Archive - 2010 - Story
November 17th
Comix Talk for Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 17, 2010 - 10:54
Time for me to start thinking about end of the year articles and the inevitable tweaking of Comix Talk for next year.... But for now here's some things I thought were interesting for today:
iWEBCOMICS: Comixology announced a beta test opportunity for independent comic creators to get their comics into the Comixology marketplace. CWR notes that the program won't actually start until next year but publishers and creators can sign up for it now here.
INTERVIEW: Brian Heater has the first part of an interview with Roger Lanridge.
REVIEW: CWR has a review of The Art of Failing Buddhism, the print collection of Ryan Dow's webcomic Introspective Comics.
MILESTONES: Tony Murphy announces he's ending his syndicated newspaper comic It's All About You. DailyCartoonist reports that he cited the "lack of client papers" as the reason. You may remember Murphy for his successful Kickstarter drive this summer to fund his weekly comic paper for coffee shops called Coffee Talk.
AWARDS: Kirkus released its Best of 2010 with lists of best graphic novels for teens and for children.
November 16th
Comix TaLK FOR tUESDAY...brAINS bRAinqdwdqad
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 16, 2010 - 15:55
I was all set to write this zombie parody post this morning and well... I didn't. But that title stays dang-it!
iWebcomics: An interesting survey of 500 iPad users indicates that the browser is still the most popular app and that they continue to use it heavily even after the first few months.
BUSINESS: Boing Boing profiles The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual for the Do-It-Yourself Musician -- a soup-to-nuts guide to musical survival in the 21st century, written by two of the members of Beatnik Turtle. Certainly there must be some useful information in there applicable to any DIY artist, including webcomics.
REVIEW: El Santo reviews Party Bear.
INTERVIEW: The second half of Brian Heater's interview with Tracy White.
HYPE: Some amazing art from Emily Carroll including a Fallout New Vegas character. (h/t someone - most likely Journalista!)
NOT WEBCOMICS: An interview with David Malki!, Ryan North and Matt Bernnardo on the rise of their anthology of short stories, Machines of Death, to #1 for a day.
Hold On... It's The Return of Zombre
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 16, 2010 - 07:30
Ansis Purins' Zombre #2 The Magic Forest dropped out of nowhere on me last week. I wasn't familiar with Purins' work beforehand and therefore missed Zombre #1. Purins won a Xeric grant earlier this year for this project so it's great to see the finished comic out in the wild. It's a really well done production clocking in at 48 pages and you can get it at his website.
Purins' pitch for the comic is “It’s Harry Potter meets Yogi Bear meets Night Of The Living Dead!” I don't know about that, but there is something oddly charming about this very low key, sweet tale of a magical (in a sort-of-Saturday morning cartoon kind of way) forest. Zombre is, well a zombie, but a friendly one who has apparently kicked the brains habit. It's a reinvention of zombie as nonthreatening and cuddly forest creature.
November 15th
Inbound #5: The Food Issue
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 15, 2010 - 06:35
The Boston Comics Roundtable sure seems like one of the most viable and interesting local comics collectives around. They've put out several issues now in a couple of different anthology series (ComixTalk reviewed previous books Outbound #2 and Inbound #3). The latest edition of the Inbound anthology series (subtitled "Comics From Boston") is The Food Issue which focuses on comics featuring food. The first half of the book is titled "Food Facts" and includes stories about food and autobiographical tales with food as a prominent part of the story. The second half of the book is titled "Food Fiction" and is a more wide-ranging selection of comics, none of which purport to be nonfiction.
The book is 176 pages and features 26 brand new stories. The contributors include: E.J. Barnes, Eric Boeker, Jerel Dye, Franklin Einspruch, Patrick Flaherty, Bob Flynn, Joel Christian Gill, Andrew Greenstone, Danny Gonzalez, Raul Gonzalez, Beth Hetland, Erik Heumiller, Allie Kleber, Braden D. Lamb, Cathy Leamy, Jackie Lee, Jesse Lonergan, Dan Mazur, Mar-T Moyer, Line O, David Ortega, Shelli Paroline, Adrian Rodriguez, Roho, Aya Rothwell, Katherine Roy, Adam Syzm, Laura Terry, Jason Viola, Rebecca Viola, Katherine Waddell, Ryan Wheeler, and Andy Wong.
November 12th
Comix Talk for Friday, November 12, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 12, 2010 - 10:38
Lots of reviews this week at ComixTalk - be sure to check it all out: Road: A Sordid City Blues Graphic Novel by Charles Snow, Multiplex: Enjoy Your Show by Gordon McAlpin, Guinea PI and Adventures in Cartooning, and mini comics from J. T. Yost.
Lucy Knisley with a personal "It Gets Better" comic. More on "It Gets Better" efforts here.
INTERVIEW: Brian Heater posts part one of his interview with Tracy White.
iWEBCOMIC: Brigid Alverson buys an iPad and blogs about her first experiences with it.
MANGA: Brigid Alverson links to a report that 37 Japanese publishers are working together to set up a North American digital distribution portal for manga.
