Half Pixel
Webcomic Wire - 11/2/07
Submitted by NightgigTim on November 2, 2007 - 13:42
Drawn from seven seconds into the future…
Dave Kellett, Kris Straub and Brad Guigar are leaving Blank Label Comics to form the new HalfPixel, previously a hub for Straub and Kurtz’s joint efforts. Good luck guys! ComixTalk has an interview with Howard Tayler about this week’s changes to BLC and the future for the collective. Best [...]
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Friday
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 2, 2007 - 10:17
NOVEMBER ISSUE OF COMIXTALK
- We'll have more stories up this weekend but for now more on the Blank Label Comics/Halfpixel roster shifts announced this week. In addition to our earlier interview with the new members of Halfpixel, we posted today an interview with Howard Tayler of Blank Label Comics. (Speaking of Blank Label Comics, Steve Troop has brought back his webcomic Melonpool with new updates)
CONTEST
- I've got another Karas the Revelation DVD to give away...
REVIEWS
- Playback reviews The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories, Nick Gurewitch's book collection of his webcomic The Perry Bible Fellowship. (h/t Journalista!)
JOURNALISM
- Journalista! writes "Wizard Online Editor Rick Marshall emailed them to announce that he had been relieved of his job. No reason was specified." The Comics Reporter hears that Mike Searle is rumored to be taking over for Marshall. Journalista! also caught that Wizard managed to trash the website for its magazine and as of this morning I see that it's still broken.
ADVERTS
- Joey Manley writes that as an experiment for the month of November, you can now buy via Project Wonderful the top banner spot for all of the major user-generated content sites on the new ComicSpace Network (TalkAboutComics.com, OnlineComics.net, the WebcomicsNation.com, and ComicSpace.com). It looks like Eric Milikin (Fetus X) had the spot this morning for about $45 per day (Project Wonderful works on a real time auction basis).
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Comics Worth Reading raves over Sinfest.
- Journalista! found something I wrote interesting enough to lead off today's post with a quote from it.
Filling In The Blanks: A Short Interview with Howard Tayler
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Earlier this week ComixTalk posted an interview with the new line-up of Halfpixel (Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub, Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett). Since as part of the creation of the new Halfpixel, Kris, Brad and Dave left the Blank Label Comics collective, I wanted to get a comment from someone on the Blank Label team. Howard Tayler, the creator of Schlock Mercenary, was kind enough to answer quickly some questions about this week's changes and the future of Blank Label Comics.
Rolling, Rolling, Rolling (Update) On a Thursday!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 1, 2007 - 15:00
Welcome to November. We have a cover this month from Debbie Ridpath Ohi who creates a great webcomic on writing called Will Write For Chocolate. No particular theme this month but a lot of good interesting articles are on tap. In December, we will venture into "wrapping up the year that was" territory - stay tuned for more details on that later this month.
HEADLINES
- Halfpixel increases by two and changes name to Quarterpixel.. wait I mean Bipixel -- actually just read the interview with Scott, Kris, Brad and Dave here to find out about their new working partnership under the Halfpixel banner.
- Slashdot picks up on Wikinews' story on Webcomics and Wikipedia. I know this is old news to most readers of ComixTalk but it's in the news again for at least a portion of the intertubes-reading public.
BUSINESS
- Steven Grant tries to apply lessons of the music industry to the comics biz. It's a good think piece and points out the way comics creators can bypass the "labels" like musicisians are doing, but annoyingly Grant knows more about examples of this "new entrepreneurship" in the music industry then he does in his own industry. Grant should at least be aware of the comics equivalents of unsigned new bands - webcomics - and how they use merchandise and other ancilliary activities (sketches, guest shots, downloads) to make money while giving away the comic for free. He could have also pointed to some established professionals ditching their labels to go indy - like Phil and Kaja Foglio or Michael Jantze.
INTERVIEWS
- The U. of Alberta paper has an interview with Faith Erin Hicks on her soon-to-be-released graphic novel Zombies Calling.
MILESTONES
- Congrats to Thomas K Dye who is celebrating the tenth anniversary of his comic tale of canine journalism: Newshounds.
