We’re counting on most of you scratching your heads at the title of our next world to inhabit as it’s a story that has less eyes on it than either Captain Excelsior or Rice Boy did. Our mission statement at Digital Strips is to bring more webcomics to the forefront, bringing those strips that may go unnoticed to at least a few more readers who may propagate them to their friends and so on and so forth. It is in this spirit that we bring our heroes to the dark, mysterious dream world of Finder’s Keepers.

Creator Garth Cameron Graham has done an amazing job of crafting an intricate and beautiful world for his characters and it will be an honor to walk amongst them, if only for a short time. The next arc won’t start for a little while, so why not take this time to read through the archives? When you’ve finished reading the story thus far (another difference from the other strips we’ve featured thus far is that this strip is still ongoing) go have a listen to our thoughts about the comic on the Digital Strips Podcast.

For the time being, Heiko and I have decided to postpone the Finder’s Keepers arc of DSA. While we decide where to slot in the story we have in mind for those characters, you really should go check out the comic itself, it comes highly recommended by not one, but two Digital Strips staff members.

So what strip will come next in the queue? How about none other than the gag strip goodness of Imagine This? Creator Lucas Turnbloom has put together quite the fun group of characters with his comic about a man-child who refuses to grow up and the childhood toys that help him to fulfill that purpose. The script that Heiko has worked up for this is pitch perfect for both the IT and DSA universes and I can’t wait to get started on the sketches for Clovis, Darin, Dewey, and the whole gang!

Just as before, stop by Digital Strips for our review of Imagine This and read through the archives to get a taste of what’s in store when we invade… Darin’s dad’s house? Oboy…

After featuring various webcomics characters in this page, I received notices from nearly everyone seeking legal action. However, when I told them that they, too, could be a part of the awesome fun that is Digital Strips Adventures, they all dropped their respective lawsuits and hopped on board!

Seriously though, I got nice words from everyone involved and it’s only right to give each and every one of them a quick shout, as well as link to their respective reviews over at Digital Strips. Enjoy and wish me luck in convincing every one of them to contribute to the DSA project!

Clockwise, from bottom-left:

Man, from Rosscott’s The System (Episode 168)

Nadia from Ramon Perez’s Kukuburi (Episode 183)

Cailyn and Asher from Garth Cameron Graham’s Finder’s Keepers (Episode 179)

Edmund Finney and Sasquatch from Edmund Finney’s Quest for the Meaning of Life (Episode 176)

Ed and August from Pajama Forest (Episode 178)

Robin Hood from Much the Miller’s Son (Episode 173)

Buff Unicycler from Amazing Superzeroes (Episode 51… ok, this was really just one of my own that I wanted to include, so sue me)

Bill from The Legend of Bill (Episode 163)

Clovis from Imagine This, our next participant of Digital Strips Adventures! (Episode 170)

David Reddick of Legend of Bill was kind enough to drop us a shout-out and so many of you fresh eyes are spying Digital Strips Adventures for the first time! While the most fun of this whole experience is coming from playing in the sandboxes of the best webcomics creators the world has ever seen, there is a story to this whole experiment and it starts here.

If you’re interested in seeing our takes on the greats thus far, click these links to start our stories based on Captain Excelsior by Zach Weiner and Chris Jones and Rice Boy by Evan Dahm (the titles are our takes, the names are their strips which are highly recommended as well).

Thanks again for stopping by and stick around, because our arc featuring the characters of Lucas Turnbloom’s Imagine This begins on Monday!

You thought I disappeared, didn’t you? Well the winter ‘storm’ barreling down on the south better be HUGE. I’ll I here about is that this town and that town is going to get snowed in. This is a place that the worst snow in the past 50 years was 6 inches. So the problem isn’t going to be the snow in so much as the idiot drivers who can’t drive in a drizzle but think their SUVs can drive on ice.

Anyways episode 4 brings in a whole new concept then we’ve previously explored before. The most obvious difference is the framing, but maybe it’s the coloring? Either way it’s part of the whole experiment in exploring everything that is webcomics. This change, though, brings to mind many questions about why people choose one format over another. I like to think the laughs you get from reading Imagine This are equal to the jokes we used in Captain Excelsior but we have to admit the delivery is completely different.

