We've got two more excellent Blind Date II comics for Friday!

• Our first comic for Friday is by Chris Chrysis (RPG-TV) and Neil Brideau (Sock-Monster). This one's really about the international trade in his penis coffee beans.
• Our second comic for Friday is by Ozark (Mind Flayed) and Lance Icarus (+1 Comics). Roleplaying taken inside-out and then some.

We're heading into the home stretch Blind Date II participants! Email me those finished comics by the end of this Sunday, February 25th! The list of creators still yet to report on their "blind date" after the jump (nudge nudge, know what I mean?):

Hi there!

Page 10 of my twice weekly webcomic eekeemoo has just been posted. After a month of showing it to forums I want to go more public with it and show it to a wider audience...

It's a quest story about a boy called eekeemoo and his friend yum yum and their journey to the sacred mountains.

I've mentioned it lightly, in passing, before, but I wanted to elaborate. Neal Von Flue got me hooked on this site, Stickam - it's like MySpace with webcams. For the most part, it's used by the young'uns to socialize, etc., but Neal and I've been using it for art jams.

Print on demand comic book printer ComiXpress have been having technical problems forcing them to stop accepting new tasks. ComiXpress president Logan DeAngelis responds in Rich Johnston's Lying in the Gutter column at Comic Book Resources to creators concerns that ComiXpress has been unresponsive and not providing information on sales.

Time again for a little pimping a little commentary and a little politics. Alot of webcomics of a variety of genres occasional indulge in parody of our culture and society. I love parody, and todays seems like as good a day as any to point a parody that really made me laugh:

Brinkerhoff's website gets a facelift in celebration of it's 300th installment. It's a good time. Everyone should join in.

Check it out out at brinkcomic.com.

In his regular column "Permanent Damage" on Comic Book Resources, Steven Grant has a detailed and interesting analysis of the "storytelling arc," particularly in regards to how it impacts TV shows like "Lost" where the mystery is the story, and how there has to be a payoff or viewers (and r

WIKI WATCH

• Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub and Paul Southworth will be talking about Wikipedia and webcomics on PVP Live tonight. Click through for time and details.

THE COMIXPEDIA (dot org)

• A letter from Wikia, we need more administrators and for the love of god, someone help me with the templates!
  

HEADLINES

• Comics Worth Reading reports on the fate of the Friends of Lulu Empowerment Fund. Short answer: no more fund. Here's an excerpt from information provided by FOL President Shannon Crane concerning the problems surrounding the creation of the fund last year:

  Ronee Bourgeois suggested to our entire board that we start an empowerment fund. We agreed that yes, it would be a wonderful idea. Unfortunately, instead of being patient to let the ENTIRE board come up with guidelines, rules, etc, she announced the new fund to the comics community without the board’s consent. We found ourselves between a rock and a hard place. We did what we could to make it work, and now we find that this is not something that we will pursue any longer.

• Joey Manley flags a job opportunity at DC Comics for a Web Content Administrator.

MILESTONES

• Unshelved reaches its 5th Year anniversary. Created by librarian Gene Ambaum and cartoonist Bill Barnes, the strip started February 16, 2002, and now over 35,000 readers enjoy the strip every day.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

• Bernie Hou of Alien Loves Predator hints at big projects to come this year. He also shifts from twice-weekly updates of ALP to the dreaded "whenever I can" schedule.
• It's role-playing gamer meta-humor (getting overplayed recently?) and it just started (so not much to go on) but Cat's Grace may turn out to be a find. It's reasonably entertaining in a cute and unoffensive way (the use of toys in the photo-art helps).

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

• Hey! Eric's back with a post about J. Grant's second novel (Grant is also a webcomic creator - most recently of Two Lumps). Burns is comparing Grant to George Carlin and generally raving about it -a very positive review.
• Reinder writes about the WCCAs that "[f]or all the criticism the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards for 2007 have received (admittedly, I could write that opening line about each previous edition of the awards), they do reflect a trend in webcomics towards more technically sophisticated material. In particular, the artistic standards of the nominated comics have been higher than ever this year."
• Deppey on men's magazine FHM versus comic book magazine Wizard: "I’d love to crack a joke about the culture of the two magaziness being similar, but frankly, FHM gives the distinct impression of having a readership that likes to get laid every once in a while, making the comparison somewhat dubious."
• Digital Strips latest podcast sounds good: a review of Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell and news about the upcoming New York Comic Con and the recent WCCA Online Ceremony.
• Johanna Draper Carlson (CWR) comments on this year's Glyph Award nominees.
• It's not on my radar screen but this parody of Marvel's Civil War cross-over series is funny.

Yes, Malach has decided to have yet another blog for his rantings, ravings, and various other forms of nonsense. Hide your horses and lock up your women.

I have several things to say, and I will even touch on webcomics, most specifically the webcomic as an industry. But first . .

Hydrogen Power

For those who have recovered from their hangovers and may want to know "why" they abused their body and mind over the last few days the following information may help to add some dignity to their fractured spirit. At the very least it helps place their debauchery in historical context.

Carnival
From the Latin carnivale, loosely translated as "farewell to flesh"; the season of merriment in New Orleans which begins annually on January 6, the Twelfth Night (the feast of the Epiphany), and ends at midnight on Fat Tuesday; the Carnival season leads up to the penitential season of Lent in which fasting replaces feasting.

While Mardi Gras has become a broad and varied celebration, many of Carnival's symbols, images, sights and sounds can be traced to the traditions of the Rex Organization, founded in 1872. Rex's traditional colors of purple, green, and gold, have become Carnival's colors, and "If Ever I Cease to Love," played for Rex since the very first Rex parade, has become its most enduring anthem. A more recent contribution to Mardi Gras tradition was the introduction of specially struck coins or doubloons as parade throws. The gold Rex doubloon continues to be a sought-after throw on Mardi Gras day.