Scott McCloud
The 2009 State of Webcomics Address
Submitted by Morgan Wick on September 1, 2009 - 23:31
It’s been said that kids say the darndest things. It’s been said in many different ways by many different people. In fact, that’s essentially the lesson of the fable “The Emperor’s New Clothesâ€. All the adults who praise the emperor’s threads without actually seeing them fear the consequences of calling him out on them – but the kid who points out that the emperor is, in fact, buck naked doesn’t know any better, can’t grasp the consequences that the adults fear might befall him for saying such a thing.
Strip News 8-28-9
Submitted by Delos on August 28, 2009 - 09:00
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for all of us, so here’s a double sized issue to catch up…
- This Week in Webcomics gives us the ten best Nobody Scores!, Pigs of The Industry reviewed Bow & Arrow Detective Agency, Darrell gives us a glimpse of Melody and Smash and Webcomics Critique looked over Bottoms Up! and Pigs and Such. Tangents reviewed Saijiki Stories and Comixup shared a Gunnerkrigg Court review from i09. Lonely Panel did an anti-review of Reporterz, too. Webcomic Overlook opined on Dreamless and Legend of Bill. MPD57 reviewed Arctic, If You See The Hills, Rogue Royal and Simply Sarah. Peiz covered the multidimensional Fred Peterson: The Mighty Warlord.
- Fictions covered Pohadky, Talkin Bout Comics discussed Potential, Down The Tubes reviewed Omnivistascope and The Rainbow Orchid while Madinkbeard analyzed Le Voyage. Forbidden Planet looked at The Path and High-Low peered into The Deformitory – it’s the last review on that page.
- You know you’re big when you’re big in Pheonix, right? We also find out via ComixTalk that Voles Of The Dusk is now printed in a three story volume. Optical Sloth tells us about a bunch of small press comics by Rob Jackson, another batch by Mark Bennett, one by Jerell McFalls and one by Matt Feazell. The Floating Lightbulb highlighted Scrap Paper Comics and Hard Graft while ComicsGirl covered Chiggers and MPD57 reported that Dual is getting another season.
- Tweeterview interviewed Lonnie Easterling of Spud Comics and A Nickel’s Worth gave Dan Piraro twenty questions. I always dig question five… “Many of the best comics are Internet only.” Six Chix interviewed Stephanie Piro – I’m amazed that Stephanie doesn’t have a studio and instead depends on a lap and wheeled assistance. Not what I expected. And I’m not sure what I expected from MPD57’s interview with Sheldon Vella of Supertron but there’s more there than I would have asked for. Bob Scott’s interview (via Drawn!) was nice to read AND we got a look into his process, too.
- There was weighty discussion on Madinkbeard about a comic analysis article from 1986 which you may enjoy but it made me wonder if that’s how non-fans determine what a comic is or isn’t. If the words are small and almost touching the images then it’s probably a comic. If the text is larger and/or offset from the images then it must be an illustrated story. This is, in my opinion, a very arbitrary line in the sand. What if DC started publishing Superman comics composed mainly of larger story text partially overlapping splash page type images? Would that be a coffee table book instead of a comic? Pshaw.
- And Jason Thibault twittered about this interview with Tony DiGerolamo on Newsarama. It’s a pretty scathing take on the overall comic scene but it makes me wonder how things would change if all the big boys published comics online instead of in monthly print booklets… many things would become corporately standardized and general audience expectations would likely be harder to work around, for instance. It also seems likely that the Marvel and DC would truly begin to see the internet as a candy store of new intellectual property to mine. But enough of my paranoid delusions…
- The Last Panel had some thoughts on the loneliness you may feel when working on your comic while Rocket Bomber points us to Project Rooftop’s Wolverine: Look Sharp contest winners. Mindless Ones put some thought into how the Batcave has been treated in the Batcomics and I agree it deserves more.
- We also got to see D Bethel’s artistic process here but then we also saw the new, new methods he uses and the penciling techniques of Charles Yoakum on Ink Destroyed My Brush. Via Hero Spy, we also get Nick Edward’s process and you may want to check out all the good stuff in this Digital Strips Link post – especially Kyle Latino’s constructive visual critique and I agree that Kushner needs to read more graphic novels. Tom Richmond weighed in with speech bubble advice and Scott McCloud talks about the merits of editors.
- Webcomic Overlook is conformingly contrarian, if I read this right. Really, I’m not keen on critics – whose whole gig is about tearing creative works apart as opposed to reviewers who mainly tell you about them. Often, these two groups are lumped together though you are free to disagree with me if you like. (Reminder: El Santo is on another wedding vacation.)
- Have you seen DrawerGeek’s take on Spiderman? Superhero Nation talks about effective superhero costume design – it reminded me of the heroine’s design in Kukuburi. Harvey Pekar launched a webcomic (and Superheroine liked this) and the hubbub over motion comics is over but Comics Worth Reading covered it if you missed it.
- Do you track visitors or readers to your site? The Floating Lightbulb helps us find out how ComicRank can help. And here are eight things to not do if you want more Twitter followers. PW Beat had some very interesting links about comic site design and comic journalism.