TECHNOLOGY
- An early look from a blog at the comics on Zuda and what's attracting the most votes from the readers. A different blog has a bit more of a focus on the user interface.
- Looks like the Amazon e-reader isn't coming out anytime soon despite earlier announcements to the contrary.
CONTESTS
- I need to start handing these Karas the Revelation DVDs out faster! Gimme (in the comments) the phrase that pays to be the next winner.
Blank Label Comics Breaks Up?
Submitted by NightgigTim on November 1, 2007 - 08:20
Just a bit of interesting news out of the power house that is Blank Label. Will this mean a new talent search to fill the hits void that this will leave? Or will this mean a much less active group?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact:
Brad Guigar
bguigar@yahoo.com
267-207-1078
THREE CARTOONISTS LEAVE BLANK LABEL TO FORM NEW
HALFPIXEL
Three members of Blank Label [...]
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Blank Label Comics Breaks Up?
Submitted by NightgigTim on November 1, 2007 - 08:20
Just a bit of interesting news out of the power house that is Blank Label. Will this mean a new talent search to fill the hits void that this will leave? Or will this mean a much less active group?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact:
Brad Guigar
bguigar@yahoo.com
267-207-1078
THREE CARTOONISTS LEAVE BLANK LABEL TO FORM NEW
HALFPIXEL
Three members of Blank Label [...]
foo
Half Pixel Times Four: An Interview with Kurtz, Straub, Kellett and Guigar
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Today, Brad Guigar (Evil, Inc.), Dave Kellett (Sheldon) Scott Kurtz (PvP), and Kris Straub (Starslip Crisis) are announcing that they will be working together under the Half Pixel brand. Part and parcel of this announcement is that Guigar and Kellett are leaving Blank Label Comics, the webcomics collective that they both have been associated with in recent years.
I got a chance to interview the four of them at the end of October about this and other projects on the horizon for them. At their request I've delayed publishing this interview until the day of their announcement regarding the new Half Pixel. It's an interesting move for all four involved and hopefully the interview that follows conveys some of the excitement all of these guys seem to have for this new partnership.
Return of the Wiki
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 26, 2007 - 09:42
It looks like Comixpedia.org is really picking up steam -- adding articles at a much healthier rate. (You, yes you well-informed ComixTalk reader, should add something to an entry there)
I've had some recent discussions about Wikipedia again and I am trying to recall some of the more outrageous deletions of notable webcomics entries from Wikipedia. I definitely recall the back and forth circus over Girly, the ridiculous effort to delete Ted Rall's anthology of webcomic creators: Attitude 3, Kris Straub's "experiment" in Wikipedia deletion follies, FLEEN's explanation of "notability logic" in action, and Terrence Marks wrote a post listing a large number of deleted entries. Hey let's even throw in there the fact that the entry for Comixtalk itself got deleted.
If there are any other good examples of notable webcomics being actually deleted or subjected to a tortuous deletion review please post a link or a summary here. I'm not trying to resurrect the angst of earlier times but there are folks inside the Emerald City of Wiki-land who are trying to bring some sanity to the deletion process and are looking for help in compiling evidence.
Buy books, get free art
Submitted by Scott Kurtz on September 24, 2007 - 18:22
To thank people for supporting our new store, Kris and I are offering free sketches with our books.
THIS WEEK ONLY, if you order Starslip Crisis Vol 1, or the PvP Book Pack special we're throwing in an original sketch on the inside cover FREE OF CHARGE! So here's your chance to get our books, at a special rate, and a free sketch to boot. It's like seeing us at a con without the fanboy smell.
Check it out at halfpixelstuff.com
Halfpixelstuff.com is here
Submitted by Scott Kurtz on August 14, 2007 - 16:25
Kris and I have opened a new store for both of our comics as well as brand-new merchandise. Half Pixel Stuff is the new home for all your Starslip Crisis and PvP gear. I'll be slowly migrating from Thinkgeek over the next couple of months.
Kris is selling both autographed and artist editions of his brand new book SSC Vol along side the Starslip technical manual and the Checkerboard Nightmare book. I'm selling Skull plushes, All the PvP books, my other books and Feed the troll merchandise.
Check out the store as we'll be adding new products and special offers throughout the coming months.
