My latest graphic book with author Thom Hartmann, We the People, focuses on the pervasive influence that mega-corporations have on American government, and now I would like to look at a similar situation in comics.
Feeding Snarky on Pitfalls amidst Pratfalls
So this month here at the ol’ ‘Pedia we’re supposed to talk about Politics. I’d note, by the way, that nine out of ten of our readers (a statistic I have generated through the "out of my butt" method) are so utterly sick of politics that they’re angrier now than they were when Comixpedia featured a woman having sex with an iMac as the cover art. Why angrier? Because a certain percentage of the people who decried the iMac-humping-art secretly described it as "funny" or "pretty hot," but absolutely none of those people describe Politics in 2004 as anything but "a miasma of horror and despair the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Great Depression, (which was so-named because we had no Paxil back then) and they get furious the moment the site loads right now. "I don’t read webcomics for politics," they scream. "I read webcomics to get away from politics!"
Well, my own political opinions aside (you guys couldn’t care less, and you’ve heard it all before, and if after the last four years you don’t agree with me, there’s nothing on Earth I could say now that would cause you to do so), I’m intrigued by the metaquestion raised by the topic. "Politics in Webcomics" is less about what individual webcomics espouse and more about how political content — or more broadly, topical content — can be slid into a webcomic effectively. Continue Reading
Well, the column ended last month and yet here we are again. Back. Still here. Whatever. Dragging it out for that last paycheck.
But seriously. Welcome to the first of a two part interview/conversation with Brendan Cahill, where we talk about a whole range of subjects, from webcomics to things tangentially related to webcomics.
Brendan is an old friend an collaborator of mine, and is best known (in the webcomics world) as the creator/writer/artist of the slightly mystical individualist Flash noir comic Outside the Box, at ModernTales. Continue Reading
Webcomics, like most other narrative forms, rely upon interaction and conflict to drive their plots. Fight with your roommate, go out with friends, have dinner with your significant other, argue with a waiter, meet a new boyfriend’s buddies, have lunch with your ex’s new ex, or stave off an alien invasion and save the planet. These everyday occurrences provide a launching point to tell a story, develop a character, or make a point.
When we talk about relationships everyone’s first thought is usually the boyfriend or girlfriend type of attachment. But that’s far too limiting. There are an infinite number of relationship types out there and romantic ones are merely a subset. Family ties, friendships, professional or co-workers relationships, and housemate situations are some of the more common (and most often presented), but every day we interact with all sorts of people in all sorts of ways. Continue Reading
As we roll out the final week of this issue it’s a good time to say thanks to the many folks who have worked hard to create this magazine and website called Comixpedia.
Why now?
Well besides the fact that the September 2004 issue is the 20th installment of Comixpedia, Frank "Damonk" Cormier is turning over the editorial reins of Comixpedia magazine to Xaviar Xerexes (See, I’m already writing in the third person – this EiC thing is going to go to my head!) and in many ways this marks the end of the first chapter for Comixpedia. It is also the beginning of a second act for Comixpedia, oÂne where I fully intend to bring new voices and new features to this project to continue to make it a worthwhile resource for the webcomics community as well as a great read every month. Continue Reading
Feeding Snarky on Language and Art
All written language is visual communication. This seemingly innocuous — even obvious — statement mystifies many who hear it. "I know from language," they say. "It’s verbal. It’s communicative. It’s certainly not visual." Of course, unless someone’s reading the sentences aloud to them, there’s noting verbal about the written word. It’s all ideograms in patterns we’re trained to recognize and manipulate.
And for the cartoonist — or any sequential artist, really — the number of ideograms they have to work with approaches the infinite. It’s what’s heartbreaking about "talking heads" comics, even when they’re great — yes, you can make your point or direct your story or tell your joke with the twenty-six letters of the standard English alphabet, with your figures standing, cut and pasted into four panels, barely showing dynamic motion or range. You can even be brilliant at it (two of my favorite webcomics in that vein are Her (Girl vs. Pig) and Lore Brand Comics). But as dry and witty and pleasant as these comics are, they do not take advantage of the richness of linguistic possibility in cartoon art.
Obviously, when considering "Romance and the Relationship" in webcomics, I’m drawn to those folks who do take such advantage, both in the traditional, glorious palette cartoons enjoy, and in the ways that webcomics break free from the traditional. And that focuses me, in entirely different ways, on Queen of Wands and No Stereotypes. Continue Reading
Come Together
Which would you rather go see, a one-man band or an orchestra? Is a four-piece band just perfect? Was The Who so loud because they were overcompensating for only having three instruments? Is bigger really better? Or do too many cooks spoil the broth? (Should I throw in some more metaphors or get right to the, uh, meat of the matter?)
The point: Most online comics are done by just one person. Continue Reading
On a bustling Friday night at the mall recently, I wandered into the Barnes and Noble to see what was new.
My wife and I set a small allowance aside for ourselves, for fun non-necessities we want to purchase now and then. Not surprisingly, most of mine gets spent on comics and graphic novels. I have a fairly set pattern when I go to one of these massive bookstores, and I was following it to a tee that night despite never having been in to that particular store location. First, I perused the magazine racks, checking out all of the latest Hollywood gossip, video game reviews, incredible toys I wished they would have been making when I was a kid, and of course, the new issue of Wired. From there, I scanned the bargain book tables on my way over to where they keep the computer books. I then proceeded to swear a lot about how expensive all the programming books I wanted were. Once I was done there, my next destination was the science fiction racks, where I would of course find the graphic novels and… manga? Continue Reading
It’s been almost a year since our last effort to measure the webcomic audience. While in a perfect world we would have spent that time developing proprietary measurement tools capable of providing a highly accurate list of webcomic audience numbers this, in so many ways, is not a perfect world. Plus, we spent the development money on Mexican vitamins. But that alas is another story. Continue Reading
One of the things I learned, pretty early on, is that I don’t want people in my space. Maybe a single person, and then only on the grounds that there are certain relationships one can’t easily conduct when one doesn’t let anyone into the house. You can come over for coffee, or for anime, or for whatever it is we’ve decided to do. Then, you will have to get out, because it is my bloody space.
Continue Reading
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