You can check out the whole set (all 12 of them) at Flickr, but here are some of the recent additions:

The above sketch was by Dan Leister, who’s currently the regular artist on Hack/Slash, but I got to know way back in the day when he was working on one of his first projects — a comic titled The Sire that was written by a buddy of mine. I was one of the editors on the comic, and had a lot of fun serving on that side of the comics scene. Good times!

Here are a few more sketches from amazing webcomic creators Rene Engstrom and KC Green:

Many, many thanks to everyone who’s done a sketch for me so far. It’s not something I add to all that often, so it’s been great to get such awesome sketches on the rare occasions I do bring along the ol’ sketchbook. I need to remember to carry it around more often!

A few days ago, I linked to a comic written by Ryan Sohmer that featured Shamus receiving the “Worst Businessman in the Comics Industry” award. The art for the comic was originally provided by [a talented webcomic creator who has asked me to omit his name], but now the comic appears to have been exchanged for a new, sketched version of the same strip with art by a different illustrator, Lar DeSouza.

Why the change?

While he doesn’t reference the strip or the people involved by name, Sohmer seems to say all that needs to be said in a blog post accompanying the latest comic:

I need to speak out about something, making one issue very clear, before I get on about today’s page.

Every single Gutters page is attributed to me as the writer, meaning I am responsible for every panel on every page.

The artist of the page, as well as the team behind Gutters, are all on a work for hire basis. In layman’s terms, we pay them to draw, letter, color and edit my script, they do so.

Should you find yourself the subject matter of a Gutters page, and take offense to it, don’t go after my artists. Should you be so offended that you attempt to get someone fired from their day job, don’t be a coward.

Come after me.

My e-mail is Sohmer@blindferret.com, I will gladly provide you with my contact information, as well as that of our legal department.

I take sole responsibility for every comic and news post on this site.

Don’t you dare go after one of my artists.

I’m a much better target.

That said, should an artist request that I remove a page, I will do so in a heartbeat in such a situation. Of course, I reserve the right to have the page redrawn at my leisure.

My pal Gary Tyrrell has some great commentary on all of this over at Fleen, but I just want to add that this sort of thing shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s worked with Shamus and had the gall to criticize Wizard. Heck, I’ve been the target of at least one call from Shamus in which he urged a former employer to cut ties with me, citing some negative comments I made on Twitter about a Wizard World show. Needless to say, I wasn’t let go (and wasn’t even made aware of the call until years after it happened), but the experience made Sohmers’ recent ordeal seem entirely, well… par for the course when dealing with Shamus and Wizard.

In the end, the removal of the original comic will probably draw even more attention to it, which is good for several reasons. First, it sheds some light on one of the more shady characters in the industry; and second, it raises awareness of a really great webcomic.

So, hey — let’s call it a win all around, okay?

As I’ve mentioned in the past here and on Twitter, I’m not a big fan of Superman. I enjoy the occasional Man of Steel story, but the character has never really connected with me. I had a long discussion with web ninja Ryan McKern about this subject once, and he theorized that much of the appeal of Superman comes from how you view the character in relation to his alter ego.

For me, the “real” Superman is an alien that is one of the most powerful beings on Earth. His “costume” is Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter and totally human guy. This is why I can’t connect with the character.

However, Ryan argued that people who really get Superman and find the character appealing see Clark Kent as his “real” identity, and Superman as his “costumed” alter ego.

Nevertheless, Mark Millar’s Superman: Red Son is one of my absolute favorite stories about the Man of Steel ever written. Here’s an excerpt from my column explaining why it would make a great animated movie:

This Week’s Book: Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar (w), Dave Johnson (a), and Kilian Plunkett (a)

The Premise: What if, instead of landing in Smallville, Superman landed in the Soviet Union? How would the DC Universe change if the Man of Steel grew up on a collective instead of a farm in Kansas? This tale from DC’s popular “Elseworlds” line explores how Batman, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, and the rest of Superman’s fellow heroes and villains would’ve changed in a world where the most powerful being on the planet was a champion of Socialism instead of a force for “truth, justice, and the American way.”

The Pitch: With DC’s entire line of superheroes and villains receiving a reboot this week, it seems appropriate to put the spotlight on some of the publisher’s past alternate-universe success stories.

Published in 2003, Superman: Red Son was scripted by Kick-Ass and Wanted writer Mark Millar, and presents a very different — and fascinating — take on the Superman mythos. Not only does Superman’s story chart a dramatically different course, but Millar also offers up alternate versions of Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, and more characters whose histories are inextricably tied to that of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s bullet-proof Man of Steel.

