Comix Talk

It’s time to post a comment with the phrase that pays to be our 2nd winner of a copy of the DVD of Karas the Revelation…

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Faith Erin Hicks has posted 6 more pages to her tale of post-apocalyptic (post-global warming?) England: Ice.  I’ve been a huge fan of this project and really wish it updated more frequently but I’ll take it when it comes.  If you haven’t read it at all sit down and read the whole thing.  You won’t be disappointed.

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Comic Book Resources interviews Scott Kurtz about a decade of making the web/comic PvP. Continue Reading →

This was the first week of voting for the BSC Webcomics Idol 2.0 contest. I’m not sure if voting is still open today or whether it closed yesterday (but since I was just able to vote I suspect it’ll continue through tonight). The contest eliminates the 5 lowest vote-getters in this round — pretty brutal!

Right now the webcomics clearly in the elimination zone are:

• Gun Baby (1%)
• Fear, My Dear (1%)
• WitchHound (4%)
• Dead of Summer (7%)

However, it’s neck and neck between two comics as to who goes and who stays:

• Bear and Kitten (11%)
• Shi Long Pang (11%)

Four other webcomics don’t look like they’re in any danger this week:

• Templar, Arizona (19%)
• Lucid TV (17%)
• Grumps (16%)
• Simulated Comic Product (14%)

I just read Shi Long Pang all the way through – it’s a somewhat anachronistic take on a shaolin monk in the time of war with the Qing dynasty. At times it gets too talky for it’s own good (although smartly creator Ben Costa does stuff some of the facts into footnotes instead of trying to fit it all into exposition in his characters’ mouths) but it’s well-paced, interesting (heck even educational!), even funny and the art is very good. Costa has enough talent to shift styles as needed and is very good with integrating picture, words and speech bubbles.

I liked Bear and Kitten sometimes too although it’s far less ambitious and misfires as often as its humor hits. Still it has some strong moments and the art really grew on me as I read the archives. Comparing these two is completely apples and oranges of course and hopefully they both find some new readers through this contest.

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WIKIWATCH

• Earlier today, I posted a request for help remembering some of the more doubtful deletions of webcomic entries from the Wikipedia. Here’s what that post was aimed at helping: Wikinews is working on a story about it. The story in progress can be found here.

ZUDAMANIA

• The Beat has a copy of a press release from DC’s webcomic host/contest site Zuda and it’s first lineup of webcomics. Someone in this lineup wins a prize.
• The Beat also notes that Bayou by Jeremy Love is the first Zuda instant winner. The strip has already been awarded a 1-year contract, and was a solicited submission. I’m sorry – everytime I read these prize/winner sentence about Zuda I start thinking it’s a McDonald’s contest or something…

COLLECTIVE ‘ECTIVE, WHAT’S YOUR… FECTIVE?

• Beat, beat, all Beat link lifting today: the webcomics collective The Chemistry Set adds Threads of Red Jack by Daniel Kibblesmith & K. Thor Jensen, and The Gloom by Tony Lee and Dan Boultwood; and the webcomic collective Act-i-vate adds Backstage by Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt, a comedy/murder mystery set in the burlesque halls of old New York.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

• Webcomic Asylum writes about putting your webcomic on "top vote lists" and using the Project Wonderful advertising platform .
• Shaenon Garrity has a new column up at Comixology about Stumptown and the goshdarn Batman…
• The Beat writes about the best-selling Buffy Season 8 comic book series.
• And in not-comics stuff, Nerd World flags trailers for potentially cool upcoming movies…
• Kris Straub is having a Half Life 2 Haiku contest (deadline November 5th). I just finished Episode 2 which is good but I just wish they would get though more story in each game (or just release the games faster)…

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

• Hard Way Studios, the publisher of Morbid Myths, House at the Edge of Nowhere, and Shelter, has revamped its website.

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It looks like Comixpedia.org is really picking up steam — adding articles at a much healthier rate. (You, yes you well-informed ComixTalk reader, should add something to an entry there)

I’ve had some recent discussions about Wikipedia again and I am trying to recall some of the more outrageous deletions of notable webcomics entries from Wikipedia. I definitely recall the back and forth circus over Girly, the ridiculous effort to delete Ted Rall’s anthology of webcomic creators: Attitude 3, Kris Straub’s "experiment" in Wikipedia deletion follies, FLEEN’s explanation of "notability logic" in action, and Terrence Marks wrote a post listing a large number of deleted entries. Hey let’s even throw in there the fact that the entry for Comixtalk itself got deleted.

If there are any other good examples of notable webcomics being actually deleted or subjected to a tortuous deletion review please post a link or a summary here. I’m not trying to resurrect the angst of earlier times but there are folks inside the Emerald City of Wiki-land who are trying to bring some sanity to the deletion process and are looking for help in compiling evidence.

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It’s time to post a comment with the phrase that pays gets you a copy of the DVD of "Karas the Revelation"… Continue Reading →

I noticed that Comixpedia.org had gone down sometime on the weekend. Now there’s a note up at the site:

Comixpedia.org is growing rapidly and has to move to a new server. Please check back soon.

