Author: Xaviar Xerexes

What I'd miss?  Here's a few things from the last couple weeks and the Comix Talk mailbag worth checking out

MILESTONES

• Mark Mekkes writes that he's moved his comics, including Zortic, off of Keenspot and set up a new hub for his work.
• Gordon McAlpin's Multiplex hit 500 comics recently and you can now place pre-orders for the Book 1 print collection.

OPINIONS

• Ted Rall is keeping a comic journal of his trip through Afghanistan (fellow traveler Matt Bors is too). The Comic Riffs blog has an article on the preparations and motivations for their trip.
• Did anyone else catch the Femiste blog's call to make the end of the comic strip Cathy a day of celebration?
• You can help decide which comic wins this year's SCIENCE IDOL contest.  Webcomic creator Katherine Sekelsky (aka Reva Sharp) has an entry.

HYPE

• Nina Paley has new webcomic, Mimi And Eunice.  Recently Paley is pretty well known for her animated feature film Sita Sings the Blues, but she's also got several earlier comics projects under her belt including Nina's Adventures, Fluff and The Hots.  Cute stuff – worth checking out. Paley is also sticking with a copyleft license for this work – more details on the About page.
• Nicholas Brendan (who played Xander Harris in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) along with illustrator Rafael Santiago, is launching a webcomic, Very Bad Koalas. It follows the adventures of Avery and Irving, two koalas on the run from the authorities in their 1958 Cadillac El Dorado and "their struggle with addiction." Finally a comic addressing the eucalyptus crisis in the koala community!  Lauren Davis notes that Brendan is the second Buffy alum to write a webcomic; Emma Caulfield, Brendan's on-screen girlfriend, is the wordsmith behind Contropussy.

CRAFT: Comics Worth Reading has a good post on how to break into writing for comics.

INTERVIEW: Battlemouth interviewed Max Huffman of Mocktopus.

MAILBAG

• Andeh Pinkard writes that The Goddamn Panty Brigade is a webcomic about a group of punk girls who are pulled into the amazingly mystical world of aspiring pop idols.
• David Cooper writes that his webcomic Perpendicular Universe has reached its 200th comic.  The comedy webcomic is about the adventures of Steve, Eric and Grizzly.

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Another trip in the webcomic wayback machine:

2009

The secret of Kate Beaton's webcomic origins revealed! The mystery of Shaenon Garrity's self-publishing saga uncovered! Plus links to Brigid Alverson on TokyoPop's online presence and Cory Doctorow on why e-publishing has to be part of a writer's strategy.

2008

I interviewed Clint Hollingsworth (creator of The Wandering Ones) and Barry T. Smith (creator of InkTank).

2007

Lewis Powell began a week of guest blogging at ComixTalk. Among other topics, Lewis wrote about Eric Burn's post on fan appropriation of the ending of For Better of For Worse.

2006

Guest blogger Lisa Jonte wrote about the subtle art of rejection.

2005

We linked to the Journey Into History blog's review of Vir Bonus, the unfinished webcomic from former ComixTalk blogger Giant Panda.  The next day Eric Burns wrote a Feeding Snarky column about pr0n comics.

2004

The manga webcomic anthology site, Wirepop, celebrated its first year anniversary and Keenspot moved its headquarters to Cresbard, South Dakota.

2003

Joey Manley wrote about The Comics Journal forum notice of Drew Weing's webcomic Pup.  I think most of those TCJ-era links are shot (this one is) which is too bad. Drew has posted a not-complete archive of Pup strips at his website,   Be sure to check out Drew's current webcomic and book, Set To Sea and say hi to him at SPX this fall.

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Our esteemed guest bloggers this week are none other than  Brian Moore, Alexander Danner, and Max Vaehling.

Brian Moore is an illustrator and cartoonist based in Massachusetts. His artwork has been published in Boston Globe Magazine, the Boston Phoenix, the Lowell Sun, the Middlesex Beat arts magazine,eWEEK magazine, and on various news and arts-focused websites.  He has received two Massachusetts LCC Grants for his animation work, including the animated adventure serial Teddy & Anna. He was the primary artist on the webcomic Smithson from 2005-2008. His portfolio site is at BrianMooreDraws.com.

Alexander Danner has written many short comics, including Web Cartoonist’s Choice Award winners “The Discovery of Spoons” and “Five Ways to Love a Cockroach.” His most recent project, the novella “Gingerbread Houses,” is illustrated by Edward J. Grug III and published at PictureStoryTheater.com. His comics and other writings can be found via his website.  Alexander is also co-author with Steven Withrow of the textbook Character Design for Graphic Novels, and has written numerous articles about comics for the online magazines Comixtalk and The Webcomics Examiner, among others. He teaches Writing the Graphic Novel at Emerson College, in addition to providing guest lectures on comics and graphic novels to various schools and libraries.

