Archive - Apr 2007
April 12th
News & Views for Thursday, Somewhere in April
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 12, 2007 - 16:42
So um... taxes? They suck. Let's throw rocks at 'em.
HEADLINES
- CORRECTION: LA-based creators Dave Kellett and Kris Straub plan to march over to the gallery where art by alleged copycat Todd Goldman is on exhibit with a copy of Dave Kelly's original comic.
So long as someone will mail them a copy of the Keenspot FCBD book that it appeared in. Kellett's address and more details over at COPYCAT 2007 headquarters, FLEEN.UPDATE: They have received the comic book.
- Journalista! has a whole mess of links on the passing of Johnny Hart (scroll down to "comic strips").
INTERVIEWS
- The Daily Crosshatch has an interview with creator Raina Telgemeier.
- For his podcast, T Campbell interviews Eric Burns and Wednesday White (mp3 link) and they talk about Websnark, blogging & podcasting. As always, Eric is simultaneously humble and well not-humble (it's charming though), Wednesday drops geek-cred terms (did I hear CMS in there? That's content-management-system) and for some odd reason sounds like she's sitting five feet behind Eric in the interview. Surprisingly, T Campbell asks no questions about actual webcomic content though...
REVIEWS
- Sequential Tart reviews three webcomics this month: El Goonish Shive; Questionable Content; and Tittivillus.
DEAD TREES
- Webcomics-In-Print reports that a convention-only book of After Strife is out featuring strips not yet available on the web.
- MangaBlog reviews Divalicious (written by T Cambpell and art'd by Amy Mebberson).
- Newsarama has a HUGE preview of Flight 4.
April 11th
News & Views for Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 11, 2007 - 10:33
First a quick thanks to current advertisers: The Learn to Draw the Human Figure video course; The Lethal Lady website and blog; the webcomic Life on the Fringe and the DrunkDuck Civil War Webcomic Event. Thanks also to all of our PW sponsors including the very current ones: Freaks N Squeeks; Alma Mater; and Cartridge Comics, Lummox. PW ads appear depending on who is the top bidder right now. You should still check out Cartridge Comics though! :)
Also be sure to check out contributor Joel Fagin's webcomic tutorials site and this month's cover artist Michael Lalonde's very funny webcomic Orneryboy.
HEADLINES
- The Todd Goldman/Dave Kelly copying story was well covered this week appearing on several webcomics, blogs, CBR, the art journal Juxtapoz, and even Wikipedia. The extreme similarities of the two works makes it hard to imagine a set of circumstances such that Goldman did not copy from Kelly. The blog FLEEN has been all over this story and really deserves praise for pulling so much of it together. Yesterday FLEEN posted an absolutely spiteful email it received purportedly from Todd Goldman (although FLEEN caveats that it can't confirm this) and also wrote about another similarity between a Goldman work and Stuff Sucks webcomic creator Liz Greenfield. Copying can be a difficult issue - ideas are not protected, only expression - but again, in the specific Goldman/Kelly case it's very hard to see how this was anything other than copying. (Comixpedia interviewed Dave Kelly back in his Living in Greytown days.)
- Johnny Hart dead. Now the question is what happens to B.C. (and possibly The Wizard of Id)? Will it lumber on as a comic strip zombie or will newspapers retire it in favor of fresh material? ANSWER: Kris Straub catches a note at the Creators Syndicate website that say Undead B.C. and Wizard of Id will definitely lumber on. ALSO: Mark Evanier has an interesting post on Hart's career (link from SPPW).
- Mitch Clem taking a break from webcomics? The creator of webcomics such as Nothing Nice to Say; Coffee Achievers and San Antonio Rock City writes about his five years making webcomics.
- Good luck and good thoughts to creator Carla Speed McNeil, who is undergoing surgery later this month to alleviate a moderate-to-severe case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. (Swiped from Journalista! which caught it from Elayne Riggs.)
JUSTIFY MY THEIR HYPE
- Time's Nerd World Blog praises Rob Balder's and Jamie Noguchi's webcomic Erfworld.
