The Latest "Trend"

If there was any prevailing trend among the many books offered for sale this past weekend at SPACE, it was that many of them, including my own Wasted Paper: The Complete Wasted Potential Volume One (e-mail me at wasted_potential1965@yahoo.com for details on how to get your very own copy) were collections of on-line comics. Today I'm going to take a look at a couple of the best.

First, there's Wasted Paper, collecting the brilliantly funny on-line...

Ok, I'll let other lavish praise on my book, and move on to....

Lapses In Judgment: Kidnapped by Gnomes Volume One, a trade paperback collecting the first year of Kathy Peterson's webcomic Kidnapped by Gnomes. (For some reason, I really love saying "Kidnapped by Gnomes.") Updated twice weekly, the strip stars two gnomes named Ed and Wilson who live in Kathy's house watching her TV and occassionally stealing her credit cards, or, in one strip, flushing them down the toilet. Wilson, the slightly taller of the two nearly identical creatures, has an inexplicable crush on Ann Coulter (inexplicable to me, at least. OK, she's sort of hot---until she opens her mouth and starts spewing crap), while Ed wishes to be the benevolent dictator of Delaware (the state, not the town or county in Ohio).

Y'know, this stuff sounds a little weird when I try to describe it ('cause it is, a little), so just go read it. This strip was definitely one of my best discoveries at this year's show.

Then there's Lethargic Lad: Topics of Unclear Importance, collecting the first seven years of Greg Hyland's on-line version of super-hero parody Lethargic Lad.

It's pretty obvious that Greg is making this stuff up as he goes along, which may be the strip's greatest strength, allowing him to shift from parodying comics to the latest movie to events in the news. It's all very funny and drawn in a great cartoony style.

Greg, by the way, participated in my on-line comics panel and Sunday morning, making it the highlight of the weekend for me. I'm glad I got to meet him, and I'm looking forward to continuing to follow Lethargic Lad every week.