I made a newsblogpost this morning about how to use PHP to determine a previous and next comic and create the proper link. Here's the permalink.

Very rudimentary; very old, inefficient code; knowledge of PHP required, but it's free, useful info.

Toon Radio has acquired the rebroadcast rights to the Fanboy Radio talk show.

Toon Radio is an internet radio station that specializes in animation soundtracks from around the world. Toon Radio is a proud member of the Audiorealm Radio Network and SWCI. Toon Radio operates out of Buffalo, New York.

Fanboy Radio (FbR) is a radio talk show about the comic book industry, its art, creators, and fans. Each week, two hours of comics commentary are highlighted by insider interviews with top creators, news, and live calls from listeners like you.

Danny O'Brien has a great post on what it means to be sort-of-famous today. A fairly relevant question to many aspiring webtoonists:

The old "famous for fifteen people" joke isn't quite right. I imagine the majority of people have always been famous (or at least known fairly well liked) by that number. But there are plenty more people who are what Carl Steadman first identified as microcelebrities: famous for fifteen hundred people, say.

And fifteen hundred very thinly distributed people too. One person in every town in Britain likes your dumb online comic. That's enough to keep you in beers (or T-shirt sales) all year.

I'm excerpting the Sim-relevant part of Gaiman's post here but go take a look at Mr. Gaiman's blog as well, ok?

I don't want to be rude, but when are you going to talk about Cerebus?

Well, it was going to be at length in the same post that I talked about Gene Wolfe's The Wizard and the new Diana Wynne Jones book. But that one hasn't happened yet, mostly because I fell asleep on both of the plane journeys to and from Mythcon, so didn't get the writing time I'd hoped for.

So the long Cerebus post will have to wait. Still, I think it might be a good idea to kickstart the meme from the Cerebus post-that-hasn't-been written yet, and leave out all the stuff around it:

Amongst many other things, in Dave Sim's Cerebus (which is a story that took Dave and his partner-in-art Gerhard 300 issues to tell) he did, in the Women storyline, easily the best parody of Sandman anyone's ever done, as various members of the Cerebus cast of characters become Snuff, Swoon and the rest of the Clueless. It was wickedly funny, and had the author of Sandman curling his toes when he read it.

Dave Sim has made an extremely generous offer to readers of this journal (and indeed, to readers not of this journal, but just people who simply hear about his offer elsewhere on the Internet. Memes propagate, after all), which is the kind of offer that I found as interesting as he did. It's this:

If you'd like to read one of the Sandman parody issues of Cerebus, Dave will send you one. He'll send it to you very happily, free of charge. He will sign it for you, too. And he won't charge you a thing. Not even postage.

And if you're wondering what the catch is, it's this: Dave wants to know (as, I have to admit, do I) how many of the people out there in internet-land will actually go and do things that don't involve passively clicking on a link and going somewhere interesting. So what you have to do is write Dave a letter (not an e-mail. Dave doesn't have e-mail) telling him that you read that he'll send you a signed Cerebus, and telling him why you'd like him to send you a copy. It's as easy as that. And, quite possibly as difficult.

The address to write to is:

Aardvark Vanaheim, Inc
P.O. Box 1674 Station C
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 4R2

Dave, I suspect, thinks he'll get a handful of requests. In my more pessimistic moments, I think he's right, although I'd love it if he got deluged with letters, like those kids in hospitals who don't exist but are still collecting postcards...

We have a second-part of the plan too, which involves doing good things for the CBLDF. But that's for later. For now, if you're even mildly curious, write Dave a letter. Tell him you're curious...

(And for those of you who aren't sure if they want to risk having to go and find a stamp, you could go and look at http://www.cerebusfangirl.com/ -- and at http://www.cerebusfangirl.com/stories/stories.html you can even read several Cerebus short stories from Epic Illustrated, or the four pager from Alan Moore and partners' AARGH anthology.)

(But once you've read them, write Dave the letter. Don't forget to put your address on it, or to say why you'd like him to send you a signed Cerebus comic. And feel very very free to pass the word on to the comics news-sites or groups, or just to anywhere that people who might be interested congregate.)

Kindred Spirits by Ben Wooler is an interesting essay on public advocates of the comics form including novelist Michael Chabon and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.

August 9, 2004-- The Webcomics Examiner August issue premieres today with a new feature and a new writer.

Listed in our 'reviews' section is an inauspicious item, 'Snapshots' by the Examiner staff. This is a gateway to a page of short reviews covering a wider range of comics beyond those generally receiving feature-length treatment.

A new face on the reviewing front is Miguel Estrugo, best known for his comic series Alice Otter.

The Webcomics Examiner is a monthly forum of reviews, interviews, and critical articles evaluating webcomics as a fine art. The free-access website is at http://webcomicsreview.com.

The latest issue features an interview with The Circle Weave creator Indigo Kelleigh, and an animated cover by Melbourne artist Kirrily Schell. It includes critical reviews of 'Louis: Red Letter Day' by Metaphrog, 'Scary Go Round' by John Allison, 'Copper' by Kazu Kibuishi, 'Framed' by Damonk, 'Desert Rocks' by JJ Naas, and 'The Gods of Arr-Kelaan' by Chuck Rowles. The Snapshots column focuses on artists associated with the upcoming print anthology Flight.

Press contact: Joe Zabel,