Also browse the books, t-shirts, and more.

For years, cartoonists of all stripes have dreamed about making a living from their comics. But until recently their only avenue of success was through a syndicate or publisher. Now, more and more cartoonists are doing it on their own and self-publishing their comic strips on the Web. This 200-page book from Image Comics takes you through everything you’ll need to take your idea from concept to strip…from strip to hobby…and from hobby to full-time job.

Written by four pros who know the ins and outs of the Web — Dave Kellet (Sheldon), Scott Kurtz (PvP), Brad Guigar (Evil Inc.) and Kris Straub (Starslip Crisis) — “How To Make Webcomics” takes you on a step-by-step tour of everything you need to know to make, post and profit from your online comics.

Also enjoy webcomics.com for related content and community.

Check out the growing collection of excellent Pixel Socks from wonderful webcomic Diesel Sweeties.  Load up for both yourself and your loved ones in this huge store.

Compilation books are also available.

… along with books, pint glasses, and more.  Get up in this.

Also share prints, apparel, and more.

The guest list really is a who’s who of Internet fame and/or ignominy. Amplifier’s own Joel Bush will be there to hopefully document the event. We gave him a great video camera so honestly, he’s without excuse!

ROFL Con (In their own words)

Mix up a bunch of super famous internet memes, some brainy academics, a big audience, dump them in Cambridge, MA and you’ve got ROFLCon.

The conference is slated for April 25th and 26th of 2008.

It’s a group dissection of internet culture. What makes it work, why it works, how it works. We’ll talk about where internet culture has been and where we think it’s going.

Then, there’ll be parties. A music show, with memes performing their work live. And then a big blowout party at the end, with everyone dancing and rocking out.

Needless to say, this might be the most important gathering since the fall of the tower of Babel.

• Chris Onstad at Achewood features an irreverent, but ultimately affectionate, strip explaining the basics of D&D to those who are unfamiliar with it.

• Giant in the Playground imagines Gygax’s arrival in heaven.

• Full Frontal Nerdity thanks Gygax “for saving us all a place at the gaming table.”

• Dork Tower remembers Gygax with an incredibly sweet, earnest cartoon.

• The undie band Uncle Monsterface (which defies description, but in a wonderful, wonderful way) offers a free download of their new song “(thank you) Gary Gygax.” (Via Wired.)

• At the Rooster Teeth blog, Burnie Burns writes: “He was born with a space alien’s last name; he was destined for nerdom at birth. D&D didn’t exist so he had no choice but to invent it.”

• Penny Arcade features an unbelievably touching, and perfectly executed, tribute to Gygax.

It’s easy to understand the outpouring of emotion from the undependents — Gygax was an undie pioneer, creating not just an original work of art, but an original form of art as well. He created D&D out of whole cloth, and he did it himself, releasing the very first editions of the game himself, without help from major distributors. He was almost a godfather to generations of creative types, and the undependent scene wouldn’t be the same without him. Rest in peace, Gary.

The point is — or should be — the relative acceptability of nerdiness is a somewhat recent phenomenon, and the Internet is helping the bespectacled and pallid among us finally convince the world that knowledge is actually pretty cool. There’s a whole slew of webcomics out there celebrating, and not apologizing for, their creators’ love of periodic tables, quadratic equations, obscure art history, and all other kinds of fancy-pants book-learnin’. Here’s two of them:

• XKCD bills itself as “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.” Which sounds a lot like my college career. Except for the romance. Also, I failed math. Twice. But even if you score a zero on your AP Calculus test (yes, it happens. Hi! I’m Mike!) you’ll be able to appreciate physicist/artist Randall Munroe’s skewed take on dating librarians, Snapple, and poisson distributions. The XKCD store, temporarily closed, will hopefully return soon, enabling us all to get our fix of “Science: It Works, Bitches!” shirts.

• I’ve written before about Dorothy Gambrell’s brilliant Cat and Girl, but it’s hard for me to say enough good things about this innovative comic strip by the Tucson-based musician and artist. It’s not just because she’s one of the only ones with the guts to say that pirates are “an overworked Internet meme,” but also because of her shout-outs to figures as random as The Captain and Tenille, Count Vronsky, and Jasper Johns. She’s also a leading proponent of geek unity (which, as Girl suggests, could have saved Veronica Mars). Visit her store while you’re waiting for the deus ex machina.

Comics like these have a natural, ever-growing audience: folks who like to laugh and learn at the same time, and who appreciate the work of creators who are hopefully too witty to write a tooth-achingly earnest phrase like “laugh and learn at the same time.” Webcomics are a natural medium for this kind of humor, but you can also see it (very occasionally) on television (The Daily Show, No Reservations), in music (Sufjan Stevens’ history-laden state-themed albums), and — if my financiers come through — even off-Broadway musicals (the hopefully forthcoming Ewing!: The Crazy, Funky Odyssey of America’s First Secretary of the Interior, As Told by Mike). The nerdcore artists and writers of today are refusing to buy into the theory that the world is being dumbed down, and their audiences are rewarding them with not just attention, but ardent fandom.

The nerd revolution won’t be televised, but thanks to the nerdcore webcomic movement (such as it is), it might just be showing up in your RSS feed.

Time Magazine’s Lev Grossman calls webcomic Achewood (which is, perhaps, the best comic strip in American history) the best graphic novel of the year, noting “(i)t’s not a graphic novel in every, or maybe any, traditional sense, since its primary venue is the Web, but Achewood is so profoundly genius it would be a crime to put it anywhere but on this list, and at the top of it.”

I can’t disagree, and judging by the amount of “What We Need More of is Science” shirts I see in the office, I’m not alone. Not only is the content genius, but creator Chris Onstad also offers some of the most innovative merchandise to ever be inspired by a comic strip about cats and teddy bears living in Southern California — shirts are a no-brainer, but you can also buy hot sauce, umbrellas, and pint glasses with the Achewood seal of approval. (Or, in the case of Roast Beef, the Achewood seal of apathy and dysthimia.)

Also, check out the reference to Achewood in a recent Cat and Girl strip. Dorothy Gambrill, the creator of Cat and Girl, is another undependent hero — we’ll talk about her innovative Donation Derby idea in a later post, but for now, take a look at her own original merch, including a t-shirt written in Icelandic, an Ozymandias trophy (score!), and a sticker with perhaps the best observation about the World Wide Web ever: “If television’s a babysitter, the Internet’s a drunk librarian who won’t shut up.” My birthday’s December 27. I’m just sayin’.