And not like, ‘Oh that’s quaint. I’m sort of impressed, but I’d rather just eat my sandwich,’ sort of impressed.  Like, genuinely, truly,  ‘oh man, we have stuff that good on here?!’ impressed.

Which is rad. Because one, it means The Fabler isn’t ostensibly shitty, which as it turns out is good for business. Also because two, more importantly, it means that while the ‘big boy’ publishers continue to slowly creep over the digital landscape (did somebody say same day digital?) – there exists an ambitious horde of indie comic creators lurking in the rafters of the interwebs, just itching to realize their full potential.

Only they probably only resemble sexual predators in that particular metaphor. We hope. But hey, who’s judging?

It’s been a while since I highlighted some of the new and hip and/or interesting submissions currently up on the Fabler, so I figured I’d toss a few out on here that you should probably check out (if you haven’t already).

First off, lucidk was one of the winners on our first Fabler Wacom Contest for her wicked cool webcomic about an alternate afterlife, GHOST! Lucid (aka Danielle Keller, whom you can read a Fabler Blog interview with here) recently posted 37 pages of her 41 page standalone story which she is currently doing as her senior comic project at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

It’s called Vixen, and it deals with themes that are darker, more sexualized, and ultimately more complex than GHOST! while refining her high contrast, intensely manic art to new levels of awesome.  From her description:

In Victorian England, a pagan sisterhood is abducting girls and making them decide between swearing devotion to their goddess or being cannibalized in their quest to reach true beauty. This story follows Lorna as she falls into the temptation of the clan.

One of the most artistically impressive Fabler contributors I’ve seen of late is Monsterzero (DC Roberts), who has been courteous enough to grace us with three sample stories in the vein of R Crumb meets hyper-realistic future videogaming meets testicle-headed comic creator meets… RV-ing, I guess?

Anyway, it’s all sorts of rad. For real. (z)

For comics with nifty (read: compelling) concepts,  the pair that immediately spring to mind are Coldblood: The Wild War # 1 by Weremagnus and Hominids by thejmon.

Coldblood presents a Civil War Era Western with a twist; a horrific plague is sweeping the West, transforming those it touches into demonic visions of their former selves.

Hominids follows the adventures of a group of Neanderthals that coexisted alongside primitive man. The presence of distinctly fantastical elements, plus the conceit of giving them modern conversational capabilities,  made this story stand out as uniquely engaging.

Two more shoutouts have to be made to Teenage Love Zombies and Welcome To The Gun Zoo.

Teenage Love Zombies by TeenageLoveZombies (appropriately enough) is ‘a rock n’roll romance horror comic’ that invokes retro ‘Greaser’ culture while side-slipping in the odd  talking pumpkin, mad professor, and reanimated corpse.  The Gun Zoo, adversely, draws on a pulpy look and feel while presenting a story of ruthless female vigilante-types dispensing ‘justice’ in the best way they know how.

Burkema submitted this one, and you can read the entire first issue here.

If I didn’t mention your Fabler comic on here, it’s not because you deserve to be eaten by rabid vultures or anything. You’re still special.

( Do vultures go rabid? A quick Google search yields only this video of thrash metal band Deathchain performing a song titled ‘Rabid Vultures’ – no help there. )

Seriously, there are tonnes more comics worth reading up on The Fabler right now- go here and explore for yourself.

- Kevin

It stands out as a fresh new example of the stylistic horizons that only a comic book could explore while, narratively, it presents a unique approach to exploring questions of meaning and existence

These are just a couple of the reasons why I was extremely excited to talk to Ray Fawkes about his new graphic novel, One Soul.

Fawkes is well-known for his ages comics’ Apocalipstix, which he wrote and Cameron Stewart illustrated, as well as Possessions Book One & Two. In addition to being a two-time Joe Shuster Award nominee in the “Outstanding Canadian Writer” category, Possessions Book One: Unclean Getaway earned him a nomination for a YALSA award from the American Library Association.

