Dramaticus Super Personae:
So apparently webcomics did not invent comics drama… but I’m much happier writing in a pretty drama-free zone these days.
NOT-RELATED ROLLING UPDATES TO WHAT WILL MOST LIKELY BE MY ONLY POST OF THE DAY:
Cool series of "interviews" with Neil Gaiman as part of the Julius Schwartz Memorial Lectures at MIT. (h/t Boingboing.net)
Another good post on writing for comics (versus novels) from Mark Waid over at Kung Fu Monkey.
INTERVIEWS
World Famous Comics has an interview with Brian Babendererde, the creator of Soul Chaser Betty.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Ping Teo threatens more frequent updates for her webcomic The Longest Sojourn. TLS is a "satirical epic fantasy" – worth checking out if you haven’t before.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
Tom Spurgeon asks a bunch of rhetorical questions about comics writ large at the end of 2008. One is aout webcomics:
8. Why Is The Fact That A Few People Are Making That Kind Of Money On Webcomics Not A Bigger Story?
If you’ve been to a webcomics panel recently, a lot of the discussion seems to revolve around making money off of one’s efforts on-line. Clearly, the vast majority of people still don’t. Many people never will. But a handful of those involved in this aspect of comics reportedly see middle class revenues roll in by creating enough attention through their free offerings to drive business to merchandising, licensing and even publishing. I’m not suggesting that this needs to be copied, as I don’t know that it’s a model that can be replicated. I just wonder why it isn’t discussed in more matter-of-fact fashion. People either seem bored by this notion as if it were inevitable or stunned by it as if it’s totally not believable.
Well what do you think?
A big thanks to Grant Thomas for jumping in at the last minute to do cover art for ComixTalk for this month. Grant Thomas is the creator of My Life in Records and has contributed a few articles to ComixTalk in the past.
Created by two comic creating folks,Casey Sorrow and Eric Millikin, Monkey Day takes place on this Sunday, December 14th. What is Monkey Day you say:
Monkey Day is an annual celebration of all things simian, a festival of primates, a chance to scream like a monkey and throw feces at whomever you choose. Or perhaps just a reason to hang out with your friends while grunting and picking fleas off each other. (note: for legal reasons, the publishers of the Monkey Day website in no way endorse throwing feces in any manner at any time.)
Bookmark it aspiring comic creators (especially writers) – Mark Waid is dishing out good advice on writing for comics over at the Kung Fu Monkey blog. Today’s post on the differences between writing for movies and comics is simple but pretty insightful.
Jim Zubkavich isn't "oldest school webcomics" but he's awfully darn close. His debut webcomic, The Makeshift Miracle garnered instant notice online at the time. Ironically, despite the intentional use of limited colors in the comic, the coloring is one of the things I remember most about it. Zubkavich has also been a heck of a nice guy to comics, sharing his knowledge through tutorials, teaching and a column at ComixTalk.
I got a chance to do an interview with Jim this month looking back on The Makeshift Miracle and looking ahead to 2009.
Robbie Allen aka Pembroke W. Korgi is the creator of Femmegasm and a contributor to Radio Comix. Femmegasm is new this year and mostly a sendup of pop culture, heavy on the videogame references with an awesome recurring Popeye-hates-pirates joke. (Despite the name of the comic it has no Slipshine-qualifying content in it) Check out my interview with Pembroke below for more on this new webcomic.
I guess I’ve been a fan of Kris Straub’s comics for some time now. But I think F Chords may be the one that I wind up liking the best. Why? I think beyond the obvious affinity Kris has for the subject — music and struggling musicians — the affection Kris has for the two main characters in F Chords, and the fact that they are not aliens or space pirates brings a emotional balance to the inherent smarty-pants nature of Kris’ humor.
The comic has just wrapped up it’s first storyline — whether you’ve liked Straub’s other comics or not I think you ought to give it a read. I hope you’ll like it as much as I did.
Over at Talk About Comics, Dale Lazerov has a short interview with one of my favorite cartoonist/writers Paul Bryant Johnson. In addition to his long-running faux-history series Teaching Baby Paranoia (since 2000!), Johnson did The Antecedent for a year here at ComixTalk.
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