Features
Panels & Pictures: At The Margin
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In this month's column, Derik A. Badman looks at that staple of comic books -- the margin. First, by examining how comics make effective use of page borders and next by considering how, if at all, webcomics address similar artistic choices.
Lessons for Webcomics from Short Stories
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Joel Fagin discusses all of the many lessons webcomics can learn from short stories. Concepts such as effective beginnings, efficient storytelling, and showing not telling. All topped off with an examination of David Willis' reworked beginning to It's Walky. I could tell you more but why don't you click "read more" and I'll show you...
Head Trips
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This month Brigid Alverson talks to Evan Hayden and Ryan Sands, the proprietors of the blog Same Hat! Same Hat!! which features original webcomics as well as scanlations of some of the strangest manga you will ever see: gag manga that is more head-scratching than thigh-slapping and horror stories that turn everyday life inside out.
Panels & Pictures: One Page
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In this month's column Derik A. Badman takes a close reading a page of Jaime Hernandez "Flies on the Ceiling," (which is included in volume 9 of the Complete Love and Rockets and the Ivan Brunetti edited Anthology of Graphic Fiction).
Comic Theory 101: Loopy Framing
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In another installment of Neil Cohn's continuing series Comic Theory 101, Cohn puts word balloons, thoughts balloons and panels under the microscope and concludes that they're all essentially the same animal -- one that has the function of encapsulating other information.
A Philosophical Discussion On Why You Do What You Do
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Sebastian Parsons is back with another outsider's look at webcomics. In an article published by Comixpedia last year (Diversifiwebcomication: Maximize Your Business Potential) Parsons wrote about business strategies for the budding webcomics entrepreneur. In this article, he looks at webcomics within the larger paradigm of Web 2.0 and offers some thoughts on why we webcomic.
The March of the Collectives
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A collective, loosely defined, is any sustained grouping of webcomic creators. What they do together varies greatly from group to group. Some are largely a peer group offering each other critical feedback and encouraging support. Others throw in cross-promotion for each others' work. Some build a collective brand with logos, advertising and a central website. Some share business experience and expertise in areas as varied as merchandise, books, conventions, hosting and website creation.
And what did I find from my research? There's a tremendous number of collectives out there (and that I never want to attempt another "survey" article again). And, oh yeah, checking out collectives can be a great way to find excellent new comics.
- Altbrand
- Ape Law
- Blank Label Comics
- Bomb Shelter
- Boxcar Comics
- Dayfree Press
- Dumbrella
- Eyeskream
- Found Hat Press
- SpinZone
- The Nice
- Transplant Comics
- Amber glych Greenlee
- Barb Lien-Cooper
- Bernie Hou
- Brad Hawkins
- Brandon Carr
- Bryant Paul Johnson
- Chris Shadoian
- Clay Yount
- Dave Roman
- David Malki!
- Desmond Seah
- Fred Grisolm
- Gordon McAlpin
- Ian McDonald
- Joe Dunn
- Jon Morris
- Kelli Nelson
- Lou Graziani
- Mark Mekkes
- Mike Krahulik
- Mike Maihack
- Mike Russell
- Mischa Unovich
- Mitch Clem
- Ovi Nedelcu
- Ryan Estrada
- Ryan Sias
- Shaenon K. Garrity
- Ted Rall
- Terrence Marks
- Thomas K. Dye
- Tom Brazelton
- Trade Loeffler
- Tyler Martin
- Wes Molebash
- Zach Miller
- What Birds Know
- Wondermark
- Yirmumah
- Zortic
- Features
Sugarskull! An Interview in Comics
The members of the Sugarskull collective conducted an interview amongst themselves and recorded it in comic format. The members of Sugarskull are Jones, Sarah Glidden, Sarah Davis, Alice Hunt, and David Patty and between them they create a lot of comics including: Vampirates, The Reader, The Awakened, Goodbye Chains, Keeps, Small Noises and Venus in Points.
Founder Alice Hunt describes Sugarskull as "designed to give quirky quality comics more attention" and their comics as "a little sweet and a little dark, like the candies that gave us the name."
Printing Without a Press
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A mini comic might be one of the best off-line promotional items for your webcomic you can have. It's handy, it's quick and it gives you something to sell cheap or giveaway at conventions, stores and wherever potential readers may gather.
And for not much money at all, you can add some color. This month, Grant Thomas provides a step-by-step guide to creating a classy color cover for your next mini comic.
Small Packages
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People think of manga as coming in 20-volume doses, and sometimes that’s true. But not every story is an epic, and some creators have used the techniques of manga to tell brief tales of romance, magic, and adventure.
Some of these are Japanese and some are not, but all are worth a look. Let's start with two artists who occasionally post short stories on their websites: Queenie Chan and Jen Wang.
