Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, creators of Penny Arcade, and PvP creator Scott Kurtz have begun collaborating on a webcomic even more off-mainstream than the ones they are working on now. Those comics were just about gamers, but The Trenches, which debuted last week and updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays, is a comic about a game tester. To sweeten the deal for the target audience, the blog will feature true-life adventures sent in by readers who are game testers themselves. It seems like narrowcasting, but the humor in the opening episodes seems to be fairly broad, so maybe it won’t be as tech-y as it first sounds.

Harvey Awards

The nominees have been announced for the 2011 Harvey Awards, which recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art.

Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, the cartoonist and founding editor of MAD magazine, the awards are selected entirely by creators. Final ballots are due by Aug. 6. Winners will be announced in conjunction with Baltimore Comic-Con, which runs Aug. 20-21. Scott Kurtz will again serve as master of ceremonies.

The nominees are:

Best Letterer
• Scott Brown, Box 13, Http://www.comixology.com and Red 5 Comics
• Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit, IDW
• Dustin Harbin, Casanova, Image Comics
• Troy Peteri, Witchblade, Top Cow
• Robbie Robbins, Locke & Key: Keys To The Kingdom # 1, IDW
• John Workman, Thor, Marvel Comics

Best Colorist
• Veronica Gandini, Mice Templar: Volume 10, Image Comics
• Laura Martin, The Stand, Marvel Comics
• Ed Ryzowski, Gutters, http://www.the-Gutters.com
• Dave Stewart, BPRD, Dark Horse Comics
• Jose Villarubia, Cuba : My Revolution, Vertigo/DC Comics

Best Syndicated Strip Or Panel
• Cul De Sac, Richard Thompson, Universal Press Syndicate
• Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau, Universal Press Syndicate
• Mutts, Patrick Mcdonnell, King Features Syndicate
• Non Sequitur, Wiley Miller, Universal Press Syndicate
• Tom The Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling, Universal Press Syndicate

Best Online Comics Work
• Guns Of Shadow Valley, David Wachter and James Andrew Clark
• Gutters, Lar Desouza, Ed Ryzowski and Ryan Sohmer
• Hark! A Vagrant, Kate Beaton
• La Morte Sisters, Created Tony Trov, Johnny Zito and Christine Larsen
• PvP, Scott Kurtz

Best American Edition Of Foreign Material
• AX: Alternate Manga, edited By Sean Michael Wilson And Mitsuhiro Asakawa, Top Shelf
• Blacksad, Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, Dark Horse Comics
• It Was The War Of The Trenches, Jacques Tardi, Fantagraphics
• The Killer: Modus Vivendi, Matz And Luc Jacamon, Archaia
• Torpedo Volume 2, Jordi Bernet, IDW

Best Inker
• Damian Couceiro, Hawks Of Outremer, Boom! Studios
• Steve Ellis, Box 13, comiXology & Red 5 Comics
• Gabriel Hardman, Agents Of Atlas, Marvel Comics
• Mark Morales, Thor, Marvel Comics
• Sal Regla, Magdalena, Top Cow

Best New Series
• American Vampire, Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque, Vertigo/DC Comics
• Echoes, Joshua Hale Fialkov and Rashan Ekedal, Top Cow
• Gutters, Lar Desouza, Ed Ryzoski and Ryan Sohmer, http://www.the-Gutters.com
• Kill Shakespeare, Anthony Del Col and Conor Mccreery, IDW
• Sixth Gun, Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, Oni Press
• Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee, Marvel Comics

Most Promising New Talent
• Barry Deutsch, Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, Amulet Books
• Comfort Love And Adam Withers, Rainbow In The Dark
• Chris Samnee, Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Marvel Comics
• Scott Snyder, American Vampire, Vertigo/DC Comics
• Nick Spencer, Morning Glories, Image Comics

Special Award for Humor in Comics
• Matt Groening, The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis, Abrams ComicArts
• Roger Landridge, The Muppet Show, BOOM! Studios
• Ryan Sohmer, Gutters
• Shannon Wheeler, I Thought You Would Be Funnier, BOOM! Studios
• Thom Zahler, Love And Capes, IDW

