Amy Kim Ganter has announced that she will halt production on her webcomic Reman Mythology, but adds that she has no intention of abandoning the story. She hopes to eventually make a completely redrawn print version. Continue Reading
Sony has finally released the PSP 2.0 firmware update for North America. The most important features, for webcomic creators, in the update is probably the web browser and the support for gif, png, tiff and bmp picture formats. Continue Reading
Tom Spurgeon points to this Wired article on manga for cell phones. The land of the rising sun seems to have an impressive lead in the handheld content department, not that strange when corporate behemoths like Sony Pictures Entertainment is in the mix.
Sony Pictures Entertainment will almost triple the number of comic books it formats for viewing on mobile phones, making it the No. 1 provider of ‘manga’ for Japanese turning to their handsets for entertainment.
The move means Sony will offer 300 titles, compared to less than half that figure combined by top rivals NTT Solmare and Toppan Publishing.
Australian newspaper The Age has slightly more info on the news (free subscription required *cough*bugmenot*cough*). Continue Reading
NYC2123 is a graphic novel formated for the PSP. The first issue is available as a download now, with the second coming in September.
Water Media offers a 216 page graphic novel and a 32 page comic as free PSP downloads. You can also buy the comics in the old fashioned “dead tree” versions. Continue Reading
PC Weenies has annouced Club PCW. For a membership fee of $12 a year, members will have access to bonus material and discounts. The idea of creating premium clubs seems to be more and more common among webcomics.
HER! [Girl vs Pig] is back from a month hiatus with a new look and new website. Chris Bishop has also made an invitation for guest strips to help celebrate his birthday on September 8.
Midnite Comics has let us know that they have launched a new “Midnite Mini” comic entitled Dead Man’s Chest. And it has pirates in it, Arrrr.
Update: Garrr, T “Cutthroat” Campbell points out that I must’ve looked too deep in me cup o’ grog as Dead Man’s Chest won’t actually be available until the end of the month.
Gamecloud has an interview with Mike Fehlauer, full time employee of the Penny Arcade corporation, about the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).
And to wrap things up, Squid and Ink appears to be an upcoming new comic magazine featuring primarily webcomic creators. Continue Reading
First a NY Times article and now slashdotted. Both webcomics in general, and some webcomics in particular, are certainly getting attention as a result of the article.
Joey Manley has also written a short piece on the whole thing worth reading over at the Talk about comics blog.
Webcomics keep making the headlines, this time the Oregon Daily Emerald writes about webcomics.
Shaenon Garrity (Narbonic) and Roger Langridge (Fred the Clown etc.) will be contributing a story to the Marvel Holiday Special 2005.
Derek Kirk Kim has revealed a tentative title for the graphic novel in progress that we reported about last week, Healing hands. A new character sketch is also available.
The Sony PSP 2.0 firmware upgrade, which is intended to be (or has been?) released in North America this week, will include a webbrowser and some comics are already getting prepared. Scott Ransoomair’s VG cats is now also available formated to suit the PSP.
Finally, a quote from Alexander Danner on the hotly debated NY times article that uses his and John Barber’s The discovery of Spoons as an example of comics that verges on the animation.
To say that our use of animation risks turning the comic into an animation is akin to arguing that Star Wars verges on being a book because it opens with a chunk of text.
The New York Times has an article on webcomics entitled Comics Escape a Paper Box, and Electronic Questions Pop Out (free registration required).
The article starts by refering to Scott Mccloud’s Understanding comics and Reinventing comics and Gary Groth’s (The comics journal, Fantagraphics) rebuttal to it. It continues by mentioning ways to find webcomics, the Webcartoonist Choice Awards and a number of webcomics who won awards this year. The article also has a paragraph dedicated to the trouble of making money from webcomics.
Unfortunately, the writer focuses almost exclusively on what she perceives as the negative aspects of online comics and the idea of infinite canvases. Few, if any, advantages are mentioned.
But when it comes to the content of Web comics, Mr. Groth was right. The comics that use digital technology to break out of their frozen boxes are really more like animated cartoons. And those that don’t are just like the old, pre-digital ones, without the allure of the printed page and with a few added headaches for reader and creator alike.
Digging through the threads in the Talk about comics forum might now and then yield something of interest, such as this post by Joey Manley on the progress of WCN subscriptions and goals, found in a thread comparing WCN with mp3.com:
If we can get to 100 paying customers (we’re in the mid-fifties now, after a couple of weeks), I will be making enough money to quit my consulting gigs and work full-time on webcomics.
Ryan Estrada has passed the half way mark on this 168-hour comic week. I suspect that the second half of the week will be significantly more difficult than the first one though.
Comic book publisher Viper comics seems to keep an eye on webcomics. They ahve published works by Kazu Kibuishi’, Otis Frampton’s Oddly Normal, and Les McClain (nominated for an Eisner award for Best digital comic), and is hosting Wes Molebash’s webcomic You’ll have that. Now they have added another webcomic to the site, The Horrible Pirates updates mondays. Continue Reading
Yesterday the story broke about Kazu Kibuishi’s deal with publisher Scholastic for two graphic novels, the first one scheduled for a 2007 release.
But Kibuishi is not the only one with a graphic novel in the works. Derek Kirk Kim has also announced that his next graphic novel will be released in 2007. It will be published by FirstSecond Books, which appears to be a brand new graphic novel imprint to publisher Roaring Brook Press. Kim has posted a sketch of the main character on his website, and promises more sketches and sneak peaks to come. Continue Reading
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