He also wrote the comparatively much darker comics Mnemovore, Spookshow and Black Strings. In the case of the latter two and Possessions, Fawkes assumed the artist mantle as well.

One Soul, which he wrote and illustrated, tells the story of eighteen different lives that all share the same soul. Each of the eighteen stories is told simultaneously, by way of eighteen dedicated panels;  nine on each page of a two-page spread, each following a different character.

If one of the eighteen lives ends before the others, for the rest of the book that panel goes black.

You’ll have to wait until July to get your hands on a copy of this innovative new comic, but for now, you can read what Fawkes has to say about it below:

KD: How would you describe the premise behind One Soul, in eighteen words or less?

RF: ONE SOUL: Eighteen’s people’s lives, from birth to death, across time and around the world – together telling a single story.

KD: You started this book by writing, drawing, and lettering the first fifty pages (in what could only be described as an act of faith) before submitting it to Oni.

What is it about this story that made it so important to you that you were willing to make that first step entirely without publisher backing?

RF: Well, first off, I come from a DIY background – I’ve put out a few self-published pieces – so it wasn’t hard for me to start out under the assumption that I was going to be producing and publishing this book myself. In fact, I often write scripts without a publisher’s commitment, and occasionally start drawing the books as well.

One Soul in particular, though, is a book that struck me as impossible to pitch in writing – there was no way to demonstrate how the book was going to work until someone could hold a portion of it in their hands and experience it the way it’s meant to be read. It was my good fortune that I had the chance to present it to the editors at Oni Press once I had put together enough of it to demonstrate how the whole book was going to work – and that they reacted so positively to it.

As far as the story goes – it’s the story I feel I need to tell. I can’t say it plainer than that. I’m one of those writers who feels the stories curling in the gut and feels the imperative to get them out.

The moment I conceived of this one, I knew I had to create this book, and I knew that I would undertake whatever effort or expense was necessary to complete it and put it out.

KD: What can you tell me about some of the characters whose lives you explore in One Soul?

RF: I’m not going to answer this one in too much detail, because watching the characters grow from infancy and develop into their adult selves – with the surprises, both pleasant and disappointing – is part of the experience of the book.

Here’s some of what readers will see: warriors – both bloodthirsty and reluctant, healers – both competent and helpless, teachers – both wise and cruel. Altruists, egotists, criminals and victims. Human beings.

KD: What sort of research was involved with putting together a book like this?

RF: There was a fair amount of research involved in the early stages of this book: setting research, to make sure I had the time and place pinned down for each character, costume research (of course), and some reading to ensure that the roles the characters played fit well into their settings. It all boils down to a lot of reference reading and image sourcing – work that I hope allowed me to construct a framework that supports the story invisibly, without creating any jarring mis-steps.

That said, I’m sure there are people out there who will make an effort to point out my mistakes.

KD: Artistically, what did you have in mind when you came up with the style for One Soul?

RF: I needed the art to be cartoonish enough to generalize the characters, but detailed enough to create a feeling of connection and sympathy for them. A black and white, fairly detailed “clean line” approach seemed most appropriate.

KD: How do you feel your approach differed in this from your previous illustrative work?

RF: I tend to try to vary the style of my illustrations to match the feel of my books and best convey the atmosphere of the script. ‘Possessions’, an all-ages comedy series I create, is illustrated in a much more spare, saturday-morning cartoon style. If I were to do a horror story, I might work with a looser, darker, spattered style.

KD: Is it strange for you to switch gears between working on a project like One Soul and doing something kid-friendly like Possessions?

RF: Not in the least. I find it relaxing to switch gears! Especially when I can switch from something as serious as ‘One Soul’ to a light, silly romp like ‘Possessions’, or vice-versa.

KD: Speaking of your ongoing projects, can you say anything about what stage of development ‘Junction True‘ is in?

RF: I can’t say much about it right now. Vince Locke is creating the artwork for the book – each page is fully painted – and it’s in progress. I’m hoping he’ll be done this year, and the book can make its debut as soon as possible after that.

KD: Is there anything else you have on the go or in the works that you can speak of?

