The Boston Phoenix has a brief preview of the first New England Webcomics Weekend, the March 20-22 gathering that's expected to bring more than 700 webcomics cartoonists and fans to Easthampton, Mass.

Initially planned as a small event, the weekend has, in the words of the alt-weekly, "snowballed into a sort of webcomics Woodstock."

The gathering kicks off informally tomorrow at 8 p.m. with a pub crawl, which includes a couple of all-ages locations, before shifting into convention mode Saturday morning with registration, panels, live-drawing events, tabletop gaming, a charity auction, gallery show and more. The schedule can be found here.

Guests include Steven Cloud, Danielle Corsetto, Rob DenBleyker, Lar deSouza, Rene Engstrom, Meredith Gran, Brad Guigar, Scott Kurtz, Ryan North, Ryan Sohmer, Spike, R. Stevens, Kris Straub and Kris Wilson.