The short banner like gag strip immediately puts the reader in the mode for laughing because very few of us can think of a serious comic that uses the one line horizontal layout that isn’t trying to be funny. The full page, on the other hand, is historically the realm of graphic novels, even if it gives artists more room to set up a joke. Your audience may or may not be ready to see some slapstick or witty pun, if delivered 6 panels further than normal.

So what is the better presentation?

Tall Tale Features, a home to countless excellent webcomics, has just posted a behind-the-scenes look at the making of your typical Imagine This strip. While I’ve been doing my version of IT about 75% digitally, Lucas is nearly all about the traditional, hand-drawn approach. Check out the article to see just how he makes with the magic and what he does to celebrate afterwards!

I should have done this before but we all get so busy with real life we forget. Jason does a great job of taking my scripts and rendering them. It’s so hard for me to be funny, in a non-sarcastic way, that at this point I’ve pretty much let him go with it. Take for example the script for today:

Couple of panels of Midnight in street clothes being pulled around by a girl. The girl sees a sign for tarot reading.
Girl: O-M-G! I’ve always wanted a reading.
Midnight: Oh yeah, me too…
Girl: You’re no fun, please!
The girl gives Midnight a pouting face causing Midnight to roll his eyes.
Midnight: Fine, but no crying!
Midnight gets pulled in. Show a panel stretching across the page with the two going in through the doors into an anteroom, a waiting room in the middle, and a third room with an old woman sitting at a table. Bottom of page has the girl sitting at the table all happy.
Old Woman: My next customer…
Midnight looks confused and the girl has a shocked look on her face.
Old Woman: but this twit of a girl is his way.

See? I try to be all artistic and stuff and Midnight goes and it makes good. Go figure.

I want my process for bringing this comic from concept to finished product to be as transparent as possible. Whether or not anyone cares or reads about it is in up in the air. Just the same, here’s a look at how Page 2 is coming along thus far. We’re delving into the occult with this one (which, I discovered, will get you followed by various occultists on Twitter within seconds) and it’s my first time drawing tarot cards, so be gentle!

click image for full-size

Last night Nate jumped on Skype along with the rest of the DS crew and I realized just how long it was since I’d recorded a podcast. Back in the day we use to record using a program called HotRecorder but that was windows based so I tried to give Audacity a shot. Boy did the cause problems. Ended up wasting 2 hours on trying to create mp3 only to put the project files on a flash drive and take into work to use a windows machine.

That’s in the past and I’m sure you don’t want to hear about my complaining. What really got me thinking was talking to Zampzon again. Realizing I should find a way to put him into the comic. Do I make him some arch villain that’s always making fun of my stutter? Perhaps have the DSA crew visit the old comic in some kind of surreal adventure? It’s also a golden opportunity to revisit some of the pain Zampzon inflicted on my character, if only Jason will oblige when he draws up the comic.

There are a few artists out there whom I believe to be the best at what they do. Being a writer I’m better able to talk about them then say architecture. For me Douglas Adams represents the style of writing I most wish to emulate. His flagrant mis-use of words came off as almost Shakespearian in it’s originality. But when it comes to story telling it’s Neil Gaiman that has stolen the cake. The worlds he reveals rival Tolkien in their intricacies but surpass them in one key aspect: I want to believe in them. I don’t mean there were a lot of cool new things told. No, I mean I would rather live in his worlds then reality (at least while reading his books). He’s that good.

It was maybe a year after reading Neverwhere that tried to go back to Comedity. That comic has to be one of the great tragedies in our little world but at least the months of hiatus led us to Finder’s Keepers. I practically squealed with delight. Reading through the first 40 pages in about 30 seconds, I knew there had to be some Gaimon influence there. So as a little homage I had to make sure Door appeared somewhere in the FK jump and that’s who we see standing behind Life and opening the door for the team.

Be assured there will be many more Mr. G references through DSA, not just this particular arc. Sit back and enjoy!