Joel Fagin discusses all of the many lessons webcomics can learn from short stories. Concepts such as effective beginnings, efficient storytelling, and showing not telling. All topped off with an examination of David Willis' reworked beginning to It's Walky. I could tell you more but why don't you click "read more" and I'll show you...

This month Brigid Alverson talks to Evan Hayden and Ryan Sands, the proprietors of the blog Same Hat! Same Hat!! which features original webcomics as well as scanlations of some of the strangest manga you will ever see: gag manga that is more head-scratching than thigh-slapping and horror stories that turn everyday life inside out.

Randall Munroe, writer of minimalist computer/romance humor comic strip xkcd, was kind enough to grant Comixpedia an email interview, where he discusses how to pronounce the title of his comic, some thoughts on producing the strip, and which raptor style dinosaur he would prefer to be attacked by. Enjoy!

In this month's column Derik A. Badman takes a close reading a page of Jaime Hernandez "Flies on the Ceiling," (which is included in volume 9 of the Complete Love and Rockets and the Ivan Brunetti edited Anthology of Graphic Fiction).

In another installment of Neil Cohn's continuing series Comic Theory 101, Cohn puts word balloons, thoughts balloons and panels under the microscope and concludes that they're all essentially the same animal -- one that has the function of encapsulating other information.

Sebastian Parsons is back with another outsider's look at webcomics. In an article published by Comixpedia last year (Diversifiwebcomication: Maximize Your Business Potential) Parsons wrote about business strategies for the budding webcomics entrepreneur. In this article, he looks at webcomics within the larger paradigm of Web 2.0 and offers some thoughts on why we webcomic.

Terrence Marks interviewed creators Tod and Corey Marie Parkhill (formerly Kitley). Both have had previous webcomic projects: Tod's journal comic Scooterboy1234 and Corey Marie is probably best known for her Life's So Rad webcomic which appeared on Keenspot. Both are currently making comics online and in print.

In the fifth interview of our His and Her Webcomics series this month, Terrence Marks interviewed Andrew Farago and Shaenon Garrity. Andrew Farago currently creates The Chronicles of William Bazillion. Shaenon Garrity currently writes Smithson, and is the editor of Modern Tales. Comixpedia has previously interviewed Shaenon Garrity in 2006 and in 2004.

Last week Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub were gracious enough to grant this brand spankin' new Comixpedia front page writer/blogger an email interview about their new partnership. The questions are a bit clumsy, but their answers are interesting and informative. Enjoy!

A collective, loosely defined, is any sustained grouping of webcomic creators. What they do together varies greatly from group to group. Some are largely a peer group offering each other critical feedback and encouraging support. Others throw in cross-promotion for each others' work. Some build a collective brand with logos, advertising and a central website. Some share business experience and expertise in areas as varied as merchandise, books, conventions, hosting and website creation.

And what did I find from my research? There's a tremendous number of collectives out there (and that I never want to attempt another "survey" article again). And, oh yeah, checking out collectives can be a great way to find excellent new comics.