Tim Broderick
They're Trying to Make Me Webcomic, I Said No, No, No
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 22, 2008 - 10:07
COMIXTALK
- The January issue rolls along with interviews with WCCA Chairman Frank "Damonk" Cormier; the creators of Blank Label Comics; creator and world traveler Ryan Estrada. We also have a review of Rob Hanes Adventures; plus Michael Payne's feature on vanished webcomics; Tim Broderick's feature on whether to approach an agent or a publisher first with your graphic novel proposal; Patric Lewandowski's feature examining how a creator's intent relates to what is a comic; and Derik Badman's look at Murder Dreams, a short comic from 1954 drawn by B. Krigstein.
- Don't forget to check out our advertisers: The Learn to Draw course and the webcomic The Vanguard.
- Next month, February 2008, is ComixTalk's fifth anniversary! [Insert slightly vulgar exclamation here]
News and Blues
- WCCA Nominations due this Wednesday, January 23rd.
- Kris Straub has changed the URL for his webcomic Starslip Crisis to starslip.com - make sure to change your bookmarks!
- Sequential Tart has an interview with Bill Barnes of Unshelved.
Get Up On The Good Post
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 14, 2008 - 11:00
January Issue (so far...):
- Xaviar Xerexes interviews the International Man Of Webcomics: Ryan Estrada
- Michael Payne goes in Search of Vanished Webcomics
- Tim Broderick continues his series on bringing his webcomic to print with a traditional publisher: What's the Next Step?
- Patric Lewandowski considers the Intent of the Creator in his series on defining comics.
- Derik Badman's latest installment of his column Panels & Pictures offers a close reading of Krigstein
Be kind to our advertisers and check out the Learn to Draw the Human Figure anatomy training course.
HEADLINES
- Todd Allen tackles the quality of Zuda's advertising and Platinum's AT&T sponsorship of the Comic Book Challenge among other subjects in his most recent column at CBR.
- Lee Atchison takes a turn at being a "renowned webcomics historian" with A Brief History of Webcomics: part one and part two.
INTERVIEWS
- Jiffy Burke interviews James Turner, creator of Beaver and Steve.
- Leesa Hanagan interviews Woody Hearn of GU Comics.
- Joamette Gil interviews Tracy Butler, creator of Lackadaisy.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Pam Bliss has a computer but doesn't read webcomics. And she worries that the giant magnet overlords may erase all of the webcomics from the intertubes. Gleep!
A Road Less Traveled: What's the Next Step?
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So, now that you have: a completed novel, a killer query letter and a short but riveting synopsis, who do you send these things to first: a publisher or an agent?
If you're like me, you ask people who have more experience in these kinds of things. And that's what I did: I contacted several published mystery writers on what they'd do if they could do it all over again.
If you think there's a consensus out there, you might be surprised.
A Road Less Traveled: The Synopsis
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 13, 2008 - 15:19
Click here for A Road Less Traveled: The Synopsis by Tim Broderick.
It's December Already? UPDATED
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 3, 2007 - 15:19
COMIXTALK
- Check out this month's cover art from Ryan Estrada!
- First up is our year-in-headlines review of webcomic news from 2007. Still to come later this week is our annual critics roundtable and the People of Webcomics list.
- Dr. Haus reviews another webcomic, this time The Prime of Ambition by Naomi Craig and Alyssa Follansbee.
- We also have another article in Tim Broderick's review of his path to publishing his graphic novel: this time he covers writing the synopis.
- And we have the second installment in Patric Lewandowskis look at the definition of "comic"; this month he explains the idea of applying four criteria to defining comics.
BUSINESS
- Bill Barnes, the artist on the webcomic Unshelved has left his "day job" at Microsoft to go work full time on the webcomic. (more at FLEEN)
- Potentially interesting item: FLEEN posted about a My Fridj website owned by a Dawn Douglass. Douglass countered that the My Fridj site was not really intended to be public (although she did blog about it in October without such reservations) and whatever "social media cartoon syndicate" she's working on is still to be revealed. It's clear from her website that she's engaged in a lot of research and thinking about the "digital comics" space (to put it in MBA-speak). And hey, she's a cartoonist herself.