RF: I’m working on the next volume of ‘Possessions’, of course, and heading back to the shelves to see which of my other pieces to do next! After finishing ‘One Soul’, I took a couple of months off just to rest and think…and now it’s time for me to lay the groundwork for the book that will follow…

ONE SOUL debuts in July from Oni Press. For more from Ray Fawkes, you can check out his official website or follow him on Twitter.

-Interview by Kevin de Vlaming

Now put that premise into the capable hands of Montreal-based artist Alex Fellows, a comic creator so talented he was nominated for a Doug Wright Award in the Best Emerging Artist category and then nominated again for that same award six years later.

Toss in a dash of surrealism alongside some genuinely interesting use of colour to convey tone and mood, and congratulations! You’ve successfully whipped up a steaming fresh batch of Spain & Morocco, the graphic novel currently being serialized online by Fellows over at www.spainandmorocco.com.

Cooking metaphors aside, Spain & Morocco is a fantastic read.  The characters are well-defined and marked by the kind of honest human flaws that mean they aren’t always likable, but they are, for the most part, relatable.

Fellows’ art is top-notch as well.  The expressions of those aforementioned characters are brought to vivid life in pencil and ink, while watercolor paints capture the mood and setting of the world they inhabit with inspired creativity.

It should come as little surprise that this project has been a long time in the works.

Fellows, who formerly was best known for his graphic novel Canvas, has been working on Spain & Morocco in one form or another since 2003. After Canvas was released by Fantagraphics Books in 2004, word got out that he was working on a follow-up project titled ‘The Unmoved’.

“From 2003 to 2007,” says Fellows, “I worked on a graphic novel which is basically a black & white version of Spain and Morocco. It was 110 pages or so, and it was called ‘The Unmoved’. It featured the same lead characters and the same basic setup. I originally proposed it to Fantagraphics, but they turned it down, so I put aside doing any comics for a few years.”

In the interim Fellows worked on animations (including this stellar animated video for a Deerhoof song), as well as a children’s picture book and some prose writing. Then a few years ago, he stumbled across his old pages from ‘The Unmoved’ and decided he would scan them and put them up online.

“I started touching up some of the pages so much,” he says, “that I finally gave up and completely redrew one. Then I realized that if I was going to juxtapose pages I was redoing with pages I had done six years ago, it would be pretty distracting to the reader. So I basically started re-doing the comic I had finished, but with watercolor, and I was really enjoying telling the story again. And this time I had the advantage of having a first draft.”

On account of the time Fellows has invested into this project, he says that his influences have changed regular over the course of its conception.

“For a while, I was reading the last Martin Amis novel, ‘The Pregnant Widow, which is about young people spending the summer in Italy trying to have sex with each other, and it was making me re-consider some of the scenes I was writing. Then the other day I was listening to the new Radiohead album and an idea for the story popped into my head. I guess whatever I’m looking at or reading, for better or for worse, makes it into my comics.

I’ve also been looking at Winslow Homer’s watercolors to try and skimp even the smallest smidgen of his sense of color and light and put it into my work.”

Despite the creative and notably skilful use of color seen in Spain & Morocco, Fellows says that painting is actually the step that requires the least amount of time in his artistic process.

“This is because I’ve been thinking about it the entire time while pencilling and inking,” he explains. “It takes about one to two hours per page. I usually work in big washes and I avoid using too many different colors. I try not to bog down the story with over-rendering, although I’m afraid I crossed that line in some places. I’m always re-thinking how I should be painting this comic. Sometimes I feel it’s too sloppy, then sometimes it looks too uptight.”

I mentioned that Spain & Morocco has a surrealist element to it. This is by no means a pronounced or regular aspect of S&M, so much as it is a tool that Fellows employs on occasion to help us get more into the heads of his characters.

