A quick update on the new site design: work continues and I'm hopeful we'll be able to debut it for April.

I'm also carefully thinking through the various functions of the site.  One of the reasons I switched ComixTalk to the Drupal software in 2006 was to open up posting to the readers.  Every registered user of ComixTalk can post a Talk Post without having to go through me or any other editors. 

Many readers of this site also have their own outside blogs though where they write about comics.  I want to make it easier for readers to share such posts with the ComixTALK community.  I've added a function to the site that let's you automatically import into ComixTalk the posts from your outside blog.  If you're already blogging elsewhere and want to share those posts with the ComixTALK community you'll no longer have to recreate those posts here - our site will do it for you.

2007

• We linked to Comics Worth Reading wrap up of the brief life and quick death of the Friends of Lulu "empowerment fund".
• We linked to this parody of Marvel's Civil Wars series (which I didn't read) -- it's still pretty funny.

2006

• I began work on switching the CMS website engine for ComixTALK from Postnuke to Drupal.

2005

• We linked to reports on the creation of the Clickburg Foundation which promotes webcomics in The Netherlands and runs the Clickburg convention.

2004

• We publish reviews of Matt Langfield's and Edward Grug's Charlie Redeye  and Chris Onstad's Achewood.
• I write a bit too enthusiastically about the then still-emerging comics blog-o-sphere.

2003

• The Online Journalism Review wrote about the failure of newspaper syndicates to make a splash on the web.

Had a couple of nervous days there but I've restored the ability to create new posts again so that's good. Everyone should now be able to post blogs, forum posts, etc again. (Clear you're cache if you're getting errors or not seeing new blog posts, etc). For now I've set things so not-logged in visitors can comment but they go in the moderation queue for review before appearing (Once I get Akismet back up and running I'll take anonymous commenters out of the moderation queue).

I've moved the site to Drupal 6.0 in anticipation of rolling out a new theme and some new features - hopefully we'll get some of that done this month. The theme today is sort of a temporary fix as the old theme didn't port to Drupal 6.0 and with a newer theme on the way I didn't want to work on porting the old one myself. If you see weird things with the site today please tell me (include the name of browser in your comment) by posting a comment here or email me (xerexes AT comixpedia DOT com).

Also I probably can't afford it but I'm also upgrading ComixTalk to a bigger VPS package this week and that should help speed the site up. And new articles coming tonight!

COMIXTALK

• Our last article for the January issue is Brigid Alverson's column featuring interviews with rem, the winner of Kodansha’s Morning International Manga Competition for his webcomic Kage no Matsuri, and Eijiro Shimada, the editor-in-chief of the manga magazine Morning Two.
• Be kind to our sponsors: The Human Figure drawing course; Scriptorium Fonts; the novel Darkling and the webcomic The Vanguard.

DEAD TREES

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules continues to garner press and sales. Most of the stories on it I've read note its webcomic origins which is good for webcomics.

INTERVIEWS

• Sequential Tart interviews Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content and Tara Tallan of Galaxion.

AWARDS

• A reminder that nomination ballots for the 2008 Harvey Awards are now online.
• A blog called WebcomicGeek is holding its second annual "Geekies" awards for best art, best writing, most originality and invention and webcomic of the year 2007. They've announced their "shortlist" and are interested in comments on who should win:

Aaron Diaz for Hob

Meredith Gran for Octopus Pie

Rebecca Sugar for Pug Davis

Jenny Romanchuk for The Zombie Hunters

D.J. Coffman for Hero By Night

Evan Dahm for Rice Boy

Nicholas Gurewitch for The Perry Bible Fellowship

Tom Siddel for Gunnerkrig Court

David A J Berner and Harsho Mohan Chattoraj for Shades

Joe Infurnari for The Process

Klio for SPQR Blues

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

• Lee Atchinson continues his series on webcomics at Sequential Tart. This time he focuses on the creators of Penny Arcade and their videogames for kids charity project: Child's Play.

It's the last day of our Karas the Revelation DVD contest and I still have 5 DVDs to give away. So a slight modification of the rules for this last mega-round. The first FIVE registered and logged-in members of ComixTalk to post a comment to this thread that includes "Viva La Revolution!" gets a free copy of the DVD.

These five ComixTalk members have already won (you can only win once!): Shishio; CyberLord; Litazia; Twentyfour; and Lifesabluff. All winners need to send me their name and address for mailing purposes (you can use my contact form by clicking on "xerexes" here on the site).

COMIXTALK MAGAZINE UPDATES

• Lots of articles up this morning to kick off the November issue of Comixtalk: interviews with Howard Tayler, the new Halfpixel crew, comics creator and writer Debbie Ridpath Ohi and comics artist Ramón Pérez; Doctor Haus reviews the webcomic Slackerz, and two feature articles: one from Patric Lewandowski examining the definition of comics, and one from Tim Broderick with advice on writing a query letter to publishers.

BUSINESS

• Todd Allen has an interview with Joey Manley and one of the investors in the new ComicSpace venture.

ZUDA, ZUDA, ZUDA!

• David Gallagher writes about writing for Zuda.
• Brian Hibbs Abhay Khosla writes about the Zuda interface (and something about why webcomics should aim to be more disreputable than the print comics he sells.)
• Paul O'Brien gives Zuda a grade of a C+. Seems early for report cards?
• Highway 62 focuses on the actual webcomics up on Zuda.
• Newsarama has an interview with many of the Zuda creators.
• The Beat has a round-up of posts on Zuda here.

OPINIONATED WEBCOMICS

• The SpinZone webcomics collective picks up its first conservatively-tilted webcomic, Geeks on Caffeine.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

• What happens on the pirate ship, STAYS on the pirate ship
• Debbie Ridpath Ohi updates her My Life in a Nutshell comic with a bit on her ComixTalk interview.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

• Monkey Law goes silent in support of the Writers Guild strike.
• Panels and Pixels has an extended interview with Monte Schulz on the recent biography on his dad Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts.
• Nightwish, heavymetal umlauters from Europe, rock out at Onezumi Studios.
• Seven Camels blog has scans of the "Comic Strip Artist's Kit" created by Carson Van Osten, a famous Disney artist who did many of the Disney comic books.

Given the downtime experienced by comixtalk, Xaviar was kind enough to let me post stories a little bit more, so, for the four of you who missed me, here it is:

***

You know when Tim’s running ComixTalk for a week it’s time for business, that’s why they call him Business-Tim.

Internet! How are you? It’s me again, your pal Tim. You may recall me from such internetery as GraphicSmash.com, Clickwheel.net, and Reckless Life. I’m gonna be taking a look at the changing face of digital comics we seem to find ourselves in these days over the course of the week as it relates to stuff I know enough about to comment on.

Today I’m going to take a broad look at what’s going on right now and what it means to you. Yes, YOU. So why not click ‘read more’ and read some more, because I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking, aaaaaaaah yeeeeeah, it’s time for business. It’s business time.