Best Original Graphic Publication for Younger Readers
• Amulet # 3: The Cloud Searcher, Kazu Kibuishi, Graphix
• Jingle Belle, Paul Dini
• Meanwhile: Pick Any Path. 3856 Story Possibilities, Jason Shiga, Amulet Books
• Reading With Pictures, Josh Elder, executive editor, Reading With Pictures
• Smile, Raina Telgemeier, Scholastic Graphix
• Tiny Titans, Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani, DC Comics

Best Graphic Album Previously Published
• Art In Time, Edited Dan Nadel, Abrams ComicArts
• Beasts Of Burden: Animal Rites, Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson, Dark Horse Comics
• Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer: Aritist’s Edition, Designed by Randall Dahlk, Edited by Scott Dunbier, IDW
• The Marvelous Land Of Oz, Eric Shanower and Skottie Young, Marvel Comics
• Tumor, Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon, Archaia

Best Anthology
• Blab World #1, Monte Beauchamp And Bill North, Last Gasp
• CBGB, Kieron Gillen and Sam Humphries, BOOM! Studios
• Popgun # 4, Edited by D.J. Kirkbride, Anthony Wu and Adam P. Knave, Image Comics
• Reading With Pictures, Josh Elder, executive editor, Reading With Pictures
• Strange Tales, Volume II # 1, Edited By Jody Leheup, Marvel Comics
• Uniques Tales, Tanya Eby and Mallette Pagano

Best Domestic Reprint Project
• Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer: Aritist’s Edition, Designed by Randall Dahlk, Edited by Scott Dunbier, IDW
• The Darkness, Garth Ennis, Marc Silvestri and Batt, Image Comics
• Jet Scott, Jerry Robinson and Sheldon Stark, Dark Horse Comics
• Li’l Abner: The Complete Dailies and Color Sundays, Edited By Bruce Canwell, IDW
• Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, Neal Adams and Dennis O’Neil, DC Comics

Best Cover Artist
• Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit, IDW
• Jenny Frison, Angel, IDW
• Marcos Martin, Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Comics
• Mike Mignola, Hellboy, Dark Horse Comics
• Frank Quitely, Batman and Robin, DC Comics

Best Biographical, Historical or Journalistic Presentation
• 75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art Of Modern Myth-Making, Paul Levitz, Taschen Books
• The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death, Edited by Todd Hignite, Abrams Comicarts
• Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics, N. C. Christopher Couch, Abrams Comicarts
• Oddly Compelling Art Of Denis Kitchen, Denis Kitchen and Charles Brownstein, Edited By John Lind and Diana Schutz, Dark Horse Books
• Portrait Of A Sequential Artist, Directed by Andrew D. Cook, Montilla Presentations

Special Award For Excellence In Presentation
• Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer: Artist’s Edition, Designed by Randall Dahlk, Edited by Scott Dunbier, IDW
• Oddly Compelling Art Of Denis Kitchen Kitchen, Denis Kitchen and Charles Brownstein, Edited by John Lind and Diana Schutz, Dark Horse Books
• Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit, Darwyn Cooke, IDW
• Shazam! The Golden Age Of The World’s Mightiest Mortal, Chip Kidd and Geoff Spear, Abrams Comicarts
• Wednesday Comics Hardcover Edition, Edited By Mark Chiarello, DC Comics

Best Graphic Album – Original
• Duncan, The Wonder Dog, Adam Hines, Adhouse Books
• Market Day, James Sturm, Drawn and Quarterly
• Scott Pilgrm Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Oni Press
• Wilson, Dan Clowes, Drawn And Quarterly
• X’ed Out, Charles Burns, Pantheon

Best Continuing Or Limited Series
• Chew, John Layman and Rob Guillory, Image Comics
• Daytripper, Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, Vertigo/DC Comics
• Echo, Terry Moore, Abstract Studio
• Fantastic Four, Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham, Marvel Comics
• Locke & Key: Keys To The Kingdom # 1, Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriquez, IDW
• Love And Rockets: Volume 3, Jaime And Gilbert Hernandez, Fantagraphics

