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T Campbell

Graduation Day: College Comics Cum Webcomics by Sean Barrett

August 10, 2003 - 22:51 | Sean Barrett

Every online comics reader encounters college webcomics sooner or later. They're so common you might start to feel like every third comic you encounter is college-based. But, despite the history and nature of college comics in print, it seems the most popular "college" strips are scarcely about college life at all, building instead on elements not found in the real world at all, much less college.

Comic-Con 2003: Meetings and Memories

August 3, 2003 - 21:57 | T Campbell

There he was.

He looked nothing like I expected. Instead of thin, parted hair, thick baroque curls snaked around his upper head. He was taller and thinner than his cartoon likeness. But something about the way he carried himself, the way the glasses sat on his eyes... I still recognized him.

The First Comic On the Internet (The History of Online Comics: Part 1)

July 13, 2003 - 16:29 | T Campbell

In this series of articles T Campbell explores the history of the still young medium of webcomics. In part one, Campbell looks at Hans Bjordahl's Where The Buffalo Roam which first appeared on Usenet in 1992. Bjordahl was the first of a small group of online comic pioneers centered in Boulder, Colorado that also included Holley Irvine (Ozone Patrol), Tom Oling (40th Parallel, later USS Utopia) and Terry Krueger (SOS). Despite his legitimate claim to creating the first "online comic", Bjordahl is no longer actively creating comics.

Modern Tales and Keenspot panels at San Diego Comic-Con

Submitted by Joey Manley on July 10, 2003 - 16:29

From the San Diego Comic-Con Program:

Saturday, July 19

4:30–6:00 Keenspot: From the Web to the Moon— The green-lovin' uberbrains behind Keenspot.com, the most popular site for original comics on the web, will be breaking news on the keenest happenings and discussing Keenspot's slow but steadily continued expansion from the web to other forms of media, including print comic books and graphic novels, wireless content, animation, toys, and eventually maybe even the moon itself. Panelists will include Maritza Campos (College Roomies From Hell!), Mike Rosenzweig (Everything Jake), Clint Hollingsworth (Wandering Ones), Brad Guigar (Greystone Inn), Steve Troop (Melonpool), Howard Tayler (Schlock Mercenary), Alan Foreman (SSDD), Darren Bleuel (pnes), and a tentative appearance by the sasquatch-like Chris Crosby (Superosity), who may or may not be a giant rubber suit filled with super-intelligent puppies. All attendees will receive at least two free Keenspot comic books, as well as the thanks of a grateful nation. Room 7A

6:00–7:00 ModernTales.com— Modern Tales is the leading provider of commercial web comics, offering a number of anthology and single-series websites to paying subscribers, including, among others, ModernTales.com and James Kochalka's AmericanElf.com. Panelists will discuss the aesthetic and commercial opportunities these websites afford cartoonists, and at least one major announcement will be made. Panelists include Cayetano Garza Jr. (Whimville), Dean Haspiel (Billy Dogma), Shaenon K. Garrity (Narbonic), Rick Hoberg (Gizmo & Geers), Donna Barr (Desert Peach), and T. Campbell (Rip & Teri). ModernTales.com’s Joey Manley moderates. Room 7A

Turning Japanese by T Campbell

June 15, 2003 - 23:01 | T Campbell

Japanese culture has so thoroughly melted into American culture that we can't always tell where one ends and the other begins. Speed Racer, Godzilla, Voltron, and Tranzor Z are nostalgic for millions of Americans, almost a part of "Americana." Weightlifters train by eating sushi. The Matrix seamlessly blends Japanese martial arts and Eastern philosophy into Western cyberpunk and American car chases. Japan makes our cars, our computer parts.

Nowhere does the Japanese voice speak more clearly than in the true avant-garde, the avant-garde of comics, the Web, and especially of webcomics.

2003 WCCA Nominees Released

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 4, 2003 - 22:00

The Web Cartoonists Choice Awards' Nominees for 2003 were released this week.

Voting for award winners is ongoing from now until June 29th and the winners will be announced on July 6th. Read on for a list of the nominees:

Lights, Camera... (In)Action! in Webcomics by T Campbell

May 5, 2003 - 00:01 | T Campbell

POW! ZAP! AARGH! WHACK! TATTARRATTAT!

In comics' very early days (at least since the Katzenjammer Kids), they threw slam-bang bim-bam-boom thrills, spills, and chills right at their readers' eyes. Today's online comics are not so visceral. They affect the heart and mind more than the guts. And many would call that progress. But the progress has had its price.

The Addiction

April 27, 2003 - 23:06 | T Campbell

My heart was racing.

My eyes were glazed, my muscles tense. I took a slight, masochistic pleasure in the repetitive motion injury I was developing in my shoulder. I kept glancing over that shoulder, afraid of being caught, but the fear only added to my excitement.

I had been surfing a popular online comics site on company time.

Webcomic Awareness Day Coming May 5th

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 24, 2003 - 10:38

Jim Alexander writes:

A last reminder about WCA2003...

May 5th and our third annual WCA is less than two weeks away.

We currently have more than 60 web cartoonists signed on to do a special contribution strip for that day, as well as about a dozen others who are tenatively considering a WCA2003 strip (circumstances permitting).

Howard Tayler has mentioned that "The Pulse" is supposed to cover the event. Mark Mekkes has mentioned that he's going to plug the event during a local radio interview in Florida next week.

The current list of participants spans a full range of online comics. We have several members from Keenspot, Keenspace, Modern Tales, The Nice, and a lot of independents who aren't affiliated with any particular group (or groups). There are a few dozen return participants from previous years (many 3-time participants) as well as a lot of newcomers (our most newcomers ever).

For those of you who've said you'd like to participate, but haven't yet sent me the URL for your WCA2003 page, please do so as soon as possible.

Whence Webcartoonist Subcommunity?

March 23, 2003 - 16:08 | T Campbell

The modern history of art has been largely the history of artist subcommunities, bound by common interest and usually but not always by geography. Michelangelo fraternized with colleagues, burned with rivalry for Leonardo, and clucked his tongue at Titian. To be in Paris in the 1920s was to glimpse Pablo Picasso in conversation with Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway.