Chris Onstad
Webcomics are serious business
Submitted by El Santo on September 12, 2008 - 11:22
Entrepreneur magazine recently ran an article about the business of webcomics:
Webcomic Wire - 9/11/08
Submitted by NightgigTim on September 11, 2008 - 14:12
Drawn from sources all over the multi-verse…
- Entrepreneur.com has a profile of Chris Onstad’s comic Achewood and webcomics as business model.
- News-a-rama has a story about micropayments.
- Webcomic Overlook gives Chainsawsuit a One Punch Review.
- CBR interviews Danielle Corsetto.
- ComixTalk reports about the new site design of the webcomic Stupid and Insane Defenders Against Chaos. Xerexes also has a nice roundup of the Platinum/Wowio news and Publishers Weekly has a good article about it too.
- Free file hosting until 2038, you have to sign up for this promo offer by Sept. 15th.
- Want to put money away for a short term goal like buying a Cintique? SmartyPig allows you to open a savings account to do just that and it’s FDIC insured.
- Steake and Kidney-Punch by Liz Greenfield is the latest to appear on Dark Horse’s online spotlight for new talent.
- The Floating Lightbulb has a post about your morale and putting the polish on yoru webcomic.
- Brinkerhoff – Pocket Full of Brink – Volume 2 is now available on Lulu.
Reported by Michael Moss.
I AM NOT WRITING ABOUT SKULLS, RED OR OTHERWISE
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 15, 2008 - 16:35
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Boom Studios is putting up more of its comics as webcomics on its site.
BUSINESS
Neil Gaiman has a writeup of the positive results of his recent free experiment putting his novel American Gods (quite good btw!) online for awhile -- sales of his books at independent bookseller were up considerably. Techdirt also has a post on the wider trend of publishers trying out the free ebooks strategy. Some of this is validation for the free model of webcomics but there are also wrinkles to be learned from the experiments of text publishers. In part, I'm interested myself in seeing how publishers, as opposed to creators navigate free and for-sale.
POLITICS
I know there's some hubbub about a swing and a miss cover to the New Yorker (speaking of which Reuben Bolling did a much better take on that satirical idea); forget that, the real story is the New Yorker's interview with Chris Onstad of Achewood.
TOOLS
You can read comics on the iphone. In Japan, software company Celsys is pushing the iphone for reading manga.
Webcomic Wire - 4/23/08
Submitted by NightgigTim on April 23, 2008 - 14:23
Drawn from resources that look sooo big from down here…
The reality of depending on ‘1000 True Fans’, a follow up piece by Kevin Kelly.
Galleycat has an interesting post about NYCC.Â
CBR has an interview with Achewood creator Chris Onstad.
Content Digital has an interview with Kelly Price from ComicGenesis.Â
Voting has begun for the Eagle Awards. Nominees are [...]
Forget It Jake, That's Webcomic Town...
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 24, 2008 - 10:13
THE OPINIONATER The Daily Cartoonist reports that syndicated editorial cartoonist Matt Bors is creating a bi-weekly comic called Civil Discourse for the ACLU website. I have no idea how many editorial cartoonists are running comics (original or re-purposed) on non-traditional sites but it seems like it might have potential. A lot of groups (whether partisan or non-partisan) should have the budget to pay a reasonable fee for such comics -- the benefit to them being promotion of their message or increased recruitment (via more traffic to their website). Of course unlike a "neutral" newspaper I imagine fitting the comic to the organization is a more subjective proposition, but there are organizations of all persuasions out there. GUEST ARTIST MAYHEMMike Rouse-Deane has created a webcomic project/fundraiser for Make-A-Wish called the Guest Strip Project. It's sort of a "always guest comics" comic. Should be interesting to check out and of course, it's for a good cause.
(Around) This Day in ComixTALK
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 22, 2008 - 11:22
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
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
ComixTalk's People Of Webcomics List For 2007
And now... the fourth annual People Of Webcomics list! I'll be the first to admit that this list gets harder and harder to compile as the lines between "webcomics" and just plain "comics" blurs harder than a greasy windshield in the middle of a West Texas downpour. Plus as publishing comics on the web and other digital formats becomes more commonplace it gets harder and harder to find those "firsts" that take comics in new directions whether artistic, technical or businesss-oriented.
- Blank Label Comics
- Drunk Duck
- Dumbrella
- Zuda
- B. Shur
- Brad Guigar
- Chris Onstad
- Dave Roman
- Fred Gallagher
- Greg Carter
- Jeph Jacques
- Jerry Holkins
- Joey Manley
- Jon Rosenberg
- Josh Neufeld
- Kaja Foglio
- Kazu Kibuishi
- Kris Straub
- Mike Krahulik
- Nicholas Gurewitch
- Randall Munroe
- Rich Stevens
- Rob Balder
- Ryan Estrada
- Ryan North
- Ryan Sohmer
- Scott Kurtz
- Tyler Martin
- Achewood
- Goats
- Penny Arcade
- PvP
- xkcd
- People of Webcomics
The ComixTalk End of 2007 Roundtable
Our third annual virtual round table on the year in webcomics features comments from Gary Tyrrell, Dirk Deppey, Tom Spurgeon, Heidi MacDonald, Brigid Alverson, Derik A Badman, Reinder Dijkhuis, and JT Shea and Scott Gallatin.