- The Comics Reporter reported that Marvel will stop publishing DVDs of its comics, supposedly because of the new DCU website service.
MILESTONES
- Joe Dunn hits 300 episodes of Joe Loves Crappy Movies. This ongoing comic/review series is not just a funny comic, but Joe is a pretty good reviewer of movies as well.
AWARDS
INTERVIEWS
- Scott Kurtz interviews Tyler Martin - not a bad start to what Kurtz says will be a regular podcast called Webcomic Confidential.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Comics I Don't Understand has finally entered the 21st Century - moving to a blog format at a new URL.
- The 24 Hour Comics Day project is looking for new blood to organize future editions. More information here.
- Daily Cross Hatch reviews Captain Estar Goes To Heaven by Winston Rowntree.
- Cartoonist Ben Boxer and sums up about 14 hours of opera in one webcomic. (h/t The Beat).
- The Comics Reporter links to this funny "50 Answers" comic.
A Road Less Traveled: The Synopsis
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"A Road Less Traveled" is a series of articles by Tim Broderick detailing the path to publication of his graphic novel, "Cash & Carry" (based on his webcomic Odd Jobs, featured at Moderntales and Timbroderick.net). In this month's article, he discusses crafting the synopis for a graphic novel.
In previous installments, Tim reviewed how he signed with a traditional publisher for his graphic novel and how he constructed his ultimately successful query letter.
Whereas writing a query letter is a creative challenge, writing a synopsis of your story is an exercise in patience.
Odd Jobs Options for Television Series
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 6, 2007 - 00:03
Exciting news from Hollywoodland:
Tim Broderick's mystery webcomic ODD JOBS, has been optioned to Warner Brothers Television. The series will include the stories "Something to Build Upon" and "Cash & Carry".
I Come From A Monday Down Under...
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 5, 2007 - 15:55
COMIXTALK MAGAZINE UPDATES
- Lots of articles up this morning to kick off the November issue of Comixtalk: interviews with Howard Tayler, the new Halfpixel crew, comics creator and writer Debbie Ridpath Ohi and comics artist Ramon Perez; Doctor Haus reviews the webcomic Slackerz, and two feature articles: one from Patric Lewandowski examining the definition of comics, and one from Tim Broderick with advice on writing a query letter to publishers.
BUSINESS
- Todd Allen has an interview with Joey Manley and one of the investors in the new ComicSpace venture.
ZUDA, ZUDA, ZUDA!
- David Gallagher writes about writing for Zuda.
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Brian HibbsAbhay Khosla writes about the Zuda interface (and something about why webcomics should aim to be more disreputable than the print comics he sells.) - Paul O'Brien gives Zuda a grade of a C+. Seems early for report cards?
- Highway 62 focuses on the actual webcomics up on Zuda.
- Newsarama has an interview with many of the Zuda creators.
- The Beat has a round-up of posts on Zuda here.
OPINIONATED WEBCOMICS
- The SpinZone webcomics collective picks up its first conservatively-tilted webcomic, Geeks on Caffeine.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
- What happens on the pirate ship, STAYS on the pirate ship
- Debbie Ridpath Ohi updates her My Life in a Nutshell comic with a bit on her ComixTalk interview.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Monkey Law goes silent in support of the Writers Guild strike.
- Panels and Pixels has an extended interview with Monte Schulz on the recent biography on his dad Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts.
- Nightwish, heavymetal umlauters from Europe, rock out at Onezumi Studios.
- Seven Camels blog has scans of the "Comic Strip Artist's Kit" created by Carson Van Osten, a famous Disney artist who did many of the Disney comic books.
A Road Less Traveled: Writing the Query Letter
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Last month Tim Broderick, began a series of articles detailing the path to publication of his graphic novel, "Cash & Carry" (based on his webcomic Odd Jobs, featured at Moderntales and Timbroderick.net). In his first article at ComixTalk last month, Tim covered how he signed with a traditional prose publisher as opposed to a comics publisher. This month Tim dives into the specifics of how he constructed his ultimately successful query letter for "Cash & Carry".
