Archive - 2010
September 28th
Comix Talk for Tuesday, October 28, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 28, 2010 - 11:09
I have a new review of The Unsinkable Walker Bean up today. You might also want to check out a recent interview the Robot 6 blog had with creator Aaron Reiner.
SPX Hangover: Jess Fink writes and draws up the best and the almost as good from this year's SPX.
INTERVIEW: Mike Rhode has an interview with Jeff Smith who was in DC for the National Book Festival last weekend.
CRAFT: Renderrxx Productions has a number of interviews with comic creators focused on their tools and techniques for making comics including Donna Barr and Peter Conrad.
MORE
- Indigo Kelleigh writes about being invited to the Portland Opera along with 20 or so other cartoonists for "Comics Night At the Opera."
- Kel highlights the art of Pierre Alery at Blank Label Comics.
- Trees & Hills is doing a Halloween mini-comic swap. Make sure you mail in your comics to get there by October 13th.
The Unsinkable Walker Bean by Aaron Renier
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 28, 2010 - 07:08
I loved The Unsinkable Walker Bean -- it's an old fashioned adventure story full of vibrant characters and clever twists and turns. Aaron Renier has delivered a fantastic book. The coloring by Alec Longstreth is also really fantastic. I was not really familiar with Renier's work beforehand, but this comic reflects someone in full command of their creative powers. Everything fits together well -- strong characters, strong plot with great pacing throughout, and a whole world and mythology Renier has cooked up to support this tale.
September 27th
El Vocho: Environmental Webcomic from Steve Lafler
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 27, 2010 - 18:46
Steve Lafler wrote us about his new comic El Vocho which offers a crackling urban romance pairing Rosa, a brilliant inventor, with laconic Eddie, geek artist. Can love blossom in this tense thriller, pitting big oil against budding genius Rosa? Rosa and Eddie meet in a fender bender and tempers flare, but cupid shoots his arrow and the two fall for each other. It takes their combined smarts and intuition to create the perfect clean energy engine. The results? A flying VW Bug with an engine that runs on air, of course!
Comix Talk for Monday, September 27, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 27, 2010 - 09:41
I posted a review this morning of Kazu Kibuishi's GREAT Amulet 3. Great all ages comic. I should have a lot of reviews coming up this week (making a big dent in the stack o' review books!). In the meantime here's some comic news worth checking out this AM:
Let's All Go to the Movies: I have Gordon McAlpin's first book collection of his comic Multiplex on the review book pile but the Art Patient blog has a review of Gordon's new book up now. And Bleeding Cool has an interview with Gordon McAlpin (with one of my favorite comics from Multiplex featuring the "insolent blogger").
FULL TWEET AHEAD: Angela Melick (creator of the webcomic Wasted Talent) and her husband Trevor May have created Webcomic Tweets a portal for following webcomic tweets and other social media. (h/t FLEEN)
OPINIONATED: Ward Sutton recreates the funny pages if they were all written by members of the U.S. Republican Party Tea Party.
INTERVIEW: The Charlotte Observer has an interview with Dustin Harbin. I wasn't really familiar with Dustin before, but he moderated the SPX panel this year with Julia Wertz and Kate Beaton and more than held his own as a funny, intelligent person.
iWEBCOMICS: Deb Aoki has an interview with comiXology CEO David Steinberger.
HYPE: Topless Robot picks 9 Indy comics its reader should know. A few webcomics in there -- they all look interesting.
SPX HANGOVER: Some parting remarks from creators Jerzy Drozd and Sara Turner as they say their goodbyes to this month's SPX from the hotel parking lot. I met both in person for the first time this year (if you missed it, I posted my interviews with them from SPX here).
NOT WEBCOMICS: I'm not sure if the teevee series adaptation of The Walking Dead comic book series is going to be good but this fan-made opening credits sequence using the art from the comics is AWESOME:
Amulet 3: The Cloud Searchers
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 27, 2010 - 07:00
Amulet, projected as a 10 volume series by creator Kazu Kibuishi, is shaping up to be something truly special. Kibuishi is weaving a story mixing deep archetypes with images and character types familiar from other popular epic entertainment, and yet still something quite original. The Cloud Searchers is the third volume in the series and easily the most accomplished of the series to date. I'm sure people have compared Amulet to Harry Potter, or even Star Wars before on a superficial level and there's some merit there. Amulet is vigorously entertaining and really engaging in the way a truly good adventure story can make you care about the fate of fictional characters and a fantasy world.
September 25th
Comix Talk for the Weekend
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 26, 2010 - 00:00
Let's Go To The Videogame Chuck: Comics based upon (and licensed from) videogames: The Sacrifice by Mike Oeming turns the premise of Left 4 Dead into a webcomic and Chris Avellone created Fallout: New Vegas—All Roads! -- a graphic novel prequel to the upcoming videogame Fallout: New Vegas.
