Archive - 2009
October 29th
Ten Finalists in Amazon's Comic Strip Contest
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 29, 2009 - 10:37
Daily Cartoonist and Webcomics.com report on the ten finalists in Amazon's win possibly, maybe someday get a newspaper syndication deal contest.
- "Belle Plaine" by Eric Gapstur
- "Büni" by Ryan Pagelow
- "CounterCulture" by Kory Merritt (this one is out of the running b/c it signed a deal with a different syndicate)
- "Evil Twin" by Alexander Matthews
- "Girl" by Dana Simpson
- "Hemlock Heights" by Todd Machen
- "Joe 6-Pack" by Mike Floyd
- "Lil Wit" by Andrew Paavola
- "Nutz n' Doltz" by Michael Underhill
- "Thatababy" by Paul Trap
In this round it looks like they will pick the winner based on who gets the most votes from the Internet. You can vote through November 6th; the winner will be announced on the 9th.
October 28th
The Comics Journal Moving to the Web
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 28, 2009 - 09:15
Tom Spurgeon reports on a letter The Comics Journal sent to its current subscribers outlining its plan to move to the web. TCJ will still publish two semi-annual editions of the magazine on paper but for a promised price of at least $20 per edition that doesn't sound at all like the current paper version of TCJ.
It's a smart, probably inevitable, move for TCJ although adjusting the business plan to the web will take serious work. No word yet on whether Dirk Deppey's role there changes at all with these moves.
UPDATE: Dirk provides more detail this morning, including that it will be a "free" model (no subscriber wall).
correction: changed the headline from "The Comic Reporter" to "The Comics Journal". The Comic Reporter is Tom Spurgeon's online blog and has been online for most of the past decade.
October 26th
ComixPress 2.0 Launches
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 26, 2009 - 10:26
Logan DeAngelis wrote to let me know that his print-on-demand company, ComiXpress, has launched a major upgrade of its service:
Happy Monday, and welcome to the all new ComiXpress! Pardon our dust as we continue to roll out all of the new features. We’re very excited about this fresh new day in Indie Comics, and thank each and every one of you for being a part of it with us. You can now follow us on Twitter, become a Fan on Facebook, subscribe to our RSS Feed, and you’ll soon be able to Friend us on MySpace.
Comic Mash-up
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 26, 2009 - 09:39
Ryan Dunlavey's mashup of superheroes and other pop culture characters and comic strip settings is pretty awesome. Most of the ones on this page are pretty funny, my favorites being X-Nuts and Phantom The Menace.
October 23rd
Comix Events Calendar and Friday Hype
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 23, 2009 - 09:45
I've started up a Google Calendar for comic events: things like conventions, book signings, local meet-ups of comics folks. I'm looking for co-maintainers to help me add events (also feel free to tweet or email me suggestions and I'll add them if they're appropriate). Are you interested? Beyond the (hopefully) collaborative effort of updating this thing, it's also available for anyone and everyone to use - you can add it to your own gmail/calendar account, can subscribe to its RSS feed, read it here, embed it in your own site.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Bicycle Cop starts October 28th.
Also, you can now download the entirety of Book Two of Derik Badman's Things Change at his Books and Download page.
And last but not least -- a pretty cool fan-animation for xkcd:
October 21st
Technical Rodeo... Get Along Lil' Webcomics!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 21, 2009 - 15:09
If you didn't realize I am an awful headline writer by now.... A lot of interesting technical type articles today.... Webcomics being in the middle of the VENN diagram of comics and DIGITS... I am apparently tweeting this article?
Anyhow in bigger than a phone, smaller than a laptop news, Barnes and Noble is going to sell NOOK, their answer to Amazon's KINDLE. The buzz is also getting louder about Apple's alleged iTablet. We'll see I guess. And the Chicago Sun Times has an article/interview on LongBox, a digital comics reader. I'm withholding judgment until I find time to try it out.
The Graphic Novel Reporter has a roundtable on PIRACY and comics.... it is an AGE OF DIGITAL PIRACY!!!
Last but not least is this article from SEED magazine on the rise of authorship in the world. Not comics-specific but given the high rate of creative participation in webcomics, I thought you might find it interesting.
October 20th
Overview of Small Screen Comics Apps
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 20, 2009 - 14:33
Over at BleedingCool.com Rich Johnson reviews all (most?) of the applications for reading comics on small screens like mobile phones. Good overview of what's out there...
Cory Doctorow's Experiments in Pricing & Publishing
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 20, 2009 - 13:49
Doctorow is already a consistent advocate for Creative Commons licensing of his work so this isn't as big of a stretch for him as it might be for many other authors, but he's going to pursue a multi-tier approach to self-publishing his next book (which will be a collection of short stories). All of this sounds pretty applicable to comics and Doctorow is committed to writing about the experience in a monthly column so it should be an interesting project to follow.
October 19th
Webcomic On The Honduras Coup Story So Far
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 19, 2009 - 09:47
This is journalism in webcomics form: The Honduras Coup: A Graphic History. Well worth checking out.
October 18th
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).
