Author: Xaviar Xerexes

It's Monday already? Over the weekend Warren Ellis asked who else is doing a long form webcomic for print collections a la Freak Angels? – lots of interesting links in the thread.

INTERVIEW: Webcomics Community forum interviewed Lora Innes of The Dreamer.

REVIEW

• IO9 has a review of Shannon Garrity's webcomic, Skin Horse.  For those who missed it IO9 also did a review of Digger recently.
• Art Patient has a review of Integration.

HYPE

• Marc Lapierre creates a nice piece of webcomic zombies fan art. Lapierre's webcomic is called Spooky Doofus.
• Fanboys does a nice Seinfeld/D&D mashup parody.
• Comics Alliance notes the appearance of Kate Beaton's "Fat Pony" character on the teevee series Adventure Time.
• Erin's The Most Pretentious Girl in the World is filled with short essays, many of which are filled with illustrations such that I'm calling them comics. Awkward, honest, funny stuff.

NOT WEBCOMICS: Lines and Colors blog links to this site showing incredible close-ups of works of art. The site – Haltadefinizione – (English version here), is an Italian project specializing in high-definition photography and has made available on the web several great masterpieces in what can be considered extreme high resolution.

MAILBAG

Darryl Hughes (creator of GAAK and The Continentals) writes about a new project Chevalier: The Queen's Mouseketeer.  The webcomic is by Hughes along with Tiffany Ross (Alien Dice, Abby's Agency) and is the story of a blacksmith mouse with the heart of a hero who must rescue a kidnapped Princess in order to stop two kingdoms bound for war and claim his destiny. Hughes describes Chevalier as "The Princess Bride meets the Lord of the Rings in a Disney/Pixar movie written in Dr. Seuss rhyme starring a mouse".

James Randell writes about his most recent comic that parodies several newspapers comics including Mary Worth, Spiderman, Pearls Before Swine and many more.  The comic is part of his ongoing series Newspaper Comic Strip, the tale of an amnesiatic comic strip character who somehow becomes self-aware. Newspaper Comic Strip is written by Randell and illustrated by Justin Pasieka and is resuming updates on a biweekly schedule after a temporary hiatus. 

Continue Reading →

Friday! Awesome! Woohoo!  I hope everyone saw that the Comics Alliance blog has a great interview with Kate Beaton — lots of charming anecdotes in there.  She did in fact have the longest lines of fans at SPX this fall.

REVIEW: El Santo reviews Lovecraft Is Missing. He reviewed a bunch of horror-themed webcomics this week.

CRAFT:  T.J. Kirsch shows off his work process on the webcomic he draws — She Died In Terrebonne (written by Kevin Church).

COPYRIGHT

• Nina Paley writes about confusion over the different types of Creative Commons copyrightleft licenses – a good read.
• Steve Lieber finds his comic posted at the infamous discussion board 4Chan, enters the arena and… wins?  An interesting tale of an actual exchange of views and Lieber's subsequent decision to post his own preview of his work.

Continue Reading →

It is just one of those weeks – next week looks like it might be a lost cause too.  Anyone want a guest blogging spot next week? Have your computer talk to my computer.

In the meantime I wanted to plug Gordon McAlpin's Multiplex book Enjoy Your Show which definitely deserves a full review (hopefully soon!).  When the comic started I mistook it for another comic about movies when all along it's an epic tale about people who work at a movie theater (many of whom love movies).  This is a collection of the first year — some of the art definitely looks like it, but the writing and pacing is already there.  A really well done production of a book too. And look Bryan Lee O'Malley gave it a plug — "Multiplex perfectly portrays the real foibles and friendships of a lousy job with a couple of perks. Also, it looks round and colorful and sweet, like delicious candy. I recommend reading Multiplex over getting an actual job."

One more note — former ComixTalk contributor Derik Badman has a new column up at the Hooded Utilitarian called Permanent Ink.  Please go check it out – Derik is a very engaging writer who brings thoughtful, knowledgeable criticism to comics.

Continue Reading →

Portland gets a lot of ink these days as a comics mecca but I'm always impressed with the work and output of the Boston Comics Roundtable.  It's an independent organization of comics creators in the Greater Boston area created in 2006 to unite Boston-based artists and writers in the spirit of camaraderie and professional development.  The Roundtable recently expanded again, premiering the second issue of its sci-fi anthology, the first issue of its horror anthology, and the development of a new comics trade show, M.I.C.E. – the Massachusetts Independent Comics Show. On October 28th, they're hosting a great Halloween party at Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square.  And… just out is their latest collection of comics in Inbound 5: The Food Issue. This 176-page trade paperback is their biggest volume ever, featuring 26 brand new stories from dozens of contributors. View book cover and samples at bostoncomicsroundtable.com/inbound-5. More from the press release:

The best and the brightest comics creators from the greater Boston area explore our delectable and complex relationship with food. Where does it come from, and what are we willing to do to get it? From the mythological to the historical, the personal to the fantastical – the range of genres is matched by an equally broad range of graphic styles that exemplifies the fun and creativity of today's independent comics. Contributors to Inbound 5 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.

REVIEWS: The Webcomic Overlooks reviews two horror comics: Walking The Lethe and The Sacrifice — a webcomic based on the Left For Dead videogame.

