Boxjam
An interview with Zortic's Mark Mekkes
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Mark Mekkes is the writer/artist behind Zortic, the long-running webcomic about Zortic and his pop culture-parodying adventures through space. Mark is also involved with the organizing committee for the Web Cartoonists Choice Awards, which is now in its third year.
Comixpedia: How did you first get a start in comics?
The Blue View: Dial-A-Webcomic
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Before there were modems, and back when the function of the pound key was still a mystery to us, we started a simple but enticing service on a home phone line with a home phone machine that would inform and often eclipse the rest of our band's output...Almost every track on this compilation started its life on Dial-A-Song. The biggest challenge to They Might Be Giants as a musical project was clear to us before we even started: This thing needed a lot of songs. ...It helped us become less precious and a lot more prolific..."
-Liner Notes, Dial-A-Song (Twenty Years of They Might Be Giants), They Might Be Giants
I love that last line.
(I also love the way they use the word 'inform' because they sort of let slip that they know how to talk like rock critics, and perhaps rock critics inform TMBG's own writing.) But the line that really grabs me -- as a creator of ephemeral entertainment -- is that part about the Dial-A-Song making their songs less precious. That's it, exactly. If you're going to have a thousand babies, you can't treat each one like a crown jewel. Raise it right, give it what it needs, but don't dwell on it, and don't try to control the parts you can't control.
The Blue View by BoxJam
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The Tempest is Not Sublime
On a message board I frequent, somebody challenged people to come up with sublime comedy. Weird, I thought. If this is any sort of challenge, it presumes that comedy is nothing worthy, and when we find comedy that does have value, well, that's the exception.
Sublime: Lofty, or elevated.
The Readers Clang Heads with R Stevens
This is the first of a series of forum interviews with questions taken from our readers. R Stevens, the creator behind Diesel Sweeties, has combined the extreme look of pixelation with the bizarre concept of a former porn star dating a robot. The cast has expanded since those first strips about Clango and Maura, including people R Stevens has admitted are based on real life people. Since starting, he's had a brief try at a strip on Modern Tales (Kid Clango), started a monthly club for goodies (the Clango Club) and self-published his archives as a paper book with a shiny, shiny cover.
State of Comixpedia
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 2, 2003 - 11:20
I hope at least some of you enjoyed (and got) the in-jokes that made up our April Fools' Issue. If you got at least three of them consider yourself a webcomics community insider, privy to the darkest secrets of the kingdom. A big thanks in particular to Dave Wright for the Chopping Block banner - I'm a sucker for anything parodying FOX. We had lots of help from others too, but they've all joined the witness protection plan.
Two months of Comixpedia - we've published more than 250 articles and news updates and we're hovering at about 340 members and uncounted guests. Comments on our coverage (or the lack of it!) are welcome - you can always email me at xerexes at comixpedia dot com. My response time varies on my inbox volume but I do respond.
Next week we have the community moderated R Stevens interview, with answers!, an interview with Derek Kirk Kim, reviews and columns by BoxJam and Iain Hamp.
KeenCribs! The studio of BoxJam's Doodle
Submitted by Brad Guigar on March 21, 2003 - 10:03
When we say this guy works blue, we mean he works *blue.* Check out the workspace from which BoxJam's Doodle originates.
It's all a part of KeenCribs, a regularly updated Friday feature at Greystone Inn.
And, hey, don't forget the comic, the tribute to Buffy the Vampire Slayer continues into next week!
Make Mine Micropayments
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 11, 2003 - 12:58
Here's an article which outlines MIT professor and e-commerce pioneer Ron Rivest's latest idea: a means of averaging out internet purchases in such a way as to allow for a profitable and sustainable system of micropayments.
I read the article and I'm not entirely clear on exactly how this idea is supposed to work, nor how it could be applied to the world of webcomics. Anyone care to explain it to me?
No "Space" To Call Your Own?
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The costs and troubles that come through actively maintaining an Internet server have never been easy things to deal with, but come June of 2000, Keenspace was created despite the risks. In those days, the ad market was enough to support such an endeavour without killing the people behind it. Of course, a FREE hosting service for webcomics with a plethora of perks proved irresistible to cartoonist wannabes.
The Blue View by BoxJam
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Sit down. I have something to tell you, and I want you sitting down. Are you ready?
Webcomic creators don't update as reliably as their print counterparts.
The True Test of Mettle
Sit down. I have something to tell you, and I want you sitting down. Are you ready?
Googlism: Get the Google on Your Favorite Webtoonist!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 27, 2003 - 15:46
Find out what Google thinks about your favorite webtoonist. A few examples:
boxjam is free of such restraints
boxjam is married to mrs
boxjam is drawing his own life
boxjam is the most cameo'd character in webcomics
boxjam is kind of like that guy in the painting "the scream
boxjam is taking over the world
boxjam is the fruit of my loins
james kochalka is one of the most prolific and distinctive artists in the comics scene today
james kochalka is a jungle
james kochalka is a subscription
james kochalka is the master of cute comics
james kochalka is a superstar
james kochalka is a cartoonist's cartoonist
james kochalka is like six years old
keenspot is good people
keenspot is your friend
keenspot is really wigging out
keenspot is an awesome host for awesome webcomics
keenspot is blindly relying on the return of the old banner ad economy
keenspot is a professional comic hosting site
keenspot is on a separate server from keenspace
keenspot is doing something right
keenspot is not the elitist group the angry tend to call it
keenspot is running a lot better now
