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Gene Yang

WonderCon 2008

Submitted by Andrew Farago on February 25, 2008 - 04:36

I survived my eighth WonderCon, and actually had myself a pretty good time despite the overbooking and overworking that goes into this thing every year. I'll be doing a big write-up for Animation World Network in the very near future, and I'll post about that here when the time comes, but here are my quick impressions of the show:

Looking Back Through 2007

December 2, 2007 - 18:53 | Xaviar Xerexes

In years past (2004, 2005) we undertook the monumental chore of picking out the biggest headlines of the year. This year, I took another swing at it. So without further adu, here's the biggest webcomic headlines of 2007.

If I missed a story you think was key to this year, please post it in the comments to this article.

Eisner Award Winners Announced at San Diego Comicon

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 28, 2007 - 11:19

A full list of the Eisner winners is available at The Comics Reporter today.

  • Sam and Max, by Steve Purcell won for Best Digital Comic.
  • American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang won for Best Graphic Album - New (which in Oscar Awards-terms would be for Best Original Graphic Album as opposed to the Graphic Novels adapted by collecting together monthly comics books).
  • Hope Larson won Special Recognition for Gray Horses.

Updates On Entries in the Ill-Fated Webcomic Directory Project?

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 24, 2007 - 14:31

I built a "library" of webcomics and creators back in the fall of 2005 which I put into beta before realizing it was too much editorial work to deal with and the same information could be better provided through the community edited webcomic wiki - COMIXPEDIA.

Nevertheless looking back on the assortment of names collected (some from me, some sent in from you) I wonder if anyone has any significant updates on these creators 18 months later. Maybe we should interview some of them?

Thursday Sicko Journalist News Post

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 28, 2007 - 13:07

I'm not a journalist, but I am sick so please wipe your hands after reading today's post...

LEGAL

TECHNOLOGY

INTERVIEWS

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

HOW-TO

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

Tuesday News & Blues

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 19, 2007 - 10:10

COMIXMEDIA UPDATE:  I'm still working on the site(s) upgrade. Current plan is to have this site rebranded as COMIXTALK by the beginning of July. I'll have another site called COMIXMEDIA as an umbrella site for comics-related projects I'm working on. The upgrade here went well except the current "theme" for the site is creating some problems so I need to get the site moved to a new theme pronto (current plan is to simply update the current theme to Drupal 5.1 specs)

Guest Bloggers Wanted: Interested in blogging about (web)comics on ComixTalk in July or August? Drop me a note at xerexes AT comixpedia DOT com

BUSINESS
Todd Allen breaks another piece of the story about DC Comics plans for the web. DC Comics' new online editor is Kwanza Johnson (who according to Allen had a similar job with Marvel back in 2000?!) Allen predicts a "big" 4th quarter roll-out of webcomics from DC.

Mike Strang posted about his unhappy experience working for Platinum on a work-for-hire contract and others (T Campbell) chimed in with comments. Joey Manley compared work-for-hire to sticking your hand in a meat grinder. My own personal opinion is that authors should keep their copyrights and that creativity and business are both better off under those circumstances. But in movies, television, music and especially comic books, work-for-hire arrangements have been used forever and are still being used. So long as you know what you're getting into I don't see anything inherently evil about it. Just be clear on the concept - work-for-hire means all of your creative work becomes someone else's property. (REMINDER: if you comment at ComixTalk please try to be civil and respectful of others.)

INTERVIEWS
T Campbell interviews Aaron Williams, creator of Nodwick, PS238, Full Frontal Nerdity, co-writer on Truth, Justin, and the American Way.

Jane Irwin interviewed Templar, AZ creator Spike about webcomics and "effectively whoring your way to higher pageviews." You can read the interview here.

Shaenon Garrity interviewed Rob Vollmar who writes the comic Inanna’s Tears (drawn by mpMann).

Lynn Lau interviewed Katie Shanahan creator of the off-the-wall journal comic Shrub Monkeys.

Finding Wonderland talks to American Born Chinese author Gene Yang. (link from Journalista!)