“I like trying to convey what somebody is feeling through some kind of comic exaggeration or through expressionist drawing,” says Fellows. “Every day you see people walking down the street and it’s clear that their thoughts are elsewhere; having an imaginary argument with their boss, remembering something from their childhood, working out some plan to murder their neighbor’s dog… In the case of Spain & Morocco, my way of showing a fantasy or a memory without using a cloud-like thought balloon above the character’s head is just to integrate it into the setting. I try not to use it too often because it can be pretty self-indulgent.”

Alex Fellows’ work on Spain & Morocco has earned him an acknowledgment from this year’s  Doug Wright Awards in the form of a Best Emerging Artist nomination. Fellows says that he is “really happy to have a Doug Wright nomination, even if it is for ‘emerging artist’ again.”

“I guess the committee really liked my work,” he says, “and since I don’t have a book out, emerging artist was the only category they could fit me in. In any case, the Toronto Comics Art Festival is a really great convention and the Doug Wright Awards ceremony is very nice, so I’m looking forward to it.”

I also asked Alex if anything from Spain & Morocco was based on his own experiences’ backpacking around in foreign countries. His response:

“I went on four backpacking trips in my twenties, all of them with not much money. One of them was in the South of Spain, then across the water to Morocco, but the trip (S&M characters) Walt and Dan are on is pretty different than mine.

When I try to directly use an experience of mine it always turns into fiction. I feel more concerned with sticking to the story I’m telling rather than stitching together a string of backpacking anecdotes. Hopefully, the autobiographical bits I have put in are seamless with the fictional ones.”

Outside of Spain & Morocco, Fellows is currently seeking a publisher for a children’s picture book he has completed titled ‘Kelvin the Weather Boy’.

“I worked on ‘Kevin the Weather Boy’ full-time for nearly five months thanks to a grant from the Quebec Arts Council. Writing for children was a lot harder than I thought.  It means towing the line between talking down to the reader and talking about subjects that are way over their head. But I’m happy how it turned out. ”

Speaking of children, Alex currently divides his time between illustrating, animating, and raising a young child of his own. Contrary to what you might think, he insists this actually helps in maintaining an effective work/life balance:

“I’m more productive now that I have a child, a wife, and a full time job, believe it or not. When you’re working under the threat of your child suddenly waking up crying from his nap, you don’t dilly-dally as much. Sometimes I’m half-awake at the drawing board, but it just gives you a different perspective on things.”

For more from Alex Fellows, you can visit his official website, check out his blog, or follow him on Twitter.

You can find Spain & Morocco here.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

Here in Calgary, this translates to: “Hope you like -28 degrees Celsius, b*tches.” (For you backwards American types, this equates to -18.4 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Just a quick update this week – ostensibly to show you that we care, but in actuality because there is a bomb wired to the underside of my desk and if we miss a weekly Fabler Blog post it WILL go off. Sort of like Speed meets Newsies, but with all of the musical numbers written by Sting and performed as duets by Dennis Hopper and a young Christian Bale.

Hey, there’s some new stuff up on The Fabler! Stated new new stuff includes fresh pages from lucidk, falconer and matthewdunnart,  as well as some entirely new (to us, at least) comics from mikaius and stebankag. Surely these recent additions to the Fabler roster of webcomics are worthy of a quick perusal. Surely.

I mentioned last week how endlessly entertaining I find the (some might say trite) wave of scathing reviews for Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. Critics are saying the Spider-Man musical is the biggest Broadway waste of money ever, that its lackluster performance is shadowed only by its notoriety for seriously injuring its cast, etc, etc.

For those of you worried about recent rumors that the show’s opening is being delayed once again, fear not. They’re bringing in the big guns. Apparently Bono, Turn Off The Dark’s co-composer/lyricist and the world’s foremost authority on musical theatre, was brought in to make sure the show is up to snuff.

Speaking of ugly things spawned by Marvel, who loves MODOK? The gentlefolk over at March MODOK Madness sure do. Click the link or the banner at top to visit this showcase of all things Mental Organism Designed Only For Killing-related.

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy Gutters, Ryan Sohmer’s collaborative webcomic satire of mainstream comics?  Sohmer is of course the writer of Least I Could Do and Looking for Group, two hugely entertaining webcomics in their own right. Gutters allows Ryan, who also owns a comic shop in Montreal, Quebec called The 4th Wall, to skewer big name characters or industry cliches as he sees fit while a rotating team of artists bring his irreverent visions to life.

