In this review, El Santo takes a look at Sarah Ellerton's The Phoenix Requiem, a beautifully illustrated tale set in 19th Century England about a mysterious stranger who stumbles into an idyllic village.

Last month, we began delving into my third of Four Criteria which I propose help to define comics, Closure and Synthesis.  We looked at what has been a widely (though not universally) accepted concept of closure, best defined by Scott McCloud as “the phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole.”  This time around we’re going to be further exploring the other half of the criteria, synthesis.

Michael Payne examines new examples of the "new cute" in comics: Dreamleak by Greg Fraser, Fuzzy Things by Jonathan Sario, and Ghost Farm by Jessica McLeod.  The "new cute" is using the tropes of "cute" to tell stories that are richer, deeper, and more heartfelt than anyone would've thought fluffy bunnies, towheaded kids, and smiling asparagus could support.

So far on our quest to define comics, I have set out my four criteria that I believe best determines whether a given work is a comic or not.  The Four Criteria are: The Intent of the Creator,  Audience Experience, Closure and Synthesis, and The Use of Visual Language.  In previous months, we’ve delved further into The Intent of the Creator and Audience Experience.  This brings us to our third criteria, Closure and Synthesis.  

What is Closure and Synthesis?  Why does this criteria include two distinct concepts?  And just how are these two things related?

Your book has been accepted by a publisher. The hard work's over!

Well, no. You've pretty much just entered the Twilight Zone and that means dealing with contracts.

But what kind of contract you get depends on the publisher you're negotiating with, and you need to set your expectations accordingly.

In this installment of his series on exploring the definition of "comics", Patric Lewandowski looks at Audience Experience, the second of his four criteria for determing "What is a comic?"

Lewandowski explains how this criteria is unique as it has less to do with the creator and instead explores the idea that a comic must be experienced by the audience in a very particular way in the work’s original published iteration.

So you've sent your materials to a publisher or agent, you've waited politely for the prescribed amount of time, and finally a letter from them shows up in your mailbox.

Chances are you've been rejected.

As the new year brushes away the crumbs left from devouring the old one, I find myself thinking of vanished webcomics: those that've come to the end of their storylines, those that've just stopped, and those that've disappeared altogether.

As the new year brushes away the crumbs left from devouring the old one, I find myself thinking of vanished webcomics: those that've come to the end of their storylines, those that've just stopped, and those that've disappeared altogether.

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.

In the first installment of a series of articles examing the definition of "comic", Patric Lewandowski looked at existing efforts to define the nature of comics and proposed that another approach is needed. In the second installment Lewandowski set out the four criteria that he proposed to use in his examination of a new definition for comics.

In this article, Lewandowski focuses in on the first of his four criteria: the intent of the creator. What does this criteria mean? How is it defined? Why do we need it?