CNet reports that cartoonist Richard Stevens III has released a free, DRM-free PDF of the first physical book collection of his webcomic Diesel Sweeties. Although the entire strip is archived for free on-line, the e-book represents a PDF conversion of a printed collection which includes a foreword, character information, and edited and recolored artwork taking into account the lessons Stevens learned through experience. The giveaway is, of course, meant to promote Stevens’s web store where he sells merchandise related to the strip (including printed strip collections). But that’s to be expected; Baen’s DRM-free digital giveaways work the same way....

John Allison, webcartoonist for a number of strips (the only one I recognized by name was Scary Go Round), has posted an entry to his blog lamenting the rise of the e-book and the passing of the print book. While he likes digital music, he explains, he does not feel the same way about e-books: I hate them. I genuinely hate them. With music, your relationship is predominantly with what is going in your ear. Yes, you may stare at the cover for Tales From Topographic Oceans by Yes for half an hour while going on...

When I was wandering around GenCon, I quite unexpectedly came across a booth where Howard Tayler of the ten-years-old-and-still-going Schlock Mercenary webcomic was selling books, sighing autographs, and personalizing the books he sold with requested character doodles. I hadn’t even known he was going to be there, but naturally, I bought a book and had a doodle made. (Which sort of ties into a point that Michael Stackpole made in the interview with him that I have yet to transcribe—that people don’t buy books at cons as books, they buy them as souvenirs.) And then I asked Tayler...

Since today is the day that Phil Foglio asked that people who plan to buy it from Amazon wait for (as well as Kaja Foglio’s birthday—happy birthday, Kaja!), today is the perfect day to review the novelization of the first part of the Girl Genius webcomic story, Agatha H. and the Airship City. This story covers the beginning of volume 1 through the end of volume 3—23 months’ worth of comic;, or a bit more than 1/4 of the comic’s overall run so far (not counting the various side stories that show up as filler). If I were to...

The Night Shade Books section on Baen Webscriptions recently began selling the novelization of the first part of the Girl Genius graphic novel/webcomic series by Phil and Kaja Foglio: Agatha H and the Airship City. As with all Baen titles, including the ones Baen sells on Night Shade’s behalf, there is no DRM, it is available in multiple formats, and the cost is $6. I follow the Monday/Wednesday/Friday “Girl Genius” webcomic anxiously from week to week, and I am greatly looking forward to the chance to go back to the beginning with this novel and learn all of the...

Over the last few days, a new iPad media app called Flipboard has been getting a lot of attention. The app isn’t quite an RSS reader or social networking app, but seems to combine elements of both. The app, though popular, has gotten off to a rocky and slightly controversial start. The rockiness comes in that it seems that Flipboard’s developers were not prepared for just how popular their app was going to be—it seems that everyone was trying to sign up for the service at once, entirely overwhelming their servers. They responded by configuring the servers to...

The first day of the convention included a number of interesting panels related to writing, including how to find your voice as a writer, and fanfic. There was also a panel on the “steampunk” literary genre that featured Sluggy Freelance writer/artist Pete Abrams. (Amusingly, Abrams had been put on the panel so he could learn about steampunk from the other panelists—but he was the only panelist to show up for the first half hour!) Later this evening I had the chance to sit down with Abrams for an 18-minute interview focusing on how he has been making a...