Join us for where the wild things are...

Breaking Out of The Norm by Use of Penguin

This month I thought I'd do something out of the ordinary, and write a column about comics.

I know, I know...a Blue View column about comics? It surprised me, too, but I heard Berke Breathed's got a new comic debuting on November 23rd, and I wanted to write about it.

It's gonna suck.

It's late. It's dark. Your tiny hometown seems deserted and beautiful and a little spooky. The wonder of it seeps into your bones. So what do you do? If you're Robert D. Krzykowski, you set a horror movie there. And while you're storyboarding the movie, you might was well make the storyboards nice and neat and publish them as a scary little horror comic.

In 1999, there were a number of webcomics in regular publication, but nothing like the vast number of creators today. It was before Keenspot and Modern Tales, when the webcomic community was a much smaller world. In this smaller universe of webcomics, creators seemed more aware of their fellow peers, more prone to help each other out, and more likely to collaborate with one another. There were crossovers between webcomics, guest art for other webcomics, and on April 1st of 1999, Terrence Marks organized the first Great April Fools' Webcomic Swap, where webcomic creators surprised their readers by swapping webcomics with other creators for a day.

Stickler and Hat-trick, in association with the Comixpedia present…

Stickler and Hat-trick at the Keyboard

This week, they review Jason thomson's THE STIFF

(Tonight's show is sponsored by Great Googly Moogly contact lenses. You WILL see better. Now available in cat eyes!)

STICKER: Welcome to "Stickler and Hat-Trick At the Keyboard!"
HAT-TRICK: I know you all have been dying for another review from us.
S: Why do you say that?
HT: I see the "most read article" link. I know we are not as popular as we should be.
S: Getting any kind of recognition takes time. Provided we put out quality product every month and-
HT: SHOW US THE LOVE!
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: *slithering out from underneath the couch* SHOW US THE REVIEW FIRST.
HT: Eep!
S: Okay…
HT: *sigh* I'm so tired.

Lee Adam Herold has been delighting and horrifying webcomic lovers with Chopping Block for the past three years, and what better time than Halloween to sit down and have a chat with him. Recently, David Wright of Todd and Penguin managed to get Herold to spill his guts about such diverse topics as his new book and plush doll, his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, his religious faith, and his love of goth babes.

Somewhere amidst all that they even discussed the comic.

Read part 2 of this interview here.