Fan fiction is alive and well in this comic called The Ten Doctors. I’m in the middle of reading it still but it is complete and is a complicated but well-handled mashup storyline incorporating all of the various incarnations of Doctor Who from the teevee series(s). And if you’re interested over at Two Minute Time Lord, they have an audio interview with the comic’s creator Rich Morris.
Hope you all gots good stuff going today. Me? I got a cold. But here’s some reviews of some good stuff I found around the web this morning:
Book: Cory Doctorow on Bayou.
Book: Mark Frauenfelder on Nancy.
Book: Johanna Draper Carlson on DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary.
Web: Midnightcartooner on Super Fogeys.
Be sure to check out my interview with Caleb Sevcik!
EMERGENCY!
Onezumi got in a car accident this weekend! OMG! But she’s okay. Whew! Her car is not and she’s having a donation sale — go spend some cash if you can!
CONVENTIONS
If you’re going to the San Diego Comicon this year, you need to read Tom Spurgeon’s Survival Guide for Comicon. Also while you’re there say hi to Mr. Fleen!
A WHOLE BUNCH OF HYPE
+ Just random hype – I’m enjoying this new character in Multiplex — she’s a bigger movie snob then main character Jason.
+ Sordid City Blues has had a good storyline going with three of its characters who are in a band ("Owns Big Mecha") on a tour on the road. It’s good stuff. Not sure if the storyline is nearing its end or taking a turn in another direction.
DIGGING YOUR SCENE
Got a review copy of the latest anthology from the Boston Comic Roundtable group. Should have a review of it (and a couple other books) very soon. Would anyone be interested in more articles on local scenes? I would say maybe – "webcomic-friendly" or "webcomic-aware" scenes but more about groups and collaboration in different cities?
CRAFT
Otis "Petie" Frampton paints an awesome fantasy scene and has a video showing how he did it.
BERMUDA TRIANGLE
One of the Snarkoleptics notes that the website for Malfunction Junction has gone away. That’s too bad – Matt Milby’s comics were very funny stuff – hope they resurface soon.
Caleb Sevcik is a fun artist with a wicked sense of humor and a really energetic style. I first encountered Sevcik while reading Zap Jones, which was a funny steampunk western back in the days of Keenspace.
He's working on a new comic he's planning to debut next month — I'm looking forward to Caleb' Sevcik's new project and you should be too! Read on for our recent interview:
Enjoy the weekend — I am working on wrapping up an interview I did with Caleb Sevcik which I expect to post after the weekend (probably late Monday night since it’s Memorial Day here in the ‘States) and we’ve got a new cover coming for June from Onezumi. Here’s the news I found newsy enough this morning:
Let’s Get Ready to Webrumble!
The new webcomic blog and podcast Webcomics Rumble looks mighty impressive. Better add it to your RSS feed.
CHASING THE DREAM
James Turner (of Beaver and Steve) has a great comic about making (or not) comics.
REVIEWS
Digital Strips has a review of a collection of PHD (Piler Higher and Deeper) comics called "Piled Higher and Deeper: A Graduate Student Comic Strip Collection" that is pretty indepth. This is the early years of that comic, including many that focus on the creator’s time at Stanford University.
CRAFT
Anthony Clark, the newest colorist for Dr. McNinja, goes over how he does the coloring for that comic. This is a useful tutorial – check it out.
JUSTIFY MY DEAD TREE HYPE
John "Union Jack" Allison just dropped his seventh volume of Scary Go Round on paper — go forth and acquire the goodness! Also if you’re in Londontowne this weekend – John will be at the MCM Expo.
Well I hope you all are as busy making comics as I've been lately not-making-comics and not-writing-about-comics. Here's the news and hype that fits:
Patching A Hole in the Wreck of the Hiberia
Topless Robot writes about the 10 Ten Need to End Now comic strips in newspapers. I don't agree with the entire snark in the article but as far as the list goes – yeah all 10 are dead to me. I know at this point ideas about the newspaper comic page are all about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, but hey, humour me. Why not group the legacy stuff with the family features in a FAMILY page and then create a new page or two – SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE NEWSPAPER – with a fewer number of larger and maybe, with actual PG level content, comics. You know, NEW STUFF? Just a thought… Related – the Washington Posts blog about comic strips interviews itself about the sad state of newspapers and comics.