You can continue reading this week’s “Adapt This” at IFC.com…

Who Is Andrew Garfield? Get To Know The Next Spider-Man! – Like many people, I had no idea what to think about the actor named as the new Spider-Man — mainly because I’d never heard of him. Turns out, he’s got a pretty decent reason for being the guy to bring Peter Parker back to the big screen. (Oh, and he was in “Doctor Who,” so that helps.)

Spider-Man Writers And Artists Give MTV Their Thoughts On Andrew Garfield – With all the excitement over the new “Spider-Man” actor, I reached out to some of the comic creators I’m friendly with who have written or illustrated Spidey stories in the past. They had lots to say about Andrew Garfield getting the role.

DC Comics Execs Explain Digital Distribution Plan, Answer Fans’ Burning Questions – After DC Comics launched a new set of apps for the iPad, iPhone and Playstation Network, I talked to Co-Publisher Jim Lee and Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Business Development John Rood about the company’s digital distribution plan. Along with questions culled from message boards and commentary around the online world, I asked them where the Droid fits in the digital future of DC Comics.

Jeph Loeb Talks Marvel Television, Live-Action Heroes, And The Disney Factor – Marvel created a new television division, so I got new Executive Vice President Jeph Loeb on the phone to offer up some details about Marvel’s plans for the TV world.

So, until I figure out exactly what “unable to allocate memory or system resources to complete operation” means, the rest of the sketchbook will have to wait. It’s a pity, really — because there are some really great sketches in the queue. Luckily, I was able to upload two more of the sketches before the scanner crapped out, including one by Jeph Jacques (Questionable Content) and this one from Creatures in my Head creator Andrew Bell:

Here’s the updated gallery, which is also posted over on Flickr (if that’s more your style).

The sketches come from various comic book and webcomic artists I’ve met over the last few years, including this one from writer/artist Mark Wheatley (Frankenstein Mobster, EZ Street).

Below are a few more sketches by webcomic creators Meredith Gran, Jeff Rowland, Jon Rosenberg, Paul Southworth and Spike. I’ll post a few more tomorrow, with everything added to the full gallery on Flickr as I go along.

Sunday kicked off at a far more merciful hour (noon), which was a smart bit of planning that accounted for the late hour everyone wandered out of the Eastworks complex the previous night. After requesting some sketches for my new, themed sketchbook (more on that later), I was able to catch the second screening of “Nerdcore Rising,” the recently released documentary about the rise of “Nerdcore” hip-hop.

The film follows MC Frontalot on his first nationwide tour, and while it gets a bit stale midway through the running time, it really peaks about 2/3 of the way through the film. It hits an especially poignant note when the filmmakers manage to weave together a series of interviews with Frontalot’s fans, who discuss the isolation of their daily lives and the sense of community they find at “Nerdcore” shows. The grand finale of the film unfolds at Penny Arcade Expo in front of hundreds of screaming fans (a far cry from the groups of a dozen or so that populated most of their tour stops), the last stop on Frontalot’s tour, and the performance really does seem the culmination of all the hard times and rough patches that preceded the band’s arrival — both in their current tour and much of their lives.

It felt right to watch “Nerdcore Rising” on the final day of the show, as there was a similar sense of accomplishment throughout the weekend — like the weekend’s events were a goal long in the making for many of the people there. What a lot of print publishers don’t seem to grasp is that webcomic creators tend to operate with the belief that one doesn’t need publishers or marketing departments or anything but a good sense of wit, creativity and dedication to find success in the comics world — and that DIY philosophy seemed to fuel Webcomics Weekend, too.

Late Sunday afternoon, everyone still around at the show — fans and creators alike — assembled in one of the large panel rooms for the Webcomics Weekend Awards. In front of a large crowd seated on the studio floor, Meredith Gran (Octopus Pie), Jeph Jacques (Questionable Content), Rich Stevens (Diesel Sweeties) and various other creators offered up a list of honors that spoofed the typical convention award ceremony in all but one category. The “Superstar” award was given to everyone who attended the show, and it was awarded with a genuine sense of appreciation from the creators present.

At the end of the event, Gran and the event’s organizers received a round of applause that morphed into a standing ovation encompassing not only the organizers, but the show itself and, in many ways, the sense shared by many of those in the room that they were there at a very important moment in webcomic history.

Click on any of the photos below for a gallery of images from Webcomics Weekend 2009:

Previously:
- Webcomics Weekend: Online Comics Get Their Own Convention — Here’s What You Missed!
- Webcomics Weekend, Day One-ish In Review
- Webcomics Weekend: We Has Arrived

- I found myself explaining a few times this weekend that this show is one of only two or three comics-related conventions I’ve ever attended without complicated plans to cover every minute detail of the event, and without spending every moment rushing from one interview or panel to the next. In the grand scheme of things, comic conventions of any sort are still new to me, as I didn’t attend a single convention prior to the comics scene becoming the professional focus of my writing 3-4 years ago. So it’s a rare (and appreciated) experience to attend not exactly as a “fan” but as someone who can wander around, talk to people and “learn in the public eye” about the medium and the people who move it — and if I have time to pick up some new sketches and art along the way, all the better.

