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Chemistry Set

Who Are You?: An Interview with Neil Kleid (Action, Ohio)

Submitted by El Santo on January 25, 2009 - 16:00

whoareyouWhat if superheroes, created by analogues of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, were real and based on actual people with powers? What if they were hidden away in a sleepy town since the 1950’s? And if there are superheroes, are there supervillains?

Action, Ohio, written by Neil Kleid and illustrated by Paul Salvi, was originally one of the hopeful competitors trying to win a contract with Zuda Comics. The comic follows heroine Andi Bruce, a Detroit detective with a sad past, who is compelled to solve a brutal murder. Her investigation gradually leads her to learn about the existence of superheroes in a town on the Michigan-Ohio border. Eventually, she must decide between solving her case or protecting the heroes’ freedoms by keeping things quiet.

I first encountered Action, Ohio, when Jack, Anthony, The Doctor, Delos, and I did a round of reviews at Comic Fencing. I heard about the comic again when Neil sent out a press release that the comic had moved to Shadowline, an Image Comics affiliate that begun publishing webcomics in October 2008. I did some quick research, and it quickly dawned on me that Neil Kleid was prolific. Winner of a Xeric Award (for Ninety Candles), writer for several print comics published by NBM to Slave Labor to Image, art director for Comedy Central and Miramax campaigns, creator of several webcomics…. Good God, y’all.

A large sample of his work can be found at his Rant Comics site.

I contacted Neil if he’d like to do an e-mail interview, and he graciously accepted. Neil had already conducted two excellent interviews with Newsrama and io9. I wanted to touch on subjects that hadn’t yet been covered at the other sites: what it was like working for Zuda and Shadowline, what common themes were within his body of work, and … why Ohio?

It's Friday! Oh Thank Gawd...

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 8, 2008 - 09:19

This is the doggiest day of the doggiest month for me.  And almost all of the over-committed; under-performed threads of my life seem to be getting their equal short share of me.  Sigh...

I'll be on vacation the month of August 17th.  If you've ever had an interest in playing a "world famous" webcomics blogger/cub reporter on the Intertubes for a week shoot me an email (xerexes AT gmail DOT com) and maybe we can arrange for me to hand you the keys to the site for the week.  (Note - those were super-pretentious, self-mocking air quotes around the words "world famous")

TOOLS
Comics Worth Reading has a nice review of How To Make Webcomics.  I still haven't read this but the reviews seem to have all been positive.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Overcompensating meets Sweeney Todd = Jeffrey Todd.  Pretty cool.

CBR covers Gunnerkrigg Court, calling it the Harry Potter of webcomics.

MILESTONES
Congrats to Jeffbot on its first year anniversary.  I only found this comic recently but am enjoying it.

Congrats to the Chemistry Set collective on its second year anniversary.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
Webcomics-savvy journalist Rick Marshall and ComicsMix are parting ways.  One, this apparently is part of the end of news at ComicsMix.   Two, I wish there was more money in comics journalism to keep good writers fully employed.

LA Times has an article up about Zuda -- DC's monthly webcomics contest.

Newsarama Roundtable on Economics and Webcomics

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 12, 2008 - 16:26

Newsarama has a roundtable style interview with a whole bunch of folks mostly about webcomics and the potential impact of a worsening economy on creators.  It's more interesting than it's title suggests.

The Newsarama article includes comments from T Campbell; Mike S. Miller, an authorized representative of Wowio.com; Chris Crosby, Chief Executive Officer of Keenspot and creator of Superosity; Tim Demeter, editor of (the iPod comic site and home to digital material from UK comics publisher 2000AD) and GraphicSmash.com (ModernTales’ action-focused anthology site); Dean Haspiel, co-founder of the webcomix collective, ACT-I-VATE, editor of SMITH Magazine’s Next-Door Neighbor anthology and Billy Dogma creator; Jim Dougan, a founding member of the webcomics collective, The Chemistry Set, and co-creator of Sam & Lilah on DC’s Zuda Comics (came in fourth place in the March Zuda competition), now part of the online comics collective ACT-I-VATE; Shaenon Garrity, creator of Narbonic and editor of the subscription-based webcomics anthology site, ModernTales; Queenie Chan, a Chinese-Australian webcomics creator; Andy B., a member of the Toronto-based webcomics group, Transmission-X; David Gallaher, writer of High Moon, the first winner of DC’s Zuda webcomics competition; and Lea (DivaLea) Hernandez, webcomics and Original English Language (OEL) manga pioneer.