Gutters just recently passed their 100th strip landmark, which was illustrated by Darick Robertson (The Boys, Transmetropolitan), and I must say, the humour has been overall spot on lately.

Lastly, and this comes courtesy via Sequential via Robin McConnell of Inkstuds, Prisoners of Gravity: the online archive! This is too cool not to re-mention, particularly since I’ve already sunk an exorbitant amount of time into watching my way through the late eighties/early nineties series since stumbling upon the link yesterday.

If you’re unfamiliar with it, Prisoners of Gravity was a Canadian public broadcasting show about, essentially, geek culture and how it pertains to greater societal themes and issues. It featured host Rick Green sending ‘pirate broadcasts’ from an orbiting communications satellite to Earth, often featuring interviews with iconic comic book creators and big names from the sci-fi industry.

When I say ‘iconic’ and ‘big name’ individuals, I mean it. From Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, and Jack Kirby, through to Ray Bradbury, Douglas Adams, and Clive Barker.

Though  only a small selection of the series’ run is currently available online, I highly recommend checking out at least an episode or two. You won’t be disappointed.

- Posted by Kevin@thefabler

Though we are taking a neutral stance as to who was involved, Fabler Comics holds a zero tolerance policy towards copyright infringement and plagiarism. In light of our stance we had to suspend the comic, Zombies Ate my Neighbors, by PsElliott pending further inquiry, with respect to the contest. Upon further investigation, the characters used in the story appeared to be similar in nature to some characters created by Matthew Dunn, an accomplished comic artist and illustrator in Melbourne Australia.

We spoke to both Peter and Matthew regarding the contest and this issue and Peter. Though the similarities were unintentional, Peter has asked us to withdraw his comic, Zombies ate my Neighbors from this contest and the site due to the similarities.

Matthew explained to us that this wasn’t the first uncanny appearance and similarities of his character designs of Leroy, the star of his comic called Lonely Monsters, also appearing in a webcomic called LM2. Apparently little Leroy and some of Matthew’s other characters have appeared in knock off t-shirts. posters, stickers etc. since their first appearances.

Moving forward, We hope that this incident doesn’t deter Peter or anyone from entering ongoing contests as we are looking forward to giving away many more prizes and much, much more for the next few years to come.

To you the Fans. Your participation to helping your favorite creators has put them into the spot that they have worked so hard to be in. We want to thank you and congratulate you in your support. It’s you who have helped this community be a vibrant place where these talented story tellers can showcase their creativity!

To all those creators who have participated in this contest. You have all worked so hard with an idea and ran with it. Your participation together and as individuals in making such entertaining, dramatic and action packed stories gives us reason as to why we truly believe in Independent Comics and Small Press industry!

So, without further ado, I would like to announce our Top Ten Finalists, as chosen by you, their fans!

We start with our 10th place comic creator as voted by you and decided by The Fabler’s Top Overall.

Scout Crossing, by Scott Fergusen

Fruitful Confusion, by Laura Kajpust

Real Life Fiction, by Jennifer Meyer

Acting Out, by Andrea Cabral

Zombies Ate My Girlfriend, by Peter Scott Elliott

Oldwizard, by Lazarus Berry, and Forest Rhodes of Roll

Book of the NOT Dead, by Mickey and Nikki of Nematode in Space.

Moving to our top 3 finalists as voted by you, and of the site,

3rd Place as voted by you:
Adrastus Chapter 1, by Elizabeth Staley and Julie Devin of Dynamite Candy

2nd Place as voted by you:
Stay by my Side, by THEN Productions

And last but definitely not least our Top 1st Place Finalist of this contest and all current thefabler.com submissions:

Ghost!, by Danielle Keller

Now that our Top 10 Finalists have been chosen, we will move on to the final round of this contest. Fabler Comics Inc., editors and contest sponsors will now spend the next few days reviewing each comic carefully to determine our Top 3 Grand Prize winners by the following Criteria:

Originality (uniqueness of concept)
Story (plot and subplots, narrative, character dialog, etc.)
Layout (overall panel design, sequential pacing, reader leading, etc.)
Artwork (final style and quality of the line art, coloring)

Stay tuned as we will be announcing our 3 Grand Prize Winners in just a few days on Mondy September 20th, 2010. Good Luck to Everyone!