No inside scoop from new owner Josh Roberts, but "growing rapidly" is good news. Not only does it make the place a better resource for fans of (web)comics but anyone who wants to put an entry for a comic on Wikipedia should be using Comixpedia.org as the place to start an entry and polish it up before trying to move a copy of it to Wikipedia. The better written and sourced an entry is the better chance it’ll survive a deletion review at Wikipedia…

[UPDATE – And it’s back – now on a dedicated server] 

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COMIXTALK

• Derek Badman is back with another installment of Panels & Pictures — this month Badman shares some examples of color use in a variety of comics, with an emphasis on the use of shifting color palettes within the same work.
• Xaviar Xerexes interviews this month's cover artist — Spike. Spike is the talented creator behind the well-received webcomic (and book) Templar, Arizona. The comic is a story about a town that may or may not completely conform to the regular laws of reality and features a growing assortment of interesting characters who both intrigue and intimidate the protagonist, a young man named Ben. Spike has also created other webcomics, including Sparkneedle, Lucas and Odessa and Playing With Dolls.
• And don't forget to check out all of the feature articles from October: Tim Broderick's article on taking your comic to a traditional book publisher; and interviews with creators Jon Morris; Jamie Robertson; Bill Roundy; Thomas K. Dye; and Lee Adam Herold.

LEGAL BEAGLES

• Jeff Rowland got a nasty-gram supposed from the copyright owner of the O'RLY owl photo that's infested the intertubes for awhile now. Apparently one of Rowland's designs incorporates the image from the photo. FLEEN offers some thoughts on the matter. Damn Good Comics blog offers its two cents too.

INTERVIEWS

• Wizard Online interviews Kris Straub about the Alterverse War miniseries and his ongoing sci-fi webcomic Starslip Crisis.
• Comic Book Resources talks to Unshelved co-creator Bill Barnes about his library-themed strip. (h/t Journalista!)'
• Lynn Lau interviews Tara Tallan, the creator of Galaxion.
• Boston Globe interviews Randall Monroe, creator of xkcd.

REVIEWS

• Meg Heald has a review of Looking For Group.
• Mr Myth lambasts Chris Crosby for creating an infinite loop of repeats without a proper ending for the webcomic Wicked Powered.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

• I thought David McGuire's Webcomics Are Awesome is pretty funny as a parody of webcomics community (not sure if he's going to update it further) on the level of "lots of this absurd stuff happens and it's always healthy to make fun of yourself" since McGuire is a comic creator himself and as part of the now defunct Bag of Chips collective has certainly been "in" the webcomics community as much as anyone. On the otherhand I don't really know David (met him once at SPX) so I'm not sure how he views this comic.
• Everyone's making comics about the latest videogame Portal. This one's from Hijinks Ensue (whose creator Joel Watson also makes comics that appear on the website Apple Insider)
• Tough Guys is a pretty good concept for a comic (or probably more likely an Adult Swim animated series) but the execution of this webcomic by Zac Marshall and Nuno Teixeira is all wrong. The art is strange and largely looks cut and pasted. Maybe a chibi style would have worked better here. It's also largely not funny nor interesting yet. You're aiming at a huge chunk of American pop culture over the last 30 to 40 years (the "action movie") — that's a big fat softball across the plate, if you're doing jokes you ought to be hitting multiple base hits everytime out.
• The Tower by Saki Miyamoto and Brendon Bennets is a textless comic about a princess who escapes her intended role in search of adventure.
• David Wright (creator of Todd and Penguin) has a new webcomic out called The Best Kids Show Ever – sort of if Fox News decided to get into the children's television business.
• Butternut Squash versus Mahna mahna. (Original muppet song here!)

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

• A fairly good discussion has emerged from Joey Manley's post asking about how popular a webcomic needs to be to be able to successfully sell t-shirts.
• I can't decide if this videocast called ComiXtrips was fun or just annoyed me but I will say this – it was short, the guy clearly planned out what he was saying before he shot it and he had an opinion. If someone did this about webcomics I might watch it.
• Tastefully Done 2008 is out. It's a fundraiser for Cancer Research and features sketches of your favorite webcomic artists sans fabric.
• The Tonight Show with Tycho! It certainly would suck less than Jay Leno seems to do.
• The Beat has video of Chris Onstad's (Onstad or someone in a gorilla suit at least) Ignatz award acceptance "speech". (h/t Journalista!)

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We had such an overwhelming enthusiastic response to the Blade DVD giveaway — the movie studios are just lining up to give ComixTalk stuff to give away!

This time we’ll be giving away 10 copies of the movie Karas the Revelation. I haven’t seen the other Karas movie but this one picks up with the new Karas, Otaha, seeking vengeance against the yakuza that murdered his brother and almost killed him. Meanwhile the old Karas, Eko, unleashes his wrath and contempt for the pitiful humans infesting the city. Yurine, Nue, and Otahajoin forces for the final epic battle to save the city and protect the will of the people…as Prophecy becomes Revelation!

And hey it features the voice talent of Matthew "Shaggy" Liillard…

Here’s how it’ll work – starting next Monday (October 22) and continuing through November 9th whenever I (Xaviar X. Xerexes) include the words "Karas the Revelation" in a post at ComixTalk the first registered and logged-in member to submit a comment to that post saying "Viva La Revolution!" gets a free copy of the DVD.

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