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The Nice

What I Did Last Summer, umm, at Comic-Con 2004

August 8, 2004 - 23:00 | Kelly J. Cooper

Kelly J Cooper's Most Excellent Comic-Con Adventures
Part 2: Saturday and Sunday

Saturday, 24 July 2004

What I Did Last Summer, umm, at Comic-Con 2004

August 1, 2004 - 23:00 | Kelly J. Cooper

Kelly J Cooper's Most Excellent Comic-Con Adventures
Part 1: Wednesday to Friday

Damonkey Business by Damonk

March 14, 2004 - 18:00 | Frank "Damonk" Cormier

The Story of Syndie-rella

Once upon a time... there lived an unhappy young webcomic. It was unhappy, because its webhost mommy was dead, and its daddy domain had decided to marry a giant stepPanda in her stead. When she moved in, the widower Panda brought along stepchildish ambitions, and neither liked the webcomic one bit.

Why do we buy comics?

Submitted by Thomas on February 20, 2004 - 16:41

Hey all,

I was listening to an interview - actually a discussion - my friend and I recorded in November and posted to our site about our online comics and comics in general. My best friend mentioned something about having a comic that people want to buy. Suddenly that statement struck a cord with me. I then asked myself "What makes people want to buy comics?"

Why do we buy the comics we do? Is it the art, the writing, the craftsmanship, the craft or the company. Is it any of that or is it advertising and we do what popular culture tells us to do, such as, buy this comic, look this way, eat this stuff.

I see alot of comics that really are subpar in art, writing and craft marketed very well and the press and fans eat it up. Alot of stuff from Mike Turner - great guy, very nice - and Top Cow in general fits into this catagory, but it is marketed very well and everyone loves it. I also see superb work, Astronauts in Trouble and Steampunk to be exact, that is great, but under a small company with little advertising and no one ever hears of it.

Of course there are great comics out there that do get thier due with little marketing and terrible comics that flop even though the marketing was good no matter the company they are with.

Bottom line is this, in an industry that seems to be growing beyond control, but making no real profit to speak of, how do we as small creators make our buck. Why do we buy what we buy? If we understand this as creators, and as the fans start understanding this too, there may be enough of the pie to go around and increase the quality at the same time.

Dave and Damonk: An interview with the creator of Bob and George by Damonk

January 19, 2004 - 00:00

David Anez has been messing with pixels before messing with pixels became cool. His landmark Sprite-based comic, Bob and George, actually wasn't even supposed to BE a comic about a hero and cast of characters awfully similar to a certain Capcom game. It inadvertently became one of the first Sprite webcomics on the web, and certainly the first one to really pioneer and spark the masses of Sprite comics out there now. Almost four years after this "accidental" genesis, Anez tells us about how it all started, and why his webcomic is exactly what it is.

Ctrl+Alt+Del by Tim Buckley, reviewed by Matt Trepal

January 12, 2004 - 00:00 | Matt Trepal

There are some subjects, common wisdom states, which should not be brought up in polite company. Religion and politics are two of the biggies, but as of late, computer operating systems and gaming platforms seem to be flowing in the same vein. The sheer amount of energy invested in the holy wars over gaming platforms is impressive, and more than a little puzzling to the outsider. Regardless, there seems to be no shortage of webcomics willing to jump into the fray with their BFGs blazing.

The new guy's a "writer". AHHH ha ha ha!

Submitted by Cilly on January 5, 2004 - 22:15

Hello, all.

I'm Michael O'Connell, writer of a new online comic called "The Nice Guy". Just thought I'd introduce myself, as I just joined up. We're trying to get our site off the ground, so we're trying to spread the word--and we're trying to meet the rest of the online comic community, too. This seemed like a fine place to join up.

Would love any input anyone has on the site. It's a serious learn-as-we-go process. Which is fine, because we (that being me and artist Tim Watts) have been talking about getting this thing going for years, and it only happened when we just jumped in and started it. I'm running the web page, but am certainly no web designer (thank you, Dreamweaver!). I even had to be the colorist for a while (thank you, Photoshop!) until we actually hired one who knew what he was doing (you can still see my flat coloring work on a number of the old strips that haven't been re-done yet. Give me a break! I'm a freaking writer!). And it took me a while to figure out lettering, too (let's give a shout out to my boy Illustrator!). So it's all still a work in progress, but we're progressing nicely. At least our readership has been growing monthly.

We're going to be releasing the print comic this summer, and hope a lot of people buy it (we'll be at our table at the San Diego Comic-Con pimping it hard this year), but we're always going to be cranking out the online comics for free, too.

So, please, feel free to check it out and let us know what you think. And I'm looking forward to picking everyone's brains about their online comic experiences. Great to be here!

And thanks, Dee, for turning us on to this site!

why are your comics online?

Submitted by AmyGanter on December 27, 2003 - 15:22

This question prolly comes up often, but I'm just wondering what made some of you decide to put your work online.

My disillusionment with comic publishing drove me online (a bad publishing experience and several rejections). Is this the case others, too? Just wondering what some of your stories were.

Revamping the Comixpedia Website

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 10, 2003 - 15:23

There will be changes to the humble Comixpedia site next year - what do you love about the looks, functionality, layout, etc and what do you hate? What other great sites are there things we can "borrow" from? Post your thoughts here. Thanks.

Ethics

Submitted by nilaffle on December 3, 2003 - 23:41

Well, I didn't know where else to post this, since it's a media concern...

So my friend and I want to create a webcomic review site. I don't know about my friend, but I've run into some issues. :P

Basically, it has to do with the thought of criticizing people on their work. As an artist who HAS been criticized (and a LOT), I know it can hurt. But hey... criticism is necessary when you're an artist, right? We have movie critics, book critics, even architecture critics... why not webcomic critics?

I can sympathize with the work that goes into creating a comic. Not only do you need to have appealing art, but an appealing story too, and then you have to update regularly or your fans will come to hate you. :P So as someone who doesn't even OWN a webcomic, who am I to judge?

But at the same time, I think that a lot of webcomics out there are low quality. They're created by people who want to gain fame fast, or by little kids that don't really know much about art and writing yet. One of the things I hate about the Internet is that anyone can be an author, and so standards of quality (such as in fanfic writing, webcomics, web design) are lowered.

This has especially become an issue recently because a friend of mine happened to mention on my LJ a certain comic she dislikes, and the friends of that comicker flamed my friend for her opinions. Sure, no one likes to be criticized... but I personally think it's the mark of a serious artist to swallow their pride and accept criticism. "Take what you like and leave the rest."

And I'm not talking about "This sucks, get some talent!" type stuff. :P But actual constructive criticism.

Yeah... I dunno. What do you think? How would you react if your webcomic received a bad rating on a review site?