- Maakies creator Tony Millionaire wrote us to tell us that the pilot for the animated Drinky Crow Show is coming to Adult Swim in May. There's a preview video here and you can read others' comments on it here.
- Comics Reporter links to Doom: the webcomic.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- FLEEN notes that Lauren O’Neal turned in a webcomic as a final project for a class at Stanford. Hip and environmentally-friendly!
- Websnark praises Goats. Eric's main point seems to be that even though most of Goats' episodes don't involve actual "action" the comic is nevertheless working well. Goats has never really been about action though, like a good Kevin Smith movie it's about the dialogue.
- CBR notes the 10th anniversary of comics publisher Top Shelf.
- JOURNALISTA! points to the I Read Comics podcast that features a recording of the “Women in Comics†panel from the recent New York Comic-Con, with moderator Heidi MacDonald with Colleen Doran, Amanda Conner, Svetlana Chmakova and Rivkah.
April 10th
American Elf Volume 2 Out
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 10, 2007 - 23:30
The Daily Crosshatch has a review of James Kochalka's second big collection of his webcomic American Elf (vol. 2). (I reviewed the first collected volume for Comixpedia's November 2004 issue.)
April 9th
Justify My Webcomic Linkery
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 10, 2007 - 00:25
- PvP creator Scott Kurtz (aka Skull) posted a video showing his digital-inking-fu.
- It's nice to know that Gabe Newell has good taste in webcomics.
- Home On The Stange ponders Bear Vs. Shark but what about the vicious... landshark!
- Slightly old news, but cool webcomic-name dropping by Girl Genius in this comic. Phil Foglio also has good taste in webcomics.
- I've been catching up on Malfunction Junction, a great, funny journal-like comic. I'd love a keyboard like the one in this comic.
Spelling Out Civility at Comixpedia
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 9, 2007 - 12:53
I took off a week from Comixpedia (sleeping on the beaches of Florida) and the site survives without me! I feel like a proud parent - maybe now I can send Comixpedia off to college ;)
I hope to post some actual webcomics-y updates later today, but for now I caught this NY Times article on "a call for manners" online that I thought worth linking too. For about a year now I've been trying to loosely moderate Comixpedia to keep the discussion here more civil and more substantive. I've learned whatever I know about how to do this along the way, and more recently, it's been on my to-do list for this year to post some written-out civility guidelines for users of the site.
April 8th
R.I.P. Johnny Hart
Submitted by Linda Howard Valentine on April 9, 2007 - 03:36
Johnny Hart, creator of the long-running newspaper comic strips B.C. and Wizard of Id (with Brant Parker), died with his proverbial boots on this Saturday.
Panels & Pictures: At The Margin
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In this month's column, Derik A. Badman looks at that staple of comic books -- the margin. First, by examining how comics make effective use of page borders and next by considering how, if at all, webcomics address similar artistic choices.
Todd Goldman Ripping Off Purple Pussy
Submitted by Black_Kitty on April 8, 2007 - 19:28
As an artist and an art educator, there are very few things out there that I find more deserving of scorn then an art thief. Especially if it's an art thief that steals other people's work then display it in an art gallery as their own. Like what Todd Goldman did with Purple Pussy.
If what they say about Todd Goldman is true, then we should not only heap scorn at him but as Randy Miholland of Something Positive suggest, we should throw rocks. Big rocks labeled "stop stealing and profiting from other people's work!"
April 6th
Making Comics "Legitimate": Is That What The Community Actually Wants?
Submitted by Erg on April 6, 2007 - 16:57
Joey Manley, over here, is talking about a post he made over here, about this book here. And having read all three of these things, I have come to an important realization about comics and why they are not in the "mainstream" even though people are working so hard to legitimize them.
The Lost Fanbase
Submitted by Scott Reed on April 6, 2007 - 16:26
Somewhere out there, amid the dwindling thousands of comic book collectors and readers, a lost fanbase exists. They are comprised of males in their 30's to 50's, who long ago read and collected comic books. They've grown up, started families, settled into their chosen careers and left comics behind. They'll go see the film adaptations of the comics.
