Month: June 2006

Shaenon has a plug for Platinum Grit on her website – it might be described as Three's Company plus Narbonic actually. It's roughly about a guy who's part of a clan of highlanders (perhaps The Highlanders…) with a mad scientist uncle and a loony aunt. And there's two hot girls. One might be a sociopath. But it's mostly really funny and often sexy. The art is a perfect complement to the storyline and often quite stunning.

I think creators Trudy Cooper and Danny Murphy originally created most of the archives as comic books and later moved it to the web via a flash interface (which does allow for easy clicking through panels). By showing you a panel at a time you do get to see the art crisply but I suspect something's lost in not seeing the pages as they were originally composed. In some of the early issues I also thought there were some poorly executed transitions in the storyline but that's about my only major complaint.

Definitely worth checking out!

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Lots of good buzz from this year's MoCCa in New York. Here's a lot of photos from Dave Roman. Post other reports and photo links in the comments.
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The Comics Journal is going to revamp its site later this summer with Dirk Deppey reviving his Journalista! blog as part of the make-over. Journalista! was a great resource for all-around comics news in 2003, but since then The Comics Reporter has more than filled that gap for me. Still I recall Deppey's writing being fairly insightful, so I look forward to his return to the internets (Deppey has been the managing editor of the magazine – he will leave that position during the online revamp).

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Lore writes about how two webcomics creators just received free Sumo beanbags and subsequently posted about it on their well-trafficed websites:

Scott Kurtz posts on PvP that he got a free sample beanbag from Sumo Lounge and he loves it. The same day, Tim Buckley posts on Ctrl+Alt+Del that he got a beanbag from Sumo — he doesn't say where he got it — and he likes it. Not casting aspersions here, I just think it's interesting that the "send free stuff and hope for a good review" approach is moving beyond the video games and accessories you'd expect to be associated with a gaming comic. Maybe in the near future Kutrz, Buckley, and company will be able to outfit a small apartment or clubhouse with free swag, just for doing their things.

It does seem to me you should disclose this kind of free swag if you're going to endorse it (which Kurtz did). Otherwise it's interesting as another bit of evidence that perhaps some webcomics are – in marketing speak – influencers.

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Fleen reports that Jon Rosenberg was handing out stickers with the URL http://www.teamforcealpha.com/ at MoCCA this past weekend. Given that Rosenberg just ended a webcomic (MegaGamerz) the speculation is that he will be rolling out a new webcomic callled Team Force Alpha. Continue Reading →

Eric Burns has returned to the internets and posted a nice goodbye to arguably the first webcomic ever, Doctor Fun by David Farley. Farley recently ended Doctor Fun – 13 years after its debut.

I do want to quibble a bit with one thing Eric wrote though:

It's interesting to me how few of those descendants followed in its footsteps, though — comic books and four panel comics were far more fertile ground for webcartoonists. Lots more people ripped off were influenced by Calvin and Hobbes or Peanuts than The Far Side. Which saddens me, really, but I understand it. It's hard to bring the single panel funny. It's hard to have a strip without continuing characters, without even the barest vestiges of Story to hook jokes on, without even a second panel to allow for streamed execution. It's just plain hard, kids.

I don't disagree with how hard it is to do a single-panel comic but my sense is that there are more of them out there then perhaps Eric realizes. You also have to consider that because the web doesn't require a consistent format, you have a lot of webcomics that might do a one panel only sometimes – like a Boxjam's Doodle. Anyone want to help me out by pointing out some worthy descendants of The Far Side Doctor Fun?

I'll start with one of my favorites: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

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I just returned from a short vacation, but it looks like Erik "Giant Panda" Melander has kept the webcomic news tap flowing! Don't forget to check out the latest Checkerboard Nightmare installment and Neil Cohn's lastest article on "visual rhymes" has generated an awesomely entertaining comment thread.

Also I hope you've noticed I've been adding headline feeds from various creator blogs, webcomics and blogs about webcomics to the lefthand side of Comixpedia. (Clicking on "More" for any of those lists will take you to the full page version)

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