Act-I-Vate
Special Post: Yes, Virginia, there are webcomics
Submitted by El Santo on August 23, 2009 - 07:00
Looking forward to ACT-I-VATE Primer
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 17, 2009 - 12:08
Another interview with Dean Haspiel promoting the upcoming print collection, The Act-i-Vate Primer. Dean has a Billy Dogma story in the anthology of work from Act-i-Vate creators. It also has comics from Joe Infurnari, Roger Langridge, Nick Bertozzi, Molly Crabapple, and Mike Cavallaro among others. I'm looking forward to reading it.
The Daily Update with your host Xaviar Xerexes
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 13, 2009 - 12:22
INTERVIEWS
Dean Haspiel talks to CBR about the new ACT-I-VATE Primer, a book featuring comics from creators on the roster of the ACT-I-VATE webcomics portal.
Tim O'Shea has an interview with Carol Lay who has a new book out called The Big Skinny which is a combination diet book and memoir in comics.
UPDATE: CBR has a really good interview with Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics (and the dude who runs Project Wonderful advertising).
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
Richard Thompson of Cul de sac points to a recent Tom the Dancing Bug comic on the news of that comic's climbing to the top of the Rankopedia rankings for comics strips.
One Punch Reviews #24: A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
Submitted by El Santo on August 11, 2009 - 19:39
It’s not often that webcomics tackle serious subject matter. It’s even rarer when creators take the time to interview people who lived through traumatic real world events, then captured their experiences through illustrations. Creator Josh Neufeld, though, a Xeric Award winner and a founding member of ACT-I-VATE, was up to the task. Neufeld interviewed six different people about what the trials and tribulations they faced on the worst storm that New Orleans ever experienced and made a comic out of it.
This month, the highly acclaimed webcomic A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge hits the bookshelves. (Amazon.com places the release date at August 18.) The “deluge” in the title is, of course, Hurricane Katrina. The comic was originally serialized online between 2007 and 2008 in Smith Magazine. It was recognized in several publications, including Rolling Stone, the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek. USA Today named it as one of 2007’s best comics.
Notices like these, by the way, can sometimes be detrimental. They can intimidate potential readers who see the attention the comic is getting from mainstream media reviewers and deduce that the work is difficult, given how praise is usually only bestowed to difficult works. Well, don’t be frightened. The voices of A.D. are those of everyday people, and the straight forward storytelling puts you in the shoes of those who witnessed it.
The Joy of Webcomics is all about sharks and viruses
Submitted by El Santo on August 4, 2009 - 13:46
The Webcomic Overlook is back to provide you the weekly scrapbook of webcomic news. So grab your mint julep (or iced tea), saunter off the the patio, and open your laptop. Take care to put something in between your lap and the computer, by the way (a towel, perhaps), because the heat from the laptop can burn like the dickens.
- You know what week it is? Shark Week, of course! Every year, we jump in the water with the Discovery Channel to visit these toothy menaces of the sea. And every year, Hockey Zombie is there to oblige.
- Dash Shaw of the Eisner-nominated Bodyworld joins the Comics Comics blog. His first post? Commenting on the storyboards behind Evangelion 1.0. He’s pretty much the perfect guy to be commenting on it, since his comic also transitions to seemingly random scenes from panel to panel. (h/t The Beat)
- Sometimes, we forget that webcomics aren’t a unique product of the Western World. It seems that even manga is going digital. From the NY Times:
So while the explosion in cellphone manga is not a simple story of migration from print to digital, most experts agree that the future of manga lies more on the mobile than on paper.
“The idea of printing the magazine, loading them on the track and delivering them to distribution centers, that whole model is on the decline,” said Noboru Rokuda, professor at Kyoto Seika University, which has a manga faculty, and a longtime artist himself. “I like to keep the paper manga tradition going, but there is an inexorable transition away from paper and into the digital medium.”
