Link Sausage: 9/21/2009

• The biggest news in webcomics this week was the rebirth of John Allison’s Scary Go Round universe in his new strip Bad Machinery that went live this morning. As Gary Tyrrell astutely points out, the characters’ relationships to Allison’s previous series are a bit unclear, but such is the nature of its hook from day one.

• The big news in webcomics last week was this Hi & Lois strip that took a jab at independent webcomics creators. The premise reminds me of conversations I was having with mainstream comics professionals in 2006 and 2007 who laughed at the entire notion of webcomics as a legitimate business ventures. Yes, it’s hard (so is life), and yes many artists struggle at developing small business models online, but the hard facts are that there is a lot of opportunity out there for savvy creators who do know how to provide consistent content and sell quality merch on the side, among other less popular setups. To see established names remain publicly oblivious to this trend while they watch from a sinking print media ship frustrates me because it’s arrogant and also because I’ve seen the hard work and risks a lot of webcomickers have taken with their livelihoods, and to see that independent creative spirit spat upon angers me when I think that anyone would read this strip and think it means they can’t succeed on their own. [end rant]

• Topless Robot’s WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS meme celebrated its rise to infamy with an epic collection that included an image you may recognize. The Guardian even picked up on it, now, and is calling it “crowdsourced bullying,” which my friend Sean takes issue with.

• My former office-mate from my staff-writing days at Wizard, Ben Morse, re-posted a spread I hadn’t seen in some time. In a resurrected post topic from the old site, he shares the DC character Miss Martian’s secret origin as inspired by his fiancee Megan.

• I took a trip out to Los Angeles last week on assignment for MTV News to cover a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 event in Hollywood. There, I got a one-on-one interview with Infinity Ward’s community manager Robert Bowling, which you can read over on the Multiplayer Blog.

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