Max Vaehling, aka Jaehling, is a German comics creator and self-publisher. His most notable webcomic is Conny Van Ehlsing, Monster Hunter.  In 2000, Vaehling developed his first web site at dreadful-gate.de. His first regular webcomic was terrain vague (2001-2002), an urban fantasy strip based on then-popular myths about street crime and video surveillance.  In 2004, Vaehling developed a new title based on one of Reception Man's supporting characters, Conny Van Ehlsing. The German series Monsterjägerin Conny Van Ehlsing has been online at German web zineLOA since January, 2005. The English translation, Conny Van Ehlsing, Monster Hunter, was first published in early 2007.

August 23rd: Steve Troop, and Sam Costello

August 30th: Brandon Carr, and Scott Story

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Time for another trip to the webcomics wayback machine:

2009

I reviewed Kazu Kibuishi's AMULET 2: The Stone Keeper's Curse.  Book three of the series is due September 2010!

2008

I interviewed Peter Donahue of the innovative webcomic Pear Pear.

2007

I linked to a FLEEN post about the beginnings of the now-shuttered Zuda portal from DC Comics; and I wrote about Scott Adams mentoring of webcomic creator Scott Meyer.  Plus, Tim Demeter wrote a guest post for us on BUSINESS TIME!

2006

I wrote about the now-deceased Top List at ComixTalk — while at one point toplists seemed to be a fairly active way for readers to discover and share webcomics, it seems now that they've faded in importance compared to social media and other aggregating technologies and sites.

2005

Marvelous Patric wrote about moving his webcomic Freaks N Squeaks to the Webcomics Nation hosting service.  At the time, many webcomics were actively experimenting with subscription strategies and Patric was no exception.

2004

Dedos wrote about the then now webcomic-hosting service, Comic Sherpa, offered by Comics syndication site, uComics.com.

2003

hobounicorn wrote about a Texas court decision that all comics are for kids.  I think things have probably gotten better since than, particularly online.

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A big thanks to everyone who volunteered to do some posting while I'm galavanting around this month!  This week we have three guest bloggers:

Daniel Potter is a mild mannered vascular biology researcher by day and a slightly deranged writer at night.  He blames this unlikely combination on the fact that his right and left brain have filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences and are seeing other people.  Due to the quirks of biology both halves remain in Dan’s head where they are frequently heard shouting at each other by his loving wife. Dan resides in Maastricht, the Netherlands with his wife, two cats, and quarreling gray matter.  To ease tensions Dan has created Walking the Lethe, a comic that asks the question: What happens when you ask a demoness to send you to Heaven?

Amanda Potter is the owner and operator of Fallen Kitten Services and the webmaster for Walking the Lethe.  Amanda is an informational professional (yes, a librarian) who has harbored a not-so-secret love for comics in its various forms ever since reading Asterix and Elfquest as a child. After a long period of “serious” education, Amanda’s husband dragged her across the ocean to the Netherlands where she had no excuse not to pursue a business bringing together a love for comics and a passion for online organization.

Tovias (a.k.a. Ben McCormick) began making webcomics in August of 2003 and made every rookie mistake possible. After six years of attempted webcomic starts and stops, he left his job as a systems engineer and now works full-time on his latest comic, Reality Amuck.  He currently lives in Southeastern Virginia with his wife, five kids, two cats, a studio full of comic books and action figures (“THEY’RE NOT DOLLS!”) where he writes and draws webcomics into the wee hours of the night.

August 16th: Brian Moore, Alexander Danner, and Max Vaehling

August 23rd: Steve Troop, and Sam Costello

August 30th: Brandon Carr, and Scott Story

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Thanks for the replies so far from folks with low user accounts numbers for the then and now story I'm working on.  Still interested in more comments if you're interested in sharing your stories and thoughts.  Also – there's a list of ComixTalk members here which for now shows basic info (including ID#) but I hope to spiff up more as time goes by.

BUSINESS: There has been some hype about the new webcomic Oh, Brother! from Jay Stephens and Bob Weber Jr. because they're backed by King Features and for awhile I didn't really see any big deal about it, but reading the comments to this thread at the Daily Cartoonist, I think the fact that King set these guys up in a very typical indy webcomic type situation is potentially very interesting.

HYPE:  Here's a story about the webcomic Moss by Yoon Tae-ho — so popular in its home country of Korea that a movie version has already been made. (h/t Comic Reporter).  Tae-ho's current webcomic is called SETI and is available here.

REVIEW: Lauren Davis reviews Sam Costello's Split Lip Volume 2.

NOT WEBCOMICS: Jamie Noguichi has a kickstarter project for PuppyCow, a new toy he wants you to luuuuuvvvvv…

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I suspect posting will be relatively light this month unless I get my act together this week and recruit some more interesting guest bloggers (I'm still open to unsolicited offers to guest blog!).  I started a little work on a story I thought might be interesting if I uncovered anything — basically I tried to contact the first 100 members of ComixTalk thinking I might discover a mix of stories from people who've stayed pretty visible in comics to those whose stories maybe have never been well-covered.  I've gotten a few responses but it's too much work in tracking down folks to take that approach for any larger number of member accounts. (If you have an old account at ComixTalk you're having trouble accessing please let me know — I'd be happy to try to help you out)  So my new pitch is — if you joined ComixTalk (Comixpedia in those days) in 2003 and you're interested in giving me a snapshot of now and then for you in comics (I have some questions I've been emailing to folks; but that's what I'm after) please email, comment here or tweet me. 

