Going straight to the news! This post to be updated as events come along.
From mvmarcz of Avernyght: In February Whisp’s Journey begins and the new site design is up. The archive has been split and now the entire site has all content up.
Simon would like to remind everyone his new comic Sakana No Sadness starts February 1!
Chris Wall reports that Fuzznuts and Nonsense are both actively updating once a week and the sites have been overhauled!
From Net: TTG’s update, though a day late due to Michelle and Vort’s honeymoon/anniversary, marked our 5 year and 50th comic page. Also, Net would like to announce that his toenails are now sufficiently clipped enough so that he no longer catches on the sheets when he goes to bed at night.
February 2 was HOURLY COMIC DAY! Comickers are invited to do a comic each waking hour about something that happened the previous hour. Spider Forest member Samantha Wikan (Life’s a Witch) tried her hand at Hourly Comics for the first time this year and here is the result. She said it was great fun and will definitely participate next year… and try to be doing some more interesting stuff, too!
On February 9th, Between Places hits 200 updates! And Tiana would like to announce that she is now eating a chicken sandwich prior to beginning to paint her next update.
Two SFC members have been involved in staging The Webcomic List Awards 2009 . The award ceremony goes live on Febuary 7th. Find out who the internet voted the best webcomics of 2009.
Chirault will be hitting the milestone of five sketchbooks filled, along with sixty markers and twenty-eight ink cartridges disposed of at some point during the month of February!
Dranxis adds: “What Nonsense will have its second year anniversary on Feb. 8th. Or at least, that’s roughly when I started the comic… Close enough!”
Jaygee regrets to announce that his new project, “The Spicer-Peppermint-Rothborough-Ultimatum. An Ultimative Webcomic Ultimatum.” will have to be put on hold for the foreseeable future. He has been hit by a milestone and is currently recovering in the Edward-Cullen-Hospital in Oxbridge, South London.
Briana would like to remind everyone that for the time being, RMTOADS will only be updating on Monday.
KEZ also has a reminder, that her newest comic What it Takes started up January 20, and is updating Wednesday/Friday with new strips! Also, her long-running fantasy epic The War of Winds starts a new chapter February 1!
posted by KEZ at 9:13 pm
Happy New Year! We had a great turn out for applications during the December 2009 application month. Thank you to everyone who applied! There were some VERY difficult choices, but in the end we all agreed to invite these five wonderful comics to join us!
Planes of Eldlor
Smyzer and Blyde
Freelance
Lint
Scattered Leaves
There is also a lot of member news this month, so let’s get to it!
Michelle announces that Tales of the Traveling Gnome turns 5 as of this month, will finally (hopefully) hit 50 pages too!
Next, after two great years, The Artiste Manquee will conclude and retire this month. Thank you to everyone who read and enjoyed it! Watch for a new comic series by the same author in the near future.”
Mvmarcz of Avernyght says, “My current story is slated to end in January and the new one starts Feb 1st. there will be teasers to bridge the gap.”
From Chris, “After ringing in the new year, you now have an excuse to keep partying! Precocious turns one year old on January 1st, and everyone’s invited to join the celebration!”
Wolfy of The Gods Pack announces a return from hiatus near the beginning of January, and her other comic Beyond Rapture sometime in mid-January!
From Nick Perkins, Cooties returns from hiatus on January 4th! Don’t miss the alien-ninja-superheroey conclusion to “Infestation”!
Dutch of School Spirit says, “I’ll just be quietly continuing on my way in January…” by which he REALLY means that he just passed 800 strips and you should go check it out right now.
Lastly for SF news, KEZ’s new post-apocalyptic adventure story What it Takes starts January 18! Come check out the website and see the previews until then! The story is rated R for language and violence, and will update 2-3X weekly.
Finally, we had quite a few members here submit artwork for the Comic Creators’ Alliance against human trafficking! Donations for a wallpaper featuring all the submitted characters will be accepted starting on January 11, which is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the US. Spread the word!
posted by KEZ at 5:26 pm
 Howdy! Life’s a Witch has posted the 300th strip this Friday, entitled “Battle of the 300.” This kicks off the new update schedule of TUESDAY and FRIDAY! Please check out the milestone strip and come by on Tuesday and Friday as we work our way through the NEXT 300!!
posted by swikan at 12:34 pm
SpiderForest is now accepting applications for membership from December 1 to December 23rd. Details on our apply page! Please read through the whole page so you know what we offer, what we don’t, and most especially, what we expect on your application!
