I’d fallen behind on everything that’s being offered at Thrillbent recently, which was a mistake considering the new material that’s joined Mark Waid and Peter Krause’s Insufferable in recent weeks. Being a Leverage and Dungeons & Dragons fan (The IDW series of the same name for the latter, sadly; start talking to me about 20-sided die and I’ll just have to nod politely and shamefully admit that I’m lost), it’s no surprise that Arcanum is a particular favorite standing out for me amongst the new strips, thanks to the presence of writer John Rogers. As is his wont – as listeners of the Leverage 10 podcast or readers of Rogers’ Kung-Fu Monkey know – he’s not only writing the new magic invasion series, but writing about the series, spilling beans and lifting the curtain on some of the thinking behind it to give the rest of us a peek. Here’s Rogers selling the series in one simple paragraph:

If anything even vaguely resembling alien tech were discovered, you’d see the US government immediately put two programs in play: 1.) a Manhattan project to unravel the broken physics of said tech and 2.) a secret military/intelligence agency to keep tabs on it. Just substitute “magic” into those sentences and you have Arcanum.

You can find those process blog posts here and the actual Arcanum comic here. Both are recommended.

When I was reading the new Bite Me collection from Dylan Meconis the other week, I thought to myself Someone should hire Dylan to write something, she’s just ridiculously talented as a writer. Lo and behold, someone had already had that same idea: She’s just been announced as a staff writer for Scott Kurtz’ PVP:

I’m really excited to be working with Scott on PvP. I’ve been an avid reader for years, but when Cory [Casoni, PVP brand manager and director of business development] and Scott invited me to fill in, I was surprised by how natural it felt to step into the world of the strip. Being asked to continue as a regular contributor is a delight, not least of all because I might get to talk Scott into drawing things I’ve always wanted to see, like Brent riding a llama. Writing for a beloved daily strip like PvP is a big departure from my previous projects. I’m used to toiling over long stories without the benefit of a collaborator, much less one with the talent and experience of a Scott Kurtz. I can’t wait to see the results.

The current storyline is already benefiting from her touch; as the webcomic celebrates its fifteenth anniversary, Kurtz says that “In just a couple of writing sessions, Dylan and I have laid down the broad strokes for some exciting changes in the PvP comic strip. This is only the beginning of what’s to come. We have big plans, a lot is going to change, and the future of PvP is bright!”

Bad Machinery‘s John Allison considers the state of the modern webcomic:

There are people who put all their work up on Tumblr, and don’t put it anywhere else. It’s so easy! Drag and drop! Their comics exist, contextless, in a stream of other people’s work. They’re measured by a meritocracy of Notes, Re-blogs and hearts. They have little control over the environment in which their work is displayed. Pageviews on a website are how you make money. A website is a venue to curate your work. It’s how you get someone to PAY ATTENTION TO YOU AND ONLY YOU.

Art isn’t democratic. It doesn’t take place in a caring, sharing environment. It is a huge “look at me”. We are the pre-schoolers who can still point at what we’ve done and get a sticker, and we want to keep getting those stickers forever.

I would never decry any service as worthless. There are people who have caught mass attention via Tumblr, and sold great piles of things as a result. There’s a use for everything, and an exception to every rule. The exceptions are the reasons that others try. But Tumblr sets the bar of success incredibly low. The payout will almost always be zero. Not beer money, nothing.

The whole thing is well worth your time. Go, read.

If you have an iPad and an interest in comics that extends beyond the Big Two, may I draw your attention to Symbolia, which launches today…?:

Symbolia is a bi-monthly digital magazine dedicated to incendiary storytelling from around the world. We’re merging longform journalism and sequential art to create an entirely new digital news experience. Subscriptions are $11.99 for 6 issues, and single issues will be available for $2.99 a pop. Our preview issue is free, and comes with any subscription.Symbolia’s preview issue features incredible stories from around the globe, including:

• Susie Cagle’s thoughtful exploration of California’s Salton Sea.
• A look at life in Iraqi Kurdistan by Sarah Glidden.
• Kat Fajardo and Audrey Quinn on evolution and a fish called “The White Man’s Office” in the Lower Congo River.
• The bold history of Zambian Psychadelic Rock, by Chris A. Smith and Damien Scogin.
• Andy Warner and Lauren Sommer tour the millions of microflora in our guts.

If you don’t have an iPad but want to read this kind of thing, don’t worry; they’re working on eBook editions for Amazon, Nook, and Google stores, as well as stand-alone Kindle and Android apps. This could be the start of something awesome, really.

Courtesy of the Forbidden Planet blog, here’s something to while away the weekend: The archive of recipe comics from Saveur magazine, in which all manner of webcomic greats (Nedroid! Lucy Knisley! David Malki! Linda Park, whose strip that is above!) serve up favorite foods and how to make them. I love this kind of thing in general – it helps that I’m trying to learn to cook properly this year, so recipes are currently on my mind a lot – but these strips in particular are just a ridiculous amount of fun. Go wild and eat well this weekend, why don’t you…?

