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Eric Burns

Week 1 of Comixpedia's December Issue!

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 13, 2005 - 02:24

Our first week is up and includes a roundtable discussion on the year in webcomics with leading webcomics bloggers, including Eric Burns, Wednesday White, Phil Kahn, Giland Pellaeon, Bob Stevenson, Ping Teo, Daku, Karl Kuras, Doctor Setebos and William G. We also have a round up of the year's news stories in Erik Melander's last installment of Through the Looking Back Glass.

Al Schroeder interviews the creators of A Lesson is Learned But the Damage is Irreversable and Philip Sandifer reviews Scary Go Round.

And last but not least, it's guest week at Ryan Estrada's Welton Colbert.

Remember we're posting the December issue at our Beta site so you may need to log in again to post comments (your same id and password will work at the beta site).

2005: a transition year in webcomics?

Submitted by m_estrugo on December 11, 2005 - 03:01

Hey there, folks.

I've got to admit this hasn't been a good year to me. Terribly serious issues on real life -that are going to continue for a while- swept me off the webcomics field and forced me to put several projects on the backburner, until I find the time to dedicate myself to my little cute cartoon characters, and webcomics in general, again.

Then again, we're in December, the time when people tend to look back and do a review of this year. And I look at the webcomics field and... well, I'm not sure if it's precisely because my attention has been focused elsewhere, but it seems this hasn't been a good year for webcomics.

It looks like the efervescence of past years is gone. That everything we see is more like a repetition of what we saw in 2004, with the same high-profile participants, the same promises of great future, and the same issues attacking webcomickers. I perceive there have been much less webcomics worthy of attention appearing this year, while some of them have ended their online life.

Besides, five years have passed since Scott mcCloud published his book "Reinventing Comics", where he predicted a micropayment system that would benefit web cartoonists (I had the intention to create a comic where I reviewed these five last years to be featured here on Comixpedia, but then things went really wrong at my side of the world). It seems the generalization of micropayment systems isn't mature enough as of yet to work, and some people wonder if it will ever work -remember that fight between Scott McCloud and the creators of Penny Arcade-, especially on an environment like the Internet.

To me, it looks like 2005 was a transition year for webcomics, a dry year, with few worthy moments, where most webcartoonists just recurred to preseverance in hopes to find better times in the future.

But then again, and considering the little attention I've got to webcomics all this time, I could be totally wrong. What do you think it was worth of mention this year?

Ideas for Future Issue Themes

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 10, 2005 - 01:59

We're heading into our fourth year of publishing Comixpedia in 2006. So what do you want us to cover next year in the magazine? Throw out some ideas for future issues here.

Webcomic Fields Forever

Submitted by Th'_Mole on December 8, 2005 - 13:20

Welcome to the Thursday news report.

Just FYI, the December issue of Comixpedia magazine should be available late Sunday/early Monday - we'll only be publishing for two weeks this month because of the holidays. We will also be sending you to the BETA site for the articles because we need to see how it does under some real volume of use. (The articles will be available here too in case the BETA site goes down)

I'm not sure when this was posted, but it looks like Michael McKay-Fleming will not be regularly updating Alice! until next year, January 2nd.

Tom Spurgeon (The Comics Reporter) links to an interesting interview with Liza Coppola, Viz Media Vice President for Sales and Marketing.

It looks like Coffee Achievers is updating again. This is Mitch Clem's other webcomic with art by Joe Dunn. Although updated sporadically this year, it's absolutely worth checking out.

Slick gets.. a.. date.. with Monique? Chalk that up as another sign of the impending Apocalypse...

Boing BOING reports that a video game based on Dinosaur Comics is the first game under development by a group making new games for the opensource MAME platform.

The creators of Applegeeks will be guests at MagFest, a video-game convention, which takes place in Charlottesville, VA next January. Apparently this is the first time they've been invited to a non-manga/anime convention.

And a nice essay from Eric Burns this morning on "Best of" lists. There's also quite a comment thread going on to the news post about Stuart Robinson's compilation of a list pulled from del.icio.us bookmarks. I'd have to agree with Eric 98% on this one. Any list is opinion and like all opinions should be evaluated by the listeners as to content and the source behind it. (It's important to remember that most lists don't make pretensions to being "awards" and so shouldn't raise all of the WCCA-related award issues). And given the huge number of webcomics now, it's inevitable that very few people are going to completely agree with any "list" in its entirety.

