I’ve been a little busy lately folks. I’ve been working behind the scenes on something big.

Allow me to introduce it now…

So, what the hell is this? Long story short, it’s a webcomic-collective and a webcomic-news site. Similar to a cross between Lunchbox Funnies and Fleen, or Blanklabel and Comixtalk, or maybe even a Websnark and Boxcar comics-hybrid if you will…

Is this ambitious? Incredibly so. You’d have to have a lot of support and assistance to actually pull that sort of thing off right? Well, turns out there is no shortage of assistance. Let me introduce all the webcomics involved in the collective aspect of the site… the Scienteers if you will…

Cosmic Dash, Lancaster: The Ghost Detective, The Errant Apprentice, All over Migglie, Breakpoint City, Impy and Aevy, Try Everything Once and Fortissima’s Treasure Hunters.

.. and that’s not even including all of our sub-projects and other comics we may do. Although, speaking of other comics, I suppose I should mention we’ll be doing comics for the site itself, taking advantage of all of our talents. So by visiting scienteers.com you’ll not only find a hub for the latest news and information from the group, but you’ll be able to enjoy brand new collaborative comics!

So… what if you’re not quite one of the eight Scienteers? How can you benefit from the group? Simple… we’ll plug and promote anyone who asks. In addition to a fully-active news site, well be constantly scouring the Internet for comics that need a spotlight shown on them. We’ll also be running a discussion forum that allows for like-minded creators to get together and promote, discuss and advise each other on the craft. On top of this, we’ll gladly post guest articles and guest comics.

Speaking of guest comics, how sweet would a situation be where you can do a guest comic for another site that is more or less an advertisement for yourself? Send a guest comic that is entirely a sampler for your own work. Your own characters, universe and style, shown to an entirely new group of readers? We’ll be setting time aside frequently for creators to send in their own promotional stories to post! Want to advertise your newest sci-fi epic? Do a short story and send it our way, we’ll post it right at the top of the page as one of our webcomic updates! Talk about a sweet deal huh?

Unfortuantely, this won’t be launched until February first, sorry folks! Until then, you can join in the forums, talk about the site, plug your comics and ask how you can participate! We could always use writers for articles, news-scouts and people to keep the community active.

Anyway, thanks a ton for reading this guys, all of us behind this crazy new site are looking forward to launching!

See you February first!

Over the next couple of days until the site launch, expect some downtime and layout changes.

Thanks for your patience while we get things sorted, and be sure to keep sending your news and comics to us!

As of Monday, February 11, 2008 I am taking a break from The Errant Apprentice. For the last few weeks I’ve been feeling more and more stressed due to work and my personal life and I feel that EA is suffering. The readers can’t see it, but I can.
This hiatus will last until sometime in March so I can get Megacon out of the way and do some drawing for fun and experimentation. (Speaking of, if anyone will be at Megacon in Orlando March 7th - 9th, please stop by and visit me and the other Nightgigers in Artist’s Alley!)
This does not mean I’ll be resting on my laurels though! Oh no! I’ll be working to get the EA Fan Club up and running and hopefully finish the first book. I’ll also be taking requests for crazy crap to draw at some future point but more on that when it happens. Until then I’ll do the occasional Scienteer’s update. More news to follow. . .

First off, I need to mention that Night Owls has just begun a new story-arc featuring a familiar face (or lack thereof). Be sure to check it out.

Second, River City Mechanical is finally up!

Next, there’s been a discussion on the Webcomic Success Equation I started tinkering with. Anyway, the community over at The Wotch found it and started to discuss it.

Overall, it’s a mixed bag, the initial post was saying that the formula seemed pretty accurate, but dissenting opinions seemed to appear rather quickly soon after. I’ll go ahead and post some of the choice arguments here.

(more…)

Okay, it’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Troy Smith’s comic, Scandal Sheet. So I’m delighted to report the news that after a hiatus of a few months, he’s back and better than ever!

For those of you new to the scene, the comic documents the trials of Foster Hearst, reporter for the Comet what is thought to be the sleaziest rag on the market. Let’s just say that it’s so bad makes the Weekly World News look PLAUSIBLE.

What most people don’t know is that the tabloid is a front for a secret organization sworn to protect the world’s mysteries by writing about them … because if it’s in the tabloids, it can’t be true, right?

With a zany cast of characters and a great story, this four-panel comic may be simply drawn, but it has a lot of heart. And for me, the story is where it’s at.

Thursday’s featured comic is The Chronicles of Wyrden!
It all starts when Talon and Isadora are interrupted in a delicate moment… by Isadora’s husband, the Lord Governor of the city. Luckily for the handsome Talon this isn’t an unusual happening, and he escapes. Unluckily for Isadora, she’s now banished to a convent. Oops! A rather unlikely assembly of characters sets out to save her… Some early filler, but steady on - lovely art, great story, humorous and fun! (Definitely rated M!)

Lots of milestones today, let’s get right to it shall we?

Hitting 50 pages last week was Crossoville, a fun photocomic by Llama_Comic!

Hitting 75 pages is omegasonic0’s Sonic Meets Megaman! (Specifically, July 14th, 2008, at 5:35pm EST)

Rule of Three by Rule_of_Three has hit the big 100! (Thanks to her frient PyThomas for telling me!)

Double that (200 for math-impaired folks) we’ve got arteestx’s very adult Xolta! (That’s a lot of boobs, I wonder if there’s an equation for it…)

Hitting the even bigger 2-5-0 is ghostrunner’s Grin ‘n Spirit!

Stickman and Cube by Pieguy259 turned 1 year old on Tuesday! Davekrill also has a bouncing 1-year-old (as of the 11th) with The Adventures of Toast and Pie! Happy Birthday to youse~

Just a heads up, while Shane over at Comic Dish should be doing the next and future Comic Dish posts on here. That being said, I popped on this week’s episode!

So please drop by Comic Dish, or The Dish episode archive to give it a listen!

We have a special guest with us tonight..you’ll have to listen in to find out who!(ps, this person has never been on the dish before!!)

Webcomic Convention to be held in Second life…
wheeeee!

Wowio and Platinum seal the deal.

The order of the stick is releasing another compilation.

Filk performer Tom Smith was hospitalized recently. There is a fundraiser going on to help him out while he’s out of work.

Nintendo says that they are no longer targeting their core gamer audience through the E3.

COMIC REVIEW:
None this week

DISCUSSION:
I’ll be totally honest, the dish really geeked out this week.  Instead of discussing webcomics, we were naughty and talked about the video game industry both past and present.

Also, under news, I covered our newest member and the CCP.