One day a few months ago, at a dinner with several of her local Chicago authors, my new publisher talked about a presentation where she discusses the ins and outs of getting published - including the best query letter she'd ever gotten. She revealed then that it was mine.
Monday Update
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 21, 2007 - 21:51
COMIXTALK
- Derek Badman is back with another installment of Panels & Pictures -- this month Badman shares some examples of color use in a variety of comics, with an emphasis on the use of shifting color palettes within the same work.
- Xaviar Xerexes interviews this month's cover artist -- Spike. Spike is the talented creator behind the well-received webcomic (and book) Templar, Arizona. The comic is a story about a town that may or may not completely conform to the regular laws of reality and features a growing assortment of interesting characters who both intrigue and intimidate the protagonist, a young man named Ben. Spike has also created other webcomics, including Sparkneedle, Lucas and Odessa and Playing With Dolls.
- And don't forget to check out all of the feature articles from October: Tim Broderick's article on taking your comic to a traditional book publisher; and interviews with creators Jon Morris; Jamie Robertson; Bill Roundy; Thomas K. Dye; and Lee Adam Herold.
LEGAL BEAGLES
- Jeff Rowland got a nasty-gram supposed from the copyright owner of the O'RLY owl photo that's infested the intertubes for awhile now. Apparently one of Rowland's designs incorporates the image from the photo. FLEEN offers some thoughts on the matter. Damn Good Comics blog offers its two cents too.
INTERVIEWS
- Wizard Online interviews Kris Straub about the Alterverse War miniseries and his ongoing sci-fi webcomic Starslip Crisis.
- Comic Book Resources talks to Unshelved co-creator Bill Barnes about his library-themed strip. (h/t Journalista!)'
- Lynn Lau interviews Tara Tallan, the creator of Galaxion.
- Boston Globe interviews Randall Monroe, creator of xkcd.
REVIEWS
- Meg Heald has a review of Looking For Group.
- Mr Myth lambasts Chris Crosby for creating an infinite loop of repeats without a proper ending for the webcomic Wicked Powered.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
- I thought David McGuire's Webcomics Are Awesome is pretty funny as a parody of webcomics community (not sure if he's going to update it further) on the level of "lots of this absurd stuff happens and it's always healthy to make fun of yourself" since McGuire is a comic creator himself and as part of the now defunct Bag of Chips collective has certainly been "in" the webcomics community as much as anyone. On the otherhand I don't really know David (met him once at SPX) so I'm not sure how he views this comic.
- Everyone's making comics about the latest videogame Portal. This one's from Hijinks Ensue (whose creator Joel Watson also makes comics that appear on the website Apple Insider)
- Tough Guys is a pretty good concept for a comic (or probably more likely an Adult Swim animated series) but the execution of this webcomic by Zac Marshall and Nuno Teixeira is all wrong. The art is strange and largely looks cut and pasted. Maybe a chibi style would have worked better here. It's also largely not funny nor interesting yet. You're aiming at a huge chunk of American pop culture over the last 30 to 40 years (the "action movie") -- that's a big fat softball across the plate, if you're doing jokes you ought to be hitting multiple base hits everytime out.
- The Tower by Saki Miyamoto and Brendon Bennets is a textless comic about a princess who escapes her intended role in search of adventure.
- David Wright (creator of Todd and Penguin) has a new webcomic out called The Best Kids Show Ever - sort of if Fox News decided to get into the children's television business.
- Butternut Squash versus Mahna mahna. (Original muppet song here!)
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- A fairly good discussion has emerged from Joey Manley's post asking about how popular a webcomic needs to be to be able to successfully sell t-shirts.
- I can't decide if this videocast called ComiXtrips was fun or just annoyed me but I will say this - it was short, the guy clearly planned out what he was saying before he shot it and he had an opinion. If someone did this about webcomics I might watch it.
- Tastefully Done 2008 is out. It's a fundraiser for Cancer Research and features sketches of your favorite webcomic artists sans fabric.
- The Tonight Show with Tycho! It certainly would suck less than Jay Leno seems to do.
- The Beat has video of Chris Onstad's (Onstad or someone in a gorilla suit at least) Ignatz award acceptance "speech". (h/t Journalista!)
