Retailers are familiar with Dark Horse's Penny Arcade volumes, which sell well in both the bookstore and direct markets, but there are other Webcomic collections with sales potential including Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics and Toothpaste For Dinner by Drew.  Retailers interviewed by ICv2 for the upcoming ICv2 Guide #40: Graphic Novels mentioned both North's The Best of Dinosaur Comics: 2003-2005 (Quack!Media $14.99) and Toothpaste For Dinner (F&W Publications $9.99) as very strong sellers.

 

Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics is a minimalist six-panel strip that utilizes the same artwork in almost every strip with only the dialogue changed.  But what wonderfully inventive dialogue it is!  The three dinosaur protagonists manage to display more depth of character than the combined casts of all the current network sitcoms -- and they are a lot brighter and funnier as well.  North's Webcomic attracts more than 300,000 unique visitors per month, which means that there is a considerable audience for Dinosaur Comics collection.

 

While Dinosaur Comics is often philosophically probing (if not profound), Toothpaste for Dinner is a relentlessly sarcastic portrayal of the indignities of modern life.  With its stick figure art Toothpaste for Dinner is in its own way every bit as minimalist as Dinosaur Comics, but the focus of Drew's Webcomic spans the entirety of modern urban existence from the IT cubicles of the workplace to the coffeeshops, art cinemas and nightclubs.