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Maritza Campos

Frappr Map Up To 400+ Members

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 28, 2006 - 10:18

The Webtoonists map is up 407 members now.  If you make a webcomic put yourself on the map!

na-na na-na na-na Grammarman!

Submitted by Boydegg on April 5, 2006 - 18:03

Just popping in to say hi and to invite you to look at my website...

http://www.grammarmancomic.com

This comic began life as a jokey conversation in a pub last August - between me and another teacher.

It's aimed at people learning English as a second language, so if you know anyone who might enjoy it, please give them the URL.

Thanks all!

Brian

Happy April Fools Day!

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 1, 2006 - 11:47

What's going on?

Monday News Update

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 27, 2006 - 10:52

Is anyone else really happy that Sluggy Freelance has finally moved on from its Oceans Unmoving storyline?  That's the first time Pete Abrams has completely lost me with the strip.  I kind of like the new shockjock characters too.

MILESTONES

MARKETING: Martiza Campos notes the recent First and Last post on CRFH!!! on her livejournal.  One other interesting tidbit from that thread is Campos note that she picked up a 1000 extra readers from her most recent Keenspot box.  Even for a relatively big strip like CRFH!!! I think that's a fairly large number and it shows how powerful the Keenspot network is.

CRAFT: H.S. Kim, creator of Kung Fool X and Kill Harry has a page full of art criticism and some video tutorials on drawing -  definitely worth checking out.

NOT WEBCOMICS: Tom Truszkowski of Station V3 is talking about record-collecting and drew some sketches of his characters with 45s. 

First and Last: A Look At The Evolution of CRFH!!!

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 23, 2006 - 22:59

Maritza Campos has been making College Roomies From Hell!!! since 1999. She's progressed considerably in her approach to both the artwork and the stories driving CRFH!!! Here's one of the very first ones and one from earlier this year.

Cerebus Syndrome: What Makes a Success or Failure?

Submitted by Igmund on March 10, 2006 - 10:51

XEREXES: I CLEANED OUT THE SPAM FROM THIS THREAD AND I'M PROMOTING IT TO THE FRONT PAGE. This thread is/was a great discussion of the Cerebus Syndrome until it got hijacked by spam - maybe now we can pick it back up again.I am doing research for a paper I am writing about webcomics. The specific topic is based on the "Cerebus Syndrome" described by Eric Burns of Websnark. For those of you who don't know, the general concept is that a strip starts out light, funny, and fairly shallow, and then eventually adds depth, characterization, and dramatic story to become something that is a complex amalgam of comedy and drama. A "Cerebus Syndrome" can either succeed or fail. However, what exactly "success" or "failure" means in this context is not at all clear. What I am attempting to do is to develop a rubric for judging the success or failure of a "Cerebus Syndrome" attempt and then use it to judge several example comics. The comics that I am specifically looking at are "College Roomies from Hell!!!" by Maritza Campos, "General Protection Fault" by Jefferey Darlington, the original "Roomies" by David Willis, and "Sluggy Freelance" by Pete Abrams. What would be very helful is if anyone who has an opinion would post on any or all of the following things: -What makes a successful Cerebus syndrome? A failed one? (I have my own ideas, but I am interested to see what others think) -For each comic mentioned above, is it a successful Cerebus syndrome attempt? A failure? Not an attempt at all? Somewhere in between? -Do you know of other particularly good examples of Cerebus syndrome attempts, either successful or not? (I know some others, but I thought these were the most distinctive.) If you do not have anything more to say than yes this is a success or no it isn't, that's still useful, so feel free to post anyway. Also, if you would not like me to quote you, please say so in your post. Thank you all in advance for your help.

Three Years of Comixpedia

February 5, 2006 - 18:03 | Xaviar Xerexes

A little love letter to the magazine that could.It's the third anniversary of Comixpedia this issue.

2006 is the fourth year we've been writing about webcomics. We've put out 38 monthly issues of the magazine and published more than 600 reviews, interviews and other articles about webcomics. We've posted more than 2500 news posts (that's not counting the magazine).

Increasing reader participation

Submitted by Mark Mekkes on January 3, 2006 - 22:17

There's always alot of talk about how to increase readership of our comics. But I haven't heard many ideas on how to increase the interactivity of readers. I've noticed that there are some comics who's fans seem to fill the forums with discussions about the characters, fan fiction and theorizing plot points. But then I've seen other comics (even some with greater readerships) that don't generate nearly as much discussion.

Why is this? Any ideas? I assume more vocal audience reaction is something that we'd all want, wouldn't we? It would seem that more active fans would also be more active in spreading the word about a comic.

So how do we get the fans that we do have to become more active in our communities?

Rebooting Comixpedia, Part 3: Contributor Bios and Images

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 11, 2005 - 14:37

Part of the new publishing platform I'll be rolling out for the new Comixpedia site makes it a lot easier to publish the monthly magazine. Now all contributors will have one biography attached to all stories they write for us. This makes it easier for us (no need to retype each time a new story is published) and better for the contributor (no matter when someone reads a story they see your current biography).

If you've contributed to Comixpedia and want to submit a new bio go ahead and email me. Also, all contributors may now have a 100 x 100 pixel image to go with their stories. If you want to submit one, include it on an email to me.

I just finished loading in all of the stories published in 2003. Click read more for a list of contributors from that year. (One of the nice new features will be the ability to easily see all of the articles each contributor has written for Comixpedia.)

Weekend Webcomics Update

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 30, 2005 - 18:24

M.E. Russell reminds us that this weekend is the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland. Russell (who creates the journalism comic CulturePulp) is moderating a panel on non-fiction comics this Saturday. The organizer of the Fest is none other than Indigo Kelleigh and features among other artists, Same Difference creator Derek Kirk Kim. All for a paltry $3 admission fee. Lots more details here.

In the tools department, here's an interesting program for creating pixel art, Pixen (it's only available for Mac 10.3 and higher).

In other news, Maritza Campos writes that her house was robbed, but thankfully, she and her family are safe.

Less dramatic, but there's a nice article on webcomics in the American University paper that features Nicholas Gurewitch (Perry Bible Fellowship) and Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics) among others.

Finally, the Digital Strips crew points to an interview with Something Positive creator Randy Milholland.