Author: Xaviar Xerexes

I finished loading all of the monthly cover art we ran at ComixTALK from 2003 to 2009 in yearly photo albums at ComixTALK's new Facebook page.  I have mixed feelings about dropping that from the site design in 2010 – especially after looking back over all of the great comickers that contributed to the series. In any event – if you are on Facebook, please "like" the ComixTALK Facebook page.  Thanks!

After all of the news yesterday it's a bit slow so far this morning:

OPINION: A Gene Yang comic comments on a recent WSJ article on "Chinese Mothers".

REVIEW: Tangents reviews Dumbing of Age by David Willis

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

• Should you work for free? This chart should help but if not at least you'll laugh.
• You can search for Calvin and Hobbes comic strips by their transcripts here .

NOT WEBCOMICS BUT PRETTY COOL

It's from last month but CMYKiller is always in the haus:

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SOCIAL MEDIA TIME: This week I created a Facebook page for ComixTALK – if you're on the FB, please "like" us.  I've already loaded to it a lot of my archive (2003-2010) of photos and the monthly cover art we used to run at ComixTALK.  Also – I find myself linking to more short stuff on twitter these days – you might find it mildly interesting to follow me on twitter. 

CONVENTION 'VENTION WHAT'S YOUR INTENTION: Zach Weiner has a post up on "convention tips" which is actually pretty funny. Hopefully you're not guilty of any of the "bad" behaviors noted but if any of it sounds like you, take Zach's advice next time you're at a con.

ADVICE FOR THE YOUNG AT HEART: Steve Napierski with some good advice on starting and sticking with a webcomic.

PLUG ONE: Scott M.C. Cloud links to Ryan A's Nothing is Forgotten – a silent comic with "some pretty effective sequences (I especially like the way he uses windows)."  Ryan A also has some info on his process here.

PLUG TWO: Scott Kurtz moved to Seattle, Washington.  The characters in his webcomic, PvP, now look like they will be moving to Seattle.  How often does this happen in comic strips — I'm not sure I can think of any other examples offhand.  In PvP's case, I've never thought of it as taking place anywhere specifically though so I'm not sure it has to have any impact on the strip. In other comics the location is more apparent and part of the comic — changing locations could be a really risky thing.

PLUG THREE: xkcd with some excellent advice for Ke$ha.

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It's all over the intertubes this morning — Drawn & Quarterly announced that it had acquired the rights to publish a hardcover version of Kate Beaton's work. Congrats to Kate Beaton. Given Beaton's enthusiastic fan base I suspect that the odds are really good D&Q will have a huge success with this.

Full press release follows:

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Borrowing from the marketing jujitsu of Machine of Death, the Foglios have urged fans to buy TODAY the new (text) novelization of Girl Genius titled Agatha H and the Airship City — if they sell a lot of books today it should draw the attention of buyers at independent book stores, and also push it up the rankings at Amazon.com.

January 12 is Kaja's birthday, and it's also our self-declared Girl Genius Day! We're hoping you'll do something suitably mad and/or steampunkalicious for the occasion.

I also saw that Scott Kurtz wrote a nice post in support of the plan:

Today is Girl Genius day. And everyone reading this should celebrate.  For those that don’t know, Girl Genius is the amazing steampunk webcomic by Seattle based cartoonist Phil and Kaja Foglio. The couple recently published a prose novelization of their work called Agatha H and the Airship City. And tomorrow is the day they hope you buy it.The idea is that, if a lot of people buy the same book on the same day, it will help get them noticed by the buyers at your local independent book stores, and also push us up high in the rankings at sites like Amazon.com. High sales rankings definitely help raise awareness of the series.  Tomorrow is also Kaja’s birthday. And buying the book would be an amazing gift to her.

Scott also mentions that Phil and Kaja are doing a book signing in Seattle at Ravenna Third Place Books (6504 20th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 9815).

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Self described as the "Greatest Live Art Competition in the Known Universe", Baltimore's own SUPER ART FIGHT returns to The Ottobar on Friday, January 21st, 2010 for the latest in their absolutely amazing live events – SUPER ART FIGHT 9!  Super Art Fight 9 combines a full card of four bouts with two stunning musical acts. Appearing live on the Ottobar stage that evening as musical guests are the japanese action comic punk trio PEELANDER-Z, and the video game music stylings of local favorites RARE CANDY.  

Presented on the canvas that evening will be the following bouts:

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I'm burrowed into the X-cave awaiting another edition of SNOWPOCALYPSE_tm here where people raid the stores for eggs and toilet paper and drive like this guy.

WE ARE THE WORLD: Lora Innes writes that the Comic Creators Alliance has returned this year to raise money & awareness for National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. The Comic Creators Alliance is a group of over 100 comic book creators (both web and print!) who all contributed art that was assembled into a single image to raise money and awareness for this cause.  The group raised 10,000 dollars in 2010 — with more creators involved this year I hope they can raise even more money.

DEBUTING TODAY: Doug TenNapel (Earthworm Jim, Iron West, Ghostopolis) has launched a webcomic, Ratfist. There's only one comic up so far, but you can see the experience of TenNapel in deftly setting up an initial premise all at once.  The coloring is also looking good – it's by Katherine Garner.

NEW YORKER REMIXED: Assuming Tumblr isn't down today check out The Monkeys You Ordered which pairs literal punchlines with New Yorker cartoons (the same concept as that literal version of the Take On Me video).  It's often a funny result, even if it's more funny strange than ha-ha-ha.

