Features
2005 MoCCA Con Report
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MoCCA – the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art – holds an ART FEST every year and has since 2002.
This year the Fest was held on Saturday and Sunday, June 11th and 12th from 11am to 6pm each day.
Given that I live only about 4 to 5 hours north of New York City, where the Fest is held, I finally decided to actually get off my tuchus and attend the thing.
Going to the Printer: An Experience Essay by Ben Thompson
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Hi, my name's Ben Thompson. I make the webcomic Townies and I recently printed my first collection, Townies - Book One. Much like when I began my webcomic, I knew some things before I actually got started, but I learned a lot in the process. I hope to share my story of seeing a book to print as well as make this a bit of a how-to for anyone considering making their own books. It's very gratifying seeing your work in dead tree format, but remember it takes a lot of work and dedication. Before I go into specifics, I should explain the different types of book printing out there right now.
Creative Commons and Webcomics by T Campbell
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Traditional copyright faces webcomics with an uncomfortable choice. Its restrictions, properly enforced, would mean a virtual end to crossovers and homages, fan art, fan fiction, and many other staples that make the webcomic a more entertaining creation and foster artistic growth.
A total lack of copyright, however, leaves unscrupulous readers free to “bootleg†subscription sites, program tools to deprive comics of advertising revenue, and even profit from others’ labor without permission.
The Creative Commons license presents a possible solution. It lets copyright holders to grant some of their rights to the public while retaining others, through a variety of licensing and contract schemes, which may include dedication to the public domain or open content licensing terms.
Practical Guide to Collaboration, Part Two: A Collaboration Survey
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In preparing my article, A Practical Guide to Collaboration, I sent out a survey on collaborative experiences. I received considerably more information than I was able to use in the article, much of it far too interesting to leave unpublished. Presented here are some additional highlights from the survey.
Collaborative Webcomics Are No Sin by Michael McGovern
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I blame Frank Miller.
Back in the days B.F. (Before Frank) the comic book Editor Gods had decided that the job of making a comic book should be broken down so that hordes of different people worked to create it together. This way the people who were best at these specific tasks could put out more work. After a while it got out of hand, with jobs like Plotter, Scripter, Penciller, Inker, Colorist and Letterer (eventually they would have broken this job down even further: "Ted, you letter the consonants. Bill, you’re on vowels, and sometimes 'Y'").
Then along came Frank, who blew the doors off, and suddenly every artist thought they could write.
A Practical Guide to Collaboration, Part One
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One of the most liberating facets of online comics is that it has made it easier than ever for creators interested in working collaboratively to find each other. No longer must writers troll local comics shops and art schools in the hope of finding like-minded artists. Instead, they can go straight to a large community of comics creators, where geography is no barrier. They can get to know the people they hope to work with, and everyone can see samples of each others' work on their websites before committing to any sort of collaboration. All in all, the Internet has allowed for more people to experience more productive and rewarding collaborative experiences.
Crunching The Numbers: A Look At Gender And Comics
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Comic book guy, one of the recurring characters on The Simpsons, is the avatar of the comic book fan: a fat, poorly-dressed, goatee-wielding man with an encyclopedic knowledge of comic books and pop culture. And while this image may not be fair or even generally true, the fact remains that comics have mostly been – and still are considered – a male domain, both from the standpoint of audience and of creators. But, whereas this may be true about the print comic world, both mainstream and indie, is it also true about webcomics?
Snapshots from the 2005 U.K. Thing
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UK folks are all too well accustomed to Americans getting all the big cons. Alternative Press Expo? San Diego? It's just not fair. So, when the UK Web and Minicomix Thing rolled around again this year, how could any of us resist? Finally, we not only had something the Americans didn't, but we had it *first*.
Why Women in Webcomics Should Not Be An Issue by Ping Teo
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Well, it's that time "The Women Issue" for Comixpedia.
I suppose I should be all excited about this. I mean, hey... I'm female, I make comics. I'm fairly vocal and campaign for a more realistic portrayal of women in comics and all that, and sometimes I'm tempted to do a comic where the females run around rescuing the hapless (but mighty fine-looking) men all the time just to show how odd it looks from a reversed perspective.
Oh wait... I almost do one like that already.... ;)
The Quality Question: Traffic, Appeal, Mass Appeal, and The Passion of the Stalin
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One of causes of head-scratching among newer webcomics creators is the question of quality as it relates to popularity. Why are there popular comics that suck? Why are there great comics without much readership? (There are plenty, if you look.) If your comic's readership isn't growing much after a year (or two, or three), does it mean it isn't good enough to "make it?"