DEAD TREES: Life Meter Vol. 2 will debut at MOCCA. Life Meter is an anthology of video game- inspired comics, featuring stories and art by Bannister, Joel Carroll, Raina Telgemeier, Steve Hamaker, Jake Parker, Jeffrey Rowland, Queenie Chan, and many, many more.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE: I saw some plugs for Boxcar Astronaut and it is indeed a cute comic (it reminds me a bit of the syndicated Red Rover comic strip).

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
FLEEN speculates on whether Elfquest creators Wendy and Richard Pini will follow the path of Phil and Kaja Foglio to the web.

At the Webcomicker blog, Gilead writes about Dominic Deegan:

If there’s one thing I like about Dominic Deegan, it’s that the storylines move forward progressively. The comic tends to have storylines which are fairly self-contained, with a specific villian or villians wreaking havoc with a specific set of goals and a specific set of heroes undergoing a specific set of actions in order to thwart said villians. But instead of each storyline coming around the full circle and leaving the heroes in basically the same place as they were when they started in classic comic book “and so the world was saved once again, and John D and Suzy Q were able to return to their normal lives” fashion, the characters in Dominic Deegan mature and grow from their experiences, and with each storyline move progressively closer to the “happily ever after.”

Joystiq readers pick their favorite comic.

Odd factoid of the day - according to this blog post, VG Cats creator Scott Ramsoomair used to babysit this guy.

Interviews and commentary from APE 2007 on The Gigcast this week.

Submitted by Michael Moss on May 17, 2007 - 18:13

The cool folks over at Nightgig Studios are including part one of our three part drive-by on webcomics at the Alternative Press Expo in the Gigcast this week.

Alternative Press Expo

Details for this year's APE convention are here. Special guests include Hope Larson and Gene Yang. The dynamic duo of Shaenon Garrity and Andrew Farago will be moderating panels, including the interesting sounding "Socially Relevant Comics" panel.

Plus, a whole mess of folks from Cartoonists With Attitude group will be there:

News for Friday, April 20, Early Edition (UPDATED)

Submitted by Erik Melander on April 20, 2007 - 10:09

TOOLS

INTERVIEWS

SYNDICATION

  • Pink Raygun wants your comics.
    Pink Raygun is now accepting webcomic submissions. We are looking for six female created webcomics to run on a weekly basis.

    What exactly is Pink Raygun? Apparently "[...] a webzine for the modern fangirl" accoring to their faq.

EISNER AWARDS

  • As noted yesterday by DJ Coffman, the nominations for the Eisner awards is out. Besides the Best Digital Comics category's strong lineup, there are a couple of familiar names sprinkled throughout the categories. Brian Fies, whose Mom's Cancer won the very first Best Digital Comics Eisner Award is nominated this year as well in the categories "Best Reality-based Work" and "Best Graphic Album - Reprint". Gene Yang's American Born Chinese is nominated in the "Best Graphic Album - New" category and Lark Pien's coloring in "Best Coloring". Svetlana Chmakova's Dramacon and Hope Larson's Gray Horses are nominated in the "Special Recognition" category.

ADVERTISING

MILESTONES

(Xaviar Xerexes contributed to this story)

Wednesday Link Roundup

Submitted by Erik Melander on March 28, 2007 - 05:11

INTERVIEWS

  • Newsarama interviews Kean Soo, creator of Jellaby which started out as a webcomics, but is scheduled to be published in print by Disney's "Hyperion for Kids" impring.
  • Comicsnob interviews Michael Poe and Hilary Hatch of Caffeine Angels Studio and Errant Story.

BUSINESS

  • Zach Miller's Joe and Monkey has been picked up for online syndication by GoComics according to a recent news post.
  • Have you checked out the trailer for the Penny Arcade game yet? In a news post Gabe talks about the game, hinting that it will sell for less than $20 and be a RPG/Adventure.

AWARDS

  • Gene Yang's American Born Chinese continues to garner critical acclaim with a nomination for a Reuben awards.