Since 2007, Zuda had been home to a number of fantastic webcomic titles. It showcased some of the best and brightest comic artists and authors that could be gathered with the right combination of incentives. (ie., DC’s Big Boy clout, a growing social network of comic enthusiasts, and a flash-based viewing platform that, while it wasn’t perfect, still worked as a great ready-made outlet for aspiring webcomickers)

In Maps & Legends, illustrated by Niki Smith and written by Michael Jasper, was one of the more popular Zuda titles of the past year. The winner of the November 2009 Zuda competition, In Maps & Legends tells the story of Kaitlin Grayson, a freelance artist who finds herself obsessed with creating an intricate map of a place she’s never been.

When a bizarre stranger who claims to be from another world seeks to enlist Kait’s help as a true “world artist”, she finds herself on the cusp of an epic, interplanetary adventure.

An adventure that Niki and Michael recently announced they would continue, despite the demise of Zuda as an open webcomic distribution platform.

“I’d had a bad feeling about the state of things at Zuda after they stopped doing the competitions a few months earlier,” says Michael, “which I really missed, because I got to read the pitches for ten really cool comics and then vote and comment on them. With all of the changes happening with the upper management at DC, I could squint and sorta make out the writing on the wall.”

DC officially shut down Zuda on July 1st, just weeks after Michael and Niki had established a weekly update schedule for In Maps & Legends. The reason officially given was that Zuda was to be folded into DC Comics’ “Digital Publishing Initiative” – the goal being greater editorial and digital convergence.

Zuda did not ask Michael and Niki to continue under their banner when they switched to Comixology, so all rights for their comic reverted back to them.

“I definitely wanted to continue the story,” says Michael, “and I’d already scripted the next three issues, up to page 60. After a bunch of emails back and forth, Niki and I decided to publish the comic ourselves, and distribute it everywhere we could.”

No kidding. In Maps & Legends will be available for download on a huge variety of platforms, including Comixology, Robot Comics, Graphic.ly, Kindle, and more.

According to Niki: “If the countless potential readers out there prefer to use a specific device or read a certain format, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain from making ourselves available to them!”

This new approach to digitally publishing In Maps & Legends means a drastic overhaul to the methods which Niki and Michael had previously presented their comic to the public. With Zuda, their update style was the typical webcomic standard of one page at a time. Now, they aim to release a new issue every six weeks or so, starting with issue one being available today, September 1st.

In addition to keeping a website regularly updated as an information hub for the comic, Michael says that they will be making the first 8 pages available for free download wherever possible.

“Those were the 8 pages that won the Zuda competition for us in November,” says Michael, “So I figure we can’t go wrong with giving them away for free!”

Some existing readers might harbor concerns about this new, pay-per-issue distribution format for In Maps & Legends.

To those sceptics, Niki has this to say:

“In Maps & Legends has always been written as 20-page chapters, and I think the story’s pacing suffered being released so slowly. So while readers may not be getting 60 free pages (as they would have had Zuda stayed as it was), now they’ll be getting 10 solid 20+ page issues, and a complete storyline. There’s no more chance of being left with a cliffhanger 60 pages in.”

I’m sure many fans will be excited to see Michael and Niki’s comic continue, regardless of what form it takes. The two have already come a long way from their initial thoughts on a collaboration just over a year ago.

“We started working on the comic pretty much on a whim,” says Michael. “I was following Niki on Twitter, and one day last summer she said she was looking to team up with someone on a pitch for Zuda. So I threw 4-5 ideas at her, including the idea for In Maps & Legends, which started out life as a novel that ground to a halt by page 100.  Niki liked that idea best, started doing character sketches, and when I saw her first drawings of Kait, our protagonist, I knew we had a winner.”

