Zuda
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.
Welcome To August
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 1, 2008 - 10:29
August's cover art is from pear-pear.com and goes along with a number of reviews of how-to books and sites we'll be posting this month. (I will have the larger art on the site later today).
BUZZCOMIX
The Buzzcomix beta is live and I still have beta codes to hand out if you're interested in trying it out before it goes public on August 8th. Email me at xerexes AT gmail DOT com (first come,first serve)
Hurm News: San Diego Comic-Con 2008 Post-Mortem
Submitted by Keith Quinn on July 31, 2008 - 22:27
Last week, I went to the San Diego Comic-Con. While there, I went to some panels, chatted a bit, and took some pictures. Also, I posted a bit to Twitter and Flickr. Here's a compilation of the things I did.
Around the World With Three Dog Webcomic
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 25, 2008 - 09:59
BUISINESS
Publisher Devil's Due announced a partnership with Kevin Spacey's Triggerstreet.com for webcomic competitions at the Triggerstreet.com site. Stephen Cristy from Devil's Due compared it favorably in terms of financial rewards and creator freedom to the DC Zuda site.
The Platinumized Wowio is set to relaunch in less than a week (there's a countdown timer on the site now). Comics Worth Reading comments on the new Wowio business plan (one quibble though - Johanna says "WOWIO worked for everyone: free comics for readers and real payments for creators of 50 cents a PDF download." - well yes, but apparently it didn't work for the owners of WOWIO very well as it appears they have yet to make any profits)
With all of the Platinum and WOWIO news, I've missed mentioning DJ Coffman's recent "I'll draw anything for $2" promotion. It seems to boil down to the equivalent of selling sketches at a convention and I'm sure others have done similar things before but Coffman seems to be particularly happy with his effort and its results so far.
DEAD TREES
AppleGeeks signs with Dark Horse to do a book in 2009. Congrats to Hawk and Ananth.
TECHNOLOGY
Everyone seemed to be linking today to this article on webcomics through the Nintendo Wii. Four Japanese publishers are teaming up to do this in Japan.
WANT ADS
Laurent Q writes at Panels and Pixels: I'm a french writer (novels and comics-books) seeking artists. Several project accepted by french publishers are awaiting their artist.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
Ouch - get better soon Aaron Diaz! (He had a bike accident and got hurt).
Looks like DrunkDuck webcomics site is running an awards program this year.
Last not least: an animated version of the caustic clip-art webcomic, Get Your War On.
So... Comic-Con is Around the Corner
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 16, 2008 - 13:00
Comic-Con 2008 kicks off in San Diego soon -- July 24-27 -- and the web/indy/whatever--comic presence seems to grow bigger each year. If you're going you're already set b/c this thing, as a practical matter, sold out long ago (I think you can still get a hotel room in the next state over...).
Some awesome panels this year include:
A Year of Zuda
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on June 25, 2008 - 09:44
Comics Worth Reading writes that it's been a year since DC announced the coming of Zuda (the site actually went live last October) and this July, Zuda will be holding the "Zuda Comics 2008 Invitational" sort of a supplemental contest to their regular monthly contest. It will feature 10 comics selected by "fan response".
Zuda is essentially another IP farm, like Platinum, TokyoPop (and Marvel and DC...) and now that it's had a number of "winners" I'd really like to see some stories on how the winners are faring and whether their experience with DC/Zuda has lived up to their expectations.
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.
The Webcomic Overlook #43: High Moon
Submitted by El Santo on May 30, 2008 - 14:34
After hating them because they were basically the pretty new thing on the block, I’ve warmed up to DC’s Zuda Comics format. I love how you can press the Full Screen button, and the page occupies a huge portion of the laptop screen. It’s a great format for art-heavy comics. The best [...]
Zuda Comic Extravaganza on Comic Fencing
Submitted by El Santo on May 23, 2008 - 16:23
I’ve got another review up on the Comic Fencing site, this time reviewing two entrants from everybody’s favorite online webcomic site, Zuda Comics. That’s meant to be sarcasm … or is it? For those not in the know, Zuda is DC Comic’s online subsidiary that eschews the traditional *.jpg or *.png format for [...]
SugarShock!, reviewed by Larry "El Santo" Cruz
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When ComixTalk head honcho Xaviar Xerexes (a.k.a "Tha Tru Triple X") mentioned that he wanted to see articles on the Eisner Award nominees, I slobbered at the chance to review one particular title, SugarShock! Why, you ask? It's because this little series is written by a somewhat popular guy by the name of Joss H. Whedon.