Best Writer
• Cullen Bunn, Sixth Gun, Oni Press
• Joshua Hale Fialkov, Echoes, Top Cow
• Roger Langridge, Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Marvel Comics
• Ryan Sohmer, Gutters, http://www.the-Gutters.com
• Mark Waid, Irredeemable, BOOM! Studios

Best Artist
• Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit, IDW
• Dean Haspiel, Cuba : My Revolution, Vertigo/DC Comics
• Brian Hurtt, Sixth Gun, Oni Press
• Ed Ryzowski, Gutters
• Chris Samnee, Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Marvel Comics

Best Cartoonist
• Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit, IDW
• Jaime Hernandez, Love and Rockets, Fantagraphics
• Jeff Lemire, Sweet Tooth, Vertigo/DC Comics
• Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, Oni Press
• Jeff Smith, RASL, Cartoon Books

Best Single Issue or Story
• Acme Novelty Library #20: Lint, Chris Ware, Drawn and Quarterly
• Echoes # 1, Joshua Hale Fialkov and Rashan Ekedal, Top Cow
• Daytripper, Fabio Moon and Gabiel Ba, Vertigo/DC Comics
• Locke & Key: Keys To The Kingdom #1, Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriquez, IDW
• Love and Rockets: New Stories, Volume 3, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Fantagraphics
• Popgun # 4, Edited By D.J. Kirkbride, Anthony Wu and Adam P. Knave, Image Comics
• Wilson, Daniel Clowes, Drawn and Quarterly

If you’re a member of an industry that let Dave Cockrum die in a VA hospital after helping give us most of the X-Men characters that comprised three blockbuster films and you get pissy about what Mark Waid said, then you deserve to remain on this sinking ship.

When Diamond Comics can’t make money despite being a monopoly, it’s time to start listening to people like Mark Waid.

Half of the people he delivered his speech to were over the age of 50, currently not working on a project in comics, and are most likely without health insurance, retirement or savings accounts.

Mark Waid had the audacity to warn a group of people he cares about, that nobody is putting the internet in a god damn DeLorean and driving it 88mph towards the twin pines mall. And for that he got dressed down by Santa Claus in front of his peers.

That’s how scared people are right now.

And the bottom line of it all is that in about 5 years, a lot of people are going to owe Mark Waid a fucking apology.

–PVP writer/artist and Harvey Awards emcee Scott Kurtz reacts with characteristic, shall we say, candor to Mark Waid’s keynote address on copyright and piracy and white-beardedGroo cartoonist Sergio Aragonés’ heatedly negative reaction thereto.

(via Joe Keatinge)

PvP by Neal Adams

Webcomics | According to the Macworld web site, PvP creator Scott Kurtz will speak at the five-day Macintosh symposium.

“In an interview with Chicago Sun-Times and Macworld columnist Andy Ihnatko, Kurtz talks about what digital self-publishing means to creators and publishers, and how devices like the upcoming Apple Tablet could continue to tip the balance in favor of independent artists,” the description of his panel reads.

Also, if you haven’t been checking out PvP lately, Kurtz’s long-running webcomic has a holiday story running, drawn by comics legend Neal Adams. Check out the CBR interview for more information, and after the jump you’ll find a video of Adams drawing PvP.

Digital comics | In the fall, High Moon creator David Gallaher guest-blogged with us, and while here he interviewed Id Ego about his comiXology project, X the Unknown. The comiXology exclusive is now available via their iPhone application, along with two other exclusives: The First Daughter and a preview of Moon Girl.

Webcomics | Caleb Goellner talks to Mocktopus creator Max Huffman about his irreverent webcomic.

Webcomics | Dean Haspiel is bringing his Street Code strip back to Zuda for some holiday merriment.

Tablets | Comics journalist and Pinocchio Vampire Slayer writer Van Jensen talks about becoming a convert to the Kindle after working with Top Shelf on translating Owly to the device.

