Debut of KeenPrime Hosting Service for Webcomics
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 3, 2003 - 11:40
Keenspot has long offered a free hosting service for webcomics, but one that has sometimes been too true to the phrase, "you get what you pay for." Now Keen is getting into the paid hosting business, promising to offer packages with the full set of "autokeen" scripts used to support the comics on KeenSpot itself.
Hosting plans range from $10 to $50 a month and the terms and conditions (space, transfer limits, extras) seem roughly comparable to other options in the market, although it's hard to put a price on the autokeen script (which may still be the "crown jewel" of comic archiving systems).
Moon the Whitehouse! Or Not!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 3, 2003 - 11:37
Those infamous herders of Goats, Jon and Phillip, along with legal beagle Jeff are raising money to moon the White House. Or not. I might not agree with the specifics of the plan, but it's nice to see webtoonists taking it to the streets.
2010 UPDATE: Moon the White House.com is now some crazy Japanese site.
More Than Keen! An Interview with Dave Kellett by Leah Fitzgerald
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Dave Kellett's big break came from Keenspot, where Sheldon, a daily strip about a pre-teen billionaire, his grumpy grandpa and his mischievous talking duck was hosted, to the delight of webcomics readers everywhere. Sheldon now lives on United Media�s web site along with ten other online-only comics. Kellett, a native of Southern California, started drawing in third grade.
The Blue View: Life and How to Live It
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Our resident philosopher and all around blue guy brings us a monthly take on just about anything.
In his free time he's apt to draw another edition of his award winning comic, Boxjam's Doodle.
Nowhere Girl by Justine Shaw, reviewed by Damonk
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If you haven’t yet heard of Nowhere Girl, please listen – you don’t know what you’re missing, 'cause this nowhere girl has a world of intrigue, character, and some top-notch CG at her command.
Created by Justine Shaw, the full-page, episodic drama webcomic popped up barely a year ago, and has already managed to generate some very positive hype with few pages – even notable print comic writers have marked her explosive (and, it should be noted, completely independent!) arrival to the webcomics scene.
Narbonic by Shaenon K. Garrity, reviewed by Matt Trepal
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Narbonic, by Shaenon K. Garrity, hosted both at its own site and as part of the Modern Tales family is a tale of the fine art of mad science. The aspiring mad scientist Helen B. Narbon has collected around her loyal – if reluctant – followers in her never-ending quest to dominate the Earth (or at least destroy it), and in doing so hopefully gain the approval of her evil mad scientist mother.
'The strip opens with the college graduation of Dave Davenport. Almost immediately, after the Computer Science graduates (of which Dave is one) have been admonished about applying their skills for evil, Dave is approached by Mell Kelly, Helen’s secretary and gunsmith, who offers him an interview with Narbonics Research. For Dave, it goes downhill from there.
Why Do Online Comics?: Webcomics Are Alternative
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You know those jokes about how "alternative music" isn't really "alternative" if it's listened to by the mainstream public? At one point, alternative music was really alternative. If you happened to be into it, you were kind of on the fringe. People thought of you as marching to your own drummer. Have you ever really thoroughly enjoyed something that not a whole lot of other people had ever heard of, then once it "hit it big" and everyone was talking about it, you sort of lost interest?
If you get what I'm talking about, if the idea of being on the cutting edge of something before the edge gets dulled from being used too much is appealing, then I've got something that may just interest you.
It's called...
Online comics.
Driven To Distraction: James Kochalka on Journal Comics, Modern Tales and the Magic Finger
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James Kochalka plays a lot of video games. He quit his job (see his graphic novel Quit Your Job) and spends his time drawing Fancy Froglin for Modern Tales and American Elf as well as working on his upcoming projects. He is also a big fan of the cute aspects of Nintendo games. He cites message boards as his biggest distraction from work, though now that he has the American Elf message boards he can hang out there and pretend to work.
Kochalka recently won an Ignatz award (which he traded to Tom Hart for a bite of Pad Thai) for his Sketchbook Diaries collection. He's also been lauded as the force behind the journal comic movement online. He’s likewise been called various names by the video game geeks he harasses on message boards, but that’s for another article.
The Business(?) of Webcomics
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T Campbell examines the charges of "sell out" thrown at various creators in webcomics such as Scott Kurtz, Peter Zale, Pete Abrams and Jonathan Rosenberg and advises creators to "sell, sell, sell!"
The Shadowlark Symphony
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The Shadowlark Symphony, part of Poisonwind, a collection of comics created by Icymasamune and Mutant Penguin, is arguably one of the more enjoyable manga-style comics on the web right now.
Running on a roughly tri-weekly basis, it tells the story of Psyte Haden and friends as they journey on a pilgrimage to the Temple of O'Ryu in order to learn more about the powers Psyte can command. He is one of the Five Dragon Circle, reincarnated fragments of a long-dead hero, and requires control over his powers to deal with those wishing him and the other members of the Circle harm.