From there, they set about applying their respective talents to make a webcomic that would stand out as a top Zuda contender. Michael had never worked on a comic before, which came with its own learning curve, and they to this day have still never met face to face.

“I think we get along pretty well for never having met!” says Michael, “We’ve collaborated via email almost exclusively, with the occasional instant-message chat here and there. I think it’s a really great give-and-take — neither of us pull punches when it comes to perfecting the story, and I think that comes through in the finished product.  I try to give my amateurish tips on the art, but really it’s just nitpicks and continuity stuff — Niki’s art rocks. And she’s taught me at least two Scott McCloud books’ worth of comic-book knowledge.”

Presently, the duo are aiming to finish a ten issue story arc by late 2011.

“We’d love to have a trade paperback publisher lined up by then,” says Michael, and I foresee many more stories springing from this set of characters and their situations, so I don’t see us stopping after issue 10.”

Neither Michael or Niki are particularly apprehensive about the switch to a multitude of digital platforms, although Niki admits to considering some slight revamps to her style.

“I think my page layouts may gradually change,” she says, “As I see how these first few issues work on panel-by-panel phone views. Diagonal or very thin vertical panels may break the flow.”

As for their thoughts on Zuda, both Niki and Michael look at their time on the DC-owned webcomic venture fondly:

“Zuda gave us an incredible boost,” says Michael. “I’ve made a lot of friends online through the Zuda community, and I’ve gotten to read some amazing comics and get to know their creators and editors. As grueling as the November contest was — even though we led the whole month, we felt like we were gonna lose our lead at any moment! — it made us  network and do lots of marketing to get the word out.  I’m glad for the experience, and it shot us much farther down the road than just a website and a great comic could’ve done.  I was sad to see Zuda end, but I’m quite excited by the prospects for the future and our comic.”

“I’m with Michael,” says Niki, “the Zuda community was a great head start of sorts. I know it’s very hard to get a long, somewhat epic, story-based fantasy comic launched and try to build an audience… especially when you’re on a page-a-week schedule. Zuda gave us a built-in community of readers that we owe a lot to. I hope some of them stick around and check out the issue releases.”

To find out more about where you can find issues of In Maps & Legends, check out the newly launched website.

You can also visit Niki Smith and Michael Jasper on their respective personal web pages, or follow Niki and Mike on Twitter.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

So with out further a due, I would like to announce the opening of the Premier Comic Submission Contest, hosted by your friends at Fabler Comics!

Yes that’s right we are giving away, to grand prize winners, prizes for 3 finalists! The 3rd place prize is a Sony PS3 Bundle! The 2nd place prize is a Wacom Intuos4 XL! Last but definitely not least, the 1st place Grand Prize is a Wacom Cinque 21UX!

Sponsored and supported by Fabler Comics, Zensoft Studios, and Artfox, you have the chance to Win these prizes! Oh and there’s more. If you team up with two more of your talented friends, they can also win the prizes if your comic is selected as a prize winner! How do you enter? It’s simple!

1. If your not already signed up with an account on The Fabler, go http://thefabler.com/signup! Then come back for the rest of the details.
2. Create an original work comic of at least 24 pages + the Cover. If you want to submit more, be our guest!
3. Submit your comic (up to 3 submission!!!) in web format on thefabler.com between June 15th, 2010, and September 15th, 2010.
4. Tell EVERYONE of your comic! Get them to vote and rate your comic! Tell your friends, family, friendly competition, professors, neighbors, 2nd cousins twice removed, etc! The more people you tell the better chance you have at winning one of these great prizes!

Oh yes and there’s more. All 3 finalist prize winners will have their comics immortalized on thefabler.com in a special web trophy case as winners of the Premier Comic Submission Contest. For more information and official rules of the contest head over to the contest page!

So get your win on and submit your comic now! May the best storytellers win!

