is really on the decline.

I did a little study before about Shuho Satou, in his income and earnings and how he managed his expenses by managing assistants for drawing.

With the reason launch of Apple’s iPad, I really wonder if the webcomics will pick up its pace and become a profitable medium for comics or not, after seeing how the traditional mediums are faltering.

What do you think?

Some points to note:
1. ‘Seinen’ means “young adult” in Japanese literally, and it means that the comic is generally catered for the ages between 18 to 30 years old.

2. ‘Tankobon’ means “independent book” in Japanese literally; the irony is that manga is usually in series. However, it still generally referred as paperback books.

This month has it’s usually crop, some good and some bad. We get down into one of my biggest pet peeves about the average Zuda entrant and talk about a couple of Jason complaints about comics in general that I never seem to notice

We also chat a bit about Bioshock 2, the proper voice for an eagle, those aliens from Sesame Street and a bunch of other cool stuff. Plus I make about the biggest hosting error of my career so you don’t want to miss that.

Zuda Entries in Order

Scifi drive By
Techno Insecto
Aliens vs Ninja vs Samuari
Monsterplex
Divided by Seven
Gelgun
Hawkrider
Island, Alone
New Morning
Fulcrum

Other things we mentioned
Ryan Estrada
vote for Ryan Estrada
The Kind you don’t bring home to mother
The Meek
Onry Boy
Torchlight
Superfogyes
Pet Professional
Tales from the Middle Kingdom
Problems
Extra life
O
Brian