MORE, META NEILJAM: Neil Fitzpatrick writes that his Neil Jam comic strip is making the jump to three new strips per week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I’ve been doing this series of strips for over two years now, and am excited to step it up a notch in the new year. Recently, I grew tired of the antics of the characters in my comic strip and decided to enter the strip myself in order to shake things up.  Adjusting to life as a comic strip character has not been easy but I feel it was the right thing to do. 

REVIEW: Tangents reviews Eerie Cuties – Gisèle Lagacé's other webcomic.

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One of my favorite internet-y t-shirts is still David Malki!'s "The Revolution Will Not Be Telegraphed" – for some reason my brain was stuck on variations of that all weekend.. "The Revolution Will Not Be Conveyed Via the Blades of the Semaphore Line!"  "The Revolution Will Not Be Transmitted Directly Into My Brain Via iBrain" Well you take it from there…

Also heads up – talented comics creator Gene Yang has a new website and blog.

INTERVIEWS

• Tom Spurgeon has a great interview with Jamie Hernandez. Coincidentally, I've been reading the big Locas I and II collections of his Love & Rockets work.
• More of The Daily Cross Hatch's interview with Tom Hart – part one and part two.

HYPE

• Change is good and Danielle Corsetto looks to be mixing things up again for the cast of Girls With Slingshots this year. Today's is pretty funny.
• I demand George Lucas hire Kevin Smith to adapt Nate Beaty's Life As A Wookie as the next Star Wars movie…
• A series of sketches from John Allison – I actually like his looser, more dashed off work quite a bit although it only emerges in tiny bits in his finished comics.

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First Run Publishing is publishing a print collection of Darryl Hughes' and  Monique MacNaughton's webcomic, G.A.A.K: Groovy Ass Alien Kreatures.  The webcomic ran for six years and was nominated for a Glyph Comic Award in 2007.

When a meteor crash lands on the outskirts of a small suburban town called Eden'sVille, it brings with it the kooky maniacal alien Gakk and his army of "Acme Instant Alien Kreatures" for a not so friendly visit from outer space.  Four misfit teens: geeky Zach, tomboyish Jemmy, genius nerd Plato, and wisecracking Chubs-set out to stop the invasion, save the world, and show the aliens that the kids of america don't take crap from nobody — and no body snatchers, either.

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Brainstorming a new title for the daily spotty updates I've called "Comix Talk" the last couple of years.

To me, one of the most not-covered stories of last year was the "upgrade" of Comicspace.com to the wordpress platform and it's seeming abandonment to spam. Along with the total absence of any significant announcements of new products, services, etc from the corporation Comicspace last year (please correct me if I'm forgetting anything) I'm not surprised to see a blog post like this one from Reinder Dijkhuis on getting out of Comicspace.

2010 IS SO LAST YEAR:  Susie Cagle has a series of comics on 2010 in review: part one, part two and part three.

HYPEY McHYPE:  Get a look online at Justin Madson's eerie dystopian future comic series, Breathers at MTV Geek. I'm a big fan of this and have bought all of the books so far.

DEAD TREE WALKING:  Tyler Page, creator of Nothing Better, has been posting about his (self) publishing experiences. At the end of last year he posted part 4 which covers dealing with Diamond (catch up on Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3).

INTERVIEWS

• An interview with Todd Allen, writer of the webcomic Division & Rush and sometime analyst of webcomic economics.
• Laura Hudson interviews Emi Lenox on the release of the dead tree version of her journal webcomic EmiTown.

HOW LONG UNTIL AMULET 4: Kazu Kibuishi posts that he's in the final push on Amulet 4 (yay!) and he posted a photo of his studio set-up.  These kind of photos can be pretty interesting — especially when you're in despair over your own shambles of a workspace (like… me).

COME OVER TO THE WEBSIDE: One of my favorite cartoonists Alex Robinson has writer's block. He blogs about it from time to time – part three from December entails a plan to just write a story. He also asked about publishing it online and there's a good discussion in the comments there. Before that he linked to an idea of using "100 themes" to generate ideas and work. His newfound discovery of the board game Settlers of Catan is probably not going to help with his productivity this year 🙂

AROUND THE WEB IN 80 BLOGS OR SO

• Check out Jon Morris' drawing of the X-Men over at the Cornered blog. It has a fantastic marker style to it.
• Creepy horror comic preview trailers up for The Boy With Nails for Eyes — chapter two is due out next week.
• Jake The Evil Hare debuts next week on Wowio and Indyplanet.  The product of genetic experiments, Jake is an ornery jackrabbit with a past full of violence and bad behavior. Determined to turn over a new leaf, Jake sets out to become a superhero.

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I drew more sketches of webcomic characters yesterday, but so far resisting the urge to post everything I doodle this year.  Instead I'll link to Chainsawsuit which combines the anthropomorphication of time with counting down the days until the Olsen twins are legal.

ADVICE FOR THE YOUNG AT HEART: This time some advice from comic creator Rina Piccolo about happiness, money and creative freedom.

COPYFIGHT:  Another look at what's missing from the public domain in the United States this year because of the continued increases in copyright term lengths.  I'd love to see links to similar posts for other countries as well.

SHE'S CRAFTY: Gordon McAlpin posted this two part series last year on how he does the hand-drawn versions of his webcomic Multiplex — part one and part two.

LAND OF THE GIANTS: Whitney Matheson reports that Jim Woodring will debut his giant steel dip pen, January 9th in Seattle, WA.

YES BUT WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION: The Inkygirl blog is running a writing challenge to help motivate aspiring writers — would a comicking challenge work equally well?  

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