Archive - 2004 - Story
December 17th
Penny & Aggie To Hit the Comic Books
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 17, 2004 - 17:02
T Campbell and Gisele Lagace announced today that Penny and Aggie will appear in books to be published by Alias Publishing, a new imprint started by Mike Miller and Brett Burner to act as an umbrella for individuals and studios who want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
Alias launches in April, 2005. More details on their launch plans are at Newsarama.
Forums Back Alive
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 17, 2004 - 16:55
Sorry for the delay. Sometimes it's not the hack, but the patch that will drive you insane.
Sadly I somehow messed up the "theme" for the forum and they'll be borderless for a bit. We're prepping a site-wide new design so I think the forums will stay the way they are until we roll out Comixpedia v3.0 in January.
December 16th
New York Times Website Covers Penny Arcade
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 16, 2004 - 17:05
The NY Times has a feature on Tycho & Gabe today. I love their attempts to describe Penny Arcade in family-friendly language:
The site displays a fresh three- or four-panel comic strip three times a week. The strips usually feature the authors' alter egos, Gabriel and Tycho, who exist in a slightly surreal world where obsolete electronic components are drunk, vulgarity and cartoon violence run rampant, vegan damned souls roam and debates about whether the newest video game is awesome or overblown become a matter of life or death. In other words, it's the world of a typical video game fan.
And there is actually quite a good discussion of how Penny Arcade's silent partner, business manager Robert Khoo, has made the enterprise profitable enough to support them all.
Jelly Creations: New(er) Free Hosting for Webcomics
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 16, 2004 - 13:43
Jelly Creations appears to be in the mold of Keenspace and Drunk Duck although quite a bit smaller at the moment. I have no reports on its service or reliability yet but it looks like they just signed up their 100th member comic.
December 15th
Webcomics VS Newspaper Syndication: Round Three
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 15, 2004 - 15:46
The storming of the traditional syndication comicstrip kingdom by the webcomic Visigoths storyline that kicked off with Scott "PvP" Kurtz's announcement at San Diego and continued with Keenspot starting up "KeenSyndicate" enters a new, well snarkier, phase.
Kicking off things is Tuesday's installment of Wiley's Non Sequitur, a strip widely enough available that most Americans have probably heard of even if it's not in their newspaper. Although it is a straightforward gag, anyone who has read Wiley's comments regarding Kurtz's efforts to place PvP in newspapers can't help but assume that Wiley also meant today's strip as a dig at Kurtz and webcomics generally. Kurtz himself comments on it today as does Eric Burns.
This is also a good excuse to link to Tom Spurgeon's essay on these issues, posted just this Sunday. Update: I forgot to include this other Websnark entry on this issue which is also quite a good read.
December 14th
double happiness wedding from jen wang
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 14, 2004 - 16:45
Scott McCloud points out this new comic from jen wang called double happiness wedding.
While you're at her site, if you haven't already read it check out pierced.
G4Tech TV Covers Penny Arcade Child's Play Fundraiser
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 14, 2004 - 16:15
Tonight on X-Play (on the G4Tech TV channel) there's some coverage of the Penny Arcade "Child's Play" charity event for under privileged kids.
Someone Else Likes Dalton's Last Column
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 14, 2004 - 16:02
In slogging through a lot of comics journalism. Renaissance Geek caught Dalton's Farewell to Arse and endorsed his plea for editors in this world of instant publishing. S/he also caught some other good examples of why we not only need editors but why it's ridiculous to take pride in one's own "uneditedness."
Alas is in the Washington Post today
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 14, 2004 - 15:41
Barry Deutsch who does the political toon Ampersand and the blog Alas is featured in a story in the Washington Post today. (Story here)
Deutsch does Hereville at Girlamatic too. He's making the entire archives of this webcomic free this week so be sure to check out the WPost story, hop on over to Barry's blog and next read Hereville.
CBG 2004 Picks and Roundtable
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 14, 2004 - 15:34
ADD leads a discussion ofcomic book industry types about 2004 and a little bit of looking ahead. An interesting discussion for the most part.
The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon is in on the discussion (and is where I found the link!)
Also worth noting in the spirit of good 2004 stuff is that CBG has a review of the 5 year vol. of American Elf here and a review of the wonderful McSweeney's Anthology of Comics edited by Chris Ware here.
