Interview with Dirk Tiede of Paradigm Shift
Nice video interview with Dirk Tiede of the ongoing supernatural crime drama, Paradigm Shift. His interview is the first part of the video.
SPX Updates From Jane Irwin and Paul Sizer
I got a chance to talk with Jane Irwin and Paul Sizer at SPX this year. Last year I'd had a great talk with Jane, but missed Paul. Jane is the creator of two great Vogelein novels and the Clockwork Game webcomic. This year it was great to talk with both of them for a bit.
I picked up Paul's graphic novel BPM (only a year after I'd meant to but SPX is a great reminder for that sort of thing). BPM, visually is pure gloss, vivid colors, with interesting integration of photo-realism into the mix. Sizer's sense of design is really strong — not only in the artwork but the whole sense of the book as a whole. It's also a strong story with a really developed central character, Roxy. So overall no question, I enjoyed this book, it's the kind of mainstream, uplifting tale that in any other medium would be the mainstream. I will point out two things that made it less than perfect for me; one I didn't love the stretches of narration for Roxy's internal dialogue – I can see why Sizer went with it but I wish he'd used it even less and two, and I only say this in the high expectations for art I came to the book with, but there are a few panels where Sizer's anatomy seems off and took me a bit out of the story.
Where did I come by my high expectations for the art? Well, for one thing Paul is the master of Warren Ellis' reboot forum over at WhiteChapel – Paul has come up with a number of wild reinterpretations of old D-level superhero characters that usually trump all other submissions. Any number of them would be great to take and run with a full length story. I actually asked him about some of the World War II superhero drawings he'd done and while he definitely had interest in the potential the prospect of researching the era for such a book seeming too daunting to want to pursue. Part of that is Pauls' acknowledgment that Jane Irwin would never let him get away with making it up — she's a firm believer in getting the details right.
SPX Updates from Eleanor Davis and Drew Weing
I picked up the Secret Science Alliance book from Eleanor Davis at SPX this year. I got halfway through it before the older X girl took it away. She's finished and now the younger X girl took it to school with her today. Both are really excited about the book. This seems like a great book for boys and girls of a reading age (not sure how old the audience for it would be, although I found it very clever and the artwork, including the composition and layout, is equally as clever as the writing). This project also has a bunch of great people behind it. Eleanor Davis wrote and drew it; Drew Weing inked it and Bryant Paul Johnson (Teaching Baby Paranoia) lettered it — that's like a webcomics supergroup right there. And Joey Weiser and Michele Chidester colored it (and it's really nicely done).
In Drew Weing news, I chatted with him and Eleanor while buying the book — Drew has finished plotting and thumbnailing his amazing Set To Sea comic (which has wonderful E.C. Segar influences all over it) which means it WILL BE FINISHED! In fact, in finishing the rough of it Drew said he decided he needed to make small changes here and there throughout which is why he is re-publishing it online. Everyone should give this a read; I'm already looking forward to the whole thing (both on the web and the book to be).
I also saw Eleanor on the "Debut Cartoonists" panel at SPX where she was joined by Ken Dahl (Monsters), Hans Rickheit (The Squirrel Machine), and Zak Sally (Like A Dog). She did very well – it's not always easy to talk about your own motivations and creative process but it was interesting to hear that she has a part time job working on organic farms. Not a quote but basically she explained that she didn't want to do comics all of the time and that she enjoyed life better with a balance between comics and other activities (which was in contrast to Dahl who took the less surprisingly line that making it was quitting your day job).
New Faith Erin Hicks Project Will Be Published By First Second Books
Faith Erin Hicks blogged about her next book to be, Friends With Boys, which will be published by First Second Books. In the post a few details on the story she’s only started working on but also several images from her pitch for the book. Very exciting news for a very talented creator although publication will probably be a long ways off (she mentions 2011 as a target).