- Speaking of digital manga, Johanna Draper Carlsson is running a poll at Comics Worth Reading as to which online manga is the best.
August Already
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 31, 2009 - 11:33
I can't believe tomorrow is August. Here's a preview of next month's cover art from cat garza.
And some interesting stories around the web today:
Techdirt talks to musician Jill Sobule who has embraced a model for her career that won't seem all that strange to many webcomic creators.
An interview with Danielle Corsetto of Girls With Slingshots. (h/t to Journalista!)
Art Babble is a portal for videos on the web about art. Looks very cool...
ACTIVATE In Print
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 30, 2009 - 08:29
NYC Graphic Novelists reports that ACT-i-VATE is putting out a print collection of works from creators from the anthology site titled The ACT-I-VATE Primer (the comics will be new material) (ACT-I-VATE press release here). I am betting this will be a dang impressive book.
In this Post! D.J Coffman, Jon Rosenberg, Jason Little, Amy Pearson and Matt Madden
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 15, 2009 - 13:13
Shaping up to be an interesting week in comics:
MILESTONES
Jason Little's Motel Art Improvement Service wrapped up today. It was a very well done sequel to the first Bee story. The somewhat sudden ending is still surprising to me but the middle three panels of the last installment are masterfully done.
BUSINESS
D.J. Coffman writes about warning signs that Diamond may be in trouble and speculates on it's implications for the future of the direct market for comic books.
REVIEWS
Johnanna Carlson writes a negative review of Jon Rosenberg's new Goats book and then the two of them exchange polite remarks in the comments. Always nice to see a little civility on the Internets. I haven't read the book so I can't offer a contrasting view I'd like to offer up a quote from Carlson's review that was meant critcally, but that I think is actually a pretty good way of describing Goats positively:
The point seems to be the dialogue more than the events. The characters talk a lot. The art is serviceable but not particularly attractive, and it’s often pretty static
That's always been the case with Goats - even more recently when the comic has had actual plot and science fiction trappings. Rosenberg is the Kevin Smith of webcartoonists.
INTERVIEWS
An interview with Amy Pearson of the comic Mathema which started off on Zuda but now appears on Pearson's own site.
CRAFT
Matt Madden recently offered up an exercise in comic improvisation you might want to take a crack at.
You Should Have Read These Links This Morning Already
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 3, 2009 - 15:15
CONVENTIONS
Fleen has the breakdown on where the webcomics at for this year's MoCCA 2009.
INTERVIEWS
A good interview with cartoonist Kate Beaton. She did get web-famous pretty quickly, didn't she? Also another good interview with Beaton at Comixology.
Daily Cross Hatch has an interview with Achewood's Chris Onstad.
Comics Worth Reading has an interview with Tara Tallan of Galaxion.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
The K Chronicles asks cartoonists why can't we be friends?
Rick Marshall reports that several members of ACT-I-VATE, including Josh Neufeld, contributed to last night's ABC News special Earth 2100.
Brigid Alverson has a good article about her Zuda rule: making sure the reader can make sense of the comic in the first 8 pages.
Enhanced Webcomic Techniques
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 18, 2009 - 09:39
Go me - I had a great time sketching and noodling over comic ideas this weekend (iIt's pretty rare for me to have so much time to do that these days) And... here's some updates on the world of comics:
AWARDS
Jeremy Love won a lot of this year's Glyph awards for his work on Bayou. Congrats!
INTERVIEWS
An interview with Mike Mignola of Hellboy (yes not on the web but c'mon it's Mike Mignola!).
An interview with Nick Bertozzin on Iraqi War Stories, running at ACT-I-VATE.
An interview with Miles Grover of Thinkin' Lincoln.
An interview with Carolyn Belefski of Curls.
JUSTIFY MY PREMATURE HYPE
Art looks nice on 24 Frames/Second.
COPYRIGHT
Boing boinger Cory Doctorow pens a piece asking why fan fiction doesn't get the same respect from copyright as critical analysis.
