Modern Tales and serializer went down a few minutes ago, each reporting a different server-side error. Tech support at mosso is on the case, and they assure me they’ll have those two sites back up shortly. I hope this means “by the time I get back from lunch.” I’m going to lunch now.

Eric says: Serializer looks to be up, Modern Tales still down. It’s almost 2 p.m., so I’m going to have breakfast.

Joey says: Both sites are up now.

Sequart has a review with sample pages frm Tom Hart’s “Hutch Owen: Unmarketable.”

“Tom Hart has a real gift for simple and direct storytelling and has one of the most distinctive voices and cartooning styles in comics and, as stated before, only jerks don’t read his work.”

Hutch Owen runs daily at serializer.net

- Eric

The server where Modern Tales, Serializer, Graphic Smash, Girlamatic and AdultWebcomics are housed was having trouble earlier today, and returning a database error (”Could not connect”). This may have been caused by a traffic spike on AWC due to the launch of Lucy Luvbottom. The immediate problem has been taken care of (ignore the snap.com thingies here on TAC that still say “could not connect” when you mouse over any link to those sites– those are cached JPGs), and the sites are back online, but I am still looking at a longer-term solution. Thanks for your patience!

I am pleased to announce that August J. Pollack’s new political comic “Some Guy with a Website” is the latest addition to serializer’s line-up. Pardon his dust whilehe gets set-up …

Just to review, some of the previous latest additions have been:

Sascha Hommer’s complete, translated from German, graphic novel “Insekt.” Insekt is the story of Pascal, a boy growing up in a city covered in smoke. He goes to school, meets friends and everything seems to be quite normal. But when a girl takes him to a secret glade everything changes…

Scott Ewen’s new, on-going serial “Flight of the Living Dead,” in which an airplane flying from New York to London is victim to a zombie attack.

Marcel Guldemond’s “dot dot dot,” full of meandering comics experimentations, especially good when combined with a complete lack of attention span. In other words, perfect for me and you.

More new artists to come, you could take a shot at joining our webcomics rebellion by sending your pitch to serializerpitches@gmail.com — be sure to send me a good summary of your comic, why I’d be interested in it, and links to samples.

- Eric M.

Scott Ewen’s Flight of the Living Dead is the latest addition to serializer and I think you’ll really dig it. Scott’s posted about four pages so far and will be settling into a regular Monday update schedule. I hate to be a spolier, but Ithink there might be some motherfuckin’ zombies on that motherfuckin’ plane.

We’ve added several new series over the last few weeks and there are more to come.

I’m also taking submissions for even more wonderful serializer comics, so if you’ve got the stuff drop me a line at serializerpitches@gmail.com — be sure to send me a good summary of your comic, why I’d be interested in it, and links to samples. Although I’m interested in any type of good comics, at this time I’m particularly interested in alternative political and/or horror comics, so if you’re the next Richard Sala or Ruben Bolling, hit that e-mail.

Also, if you’re the current Richard Sala or Ruben Bolling, that would be cool, too.

K. Thor Jensen over on The Comics Journal’s message board reports that his 300-page graphic novel RED EYE, BLACK EYE is on the way from Alternative Comics. RED EYE, BLACK EYE was one of the original serializer.net comics.

“From riding the back of a burning couch in Birmingham, Alabama to aiding stray dogs in Butte, Montana, building a giant papier-mache vagina in Columbus, Ohio to smuggling drugs across the border in El Paso, Texas, Jensen searches for the last remnants of a meaningful life as he rides the Greyhound bus. Stopping over in eighteen cities, he interacts with a diverse cast of supporting characters, and they each recount a story of their own to him, cobbling together a modern Canterbury Tales for the slacker generation.”

Serializer reader Casey has posted brief reviews of each of the serializer comics over on The Comics Journal message board. This looks like a good place for other readers to share their initial thoughts and opinions and hopes for the relaunched serializer as well. I’ll be watching this.

I mention it here because there was a link to these feeds for several days, but they weren’t working — which is my fault.

They’re working now.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/SerializerWebcomics/
http://feeds.feedburner.com/GirlamaticWebcomics/

Feel free to LiveJournalize these or whatever else you want.

Rick Smith and Tania Menesee’s Shuck was one of the under-appreciated gems of the original Modern Tales lineup. The strip moved over to Serializer a little more than a year ago, in hopes that it would be more likely to find its audience there … just in time for the server crash that disabled that site for way too long (mea culpa). But, well, now it’s back — and Halloween is the perfect time to rediscover Shuck, who, after all, used to be the guardian of the gates of Hades (but now lives a more genial exurban life). Rick and Tania have brought a new energy to the revived version: it’s daily now, for one thing, and full color.

I’m also noticing a distinct lack of the unusual dialect-like-but-not-quite spelling tricks from the old strip. Those added an idiosyncratic flair to the writing, but they also, um, made it a little more difficult to read than it might have been. I’m not sure what I think about this development yet.