Webcomics | Dallas Art News asked several webcomics creators to recreate famous works of art using their characters, with some fun results. Via

Take the back-and-forth we noted last week between PvP creator Scott Kurtz and Comics Alliance honcho Laura Hudso . It started when Kurtz publicly blasted a Wizard/Shamus functionary with both barrels after the staffer obliviously sent him an email addressed to “Kurt” — hey, these things happen — soliciting his attendance at Anaheim Comic Con. Hudson took Kurtz to task for tarring all Wizard employees with a brush perhaps better reserved for the company’s decision-makers. This led to a lengthy and ugly comment-thread roundelay between Hudson — who, as the former senior editor of Tim Leong’s defunct Comic Foundry magazine, need bow to no one in the “taking cheap shots at Wizard and its employees as though the two were fungible entities” department — and Kurtz, some of his fans, and former Wizard staff writer Chris Ward. Over the course of the argument’s five pages, posts were deleted; accusations of trollery, spamming, egomania and hypocrisy were thrown about like so much confetti; Hudson’s problems during her tenure with Jenna Jameson-publishing Virgin Comics were hashed out; former Wizard President Fred Pierce was accused of buying off former Wizard critic Frank Miller; and a horrid time was had by all.

But as unpleasant as that argument got, it looks like one of those Sam-and-Diane fights from Cheers where they end up making out compared to the blistering comments made by former Wizard Senior Vice President of Operations Joe Yanarella regarding former WizardUniverse.com Editor Rick Marshall. After Robot 6 reported the shuttering of Wizard’s message board following its users’ vociferous criticism of the company’s recent convention maneuvers, Marshall, currently the editor of MTV’s Splash Page comics/movie news blog, commented that he wasn’t surprised by the move given what he characterized as Wizard’s longtime neglect of the board. Marshall said that after he was let go by the company, for a time he remained in financial and administrative control of the board because Wizard hadn’t paid the hosting company. Several days later, Yanarella, currently a writer for the sports news site Bleacher Report, stepped in to dispute Marshall’s story in strenuous terms. According to Yanarella, Marshall held the board and its passwords “hostage” to extract monetary concessions from Wizard. After disparaging Marshall as an employee and as a person, Yanarella went on to say, “I’d also recommend you move to the other side of the street should we ever see each other again.” It’s worth noting that from lawsuits to rumor mills, the engendering of serious hostility by forced departures from Wizard is not uncommon.

So yes, tensions run high, and the Con War is spilling a lot of bad blood. But what of the competing cons themselves?

All we can do at the moment is compare guest lists. Today, Reed’s C2E2 announced its newest guest of honor, Blackest Night writer Geoff Johns, and a trio of featured guests: Beasts of Burden‘s Jill Thompson, Green Arrow/Black Canary‘s Mike Norton and The Stand‘s Mike Perkins. Wizard’s competing Anaheim Comic Con — being held the same weekend as C2E2 (April 16-18, 2010) in a move widely seen as a tit-for-tat response to Reed’s encroachment upon Shamus’s Chicago Comic Con turf — recently announced Power Rangers and Naruto voice actor Neil Kaplan, Hellboy 2 performer Doug Jones, ’60s Batman villains Lee Merriwether and Malachi Throne, Babylon 5 actress Tracy Scoggins and CHiPS star Erik Estrada. I for one am left wondering who among them realizes they’ve just enlisted.

Full-scale warfare between convention promoters isn’t universal, believe it or not — some are giving peace a chance. In addition to the recent arrangement worked out by Heroes Con and Supercon to avoid a date conflict, Emerald City ComiCon‘s Jim Demonakos tells Robot 6 that following an unavoidable conflict with Orlando’s MegaCon the weekend of March 13, 2010, he and MegaCon’s Beth Widera collaborated on choosing dates for 2011 so that future overlap could be avoided. “We ended up on the same dates for 2010 and neither of us could move, but we’ve talked and coordinated and our mutual 2011 dates will not be on each other’s dates at all,” says Demonakos. “Con planning, always an adventure.”

Indeed. While it’s not quite “all quiet on the Con War front” in terms of open hostilities between the nebulous Gareb Shamus/Wizard Entertainment empire and Reed Exhibitions, things have at least died down to a dull roar at the moment. Shamus remains silent, Reed insists it’s business as usual regardless of Shamus’s confrontational scheduling moves, and about the closest you can get to one-on-one antagonism between the two rival convention promoters is a do-it-yourself comparison of their pre- and post-Halloween guest announcements: Hellboy creator Mike Mignola will be a guest of honor at Reed’s C2E2, while Batman TV star Burt Ward will be appearing at Shamus’s Anaheim Comic Con that same weekend.

