Hugo-nominated webcomic The Body Politic as a free download
Erik sez, "The Hugos have a special one-time-only award category this year 'Best Graphic Story'. Though you might want to note that one of the nominated stories is from Howard Talyer's 'Schlock Mercenary,' an old fashioned, four panel a day, ad supported webcomic, written and illustrated by one guy with no other credits to his name. The story has been available online since it was originally posted (just like the whole archives are), and he's put together the story in PDF form for people who don't want to trawl through the archives."
The Body Politic (PDF) (Coral cache mirror) (Thanks, Erik!)
the latest
latest episodes
But go trawl through the archives anyway. Schlock Mercenary is pretty funny here and there, and it's good science fiction, and you can watch the guy's drawing skill go from "kinda meh" to "hey, he's good at that!" over time.
Schlock
I'm just downloading it now so can't comment in a qualified fashion but...
Literature and visual art can very safely be characterized as high points of civilization; moral philosophers have characterized their enjoyment as being more valuable to society than the realms of science and humanitarian efforts.
Combine the two and you generally get written off as nothing more than humor or fantasy.
This pisses me off a whole bunch.
Mr. Doctorow, I know you are a very busy man with little spare time but I bet you could write a thoughtful monthly civil liberties/rights comic in less than an hour on a regular basis. Mark and David could very capably fill in when you're too busy :) You could hire guest artists probably easier than you can hire guest editors for boingboing.
Does a boingboing.net serial comic stray too far from your life goals? Probably not. It doesn't really work too much with your business model but its a suggestion you might consider.
Wow, that's great news for Howard! I've been meaning to go through the comic - Howard seems like both a hilarious and insightful writer from what I hear of him at the Writing Excuses podcast (which he hosts with authors Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells).
You should have mentioned the nominee Girl Genius. Even if they didn't compile a special pdf, the entire story it is available to read online as a webcomic. I think it's notable that, unlike Schlock Mercenary, Girl Genius started as a print comic and later moved to the web. As I understand it, this was a great success and they found that it greatly boosted sales of the print.
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
I did follow this comic for quite a while, but the newer stuff just doesn't seem to grip me anymore.
I'll be sure to download and read this though :)
Schlock Mercenary is the last webcomic I read before hitting the sack. I have a list of about 15, and I like its style, and the punch-line at the end. I usually get a little chuckle out of each strip or page and it usually puts my mind into a nice happy place good for going to bed in.
I also read Girl Genius, a comic that Howard has referred to on his site as being the kind of project he aspires to be a part of, and saying that they are the kind of project he thinks is much more worthy of the award than him. He's honestly just happy to be nominated. For a one-man project, it's damn good though.
A minor correction: the "Best Graphic Story" category will become a regular part of the Hugo balloting starting in 2010. The Anticipation committee chose to jump-start the process by using their "special category" option this year.
Dr Paisley, who can't remember his password
Girl Genius rocks! Great storytelling, great art, mad scientists. What more could one ask for?
"Maybe this is all just some absinthe-fueled scientific romance."
-- Baron Klaus Wulfenbach
Girl Genius and Schlock Mercenary are both freely-available webcomics whose creators pay the bills by selling merchandise. Phil and I are friends (I called him to congratulate him last Thursday, and we talked for quite a while) and are both thrilled to have been nominated.
And I stand by what I said on in my blog under the comic: Everything else on the ballot is either better written or better illustrated, or both, than my own work. I'm honored and flattered to be in such company.
Yeah, Howard, but your story includes a coloring book.
That seals it for me.