cat garza chatted with Neal Von Flue this past March about Neal's webcomic work to date and upcoming projects. Neal is a prolific writer and artist publishing comics on both Ape-Law and opi8.

catgarza: hey neal!
nvonflue: Hey cat!

catgarza: have you ALWAYS been into comics??
catgarza: when did it start...
nvonflue: Yeah i guess so..

Ah, the age old punk dilemma:

How does one offer witty comments and critiques on movies one's seen, without looking like one's joined the local Camp Conformity of cartoonists who already offer up movie-related spoofing or satire? Easy – by offering up stereotypical responses that involve violence or uninspired insults, and that have nothing to do with the movie at all, beyond maybe its name.

Wait. That's not punk at all, is it?

Zortic, a science-fiction webcomic created by Mark Mekkes and hosted by Keenspace, tells of the continuing adventures of a little green man in a flying saucer with his friends, as they putter about the universe. The protagonist, Zortic, is urged by his co-burger-flipper and prospective girlfriend Zoie to enter a gameshow - thanks to his knowledge of late twentieth century Earth TV trivia - in an attempt to win some money to pay back his student loans.

Mr. Furious, aka David Breen, has been putting out Movie Comics for nearly a year. The strip reviews and parodies movies in a one-shot strip format, as the characters discuss and fantasise about scenes in the movies they just saw. Mr. Furious, an unemployed former IT worker, plans to open a LAN party business.

Comixpedia: How did you first get a start in comics?

Webcartoonists are communists.

That's right... they're all commies. Or maybe socialists, but that's as close as should make no difference to someone who is merely 'left-wing,' let alone decently 'conservative.' See, a REAL cartoonist is paid by a large, properly-capitalist organization called, in true Republican fashion, a Syndicate. He or she pours creative energy into work that is edited, collated, marketed, and pushed to the Free Press, where it can be shared with millions of humor-hungry people in exchange for newspaper subscriptions. It is The American Way (in America, and even in countries that claim to hate America... it's still the American Way.)

The Webcomic Blues

I got those webcomic blues, pretty baby,
And I got those webcomic blues.

***

Got me a comic strip, it be on the net.
Got me a comic strip, it be on the net.
Free for everybody, ain't helpin' my debt.

Can't draw for nuthin', no one seems to mind.
Can't draw for nuthin', no one seems to mind.
Four panels, punch-line, jus' another grind.

Feel like a junkie, always needing hits.
Feel like a junkie, always needing hits.

There are plenty of webcomics you can read for free, but a growing number of sites are beginning to charge for some or all of the webcomics they publish. Now that you may have to hand over your hard-earned cash to read your favorite webcomics, it’s important that you know what you’re getting so you can decide where to hand over your hard-earned cash. This article is part one in a series that will review sites where you pay for webcomics. We will tell you the costs of joining such sites.

With the recent announcement of the demise of Modern Tales' AdventureStrips line, Interviews Editor Leah Fitzgerald tracked down Christopher Mills -- the driving force behind the shortlived subsidiary. In the interview that ensued, Mills offers his thoughts on what happened, on the fate of comics that were hosted on AS, and what is slated in his own future.

Underground. Edgy. Raw. Inventive. Independent. Webcomics have all of that and more. That said, the following may seem like an absurd question, but it needs to be asked: are webcomics having an impact on mainstream popular culture? When do we get to pay 8 dollars to watch Sluggy Freelance II: The Search for Oasis or an animated Fanciest Froglin on the big screen, or flip the channel to Mad Science with Doctor Helen Narbon on the television?

Sluggy Freelance. SLUGGY FREAKIN' FREELANCE! Over a thousand comic strips! THIRTY-FOUR CHAPTERS! SEVEN books! Almost SIX YEARS! The paraphernalia for sale! The support sites! The tribute sites! The Pete Abrams worship - it's everywhere. Plug "Sluggy Freelance" into Google and you get 25,600 hits.

Where does one even plan to begin to start to talk about this comic?