Launching today is Sparkshooter, a new webcomic by ‘Rama alum Troy Brownfield and Sarah Vaughn about friendship, music and doing what you have to, because it’s what you love. In case today’s first episode isn’t enough to whet your appetite, I talked to Troy about what to expect from the story as it unfolds, where it comes from, and why now is the time for Sarah Vaughan. (more…)

I keep coming back to this Warren Ellis post about the state of web comics, digital comics, and why they’re different things for different audiences, and feeling like there’s something I’m missing in it. Not that it’s badly written, because it’s not – It’s Ellis, after all – but it feels incomplete, somehow, and I can’t work out why. File under Food For Thought, definitely (Anyone interested in comics that aren’t just print, which should really be anyone interested in comics as a medium at this point, you should go and read it, if you haven’t already), but this part bears repeating:

Also, it’s a hell of a lot easier to take your time telling a story when you’re not charging people.

And, while there’s a smile in that comment, there’s also a degree of truth.  Compressing comics down to twenty pages, nineteen pages, probably eight or ten or twelve pages when people get to producing original material through digital comics services… while it’ll certainly make a nice change for a lot of people, after a decade of spacious and airy commercial comics, I’m compelled to point out that the crushed-in nature of commercial comics in the 1970s was one of the driving forces behind the big changes to the commercial medium that came in the 80s.  People were desperate for longer episodes and arcs that allowed them to tell stories more novelistically – and, in large part, they did that by using the then-new process of selling to the direct sales comics store market.

We’re all looking at compression techniques now, because we need them for commercial comics and we’re going to need them for digital comics.

It’s not just digital comics, I’d argue; with both DC and Marvel essentially formalizing “20 pages” as the length of a comic book now in the same way that 22 pages was the formalized length previously, comics in general are going to become more compressed in future.

Also, Ellis is totally right about American Flagg and how essential and overlooked it is.

by Manning/Ross/McKinley/Reddington/Shadowline

by Manning/Ross/McKinley/Reddington/Shadowline!

Over at The Comics Journal, Shaenon Garrity runs through the history of webcomics, from origin to… well, the future, perhaps:

Webcomics are, in fact, becoming memes; the most successful are those that can flee their original context and put a girdle round the earth, skipping from format to format.  T Campbell argues that graphic/text memes like Hipster Ariel (look it up) are effectively comics.  What’s more, they’re comics anyone can produce, publish, and share in minutes.

Is this the future of webcomics: stick figures and screencaps that can fit to an iPhone?  Maybe, but at the same time, good webcomics are better than ever.

There’s an argument to be made that webcomics may end up being the future of comics, so this is definitely an interesting read – and something I’d like to see expanded upon, to be honest.

TALES OF MR. RHEE is brought to you by . . .
Dirk Manning (Writer)
Josh Ross (Artist)
Austin McKinley (Colors)
Jim Reddington (Letters)
Image Comics/Shadowline (Publisher/Overlord)

by Manning/Ross/McKinley/Reddington/Shadowline

Internet! Drop everything and go and read Lady Sabre & The Pirates of The Ineffable Aether. Today sees the first installment of a new webcomic by Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett, two names that should be enough alone to demonstrate how worth your time the strip will be. But in case you’re needing more persuasion, there’s also something that I’m hoping continues with future installments: The strip itself is accompanied by the script for that episode, allowing for us to enjoy Rucka’s wordsmanship. “The boot, obviously, is somewhat incongruous when compared to the fabulous gown that Sabre is wearing,” indeed.

(The strip updates Mondays and Thursdays, and I’ll be happily checking out each new episode.)

By Manning/Ross/McKinley/Reddington/Shadowline!

By Manning/Ross/McKinley/Reddington/Shadowline Comics

TALES OF MR. RHEE is by
Dirk Manning
Josh Ross
Austin McKinley
Jim Reddington
and Shadowline & Image Comics

by Manning/Ross/McKinley/Reddington/Shadowline

Need to catch up? Find TALES OF MR. RHEE in the left-side index under Webcomics for all previous chapters!

TALES OF MR. RHEE is from . . .
Dirk Manning (Writer)
Josh Ross (Artist)
Austin McKinley (Colors)
Jim Reddington (Letters)
Image Comics/Shadowline (Publisher/Overlord)

TALES OF MR. RHEE is from . . .
Dirk Manning (Writer)
Josh Ross (Artist)
Austin McKinley (Colors)
Jim Reddington (Letters)
Image Comics/Shadowline (Publisher/Overlord)

TALES OF MR. RHEE is from . . .
Dirk Manning (Writer)
Josh Ross (Artist)
Austin McKinley (Colors)
Jim Reddington (Letters)
Image Comics/Shadowline (Publisher/Overlord)