If you’re looking for something quirky and sweet (but tinged with darkness and death, too, like everything else within this mortal coil) to add to your daily trawl — and who isn’t? — you could do far worse.

I am pleased and excited to announce the daily update schedule of the amazing comics series for the about-to-relaunch serializer.net. I believe all of these comics have been mentoned in previous blog posts here, other than our latest addition of artist Sean Bieri with his comic series “Jape.”

MONDAY
Jen Sorensen, “Slowpoke”
Rick Smith and Tania Menesse, “Shuck Stripped”
Spike, “Templar, Arizona”
Eric Millikin, “Fetus-X”
Tom Hart, “Hutch Owen”
Ryan North, “Dinosaur Comics”

TUESDAY
Metaphrog “Louis: Lying to Clive”
Jenny Gonzalez, “Too Negative”
Casey Sorrow, “Feral Calf”
Phil McAndrew, “Bean” and/or “Hug the Cactus”
Rick Smith and Tania Menesse, “Shuck Stripped”
Tom Hart, “Hutch Owen”
Ryan North, “Dinosaur Comics”

WEDNESDAY
Renée French, “micrographica”
Sam Henderson, “The Magic Whistle”
Spike and Ainsley Seago, “Blikada”
Sean Bieri , “Jape”
Jonathan Larabie, “The Minibar Bill”
Rick Smith and Tania Menesse, “Shuck Stripped”
Tom Hart, “Hutch Owen”
Ryan North, “Dinosaur Comics”

THURSDAY
Matt Bors, “Idiot Box”
Matt Feazell, “Amazing Cynical Man!”
Jason Turner, “True Loves”
Tom Hart, “Hutch Owen”
Rick Smith and Tania Menesse, “Shuck Stripped”
Ryan North, “Dinosaur Comics”

FRIDAY
Patrick Farley, “Apocamon: The Final Judgement”
Joey Comeau and Emily Horne, “A Softer World”
Merlin Goodbrey & Douglas Noble, “The Rule of Death”
Spike, “Templar, Arizona”
Tom Hart, “Hutch Owen”
Rick Smith and Tania Menesse, “Shuck Stripped”
Ryan North, “Dinosaur Comics”

NOTE THAT:
Joda Thayer, “Few and Far Between,” will start daily around the week of Nov. 6
Nick Bertozzi will be joining us in a couple months after he finishes a text book illustration project where the deadline got bumped up.

Questions? E-mail ericmillikin-at-gmail-dot-com

UPDATE: Shuck Stripped is daily!

With one week until the serializer.net relaunch, I’m happy to announce five more serializer comics by seven amazing creators. Count them:

1) Spike with “Templar, Arizona” and “Blikada” (Blikada illustrated by Ainsley Seago)
2) Ryan North with “Dinosaur Comics”
3) Joey Comeau and Emily Horne with “A Softer World”
4) Rick Smith and Tania Menesse with “Shuck” (in comic strip form)

See this previous post for a list of the other serializer artists, including Sam Henderson, Renée French, Patrick Farley, Jen Sorensen, Jenny Gonzalez, and Nick Bertozzi.

- Eric

Ben Catmull’s “Monster Parade” (one of the orginal comics on serializer.net) is out this month as a 32-page comic book from Fantagraphics. It’s at the top of their New Releases page, Tom Spurgeon has a brief interview with Ben here along with some great preview pages of Catmull’s amazing artwork, and the blog joglikescomics has a review.

Attention Comics Readers of the Word Wide Web — Serializer.net, the critically acclaimed site for art comics on the web, is reassembling. These are the facts as we know them:

1) Expect your new serializer.net by the end of this month of October.

2) Serializerists of the future and their works of art include:

Nick Bertozzi, As Yet Untitled Experimental Comics, then “Drop Ceiling”
Matt Bors, “Idiot Box”
Patrick Farley, “Apocamon: The Final Judgement”
Matt Feazell, “Amazing Cynical Man!”
Renée French, “micrographica”
Jenny Gonzalez, “Too Negative”
Merlin Goodbrey & Douglas Noble, “The Rule of Death”
Tom Hart, “Hutch Owen”
Sam Henderson, “The Magic Whistle”
Jonathan Larabie, “The Minibar Bill”
Phil McAndrew, “Bean” and/or “Hug the Cactus”
Metaphrog “Louis - Lying to Clive”
Eric Millikin, “Fetus-X”
Jen Sorensen, “Slowpoke”
Casey Sorrow, “Feral Calf”
Joda Thayer, “Few and Far Between”
Jason Turner, “True Loves”
Approximately five other artists to be named later

3) Publisher’s Weekly refers to many of serializer’s artists as “art comics favorites” and “critical darlings.” London’s Sunday Times has called serializer “high art,” and The New York Times thought some of our comics were “Well drawn and funny.” The Comics Journal found some Serializer comics to be “daring, entertainingly perverse” while The Guardian found artwork on serializer that “threatens to seriously tamper with one’s smug equilibrium.”

