Dead Trees

Webcomics in paper formats

Brainfag Forever: Comics by Nate Beaty from 1999-2007

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

Nate Beaty has been making comics for about a decade (at least) and collected 8 years of journal webcomics into Brainfag Forever (or BFF as it appears on the cover).  It's very self-revealing with a great deal of painful honesty in it.  Artistically it's all over the place and in that sense it's an overview of Beaty's life as a comic artist as much as the comic itself is an overview of his life in general.  It's no wonder this book collected a number of strong reviews last year.

Continue Reading →

Mini Reviews: Lauren Barnett, Kelli Nelson and Trees & Hills

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

Secret Weirdo by Lauren Barnett

The one thing minis and webcomics have in common is the DIY spirit.  Make a comic and put it out there for people to see.  Here's some short reviews of minis I've been reading this week from Lauren Barnett, Kelli Nelson, and the Trees & Hills Comic Group.  If you're interested in getting a mini reviewed at ComixTalk, you can find our contact information on the About page.

Continue Reading →

Comix Talk for Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

Meanwhile by Jason Shiga

DEAD TREES: Scott McCloud writes about a forthcoming project from Jason Shiga called Meanwhile.  I've seen pictures of the original hand-crafted version of this "choose-your-own-adventure" style comic but not the actual artifact.  Shiga is a dang good, inventive comic creator.

Interviews: WebcomicBuilder.com has an interview with Gianna Masetti, the creator of The Noob, a gamer comic set in an MMORPG.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

Continue Reading →

Comix Talk for Friday, February 12, 2010

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

Zombies Calling by Faith Erin HicksWe're finally digging out of the snow here in Washington DC — apparently the volume of frosted flakes falling felled a record.  Anyhow – wanted to let everyone know that new user registrations are back online at Comix Talk.  You don't need to register with Comix Talk to comment on anything BUT registering gives you the ability to have a user blog and post to Comix Talk news and hype if you so desire.  New registrations are not automatically approved, however, so it may take up to a day for me to check them.

All Ages: El Santo had an interesting overview of what makes comics good for kids.  A good source for what's new with all ages comics is the Good Comics for Kids blog.  I've certainly had more interest in these comics again as my kids have gotten into comics.

No Good Deed Goes Unpublished: Coyote Trax has an article about webcomic creators involvement in charity and other good deeds.  El Santo had a recent post about the comic Snowflakes participation in Heart Health Month.

INTERVIEWS

Continue Reading →

Comix Talk for Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

Gemma Correll

OMFGUIHAJB!!!! It is snowing again in Washington DC. IT IS SNOWING… AGAIN.  I have a review of Smile up today.  In addition, be sure to check out the bonus comic Raina Telgemeier did.  I saw this funny comic about one of the downsides of the Internet today (see above) – Gemma Correll has lots more great illustrations on her Flickr page.

Congratulations: 1Up names Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik to their five most influential people in videogames for the last decade.

Weird, but something I suspect many readers here might be interested in checking out — MyWebWill purports to be a service for managing your digital identity after death.  Think about it — you're going to create a ton of stuff online in your life, some of it at least as important as any physical stuff you'll leave behind.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE: Jamie Noguchi has a new webcomic called Yellow Peril.  Jamie was the original artist for Erfworld, is a heck of an artist and part of the Super Art Fight crew.  Jamie also runs Monster Cutie which is a great source of tips and craft for illustrators.

Last, not comics but this Oscar nominated short, Logorama, is all kinds of weird-cool.  Language is very NSFW btw.

Continue Reading →

Comix Talk for Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

Freak Angels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield

It's day 4 of Snowapalooza in Washington DC.  I consider this a trial run for if I ever decided to move to Canada and so far… I don't think I'd make it.  But being snow-bound has been great for catching up on comics.  I also wanted to flag a few features at ComixTalk — the calendar of comic events is available here, but you can also add it a number of other calendar programs and I'm always interested in co-maintainers.  In fact I'd be very happy to see other blogs and sites join me in maintaining it and embedding it on their sites too. I also set up a hub page for the four webcomic titles that have run at ComixTalk over its 8 year history – click to discover work from Ryan Estrada, Kris Straub and Bryant Paul Johnson.

