This month, Kelly J. Cooper spends some time pinning down the words we use to describe webcomics.  Words properly pinned, she next looks for what turns out to be a fairly elusive target: a webcomics dictionary.

Another installment in Kelly J. Cooper's quest for webcomics enlightenment.  This month, Kelly discovers comics criticism and consults the work of R.C. Harvey.

You've got your standard Motif and then there's your Leitmotif. You look like a Leitmotif type to me. What's it going to take to get you into a Motif today?

Join Kelly J. Cooper for a new column where she explores this thing called "literary criticism" and how it applies to webcomics.

Detective, suspense, parlor game, crime, noir, police procedural… these are all different ways to slice the mystery genre. But how to organize the Mystery WEBCOMICS? Alphabetically by title? By author? By sub-genre? Or perhaps semi-randomly, as the whim takes me? Yep. That'll do.

MoCCA – the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art – holds an ART FEST every year and has since 2002.

This year the Fest was held on Saturday and Sunday, June 11th and 12th from 11am to 6pm each day.

Given that I live only about 4 to 5 hours north of New York City, where the Fest is held, I finally decided to actually get off my tuchus and attend the thing.

As 2004 packs its bags and prepares to turn over the keys to the new year, we thought we would take this opportunity to look back at certain significant or just really amusing webcomics-related news stories throughout the year.

If we missed your favorite event, feel free to add your own thoughts.

If there’s a favorite pastime among the literary criticism set, it’s probably defining terms.

Well, maybe tearing down some piece of sub-standard work, closely followed by defining terms.

In anticipation of this month’s theme, which is a "beyond journal comics" look at webcomics that build from reality, we thought we’d open a discussion of what might be included in this genre.

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.

Kelly J Cooper's Most Excellent Comic-Con Adventures
Part 2: Saturday and Sunday

Saturday, 24 July 2004