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Chris Onstad

Origin of Rocktacular!

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 4, 2009 - 10:30

The latest installment of Dark Horse Online (still at MySpace...) is rocktacular!  Comics from Kate Beaton, Chris Onstad, David Malki! and Kristian Donaldson & Ann Romano.

DRAFT List of 100 Greatest Webcomics: Comedy and Drama

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 22, 2009 - 14:50

Last year I posted a couple times (Previous posts on this "research" project were here and here) about a possible article on "ComixTALK's 100 Greatest Webcomics" which would be something like the American Film Institute's list of the greatest movies of the last 100 years.

A recurring comment to the previous two posts was what is the criteria for this.  I'm always a little hesitant to give too much guidance when part of the point of asking this kind of thing out loud is to listen to the resulting discussion of what everyone else thinks the criteria should be.  For the AFI list judges picked films based on criteria such as Critical Recognition, Major Award Winner, Popularity Over Time, Historical Significance, and Cultural Impact.

That sounds about right to me.  We've got a round decade plus a year or two of webcomics to look at it.  Critical reception (both from peers and critics), and popularity are both relevant to thinking about the impact of a webcomic.  WCCA awards are somewhat indicative of what peers were impressed with in a given year and more recently awards like the Eisners and Ignatzs have recoginized webcomics.  Historical significance and cultural impact are a little harder to pin down but various "firsts" in webcomics are important and comics like Penny Arcade have had a much wider impact on popular culture than most comics do these days (put aside the legacy superheros of comics -- what other "new" comic, let alone webcomic, in the last decade has had a wide cultural impact?)

Another thing AFI did that might be useful here to help sort through the vast numbers of webcomics one could talk about is to also think about categories or genres of work.  Just as a simple matter of numbers if a webcomic isn't one of the best of a larger type of story -- or frankly, so startlingly unique it's hard to categorize -- then it's hard to imagine it's one of the 100 Greatest...

So to move things along I'm listing another "draft" of titles submitted by the crowds but this time I've tried to break them up into drama and comedy so as to help avoid complete apples to oranges comparisons.  In doing that I've realized (1) it's hard in many cases to decide; and (2) there are probably more comedic than drama on the list so far.  I think it would make sense to whittle down the two lists to 75 each so as the final list is no more than 3/4 of one type or the other.  Of course we could further do genre type lists but for now this was enough work on my part.

So -- your assignment (if you choose to play):

  1. Name the comic you're talking about (you're also welcome to nominate ones not on the list -- I KNOW there are many I haven't even thought about yet -- it takes time to review all of the corners of the web)
  2. Tell me where on one the two lists (comedy and drama) it should be (you could give a range of slots if you're not sure). (If you think I've got a drama on the comedy list or vice-versa let me know!  I'm not "done" - this is fairly dashed off still at this point)
  3. Tell me why!  Referencing awards, critics, historical achievements, strengths and weaknesses of the works are all really helpful!

Welcome to the Googleplex: Chris Onstad of Achewood

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 7, 2009 - 10:57

Another webcomic creator hits the Googleplex - I finally got to watch through this and it was interesting to hear Chris Onstad talk about his work and the flexibility of the web.

Time To Make The Webcomics

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 6, 2009 - 11:18

Does anyone want to do some cover art for ComixTalk for January (like this month)?  Email me at xerexes AT gmail DOT com.

INTERVIEWS

Newsarama has an interview with Raina Telgemeier who is working on a graphic novel version of her webcomic-in-progress Smile.  Raina and her husband Dave Roman are two of the nicest (and talentest) folks in comics. (h/t Journalista!)

The Washington Post has an interview with Tom Rickard, the creator of the comic strip Brewster Rockit.  I didn't realize this started back in 2004, it is a better than average strip in terms of what's in the Post's comic pages.

Achewood creator Chris Onstad visits the Googleplex - click for a video of an interview with him there for Google's Authors At Lunch series.  (h/t Journalista!)

