Blogs
Gaiman's speech at the Harvey Awards
Submitted by Erik Melander on June 28, 2004 - 21:12
Neil Gaiman's speech at the Harvey Awards is available at his blog. A good read, of course, both the general parts that I found quite interesting, but also that he dedicates three paragraphs to the internet and webcomics, specifically R K Milholland's Something Positive.
Enrico Casarosa gets a Pulse treatment
Submitted by Erik Melander on June 28, 2004 - 15:57
Enrico Casarosa is releasing the second issue of his (print) comic "Mia" and Jen Contino at Pulse has asked him to talk about the inspiration for it and his other projects.
Enrico is also the creator of the webcomic Haiku 5-7-5, a "Yakuza online graphic novel of poetic proportions..." as well as one of the contributors to the Flight! anthology featuring several webcomic creators.
It's A Wonderful Life
Submitted by michaelwhitney on June 25, 2004 - 13:33
I'm officially amazed: After only two days, Goats is already halfway to their first goal, with a current total of more than $5,000.
It looks like they'll be able to pay back crotchety old Mr. Potter after all. Remember, Jon: no strip is a failure that has friends.
Sun-Times: Webcomics acting like the RIAA
Submitted by michaelwhitney on June 23, 2004 - 12:50
The Chicago Sun-Times ran an opinion piece on the Comictastic program yesterday. Comictastic is a comic "ripper" that grabs comics from their sites without the advertising, T-shirt offers, etc. and saves them on the user's hard drive.
Pre-Order FLIGHT
Submitted by michaelwhitney on June 23, 2004 - 12:15
The Flight Anthology is available for pre-order on Amazon.
The anthology features original short stories on the "flight" theme drawn by several accomplished Webcomickers and then stained on flattened trees.
You can see a preview of the book, including Derek Kirk Kim's offering, in the conventional electronic format.
Squidi weighs in on the WCCA and PA controversy redevelops
Submitted by Erik Melander on June 23, 2004 - 09:58
Squidi, creator of "A modest destiny", have some pretty harsh words to say about awards in general and the WCCA in specific.
He also mentions that perhaps someone should make a documentary of the controversy he had with Penny Arcade back in december. This was brought to the attention of Gabe, and specificly part of what Squidi wrote got Gabe's attention:
I'm counting the days until Gabe's unborn child grows up to be just like him, and treats him like trash, because I have an innate appreciation of irony and I'm willing to wait for the payoff.
Gabe in turn commented (you have to scroll down quite a bit) on the PA site :
I think that's kind of a fucked up thing to say.
Squidi in turn replied to this not with one, but two blog posts. First pointing out that the quote was taken out of context as well as some thoughts on semantics. And secondly with a retelling of the entire controvery from his point of view.
Goats holds out a hat
Submitted by michaelwhitney on June 22, 2004 - 20:14
It's now solidly in danger of becoming a trend. Goats is the latest webcomic to solicit donations to get the creators out of dire financial straits so that they can keep making comics. On the site, Jon explains:
Basically what Phillip and I have been doing for the last couple of years is "building the business". For those of you who play RPGs, it's kinda like leveling up your character. We've been reinvesting all the money we've made over the last seven years into the business, expanding our line of merchandise, dabbling with advertising and that sort of thing. We haven't paid ourselves one thin dime in all this time.
Like Randal Milholland, they've promised to increase their update frequency if they make their goals.
John Byrne, Webcomicker
Submitted by michaelwhitney on June 22, 2004 - 16:11
John Byrne is trying his hand at a webcomic. Well, it's published on the Web. As he says, it's a print comic that he's sliced up to post.
Still... thanks to the speed of Web-delivered comics, we should only have to wait a few weeks before someone else rewrites the continuity to make the characters less powerful and give them more human foibles.
Things of interest
Submitted by Erik Melander on June 22, 2004 - 11:26
- Hyung Sun Kim has started updating again. The current story seems to be a Kill Bill/Harry Potter mix.
- Vera Brosgol's Return to sender is also updating again. Huzzahs are in order.
- Ian and Matt are accepting preorders for their Mac hall book.
The books are 158 pages, 9 inches wide by 12 inches tall. Imagine one of the later Calvin and Hobbes collections bound on the long side and you have a pretty good idea. The paper is thick and glossy to support Ian's thick slabs of color. I know I'm biased, but it's going to be totally sweet. - Haven't read Scott Mccloud's "The right number" yet? Now is the chance. Apparently Bitpass is running a promotion where you can sign up for free, as I understand it, and get 35 cents to buy stuff for. The campaign ends June 30th
The Art of Adult
Submitted by michaelwhitney on June 15, 2004 - 14:56
In checking out Hard's livejournal to catch up on the latest controversies, I noticed that he recently posted a little bit about his digital process. I love seeing that kind of information in the same way I loved those cheesy Star Wars TV specials where they showed the special effects guys blowing up Tie Fighter models. I like to know how they did that. Every webcomic should post a page with pens, paper, inks, Illustrator, CorelDRAW, PhotoShop, etc ... especially if the final look makes it hard to guess.
Whatever else it's done, the recent salvo of "Sexy Losers" reviews ('Pedia, Tart, Examiner) have given me a new respect for the artists of adult comics. Other strips can approximate anatomy. They can draw three fingers, hide limb joints or show everyone three-quarters view ... but not porn. If porn artists are good, they're great, and if they're bad, they're horrible.