The competition was fierce! Thanks to our friends at Mob4Hire, and Lift Interactive. We were nervous. Well, I was anyway, but The Fabler took home the gold, or crystal, or glass, or…Whatever it’s made of (hopefully diamond!) we are so thankful for the appreciation!

A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS goes out to all the other Media Fresh winners of this years awards.

We want to thank Digital Alberta for supporting the first annual Media Fresh Awards. I also want to thank Rene Smid, the Executive Director of Digital Alberta, for planning, and putting on the awards. She did a bang up job of leading the charge and gathering all the resources necessary to put on a great gala!

Also on the list is Sarah Blue, for anchoring a video interview we did prior to the awards ceremony. Oh, and Sarah if you’re reading this, thanks for not wearing your heals during the interview. Though I would have been happy just to stand a chair over the green x on the floor.

I wanted to personally thank all those who have been involved with the project.

First of all I want to thank my friend Mike Tighe and the team at Medium Rare. Without their help in kicking off the website, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

I also want to thank our lead developer, Devlin Dunsmore, flash developer, Kevin Caddell, and weekly reporter Kevin De Vlaming. Thanks to my business partner, Michael Magee. Also to my family and cousin Jack. Your support and guidance has helped us get this far.

Last but not least the BIGGEST THANKS goes out to you, our fans, artists, writers, creators, readers, comic fans, and LARP’ers.

Those of you that missed the party we thought this little shot expresses our excitement, gratitude, and hope that this is the first of many accomplishments for The Fabler.

Once again we thank everyone for a great year and value your recognition and support. Remember, We really do love Comics as much as LARP’ers love Tinfoil, if not way more in fact.

The three main venues this year was Another Dimension, Phoenix Comics, and Comic Kazi. Though we’d love to include all cities and venues, we’re just not as cool and capable as our freely featured superheroes. Maybe next year we will be lucky enough to have mastered our cloning skills. Calgary this year will have to do.

In Calgary, the hustle and bustle took place on Macleod Trail, where the local creator community, and fans, hosted by Comic Kazi banded together to create the vibrant atmosphere that brings the kids out in all of us. Thanks to Calgary’s own Gerald Garcia, who’s been running and coordinating the event at Comic Kazi since the early days. Gerald, was doing sketches to help raise proceeds for the Eugene Ouchi Memorial Scholarship at ACAD. Our hearts go out to Eugene’s family friends.

Kris Chisholm was there as well this year, sketching and enjoying the atmosphere. As he continues to draw, we can only see that this superstar to be, will soon be drawing our next favorite reads!

Fiona Staples, giving sketches away for free this year. Since the cancellation of Wildstorm’s, North 40, by Aaron Williams, after issue #6, she’s now hopped up on a new project, published by IDW called, Mystery Society, by Steve Niles. Sitting next to her was local artist Neil, who was happy that the community in Calgary has been growing quite successfully!

A few local indies there this year included Michael McAdam, and Mike Rieger, of Two Gargoyles Graphics. Since starting Diaperman in 1998, the twosome have successfully maintained their ability to self publish great stories, through community exposure.

A new feature to the stage this year was Ashley Delehay, the lead starlet in Zombie Attack! From Outer Space. She was there creating awareness and to promote, how to build a movie for under $60k! Following in Robert Rodriguez’s footsteps, the crew are well on their way with another Sasquatch movie in the works as well.

DC’s Marcus To, a Torontonian was there shaking hands and kissing babies, as he was a guest to the event this year providing the crowds with free sketches.

The Wildgunmen crew was also there promoting their new print editions of, The Wildgunmen, the geek culture magazine.

Last but not least, the coolest cat this year was Diamian Wilcox, of Dorkboy Comics! This local self published veteran has been producing web comics for the past 13 years. He was kind enough to hand out free sketches and, give our onsite comic fan, Cory Nelson, a comic of his very own!

The Sundry Seven also made a brief appearance. If you had a chance to snag one of the last remaining copies, we hope you enjoy the upcoming tale of our misfit superheroes in all their glory.

Remember, we really do love comics!