Webcomics And The City

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 6, 2008 - 09:38

MoCCa MoCCa MoCCA!!
The Beat lists a lot webcomickers in attendence at this weekend's MoCCA fest in New York:  Jeffrey Rowland, Raina Telgemeier, Josh Neufeld, Lark Pien, David Malki, Cat Garza, Jen Wang, Ben Rosen, Dave Roman, Lunchbox Funnies, The Flight crew, Kean Soo...

HAMMER TIME!
ComicMix redesigns its webcomic reader for comics published on its site. ComicMix contributor Rick Marshall praises the new reader and hints at new developments to come at ComicMix.

GUEST ART
Today's the last day to submit a guest strip for Alma Mater's Summer O' Fun run.

DEAD TREES
The Pulse has an interview with some members of the Chemistry Set collective on their print anthology, No Formula.

Wet Ink has an interview with Lee Salem the head of the Universal Press Syndicate.

NOT WEBCOMICS
Warren Ellis points out that Svetlana Chmakova of Tokyopop’s Dramacon is one of the creators of the new animated series, My Life Me, which is in production for a fall 2009 release.

The A.V. Club has an interview with animator Robert Smigel.

Webcomic Jones and the Cintiq Skull

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 30, 2008 - 09:10

LEGAL
If you haven't read enough about how bad the new Tokyo Pop contest contract is read Tom Spurgeon's straightforward breakdown of the various flavors of crap contained within it.  (Lea Hernandez also has links to most of the posts on the subject here.)

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Will Wheaton and Greg Williams have a webcomic up about nostalgia -- Star Wars action figures to be specific.

Joe Infurnari who does the Eisner-nominated webcomic, The Process, announced he will also be posting a new webcomic titled The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad on the ACT-I-VATE site.

DEAD TREES
Comics Worth Reading has a short review of the print collection of the webcomic America Jr.

Word Balloons has a review of Kean Soo's Jellaby book.

The Chemistry Set webcomics collective is set to publish an anthology of their comics called No Formula.

SWAGALICIOUS
I really like this t-shirt from Dorothy Gambrell (Cat and Girl).

NOT WEBCOMICS
NerdWorld has a post up about the freshly released Penny Arcade game and the almost here Homestar Runner game.

Looking Back Through 2007

December 2, 2007 - 18:53 | Xaviar Xerexes

In years past (2004, 2005) we undertook the monumental chore of picking out the biggest headlines of the year. This year, I took another swing at it. So without further adu, here's the biggest webcomic headlines of 2007.

If I missed a story you think was key to this year, please post it in the comments to this article.

Friday Moves Pretty Fast. If You Don't Stop & Look Around Once In Awhile You Could Miss It

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 26, 2007 - 10:40

WIKIWATCH

ZUDAMANIA

COLLECTIVE 'ECTIVE, WHAT'S YOUR... FECTIVE?

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

Webcomic Wire - 9/21/07

Submitted by NightgigTim on September 21, 2007 - 14:44

Drawn from sources from the deep end of the pool…

10-part series on comic book exec Ira R. Schnapp.
The Chemistry Set welcomes Philipino comic artist Andrew Drilon and his series Kare-Kare Komics. 
Harmless Chatter blogger Sid lists what he thinks are the 5 funniest webcomics.  Everyone seems to have an opinion about who is the best these [...]
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What's On My Monitor for Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 21, 2007 - 10:12

Sore Thumbs - come for the cheesecake, stay for the political slapstick...

INTERVIEWS

MILESTONES

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

 

Comixpedia Update: Thanks, Links and Bucks

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 30, 2007 - 12:00

A quick shout-out to our current advertisers: the webcomic Life on the Fringe and the Learn To Draw the Human Figure drawing course. Also be sure to check out the Overman comic and Grant Thomas's website full of comics and music goodness. We also thank all of our Project Wonderful advertisers including current sponsors, the webcomics collective The Chemistry Set, the webcomic For The Hermits, and the awesome t-shirt company, Awesome T-Shirts.

Speaking of collectives, I neglected last month to highlight Kelly Cooper's features on webcomic communities from the archives. Check out parts one and two for a view of webcomic community from when Comixpedia just started in 2003.

Finally - I'll be traveling next week so my posting will be light. A bit of the April issue should go up this weekend but I'll have to regroup on it when I get back. We're still looking for new (or old) reviewers to... well review some webcomics. It's not much, but Comixpedia does pay $10 for a published review. Right now I am looking for reviews of science fiction webcomics (check out our archive of reviews for some examples of what Comixpedia has published in the past). If you're a potential reviewer be sure to email me (xerexes AT comixpedia DOT com) and we'll get you started.