Zach Weiner
Comix Talk for Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 12, 2011 - 12:04
SOCIAL MEDIA TIME: This week I created a Facebook page for ComixTALK - if you're on the FB, please "like" us. I've already loaded to it a lot of my archive (2003-2010) of photos and the monthly cover art we used to run at ComixTALK. Also - I find myself linking to more short stuff on twitter these days - you might find it mildly interesting to follow me on twitter.
CONVENTION 'VENTION WHAT'S YOUR INTENTION: Zach Weiner has a post up on "convention tips" which is actually pretty funny. Hopefully you're not guilty of any of the "bad" behaviors noted but if any of it sounds like you, take Zach's advice next time you're at a con.
ADVICE FOR THE YOUNG AT HEART: Steve Napierski with some good advice on starting and sticking with a webcomic.
PLUG ONE: Scott M.C. Cloud links to Ryan A's Nothing is Forgotten - a silent comic with "some pretty effective sequences (I especially like the way he uses windows)." Ryan A also has some info on his process here.
PLUG TWO: Scott Kurtz moved to Seattle, Washington. The characters in his webcomic, PvP, now look like they will be moving to Seattle. How often does this happen in comic strips -- I'm not sure I can think of any other examples offhand. In PvP's case, I've never thought of it as taking place anywhere specifically though so I'm not sure it has to have any impact on the strip. In other comics the location is more apparent and part of the comic -- changing locations could be a really risky thing.
PLUG THREE: xkcd with some excellent advice for Ke$ha.
Comix Talk for January 3, 2011
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 3, 2011 - 08:30
2011? Yep it's another year, another decade. Another Monday...
ADVICE FOR THE YOUNG AT HEART: I don't think I realized Zach "SMBC" Weiner had a personal blog before (THE WEINERWORKS) - his posts on becoming a webcartoonist are pretty interesting. Zach has a level of self-awareness and criticial self-assessment that is enviable. The most recent post in the series covers his decision to go back to school to study SCIENCE! (part one, part two, part three). It kind of stings me a bit as while I've learned a LOT from reading comics and writing about comics, I haven't actually consistently made comics in awhile now. Here's something from Zach that I will print out and tape to the wall, "Hard work doesn’t guarantee success, but lack of hard work almost certainly guarantees failure."
INTERVIEW: Tom Spurgeon interviews Andrew Farago, webcomics creator, manager of the the Cartoon Art Museum, and husband of Shaenon Garrity.
iWEBCOMICS: Comics for the Kindle? - Tom Mason has some suggestions.
Random Plug for 2010: The crossover storyline of last year I'm going to call for this one between GWS and SP.
KICK START MY ART: Michael Gianfrancesco just launched a Kickstarter project to fund a new comic anthology called Show and Tell, a Comic Anthology about Learning and Teaching. This anthology is part of a larger project -- the New England Comic Arts in the Classroom Conference, which will be held March 26th in Providence, RI. Guests at the con will include Raina Telgemeier and Tracy White. The editorial board for the anthology includes Michael Gianfrancesco, Dr. Jennifer Cook, Heather Bryant, Dan Mazur, Caitlin Plovnick, and Alexander Danner.
MAILBAG: Ben Haugen writes, "If you get a second, check out saggynutbag.com It's only a couple years old, but it's starting to get some momentum all on its own... I don't do any advertising for it other than word of mouth and with possibly the worst domain name on the internet, most people wouldn't come across it (unless they found it while searching for something else)." Okay -- a quick review of the most recent comics. It's stick figure art so it's all on the writing of the jokes and they are (a) all offensive and (b) some are kind of brutally funny, but also I thought some really missed. It's no Crying Macho Man but it's sense of humor is in the same general place. Worth checking out if you like that kind of humor.
Comix Talk for the Weekend
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 26, 2010 - 00:00
Let's Go To The Videogame Chuck: Comics based upon (and licensed from) videogames: The Sacrifice by Mike Oeming turns the premise of Left 4 Dead into a webcomic and Chris Avellone created Fallout: New Vegas—All Roads! -- a graphic novel prequel to the upcoming videogame Fallout: New Vegas.
INTERVIEW: Pop Syndicate interviews Gisele Lagace and Dave of the webcomic Menage a 3.
REVIEW: Lauren Davis has a nice write-up of John Allison's Bad Machinery at the IO9 blog
HYPE: Caldwell Tanner combines history and Frank Miller perfectly in a parody over at College Humor! Very funny and I thought he nailed the garish energy of Miller's covers.
