Flatwood officially turns one year old this January 1, 2005. Creator Zachary Parker has crafted a special installment for the anniversary, available at his website.

Tom Hart has a new print collection of Hutch Owen entitled "Unmarketable" available. Published by Top Shelf, the book is available in bookstores (including online sites Amazon, B&N and Powells) or you can order directly from Top Shelf.

The Comics Journal said: "Owen is the consummate outsider..." Hicksville creator Dylan Horrocks described him as 'a prophet, a socio-political saboteur... hilariously funny. He's the hero we all immediately recognize and desperately need.'

Tom Hart will also be on a tour for the new book visiting the East Coast in March (Boston, Rhode Island, New York, Washington DC).

Broken Saints is the Sundance Film Festival Award-winning and critically-acclaimed groundbreaking Web epic.

Now the techno-spiritual saga is available on DVD with completely revamped art and effects, a 5.1 Dolby Surround remix of the entire series (including optional VOICE NARRATION from industry pros including William B Davis (THE X FILES), Kirby Morrow (DRAGONBALL Z), David Kaye (BEAST WARS), Michael Dobson (TRANSFORMERS ARMADA), and Emmy Award Winner Janyse Jaud) and over 4 HOURS of additional features including Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes, documentaries, Fan Films, Concept Galleries, and Slideshows.

This just may be the slowest news week of the year for webcomics.

In other news, I detect a shortage of webcomics working Half Life 2 (probably the most impressive video game ever in my humble opinion) into their work. Here's one from VG Cats, one and another one from Penny Arcade and here's my favorite (so far) from Ctrl-Alt-Del.

Am I missing any other good ones?

I may be one of the last persons in the world to discover Amy Winfrey's series of web animations, Making Fiends but I can't be the absolute last one.

High Concept Summary: Remember that episode of the Twilight Zone with the boy who could make anything happen and had the whole town scared of him? That's Vendetta. She's paired up with an insanely optimistically clueless little girl with a heart of gold named Charlotte. It's cute, it's creepy and it's very funny.

Websnark wrote about this Yirmumah today, but I wanted to draw attention to this recent installment where D.J. Coffman recounts his earliest memories of wanting to be a cartoonist. Of course nothing turns out as we envision it as a child, particularly what we might have imagined as the glamorous life of a cartoonist.

If you are making comics, when did you first think "I want to do this" and what are you doing now?

TCJ has posted an audio file of its 1990 interview with cartoonists Steve Bissette (Swamp Thing) and Scott McCloud (Zot!, Understanding Comics) on the subject of creators' rights. Generally, TCJ only makes this available for the month so I expect it will go away at the end of December.

T Campbell and Gisele Lagace announced today that Penny and Aggie will appear in books to be published by Alias Publishing, a new imprint started by Mike Miller and Brett Burner to act as an umbrella for individuals and studios who want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

Alias launches in April, 2005. More details on their launch plans are at Newsarama.

Sorry for the delay. Sometimes it's not the hack, but the patch that will drive you insane.

Sadly I somehow messed up the "theme" for the forum and they'll be borderless for a bit. We're prepping a site-wide new design so I think the forums will stay the way they are until we roll out Comixpedia v3.0 in January.

The NY Times has a feature on Tycho & Gabe today. I love their attempts to describe Penny Arcade in family-friendly language:

The site displays a fresh three- or four-panel comic strip three times a week. The strips usually feature the authors' alter egos, Gabriel and Tycho, who exist in a slightly surreal world where obsolete electronic components are drunk, vulgarity and cartoon violence run rampant, vegan damned souls roam and debates about whether the newest video game is awesome or overblown become a matter of life or death. In other words, it's the world of a typical video game fan.

And there is actually quite a good discussion of how Penny Arcade's silent partner, business manager Robert Khoo, has made the enterprise profitable enough to support them all.