Yes, Ice is updated! I was a little swamped with work yesterday, and then we had a mini-hurricane and it knocked out the library's power, so I couldn't get the pages copied... but it's updated now. Three new pages. And I'm going to try and take it weekly for the moment, because I actually have some time right now, and I think I should.

I do have some comments about these pages... so if you want, go read them, then head on back here.

Something that has always impressed me from organizing the Create a Comic Project (CCP) is the level of support it's received from the general webcomic community. I've contacted dozens of creators, asking them permission to use their comics to teach urban youths, and received overwhelmingly positive replies.

This reflects well on the attitudes underlying today's webcomic culture: the "me first" attitude prevalent in many parts of the entertainment industry have not yet become widespread among webcomic creators. This is likely due to what Ryan North said was the "humbling" experience of being a star in the Internet, but being a regular guy in the real world.

This also indicates an as yet untapped potential among creators: a move towards greater real world visibility through community outreach by volunteering. As Scott McCloud noted in Reinventing Comics: "public perception matters." And there are few things that can create a positive public perception better than community service.

COMIXTALK MAGAZINE UPDATES

• Lots of articles up this morning to kick off the November issue of Comixtalk: interviews with Howard Tayler, the new Halfpixel crew, comics creator and writer Debbie Ridpath Ohi and comics artist Ramón Pérez; Doctor Haus reviews the webcomic Slackerz, and two feature articles: one from Patric Lewandowski examining the definition of comics, and one from Tim Broderick with advice on writing a query letter to publishers.

BUSINESS

• Todd Allen has an interview with Joey Manley and one of the investors in the new ComicSpace venture.

ZUDA, ZUDA, ZUDA!

• David Gallagher writes about writing for Zuda.
• Brian Hibbs Abhay Khosla writes about the Zuda interface (and something about why webcomics should aim to be more disreputable than the print comics he sells.)
• Paul O'Brien gives Zuda a grade of a C+. Seems early for report cards?
• Highway 62 focuses on the actual webcomics up on Zuda.
• Newsarama has an interview with many of the Zuda creators.
• The Beat has a round-up of posts on Zuda here.

OPINIONATED WEBCOMICS

• The SpinZone webcomics collective picks up its first conservatively-tilted webcomic, Geeks on Caffeine.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

• What happens on the pirate ship, STAYS on the pirate ship
• Debbie Ridpath Ohi updates her My Life in a Nutshell comic with a bit on her ComixTalk interview.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

• Monkey Law goes silent in support of the Writers Guild strike.
• Panels and Pixels has an extended interview with Monte Schulz on the recent biography on his dad Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts.
• Nightwish, heavymetal umlauters from Europe, rock out at Onezumi Studios.
• Seven Camels blog has scans of the "Comic Strip Artist's Kit" created by Carson Van Osten, a famous Disney artist who did many of the Disney comic books.

SpinZone Comics is pleased to present our newest member strip -- Scott Maxim's Geeks on Caffeine!

Like several of our other members, Scott doesn't spend all his time dealing with politics... you'll find some great character-driven humor here as well. As for the politics, well... you may notice a little something different about GoC. Something a little off. Out of place, even.

In an effort to make the beginning of Astronaut Elementary more consistent with the current pages, I've completely redrawn the welcome/intro chapter, expanding it from 2 to 5 pages.
When I originally did the intro, I tried to cram as much onto a page as possible. But now I see the value of having breath room! So hopefully it will be less of an intimidating to new readers.

~ She Who Shall Not be Named ~

OK, so Monkey Law is back in action… with 100% less dialogue! I think this will please a lot of you, since the font I was using was kind of small and, you know, most of you don’t care for the whole “reading” thing anyway…

Nightwish, one of Europe's most popular Heavy Metal bands, is rocking out the Onezumi Studios (the team behind the Onezumi.com webcomic) t-shirt designs while on tour.