Via Spike Trotman's Twitter and filed under WTF (but pretty freaking adorable) comes the Webcomic Pony Party! Josh Lesnick (of Girly and Pink Snow Bunny) has taken some of his favorite webcomic characters and rendered them as chubby chibi ponies. At left are the Ménage à 3 ponies, but there are Achewood ponies, Gun Show ponies, Scary Go Round ponies, and ponies à la Octopus Pie. Kate Beaton's Fat Pony is still a fat pony.


[Webcomic Pony Party]

I have never been to Portland. In fact, I have never set foot in the great state of Oregon.

I've never been to Voodoo Doughnut. I didn't grow up watching "Bumpity." I haven't witnessed the eclectic frights of Baron Von Goolo's Museum of Horrors. And, tragically, I haven't made it up to the Stumptown Comics Fest.

None of this has hindered my love for CulturePulp.

Mike Russell is a comics journalist (as in a journalist who works in the medium of comics, not a journalist who writes about the comics industry) whose work frequently appears in The Oregonian, Portland's daily newspaper. In most CulturePulp strips, Russell's alter ego takes us on a tour of Portland's local color, covering events, hanging with Portland personalities, and exposing cultural phenomena from Browncoats to Piratecore. It's fascinating to visit another city through the medium of comics, but what makes CulturePulp truly special is the sense of fun that permeates every strip. It would be easy for Russell to poke fun at the oddballs who populate Portland (certain UFOlogists come to mind), but he's more interested in letting these people tell their own stories and explain why they're so captivated by View-Masters or dressing like faeries. It helps that he's got one of those cartoony styles that lends itself to wry exaggeration without grotesqueness.

Even if you're not so hot on learning the ins and outs of Portland culture, it's worth checking out some of CulturePulp's less local strips. Russell occasional provides comic primers on wider cultural phenomena such as Hellboy and Aeon Flux -- not to mention writing one of my favorite send-ups of disaster movies.

[CulturePulp]

Wow, so I never expected that this blog would see so much traffic...ever. Thanks to everyone who retweeted, voted up, and linked to the post on cartoonists' self-portraits. Now I'm going to squander any goodwill that may have earned me by plugging a project of my own.

I'm currently collecting an anthological, anecdotal comic book guide to San Francisco's Mission District. The book will contain 20 tales of life in the Mission with art by 20 Bay Area artists (and in some cases, the artist and the author might be one and the same). If you are interested in contributing, head over to Skoda Man Press to learn more.

Also, a couple of non-self-promoting odds and ends:

• A few days ago, tech industry watchers TechCrunch interviewed husband and wife webcomickers Drew (of Toothpaste for Dinner and Married to the Sea) and Natalie Dee (of Natalie Dee and Married to the Sea). It's an interesting read as it treats the webcomics as an art-focused startup.
• Periscope Studios, home to some of my favorite webcomickers, as well as a number of other talented comic artists, has just opened a spanking new Etsy store. Items have been selling fast; if you see something you like, pounce.

For all the crap I give other people, I'm a pretty lousy artist. I'm trying to remedy some gaps in my artistic skill set by taking a class over at SFAI on drawing the head and the hands. This has led to some not entirely successful attempts at self-portraiture, and I got to thinking about how cartoonists represent themselves. Cartooning is, of course, representational, and it's often less about capturing what a person actually looks like than about capturing some basic essence of the individual. So let's take a look at some of the cartoonists gracing my RSS reader and their cartoon alter egos:

Jeff Schuetze:

Jeffrey Brown:


Jeffrey Rowland:


Jeph Jacques:


Joel Watson:


Julia Wertz:


Kate Beaton and her Younger Self:


Lucy Knisley:


Marc Ellerby:


Meredith Gran (Note that the quickie self portrait was done back when she had dreadlocks.):


R Stevens:


Rachel Nabors:


Randy Milholland:


Rene Engstrom:

James Kochalka, creator of the diary comic American Elf and books such as Johnny Boo and Superf*ckers, is getting into the video game business. Years ago, Kochalka began designing Glorkian Warrior, a video game he has begun developing with indie gaming company Pixeljam. Now the game is nearing completion, and the team needs your help.

James Kochalka + Pixeljam = Glorkian Warrior [Kickstarter]

Via The Beat, here's a comic to keep on the radar. Zahra's Paradise, by an anonymous Iranian-America writer ("Amir") and an equally anonymous Arab artist ("Khalil"), chronicles a family's search for a missing protestor in the wake of the 2009 Iranian elections. It promises to give us a look inside modern Iran -- its diverse population, its political turmoil, and the dark corners into which a person can disappear.

Last week, Scott Kurtz give a talk at San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum on (what else?) webcomics. One of the problems with webcomics, according to Kurtz, is that too many creators are setting up "Cargo Cults" to creators like Kurtz and Kris Straub, making their comics in imitation of those storied successful webcomics. Comics, Kurtz notes, should be about love. You should love your characters, love your art, love the things you write about -- be it history or geek culture or, hell, even love.

Normally I use this blog to highlight shiny and new comics -- or at least comics that are currently running -- but I recently stumbled across the archives for a blast from my past I'd like to share.

Back in October, I collected a list of horror-themed webcomics for Halloween. Most of the comics I've mentioned here before, including Eerie Cuties, The Zombie Hunters, and Lovecraft is Missing. But while I was compiling the list, I stumbled across a comic I hadn't seen before: Split Lip, an anthology by Sam Costello. Now I've finally gotten a chance to sit down and give Split Lip a thorough reading and I'd like to give it its due.