>>> Compiling source in /var/tmp/portage/dev-python/webob-1.0.8-r1/work/WebOb-1.0.8 ... * ERROR: dev-python/webob-1.0.8-r1 failed (compile phase): * Out-of-source build requested, yet BUILD_DIR unset. 25 Mar 2013; Matthew Thode <prometheanfire@gentoo.org> +webob-1.0.8-r1.ebuild: upgrade dev-python/webob-1.0.8 to -r1 for distutils-r1 / eapi5 support
This one I can't reproduce either. Are you sure that you're not using some kind of mis-synced or patched eclasses?
Oh, sorry, you're using some ancient version. This one's a complete screwup indeed. I'll fix it right away.
I have fixed the ebuild but disabled the tests since they have circular dep with webtest which is almost impossible to solve with the version differences.