4) Questions? E-mail ericmillikin-at-gmail-dot-com

Once (and future?) serializerist K. Thor Jensen is rolling out free comics. the first is “The Last Kiss, originally published in Roctober #36. Long-time Portal of Evil visitors will recognize the story of Edward Przyzdial, aka ‘Bernard Edwards,’ and his KISS-fueled one-man rampage to rock & roll stardom. Kidnapping, suicide, and mail fraud all under a thick coat of greasepaint.”

I, Eric Millikin, am proud to release the above cover painting for my latest project. It’s a short story with a working title of “Fat America: Who’s to Blame?” The story, scripted by a popular cook-book writer, explores issues like how our goverment’s agricultural subsidies contribute to our nation’s obesity. I finished off the painting this past weekend, so I expect the print run of close to a million copies has been completed by now and I’ll have more details later this week. If you love bacon, cheese, and/or burgers then I’m sure you’re as excited about this project as I am.

From February - September 2005, I drew a new comic strip every single weekday. I’ve started re-running all of the best strips from that period on Webcomics Nation, plus some new ones! I’ll be updating daily on WCN for as long as possible!

Enjoy!

Hi gang-

Hutch Owen is back up and running at HutchOwen.com

After packing house, moving and (some) unpacking, Hutch has emerged from the studio environs to figure out just what the hell is going on in the world.

This week: Dennis Worner comments on the effects of Hurricaine Katrina.

If you’re going to SPX, vote for me in the Ignatz awards!

PS- serializer should be relaunching soon….

Shaenon K. Garrity, creator of Narbonic on Modern Tales, L’il Mell (with various artists) on Girlamatic, Trunktown on serializer.net (with Tom Hart) and More Fun on Graphic Smash (with Robert Stevenson) has just been named “Lulu of the Year” (along with co-winner The Flight Anthology) by the Friends of Lulu organization at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Read more at Comicon Pulse.

Woo Sarge! Way to go!

The Web Cartoonists’ Choice Awards were announced this week, and there were quite a few Modern Tales creators among the winners! You can see the full awards ceremony (in comics form!) at the WCCA site, but here’s the short list of MT winners:

OUTSTANDING WRITING:
Shaenon Garrity (Narbonic)
(Shaenon also writes More Fun and Li’l Mell)

OUTSTANDING BLACK AND WHITE ART:
Digger by Ursula Vernon

OUTSTANDING NEW CHARACTER DESIGN:
Astronaut Elementary by Dave Roman

OUTSTANDING USE OF FLASH:
The Discovery of Spoons by Alexander Danner & John Barber
(Alexander writes Picture Story Theatre and John is the creator of Vicious Souvenirs)

OUTSTANDING USE OF INFINITE CANVAS:
Drew Weing (Pup)

OUTSTANDING STORY CONCEPT:
Count Your Sheep by Adrian Ramos
(Adrian is the creator of The Wisdom of Moo)

OUTSTANDING SCIENCE FICTION COMIC:
Dicebox by Jenn Manley Lee

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Count Your Sheep by Adrian Ramos (Short Form),
Flick by Mikal Oskarsson (Sci-Fi)
Smile by Raina Telgemeier (BW Art)

An upcoming book by Modern Tales’ own Steven Withrow and John Barber features a number of Modern Tales artists (Shaenon Garrity, Tom Hart, Cat Garza, and tons more). Here’s the press release:

WEBCOMICS HOW-TO BOOK ARRIVES IN AUGUST

Authors explore the tools and techniques behind today’s best online comics.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Barron’s Education Series, in collaboration with The Ilex Press, will release Webcomics: Tools & Techniques for Digital Cartooning by Steven Withrow and John Barber on August 1, 2005.

Webcomics is an introduction to one of today’s fastest growing and most exciting new media — online comics. Created digitally and distributed on the Internet, webcomics represent both a new publishing model and a brand new art form. They range in style from traditional-looking cartoon strips to innovative, experimental works that may integrate imagery from photography, video, and other sources, and feature audio soundtracks, animation, and interactivity.

Webcomics offers an in-depth look at what is happening in this area — revealing who the pioneers are, what sort of work they’re doing, and what kind of digital tools and techniques they employ. Combining profiles of well-known webcomics creators with detailed workthroughs that reveal the nuts and bolts of every aspect of comic creation and presentation, this book is a must for anyone interested in where comics are headed in the 21st century.

Paperback: 192 pages
Barron’s Educational Series (August 1, 2005)
ISBN: 0764129821

For more information, please visit http://www.webcomicsthebook.com/.

About the Authors
Steven Withrow is also the author of Toon Art: The Graphic Art of Digital Cartooning (Watson-Guptill Publications/The Ilex Press; 2003), and John Barber is the creator of the innovative webcomic Vicious Souvenirs at ModernTales.com.