Dave Kellett had a hoppin' party this past Sunday night for the launch of his new Sheldon book, "Pure Ducky Goodness". Here's a write-up of the event and some great pictures.

Anime Con News has a story on the ill-fated Con No Baka which got shut down in progress by the hotel it took place in.

You can read the convention's apology to guests and to dealers online. Reading this you can't help but feel a little for the organizer, Aaron Yorgason, but it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people want their money back and it doesn't look like he has much to return at this point.

Just yesterday, creator Derrick Fish announced on his website that he could not find the inspiration to keep writing Dandy & Company.

He explains further on his site:

I’ve been delaying this decision for weeks now. In many ways, since July when my marriage came to an end, I’ve been trying really hard to keep my energy and creativity up on a story that has so much to do with my married life.

I’ve been working with Dandy, Bernard and the gang for over 20 years now in one way or another, and I have no doubt that i’ll return to this universe soon enough. But for now, I just don’t have it in me to keep it going just for the sake of doing so. I don’t want the strip or the characters to suffer, and the best way to do that is to step away from it for a while.

In celebration of the holiday season, Zoinks! Magazine is offering a special reduced rate of only $1.00 (plus shipping) per issue when signing up for 6-issues between December 4, 2005 and December 31, 2005. Zoinks! is a bimonthly magazine featuring print work from webcomics creators and articles about webcomics.

I was reading Joe Zabel's interview with Tracy White and saw her mention that she used to do comics for a website called Gurl.com. Gurl.com still publishes webcomics (and in fact has a link for folks to send in their work) with, of course, a primary focus on the interests of teenage girls.

Carson Fire has a new webcomic called Winger about "Shelf Life Books" a smallish mega-bookstore chain and features: Dab Winger (described as an unconventional conservative), Minion Marlowe (described as [about as] likely to be picketing outside the store as pushing Chomsky on unsuspecting customers.) and Ollie Oxenfree (described as a [former] card-carrying communist who more recently has shown some disturbing right-wing tendencies himself).

With two episodes out so far, it's clear Fire has no intention of being subtle with this effort. David Willis posted a note comparing it to Chris Crosby's Sore Thumbs. In terms of broad-brush caricature of political stereotypes, that's not a bad reference point.

Joey Manley tell us: In this week’s Webhead column over at Comicon Pulse, I look at webcomics drama — back-biting, flamewars, gossip, and intrigue. You know you love it! I also call out the five biggest trouble-makers in webcomics. By name. Are you one of them?

Go, now, read!

A new essay is posted on the differences in spatial representation between Japanese manga and American comics at Emaki.net. Also new is a blog for extended thoughts on comic theory and the projects of Neil Cohn.