Month: October 2009

Twenty-Something Urban Romance: True Kilbourne and Zander Gunn

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I picked up True Loves and True Loves 2 at SPX this year.  The two books by Jason Turner and Manien Bothma (husband and wife) chronicle the falling in love and thereafter of True Kilbourne and Zander Gunn.  An odd experience for me reading the books before the webcomic (True Loves 2 is available in color at Serializer.net) but having both books to read in one stretch actually was a good thing.  While I liked the initial True Loves tale, I really thought True Loves 2: Trouble in Paradise added a lot more to the entire tale to date (Jason Turner's note at the end of True Loves 2 says they're already working on True Loves 3).

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Solving The Kung Fu Puzzle

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Now that I have two book-devouring kids, I find myself much more engaged with books and comics for the 10 and under age bracket (I guess you'd call that pre-tween?).  My kids read comics along with text books without much distinction at this point which is probably due to the pretty decent selection of comics in the children's section of our local library.  (The Sardine in Outer Space series was a recent favorite.)

So I was pretty interested in getting an opportunity to review the latest installment in the Manga Math Mysteries series.   Number four is titled The Kung Fu Puzzle: A Mystery with Time and Temperature.  I think any book, comic or otherwise, should be engaging on its own merits.  Educational value shouldn't be an excuse for a boring book.  Kung Fu Puzzle passed that test with flying colors with both of my kids (I thought it was pretty good too).  In fact I think my youngest daughter's biggest complaint is actually nice praise for the  book — she was quite annoyed at its somewhat open-ended finish.  I think she was hoping that the story went on longer.

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Kickstart Your Friday

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Gordon McAlpin wrote to let me know that he'll be on a Kickstarter-themed edition of  Fanboy Radio this Sunday.  They'll be talking with Gordon about his Kickstater pre-funding effort for a print collection of his webcomic Multiplex.  (also on the show will be Yancy Strickler (co-founder of Kickstarter) and Jamie Tanner (a print cartoonist who is funding his second graphic novel through KS))

And in other Kickstarter efforts,Spike has just launched one for a new book called Poorcraft to be written by Spike and drawn by Diana Nock.

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Perhaps Amanda Should Think About Wearing More Office-Appropriate Clothing

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EVENTS
Alternative Press Expo (APE) is this weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area!

The Daily Cross Hatch is having an "Indie Costume Contest."  Cool idea! Also make sure Daily Cross Hatch is on your reading list — it’s my new favorite blog for 2009.

WEBSITES
Jeff Eaton has a short post up about his firm’s work behind the scenes on Zuda’s website.  Drupal is a CMS (ComixTALK has used it since 2006) that I love but as of yet it doesn’t have the plug n’ play type installs available to support webcomics like Wordpress does.

Comicbook.com reports that Marvel is on the 3.0 version of its online reader – this is for its subscription service to part of its comic book library.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Mike Dawson has put his comedy comic book series Gabagool online.  Looks a little Pete Bagge-influenced from the artwork — looking forward to checking it out.

INTERVIEW
CBR has an interview with Tom Siddell on the release of the second print collection of his webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court.

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Quick! Think of a Witty Title Referencing Webcomics!

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INTERVIEWS
The Trades has an interview with Lora Innes on the release of her comic The Dreamer in book format.

DEAD TREES
AdHouse Books cancels the book collection of the webcomic FCHS due to low pre-orders.

The fourth Diary of a Wimpy Kid book was released yesterday – the initial press run? 4 million copies.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Jon Scrivens announced the return of his webcomic Little Terrors from its extended hiatus.

ZUDA ZUDA ZUDA COMIC SUPERSTAH!
Daily Cartoonist reports that the Amazon Comic Strip Superstar contest is into its third round and posts a list of the 50 remaining finalists.

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Micropayments 3.0? iCents

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Scott McCloud links to iCents.net today — a micropayments-like set-up that is centered around creating "paid links".  I poked around the site this morning and to be honest I'm not entirely sure what it does that isn't already out there in various apps and software bits.  It (thankfully) doesn't set up another payment system (it's relying largely on paypal and other similar stuff) — it looks more like a bit of code that developers can use to incorporate it into their sites. 

If anyone tries this out on a website they run, let us know about your experience.

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Bone: Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess

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Bone: Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess

Is there any fantasy series in recent memory as beloved and praised as Bone?  Jeff Smith began writing about the Bone cousins in 1991, but it was probably the publication of the books in color versions by Scholastic that truly launched Bone into the pop culture.  It's a great sprawling story with a powerful conclusion.  Bone: Rose is a prequel that fleshes out the story of Gran'ma Ben as a youth (i.e., Rose), a story that weighs heavily on the Bone saga proper.

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