Those of you who have been personally invited to apply, please be aware that is by no means a secure acceptance! Every member here votes on every application. If you have any questions, feel free to email any member, post a comment here, or post in the forum. Due to spam, new posts in the main forums are on a queue, apologies in advance!
Best of luck!
As for member news, Rune Master celebrates its birthday, as does Briana, on the 27th. Rune Master will be 4 years old and Briana will be 23. Happy birthday, guys!
At the end of this month, Mitsukaiten will be retiring her auxiliary art site “Ryuujin Rising v.6: Prince of Foxes,” located at http://www.ryuujinrising.com. So if any of her readers would like to take a last look at her non-”Cetiya” art and earlier comic projects (until they find a new home, that is), now’s the time!
Dutch says, “About the 18th or so (not entirely sure, but definitely a handful of days before Christmas) I’ll be putting up the 800th regular School Spirit strip.”
From Al-X: Just as the year comes to a close, so does Nahast’s latest episode. Chapter 9: Voices from the Darkness, saw the characters take a trip through the Region of the Dead, the mythic basement of Nahast’s universe, and discover a few truths about themselves and about what is going on in their city. Chapter 10: True Warriors Born, will start January 4th, 2010, but Nahast won’t be comfortably idle until then! Check back Nahast’s main page as well as the role-playing site: Legends & Heroes in the coming weeks to learn more about the Region of the Dead, as well as two new rules to make any Pathfinder role-playing game have the underpinnings of a Nahast campaign.
posted by KEZ at 12:52 am
Next month starts the next round of SpiderForest admissions! Get your applications ready, because we’re all eager for some more new faces!
Some great news this month from members as well. First, Nahast is 7 years old!
On November 2nd, Nahast: Lands of Strife turned the venerable—for webcomics—age of 7 (not 8, as Al-X, the doddering author, miscounted last week).
Part of the celebration is… a normal update page, since this is the first chapter in Nahast’s history not only to enjoy an uninterrupted run of timely scheduled updates despite Al-X’s outside projects, but also had a couple of double-update weeks thanks to readers’ generous donations.
Well, the real anniversary celebration is a contest! Extended by one week to end on November 9th, anyone can participate to win a first prize consisting of a free, full-color art commission, and a print copy of Mecha & Manga, a role-playing sourcebook for Green Ronin’s Mutants & Masterminds game that Al-X wrote and was released earlier this year. You can find all the information and bases here!
Meenakshi reports, “Next week I end my first chapter in Kinnari. The new chapter “Cursed city” will continue hopefully without a break.” Kinnari will be added to our roster and rotating banner shortly! Sorry for the inconvenience.
Three SpiderForest comics were nominated for awards over at the Webcomic Readers Choice Awards, hosted by Webcomic Planet! Nahast and Sunset Grill were both nominated for best writing, and The War of Winds was nominated for best site design. Any deserving votes from SF readers would be much appreciated! It takes 2 seconds to register.
More news to come!
posted by KEZ at 8:22 pm
Only 2 more months until SpiderForest once again will be accepting applications for membership! If you’ve been sitting on a project, now is the time to get it up and started so we have something to look at come December.
Here’s your member news:
Samantha Wikan of Life’s a Witch will be attending the Dallas Webcomic Exp this November! Please come out and say hello!
Net reports, “TTG’s coming up on our 5th year anniversary, as well as our 50th comic page (if you don’t count title pages). In an odd coincidence, both of these events happen at EXACTLY the same time, in January… we’re putting out a call for anyone that might have some fanart that they’ve held onto, because we’d like to make this an event-kinda thing. Also, we’ve switched formats again and have gone back to color pages, because Michelle likes em better in color.”
Kez of The War of Winds reports that her comic will now be updating on Tuesdays, because grad school and commuting between 2 cities is taking up too much time. Also, that you should keep an eye out for the pre-production teasers of 2 up-coming comics: From Earth to Heaven and What it Takes.
Between Places is finally done with the back posts, updating in real time with all new content!
posted by KEZ at 8:33 pm
Mvmarcz of The Chronicles of Avernyght reports:
As Avernyght is a collection of short stories it is in its nature for the stories to end and be under 100 pages.
