Bobby Crosby
Comix Talk for Thursday, July 15, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 15, 2010 - 09:36
In the last issue of Dark Horse Presents on MySpace, there's a new Bee story from Jason Little; a comic based on the video game Mass Effect, a comic written byLeVar Burton plus a funny riff on a scene from Star Wars by Frank Stockton. Future issues of DHP will be at Dark Horse's own website. (h/t Scott McCloud)
I also point you to a comic on digital civil rights in Europe that is pretty interesting, particularly if you're interested in the topic. (h/t BoingBoing)
CODE: The new convention Intervention will be hosting a workshop on Comicpress for Wordpress run by one of the developers, Frump. This is a great idea, one that I'm surprised I haven't seen at other webcomic-friendly conventions. Attendees to the workshop will get a bonus -- a free download of the automated Cast addon for ComicPress. The Cast addon displays cast members in a totally new way, showing when they first appeared in the comic, how often they have been in the comic, all of the comics they were in with links and other statistics as well as individual biographical information.
CONVENTION: Gary reports that Jorge Cham is organizing another Webcomics newspaper-style handout for this year's San Diego Comicon.
REVIEW: Roya Grinstead reviews the webcomic Romantically Apocalyptic with which the reviewer "was floored by its miraculous visuals, its marvellous concept, and its delightfully dark, whimsical, and twisted humour."
MILESTONE: Spwug notes that the webcomic Dreamless by Bobby Crosby and Sarah Ellerton has only one page left to post. A review of the comic by Spwug is here.
DEAD TREES: Scott Kurtz announced that he is leaving Image to return to self-publishing his comic books.
The Queen's Hype: The Independent newspaper hypes some webcomics including The Oatmeal, Hyperbole and a Half, Cyanide and Happiness, The Perry Bible Fellowship, Ctrl+Alt+Del, xkcd, and Girl Genius.
Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day and um... Webcomics!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 18, 2010 - 12:52
It's a holiday in the U.S. and the kind of day that I would hope the rest of the world can, if not celebrate, acknowledge happily. (Which puts it in a different category than celebrating more nationalistic - George Washington - or controversial - Cristos Columbus - figures from history). I wonder if India has a Mahatma Gandhi day? Apparently they do - one for his birth and one for his death.
Haiti. Wow, it's a good thing I don't play a pretend-actual-news journalist on the Internet because I don't think I could find the words to write adequately about the situation there. It's an immense tragedy. If you can afford to donate something Doctors Without Borders is a group that was one of the first in and does a tremendous amount of good.
Hosting and Coding Geekery. If you're not just a webcomics geek but have educated opinions on webhosting, wordpress or drupal I would really like to talk to you. My current hosting at media temple is not working for ComixTALK. I have been trying to sort out plans for the new year for hosting and whether to switch CMSs but I feel overwhelmed. I had some good conversations on twitter and im last night but what I really need is just more advice -- the Internet is CONFUSING when you ask what is best on these questions. Email me at xerexes AT gmail DOT com or twitter to xerexes or gchat to xerexes or just add a comment to this post here. Once I get all this squared away I have some ideas about redoing the theme here at ComixTALK.
Webcomics. Oh you probably came here this morning to read about comics presented in pixelated form, didn't you? First things first - the switch to using RSS feeds in Google Reader for my daily webcomics "page" is a success. It's much more convenient. If you want me to check out YOUR webcomic send it to me (see above) somehow and I will! I can't write about it if I haven't read it :)
But this approach still leaves me thinking about how to find the "good" webcomics. And let's be honest -- when I say "good" I mean good in terms of what I want to read. Your "good" may be completely different. Either way there's a LOT of comics now and 99% of them seem to be on the Internet in some form or another. Over at Savage Critics, Abhay Khosla has a surprisingly good (surprising because I thought it was going to be just a snarkfest and it turned out to be quite thoughtful) essay on what it's like to live in a world of almost infinite comic choices. I also loved his take on ComixTALK's 2009 Roundtable:
Comixtalk did a year-end roundtable in December 2009, in which they spoke to not less than eight people. Between the eight of them, roughly five billion webcomics are mentioned over the course of the round-table. So: be sure to check those out...
Joystiq's weekly webcomic roundup seems to be a bit of an institution now for gaming comics. Is there anything like it for other subjects Movie comics? Celebrity comics? New and opinion sites? I don't offer a practical plan for convincing a successful site in a subject area to add a webcomic roundup but I think it would be worth working on. (If you're a smaller site linked to by Joystiq -- how much of a bump are you getting from the exposure?)
