Author: Xaviar Xerexes

Working on a few interviews – probably will have them set for Sunday night/Monday morning posting.  Here’s what I found interesting reading this morning:

THE WORK
Mark Waid has an interesting column on talent, personality and deadlines.  The key takeaway being don’t sacrifice work for the sake of deadlines.  It’s at least worth thinking about even if it’s not always applicable to every situation.

TECHNOLOGY
Scott McCloud has a post on Microsoft’s Infinite Canvas which is still in "alpha" but McCloud says "it’s definitely worth looking at and playing with."

REVIEWS
Robot 6 has a review of Karl Kerschl’s The Abominable Charles Christopher.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
Lots of folks linked to this article on webcomics in IF: INTERFACE (also billed as THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, COMMUNITY, AND VALUES).

I love it that the Bad Astronomy blog is linking to webcomics with science!  A few recent posts include one on the webcomic The Pain – When Will It End? and one on a recent Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Digital Strips catches the return of Spider Girl in the webcomics – Marvel will have a new series on its Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, beginning April 15th!

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BeaucoupKevin asked for webcomic titles via twitter and he’s been posting quick reviews of them: part one, part two and a promised part three to come.

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Check out our current sponsor – the webcomic Null Knowledge.

INTERVIEW
BusyGamer has an interview with Danielle Corsetto of GWS.

CONVENTIONS
I won’t be at Webcomics Weekend but will you?  Panel and pub crawl schedules up at the website.

COVERS

Mitch Clem and Nation of Amanda ("It takes a nation of Buffys to hold us back") are drawing clever riffs on existing album art for a cover song project called Under the Influence.  Some very cool stuff there.

If you haven’t checked out the Covered Blog get it a look – classic comic book covers redone.  Not all of them are interesting but some really are.

SciFi SyFy Webcomics
New installment of that Star Wars webcomic.  Oh nos – trade discussions will conquer the galaxy.

I’ve seen several blogs point at Runners by Sean Wang which does look pretty good.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

Kent Archer, the Inker on Dr McNinja has a new comic with co-creator Tom Torres called Porterhouse.

Porterhouse follows the trials and tribulations of a struggling comic book artist named Porter trying to break into the comic industry. We follow him on his various endeavors from traveling to conventions, taking on side jobs, and just hating the life of a starving artist. In order to survive the struggles of NY life he earns his living by working the meat counter at the local grocery store.

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A few things on an otherwise slow day:

Today’s the last day to nominate an online comic for the 2009 Eisner Awards.  Go forth and email!

A review of Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody at the NYTimes book blog.  Shirky is writing about how the web moved the world from a "filter-publish" model to a "publish-filter" model.

The Daily Cartoonist has a post on a seminar on self-syndication scheduled for this Fall that Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary will be a part of.

And I’ve still got a sponsorship slot here open and if you’re interested I’m on Twitter at twitter.com/xerexes.

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Ever wondered about what might have happened to Calvin after Calvin & Hobbes ended?  Gerry Canavan rounds up some interesting comic visions of Calvin-future he found out there on the webs.

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REMINDER! Eisner Nominations Due This Friday.  Online creators — you can nominate yourself.  Don't be modest folks – if you've published online an outstanding body of work last year — put in a nomination.  It's an easy process to do and the judges can't pick something if it wasn't nominated.

CONVENTIONS
I guess it wouldn't be a webcomics weekend without the t-shirts.

REVIEWS
The Daily Cross Hatch reviews Derek Kirk Kim and Gene Luen Yang's collaboration, The Eternal Smile.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
From the Strange Maps blog comes a comic called "World War II: If Maps Could Fight".

BUSINESS
Comicspace CEO (co-CEO?) Joey Manley has a post with some examples of webcomic creators splitting from more corporate publishig arrangements.  A ha! He's suggesting webcomic creators may be better of without traditional arrangements in favor of D-I-Y. But wait, then he notes that other creators have left one publisher for an even bigger publisher.  So maybe it's not so clear?  Or maybe webcomic creators are all just "anal retentive control freaks and/or crazy egotistical jerks"… I'm picking on Joey a bit if only because he seems to be hedging on making any definite conclusions in his post, but otherwise he is asking the right kinds of questions (and the fact is there are lots of different reasons for why different creators have made different decisions on publishing arrangements in the last couple of years).

HOUSEKEEPING
Also the sponsorship space at ComixTALK is once again OPEN!  If you're interested click here – your ad gets the upper left hand column space and you help to pay for ComixTALK's server bills.  THANKS!

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AWARDS
Red Light ALERT!!! Eisner nominations are due in this Friday.

The best digital comic category is open to any new, professionally produced long-form original comics work posted online in 2008. Webcomics must have a unique domain name or be part of a larger comics community to be considered. The work must be online-exclusive for a significant period prior to being collected in print form. The URL and any necessary access information should be emailed to jackie@comic-con.org.

INTERVIEWS

Neatorama has a talk with LOLCATS cartoonists Adam Koford on his influences. (h/t Journalista)

Newsarama has an interview with Derek Kirk Kim and Gene Luen Yang on their new book – The Eternal Smile – a collection of three stories, jointly created. (h/t Journalista)

Shaenon Garrity interviews Ed Quinby about his webcomic Teregrin.

MARKETING
Aaron Haaland has some nuts and bolts tips on how to host a creator-signing at a comic book store. (h/t Journalista)

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Gary recommends Savannah & Georgia by Eliza Frye.

Lore’s Bad Gods has a funny one today featuring Photoshop Filter Force.

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SexyLosers is back online (*NSFW!!!*) – it was down for awhile.

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If you want to add me to more social network stuff feel free to add my twitter feed.  I’m not on it constantly – more hit and miss at random times throughout the day.

Through the magic of DRUPAL I could let everyone import their twitter feed to their ComixTalk account (like this: http://comixtalk.com/user/2/tweets) but I’m not sure that’s really all that helpful?  If that seemed like something people might want let me know.

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