Bill Roundy Summarizes Christmas

Buttersnatch Preview #2

The next several pages of Lord Buttersnatch's Fairy Detective Troop are up. I'm calling this a preview since we're not yet into the meat of the story, but Adrien has some amazingly lovely artwork, depicting the crumbling fairy capital of Arcadia City.

New material (Act I, scene I) here

or

Start at the beginning

I Love Dinosaur Comics

Zombies v. Vampires

The Economy

Still trying to figure out what happened to the economy?

This American Life told it best here and especially here.

But for those of you who prefer everything in the form of crudely drawn comics, then have I got the powerpoint slide show for you.

A Softer World

I forget about A Softer World for a couple months and then I catch up and I wonder how I ever let it go. It manages to channel the bleakest sense of humor of anything I've ever seen. It's not dark, not morbid, but bleak, mournful, resigned. It's like the soldiers in the trench, cracking jokes about catching crabs. The world is ending and the meaninglessness of it all is laid bare, so you might as well fart.





















As much as I hate it, don't neglect the alt text.

Robin in the Rye

I don't know why this exists, but it pleases me greatly.

Who's Feeding Shawn, December 2008

I'm talking rss and lj feeds, of course. I eat food because of New Jersey medical schools.

Hold the Reset Button, Arlo and Janis, A Softer World, Devil's Panties, Freak Angels, Garfield Minus Garfield, We the Robots, Comic Foundry (r.i.p.), Myriad Issues, Rocketship, The Beat, Warren Ellis, act_i_vate, Doonesbury, Sinfest, Webcomics, Achewood, Calvin and Hobbes, Cat and Girl, Dinosaur Comics, Official Gaiman, Perry Bible Fellowship, Questionable Content, Something Positive, Unshelved, Wondermark, xkcd, and I get email updates (like a savage beast) from The Amazing Adventures of Bill

More on comics v. television

Tucker Stone has a few ideas about using the creative process behind television as a model for comics. I'd argue that the problem he presents has a lot more to with DC's editorial decisions than comics as a whole, but it's worth a read.

Also, someday soon I'll finally do the post bitching about DC's editorial decisions.

http://www.comixology.com/articles/162/Family-Meeting

Gaiman Explains Things Well

If you're out of the loop on comics in legal news, then you may have missed the arrest of Christopher Handley. The case is unique because he's not a retailer nor an artist, but a collector jailed because he was found to own materials considered distasteful. The CBLDF is acting as special consultant, but the case is especially tricky to defend because the art contains pornographic images of children and the material described is obscene by virtually all standards of decency. It's the kind of case that has stalwart first amendment advocates asking, "Is this worth defending?"

The answer, of course, is that the question is never,"Is this obscene?" but always,"Why do we have the first amendment?"

I'd go on, but really Neil Gaiman explains why we must "defend the indefensible" better than I ever could. He touches upon the history of censorship (particularly in relation to comics). It's a moving piece and I highly recommend you take a few minutes to read it.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/12/why-defend-freedom-of-icky-speech.html