All My Friends Know The Low Rider

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

Check out this week’s sponsor – Natasha Mostert’s new novel, Keeper of Light and Dust.  Also check out this picture of the Least I Could Do van — there’s even a condom on the radio antenae!  (okay I made that last part up)

THEORY
Scott McCloud writes about a new presentation tool (sort of power point-y) that Neal Von Flue and others are testing as a possible comics CMS.  Interesting ideas.

BUSINESS
Fleen noted yesterday that Ben Heaton is having a fundraising drive to see if his fans will match his salary so he can do the webcomic, Request Comics, full-time.  He’s currently unemployed though so matching his salary should be pretty easy.  You can check on his donation page to see how he’s doing.

BUSINESS
Todd Allen writes about webcomics in a "post-Direct Market world".

TOOLS
Old but educational! John Allison’s tutorial for MangaStudio.

Justify My ZUDA Hype
Is that Ryan Estrada’s work at this month’s Zudathon?  Why yes it is. (Also is Zuda using Drupal for its site?)

JUSTIFY MY OTHER HYPE
Urf is a funny panel comic about a planet sort of like Earth but really off in certain ways.  Best new single panel comic (mostly) I’ve read in a while.

I’m checking out a comic called Intelligence Cleaner Agency.

ComicMix discovers the simple awesomeness of Meghan Murphy’s Kawaii Not.

Continue Reading →

Uncategorized

Three Technologies I’m Just Not that Excited About

Alexander Danner Leave a Comment

This article was originally published on webcomics.com in 2008.

I love technology. Whether it’s little gadgets like my iPod, or useful applications like Google Calendar, I love all the little tech innovations that make life easier and more fun. The first time I heard about webcomics, I was thrilled. Automated content management? Fantastic! Integration of multi-media elements into webcomics? All over it. Do I want an iPhone or a Kindle? Oh my god, yes. Can I afford them? Not remotely. But I want them nonetheless.

Continue Reading →

Webcomics Versus eBook Readers

Alexander Danner Leave a Comment

This article was originally published on webcomics.com in 2008.

Okay, so the Amazon’s Kindle can’t handle images. Neither, for that matter, can Sony’s Portable Reader System, a similar E Ink product that arrived in 2006 but received considerably less buzz. This lack of image support has caused much complaint both within webcomics and in the general market. Obviously, a device without image support is useless to webcomics readers and creators. But the level of disappointment surprised me. It hadn’t occurred to me that webcomics readers were really waiting for a new portable display technology.

Continue Reading →

Check Back Later When This Post Is Finished — Okay Done!

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

I've been posting some good stories Alexander Danner wrote for the prior version of webcomics.com.  Another one today on whatever happenned to four (briefly) rock stars of webcomic.

Life Imitates Art Comics: James Kochalka wrote in a comic about a game in a dream he was having, somebody actually makes the game, now he makes a comic about it.  Hmmm… That's a tempting power over the universe he seems to have developed.

AWARDS: The Canadian Joe Shuster Award nominations are out – the webcomics category is outstanding: Kate Beaton, Michael Cho, Lar De Souza & Ryan Sohmer, Kathryn & Stuart Immonen, Karl Kerschl, Gisele Lagace, Ramón K. Pérez, and Cameron Stewart.

INTERVIEWS: Newsarama has an interview with Bellen! creator Brian Brown about his new book and winning a Xeric grant.

SMALL SCREENS: Sean Kleefeld had a good post on some of the inherent challenges of smaller screens as a way to read/display comics.

NOT WEBCOMICS: The browser-based ZORK! game is out.  Jim Zubkavich did gobs of great art for this.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE: Some comics I'm checking out: Rooby Moon and Schoolhouse Daze.

Continue Reading →

Uncategorized

Off the Radar: Catching Up with Past Luminaries

Alexander Danner Leave a Comment

This article was originally published on webcomics.com in 2008.

Webcartoonists disappear every day. Not off the face of the Earth, of course, but certainly out of the collective conscious of the webcomic community. Creators may take a hiatus, or decide to focus on print projects, or complete a well-loved work and move on to something less wildly popular. Or they may simply not bother with self-promotion, so that when the initial buzz surrounding their work calms, they are not active in maintaining the level of attention that was briefly paid to their work. And fickle as the Internet is, it’s easy to go from famous to forgotten at any given moment.

Of course, just because a creator isn’t dominating the critical sites or public discussion forums the way they once did doesn’t mean they’ve stopped working, or publishing, or playing some other role in the comics community. Presented here is a survey of the current projects of four of those creators whom we haven’t heard much about over the past year or two, despite their notable accomplishments of the past.

Continue Reading →

In Webcomics No One Can Hear You Scream

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

Thanks to Caleb Sevcik for this month’s cover art!  Caleb is the first artist to do 2 covers for ComixTalk.  Here’s more news for Tuesday:

CRAFT
From DRAWN! — Dave Gibbons, artist on the Watchmen, uses Manga Studio to digitally draw the character Rorschach.

Erfworld artist Jamie Noguchi demonstrates some techniques in "digital painting".  Cool stuff!

INTERVIEWS
Part one and part two of Daily Cross Hatch’s interview with PBF creator Nick Gurewitch.

BUSINESS
Over at Panel and Pixel, a thread asking what is the optimal update schedule and tips on how to market your webcomic.

Pop Syndicate has an article on the threat to brick and mortar stores from digital comics publishing.

Scott "Dilbert" Adams writes a blog post on how hyper-localism might "save" newspapers (not really – Adams is really advising people in newspapers to start  "hyper-local" community portals as a new business plan.  Not sure Adams is offering anything new to the already vigorous discussion on how a focus on local community is a newspaper’s core function and it’s potential future).  Not sure I would have linked to it except Scott Kurtz pops up in the comments chiding Adams for clinging to the newspaper model for Dilbert.  I think Kurtz missed it there – Adams only seems to be offering an idea to provoke discussion, something he does quite often on his blog.  I doubt Adams, personally is all that stressed about newspapers since Dilbert has already made it in the larger pop culture in a way very few comics ever do.  Even if newspapers disappear tomorrow, Dilbert will do as well or better than almost any comic out there.

TECHNOLOGY
Anyone tried out the iPhone app for comics called ComicZeal?  Thoughts?  While I’m thinking of small screens, here’s a link to coverage of an SXSW panel covering comics on handhelds. (h/t Brigid who covers lots more handheld stories in this post)

JUSTIFY MY TOM’s HYPE
Tom Spurgeon – the Comics Reporter – writes about the webcomics he is currently reading.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

FROM DRAWN! — Justine Lai’s series of oil paintings depicting herself "in flagrante delicto" with each US president – NSFW

Another great link from DRAWN! – a video showing the evolution of the Batman logo.

Continue Reading →

Uncategorized