INTERVIEW: Pop Syndicate interviews Gisele Lagace and Dave of the webcomic Menage a 3.
REVIEW: Lauren Davis has a nice write-up of John Allison's Bad Machinery at the IO9 blog
HYPE: Caldwell Tanner combines history and Frank Miller perfectly in a parody over at College Humor! Very funny and I thought he nailed the garish energy of Miller's covers.
MAILBAG: Ian Terrell writes about his webcomic The Grumpiverse "that takes on the news of the day and week that makes us grumpy for one reason or another. We consider it a webcomic, although to some it might fall more under the category of political cartooning."
September 24th
Comix Talk for Friday, September 24, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 24, 2010 - 10:01
The week is slipping away... I'll probably update this post later today but here's the AM version:
iWEBCOMICS
- Warren Ellis ponders the digital-only future, throws in some data on Freak Angels record and compares it The Walking Dead (which for most of its run has followed a more traditional direct market singles-in-print strategy).
- The Walking Dead -- which I totally got into this summer -- released same day in print and digital (iPad/Pod) with issue #77. Both were the same price at $2.99.
- Deb Aoki has a story with the publisher of a new manga anthology series, ComicLoud, available on the Kindle.
DEAD TREES WALKING This story on the future fate of DC Comics is pretty plausible -- I'm not sure how likely it is, but doesn't it seem like something a big conglomerate like Warner Bros would easily consider.
WHERE SHOULD I BE? Erika Moen explains the pros and cons of Portland.
September 23rd
Another Video About SPX 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 23, 2010 - 09:07
I liked this video on SPX 2010 from Miles Shugar for its simple appreciation of the desire to tell your story -- which is a big part of why comics is such an open and democratic medium
September 21st
Comix Talk for Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 21, 2010 - 09:36
TOPIC OF THE DAY: David Willis' new Dumbing of Age is like the (new) Star Trek of webcomics (I am waiting for the red matter to show up) Discuss!
CONVENTIONS: Intervention reports that its fundraiser collected $500 for EFF. SPX raises money for CBLDF. Both good causes, but If you're into webcomics, EFF is probably as important as CBDLF.
IT'S THE ECONOMY STOOPID PIGEON: MK Reed ran through some rough numbers for overall attendees, educated guesses about gross revenue and costs to come up with a rough estimate of profit per creator for the recent SPX. It's an interesting thought experiment but I can't imagine it means all that much to any individual creator. There's a big difference between Kate Beaton's table and someone who is at their first convention. Also of interest -- Sean Kleefeld notes that Dorothy Gambrell of the webcomic Cat And Girl has posted several charts with her annual income.
DEFINITIONS: El Santo debates "what is a webcomic?" I agree with his knocking down motion comics -- not really comics at all in my book. He also runs through several other examples where people have debated the definition of webcomics.
HYPE: Jen Wang's KoKo Be Good is now out on the shelves. Needless to say I love this book and I should have a full review telling you why up on the site this week.
September 20th
Comix Talk for Monday, September 20, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 20, 2010 - 09:57
MILESTONES: A little late but it was Guilded Age's one year anniversary this month. RESPECT!
CONVENTIONS: I went from a weekend of comics overload to a weekend of coaching girls soccer. Just what are the differences there... Anyhow still haven't finished my SPX/Intervention Report yet (but still planning on it) so here's other folks interesting comments:
- Blogger Johanna Draper Carlson writes up her SPX experience here -- she was a part of the 2nd Critics panel at SPX, I saw a good part of it and last year's version as well. It always seems like a good idea to me but the reality is kind of boring, too much about theory and the essence of criticism and not enough about you know -- comics! Supposedly the SPX panels were taped so when it's up I'll link to them.
- Chris Flick who I actually have met many times at the local Washington Webcomics meetup put me in his comic strip Capes N Babes today. I think I'll pretend to stay mad at him and see if I get any repeat performances.
-
David Malki!, the creator of Wondermark, who is always unfailing polite and full of
goodawesome cheer when I chat with him at SPX, wrote up his 2010 experience here. Be sure to check out the video of SPX he included in his post.
CRAFT: I thought this post by Jeph where he showed how a QC strip worked with different fonts was interesting. If you go with digital font over hand-lettering you're presented with a huge set of options -- I can understand how you might want to change it up after 1500 strips.
INTERVIEWS: CBR has an interview with Shaenon Garrity, currently working on the daily comic Skin Horse.
REVIEWS: Johanna Draper Carlson reviews Gordon McAlpin's first print volume of Multiplex: Enjoy Your Show and Delos has a review of The Checkered Man. I also posted a review of Joann Sfar's graphic novel adaptation of The Little Prince.
BATTLE OF BRITANNIA: Kris Straub is apparently in England as we speak. I have this half-formed Beatles = Half Pixel joke in my head; "hey which Half Pixel is Kris?" but maybe I'll leave the jokes to the properly caffeinated this morning.