Awards:  The Webcomics List, a hybrid tracking, popularity and news site for webcomics had a forum-organized awards program this year.  It felt a lot like the old WCCAs. This Week in Webcomics covers the results.  Gunnerkrigg Court won the nod for Best Comic and Moon Town won for Best New Comic.  Coyote has a review of Moon Town here.

iWebcomics: So I'm kind of already burnt out on the iPad hype.  I want to wait until the thing is available to think more about it.  Others are though: Erik Larsen has an essay about it and Gizmodo salivated over how comics will look on the tablet device.

Dead Trees: Tyler Page talks numbers, costs and quality for taking the Print-On-Demand route for volume 2 of his Nothing Better webcomic.  And starting this week, for a couple of months, Gordon McAlpin is working full time on Multiplex — and, the Multiplex: Book 1 print collection.  This is all due to the funding he raised for the book through a Kickstarter drive.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

  • The recent rock concert contest storyline at Ornery Boy has been great – both funny and Michael Lalonde has done an awesome job with animating key panels.  If you're going to do a flash comic than use it!  Ornery Boy makes great use of Flash's capabilities.
  • It's a been awhile since I've linked to Freak Angels.  Things are happening again in the storyline and although I'm a bit annoyed that after a few years we still don't really understand the full logic of the "package" of the freak angels and their world, it's a hell of a comic.  I'll also just flag again that what Avatar is doing here seems like a pretty good model for a publisher-creator relationship in the webcomic world.  I'm not sure I've seen anyone else quite match it yet.
  • The latest issue of Dark Horse Presents is out with webcomics from Graham Annable and others.

Continue Reading →

Comix Talk for February 2, 2010

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

Octopus Pie: There Are No Stars in Brooklyn by Meredith Gran

Quick update this morning – The Escapist website is having a contest — more like an audition — to pick a regular webcomic for the The Escapist.  I haven't read the fine print so you should before you enter, but go check it out.  Btw, SLG Publishing is going to have a workshop for "aspiring comic creators" this March in San Jose, CA.

DEAD TREES:  Robot6 previews a lot of comics on book publishers' schedule for this year, includes several webcomics such as Goats, Octopus Pie and Penny Arcade.

INTERVIEWS:  Lots of folks linking to this interview with Bill Watterson of Calvin & Hobbes worship fame…  Be sure to check out Graphic Novel Reporter's interview with Kazu Kibuishi on his print collection of Copper.

Continue Reading →

Transfuzion Publishing Signs The Continentals

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

The Continentals by Darryl Hughes and Monique MacNaughton

Here's some good news for fans of the webcomic, The Continentals — Transfuzion Publishing will be putting it out as a series of graphic novels. 

Crisscrossing the literary genres of murder/mystery, action/adventure, historical drama, horror, science fiction, and  steampunk, The Continentals by writer/creator Darryl Hughes and artist Monique MacNaughton, — both nominated for the “Rising Star” category for the Glyph Comic Awards — is a modern re-imagining of the classic 19th century Sherlock Holmes "who done it" murder mystery created for the 21st century comic fan.

Continue Reading →

Comix Talk for January 29, 2010

Xaviar Xerexes Leave a Comment

Whew, made it to Friday.  Sometime next week a new version of ComixTalk at the new server will emerge — it won't be perfect but mostly what I need this year.  And it should mean the end of me starting posts writing about Drupal and CSS…

I got a fever, and the only prescription… is more AXE COP! You've all read Axe Cop, haven't you?  If I didn't know it was for real I might have thought Kris Straub was behind it…  Coupling really funny and well-done art with scripts from his 5 year old brother Malachai, artist Ethan Nicolle has created something that is a gimmick but I swear I laughed the whole time I was reading it. 

iWEBCOMICS: Paperless Comics has a nice round up of webcomic commenting on the iPad announcement.  I'm not going to think too hard about it until the damn thing is actually in the store, but even though it's not perfect I'm kind of leaning towards getting an iPad right now.  (I wonder if I can write it off as a business expense for this site?)

INTERVIEW: A really nice interview with Kean Soo, creator of the all ages comic Jellaby (and before that his journal comic at keaner.net)

REVIEWS: Tom Spurgeon has a glowing review of Kazu Kibuishi's book, Copper.  Copper has long been one of my favorite comics and I really do want to get a copy of the paper version at some point.  Missed it but earlier this month, Sean Kleefeld reviewed another all ages title — the prose/comics hybrid book Malice.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

Seth Godin read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and thought it was… about marketing?

Over at Panel & Pixel forums, there's some information and discussion of how intellectual property rights in the U.S. work when a writer and artist collaborate. And another Panel & Pixel post covers creating model sheets for characters for your comic.

Continue Reading →