- Addanac City crossed the one year line, so congrats to you George.
- Finally, I happened across this SiteAdvisor from McAffee which tests your site for spammy problems and links. ArtPatient is green, baby, green but you may want to check out your site, too.
Webcomics: a question about scrolling
Submitted by Von Allan on August 26, 2009 - 21:02
In a nutshell: does scrolling matter? Especially for dramatic or other longer form webcomics?*
I've been going back and forth about this. A part of me is arguing that it does and that I should make sure my formatting for the comic pages are about 800px by 600px. But I work in regular comic book format so my pages are all vertically aligned. To make a comic fit that horizontal dimension means that I need to reformat things. Sometimes that's easy (a grid of 6+ panels can be rearranged pretty easily) and sometimes it's hard (splash pages and other large images require some thought and image tweaking).
Strip News 8-7-9
Submitted by Delos on August 7, 2009 - 09:00
Kind of a slow week for things that caught my eye…
Looking back at Scott McCloud’s ten webcomic tips
Submitted by El Santo on August 5, 2009 - 21:38
As a change of pace, I thought it would be nice to take a look at something written about webcomics but one of sequential art’s most influential voices: Scott McCloud.
Dark Red: Issue #3 Page 89 - Research Notes
Submitted by Dark Red on August 2, 2009 - 12:50
Our bonus page is up now for Issue #3: Page 89 - Research Notes
The Joy of Webcomics lies, cheats, and steals
Submitted by El Santo on July 29, 2009 - 12:53
There was apparently a big To Do down in SoCal this weekend. Various webcomic types are spending this week coming down from the high of San Diego Comic Con. The event has gotten so large that I swear I saw Stan Lee on CNBC last night doing a post-Con wrap-up. Surreal.
Captain Nihilist asks, “What’s so bad about calling them ‘webcomics’?â€
Submitted by El Santo on July 22, 2009 - 09:00
I’m probably going to end up making an issue out of a non-issue here, but the topic is fairly interesting and, as more independent artists migrate to the web, is probably going to get more press in the coming years. Comic creators are, after all, totally anal when it comes to proper terminology.
Should we still keep calling comics on the web “webcomics”?
ArtPatient.com Strip News 7-17-9
Submitted by Delos on July 17, 2009 - 09:00
Okay, you’ve been badgered by the Green Lantern and Thor announcements which I won’t duplicate here…
- Pigs of the Industry reviewed the creators of Zuda’s instant winner Bottle of Awesome and Peiz covered Ruby while Tangents went in depth on Red String. MPD57 looked at 9th Year and Original Wonders interviews Tyler James. MPD57 also looked at Bloody Pulp and posted July’s Star Chamber results. I dig the blurb additions, too. And Webcomics Critique reviewed Juvies.
- Newsarama reviewed Low Moon and Scott McCloud points us toward Neo Mento. Eh, I’m just not sold on all the clicking it took to get to the comic (I have flash disabled by default, so I had to enable two screens to get to the comic.) Darrell shows us how to get Zuda comics to load faster, though.
- ComixTalk brings us up to speed with Odori Park’s 30 day webcomic challenge.
- Boom! gets another goldmine. Boom! Boom! Boom!, I guess.
- Thanks to Webcomic Overlook, I am now aware of the Bad Webcomics Wiki. So far, this is the only page I checked out but it looks like it contains good rules of thumb. Of course, there are ways to do some of these ’sins’ right.
- Is it really that important to send a hard copy of the comic you want reviewed? Seems to me that you send hard copies to those that you’d especially like to target and pdfs to everyone else. I’m open to other thoughts…
- Hero Spy interviewed Justin Bleep
- MangaBlog points us to an anecdotal report about Borders moving the manga section in with the kids books. Last time I was in a Borders, the manga section was next to the sci-fi and fantasy books and another store had them within a graphic novel section. Anyone else noticed this during their trips to the bookstore?
- Vented Spleen has some advice for comic self publishers and Kez reviews Ka-Blam’s printing service. Also included, free of charge, are some tips on what to watch out for and what not to do. The video is very cool too. Kez has some good ideas – especially the commission book. (I couldn’t find a way to link to it on Kez’s user page but I can link it on the general You-Tube page.) The other vids have some good stuff too. Highway 62 gives novelists turned comic writers some good advice. And Webcomic Beacon discusses making comics in multiple languages plus a number of milestones. I also see that Calamities of Nature has hit two years as well.
- Drawn! brings us some good drawing lessons from a master. Maybe I should have named the site ArtPatient! or Art!Patient…
- And finally, MPD57 had some good variety of comic news to enjoy, too.
Warren Ellis: comics can help you perform sabotage, cure Alzheimer’s
Submitted by El Santo on July 15, 2009 - 15:53
Warren Ellis (who created the webcomic FreakAngels, among other things), gave a speech at Dundee University. He claims its was written in chickenscratch … but, as Abraham Lincoln could attest, sometimes the most timeless and memorable speeches come from concise yet powerful ideas that just mentally congeal into perfect nuggets of wisdom. For Ellis, comics are a superior medium. Here’s an excerpt:
