Author: Xaviar Xerexes

Well I hope you all are as busy making comics as I've been lately not-making-comics and not-writing-about-comics.  Here's the news and hype that fits:

Patching A Hole in the Wreck of the Hiberia
Topless Robot writes about the 10 Ten Need to End Now comic strips in newspapers.  I don't agree with the entire snark in the article but as far as the list goes – yeah all 10 are dead to me.  I know at this point ideas about the newspaper comic page are all about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, but hey, humour me.  Why not group the legacy stuff with the family features in a FAMILY page and then create a new page or two – SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE NEWSPAPER – with a fewer number of larger and maybe, with actual PG level content, comics.  You know, NEW STUFF?  Just a thought…  Related – the Washington Posts blog about comic strips interviews itself about the sad state of newspapers and comics.

BUSINESS
Journalista! linked to this great series of posts on advice for artists on managing their careers.  Useful stuff.  Related – Tom Spurgeon links to this thread which does have a lot about handling (or mishandling) your comics career.

CRAFT
Drawn! links to this blog post about a Speedball book on "Tips for Letterers".

Infinite Comicking
Scott McCloud links to Manmachine by Martin Hekker and notes that it uses Flash to handle it's side-scrolling.  I will be interested in trying it out today.  You know what else does side-scrolling well?  Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life which lets you grab and slide the comic with your mouse button.

YET ANOTHER WEBCOMICS PORTAL THINGEE (Or YAWPT! for short)
The Comics Reporter links to MyComics.de which self-describes itself as a Youtube for comics.

JUSTIFY SOME HYPE
Drawn! recommends the very cute and charming Molly and the Bear comic from Bob Scott.

SMALL SCREENS
Clickwheel has a selection of Alan Moore’s earliest comic-strip creations, titled Future Shocks, available via the Apple iTunes App Store: 

Before Watchmen, before V for Vendetta, before League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan Moore cut his teeth on a series of ambitious and innovative short stories for the iconic sci-fi comic 2000 AD which showcased the talent and genius of arguably one of the greatest comic creators. Developed exclusively by Clickwheel.net and available in 8 parts over 8 weeks, Alan Moore’s Future Shocks has been adapted to enthuse, invigorate and excite the 1,000’s of comic fans who have never had access to these stories before!

Tim Demeter, Clickwheel’s Editor said, “We’ve been waiting a long time to get our hands on this material, and as a comic fan myself, I can confidently say that if Alan Moore is one of your favourite creators, YOU NEED THIS!” Available now, each episode is priced at $0.99/£0.59 so there is no excuse not to be shocked and awed anytime, anyplace!

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Go me – I had a great time sketching and noodling over comic ideas this weekend (iIt’s pretty rare for me to have so much time to do that these days)  And… here’s some updates on the world of comics:

AWARDS
Jeremy Love won a lot of this year’s Glyph awards for his work on Bayou.  Congrats!

INTERVIEWS
An interview with Mike Mignola of Hellboy (yes not on the web but c’mon it’s Mike Mignola!).
An interview with Nick Bertozzin on Iraqi War Stories, running at ACT-I-VATE.
An interview with Miles Grover of Thinkin’ Lincoln.
An interview with Carolyn Belefski of Curls.

JUSTIFY MY PREMATURE HYPE
Art looks nice on 24 Frames/Second.

TOOLS
If Amazon can mess with stuff I’ve bought for the Kindle then I have my doubts as to its long-term success.

COPYRIGHT
Boing boinger Cory Doctorow pens a piece asking why fan fiction doesn’t get the same respect from copyright as critical analysis.

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Today's the last day to enter to win the original artwork to this Journey to Mt. Moriah comic.  Instructions on how to enter (leave comment with your favorite JTMM comic there) there!

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A look back at some of the stories we covered from the world of webcomics:

2008
I mused on the future of comics and links to all of the other news I found worth linking to that day – including the conclusion of Evan Dham’s Rice Boy.

2007
We had a review of the Paranormals and in award news: Brian Fies won the Blooker Award for Mom’s Cancer and Krahulik and Holkins won the UK’s Eagle Award for Penny Arcade.

2006
Artist Onezumi commented on the then-in-the-news Brownstein/Soma story, ByrobotDotNet started up, we updated the list of surviving contestants to the Daily Grind contest (as of 2009 there are still 8 surviving contestants listed – I wonder if anyone is still tracking this?) and links to all of the other news I found worth linking to that day.

2005
David "Shortpacked" Willis announced he was leaving Keenspot.
The 2nd week of our May magazine update went up: a review of Spamusement, an interview with J. Grant and Mel Hynes of Two Lumps, Alexander Danner’s guide to collaboration, a new column from Eric Burns, and a new Welton Colbert comic from Ryan Estrada.

2004
The 2nd week of our May magazine update went up: with a review of Spark Needle and an interview with Gilda Rimessi of The Sinner Dragon as well as columns from Frank "Damonk" Cormier and Jim Zubkavish.  We also had a look at the history of comics syndication.

2003
Eat the Roses by Meaghan Quinn turned 3 years old (I think the last time this was updated was in 2006).
Nominations for the 3rd edition of the WCCAs were almost due.

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What’s the optimal business model for a webcomic?  Is there just one?  Hard to know for sure until someone does more work collecting sales and other revenue numbers (didn’t Gary once threaten to do something like that?) but we can at least talk about different approaches. 

Jim Munroe lays out his approach for his new graphic novel-length comic series, Sword Of My Mouth, which combines printing issue #1 (presumably more for exposure than for profit), digital subscription and pre-orders for the graphic novel:

Sword of My Mouth #1, the first part of the follow-up to my post-Rapture graphic novel Therefore Repent!, is now in stores and this weekend at TCAF. #1 will be the only print edition — issues #2-6 will be digital only, after which the complete story will be collected together and published as a printed graphic novel. So if you’d like to get them as they’re released bi-monthly through this year, you have two options — you can subscribe to the complete series in a digital format for $6 or pre-order the printed graphic novel for $12 and get a free subscription to the digital issues as well as some other goodies.

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I read my "regular" webcomic list through piperka.net but when I feel like trying something new I often look to sites that seem to be a cross between old-fashioned artist collectives and print anthologies.  Zuda, regardless of its contest hook, is a great place to check out lots of new stuff, ACT-I-VATE is also regularly pulling in new comics (as well as updating many existing ones) and Top Shelf 2.0 has some nice stuff as well.  There was a good review of the many great webcomics that have appeared at Smith Magazine’s website, including A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld and the more recent Next Door Neighbor project.  There is also always new stuff at Dark Horse’s MySpace Webcomic anthology, including a two-page Sinfest special this month.

Anyone want to throw out their current favorite spots?

REVIEWS
Cory Doctorow reviews the print collection of Dinosaur Comics.
Delos reviews The Horrible Pirates.
El Santo reviews Glam.

INTERVIEWS
A podcast interview with Kate Beaton and other artists at the recent TCAF in Toronto.

BUSINESS
Sean Kleefeld has a post on the potential fragility of Diamond’s future, given it’s heavy reliance on the business of Marvel and DC.

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Another webcomic from the Whitechapel thread – Nathan Sorry by Rich Barrett is a gripping little tale so far (only 13 pages).  Hard to nitpick really – the opening scene in the Phoenix airport on the day of 9/11 could have been a little tighter in places I guess (but just a little).  Otherwise I like the art, nice dialogue, pacing (with the small nitpick above) is good – Rich Barrett is good with a beat.  Here’s some more from the about page:

A missed flight on the morning of 9/11 leaves Nathan Sorry with $3 million and the chance to be someone else. Two months later a stranger named James Goode shows up in a small town in North Carolina and changes the lives of a handful of residents.

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Mitz’ Plan B is one of the first (the first?) webcomics plugged on Warren Ellis’ webcomics thread at Whitechapel.  It is a great find — fun art with a good twist on superhero stuff.  Veronica is a super-villian with motivations.  So far it’s just good stuff – good pacing, nice dialogue, plausible world-building in it.  I WISH Mitz would set up a proper webcomic-style navigation for this, but that’s my one quibble.

Definitely worth checking out.

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COLLECTIVE ‘LECTIVE
TNPPress launches (it’s a reboot of The Noir) — a webcomic collective and community.  Live long and draw good comics!

INTERVIEWS
Comics Worth Reading interviews Gina Biggs of Red String.
Comics Worth Reading interviews Kevin Church of snarky blogging and the comic about a comic book shop, The Rack.
Chris Irving interviews Joe Infurnari of The Process and Ultralad.

BUSINESS
I read Sean Kleefeld’s description of also-ran comic book distributor Haven and I don’t think anything he points to justifies the optimistic tone he takes.  The one thing that’s very true about comics is how easy it is to set up shop in comics.  It means it’s easy for a couple of people to start a business and get noticed.  It doesn’t really say much about the actual viability of the business plan.

JUSTIFY YOUR OWN HYPE
Warren Ellis invites webcomic creators to pitch their work to his vast hordes of readers.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Blake Chen’s The Twiight Lady looks interesting — about a year’s worth of archives right now.  Self-described as "Twilight Lady is about an immortal soul trapped in the prison of the body." It’s got poseur-style artwork going on – a little stiff at times but overall I didn’t find it too problematic.  At a point where it seems like Chen is catching a good groove with the work and worth checking out.

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