2/6: Week in Review

All right--it's finally time to get down to the news. In the words of Vanilla Ice: straight to the point, to the point no fakin', cookin' MCs like a pound of bacon.

First of all, Blank It continues to be awesome, with Aric making an ill-fated attempt to walk on water, after which Lemmo has to fish him out. One commenter remarked that Blank It is probably best read in large bursts at a time, and I think there may be something to what he says; since my initial blitz through the archives, it has seemed to move much slower as I check it once or twice a week. Also in Blank It news, the comic's creators (also named Lemmo and Aric) were interviewed this week by Peter Trinh of Webcomicsnation. The interview is of interest to Blank It fans, of course, but the comic's two creators also shared some insights into the general state of webcomics and the dynamic between creativity and stagnancy in the webcomic community.

On a related note, Applied Living has begun updating again. I first came across Applied Living sometime early last year, and it has several similarities to Blank It: a freewheeling and spontaneous approach to its subject, an eagerness to play games with the fourth wall, and characters who serve as avatars for the comic's two co-creators, among others. However, AL's Shaun Meyers and Dave Olson put their comic on temporary hiatus several months ago, and have only recently returned to it. It's a fun comic with good art, so I'm hoping that their second shot at regular updates is a fruitful one. We'll see how things go for them.

Over at Calamities of Nature, Ferd the groundhog has been running a campaign to make Groundhog Day a national holiday, and on Monday, readers saw exactly what came of his efforts. Additionally, Calamities recently unveiled the blogs of its four main characters, and the Groundhog's-Day-related entries on Ferd's blog had me in absolute hysterics. I particularly recommend the entry "Famous Groundhogs in History."

And now for a few quick shots of cartooning excellence before I depart:

• Technically last week's news, but as a guy who struggles with perfectionism, this Cat and Girl comic touched a chord in my heart with Grrl's sentiments about the value of honest, competent imperfection. There's something to be said for a good faith effort, sans artificial polish and sheen.


• Monday's Book of Biff was clever, but it's the accompanying cartoonist's notes that really drive the joke home. Plus, the fact that Biff's "discount book" is a rocket design manual is a nice touch for regular Biff readers.


• Nobody Scores usually features three or four good jokes scattered throughout its infinite-canvas tales of extended calamity, but I'm pretty sure Monday's installment ("Nobody Scores with Kryptonite") was the first NS ever to not make me laugh until the final panel--and then to just about knock me out laughing with the visual punchline. Honestly, if you only read one link from this post, read this comic.

And as always, if there's a comic you particularly enjoyed this week, we'd love for you to drop a comment and share it with us. Plus, don't forget to check out Peter Metzger's new weekly column here on TWIW. Have a good weekend, everyone!