Leftovers
As the week draws to a close, I thought I'd wrap my guest blogging stint up with some assorted things I've learned over the years, that didn't quite fit into the other articles. Maybe you'll find them useful, too. Continue Reading
Theory
Theory of webcomics
Putting It Out There
Once you've finished toiling away on your first few comics, and you've produced a work of staggering greatness (or, at least, a couple of pretty good fart jokes), your next step is to create a home for them. Now, there are places that will offer to do all the work for you; Webcomics Nation is one respectable example. But, if you're in it for the long haul, eventually you'll want to set up your own web site. And the first step is selecting a domain name.
Freewriting Re: Writing
There's a well-known (in certain circles …) doodle by Bill Watterson wherein he shares his writing process, which pretty much consists of staring blankly into space, waiting for inspiration. I imagine this holds true for a lot of cartoonists – it does for me, at least. Which makes writing about Writing a bit of a challenge, as I can't give a simple set of directions and send you on your merry way. I think the most I can manage is some random observations, which I'll try to tie together as best I can.
On Art, or Make Bad Comics
Cartoonists (and artists in general, I suppose) love to argue. Or, at least, we have strong opinions on things; spend all your free time cloistered and toiling, you're bound to ruminate. One favored topic is the ol' “Art vs. Writing” debate, which usually seems to degenerate into “I think I'm good at X, and know that I'm terrible at Y, but that's okay, because isn't X more important, anyway?"
Truth is, if your goal is to make quality comics, Art and Writing are equally important. Intertwined. Yin and Yang. If one falls short, the other suffers. Which can be discouraging, because people tend to think that they're gifted with certain talents and not others, and thus it shall ever be. But Art and Writing are skills, not talents, and like all skills, you can improve your proficiency over time.
When a Webcomic Isn’t a Webcomic But Is
There once was a horse named Print vs. Web and it died. Soon people from every corner of the Internet came with sticks. There was much beating of this dead horse. I thought I'd try to edge past the beating grounds with my comments trying not to cause an unexpected restart of the beating or at the very least no to get anything on me.
There are three webcomic sites everyone should check out. Candorville by Darrin Bell, Foxtrot by Bill Amend and Oh, Brother! by Jay Stephens and Bob Weber Jr. All three look like your regular, family friendly, well written, well-drawn webcomics on well-designed ComicPress sites, right? Kind of, but the common point between these three comics is all of the creators are syndicated or backed by a syndicate; Bell with Washington Post Writer's Group, Amend with Universal Press Syndicate and Stephens and Weber with King Features Syndicate.
Comic Theory 101: Loopy Framing
In another installment of Neil Cohn's continuing series Comic Theory 101, Cohn puts word balloons, thoughts balloons and panels under the microscope and concludes that they're all essentially the same animal — one that has the function of encapsulating other information.
Comic Theory 101: Visual Poetry
This month Neil Cohn presents another essay in his series of features on comics as visual language. This article delves into the notion of "what is poetic" in visual language. Poems reflect the language they are written in. If we conceive of comics as a language then there should be particular poetic "forms" that innately reflect comics as visual language. What is Visual Language's answer to English's sonnet? Read on for Cohn's answer.
Comic Theory 101: Seeing Rhymes
In his latest exploration of visual language, Neil Cohn sketches in rhyme. Can two comic panels "rhyme"? Can we translate the notion of rhyming into an effective part of the visual language used by comic creators?
Joey + Joe Podcast
I finally got a chance to listen to the podcast of Joey Manley and Joe Zabel chatting about webcomics. A little bit about Zabel’s Introvert/Extrovert article, serialization, pacing and different genres of stories. Interesting stuff (about 30 minutes long) from two knowledgeable, opinionated guys.
Comic Theory 101: Too Many Twos
How is that your brain can receive two identical signals in the same context yet identify them as two different things? It's not science fiction! Neil Cohn examines the linguistic "Problem of Two" as applied in the context of comics.
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