Is Reuben Bolling Auctioning Off Product Placement in Tom The Dancing Bug?
Apparently so according to the Daily Cartoonist. Although normally my reaction to this is kind of a "yetch" — who knows maybe it’ll save comics!
WiiSpace Wants a Webcomic
I’m not endorsing this so proceed at your own risk but Wiispace posted a call for a webcomic to appear on its site. It’s possible it could be good exposure for someone wanting to do a comic somewhere in that genre anyhow. (Giants like PvP and Penny Arcade actually got their start in exactly this way). Just be sure to be careful and clear in any contract you sign — someday with work, talent and luck your webcomic may outgrow WiiSpace and you need clear understandings of things like copyright to avoid future problems.
Monday
I was on vacation last week in the large state of Texas and then spent the weekend in Ohiopyle Park in EXTREME southwestern Pennsylvania. Good times! Hope everyone is geared up for NERDAPOOLZA in San Diego… I, once again, will not be there. One day perhaps. In the meantime here’s some interesting comic and pop culture debris for your web-surfing today:
EVENT
The Cartoon Art Museum is having an exhibit titled "Monsters of Webcomics" which looks very cool. I live on the wrong coast to make a trip to San Francisco to see it but all of you who can should go.
INTERVIEW
- Newsarama interviews Jon Rosenberg on the latest Goats book.
- CBR talks to Neil Kleid of Action Ohio.
- CBR talks to this month’s ZUDA contestants.
- Pop Culture Zoo talks to Daniel Davis of Monster Commute.
- Fandomania interviews Grant Gould of The Wolves of Odin.
- Nice interview with Cameron Stewart of Sin Titulo.
- Interview with Ethan Young of the comic Tails.
CRAFT
In case I forgot to blog about earlier, Freak Angels artist Paul Duffield put up a great tutorial on his process.
BUSINESS
Trent Razor (NIN and goth bad ass generally) on how new music artists should navigate the new mediascape of today. Lots of stuff in there for webcomic creators to think about.
Scott Saavedra is publicly documenting how much money he makes this year from his webcomic Java Town. Good gimmick worth some publicity. He’s got a timer counting down the year and a counter for the profits (or lack of — he’s in the red right now).
Sean Kleefeld offers some ideas for promotion — he’s aiming at targeting comic book store owners but they’re tactics one could adapt to any group. I’ve seen several webcomic pursue the same ideas with their fans to try and spread the word locally ("street teams"). Sean offers up another idea supposedly in tandem — giving access to all of a publisher’s comics online — in pursuit of the first post’s promotional efforts but I don’t think he’s fully thought that through. Not that I disagree with the result, it just feels a bit half-baked in his rational. If I was going to jump into the comics publishing business and since I’m not industry giants Marvel and DC (and I’d have to count on their continuing slow-to-adapt strategy) of course I’d give EVERYTHING away online for free. I might borrow Sean’s idea of having people register at a portal so I could build some intelligence on my readership but I wouldn’t make that the mandatory way to get the comics. New publishers — heck even existing not-DC-or-Marvel publishers — suffer more from neglect and lack of attention then from anything else. The new publisher’s role has got to be a hybrid — build a brand(s), build attention, promote talented individuals (much like Hollywood — build good relationships with real talent), pay for good work consistently released — then put it out EVERYWHERE in every electronic format possible. Sell the stuff in print in a premium format that the fans demand and work with the creators to sell ancilliary products based on the work… Okay off that soapbox… for now.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Questionable Content kills the webserver for Bunny with a link today. You can still see Bunny’s guest comic for QC today. What to call this? My comic got "Fayed"?
NOT WEBCOMICS
Does anyone use Google Sketchup in their work? It’s a great tool for what it does. This music video for Roche Limit incorporates a lot of it.
Link to a gallery of photos of parkour, the jumping around buildings and railings sport, which beyond being pretty cool might be instructive for someone drawing action scenes, no?
Johanna’s post should really be titled… "why Digital Rights Management sucks" as that’s the source of her complaints, more so than a comic being in print or digital format.
End of John Allison’s Scary Go Round This September
John Allison blogs that he’ll end Scary Go Round this September but then reassures he’ll have a new project starting thereafter. Allison is a wonderful talent – he has great strengths with his art, dialogue and especially in building a quirky skewed version of our world with it’s own logic and charms — these are all highlights of Scary Go Round (much more so than his more sitcom-styled first comic Bobbins). If this restart/reboot can elevant Allison’s success than it’s all for the good.
DC’s Wednesday Comics: Worth $4?
Todd Allen takes a look at DC Comics new big format comics on newsprint for $4 experiment, Wednesday Comics. I think the gist of it is interesting comics, shame it’s printed on newsprint.
One thing I caught in his piece though that brought back memories was this:
This reminds me, more than anything else, of a more avant-garde version of Action Comics Weekly. Yes, that Action Comics Weekly. The last weekly anthology from DC also featured Superman, Green Lantern and Deadman. It had an espionage strip in the Secret Six (possibly my favorite from the run). An adventure strip with Blackhawk. Action’s weekly incarnation mixed it up a little.
That anthology approach in Action Comics Weekly started and ended in the one time I was a regular customer of a comics book store. I really liked that book. I loved the idea of the book. I was disappointed when it was cancelled.
McGill Spotlights Comics-Making Graduates
Bryant Paul Johnson of Teaching Baby Paranoia is spotlighted along with other McGill graduates making their mark on comics in this recent article the MCGILL NEW ALUMNI QUARTERLY! Check it out (and check out Teaching Baby Paranoia if you haven't before).
Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies
All you young’uns (and the fogeys too) — go check out the Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies to see what fun you’ve missed by growing up in the iMAC/WACOM/Illustrator era…
Inspector Fleen Solves the Case
Just head on over to FLEEN for the details — Gary’s been tracking a case of blatant rip-off-ery by someone selling a mousepad with Scott Johnson’s design.
Fair use is one of those areas of law that is largely driven by case law (that is decisions of the courts) although it is codified as an affirmative defense in the 1976 (C) act in the United States. All of this is probably immensely complicated by the world-wide nature of the ‘net — other countries don’t have the same (c) laws (although a whole bunch of countries have signed onto the Berne convention). In any event, if you see a good guide to understanding fair use forward it to me (or twit to @xerexes) — I’m curious as to whether there’s a common sense level document out there that can help with this or not. (Otherwise maybe I’ll think about writing it myself…)
Fantastic Interview with Silver Age Giant Carmine Infantino
This is a great interview with a giant of comics: Carmine Infantino. Well worth reading!
Another Entry in the Portable Webcomic Reading Machine Stakes
Maybe — the NYTimes reports that Michael Arrington of TechCrunch is going to sell a basic web-surfing tablet supposedly for around $300. Only 18 mm thick, but I’m not sure what the length and width are (more pictures here). It’ll use a Linux based operating system and a Webkit based browser. The device boots directly into the browser. Continue Reading
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