Dirk Schwieger’s Moresukine is different from other series I’ve focused on in these weekly webcomic creator interviews for a few significant reasons — first and foremost of which being that it’s no longer updated. The last comic was posted more than two years ago, back in in June 2006. However, when I saw that the German creator was a guest of NBM Publishing at this year’s Comic-Con International, I jumped at the chance to include a Q&A with him in this series.

For anyone unfamiliar with Moresukine, the 24-part webcomic chronicled a year’s worth of "assignments" Schwieger undertook at the request of readers while living abroad in Japan. Fans would send him tasks to accomplish — anything from "meeting a traditional swordsmith" to "spending a night in a pod hotel" — and he would write, illustrate and post a new comic each week based on his experience trying to complete that mission. The aim of the project, according to Schwieger, was to make the most of his time in Japan by offering himself up as someone through which his readers could live vicariously. The title of the series, Moresukine, came from the Japanese pronunciation of "Moleskine," the type of notebook he used to record his experiences.

A few months ago, NBM Publishing announced that it would be collecting Schwieger’s online comic and publishing it in print form, complete with extra material contributed by webcomic veterans James Kochalka and Ryan North. Now that the paperback Moresukine collection has hit shelves, I spoke to Schwieger about the origin of the series, his favorite assignments and what we can expect to see from the talented creator in the future.

COMICMIX: Can you start from the beginning, Dirk? How did this project happen and what did you want it to be when you first conceived of it?

DIRK SCHWIEGER: Well, I was in Japan for one year. You could say that it was a travel-logue kind of thing, but the catch is that it’s not just about what I deem is important or what i want to tell, but people were invited to send in emails with requests of places that i should go to in Tokyo, where I lived, or certain people I should get in contact with. And I couldn’t refuse. I had to do all of the submissions in the order of their arrival.

It started very mundane. There is a webcomics portal in Germany, where I come from originally, and it’s called Electrocomics.com. I had some stuff up there and they said, "Oh, you’re going to Tokyo. Maybe you should do some sketches regularly." So they created this blog. I never had a blog before, and never intended to have one. I was kind of naive about the whole thing… but now I know. There are interesting blogs.

At that time, it was very important to me to get around the navel-gazing thing. This was one of the reasons to invite others and have this community effort of exploring the country — to have me sort of remote-controlled from outside the city. (more…)

While we’re certainly not the only site comparing the recent discovery of a massive population of gorillas living in a secluded region of the jungle to the hidden "Gorilla City" of DC Comics, here’s hoping the word gets out to all the wanna-be Dian Fosseys out there: beware of any of ’em named "Grodd." That one is baaaaaad news.

According to CNN:

Researchers said Tuesday they have found 125,000 Western lowland gorillas living in a swamp in northern Republic of Congo, a rare positive discovery that adds significantly to the existing population of the threatened species.

The last census of Western lowland gorillas, done in the 1980s, estimated 100,000 worldwide — and researchers thought the number had been cut in half since then.

Sure, it’s great news and all… but seriously, watch out for Grodd.

Yahoo Movies has the new trailer for Wonder Woman, and I must say that it’s looking pretty decent. Before you get too excited, keep in mind that this is the direct-to-DVD animated film — not the on-again, off-again live-action film Joss Whedon departed last year.

Unfortunately, you don’t get to hear the voice everyone’s buzzing about: Nathan Fillion as Col. Steve Trevor. You do, however, get to hear Keri Russell voicing everyone’s favorite Amazon princess. Like DC’s previous D2DVD features, the film is packed with notable voices, including Alfred Molina, Rosario Dawson and Virginia Madsen. IMDB has the full cast list.

You can find out more about the film and sign up for updates over at the official Wonder Woman website. The film is scheduled for a February 2009 release.