But on to the show itself…

- The Eastworks complex was already filling up 30 minutes before the start of the show, and while the crowd never became unmanageable throughout the day, it steadily increased to a level that seemed on par with one of the smaller conventions (like the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art‘s annual festival, for example).

There hasn’t been an official tally for the day yet, but as Gary Tyrrell points out over at Fleen, there was seating for 100 and standing room for another 100 in the main panel room, and the room was packed to bursting for at least three panels. At one point two well-attended panels ran simultaneously, and both the main panel room and the secondary room (which had room for well over 100 people) were both filled to capacity.

- Panel-wise, I checked out a few of the day’s scheduled events, including the “How to Make a Memorable T-Shirt” panel that featured Rich Stevens (Diesel Sweeties), Chris Hastings (Adventures of Dr. McNinja), Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics) and Jeph Jacques (Questionable Content) — a quartet that accounts for a massive portion of the online traffic headed to webcomics these days. They’re also pretty damn funny, too. The panel was packed, and just as expected, it was one of those conversations that took on a life of its own after the initial spark.

- Immediately following the t-shirt panel, the Halfpixel webcomic collective recorded an episode of the Webcomics Weekly Podcast in the main panel room, attracting a similarly sized crowd as the previous panel. The conversation took a turn to the print side of the comics scene when Scott Kurtz (PvP) discussed his reasons for continuing to publish print collections of his series with Image Comics, explaining that Image founders Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri and other key members of the publisher’s founding creative team had supported his series when it was a gamble — to the point of buying an extensive presence for it in the all-important Diamond Previews ordering catalog for retailers — so it made sense for him to stick with the publisher. Kurtz added that, with so many comics veterans stepping aside and new blood beginning to take their place (Kurtz named Invincible creator Robert Kirkman as one such person), it was also important to keep a younger, modern-minded comics presence in the ranks of a prominent publisher like Image.

- While the rest of the day’s panels drew slightly smaller crowds (with the exception of the “Print vs. Web vs. Bear” panel, which was well attended), most creators I spoke with seemed thrilled by the day’s outcome. Those who attended with an eye toward selling books and other merchandise generally broke even or turned a decent profit (Templar, Arizona creator Spike sold out of the 100-plus books she brought with her midway through the day), and those creators who were more keen on the networking and social aspects of the event seemed thrilled by the results. On the other side, I didn’t hear a single complaint about the event by any of the fan attendees, either. There was none of the grumbling concerns about crowds, lines or creator accessibility I tend to overhear at other shows, and to be honest, I couldn’t find anyone who had a negative comment about the event — no matter how much I eavesdropped.

- On a personal note, I spent a good portion of the day talking comics with The System creator Rosscott, whose comic I can’t recommend enough. Not only is the series consistently entertaining, but its on-the-rise creator is certainly worth watching to see what he has planned in the realm of webcomics.

Jorge Cham, whose PhD Comics series about the trials and tribulations of graduate school was completely unknown to me before this weekend, is also worth checking out — and even moreso if you have a grad school background. I plan on emailing a link to his comic to every current and former grad school student I know.

I also had my first introduction to the work of Gun Show creator KC Green, whose art is that great sort of unpredictable, hopping from one style to the next with an endless supply of energy showing through in his work.

- Finally, a tour of the makeshift weekend art gallery at the Eastworks complex revealed a whole different side of Gastrophobia creator David McGuire, who was only on the peripheral of my radar prior to the show, but won me over with a wide-reaching selection of his work. One particular piece was a a re-interpretation of Peter Parker’s early years as Spider-Man that wouldn’t seem out of place in a formal, Marvel-approved tribute to the character.

- The evening ended with a dinner and drink-up at the Eastworks building, and I spent much of the night chatting with Boy on a Stick and Slither creator Steven Cloud, as well as Swedish artist Rasmus Gran, who crossed the ocean with Anders Loves Maria creator Rene Engstrom to attend the show.

Quote of the Day:

“He pounded his fist on the table and yelled, ‘NO ONE in this room draws as well as Rob Liefeld!’ … And he was right.”
- Adventures of Dr. McNinja creator Chris Hastings, describing his former art professor (and veteran Thor writer) Walt Simonson’s proclamation during a class years ago, after a student made a disparaging remark about the controversial Youngblood creator.

