Archive - May 2006
LA Times Tackles Comic Book Online Piracy
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 31, 2006 - 15:14
This LA Times article is a good snapshot of the issues associated with comic books getting scanned and shared online. I assume it is tough for traditional comic book publishers - from DC and Marvel down to the smaller indy shops - to sort out how to deal with this. On the one hand if online comic book file sharing is following the same trajectory as music (and now video) file sharing, it's conceivable that the audience will grow tremendously - far outstripping the current market for comic books.
The downside, of course is that all of those readers online aren't paying the $3 + for the paper comic book. Although publishers may fight this or ignore this, some smart publisher is going to figure out a way to leverage this at some point and convert a significant enough number of file sharing fans into paying fans to create a new business model for comic books. It may not wind up being all that different from evolving efforts by webcomic creators but I don't doubt that it's coming.
May 29th
Super Heroes In Works Of Art
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 29, 2006 - 22:33
Funny thread of folks photoshopping superheroes into famous works of art.
May 27th
CulturePulp Breaks Down the Movie and the Comic Book X-Men
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 28, 2006 - 00:07
I'm a big fan of Mike Russell's CulturePulp, which is usually a comic about whatever Russell is writing about that week for the Portland newpaper, The Oregonian. It touches on movies, art, music, events, and really -- all kinds of other interesting stuff.
This week's installment of CulturePulp (which incidentally features inks by Bill Mudron and gray-tones by Chad Essley) is about the differences between the latest X-Men movie (X3: The Last Stand) and the X-Men comic books. (It accompanies Russell's surprisingly positive review of X3.) The comic is informative and funny - more newspapers ought to run this in their entertainment/style section.
Brainwrap by Kyle Thiessen, reviewed by Robin Meyer
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New contributor Robin Meyer reviews Brainwrap created by Kyle Thiessen. Brainwrap brings to life the all too real horror that can be working for minimum wage at the local movie theater.
Great Interview with This Month's Cover Artist: Joe Dunn
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 27, 2006 - 10:36
Joe Dunn is a hard-working guy. Besides making all those great webcomics, he's working on getting married. Hobotrashcan.com has a pretty indepth interview with Dunn.
Appreciation for Dinosaur Comics
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 27, 2006 - 10:26
Derik Badman writes an appreciation for Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics:
If there’s any webcomic that fits into a Oubapo mold, it is Ryan North’s Dinosaur Comics. North decided to do a webcomic, but he couldn’t draw. Instead of following the Trondheim path of learning to draw while making a comic, North took some dinosaur clip art, put it into panels, and started writing dialogue. The strip follows what the Oubapo would call “iconographic repetition.†Each strip has the exact same images.
Badman is the creator of the webcomic Maroon.
May 26th
Plagerism On A Plane!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 26, 2006 - 22:23
UPDATE 2: It's gone.
Update: An earlier version of this post linked to an "about me" page for a Scott Dial. The webcomic discussed in the post is claimed by Steve Dial, not Scott Dial.
Dr.Sebetos also noted that Jeff Rowland commented in the Fleen post on this.
Fleen points out one of the more blatant and strange examples of plagerism I've ever seen in webcomics. This "webcomic" appears to be word for word copies of Overcompensating strips. It's redrawn, but it looks like the "artist" is drawing it as much like the original OC strips as his "talent" allows.
I'm totally flabbergasted by this. This guy describes himself as a senior in college applying for PhD programs in Computer Science. Either this is an elaborate hoax perpetuted by Jeff Rowland and/or the Dumbrella crew or this other guy is actually in a lot of potential trouble. Even a first year law student barely getting C's could win the copyright infringement case Jeff Rowland could bring against this guy.
First and Last: Nukees
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 26, 2006 - 13:09
Nukees by Darren Bleuel started in 1997 following the wacky adventures of the main character Gav, a perpetual nuclear engineering graduate student. Here's an excerpt from the very first strip in the archives:
A more recent excerpt from this month below:
Actually the punchline to the above excerpt is a pretty good distillation of the Gav character (might not be a bad t-shirt either!):
Another Image File Format?
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 26, 2006 - 11:39
Zoinks points to a story about Microsoft's new 'Windows Media Photo' Format. It's touted as a superior alternative to JPEG and certainly there's nothing bad about improved technology in image formats.
I guess everyone will question what restrictions might exist with a Microsoft-owned format versus an open source format licensed under GNU (or something equivalent). On the other hand, if Microsoft's Internet Explorer adopts support for the format quickly, it's probably that (unless Microsoft actions preclude it) other browsers will adopt support for it too.
May 25th
Afternoon Delight
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 25, 2006 - 13:28
An update on the Sandifer story - see the post below.
Boing BOing also pointed out a glossary of sound effect in manga which is pretty cool.
And hey it's the random Pokey the Penguin generator! I wonder if this is kosher with Pokey's creators. Given the absurdist nature of Pokey to start off with though I'm not sure how much effect the "random" generator has...
