Webslinging by Don MacPherson There are comics websites out there that throngs of fans check every day, from Mike Doran and Matt Brady's Comics Newsarama to Jonah Weiland's Comic Book Resources to the content-generating community that is the Warren Ellis Forum. Randy Lander and I hope that The Fourth Rail is among your daily visits as well. It can be tough to stand out in a crowd of thousands of various comic-book websites out there. This feature is aimed at directing you to some great websites of which you may not be aware. Web-surfing comics fans are probably well aware of the Dixonverse, writer Chuck Dixon's home on the Net. However, not quite as well known is the online domain of his occasional writing partner Scott Beatty at www.scottbeatty.com. His website mirrors the set-up of his writing partner's, which should come as no surprise, given both have the same webmaster, Scott McCullar. Beatty's been a busy boy lately. He co-wrote the highly entertaining Robin: Year One limited series for DC earlier this year, and we're in the middle of the Joker: Last Laugh crossover event he developed with Dixon right now. I also think it's a safe bet Beatty will be tapped to take over one or more of Dixon's DC titles next year when his runs end and his tenure at CrossGen Comics gets under way. Those who have been following Randy and I online for a while now might remember our first professional gig in the world of online comics commentary: Psycomic.com. We're not the only ones from that offshoot of Psylum, Inc. to set up new virtual digs, though. Some of our former Psycomic colleagues -- like writer Joe Doughrity, web designer Jon AKA chanzero, and nebulous role-filler Al Tran (what the hell did he do, anyway?) -- operate a website called PopCultureShock at www.popcultureshock.com. Though there's an emphasis on comics, the site offers an eclectic mix of content, and it boasts an impressive library of desktop wallpaper files for download. Perhaps what stands out the most at PCS is the slick design. Sigh... too bad Jon wasn't allowed to cut loose on Psycomic 1.0. The site could have looked a helluva lot better. Over on Usenet, in the rec.arts.comics.* newsgroups, one can occasionally find a fellow by the name of Jess Nevins. Jess sometimes posts annotations to various comic books, usually ones with a plethora of references that might escape some readers, books like Kingdom Come and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Jess has compiled those well written and well researched resources, along with a number of other interesting essays on comics, on his personal website. It ain't the prettiest of pages, but it is one of the richest sources of information on comics one will find on the Web. Better still, Nevins treats comics seriously, but not too seriously either. One will find hours of good reading on his site. And so ends the first of what I hope is many instalments of "Webslinging." Keep in mind... this is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of links, nor is it meant to give sites some kind of "Best of" status. They're just some friendly tips. Happy clicking. Email Don MacPherson comments about this column, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.