But the lack of direct conflict doesn’t mean a few verbal grenades haven’t been lobbed Wizard/Shamus’s way over the past week by other parties, ranging from former employees to a pair of recent Wiz sparring partners, cartoonist Scott Kurtz and Marvel’s C.B. Cebulski.

One such explosion took place at the message board of Panels on Pages, a site founded by now-ex-Wizard Universe Message Board users-cum-Wizard website/magazine writers. With the shutdown of the WUMB last week, PoP has become increasingly required reading for dedicated Wizard watchers. Case in point: PoP message board user Foxy recounted a story of how earlier this year, Wizard employees Brett White and Adam Tracey used the WUMB to search for fan-owned Michael Turner sketches the company could publish in an expanded version of its Turner tribute hardcover. The staffers announced that a portion of the proceeds would be donated to the Sam Loeb Foundation, set up by comics superstar (and Turner’s friend) Jeph Loeb in honor of his late son, who like Turner died (too young) of cancer. But after White was fired, Tracey unceremoniously quit, and the book finally came out, Foxy and other WUMBers discovered that the promised donation was never made. The WUMB thread announcing the search for sketches and chronicling the subsequent demand for answers as to what happened to the charitable donation never received an official response and disappeared (as did two similar threads) with the WUMB itself — but not before PoP member Solstrom preserved and reposted it on PoP’s board.

The outcry attracted the attention of Rich Johnston, who since his Wizard-funded trip to the Big Apple Comic Con has emerged as the only writer able to get Wizard staffers to comment on the record (outside of press releases and the now-defunct WUMB). Writing both on the PoP board and his own Bleeding Cool site, Johnston said he got in touch with Wizard VP of Business Development Stephen Shamus (brother of owner and CEO Gareb Shamus), who blamed the disappearing donation on a communication breakdown caused by staff turnover, and said that now that they’d been made aware of the problem, the company would contact the Sam Loeb Foundation to make the donation — and to see if they’d be interested in setting up a donation drive at future Shamus conventions.

However, Shamus’s explanation, and Johnston’s subsequent statement that “it’s possible the right people did not read the right thread,” didn’t fly with the PoPsters, who point out that threads about the Turner book, customer service issues, and other problems went on for months with the clear knowledge of Wizard staffers. Indeed, the frequent intervention of Wizard higher-ups in ordering the deletion and banning of threads and users critical of the company appear to indicate that if anything, this sort of thread received extra attention from decision-makers within the Shamus organization.

Elsewhere on PoP, former Wizard staff writer, frequent WUMB pot-stirrer, and Political Power: Barack Obama author Chris Ward was a guest on the site’s weekly podcast. (Discussion of Wizard and the death of the WUMB begins at 1:04:20; Ward’s appearance begins at 1:09:38.) Ward minces no words for his former company, which he calls “totally mismanaged.”

“These guys literally have no fucking idea what they’re doing… They have neither the skills nor the insight to keep up, and the people that had that, they fired,” Ward says of Wizard’s upper echelon. [Full disclosure: I don't know from skills or insight, but I was one of the people the company fired.] Though he does praise managing editor Andy Serwin, Ward also reveals that he’s been blacklisted from the magazine for making a joke about a freelance check bouncing, tells tales out of school about the work environment, and takes some pretty vicious shots at Stephen Shamus (and, in passing, Rich Johnston). For their part, hosts Lee Rodriguez, Jason Kerouac, Tripper McGee, and Jason Knize describe the experience of being plucked from the WUMB to write for Wizard proper, only to watch their gigs disappear as the editors who hired them got laid off one after another.

