Author: Xaviar Xerexes

Comix Talk for Friday, February 26, 2010

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Art by Vera Brosgol

What a week it was… or was it?!  El Santo posts up a question about "what age of comics" are we in?  I think both in terms of the evolution of digital platforms and explosion of variety of subject matter this decade represented the beginning of a new era.  What to call it though?  Digital is only half the story.

SWIPER NO SWIPING! Two incidents of bad behavior this week – one already rectified.  FLEEN has a writeup of Hot Topic's selling of ripped-off artwork from Vera Brosgol.  I saw bits of the twitter stream on this yesterday and while Hot Topic seriously needs to revamp it's IP review in its process of acquiring product, the "producer" of this shirt was some band. (The Beat has a picture comparing t-shirt to artwork)  Artists ripping off other artists? Not cool guys.  The other big to-do this week was Nick Simmon copying artwork repeatedly from the manga seriesTite Kubo Bleach.  Simmon's publisher Radical has pulled his book for now.

MONEY MONEY MONEY:  Rare comic books sell for one million dollars.  Okay, whatever?  I don't care one way or the other about rare comic book sales — I like to read comics, not collect physical artifacts.

INTERVIEW: CBR interviews Phil Foglio about his current webcomic Girl Genius.  The Foglios are having a donation drive for their colorist Cheyenne Wright who was quite ill (but good news! is recovering).

CONTEST: Raina Telgemeier is having a contest where you can win a copy of her new graphic novel Smile.  Deadline is this Sunday!

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Comix Talk for Thursday, February 25, 2010

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Year of the Rat by Cayetano Garza

AWARDS: The National Cartoonist Society has announced the nominees for the Reubens and up for Cartoonist of the Year are Stephen Pastis (Pearls Before Swine), Dan Piraro (Bizarro) and Richard Thompson (Cul De Sac).  So humor me for a moment — I think comics would be well-served to unite its several major comics awards.  The Reubens, for example, seem to me to be firmly established in the public's mind with the kind of gag a day, four panel serial strip that dominates the newspaper today.  You could easily carve out a number of categories at the Eisner's for serialized comedy strips and just call 'em Reuben awards within that larger program. 

DEAD TREES: The Beat notes that cat garza's Year of the Rat has been collected into a print version.

REVIEWS: El Santo reviews Girls & Sports.  It gets 1 star out of 5.  See El Santo doing the hard work of reading certain comics… so you don't have to.

VIDEO GAMES? VIDEO GAMES! Jeph Jacques draws some funny Mass Effect webcomics.

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New Convention: Intervention

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Intervention Convention, Sept. 10-12

I'm pretty excited about hearing Onezumi Hartstein's news – she and webcomic web-guy Harknell have organized a new convention called Intervention: Your Online Life, In Person. A Convention with Webcomics, Videos, Music, and You. It looks very cool, very webcomic-friendly but also firmly rooted in online, not comic book. 

Intervention is about bringing together the people you read, watch, listen to, and connect with all in one location to party, educate, and appreciate the opportunities the Internet gives all of us.

The only wrinkle is that it's on the same weekend (September 10-12) as SPX which has become quite a webcomic-friendly forum too.  They are in the same general suburban area though (northish of Washington DC) so maybe a lot of people will do both this year (FLEEN seems to think this is possible) — I think it would be well worth it for you to try.

The early guest list is starting off well, in addition to Onezumi and Harknell, there'll be an edition of Super Art Fight and these webcomic dudes:

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Comix Talk for Wednesday, February 24, 2010

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Another short update today…

WOWIO Prez Brian Altounian gives some more details to Sean Kleefeld on further financing plans for the e-publisher.  I did get at least one creator yesterday confirm to me that he did indeed get paid what WOWIO owed with some interest.  As far as I know Altounian is still the President of Platinum Studios, even though WOWIO is corporately separate from that entity now.

NOT WEBCOMICS: Valerie D'Orazio has released a free online copy of her book, Memoirs of an Occasional Superheroine.

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Comix Talk for Tuesday, February 23, 2010

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Well hmm, not a whole shaking this morning I guess.

Interviews: Rick Marshall at MTV Splash Page has a great interview with the guys at Penny Arcade about their new book and a book tour this year.

Conventions: Everyone seems to be writing about the possibility of ComicCon leaving San Diego when its current contract is up – here's the San Diego local newsprint article that kicked off the hype.

BUSINESS?: Sean Kleefeld catches some interesting tweets from Brian Altounian, owner of e-publisher WOWIO including:

Launching MoneyTV campaign for WOWIO today. Part of larger marketing campaign that will put WOWIO on the map just in time to go public.
Feb. 18

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Comix Talk for Monday, February 22, 2010

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Young R.E.M. Meet Old R.E.M. by John Allison

Welcome to Monday! May I direct your attention to a review of several mini comics posted late Friday?  If you enjoyed John Allison's COMIX REMIX of the above photo, you might want to check out the entire series he posted to FLICKR.

REVIEWS: Delos reviews Odori Park by Chris Watkins and El Santo reviews the Xeric Grant-winning Haunted by Joshua Smeaton.

INTERVIEWS: Growly Beast has an interview with Alice Hunt and Tracy Williams of Goodbye Chains.

REMIX: The Webcomic Builder has a lengthy essay on fan-comics; something maybe we ought to relabel "remix comics"?

NOT WEBCOMICS: Kickstarter fund drive for an American Elf videogame?  I'd buy that for a dollar!

INTERNATIONAL:

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Mini Reviews: Lauren Barnett, Kelli Nelson and Trees & Hills

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Secret Weirdo by Lauren Barnett

The one thing minis and webcomics have in common is the DIY spirit.  Make a comic and put it out there for people to see.  Here's some short reviews of minis I've been reading this week from Lauren Barnett, Kelli Nelson, and the Trees & Hills Comic Group.  If you're interested in getting a mini reviewed at ComixTalk, you can find our contact information on the About page.

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Comix Talk for Thursday, February 18, 2010

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The 11 1/2 Anniversary Edition

Pretty quiet today although check out this stunning creative innovation from the newspaper comic B.C.  Wow!  Now that's how you stay hip and current…

INTERVIEWS: Josh Lesnick, creator of Girly, is interviewed by the INTERNET!

REVIEWS: Johanna Draper Carlson has a review of the new mega-Penny Arcade book, The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade.  For all the reasons she's a bit lukewarm on it, I will probably love it.

CRAFT: Nice little tutorial from Jim Zubkavich on the process for a recent illustration he did.

BUSINESS: The Beat reports that Graphic.ly, "a fairly new but bold player in the digital comics distribution field", has announced the acquisition of iFanboy, the popular comics news and information community.  Graphic.ly is in "private beta" — anyone using it right now?

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Comix Talk for Wednesday, February 17, 2010

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Meanwhile by Jason Shiga

DEAD TREES: Scott McCloud writes about a forthcoming project from Jason Shiga called Meanwhile.  I've seen pictures of the original hand-crafted version of this "choose-your-own-adventure" style comic but not the actual artifact.  Shiga is a dang good, inventive comic creator.

Interviews: WebcomicBuilder.com has an interview with Gianna Masetti, the creator of The Noob, a gamer comic set in an MMORPG.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

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