Following up on FLEEN's mention of the NPR story on Penny Arcade, a commenter lists several other webcomic stories NPR has covered: Achewood, Sluggy Freelance, Erfworld, Questionable Content, Megatokyo, Cyanide & Happiness.

TOOLS

Brian Fies, the creator of the web/comic Mom's Cancer has REALLY good advice on dpi requirements (72, 300, 600, 1200, etc) when scanning. (h/t Journalista!)

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

In their weekly podcast, the Halfpixel crew talks about 2008 and looks ahead to 2009.

Scott Kurtz announced some changes to his other webcomic Ding! -- he took back the art chores from Paul Southworth and is now soliciting stories from players of the game World Of Warcraft to tell in the comic.  I think the format change is interesting, but I'll miss Southworth's take on the art.

November 14th DRAFT version of 100 Greatest Webcomics List

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 13, 2008 - 21:02

This is an update to a previous post here, thanks for the cumulative suggestions on that thread.  JUST so we're clear - this is open-sourced to everyone research for a possible article to appear next month at ComixTalk.  I don't endorse the list or the order at all; at this point I've tried to include all of the suggestions I've gotten and I also went through all of the comics ComixTalk has ever reviewed and pulled quite a few titles.

We're at the point where it'll be most helpful if you tell me comics you think should go on the list, where (what number approximately) and which comic should get bumped.  If you just want to change the order you can do that to but there'll be another post before the month's through asking for help with that.  

Your Ignatz Winners

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 5, 2008 - 09:58

Tom Spurgeon has a list of the Ignatz 08 winners announced last night at SPX. Achewood by Chris Onstad won for OUTSTANDING ON-LINE COMIC.

I'll be wandering around SPX today.

It's All About Webcomic Creation... And Fightin' The Text Terrorists

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 29, 2008 - 09:29

NEW and IMPROVED!
Check out our interview with TRACED creator Tracy White, one of the nominees for Best Online Comic at this year's Ignatz Awards. 

While you're at it - Rick Marshall also has a great interview with Sam Brown of Exploding Dog. (From our archives - a community interview with Sam from 2004)

And what did I hear on the radio this morning but NPR's interview with Chris Onstad of Achewood and "The Great Outdoor Fight" - very cool, probably only the second webcomic interview on NPR I can think of in 10 years (Pete Abrams being the other one).

AWARDS
The Harveys were awarded at this past weekend's Baltimore Comicon and Nicholas Gurewitch won for Perry Bible Fellowship.  (Gurewitch also won a "Special Award for Humor")

CONVENTIONS
CBR has a write-up of last weekend's Webcomics Panel at the Baltimore Comicon featuring Danielle Corsetto, Scott Sava and the Half Pixel pals.

Tyler Page (of Nothing Better) will be at FALLCON at the Minnesota State fairgrounds next weekend (Oct 4-5).

DEAD TREES
Mitch Clem's print collection of Nothing Nice To Say comics is out!

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

Brigid Alverson rounds up the reactions to the closing up of the DC Minx comics line.

Sean Kleefeld wants you to mashup some comics.

ComicMix has the scoop on Stephen Colbert's upcoming appearance in a Spiderman comic -- I still remember fondly the SNL-Spiderman issue (I have that somewhere; wonder if it's worth a couple bucks...)

Webcomic Witchfinder pits fantasy webcomics against each other in Deathmatch IV!

Webcomic Wire - 9/26/08

Submitted by NightgigTim on September 26, 2008 - 14:49

Drawn from sources all over the strange but wonderful series of tubes…

2008 Ignatz Award Nominations

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 19, 2008 - 13:19

As FLEEN reported yesterday, the Ignatz Award nominations have been announced, and the nominations for the Online Comic category are:

Neat

Submitted by traced on September 18, 2008 - 09:28

TRACED has been nominated for an IGNATZ award
Neat! yeah an odd word choice but neat is the first word that popped into my mind (from which corner of my brain I know not). Anyway very happy to be considered.
The other nominees are:
Achewood, Chris Onstad
Danny Dutch, David King
Slow Wave, Jesse Reklaw
Thingpart, Joey Sayers
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