But it’s not just ex-Wizard writers who have a bone to pick with the company. Fresh off his Twitter tirade against the company, PvP writer-artist Scott Kurtz really let loose after receiving a letter from Sales Manager Larry Ernst, addressed to “Kurt,” encouraging him to attend the Anaheim Comic Con, apparently sent without knowing that Kurtz had already made his feelings about Gareb Shamus’s conventions abundantly clear. In an open letter to Ernst and Wizard, Kurtz writes “Your conventions are total horseshit” and gets angrier from there, reserving his most undiluted fury for what he describes as the magazine’s ignoring of late artist Mike Wieringo, then its public about-face upon Wieringo’s passing. Kurtz’s sentiments echo those of Wieringo himself, as expressed in this impassioned defense of Heroes Con and attack on Gareb Shamus, written by ‘Ringo during Heroes Con’s initial scheduling conflict with Shamus’s never-realized Wizard World Atlanta. (Ironically, a gallery of Wieringo’s Wizard covers, which might offer proof that the magazine did indeed pay attention to the artist, has disappeared along with the bulk of Wizard’s website.)

Reactions to Kurtz’s post have varied. Marvel talent liaison C.B. Cebulski, himself no stranger to public disputes with Wizard, tweeted a link to the open letter in seemingly supportive fashion, indicating that a recent high-level meeting between Cebulski and Wizard editorial either didn’t produce a rapprochement or was subsequently undermined by the Big Apple/NYCC battle. Comics Alliance’s Laura Hudson’s defense of current and former Wizard employees against Kurtz’s blanket statements (coupled with a few shots at Kurtz’s self-described status as “a pioneer in my field” and “‘tastemaker’”) met with vehement comment-thread opposition from Kurtz’s fans (UPDATE: and from Kurtz himself), and with considerably more polite dissent from Tom Spurgeon, who argues that getting yelled at from time to time is the price of working for a company with divisive policies. And on his own blog, Chris Ward returned with the inside story of the incident Kurtz says turned him against Wizard — a “convention horror story” involving Kurtz, Ward, Ethan Van Sciver, a deaf fan, and “the world’s shittiest band.”

As Shamus/Wizard higher-ups continue to strategically distance themselves from the comics industry (even as seemingly contradictory moves are rumored behind-the-scenes); as decision time approaches for guests of the conflicting Reed and Shamus shows; and as sharper contrasts are drawn between the tactics used by Shamus and those employed by Reed and by regional con organizations like Emerald City and MegaCon, we may see more and more professionals and Wizard alums become comfortable publicly taking aim at the house that Gareb built.

(“Con War” graphic courtesy of Jason Erwin)

Zuda

Webcomics | Scott Kurtz, who hosted the Harvey Awards this past weekend, shares his thoughts on what he saw at the Zuda table over the weekend. Kurtz, the creator of the long-running and highly successful PvP webcomic, has been an outspoken critic of Zuda since they launched, but had a different take on DC’s monthly webcomics contest after this weekend.

“If companies like DC can enter the Webcomics world, and find a way to work with creators fairly and bring credibility and positive attention to this medium…that’s good,” Kurtz writes. “If Zuda can light a fire under the asses of talent that normally wouldn’t make progress, that’s awesome. We want that, don’t we? Doesn’t a rising tide lift all ships? I know I’m skeptical. I like being skeptical. But maybe I’ve witnessed so many Platinums in the past that I’m a little gun-shy. Maybe…maybe…Zuda isn’t going to fuck people over.”

Also worth reading on his blog, Kurtz talks about what it was like to host the Harveys.

Webcomics | In anticipation of the release of the ACT-I-VATE Primer from IDW, Graphic NYC has dubbed this ACT-I-VATE week and will run features all week about the webcomics collective and its contributors.

Blogs | Kevin mentioned this earlier today, but I just wanted to draw your attention to our own Brigid Alverson‘s new blog, Paperless Comics. “My goal is to cover the world of webcomics and do it objectively,” she says in her first post.

Digital comics | Evan Young has released his complete graphic novel The Carrier for the iPhone.

Webcomics | Dustin Harbin turns his favorite passage from the Charles Bukowski novel Women into a webcomic.

Webcomics | SLG reminds us that Matthew Shepherd and Roy Boney Jr. are serializing their mini-series Dead Eyes Open on the web.

Webcomics | Scott O. Brown is continuing his Zuda entry Red Ice on his own web site, where he’s also posting several horror strips just in time for Halloween.