Comix Talk

I know a lot of webcomics creators are fans of Steve Jackson Games.  Steve Jackson Games is holding a month-long contest for webcomics that refer to their Munchkin game. At the end of the contest, the SJ Games Men in Black will vote on the winners.  Some nice prizes for this — $1,000 first prize, $500 second prize, $200 third prize, and some honorable mentions which will win your choice of Munchkin core sets.

The contest begins on May 1, 2011 and ends on June 1, 2011. To enter the contest, send a link to your webcomic to contest@sjgames.com. The link should be to the page on which the comic appears, not just your home page. The e-mail entry must be sent to SJ Games by noon (Austin time) on June 1, 2011. Please include your name, address, and e-mail address. 

Lots more details at their website.

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Voting is now open for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for 2011. Comics professionals can vote by mail or online. You can download a pdf of the ballot or vote online.  The deadline for voting is June 13th. The results of voting will be announced at the Eisner Awards Ceremony on Friday night, July 22, during Comic-Con International: San Diego.

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Friday… Friday! Webcomics… webcomics! Typin' at the keyboard… I know making fun of that song is well and truly done but for some reason its sonic worm has respawned in my ear this morning.  So… you're welcome.

Spacetrawler continues to be awesome.  Go read.

She binded me with science! Um they may be doin' it wrong in the world of Dresdan Codak.

You know what's pretty good but horrible for ya? Mixing up a bag of jelly beans and M&Ms and then eating the whole thing.  That's what I hear anyhow…

I did not get a preview copy of Vera Brosgol's Anya's Ghost graphic novel but I am looking forward to buying one.  Gary did get a preview and writes a very positive review.

Have fun storming the sand castles!  Lauren Davis posts about cartoonists' evolving self-portraits.

Psst Clark? Lois is not amused. I am no longer sure if my favorite Kate Beaton comics are historical or fictional character ironization.

Ping posts on what happens to your webcomic when you're dead? Probably for most people, nothing.  As in it'll linger on until hosting and registrar plans run out and then disappear or be claimed by the URL-lapsing spaminator.  For those making a living at their work, however, that copyright is going to pass onto your heirs and you probably ought to come up with a plan to pass that on.  Not necessarily to make more comics, but just to have a plan so someone is looking out for your work and your website when you no longer will.

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MANANIMAL IS THE NEW MANGA: Tokyopop is closing its North American publishing operations and it's probably going to be the biggest story all week.  But I don't have much to say really. Deb Aoki has a decent overview of it all.

MAKE ME A WEBCOMIC: Sara Ivry writes that Tablet Magazine has another webcomic up today about Passover — this one by Vanessa Davis, of most recently, the graphic novel, Make Me a Woman. 

APRIL FOOLS: I also heard from Terrence Marks that he has restored a webpage with all of the links to the 1999 APRIL FOOLS COMICS SWAP.  That was probably one of the first webcomic community big events and webcomics has gotten way too big to ever have something quite like that again.

Not Really Webcomics: Cute pixelated animation of SEX BOB-OMB band from Scott Pilgrim Blows His Nose.

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On April 22nd, 2011 – SuperArtFight returns to the Ottobar in Baltimore, Maryland.  Super Art Fight X will feature four amazing bouts, each with unique pairings and their own ramification on shows to come.

Main Event – Super Art Fight Championship Bout
Michael "Spaghetti Kiss" Bracco (Champion) vs. Bryan "Silent But Violent" Prindiville (Challenger)

#1 Contender's Bout – Winner Gets A Shot At The SAF Championship At SAFXI
The Charm City Roller Girls Own Chelsea "Grose Misconduct" Grose vs. Kelsey "Killer" Wailes

"High Stakes" Grudge Match – Rematch From SAF's DC Debut!
Nick "Ghostfreehood" Borkowicz vs. Brandon J. Carr

Tag Team Battle – Winners Advance To Tag Title Finals At SAFXI
Jamie "Brawlin'" Baldwin & Caldwell Tanner vs. Jami "Angry Zen Master" Noguchi & A Mystery Partner!

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Sara Ivry writes from the Jewish online magazine, Tablet, about a collaborative comic by Etgar Keret and Asaf Hanuka that their website posted today. The comic is about Passover, imagining how the story of being a stranger in a strange land (as the Jews were in Egypt) would play out today.

We just recently reviewed Asaf Hanuka's webcomic The Realist.

