Mike Russell

Comix Talk for Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 20, 2010 - 10:23

REVIEW: Gavin Lees gives a pretty positive review to Kate Beaton's Never Learn Anything From History collection.

HYPE

I'm not sure I've linked to Awesome Hospital yet so here you go. It still feels a little derivative of Dr. McNinja to me, but it is pretty funny.
Another list of webcomics generated at Warren Ellis' White Chapel forum. You're bound to find something new to you on it.
Comics Alliance presents a Firefly fan comic from Mike Russell and Bill Mudron.

From the Mailbag: Patric Lewandowski started a fundraising project at Kickstarter with a goal towards funding a comic called Terminal Life.

In 1989, when I was 9 years old, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. He underwent surgery which removed an entire lung from his body. For the next nine years, he was in and out of the hospital and always near death. I grew up with a terminally ill parent and it had a profound impact on who I became as a person. This graphic novel, tentatively titled "Terminal Life" is about that first year when my father was diagnosed, had surgery, and it became apparent that my life had changed forever.

Comments

Comix Talk for Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 13, 2010 - 09:24

Culture Pop by Seth Kushnar

Seth Kushnar's CulturePop debuted this week. The first one is about Alyssa Loveless talking about performing and her music. I really dig Kushnar's website Graphic NYC, and this comic project looks very promising. Different vibe but its somewhat similar to a great journalistic comic called CulturePulp by Mike Russell.

BUSINESS: Tom Tomorrow's current comic is a funny take on the Internet but a little bitter about the ~~changes~~ waste the Internet is laying to existing business models. Tomorrow and Reuben Bolling are two extremely talented cartoonists that should be able to make it in the Internet world. Maybe they need their own Robert Khoo business guru but if nothing else they ought to talk to Jeff Rowland at Topataco and see what they can do with taking control of their merchandizing opportunities.

LEGAL: Linda Joy Kattwinkel, Esq., Intellectual Property and Arts Attorney at Owen, Wickersham & Erickson writes a post on what to do when your artwork is being ripped off. Good advice.

AWARDS: James Hudnall writes about his experience being a judge for the Eisner nominations this year.

MILESTONES: Shaenon Garrity reports that Daniel Merlin Goodbrey has concluded his webcomic All Knowledge Is Strange and started a new webcomic 100 Planets.

REVIEWS: LeftyFilms.com reviews this month's Zuda contestants. (h/t Artpatient.com)

HYPE: BleedingCool.com has a bit more and pix on the upcoming book Kill Shakespeare. Plus a take from a Shakespeare scholar.

NOT WEBCOMICS: BleeedingCool.com has a round-up of the recent uncovering of work Jack King Kirby did for an animation house in the 80s. Neat to see even more ideas from the comics legend.

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More Comix Talk

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 10, 2010 - 14:27

Dapper Caps and Pedal Copters by David Malki!

A few more stories worth checking out today:

JUSTIFY SOME HYPE: Comics Alliance has a preview of David Malki!'s new Wondermark book -- Dapper Caps and Pedal Copters. It's been great to see Malki!'s success with the Wondermark books from Dark Horse Publishing.

INTERVIEWS: An interview with Mike Russell of the alway funny webcomic Culture Pulp. Culture Pulp is non-fiction, usually taking on a movie or an event in the Northwest. And Von Allan gets interviewed -- his graphic novel (which used to be serialized on the web at Girlamatic but I don't see it there now) is The Road to God Knows.

BUSINESS: An article on epublisher WOWIO's excitement about the iPad. I'm excited about the iPad too, but given WOWIO's history I am going to wait and see what they bring to the world in terms of product and contracts before spending too much time reporting on their revival.

ALWAYS BE PREPARED: Webcomic Marketing has a list of items to put in a convention travel kit. It's a really good idea to have a check list before leaving for a convention.

Comments

What Did I Learn?: Serenity Tales

Submitted by Delos on May 6, 2009 - 10:00

Serenity Tales Anthology by various artists is… well, it’s not exactly an official anthology that I’m reviewing. It is actually multiple unedited comics unofficially based on the characters and universe of the tv show Firefly and movie Serenity.

It’s a science fiction universe with American old west trappings and a few twists. The Chinese language is used often, especially as slang and the point of view is a little different from what you might expect; the rebels. There was a war between the empire and the rebels and the rebels have lost. The rebels are known as Browncoats and are now supposed to reintegrate themselves back into the day to day existence of the empire, much like Confederate soldiers had to after the Civil War. The characters are trying not only to survive from day to day but also dodge the vicious empire lawmen and criminals that abound. The characters are based on a spaceship called Serenity and they try to earn their keep by delivering goods from place to place. There’s more to know about the setting, of course, but that’s the gist.