MILESTONES

• Lauren Davis writes about the ending of Bellen! by Box Brown — sounds a bit Newhart-ish to me!
• Spwug writes about the ending of Dreamless, a webcomic they thought stopped a bit suddenly.

HYPE

• Raina Telgemeier has a new short webcomic up called Can I Try An Eskimo Pie?
• John Allison with the definite version of The Hulk!
• Darryl Cunningham writes another well-done journalistic comic — this time a debunking of the "moon landing was faked" story.

INTERVIEWS

• Brigid Alverson interviews Phil Foglio, on recent new projects involving his webcomic Girl Genius.
• Deb Aoki interviews Bryan Lee O'Malley.
• The Webcomic Factory runs an interview with Ivan Cortez, the artist on the webcomic, The Gentlemen’s Club.
• Tim O'Shea has an interview with MK Reed.

CONVENTIONS: SPX announces that Dean Haspiel and Kate Beaton will be guests this year.  Between SPX and Intervention that is going to be an epic comics weekend in the DC area. 

MAILBAG: I got an email from creator Lee Leslie about the webcomic RiGBY, an Epic Webcomic about the Tales of an Amateur Barbarian.  RiGBY follows the adventures of the titular hero as she navigates a world of reanimated skeletons, warriors on dinosaurs and savage snake-men.  Leslie describes the webcomic as combining "the fun world-building of high fantasy stories like Lord of the Rings or Conan the Barbarian with a fun and relatable protagonist.  Basically, she’s the love child of Indiana Jones and Red Sonja.”

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Good news for the Friends of Lulu organization, Valerie D'Orazio's public plea for help has led to the assembling of an unofficial board to assist her in righting its ship.  

MILESTONES: Questionable Content hits 7 years of comics on the intertubes.

Interview: Newsarama interviews Ethan Nicolle of the webcomic and soon to be Dark Horse book, Axe Cop.

REVIEW: El Santo gives Tim Buckley's Ctrl-Alt-Del a massively complete review, worth reading no matter what your opinion of Buckley's work is.

CONVENTIONS: This year's visit by Fake Stan Lee to the SDCC is as funny as last year's and includes (at about 2:42 in) a visit to the PvP booth:

MAILBAG: Peter Fairfax writes about his webcomic Valentines Dei, which is a futuristic detective story with a gritty feel.  Fairfax is a bit raw still with the writing and artwork but it's not so rough that the comic doesn't work.  It starts a bit slow, but Fairfax has packed a lot of ideas into the concept — it's not a huge archive (it started this past February) so if it sounds interesting, be sure to check it out.

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Are you a ComixTalk member with a user account from 1-100? Tweet or email me if you want to help with a now and than webcomic story.  (Click on edit to see your user account number — URLs looks like this comixtalk.com/user/#)

UPDATE: 100 was a bit limited — I'm looking now for any interested folks who have a member account dating back to 2003 (the first year of the ComixTalk site).

UPDATE TWO: Click over to this new page to sort through ComixTalk's members with info on ID# and when folks joined.

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You know what — a big thanks to Journalista!, The Comics Reporter and Comics Worth Reading for all of the great reporting they do.  Almost every dang morning I find something interesting to read at those sites.  Speaking of which, Tom Spurgeon posted a note this morning from Ted Rall — Rall is beginning his latest expedition to Afghanistan with fellow cartoonists Matt Bors and Steven L Cloud along for the ride.  Safe Travels!

MILESTONES

• It's the 10th anniversary of Narbonic. Congrats to Shaenon Garrity!
• The System reaches 400 comics. Congrats to Roscott Nover!
• Reality Amuck reaches 100 comics.  Congrats to Ben McCormick!

HYPE: I'm looking forward to MK Reed's Americus (scheduled for publication by First Second  in Fall of 2011) and excited to hear that it will be serialized online along the way.  The comic is drawn by Jonathan Hill. (h/t CWR!)

MAKING IT

• Sam Costello pens another edition of his column at iFanboy on independent comics.
• A talk by Gene Luen Yang on breaking into comics:

COPYFIGHT:  I'm no expert on the Neil Gaiman-Todd McFarlane litigation but Maggie Thompson's write-up of the latest phase is an interesting practical example of the notion of derivate work.

REVIEW:  Tom Spurgeon reviews Mike Dawson's Troop 142 which Dawson is serializing online here.

INTERVIEW:  Good Comics For Kids blog has an interview with James Kochalka from SDCC (there's a whole bunch of videos from the GCFK blog there too):

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