Author: Xaviar Xerexes

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!

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Have fun at Webcomics Weekend Gary.  Here's hoping there's a WWIII (the webcomic kind) so maybe I can make it next year…

INTERVIEW: Wow – an absolutely fantastic interview with Berke Breathed by Mike Russell of CulturePulp today.  Long, but totally enjoyable with some revealing comments from the creator of Bloom County, Outland and Opus.

BUSINESS: Bill Roundy has two posts up with lots of numbers on his sales of his books at conventions (part one and part two).  Roundy is a nice guy – I met him at SPX around 2005 I think.  Definitely interesting to read through although he's very much got a lo-fi art, mini-comic approach and I don't know how much extrapolation you can pull from his experiences. (h/t JOURNALISTA!!)

REVIEW: El Santo reviews the anime-influenced and grape-focused webcomic Seedless.

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For some reason Google Reader is showing EVERY entry on every RSS feed (instead of only the unread ones) – if anyone can help me with getting this back to the way it's supposed to work please tell me how!  Thanks.  I'm still busy but one thing that caught my eye this week was the Supreme Court case on videogames which the CBLDF actually has a couple of blog posts up on – one a roundup of news and the other a reaction from new CBLDF counsel Bob Corn-Revere.  Based on questions quoted her, the current Supreme Court seems to me to be much less friendly to First Amendment rights than the Court in the 90's that gave the Internet and the Web the full protection of the First Amendment.  This quote in particular from new Justice Alito describing video games as “a new medium that cannot possibly have been envisioned at the time the First Amendment was ratified” is really quite startling.  Most "mediums" are newer than the passage of the First Amendment, comics included.

REVIEW: This Week In Webcomics reviews MS Paint Adventures.

NOT (QUITE) WEBCOMICS: Lauren Davis has a nice recap of the non-comics anthology Machine of Death reaching #1 for a day at Amazon and what it might mean for webcomics.

MAILBAG

Rick Smith writes about his webcomic Yehuda Moon & The Kickstand Cyclery which tells the story of two guys who run a bike shop and the challenges they face in the store and on the road. Yehuda's the utilitarian advocate; Joe's the go-fast pragmatist. Thistle Gin, a wrench and biking mom, rounds them out.  I'm a fan of Smith's work from his comic Shuck and although I haven't been following Yehuda, it looks pretty good. I'm not really much of a cyclist but that didn't seem to be an issue with enjoying the series so far.

Richard Pulfer writes about his new superhero webcomic called Blue Yonder. Written by Pulfer and Luke Perks and illustrated by Diego Diaz, it's billed as a coming-of-age superhero tale:

Jared Davenport was born to be a superhero. The son of high-flying crime-fighter Albatross, Jared is used to saving the world before curfew as the sonic superhero Blue Yonder. When a mysterious enemy unleashes a brutal vendetta against the Davenports, Jared finds himself on the run in the back alleys of Venture City, with his only allies the washed-up superheroes dwelling on the other side of the tracks. But the enemy is closer than Jared suspects, and he must learn who he can trust before it’s too late.

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?Um Norte Americanos en Estados Unidos? Please remember to vote today.

AWARDS: The WCCAs which lasted for most of this decade as an awards program for webcomics don't show any public signs of resurrection. The long-running webcomic-focused site The Webcomics List started an award last year that they are returning for a second edition this year.  Here's a press release with a run-down on this year's edition.

INTERVIEW: Audio interview with Ben Costa, Shi Long Pang (warning audio starts up automatically).

CRAFT

• Aaron Diaz has another crafty post in his art blog, this one about silhouettes.
• In this video of a panel from Intervention 2010, Hawk discusses some of his photoshop-fu for making AppleGeeks.

MAILBAG!

• Zach Kagin writes about the online debut of his comic Slightly On Center – a three-year long comic strip printed three days a week in local New Haven newspapers. Kagin describes it as "a cross between xkcd and Cyanide & Happiness, ranging from the nerdy to the existential and inappropriate."
• Tommy Phillips writes about the horror in space webcomic The Horror of Colony 6.  Phillips does the art for the comic and he does a nice job so far.

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NOVEMBER? F'r reals? Wow… Okay a short update today – first off congratulations to Kate Beaton on winning Lulu of the Year and all the other Lulu winners.  ABRUPT TRANSITION: speaking of Kate Beaton, she tweeted a pretty obvious TRUE point that apparently led to a reenactment of Crossfire! on twitter.  Anyhow I think Ken Dahl's comic sums it up well (h/t Scott McCloud) and has the benefit of being independently awesome anyhow.

REVIEW: Delos interviews Witch Knots.

INTERVIEW: Bryan Lee O'Malley answers questions about his process.

CRAFT: Benjamin Birdie posts another breakdown of a comic page – he's been doing this somewhat regularly for awhile now.

HYPE: Warren Ellis puts out another call for webcomic plugging at his White Chapel message board.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Kris Straub lays to rest the persistent rumors that he is a gigolo juggalo.

Last but not least please vote in my poll on "how do you read your daily batch of webcomics" – click here to vote and see the results so far.

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I think I mentioned that Dave Roman told me at SPX this year about the print graphic novel of his webcomic Astronaut Academy coming out next year – above is a photo of the cover art.  Also in random early this AM thoughts, I saw this flow chart from Fast Company on how to explain the Internet to a 19th Century English street urchin. Comic or not comic?  Definitely funny though.

INTERVIEW

• Daily Cross Hatch posts the third part of its 3 part interview with Drew Weing.  Weing's graphic novel, Set To Sea, is a great read.

REVIEWS

• Shaenon Garrity reviews Richard Thompson's Cul De Sac.
• Drawn blog gives a short plug to Dustin Harbin's Diary Comics #1 book.
• Robot 6 gives a short plug to Axe Cop, including the upcoming book collection from Dark Horse.

NOT WEBCOMICS

• The Machine of Death (not comics) story anthology reached #1 on Amazon for part of yesterday.  That really is an amazing testimony to the fan base of several webcomics creators including Ryan North and David Malki!.

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Your comic pundit throwdown for the week: Shaenon Garrity serves up 10 Things to Know About the Future of Comics and Larry "El Santo" Cruz responds with 10 Things to Know About the Future of Webcomics.

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Have you bought a copy of the Machine of Death anthology?  

Not webcomics but stories from lots of cool folks including many webcomic types.  Plus illustrations from MANY comic types including Kate Beaton. David Malki! and others have blogged and tweeted all day trying to get this to the top of the Amazon chart TODAY and by gawd they've succeeded – check it out: #1 on the Amazon Best Seller List (time: 2:10 PM EST).  

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