People often ask me why we don't talk more about the things that are going on in the web comics community. They want to know what I think about the Daily Grind or whatever. So I will now give you my own little web comics news update.
The daily grind seems like an interesting idea. I'm not really sure it's a fair competition. I mean some of the comics I see in there are just stick figures. I'm not sure Bob stick guy should be up against Mr. full color comic book page. Personally I am rooting for Kurtz. Essentially he just has to keep doing the job he already gets paid to do and he'll win.
Squidi announced that he's going to be the father of a baby girl. From one new Dad to another I'd just like say congratulations. I hope she's happy and healthy man.
There was some controversy over at Keenspot this weekend. One of their artists decided she didn't want pictures of boys kissing on her website and so she took it upon herself to remove the keenspot ad box. Keenspot came out and said she was within her rights to do so since they failed to provide an alternative ad. I was honestly surprised to see such a reasonable response come from a company run by a grown man who lives in an abandoned elementary school with his mom. Actually I think I saw a horror movie like that once.
A much less reasonable response came from Websnark. If you don't draw a webcomic you probably have no idea who that is. Imagine a guy who writes a blog where he consistently overanalyzes webcomics. I guess you could say he's sort of like a poor mans Scott McCloud. In his latest article over at Comixpedia he claims to have invented fiction with a handful of other internet pioneers. Bravo.
Anyway, He called the Keenspot artist a bigot and told everyone the reason she removed the ad was because it was "Gay Positive". This was total fucking speculation on his part and his remarks actually started controversy where there wasn't any before. People including Scott Kurtz took him to task in his forum and he eventually posted a sort of apology. If you asked me what I thought of websnark I'd tell you that "he reflects the creative energy of real artists". But I guess you didn't ask me.
The thread over at the Keenspot forums about the whole thing is actually pretty funny. Apparently someone let Bobby Crosby out of his cage and the kid just goes fucking nuts. His Keenspot masters try and rein him in but his psycho rants against Scott Kurtz go on for a good twelve pages. As far as I can tell the only reason Chris keeps him around is so that people will look at Bobby and say "Chris must be the talented brother."
-Gabe out