Previously:
- Webcomics Weekend: We Has Arrived

Webcomics Weekend officially kicked off this morning, but yesterday was a whirlwind tour of the places and faces that make webcomics one of the rare scenes I feel comfortable calling a “community.” Since there was lots of fun stuff to reflect on, here’s a quick recap of the day:

- Met Gary Tyrrell of Fleen in Tarrytown and we had a great, long-winded chat about life, the universe and comics (print and web) en route to Easthampton. We capped off the trip by listening to the latest edition of the Webcomics Weekly Podcast (the first time I’ve listened to the program, in fact), featuring Scott Kurtz, Dave Kellet, Kris Straub and Brad Guigar of the Halfpixel webcomic collective.

- Arrived in Easthampton and drove directly to the Eastworks complex, where Meredith Gran (creator of Octopus Pie and organizer of Webcomics Weekend) and some of the Dumbrella crew gave us a quick tour of their studio and warehouse space. This was my first look at their setup, which is located in a massive old (textiles?) factory that’s been repurposed to host a variety of boutique shops and creative studios. It’s an absolutely amazing complex — which somehow manages to maintain the tone of both a creative- and business-minded mecca for the evolving webcomics scene. One gets the feeling that there is something very special blossoming here in Western Massachusetts, and this weekend’s events are a big part of that growth cycle.

– After touring Eastworks, the next few hours were a blur of food prep and consumption, and a long list of new faces (to me, at least) during a private get-together for some of the creators attending the event. The food was outstanding (including Gary’s homemade pizza and more pounds of homemade lasagna, pasta dishes and other snacks than I could hope to account for here) and once things got rolling (read: “people started drinking”), the hours flew by in a flurry of connecting faces to names and names to comics. Among the creators I chatted with over the course of the afternoon (whose sites are all equally recommended):

Spike (Templar, Arizona)
Rob DenBleyker (Cyanide & Happiness)
Bill Barnes (Unshelved)
Jorge Cham (PhD Comics)
Rene Engstrom (Anders Loves Maria)
Chris Yates (creator of the “Poop Sign”, among other nifty things)
Jeff Rowland (OverCompensating)
Rich Stevens (Diesel Sweeties)
David Willis (Shortpacked)
Vincent LaBate (Kitty Hawk)
Joey Comeau (A Softer World)
Jon Rosenberg (Goats)
Andrew Bell (Creatures in my Head)

- Later that night, we ended up in “downtown” Northampton for a pub crawl that started out with a significant bit of crawling as we wandered between the local comic shop, a coffee house and other locations, but ended up with Kurtz, Kellet, Tyrrell and I sitting in a nifty little establishment called “Tunnel Bar.” (The bar was built in a semi-circle network of tunnels, filled with leather chairs and dimly lit for a great War-era atmosphere.) I also managed to finally meet The System creator Rosscott. Crowds of webcomic fans tagged with day-glo stickers spilled into the bar all night and crowded the streets of Northampton, making for an interesting trek around town prior to settling into the bar and an even more interesting evening. Attendees outnumbered the locals by a pretty noticeable tally in just about every stop along the identified pub crawl landmarks. There wasn’t any decent way to keep count of the showing, but I’d estimate at least a hundred or so fans and several dozen creators wandering Northampton the night before the event kicked off.

– On another observational note, this was the first time I chatted with Kurtz and Kellet, and it was a conversation punctuated by a near-constant stream of fans as the pair held court in Tunnel Bar. It was yet another reminder of how massive the fan base for webcomics tends to be — and how underexaggerated (and undervalued) it tends to be at typical comic conventions. Substitute Kurtz and Kellet (or any number of other creators bopping around Northampton this weekend) for a pair of notable creators from the print comics world and I’d be hard-pressed to say there’d be any difference in the size of the crowd that develops. Heck, I’d put money on a few of the creators attending the show this weekend to draw a bigger crowd than some of print comics’ A-list creators. If anything, the weekend has provided a controlled base of sorts for comparing the two scenes — minus all of the trappings of the print comics scene, how does an event by and for webcomics stack up? The answer thus far: a lot better than I expected, to be honest.

– The night ended at a greasy-spoon diner near Tunnel Bar and some of the worst food I’ve tasted in a great many years. Tyrrell and I tagged along with the crew from Halfpixel, as well as Jorge Cham, Bill Barnes, David Willis (and his fiance), and a host of other creators, fans and assorted other people in various stages of drinking and drunk and well-past drunk. This was the wind-down portion of the night, but produced one of my favorite quotes of the weekend thus far:

“The Oscars and the Emmys of webcomics are the refrigerator door and the bathroom.”
– Scott Kurtz, explaining where he’d be proud to see his comics end up in a reader’s home.