For myself, I very much appreciate a well-thought out effort to craft such a list, even if I find myself shaking my head at some of the choices - it's not a trivial exercise to make a well-informed recommendation on a subject as vast as webcomics. And not surprisingly despite the large nunber of webcomics I've read, I still often find on such lists something new that I really enjoy.

Is Scott for real?

Submitted by John on December 7, 2005 - 21:16

I can't tell if Scott is satirizing himself or is really pissed off. Is anyone else's sarcasm detector working? I think mine's broken.

New Webcomics Examiner Plus NEWS NEWS NEWS!!!

Submitted by Reinder on December 5, 2005 - 19:06

Out on your virtual newsstand - a new edition of the Webcomics Examiner featuring "The Best Webcomics of 2005" and Part 2 of "The Artistic History of Webcomics", a rountable with T Campbell, Shaenon Garrity, William G., Phil Kahn, Bob Stevenson, Eric Burns, Wednesday White, A. G. Hopkins, Rob Balder, Tim Godek, Zabel, Alexander and Brandy Danner.

Quick Hits!

Lee Adam Herold's Chopping Block is back with a new story (and a different art style).

Power restored to whichever one of those Dakotas houses Keenspot World HQ and Chris Crosby returns to updating Superosity and Sore Thumbs.

The Queen's Land, late of the late Gutterfly Comix site, has moved to the free webcomic host, Smack Jeeves and resumed updates.

Eric Burns weighs in on the recent Questionable Content storyline with an extra-biscuity biscuit. I've been impressed with QC all year really. It's a fantastic strip and Jeph Jacques just gets better every month. EVERY MONTH!

Christmas at Blocksberg, a seasonal fantasy tale, begins today at Chronicles of the Witch Queen, with art by Daniel Østvold and writing by Geir Strøm.

Webcomic pioneers John Barber and Brendan Cahill are in cahoots at Marvel in bringing forth a new Cahill-penned comicbook called Sable & Fortune. CBR has an interview with Cahill.

Super-reporter Jen Contino has an interview with David Alvarez, creator of Yenny.

The Comixpedia End of 2005 Roundtable

December 5, 2005 - 18:03 | Xaviar Xerexes

A freewheeling discussion about the wide world of webcomics with Eric Burns, Wednesday White, Phil Kahn, Giland Pellaeon, Bob Stevenson, Ping Teo, Daku, Karl Kuras, Doctor Setebos and William G, moderated by Xaviar Xerexes.

You may have noticed that in 2005, the "webcomics blogosphere" took off like never before. There were almost as many people writing about webcomics as making them (okay not really, but there were a whole lot more blog posts about webcomics this year.) We gathered together several popular bloggers for an online roundtable discussion on webcomics here at the tail end of 2005.

We talked about webcomics and creators, art and commerce and of course, webcomics drama. Plus some predictions for the year ahead.

Joey Manley Column At Pulse on Webcomics Business

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 22, 2005 - 17:52

The second installment of Joey Manley's column at the Pulse (Webhead) is up and while it's nothing that would be new to a regular reader of Comixpedia, it's a great primer about the "webcomics business" for the rest of the comic medium's faithful.

I'm pretty excited about Manley's column at the Pulse (which otherwise tends to give webcomics awfully short shrift) and hope it helps to bring more comics fans to webcomics. Now all we need is Eric Burns in TCJ and we'll be set!

Welcome to Week Two of Comixpedia's November 2005 Issue!

Submitted by kjc on November 14, 2005 - 04:38

Welcome to Week Two of Comixpedia's November 2005 Issue!

We will be spending the month looking at MYSTERY WEBCOMICS!

Our week two feature by Kelly J. Cooper is list of mystery webcomics.

Eric Burns vents a bit over mystery webcomics in this month's Feeding Snarky.

Kristofer Straub presents Modern Humor Authority and their take on mysteries…

Welton Colbert takes on the guys over at Digital Strips.

And we have Al Schroeder's interview with Richard Stevens of Peb Casey, Butterfly Detective.

Feeding Snarky by Eric A. Burns

November 14, 2005 - 01:41 | Eric Burns

The theme this month is mystery webcomics. And for the first time since I took this gig...

...well, I have no freaking clue what to write. It's like they said "this month, the theme is finbotz comics," and I'd smile and nod and sit down in front of the word processor.