MAILBAG: Ian Terrell writes about his webcomic The Grumpiverse "that takes on the news of the day and week that makes us grumpy for one reason or another. We consider it a webcomic, although to some it might fall more under the category of political cartooning."
Comix Talk for Monday, June 28, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 28, 2010 - 10:01
I wanted to hit this DC-area event with Mike Rhode, Andrew Cohen, Evan Keeling (DC Conspiracy), Ben Claassen, Shannon Gallant and Matt Wuerker, but during the World Cup: futbol first, comics second. Check out Comic Girl's write-up of the panel and Mike Rhodes' comments here. I was also going to turn this site black for a couple of weeks to mourn Team America's loss to Ghana but that's probably taking it too far (plus, you know, it'd be more work!).
CODEPRESS: In the land of webcomic mods of Wordpress, we've had updates from ComicPress and Webcomic/Inkblot recently, but not from stripShow. I did see this recent announcement from MangaPress that it does work with Wordpress 3.0. Those are the four main Wordpress-for-webcomic packages I'm aware of - but let me know if I'm overlooking a worthy alternative.
CRAFT
- Ed Piskor, creator of the comic Wizzywig, has a great post on comic panels that show both the cause and effect of an action. This is harder to pull off well than it looks.
- More tutorials on using Manga Studio from Lincy Chan.
DEAD TREES ON THE HORIZON
- Captain Excelsior by Zach Weiner and Chris Jones. This was a very funny spin on superhero comics but basically a FOX sitcom at heart.
- Fantagraphics is going to put out a book collecting Drew Weing's Set To Sea. It's a masterful comic from Weing and I'm really looking forward to getting it in print.
AROUND THE BLOGS
- Comics Worth Reading plugs Rick Smith's webcomic, Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery as "an attractive strip about two guys who ride a lot and run a bicycle shop.... Since I’m not a cyclist, I like the strips about stupid customers best, since I can better relate to those, but there’s also some lovely mood work and some funny cycling and recycling gags." You may remember Smith from his Shuck comics.
- Apparently Morgan "Supersized" Spurlock is making a documentary about Comic-Con. Bleeding Edge posts a call from Spurlock for people interested in being in it.
Comic-Con 2009 is in the rear-view!
Submitted by wireheads on July 27, 2009 - 13:02
Well, another sun has set on the thunderous foot prints that roamed the San Diego Convention Center for five days in July, 2009. Comic-Con has come and gone. But with great gusto! What recession? Maybe some things have been scaled back, but not at Comic-Con. It seems like it was bigger and better than ever. If you weren't there and needed to be for business, you blew it, man.
News and Updates…
Submitted by bobweiner on April 13, 2009 - 21:58
It’s a fairly generic title, but the long and short of it is that I’ve been busy. The first week of the new academic quarter started off with a bang last Monday, and I’ve been going full tilt with coursework prep for the past two weeks.
New Comic from Zach Weiner and Chris Jones and James Ashby
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 11, 2009 - 10:02
Snowflakes is a new comic with art by Jones and word-stuff by Weiner and Ashby. I had meant to post about this earlier this week but I haven't had time for writing much this week. Anyhow, the comic is pitched as a PG-rated affair and is set in an orphanage where we've met the current cast of orphans. So far so good - I'm curious to see what PG-rated stuff these guys can come up with over time.
Obamanos Day Two: Webcomics
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 21, 2009 - 14:46
Obama! It's day two of your presidency... why haven't you solved global warming yet!! How about some webcomic-y news in the meantime:
TOP STORY
Kris Straub has a really good post on why he essentially did a reboot of his comic Starslip recently. For anyone hoping to have a popular strip the advice on "the pitch" is well worth reading.
INTERVIEWS
Brian Warmoth has an interview with Jon Rosenberg of Goats.
An interview with Zach Weiner of the screamingly funny Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
REVIEW
Ping Teo takes a look at Shi Long Pang.
THEORY
Herve St Louis has an article on his definition of comics which includes a survey of other approaches as well.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
Lea Hernandez has a new website at http://divalea.net/.
Has anyone used this site called Komix! - it appears to be a piperka type of comics update/reader.
Wanna Win Some Cool Schwag?
Submitted by bobweiner on October 11, 2008 - 21:39
My buddies over at Rampage Network are running a little caption contest. The contest wraps up on October 31st.
One Punch Reviews #19: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Submitted by El Santo on September 24, 2008 - 03:30
Fellow webcomic blogger Ben Gordon recently wrote a post about the different forms of humor at the Floating Lightbulb. This led to a link that itemized humor in pat little categories. I come from the point of view that humor cannot be delineated, mainly because it’s evolving year after year.
