A Conversation with Cat Garza

Xaviar Xerexes 1 Comment

Cat Garza is the man.  He's got this inventive, imaginative art style that both references classic comic styles of old, but brings a new twist on it.  He has experimented with mashing up music and comics.  He's also been making webcomics before we called them webcomics.  Scott McCloud pointed to him as a pioneer in this world of 0s and 1s we inhabit (McCloud has consistently linked to cat on his website). 

Most recently he's living in Comics Town USA and working on a new comic The Year of the Rat. You can find the Year of the Rat comics at his site The Magic Inkwell and older comics and music at his webcomicsnation site.  I caught up with cat in an interview over email this month.

Continue Reading →

COMIXTALK Status

Xaviar Xerexes 5 Comments

Had a couple of nervous days there but I’ve restored the ability to create new posts again so that’s good. Everyone should now be able to post blogs, forum posts, etc again. (Clear you’re cache if you’re getting errors or not seeing new blog posts, etc). For now I’ve set things so not-logged in visitors can comment but they go in the moderation queue for review before appearing (Once I get Akismet back up and running I’ll take anonymous commenters out of the moderation queue).

I’ve moved the site to Drupal 6.0 in anticipation of rolling out a new theme and some new features – hopefully we’ll get some of that done this month. The theme today is sort of a temporary fix as the old theme didn’t port to Drupal 6.0 and with a newer theme on the way I didn’t want to work on porting the old one myself. If you see weird things with the site today please tell me (include the name of browser in your comment) by posting a comment here or email me (xerexes AT comixpedia DOT com).

Also I probably can’t afford it but I’m also upgrading ComixTalk to a bigger VPS package this week and that should help speed the site up. And new articles coming tonight!

Continue Reading →

Uncategorized

Two Books In the Mail: Nickelodeon Magazine All-Comics Special and The Cartoonist’s Big Book of Drawing Animals

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

I go two books in the mail this month — they’re both aimed at younger-to-all-ages audience so I’m thinking of letting the little X’ers review them for you:

  • Nickelodeon Magazine All-Comics Special – I flipped thru this anthology edited by Dave Roman and Chris Duffy; a few Nickolodean tv characters appear but lots of indy comic talent in there too (including James Kochalka)
  • The Cartoonist’s Big Book of Drawing Animals – I just got this and it is it’s title. I’m curious to see how Little X does with trying it out.

Continue Reading →

Cartoonist Assassination Plot Foiled

cr0wgrrl 3 Comments

From the Associated Press today: COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.

According to the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the targeted cartoonist was Kurt Westergaard. Full details at MSNBC.

Continue Reading →

Uncategorized

Brief Tuesday Update

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

INTERVIEWS

Brigid Alverson has an interview with Josh Way, the creator of Chronicle, which details the tribulations of Chuck Burke, a hotshot big-city newspaper editor who is sent to the sticks to revitalize a small-town paper. Alverson says "Chronicle is gently funny, mining the classic smug city slicker/wily country folk theme for some fresh new laughs. Much of the humor stems from the quirky cast of characters that Way has imagined into being."

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

Haven’t read much of Odd Fish but today’s was just great: beautiful art and oddly funny joke.

Continue Reading →

Uncategorized

FREE As in New COMIXTALK Articles (Not Beer)

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

COMIXTALK

BUSINESS

  • Harper Collins jumps into FREE and the WEB in a big way — a NY Times story this morning reports that "In an attempt to increase book sales, HarperCollins Publishers will begin offering free electronic editions of some of its books on its Web site…" This is a very traditional book seller recognizing that for most authors obscurity is worse than haggling over payments for a few copies of a book. Down in the article is a bit recognizing the print success of webcomic (yes webcomic!) Diary of A Wimpy Kid:

    • There is evidence that readers still buy books even if they can get the content free on the Web. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” a children’s novel illustrated with cartoons, was published online three years ago at Funbrain.com, an educational Web site. But the physical book has spent 42 weeks on the New York Times Children’s Chapter Books best-seller list.

    And hey, let’s see if book store sellers squeal as loud as the Direct Market store owners have been lately.

 

Continue Reading →

Uncategorized

Is This A Comic? Audience Experience

marvelouspatric 22 Comments

In this installment of his series on exploring the definition of "comics", Patric Lewandowski looks at Audience Experience, the second of his four criteria for determing "What is a comic?"

Lewandowski explains how this criteria is unique as it has less to do with the creator and instead explores the idea that a comic must be experienced by the audience in a very particular way in the work’s original published iteration.

Continue Reading →