Post-SPX Webcomic Blues
Wow I have a stack of books and stories from the SPX convention to get through. For a much more timely post on SPX than the one I will get to, check out Johanna Draper Carlson’s writeup here. Congrats to cat garza for winning the Ignatz for Online comic — here’s video of the award presentation:
REVIEWS
Daily Cross Hatch has a review of Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. I feel like this book has been really really REVIEWED. Both in webcomic form and now the book, I think it’s been universally praised for the importance of its topic but also the quality of the work itself.
The New York Times favorably reviews Logicomix, written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou and illustrated by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna. There are a couple of previews – 5 pages here and 1 page here.
OTHER EVENTS
There’s something ironically funny about Alan Gardener writing a justification for withholding on reporting on the Success in Comics seminar he attended (and helped organize) because he doesn’t want to be unfair to those who paid $350 to attend in person. Since nothing that was discussed there is likely to be sealed under a confidentiality agreement most of this stuff from the speakers is probably already out somewhere else or will come out in one form or another. Moreover, I’d have assumed people paid the $350 to BE THERE IN PERSON with the speakers and other attendees. Isn’t that the main point these days of dragging yourself to another location? In fact one of the things Gardner himself praised was the networking opportunities of the conference.
Quick Award Update for Ignatz and Shuster
In various webcomic categories, cat garza, Year of the Rat, won the Ignatz and Cameron Stewart, Sin Titulo, won the Joe Shuster. Congrats to both cat and Cameron!
Bitstrips For The Classroom.
Boing BOing writes about Bitstrips for Schools, an educational comic-making service that was tested in Ontario classrooms this past spring and is now more widely available. Here’s a video of kids using it during that beta phase. The terms for licensing appear to run from 10 to 30 dollars a month depending on the number of students.
Wednesday Stuff About Webcomics
Did I mention SPX is this weekend? Other stories of note:
TECHNOLOGY
Brigid Alverson reviews various iPhone apps for comics.
Gizmodo covers leaked information on Microsoft's new tablet computer.
HOLLYWOOD
Newsarama has a story on the webcomic Wide Awake and that Jarrod Feliciano and Mirjana Novkovic at Do-Over Productions recently optioned the film rights to it. Do-Over Productions on its facebook page describes itself as "Do-Over Productions is a New York based independent production company. We love stories. Especially epic stories – not in their presentation, but in their content – epic in what they make you think and feel."
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Scott McCloud commands that you read Derek Kirk Kim's new webcomic, Tune. I do too.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
Fallout Boy Pete Wentz now making FallOut Boy comics – an interview with the musician here.
Coverage of Randall Munroe's recent book reading and signing for xkcd: volume 0. Video too.
SPX SPX SPX!!!
Hey it’s the coolest little comics show that could, the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. It’s this Saturday and Sunday and thanks to the very gracious and cool Mrs. X, I am shirking husband and fatherhood to check out the show on Saturday afternoon. There is an insane number of AMAZING comics-making folks at the show and a good set of speakers and panels.
I’m going to check out the "Comic Strips: Online and In Print" panel with Kate Beaton, Erika Moen, R. Stevens, and Julia Wertz and the "Critics’ Roundtable" with Rob Clough, Sean T. Collins, Gary Groth, Chris Mautner, Joe McCulloch, Tucker Stone, Douglas Wolk and Bill Kartalopoulos.
Wakes Me When the Webcomic Is Over
I have a review of the graphic novel Ragbox up on the site. If you've got a comic or comic-related thing on paper you'd like to see reviewed in ComixTalk, here's the information on how to get it to me. And in self-interested plugging, I've restarted xaviarxerexes.com this year; largely also about comics, but also about ME and sometimes about ME as well.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
After you check out the debut of Bad Machinery from John Allison don't forget to check out the debut of Not Invented Here from Paul Southworth and Bill Barnes.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Sean Kleefeld looks in on results of a survey Brad Guigar took of his Evil Inc readers.
BUSINESS
Newspapers are dying and everyone is writing about it… on the web. Paul Graham explains that newspapers were only ever in the business of selling paper and well, people are less in need of paper these days (it's actually a pretty insightful analysis). A newspaper guy and a blogger argue about the fate of the newspaper biz on a blog from PBS.
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