Columns
The Story of Syndie-rella
Once upon a time… there lived an unhappy young webcomic. It was unhappy, because its webhost mommy was dead, and its daddy domain had decided to marry a giant stepPanda in her stead. When she moved in, the widower Panda brought along stepchildish ambitions, and neither liked the webcomic one bit. Continue Reading
Not too far from where I grew up, just a bit south of Tombstone (“the town too tough to die” – a great tourism slogan) and east of Sierra Vista (“where vacations last a lifetime” – a more questionable tourism slogan, if you take it from the wrong perspective), there is a little town called Bisbee.
Bisbee, Arizona was created initially because of the massive copper mine there, but as that economy diminished, the town began to lure artists therein to create and sell their wares. More and more artists began to flock there, in search of a community that would support their work not only with a pat on the back but with a greenback or two. People that were struggling to make a penny off of their paintings, jewelry, and other creative endeavors were suddenly able to do what they loved and feed themselves and their loved ones at the end of the day. Continue Reading
Licensing: not just for Microsoft anymore?
Last September, Yahoo Japan announced plans to launch an online manga rental system, whereby readers could buy 80-day licenses to read volumes of manga like Astro Boy or Cyborg 009. The licenses would be 360 to 400 yen, which is about three or four dollars (or was when I was in Tokyo last summer, anyway).
It’s certainly one of the biggest commercial webcomics ventures you’ll find: big, big comics in a country that loves it some comics. Continue Reading
Form is Function
Mother Earth speaks, in Her low, rumbling voice: What the world needs now is another Internet column about comics.
Not for the first time, the world turns its eyes to John Barber.
And it is to you, My People, that I give myself.
…
It’s taken me an inappropriately long time to realize and admit this, but… the most important thing about comics on the Internet is distribution. I realize that’s not exactly news to most of you. Continue Reading
Building from the Roof Down
It just occured to me that I feel like making something pretty and warm.
I’ve been in that mood lately. A picture of a cat precariously balanced on something and asleep, near a fire, in a darkened room with maybe a window that showed how cold the world outside is. The cat would have a slight smile on its face. Continue Reading
Draino for the Brain
Ever have those moments when you can FEEL a major gushing feeling inside, as if your brain and soul bladders were ooze-bursting with those five pitchers of creativity you just chugged down last night while watching some TV show, reading a good book, or being out on the prowl with your posse?
Knowing that the dam’s gonna blow anytime, you rush over to your desk, pull out a sheet of instant paper porta-potty (or perhaps you’re more of a Windows WordCrapper 2000-kinda person), unzip your mind to whip out your “ballpoint”, and then…
…nothing comes out.
Welcome to the painful condition known as Creative Constipation. Continue Reading
Games of Wit, Battles of Rhetoric, and the Art of ‘You Suck’
Hey you – yeah you with the nose.
You suck.
No, wait. Wait. Let me try that again.
You suck, like your momma on my d*** last night.
No, no, wait. Still not quite right.
You suck, like your momma on my d*** while your gf was giving her a tongue dive.
There.
Now I feel I have successfully refuted your position on Austin’s stance on the Sense-Datum Theory.
Disagree? Continue Reading
For about as long as I have been doing online comics, I have wanted to try my hand at a 24-hour comic (please visit this page if you are unfamiliar with the concept).
I loved the idea of it. I thought the challenge seemed like something I would enjoy. Most of all, it seemed like a sort of “trial of passage” event that every comic artist worth their salt and serious about their craft would eventually have to pass through. Finally, in November of 2003, I found an opportunity to do one. Continue Reading
There was a comic I used to read in the early 1970s called Werewolf by Night. Next to Batman it was one of my favorites. Werewolf by Night, first issued in 1972 by Marvel Comics, told the tragic story of Jack Russell, whom was plagued by a family curse and doomed to transform into a werewolf with each full moon. One of his later love interests was a beautiful blonde named Topaz. The twenty-something Topaz was psychic, could perform spells and could even tame the werewolf with her mind, but I don’t recall if she was supposed to be a witch in the comic. "Gifted" was the term I remember, however in 2001 the still twenty-something Topaz was teamed with two other "gifted" Marvel girls, (Jennifer Kale and Satana), in a book called Witches. They were more or less the good guys in that comic.
Issue #13 – Fixing the Notion of Breaking In
My first comic book convention was in Chicago back in 1993, when it was still the Chicago Comic Con and not Wizard World. The name change has much to do with why I have not been back since (although the 2000 mile difference between going to Chicago versus going to San Diego from my home in Phoenix is also a contributing factor). They might have renamed it “Ran Over Your Favorite Pet World,” for the title would elicit as favorable a response from me. Still, back then it was still just the good old Chicago Comic Con, and it was the first time I had been exposed to such magnificence as is offered up to a fanboy at such an event. Comics and related merchandise as far as the eye could see, women who left almost nothing to the imagination (and yet imagine many would), and Mr. T on his “Mr. T and the T-Force” tour (he’s so lifelike in person!); yes, it was truly a grand thing to behold. Continue Reading
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