From GigaOm:

Response to the format has been “overwhelmingly positive,” Stevens said in a blog post, but there are some downsides. First, he says bandwidth required to provide the downloads is a problem, which could be overcome by selling the via the iBookstore, but that entails additional costs and operating within the confines of Apple’s marketplace. Stevens says this isn’t palatable since he “[doesn't] like the idea of readers being geographically or economically restricted from downloading [his] comics.”

More details over at GigaOm.

Robot 6: I want to start with a general question: Are webcomics still an important sector of the comics world? And how do you think their role and significance have changed in the past two years?

Brad Guigar: I think webcomics are the most important, most vital comics being produced today. I think the term “webcomics” has come to represent not just comics posted on the web, but rather, independent comics as a whole. The recent cresting of digital downloading is going to be one more tool — like social media was a few years ago — that webcomics will incorporate to help make independent comics thrive.

That last requirement has always been a tough one to judge. As NCS President Tom Richmond notes the NCS awards “are industry awards, not art awards.”

The tricky part is the definition of “professional” with regards to web-comics/self-published work. The NCS awards are industry awards, not art awards. One of the criteria for consideration is that the creators be a professional cartoonist, and eligible for NCS membership (they do not have to BE members, but must be eligible for membership). Without independent verification (like a syndicate, editor or publisher who pays the cartoonist for their work) of a few criteria to that end, it’s difficult to separate the pros (i.e. those who are both fully committed to their craft for a career, and who make some substantial amount of income from it) from the hobbyists. We need an independent “screening committee” to review the creators who’s work is being considered to give us their opinion on if they meet the definition of “professional”, and this is what we have put together. Our screening committee will be made up of six experts on webcomics who are deeply involved/knowledgeable in the world of online comics including journalists and professors from major art colleges who are very enthusiastic about participating.

To sift through the submissions, the NCS has created a panel of experts that include Bill Amend, creator of Foxtrot, David Allan Duncan, Professor of Sequential Art Graduate Coordinator, Savannah College of Art and Design, Andrew Farago, Curator, Cartoon Art Museum, Michael Jantze, Professor of Sequential Art and Animation, Savannah College of Art and Design, Rick Marshall, freelance writer, editor, and producer, Time Inc., MTV News, IFC, Movies.com, Digital Trends, CBR and Gary Tyrrell, writer/editor of Fleen.com. The job of the panel is to not only screen submissions, but also recommend other artists who do fit the criteria that might not have entered.

Via Robot6

Her book was also named in Amazon’s Best Comics and Graphic Novels for 2011. And has been on the New York Time Best Seller list for five weeks now.

CBC Books has also profiled her and her comic.

In addition to a full store of Axe Cop merch, Wired magazine reports a new card game based on the comic is available.

Talk about meteoric rises. In less than 18 months, brothers Malachai and Ethan Nicolle went from having an idea about an axe-wielding cop who hunts down bad guys to becoming a worldwide webcomic hit that would be celebrated in its own version of the geek-favorite game, Munchkin. And now that the game’s out, we thought we’d take a look.

…

Most of the main characters are here, including Wexter, Sockarang, Best Fairy Ever, Uni-Baby and Dr. Stinky Head. (You are stinky! No one will help you in your next combat.) Plus, there are lots of the unique and hilarious props and quirky items that make the Axe Cop comic so much fun to read: duck, flute, a truck of ninjas, and the ever-present weapon store.

A sample:

Nrama: You have iPad and iPod apps for the strip, and I’ve been curious about the potential that’s opened up for digital comics with these technologies. What have you learned so far, and what do you think both individual creators and larger companies can do to take advantage of the increasing variety of electronic distribution?

Tayler: I’ve learned that iPod and iPad apps are fantastically expensive to produce, and the vast majority of them make no money at all. But I was a software industry guy before I came to comics, so this was no surprise.
I’ve also learned that reading Schlock Mercenary via the iPad app is a far superior experience to reading it on the web.

Ultimately I think the only way some comics genres can survive is via electronic distribution. I think DC and Dark Horse are moving in the right direction. I think the eBook revolution over on the non-picture-book side of the fence is very, very telling.

All of the people I know who have e-readers have told me that they’re reading more than they used to, that they make impulse purchases far more often, and that the e-reader gets all the credit for that.

The comic book industry needs that badly. I think we’re going to get it.

If you’re good enough, you’re not good enough. I hear so many people wanting to be writers or pencilers. And usually, their first remark is, “Well, if that guy can get work, I should. It’s better than theirs.” Wrong. You don’t know why they get work and comparing yourself to the “least talented” person is not where you should be going. You, as a penciler, need to be better than Jim Lee or Greg Capullo or the Kuberts. As a writer, work to achieve to be better than Bendis or Miller or Moore. Strive for that. Make publishers need to have you. Why work to be just good enough?