Mike Russell

CulturePulp Covers Fake Wedding Staged by Cartoonist Barry Deutch

Submitted by The Administrator on October 2, 2008 - 09:02

Wow. Okay cartoonist Barry Deutch (amptoons.com and hereville.com) is actually a wedding planner as well and he recently staged a fake wedding in Portland, OR ("I see a lot of weddings. I wanted to make fun of them."). Cartoonist Mike Russell covered it in his reporting comic, CulturePulp. Russell's comic is hilarious (and the wedding is filled with even more local cartoonists such as Meconis, Manley Lee and Mudron).

Mike Russell

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.

The Oregonian Interview About Breakfast Of the Gods

Submitted by poyorick on April 8, 2007 - 15:36

Hey folks, just wanted to shamelessly hype a very nice bit of press I received today, courtesy of Mike Russell, interviewer - artist - critic for The Oregonian (Portland's #1 newspaper). Turns out Mike is a fan of Breakfast of the Gods and contacted me for an interview which ran in today's Arts &Entertainment section.

The full-color interview is on his website CulturePulp (and the full-length, non-illustrated version of our lengthy chat is here).

Mike Russell

The March of the Collectives

March 12, 2007 - 00:44 | Xaviar Xerexes

A collective, loosely defined, is any sustained grouping of webcomic creators. What they do together varies greatly from group to group. Some are largely a peer group offering each other critical feedback and encouraging support. Others throw in cross-promotion for each others' work. Some build a collective brand with logos, advertising and a central website. Some share business experience and expertise in areas as varied as merchandise, books, conventions, hosting and website creation.

And what did I find from my research? There's a tremendous number of collectives out there (and that I never want to attempt another "survey" article again). And, oh yeah, checking out collectives can be a great way to find excellent new comics.

Wikipedia-Free News & Views For Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 7, 2007 - 11:13

Before I get to today's news & views -- don't forget we had three new articles published in the magazine this week:

Terrence Marks interviews married creators, Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier. This is actually the first in a series of five such interviews we'll be publishing this month.
New columnist Brigid Alverson covers five short story web manga this month in Small Packages.
Bryant Paul Johnson returns with another installment of his historically accurate series at Comixpedia: The Antecedent.
And of course a big thanks to Meghan Murphy of Kawaii Not for doing this month's cover art.

HEADLINES

Here's a great opportunity (and a clever idea for a book): Howard Tayler is planning to publish the 2000-01 run of Schlock Mercenary in a book and he's put out a public call for guest art to include in the book. I hope he gets a wide range of interest on this - I'd love to see some of the Schlock characters done well in different styles.
Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub announce a more formal creative relationship (including Straub relocating to Dallas, TX). Help them pick a name for their new partnership here. (Also I missed that PvP character Skull has a blog now...)
Good question from R. Stevens and a good discussion in the comments there: "In a webcomic, each page of comics read is a 'pageview'. In a comic book, each page of comics read is a 'pageview'.... Has the webcomics readership outgrown the American comic book market?"

INTERVIEWS

Daily Cross Hatch blog interviews Perry Bible Fellowship creator Nicholas Gurewitch.
Bookslut interviews Fun Home creator Alison Bechdel. (both interviews caught by Journalista!)

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

Mike Russell is rerunning his CulturePulp comics at his WebcomicsNation site. Most of these have appeared before in the newspaper, but not on the web in one convenient location like this - worth checking out - funny, insightful journalism in comic form.
The Comics Reporter likes Lukewarm Tales.
The Webcomicker likes the second episode of the animated PvP series. In contrast to pre-premeire complaints from PvP fans, Gilead says the voice actor behind the character Skull is the star of the production.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

FLEEN reports that You Damn Kid! creator Owen Dunne has redone his website(s) and created a video based on his Beevnicks comic.
The For Better or For Worse "Hybrid" idea apparently came from Universal Press Synidicate which convinced creator Lynn Johnston to go with it rather than simply hanging it up later this year.
FLIGHT reports on the lineup for Flight, Vol. 4. Also, Kazu Kibuishi posted cover art for the series at his website.
The Comics Reporter points to a discussion at Comics Worth Reading on this year's Free Comic Book Day (May 5th).
Over at TalkAboutComics is a post about a movie coming out with the same name (and apparently very similar content) as an existing Serializer comic. Creator Scott Ewen (the comic is Flight of the Living Dead) seems pretty stoic about it.

Comments

The Comixpedia End of 2006 Roundtable

December 16, 2006 - 23:33 | Xaviar Xerexes

Our second annual virtual round table on the year in webcomics features comments from Eric Millikin, Daku, Gilead Pellaeon, Mike Russell, Lewis Powell, Alexander Danner, Eric Burns, Michael Rouse-Deane, Johanna Draper Carlson and Gary Tyrrell.