The very first Avernyght story has ended, 70 pages long not including the cover. It took a few years and a lot of sidetracks to get it this far and for a brief while I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish it. This year has been a very hard one for me and it’s only half over. Between full class loads and living life I managed to finish the last pages and write the first chapter of the next story.
Congrats, Mary!
Briana of Rune Master: Tales of the Demon Slayer reports: “I’ll be attending Anime Weekend Atlanta September 18-21 in the Artist’s Alley. I’ll (most likely) be selling bookmarks and prints.”
Kat of Sunset Grill will be attending this year’s Small Press Expo — though as a volunteer, not one of those fancy behind-a-table people. If you’re there and see her wandering around, feel free to stop her and say hi.
The Artiste Manquee is returning from summer holidays and will be begin publishing weekly starting on Saturday, Sep 19. Here’s to a new year of art school for Janet!
posted by KEZ at 10:18 pm
The end of the first Avernyght story has gone up. Next story to start on Labor Day. 
posted by mvmarcz at 8:43 pm
PRESS RELEASE
* * * * * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* * * * *
Contact: Samantha Wikan
email: swikan @ doodlebot.net
SPIDERFOREST COMICS IN CARTOON ART MUSEUM
A Virtual Gallery As Part of Monsters of Webcomics Exhibit
Georgetown, Texas, USA – 11 August 2009: The Comic Art Museum in San Francisco, California, is hosting “The Monsters of Webcomics” exhibit from August 8 through December 6, 2009. Sample strips of SpiderForest comics Rune Master: Tales of a Demon Slayer, The Artiste Manquée, and Life’s a Witch are included in the Virtual Gallery of webcomics. They appear alongside Eisner-nominated webcomics (Wondermark, by David Malki, and The Lady’s Murder, by Eliza Frye) as well as beginner webcomics to show the spectrum of styles and genre available on the web.
“I really believe that comics on the web are the next step for creators and readers,” said Samantha Wikan, creator of Life’s a Witch. “The Monsters of Webcomics exhibit is another sign that webcomics are working their way into the mainstream.”
SpiderForest Webcomic Collective has been a home for fine webcomics since 2004. Spiderforest.com hosts comics and comic-related blogs and accepts applications for new members twice a year.
# # #
For more information or further reading:
email Samantha Wikan: swikan @ doodlebot.net
SpiderForest Webcomic Collective: http://spiderforest.com/
Rune Master: Tales of a Demon Slayer: http://rmtoads.com/
The Artiste Manquée: http://www.the-artiste.net/
Life’s a Witch: http://witchytech.com/lifesawitch
Cartoon Art Museum: http://cartoonart.org/
Complete list of Monsters of Webcomic comics: http://cartoonart.livejournal.com/30634.html
posted by KEZ at 1:52 am
Hey, only 4 more months until our next round of admissions!
EDIT: Dutch of School Spirit has opened shop over here at SpiderForest, and also announces his 750th strip! If you’re looking for a good place to jump in, Dutch recommends starting at this story arc here.
Briana of Rune Master wanted everyone to know she will be on vacation August 3-7, though there will be guest/filler art during that time.
Al-X from Nahast: Lands of Strife wishes to thank everyone who voted for him in the very-much-in-Spanish short story contest. He did win a slot in the publisher’s anthology, and he will be posting translations of the drafts of the final story in his LiveJournal. In addition, word tells that Mecha & Manga is soon going to the printers, which means it will be soon be available as a PDF from Green Ronin‘s online store!
Sunset Grill will celebrate both its first-year anniversary and its hundred and fiftieth strip in the first week of August. If you want to say hi to Kat and you happen to live in Quebec, she’ll be at the 67th annual World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal from the sixth to the tenth of August, volunteering and doing panels. Can’t find her? Try the bar.
Kez of The War of Winds would like to announce a brand-new site design and overhaul! Please come check it out. The front page also has teasers for two new comics in the works! And oh yeah! Kez and Ravar, a character in the War of Winds, were also in the local newspaper! You can read about that here. The Make Kez Laugh Contest deadline is also August 15! There are some pretty nice prizes, and ALL types of entries are accepted. Read about that here!
posted by KEZ at 6:04 pm
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