I just kind of actually noticed that I had noticed earlier that Dumbrella has new Forum Boards. Forums at Dumbrella are a hopping kind of place full of webcomic chattering and other forms of funny. Worth checking out. Continue Reading
R Stevens of Diesel Sweeties fame has unleashed a remarkably funny political parody website: Robocratic.com :: The Official Website of the American Robocratic Party. Spinning off the Uncle Grandpa (Original Mac) Computer character from DS into his very own political campaign, Stevens has created an entire website full of funny. Continue Reading
Ben Wooler over at Ninth Art piles on John Byrne for his ill-advised comments regarding blond haired, latino women. And, he talks about the new FF movie too.
Continue Reading
As we roll out the final week of this issue it’s a good time to say thanks to the many folks who have worked hard to create this magazine and website called Comixpedia.
Why now?
Well besides the fact that the September 2004 issue is the 20th installment of Comixpedia, Frank "Damonk" Cormier is turning over the editorial reins of Comixpedia magazine to Xaviar Xerexes (See, I’m already writing in the third person – this EiC thing is going to go to my head!) and in many ways this marks the end of the first chapter for Comixpedia. It is also the beginning of a second act for Comixpedia, oÂne where I fully intend to bring new voices and new features to this project to continue to make it a worthwhile resource for the webcomics community as well as a great read every month. Continue Reading
Feeding Snarky on Language and Art
All written language is visual communication. This seemingly innocuous — even obvious — statement mystifies many who hear it. "I know from language," they say. "It’s verbal. It’s communicative. It’s certainly not visual." Of course, unless someone’s reading the sentences aloud to them, there’s noting verbal about the written word. It’s all ideograms in patterns we’re trained to recognize and manipulate.
And for the cartoonist — or any sequential artist, really — the number of ideograms they have to work with approaches the infinite. It’s what’s heartbreaking about "talking heads" comics, even when they’re great — yes, you can make your point or direct your story or tell your joke with the twenty-six letters of the standard English alphabet, with your figures standing, cut and pasted into four panels, barely showing dynamic motion or range. You can even be brilliant at it (two of my favorite webcomics in that vein are Her (Girl vs. Pig) and Lore Brand Comics). But as dry and witty and pleasant as these comics are, they do not take advantage of the richness of linguistic possibility in cartoon art.
Obviously, when considering "Romance and the Relationship" in webcomics, I’m drawn to those folks who do take such advantage, both in the traditional, glorious palette cartoons enjoy, and in the ways that webcomics break free from the traditional. And that focuses me, in entirely different ways, on Queen of Wands and No Stereotypes. Continue Reading
Steven L. Cloud is the creator of Boy On A Stick and Slither (also referred to as "BOASAS"). Dan Carroll talked with Cloud about a boy on a stick, a snake and absurd/silly/philosophical/religious/political satire webcomics.
Sandra Fuhr has been delighting readers, first with the romance webstrip that just happens to be gay, Boy Meets Boy, and has since gone on to another strip, Friendly Hostility, both ironic, urbane, touching, and utterly engrossing.
Recently Frank "Damonk " Cormier caught up with Fuhr online. Additional work for this interview was done by Al Schroeder. Continue Reading
The jaded webcomics consumer is well familiar with the idea: a creator takes extant intellectual property, then makes it her own. The high-profile example of digital sampling sticks out from the music world, and Apocalypse Pooh developed a cult following in the late eighties and early nineties. Executions may vary in quality, but our readers are likely familiar with the convention of game-based sprite comics by now, and the dreary ire they’ve been known to draw.
Come Together
Which would you rather go see, a one-man band or an orchestra? Is a four-piece band just perfect? Was The Who so loud because they were overcompensating for only having three instruments? Is bigger really better? Or do too many cooks spoil the broth? (Should I throw in some more metaphors or get right to the, uh, meat of the matter?)
The point: Most online comics are done by just one person. Continue Reading
Don’t know how I missed this, but Zwol.org has a hilarious thread going on “What else does Scott understand?”
It’s such a natural parody I’m amazed no one thought of it before. Continue Reading
Recent Comments