BUSINESS
Journalista! linked to this great series of posts on advice for artists on managing their careers. Useful stuff. Related – Tom Spurgeon links to this thread which does have a lot about handling (or mishandling) your comics career.
CRAFT
Drawn! links to this blog post about a Speedball book on "Tips for Letterers".
Infinite Comicking
Scott McCloud links to Manmachine by Martin Hekker and notes that it uses Flash to handle it's side-scrolling. I will be interested in trying it out today. You know what else does side-scrolling well? Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life which lets you grab and slide the comic with your mouse button.
YET ANOTHER WEBCOMICS PORTAL THINGEE (Or YAWPT! for short)
The Comics Reporter links to MyComics.de which self-describes itself as a Youtube for comics.
JUSTIFY SOME HYPE
Drawn! recommends the very cute and charming Molly and the Bear comic from Bob Scott.
SMALL SCREENS
Clickwheel has a selection of Alan Moore’s earliest comic-strip creations, titled Future Shocks, available via the Apple iTunes App Store:
Before Watchmen, before V for Vendetta, before League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan Moore cut his teeth on a series of ambitious and innovative short stories for the iconic sci-fi comic 2000 AD which showcased the talent and genius of arguably one of the greatest comic creators. Developed exclusively by Clickwheel.net and available in 8 parts over 8 weeks, Alan Moore’s Future Shocks has been adapted to enthuse, invigorate and excite the 1,000’s of comic fans who have never had access to these stories before!
Tim Demeter, Clickwheel’s Editor said, “We’ve been waiting a long time to get our hands on this material, and as a comic fan myself, I can confidently say that if Alan Moore is one of your favourite creators, YOU NEED THIS!” Available now, each episode is priced at $0.99/£0.59 so there is no excuse not to be shocked and awed anytime, anyplace!
Go me – I had a great time sketching and noodling over comic ideas this weekend (iIt’s pretty rare for me to have so much time to do that these days) And… here’s some updates on the world of comics:
AWARDS
Jeremy Love won a lot of this year’s Glyph awards for his work on Bayou. Congrats!
INTERVIEWS
An interview with Mike Mignola of Hellboy (yes not on the web but c’mon it’s Mike Mignola!).
An interview with Nick Bertozzin on Iraqi War Stories, running at ACT-I-VATE.
An interview with Miles Grover of Thinkin’ Lincoln.
An interview with Carolyn Belefski of Curls.
JUSTIFY MY PREMATURE HYPE
Art looks nice on 24 Frames/Second.
COPYRIGHT
Boing boinger Cory Doctorow pens a piece asking why fan fiction doesn’t get the same respect from copyright as critical analysis.
Today's the last day to enter to win the original artwork to this Journey to Mt. Moriah comic. Instructions on how to enter (leave comment with your favorite JTMM comic there) there!
A look back at some of the stories we covered from the world of webcomics:
2008
I mused on the future of comics and links to all of the other news I found worth linking to that day – including the conclusion of Evan Dham’s Rice Boy.
2007
We had a review of the Paranormals and in award news: Brian Fies won the Blooker Award for Mom’s Cancer and Krahulik and Holkins won the UK’s Eagle Award for Penny Arcade.
2006
Artist Onezumi commented on the then-in-the-news Brownstein/Soma story, ByrobotDotNet started up, we updated the list of surviving contestants to the Daily Grind contest (as of 2009 there are still 8 surviving contestants listed – I wonder if anyone is still tracking this?) and links to all of the other news I found worth linking to that day.
2005
David "Shortpacked" Willis announced he was leaving Keenspot.
The 2nd week of our May magazine update went up: a review of Spamusement, an interview with J. Grant and Mel Hynes of Two Lumps, Alexander Danner’s guide to collaboration, a new column from Eric Burns, and a new Welton Colbert comic from Ryan Estrada.
2004
The 2nd week of our May magazine update went up: with a review of Spark Needle and an interview with Gilda Rimessi of The Sinner Dragon as well as columns from Frank "Damonk" Cormier and Jim Zubkavish. We also had a look at the history of comics syndication.
2003
Eat the Roses by Meaghan Quinn turned 3 years old (I think the last time this was updated was in 2006).
Nominations for the 3rd edition of the WCCAs were almost due.
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