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New Webcomics

John Kovaleski has a funny new webcomic called Dadding Badly.  It's an autobiographical comic from a new dad and so far pretty funny stuff.

MetaFilter linked to a really cute sketch blog titled Zoopreme Court.  Dan Schofield and Alice DuBois enjoy animals, justice and puns and plan to illustrate all 112 justices of the Supreme Court, as well as some landmark cases.  Their Otter Stewart reminds me a bit of my Perry Otter – otters are just kind of fun to draw!

Good Causes

It's been awhile since I linked to the Team Cul de Sac blog which is raising money for the Fox Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today. Non-cartoonists who want to support Team Cul de Sac, can contribute money directly online to the Fox Foundation's website for Team Cul de Sac.  The project will result in a book from Andrews McMeel Publishing.  I don't know if they are still looking for more cartoonists to donate original art to the project but the deadline posted is May 15th.  The theme of the book is other artists' take on Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac characters. More details are available at the Fox Foundation page for the project.

Lost Causes (?)

Did I miss a press release or something? The ComicSpace website looks like it was bought by a discount merchandise company from Thailand.

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WEBCOMIC: Found a new webcomic today. I really liked the archives for My Boyfriend Is A Monster by Evonne Tsang and Janina Görrissen.  It's actually a graphic novel coming out this Spring from publisher Graphic Universe, but they're posting it online — one new page daily — until the book is out.

WEBCOMIC: Dov Torbin writes that his The Revolution Will Be Televised webcomic is now publishing weekly at ACT-I-VATE.  It's a first hand account of the recent Egyptian revolution and tells the story of two American travelers who, through clouds of tear gas, watch a country evolve and find themselves altered by the experience.

CATS: Emily K writes that she's "been in a dead end job for a year, and before that was unemployed. Though it's nice to have a job, my education as an artist is utterly unneeded there. So I decided to start a webcomic."  I can get behind that.  Her goal? "To post one drawing every single day for 1 year. By the end of the year, I'd have enough to make a calendar."  Hmm – well that's actually interesting as a print artifact, I'm not sure I've seen a webcomic turned into one of those 365days-style desk calendars.  Emily explains that she's been posting for 100 days to her webcomic, Places You Find Cats: Where Every Day is Caturday.  They're actually cute drawings and they do have text so they're probably comics, but they don't really feel like comics, more like illustrations.  Either way if you like cats you'll probably enjoy checking it out.

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I have too many online projects this year and with some web work now in the mix for my day job, I feel ComixTalk slipping a bit.  My apologies.  I really appreciate everyone who reads this site, whether you have for years or just found it recently.

HANG IN THERE: I had heard the touching, inspiring story behind the publisher of the print collection of Dustin Harbin's journal comic but Dustin's comic of it is a great tribute to Anne Koyama.

CRAFT: I've been meaning to link to Austin Kleon's How to Steal Like An Artist presentation for awhile.  It's good, entertaining advice.

TO THE BOOK CAVE!:  Lauren Davis reviews the mainstream publishing industry dropping several comics creators and then turns to plugging Meredith Gran's new self-published collection of her webcomic Octopus Pie.  The cover for Listen At Home with Octopus Pie is perfect for the strip — pre-orders are going on now.

TO THE MINI BOOK CAVE!: J.T. Yost has a new mini-comic out worth checking out – Losers Weepers #3, which continues Yost's project to create a fictional narrative woven around actual found letters, journals and notes.

MILESTONES:  Dolby von Luckner, the co-creator of the webcomic Frederick the Great: A Most Lamentable Comedy, wrote to let us know it just hit its 400th episode.  Unfortunately Dolby forgot to include the URL for the webcomic when writing. Luckily for Dolby I noticed that the URL was probably part of his email address.  Congrats on knocking off the first 400!  I could have left it at that but I think this is a comic where the creators are young (or young at heart?) and maybe some feedback would help.  I only had time for a cursory look, but art-wise, the creators need to keep practicing, take some life-drawing classes, bust out a copy of Scott McCloud's Making Comics (or similar useful advice books), look for some tips on scanning and prepping your images for the web.  There's obviously a lot of enthusiastic plotting and cramming in of ideas and references into the strip but without improving the art, it's not ready for prime-time.  All of which is to say don't give up.  Making 400 episodes of something is GREAT practice and hopefully you've already seen some improvements in your work.

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