- Act-I-Vate
- Blank Label Comics
- Transmission X
- Zuda
- Cameron Stewart
- Chris Onstad
- Christopher Hastings
- Dave Kelly
- Derik Badman
- Dorothy Gambrell
- Emily Horne
- Fred Gallagher
- Howard Tayler
- Jennie Breeden
- Jerry Holkins
- Joey Comeau
- John Allison
- Josh Neufeld
- Kaja Foglio
- Karl Kerschl
- Mike Krahulik
- Mike Maihack
- Nate Piekos
- Raina Telgemeier
- Randall Munroe
- Reinder Dijkhuis
- Rich Stevens
- Ryan Estrada
- Ryan North
- Scott McCloud
- Shaenon K. Garrity
- Svetlana Chmakova
- Tatsuya Ishida
- Tyler Page
- A Softer World
- Achewood
- Cat and Girl
- Penny Arcade
- Sinfest
- xkcd
- Features
Webcomics Achewood and Erfworld in Time Magazine's Top 10 Graphic Novels list
Submitted by Tim Tylor on December 11, 2007 - 17:20
Two webcomics have made it into Time Magazine's 2007 Top Ten list of graphic novels. Selected by Time's Nerd-World blogger Lev Grossman, the list includes Chris Onstad's Achewood in first place and Rob Balder's Erfworld at 6th place.
Monday Update
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 21, 2007 - 21:51
COMIXTALK
- Derek Badman is back with another installment of Panels & Pictures -- this month Badman shares some examples of color use in a variety of comics, with an emphasis on the use of shifting color palettes within the same work.
- Xaviar Xerexes interviews this month's cover artist -- Spike. Spike is the talented creator behind the well-received webcomic (and book) Templar, Arizona. The comic is a story about a town that may or may not completely conform to the regular laws of reality and features a growing assortment of interesting characters who both intrigue and intimidate the protagonist, a young man named Ben. Spike has also created other webcomics, including Sparkneedle, Lucas and Odessa and Playing With Dolls.
- And don't forget to check out all of the feature articles from October: Tim Broderick's article on taking your comic to a traditional book publisher; and interviews with creators Jon Morris; Jamie Robertson; Bill Roundy; Thomas K. Dye; and Lee Adam Herold.
LEGAL BEAGLES
- Jeff Rowland got a nasty-gram supposed from the copyright owner of the O'RLY owl photo that's infested the intertubes for awhile now. Apparently one of Rowland's designs incorporates the image from the photo. FLEEN offers some thoughts on the matter. Damn Good Comics blog offers its two cents too.
INTERVIEWS
- Wizard Online interviews Kris Straub about the Alterverse War miniseries and his ongoing sci-fi webcomic Starslip Crisis.
- Comic Book Resources talks to Unshelved co-creator Bill Barnes about his library-themed strip. (h/t Journalista!)'
- Lynn Lau interviews Tara Tallan, the creator of Galaxion.
- Boston Globe interviews Randall Monroe, creator of xkcd.
REVIEWS
- Meg Heald has a review of Looking For Group.
- Mr Myth lambasts Chris Crosby for creating an infinite loop of repeats without a proper ending for the webcomic Wicked Powered.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
- I thought David McGuire's Webcomics Are Awesome is pretty funny as a parody of webcomics community (not sure if he's going to update it further) on the level of "lots of this absurd stuff happens and it's always healthy to make fun of yourself" since McGuire is a comic creator himself and as part of the now defunct Bag of Chips collective has certainly been "in" the webcomics community as much as anyone. On the otherhand I don't really know David (met him once at SPX) so I'm not sure how he views this comic.
- Everyone's making comics about the latest videogame Portal. This one's from Hijinks Ensue (whose creator Joel Watson also makes comics that appear on the website Apple Insider)
- Tough Guys is a pretty good concept for a comic (or probably more likely an Adult Swim animated series) but the execution of this webcomic by Zac Marshall and Nuno Teixeira is all wrong. The art is strange and largely looks cut and pasted. Maybe a chibi style would have worked better here. It's also largely not funny nor interesting yet. You're aiming at a huge chunk of American pop culture over the last 30 to 40 years (the "action movie") -- that's a big fat softball across the plate, if you're doing jokes you ought to be hitting multiple base hits everytime out.
- The Tower by Saki Miyamoto and Brendon Bennets is a textless comic about a princess who escapes her intended role in search of adventure.
- David Wright (creator of Todd and Penguin) has a new webcomic out called The Best Kids Show Ever - sort of if Fox News decided to get into the children's television business.
- Butternut Squash versus Mahna mahna. (Original muppet song here!)
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- A fairly good discussion has emerged from Joey Manley's post asking about how popular a webcomic needs to be to be able to successfully sell t-shirts.
- I can't decide if this videocast called ComiXtrips was fun or just annoyed me but I will say this - it was short, the guy clearly planned out what he was saying before he shot it and he had an opinion. If someone did this about webcomics I might watch it.
- Tastefully Done 2008 is out. It's a fundraiser for Cancer Research and features sketches of your favorite webcomic artists sans fabric.
- The Tonight Show with Tycho! It certainly would suck less than Jay Leno seems to do.
- The Beat has video of Chris Onstad's (Onstad or someone in a gorilla suit at least) Ignatz award acceptance "speech". (h/t Journalista!)