HYPE:  The first chapter, "Track 1: Radio Free Mars" of the new webcomic The Sisters Grimm is done — a good time to jump in and check it out. Also caught this short piece from the University of Tulsa Collegiate newspaper recommending some webcomics.

BUSINESS? Not sure what to categorize this as but Scott McCloud comments on Flattr, the micro-donations system.

MAILBAG

Kit Fox writes "I have been doing a webcomic called Snap Crackle Pop for several years now and I'm trying to get the word out so hopefully some people will read it…. It's a comic about a girl who draws a comic about her life, aided and hindered by a host of demons, dragons, flying pigs, Buddhist goldfish, monsters and mundane chick stuff.  I live in Hawaii, and often sprinkle bits of scenery into the comic."

Twisted Peel by British artist Peter Roy — celebrates the release of its 250th strip this week. The anniversary strip, "Man Flu Revisited" finds Peel, the quirky anti-hero, receiving a palpable lack of sympathy for his illness.

Continue Reading →

Just in time for Halloween season — Chris Cantrell has a new comic called The Deadlys. 

In the I wonder why I don't read every single superhero comic in existence the very funny webcomic Let's Be Friends Again presents the long, complicated saga of Hank Pym: Ant Man, Giant Dude, Robot-Alien-whatever….

THEORY: Dante Shepherd's Surviving The World: Comic or Not-comic?

REVIEWS: Read About Comics blog has a review of Koko Be Good and Sean Kleefeld looks at the self-honesty of Sarah Becan's I Think You're Sauceome.

Continue Reading →

I just wasn't feeling the news this morning I guess… I'll update in the PM though. 

For now be sure to check out the pre-order page for Volume 3 of the horror comic series Split Lip titled "Termites in Your Smile".  I got a chance to chat with Sam at SPX this year and he was a nice guy — hard to believe he actually writes this stuff! 🙂

Continue Reading →

I beg to differ — short weeks make the world go round. The New York Comicon sounded like it was a really good show – I saw estimates of 100,000 plus attendees.  Gary had a write-up here and USA Today's PopCandy blog flagged 5 books it found here.  The Comics Reporter's "collective memory" roundup of stories on the NYCC is here.

A few more stray notes from conventions in DC last month.  I met T.J. Kirsch at SPX this year and bought a couple print versions of A Sam Kimimura Mystery: She Died In Terrebonne — the webcomic Kirsch draws and Kevin Church writes.  Not sure how they're printed but not a bad way to "recreate" an installment feel in print.  Not necessary, but seemed like a nice thing for fans to pick up.  I also got a copy of Kirsch's mini Slim Johnson's Fever Dream which is indeed weird like most dreams are.

At SPX (or maybe it was at Intervention — the creators' label Interrobang Studios was at both) I picked up Ensign Sue Must Die! by Clare Moseley and Kevin Bolk. It's a pretty funny little parody about a Mary Sue character run amuck in the "new" Star Trek universe. I also picked up The Lettuce Girl from Sophia Wiedeman (I interviewed her this year at SPX and ComixTalk reviewed her previous work The Deformitory).  A take on the fairy tale Raphunzel from the witches perspective. And last but not least, Jamie Noguichi gave me a mini called Pandoom about (sort of) real life panda bears Ling Ling and Tai Tai.

DEAD TREES: Last week we learned that Dark Horse has signed up Dr. McNinja to its roster with a book coming April 2011.  Creator Chris Hastings mentioned that it will be Book 4 — he's keeping books 1-3 on Topatoco.

REVIEW: El Santo reviews Sam Logan's Sam & Fuzzy.

iWEBCOMIC: Stories are circulating on the digital comics reader Longbox's deal with Adam tablet maker.

HYPE: Warren Ellis had another tell-me-about-your-webcomic threads at White Chapel. I usually find good links there.

Continue Reading →

Super Art Fight, the self described "Greatest Live Art Competition in the Known Universe", returns to The Ottobar in Baltimore on Friday Night, October 15th for SUPER ART FIGHT 8 featuring a performance from nerdcore legend MC FRONTALOT.

A Super Art Fight is a wild mixture of pro-wrestling and Pictionary, presented as 30-minute bouts pitting artists from throughout the world of comics, webcomics, roller derby and elsewhere.  The bouts start with a set topic given to each artist, and then every five minutes, new topics are given to the artists from "The Wheel of Death", a randomized topic generator, featuring suggestions from fans cultivated at SuperArtFight.com. After 30 minutes, it's the live audience's cheers which choose the victor. 

Continue Reading →

Remember WOWIO – the company that gave webcomics money, than didn't pay what it owed for awhile, than got acquired by Platinum (and then got bought again)?  Wowio's owner Brian Altounian is on a clip from a Money TV show (what channel is this thing on?) saying that WOWIO got a business method patent that has something to do with ads in ebooks. He references it being very broad and mentions Google and Amazon as two companies who he hints will now need to pay him to do the things this patent covers. Interesting.

On first reaction, I find it hard to believe that (a) you can patent something so obvious and (b) no one else has a patent in the same area (which usually means PATENT WAR)…

Continue Reading →

A clip from a teevee show covering Oregon's Periscope Studio where several independents, including Ericka Moen and Dylan Meconis, share space:

Continue Reading →