At the end of this month, Ryan North's Project Wonderful is going to add geotargeting to it's service - here Ryan explains more about the benefits of this feature. I used a mix of PW, Blog Ads and ComicSpace's Ad service Webcomics World over the last year and if I had to keep one I'd stick with PW right now.
El Santo reviews Dead Winter, a zombie webcomic. 4 Stars and he compares it favorably to Jenny Romanchuk’s Zombie Hunters and Bobby Crosby's Last Blood.
Delos writes about Sandra De Haan, a Netherlands artist, who has translated some of her journal webcomics into English. I like the crispy cartoony artwork here.
Also via Delos is a link to The Blueprint Database - a vast collection of blueprints from cars to the Millenium Falcon.
Has everyone seen The Fantastic Mr Fox? I want to but haven't yet. Did see a wonderful exhibit on it at the Cartoon Museum and spotted this acceptance speech at the National Board of Review ceremony (via Drawn!)
Speaking of movies the news that Ryan Estrada is making a movie version of his webcomic The Kind You Don't Take Home to Mother has bounced around the web. All I can say is I am really looking forward to this and I hope Ryan succeeds in getting it done.
Last not least, ComixTALK friend for life Jon Morris has a funny essay up at Heavy.com on the Strange Life and Times of Richie Rich.
Strip News 12-25-9
Submitted by Delos on December 25, 2009 - 10:00
You would think that comic folks would be taking it easy this busy week but then you’d be just as wrong as I was for thinking that. Or maybe you knew better.
One Punch Reviews #25: Dreamless
Submitted by El Santo on August 18, 2009 - 14:00
The Webcomic Overlook #93: Ulysses Seen
Submitted by El Santo on August 1, 2009 - 19:35
Webcomic Team-Up of the Gods
Submitted by El Santo on January 12, 2009 - 13:17
So… Keepspot just issued a press release (gleaned here via Comixtalk) that Bobby Crosby and Sarah Ellerton are teaming up on a new project called Dreamless.
SARAH ELLERTON AND BOBBY CROSBY TEAM FOR DREAMLESS
Submitted by Chris Crosby on January 11, 2009 - 02:20
Apple Valley, CA, January 11, 2009 - Illustrator Sarah Ellerton (Inverloch, The Phoenix Requiem) has teamed with writer Bobby Crosby (Marry Me, +EV, Last Blood) to launch Dreamless (dreamlessmovie.com), a new weekly comic on the Keenspot webcomics network. The high-concept plot has yet to be revealed, but it has been described as "a fantastical romantic tragedy like you have never seen before."
Said Crosby, "When I put out a call for artists, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from [Ellerton]. This seemed like the perfect project for Sarah and I want to thank her for the incredible job she's doing."
"I'm really excited about this collaboration with Bobby Crosby for Dreamless," said Ellerton. "I've never worked with a writer before, so it will certainly be a new and hopefully enjoyable learning experience for me. Illustrating for this project will push me creatively and issue me with artistic challenges that I may not have had the courage to do in my own projects. Bobby has written entertaining and unique stories in the past, and I'm confident Dreamless will be no different."
LAST BLOOD feature film gets screenwriter
Submitted by Chris Crosby on July 29, 2008 - 09:52
Hollywood Reporter reports that Family Guy showrunner/executive producer David A. Goodman has been hired to adapt the webcomic Last Blood, created by Bobby Crosby and Chris Crosby, into a feature film screenplay.
So... Comic-Con is Around the Corner
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 16, 2008 - 13:00
Comic-Con 2008 kicks off in San Diego soon -- July 24-27 -- and the web/indy/whatever--comic presence seems to grow bigger each year. If you're going you're already set b/c this thing, as a practical matter, sold out long ago (I think you can still get a hotel room in the next state over...).
Some awesome panels this year include:
Marry Me
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 23, 2008 - 21:33
Chris Bobby Crosby's and Remy Mokhtar's Marry Me is almost done, climaxing with a not completely unexpected marriage proposal between the main characters. This story of a pop star's snap marriage to someone in the audience is completely high concept but Crosby and Mokhtar made a really enjoyable comic out of it, filling out the two main characters pretty well.
Here's hoping Crosby does get a movie made out this story. Why not? It's a good concept and would make a pretty damn funny romantic comedy.
