TWIW Presents: A Farewell to Multiplex

Today, Gordon McAlpin's webcomic Multiplex concluded after twelve years. Long-time TWIW followers know I've been a huge fan of Multiplex since its earliest days. I just had to dust off This Week of Webcomics to deliver a rambling vlog tribute to the comic and share some of my favorite Multiplex memories.

And good news: there's still gonna be more Multiplex. Back the pilot episode of the Multiplex 10 Animated Series on Kickstarter and help make it happen!

What are your favorite Multiplex strips and memories?

Just The First Frame

Just The First Frame is a cool way to find new webcomics. It's an aggregation of the first frame of recently-updated strips--if a frame catches your interest, you simply click through to view the whole comic. The site is maintained and updated by one comic enthusiast, Henry Kuo, who was recently interviewed by Larry "El Santo" Cruz of The Webcomic Overlook. Check it out!

Press Release: Intervention '11

Hi, everybody. I received the following press release last week about Intervention, an internet culture convention, and it looked like an interesting con. I'm a big fan of the internet, not just for webcomics but for all sorts of information and cool things, and the guest list for Intervention includes such awesome online cartooning humans as Dave Reddick, Steve Napierski, T. Campbell, and Chris Flick. The con's September 16-18, in Rockville, MD, so if you're around the area, you may want to check it out!

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Press Release:
INTERVENTION CONVENTION BRINGS CYBER-LIFE TO REAL LIFE

Event brings creators and fans together for weekend of learning and fun

ROCKVILLE, MD: Intervention, taking place at the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville in Rockville, MD, from September 16-18, 2011, is an indie creator and geek culture convention for the Internet generation. One part conference, one part fandom event, Intervention aims to provide both creators and fans a venue to learn, appreciate, and celebrate the opportunities technology provides.

“James [Harknell] and I wanted to put together an event that would complement the existing print-centric conventions – we wanted to showcase the creators who use the Internet as their primary publishing method,” says convention founder Onezumi Hartstein. “I went to conventions for years to promote my webcomic, and was always treated well, but felt that web creators needed their own space. We’re giving them that with Intervention.” After a very successful first run in 2010, this year will mark Hartstein's second time organizing the event.

Over thirty guests are currently scheduled to attend, bringing three days of panels and educational workshops. Fans of all stripes are also encouraged to submit their own cutting-edge programming, showcase their own works, and schedule their own meetups at the event. A special track of children's programming will be overseen by Matt Blum, managing editor of the GeekDad blog on Wired.com.

Sponsored by Think Geek (www.thinkgeek.com), Wacom (www.wacom.com), Foam Brain Games (www.foambrain.com), Smith Micro (www.smithmicro.com), 4Imprint (www.4imprint.com), Squishable (www.squishable.com), Toy Vault (www.toyvault.com), LH Productions (www.lighthouseprod.com), and Bawls Guarana (http://www.bawls.com) the convention will also feature video and board gaming, an extensive Artist Alley, live action roleplay (LARP), musical performances, a Steampunk-themed dance, and plenty of giveaways. A charity auction will benefit the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org), a civil liberties group that aims to defend freedom on the Internet.

Tickets for Intervention can be bought at http://www.interventioncon.com for $40 for the full weekend (through August 31, 2011). Tickets bought at the door will cost $45, with single-day rates available. More information about guests and events can be found at http://www.interventioncon.com.

F CHORDS IS BACK

We interrupt your regularly scheduled me-not-blogging-about-webcomics to bring you this important announcement: FCHORDS FCHORDS FCHORDS.



F Chords is back and more frequent than ever. Kris Straub's strip about two studio musicians who play radio advertising jingles by day and dream of rock stardom by night has found a special place in my heart, and I am jazzed out of my mind that it is updating FIVE TIMES A WEEK. Five times. That is more than three times. I am about to pee my pants here.

I have never formally reviewed F Chords on this blog because I have been too busy gushing about it. You may read my resounding endorsements in this entry and this entry. But before you read my resounding endorsements, you should go read F Chords.

F Chords.

Sketch Comedy

So there's this great new webcomic. It's called Sketch Comedy, and it's by me.

I suppose this has been a long time coming, but I've wanted to get back to doing a comic regularly. You probably could have guessed it, between the illustrations, the comic-form TWIW posts and finally the more-or-less monthly updates for the past half-year or so. Much as I like blogging about comics, the creators are the real heroes here: they keep the webcomics coming day in and day out. They give us something to talk about. And I figured it's about time to throw my hat back in with 'em and start doing comics regularly again.

Sketch Comedy is still, oftentimes, a medium for me to talk about comics. Wes Molebash (Wesdraws.com) has appeared in a Sketch Comedy strip to give advice on community-building, and Gordon McAlpin (Multiplex) makes an appearance in one of the first strips. It is an inexorable vortex of meta.

Sketch Comedy updates on Tuesdays and Fridays, so stop by and check it out.

All I Want for Christmas is Webcomics, 3: I Got All Types of Crazy Crap

Okay, so it's December 22nd. Holiday shipping deadlines are passing left and right. Topatoco can't even guarantee delivery by December 25th if you shell out the hundred bucks for next-day air! It's too late to order any of the sweet comic anthologies or tongue-in-cheek t-shirts that your favorite webcomics blogger recommended, and that little turd still hasn't written his promised third installment of his Webcomics Gift-Giving Guide! What are you to do?

Well, have no fear. There is hope for you yet.

I have said before that MS Paint Adventures has the best soundtrack of any webcomic out there, and the cool thing is that you can purchase much of that soundtrack on the nine albums available at homestuck.bandcamp.com. Tracks range from electronica to ambient experimental electronica to instrumental/orchestral with a dose of electronica, but in my opinion the standout album is Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead.

Drawing Dead is a concept album inspired by MSPA's gang of playing-card-suit-inspired mobsters the Midnight Crew--and ostensibly performed by them too. It features contemporary noir jazz that evokes both early-90s adventure games and 1940s detective flicks, and it will make you feel like a gangsta. (We're talking pinstripe-suit gangsta, of course. Not the other kind.)

The jams are slick, compositions are tight, and at its best it'll remind you of a Dave Brubeck tune. Best of all, you get 18 tracks for $5.25, and you can sample the full album before you buy. Give it a spin, buy it and burn it for your white elephant gift at your office Christmas party, or buy a couple different Homestuck albums for the MSPA fan on your Christmas list. Bam! And you're ready for the holidays.

I also wanted to mention one of the most creative webcomic products that I've seen all year: Dr. McNinja Battle Magnets. These feature the heroes and villains of Dr. McNinja in various action poses, ready to square off against each other on any metal surface. They look great and are every bit as crazy as the comic, and if you were to get me a set I would not object in the slightest.

If war is an art, these are the combat equivalent of magnetic poetry for your 'fridge. Get one of the two sets (seven magnets each) for $12, or buy both sets for $22 and get a secret bonus character too.

And that concludes your 2010 Webcomics Gift-Giving Holiday Guide Thing. I'm Jackson Ferrell, shameless webcomics promoter, wishing you a merry Christmas and happy holidays. Stay cool, and I'll see you in the new year.