To beat the dead horse, I do think the idea that writing an essay explaining why a webcartoonist who has been in business for more than a decade and making his living at that craft for quite a bit of that time should be allowed to join a professional cartoonist organization seems a little insulting, particularly when you were one the first in the field. Seems like they go for a highly arbitrary standard of "professional cartoonist".
Then again, he naturally handles that rejection publicly and like a moody teenager with a livejournal. No saying he's done anything to make them desire his membership, but for all his faults he's probably one of the best people (symbolically speaking) to admit as the first web guy in the organization. One of the first in the field, has made it his full time job for many years now, gave a damn about joining, etc. And he's not wrong about print comics jobs drying up and dying out, nor is he wrong that prominent print folks have been dismissive of web. He's like a living example of "strawman has a point".