Archive - Oct 2006
Rolling Post-Halloween News Round-Up
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 31, 2006 - 23:48
Thanks to everyone for making Fright Night 8 a success. Check out the comics if you haven't already. There were a lot of other cool Halloween-related posts in the blogs so check 'em all out!
MILESTONES
- Concerned has wrapped up. This really is a hilarious parody of the video game Half-Life 2. Much like Tom Stoppard's famous play Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead zeroes in on minor characters from Hamlet, Concerned follows the adventures of a new, seemingly minor character, Gordon Frohman, who weaves through the plot of Half Life 2 without disturbing the official narrative of the game. Creator Christopher Livingston put in a year and a half into this project and within what he set out to do, I'd say he succeeded fantastically.
LEGAL
- Creator Neil Gaiman has some advice for creators on how to handle their work in their wills.
INTERVIEW
- Webcomics In Print has an interview with Ali Graham, creator of Housd.
- UGO has an interview with Dan Goldman, member of the collective, Act-I-Vate.
CONVENTIONS
- Flight has a round-up of Portland, OR's Stumptown Comics Fest reports and photos.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Wax Intellectual delves into the funny-ha-ha old school webcomic Absurd Notions.
- Anyone want to work for DC Comics, possibly handling some of their online efforts? Don't forget us at Comixpedia when you make it to the Show.
- Former Comixpedia contributor T Campbell has a new site called One Simple Ad which is really just that simple. Read more about it and why T started it here.
- Websnark and Scrubbo take Wikipedia to task for more dumb decisions regarding which webcomics make the cut for inclusion in the Wikipedia.
- The Comics Reporter links to a story about a Harvard University student cartoonist who was fired from the paper for plagerism. This looks like a pretty clear cut case of copying. It's not always that clear though - see this recent post from Tom Tomorrow about similarities between one of his comics and a recent Fox Trot.
Happy Fright Night 8!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 31, 2006 - 10:09
I'm really happy with the way Fright Night 8 turned out - go check out all of the spooky-remixed webcomics at Fright Night dot org now!
We didn't put any limits on what "remix" meant and our 18 participants all approached it in their own way. I think this idea is a good one (I've gotten good feedback from the participants) so we'll probably use it again for FN9 next year.
October 30th
Social Bookmarking on WCN
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 30, 2006 - 12:54
Joey Manley writes that his webcomics service Webcomics Nation now supports social bookmarking like Digg and Delicious:
You can see it in action on my own supercraptacular comic, which only exists to serve as a platform for usability testing of WCN user interface improvements...
To spell this out - you can automatically add links to your comics on WCN that submit the comic to community sites like Digg and Delicious - which if enough of your readers click on these links, might get you a mention there and some traffic. I've added similar buttons to Comixpedia (Drupal has a module for this). Digg (and its copycat - the new Netscape) is an interesting site, but as Reinder points out neither has a good category for comics.
Pre-Halloween News and Hype
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 30, 2006 - 12:36
Don't forget to check out Halloween-style remixed webcomics tomorrow at Fright Night and then talk about them and other Day of the Dead-style comics on our forums (don't forget - you no longer have to log in to post a comment)
And today you can read more original Halloween comics at Jon Morris' BOO!
INTERVIEWS
REVIEWS
- Matt Chapdelaine reviews Josh Lesnick's Girly.
CONVENTION REPORTS
- The Comics Reporter has links to reports from the recent Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, OR.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Webcomics In Print has another good round-up of, well, webcomics in print...
- Shocking! The readers of Joystiq picked Penny Arcade's offering last week as their favorite. You can vote in their poll for this week here.
- Comipress explains why manga is printed on colored paper.
- Donald Crankshaw summarizes the webcomics he read last week.
October 29th
Weekend Update
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 29, 2006 - 09:46
Don't forget to check out Fright Night 8 this Tuesday when we'll post all of the remixed-for-Halloween webcomics.
I want to make sure everyone knows we're allowing folks to comment without registering and/or logging in to see if it increases participation in comment threads. We're also looking for input on what feature stories we should be working on.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
Zoinks! reports that on-demand printer Ka-Blam has eliminated its set-up fees.
- Fleen emails back and forth with Mark Mekkes, chairman of the WCCAs on possible changes to the awards.
- Joey Manley reports that Dylan Meconis is taking a break from her webcomic Family Man to work on a non-fiction comic called Wire Mothers & Inanimate Arms: Harry Harlow And The Science Of Love.
- Table of Malcontents notes that Alien Loves Predator has created its first animation, entitled "Beer Goggles".
- Obdormio praises Get Medieval as in the same league as Narbonic. That's a pretty strong recommendation!
October 27th
Melonpool Makes Out With David Willis
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 27, 2006 - 23:50
I don't know how I missed this, but did you all see the Melonpool video with the other Blank Label Comics creators from this summer's Comicon? Ridiculously funny stuff from Howard Tayler, Kris Straub and David Willis. And uh, Steve Troop too!
Reading My SPX Stash: Shana Kim
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 27, 2006 - 23:37
Okay actually I found Shana Kim's website from the Heather and Ben Show - Heather and Ben were at SPX, not Shana Kim. And none of them do comics. All video shorts.
Shana has two seriously funny little animated pieces though - one about being a kid and having to pee while waiting in the car and the other one involving her lunch box and... well just watch it.
Reading My SPX Stash: Lance Christian Hansen
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 27, 2006 - 22:18
A mini named Ghost Town is part of a longer comic called Hayseed Sampler, all by Lance Christian Hansen. It doesn't look like Hayseed is out yet but you can read another comic from it here (NSFW).
Hansen is also working on a more serious comic called Don't Cry - more details here. He received a Xeric grant for this work. It doesn't look like either book is out yet though.
Reading My SPX Stash: Suzanne Baumann
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 27, 2006 - 22:11
Another cute little mini I grabbed was My Mind's Made Up which is a short poem basically about a stubborn partisan. The creator, Suzanne Baumann, sells a bunch of mini's from her website fridge-mag.net but she also has some work posted online there as well.
Reading My SPX Stash: David Yoder
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 27, 2006 - 22:01
David Yoder had a funny little mini about making mini-comics (which is also on the web). He also has a great URL for his website: davidyoderisawesome.com.
He has a lot of short comics posted on his site but I kind of liked this one the best.