WE'RE HERE TO HELP M'AM: Susie Cagle comics about working for the U.S. Census.
HYPE: Why have I not seen this webcomic before?!? Comics Alliance hypes American Barbarian, a webcomic by Thomas Scioli. You gotta love the About page description: "A red-white-and-blue-haired hero must defend a post-post-apocalyptic world from the immortal Two-Tank Omen."
EVENT: Super Art Fight in DC on November 17th with art-warriors: Jami “Angry Zen Master” Noguchi, Chris “Impact” Impink, and Brandon J Carr.
November 10th
Two All Ages Comics: Guinea PI and Adventures in Cartooning
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 11, 2010 - 01:00
Sometimes I catch books when they're new, sometimes they slip through the cracks at ComixTalk headquarters. Today I'm covering two comic series for kids: Guinea PI: Pet Shop Private Eye and Adventures in Cartooning.
More Mini Comics from J. T. Yost
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 10, 2010 - 07:00
J.T. Yost is the creator of the Xeric winning comic Old Man Winter and Other Sordid Tales which ComixTalk reviewed in 2009. Today I'm covering three new mini comics he has out this year: It's Dream Time, Snoop Doggy Dogg and two issues of Losers Weepers. All three books are available from Yost's publishing label Birdcage Bottom Books.
November 9th
Comix Talk for Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 9, 2010 - 09:54
Gary has your New England Webcomic Weekend 2 wrapup. Also Faith Erin Hicks is posting on the web a comic called The Adventures of Superhero Girl she's been doing for her local free weekly alt-paper (h/t Journalista) That's like a holiday present early!
HYPE: Do you think you would laugh at a single panel comic about a serial killer? Lee Adam Herold's Chopping Block returns with new comics to show you that in the hands of a talented creator, you'll laugh, dabnagit. The webcomic ran pretty consistently from 2000-2004 with some more limited runs of new comics since than. It really is amazing how Herold can put the most disturbing and creepy scenarios into the comic and still grab you for that laugh.
iWEBCOMICS: Hanvon Technology, a Chinese company, is debuting this week a color e-reader that uses e-ink. Up until now e-ink has only supported black and white display. E-ink has key advantages over LCD (the current method for displaying color) including less battery power consumption and that it is readable in direct sunlight. Sounds promising -- I hope we get to see some examples of how this device handles comics soon.
CRAFT: Dustin Harbin explains how to use the Ames Lettering Guide.
INTERVIEW: Mike Rhode interviews Jamie Noguichi -- creator of Yellow Peril and artist on Book 1 of Erfworld.
REVIEW: El Santo reviews Newton's Law.
MILESTONE: Peter Tarkulich's webcomic Bardsworth turned five years old this past Sunday (November 7th). Bardsworth is a fantasy story about Mike Cosley, a high school nobody who finds a doorway to another world -- in his closet of all places. In this world exists Bardsworth University, a college where magic is taught. Mike enrolls and finds himself amidst elves, fairies, a demon who loves to bake, and a host of usual (and unusual) teenage problems. With about 600 strips in the archives, now is a good time to check it out!
MAILBAG: Troops of Doom features photos of action figures acting in comics. Kraig Furtado's webcomic has almost 300 installments in the archives so give it a look!
Road: A Sordid City Blues Graphic Novel by Charles Snow
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 9, 2010 - 08:00
Road is a new short graphic novel from Charles Schneeflock Snow. It originally appeared as part of his webcomic Sordid City Blues which is a favorite of mine. I've always liked Sordid City Blues -- it's probably suffered in awareness online because of some hiatuses from Snow. There's also it's willingness to acknowledge and grapple with the Christianity of its characters. Anytime an author puts an agenda over telling a good story, whether it's religion, politics or an ideology, well that can just kill the chances of a good story. But incorporating any topic, even religion, politics or ideology, into a story isn't the same as having an agenda above the story. And Snow does not have an agenda, but rather has a number of characters who deal with issues of faith and religion in a pretty honest and interesting way.
Road is one of the better stories from Snow and is very worthy of its book treatment. It's the tale of the very small band Owns Big Mecha doing a short East Coast tour. This is one of those classic -- play small clubs, stay in friends' basements kind of deal -- with the band driving in a van, eating bad food, getting lost and everything that goes along with that. The band does feature three of the main characters from the ongoing webcomic, but Road feels pretty self-contained and I don't think you need any backstory to enjoy it on its own terms.
November 7th
Enjoy The Book: Multiplex In Print
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 8, 2010 - 00:00
Gordon McAlpin is the creator of Multiplex, a webcomic about the staff at a neighborhood theater. I first encountered McAlpin's work when he was creating the short nonfiction comic pieces under the banner of Stripped Books. Those works, although perhaps dated now were a clue that McAlpin had ambitions to create quality work. So I was a reader of Multiplex from the beginning (ComixTalk has interview McAlpin twice, once in 2006 and once in 2008). McAlpin recently put out a book collecting the first year of the webcomic, titled Multiplex: Enjoy Your Show: Book One.
