ZudahadaV8

hpkomic over at The Scienteers offers up a rant about the flaws of Zuda’s flash-driven display for its comics:

I don’t think there is nearly enough criticism of Zuda’s method for displaying comics. The flash player is absolutely terrible and kind of implies that the people behind it have no idea how important usability and simple navigation is to a webcomic site. Why is the webcomic site model virtually unchanged across so many webcomics? It’s because it’s a good model, functional, and the best we have. Zuda’s method is totally against what webcomics should be.

Click here to read the whole thing.

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Thursday Webcomics Briefing

News

Joey Manley has a post up – teeing off of the recent Platinum purchase of Drunk Duck – speculating on "boom times for webcomics" and referencing a Gary Groth essay on the ill-fated black & white comic book boom of the Eighties.

I see people are excited about the new Sony ebook, a device that uses electronic ink technology. Gizmodo describes it as "like a gameboy…for the game of Reading." It will display greyscale images so you can use it to read comics.

Reviews

Writer Response Theory has a post up on Bound By Law – a comic about copyright using a "remediated paper interface" (essentially using the web to remind you of holding a comic book).

The subject matter [of Bound By Law] is fascinating – I don’t think you can really follow contemporary art without being drawn into the intricacies of copyright law. Still, it is a testamony to the creators that I finished Bound By Law wishing for a sequel, or series of sequels. In particular, it would be interesting to see a more self-referential work that took on the unique intellectual property challenges of, for example, web comics and blogging – image sampling and remixing, screen captures, quotation, linking, the act of publication, the nested rights restrictions of host, domain, and content management system, etc. etc. etc…

Around the World in 80 Blogs

Fleen catches the ongoing White Ninja guest week – I kind of liked Jeff Rowland's contribution the most so far…

Zoinks notes that Derrick Fish, creator of Dandy & Company recently put out a call for donation. For donations totaling $15 or more Fish is giving away the first, full color issue of his new comic book Tails TO Amaze!

The Drawn blog points out James Harvey's project to illustrate 100 pirates in a 100 days.

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New Canvas Tag in HTML

I don't know if this means anything to webcomics or not but my gut tells me that some Merlin-like genius is going to figure out something cool to do with the new canvas tag (reportedly to be added officially in HTML 5.0) supported by the Firefox brower. (It's not yet supported by IE though)

Some of the programs crafted to use this tag include this piece of javascript that will add a reflection to an image; this page allows you to "walk" around in a maze;and Plotkit is "a chart and graph plotting library for javascript".

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Monday News In Progress

Over the weekend, I compiled a list of interesting videos related to comics – you might be interested in checking some of them out. 

Gary Chaloner announces that his webcomic, John Law is going to daily updates

Dorothy Gambrell has a Cat and Girl book coming out.  You can order it here.  Dorothy also posts "four cartoons rejected by the New Yorker."  I don’t get the New Yorker anymore (read it online but…) but Gambrell’s sensibility is perfect for that magazine.

A new site with an interesting twist on wikidom: Wiki How-ToHere’s a link to a how-to on painting. 

From Ninth Art, Andrew Wheeler complains about Marvel’s "conservatism" and Bulent Yusuf names the nine comics that shaped his love for comics. As long as we’ve brought up Marvel here’s a funny blog post on "Marvel’s 50 Best Characters." The list is arguably accurate but the accompanying snark-filled descriptions are priceless.

The Comics Interpreter is an infrequently published, but intelligent magazine about comics.  It now has a podcast – might be worth checking out. 

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Clickwheel On iTunes

Clickwheel, the iPod comics company, has set up shop on iTunes.

"This is an important move for Clickwheel and our artists," says Will Simons, Clickwheel’s founder.  "It holds enormous possibilities and could, we believe, prove a defining moment in the history of this company."

Clickwheel’s first features on iTunes are the movie-themed gag strip Joe Loves Crappy Movies by Joseph Dunn, the punning gag strip Silent Kimbly by Ryan Sias, the fantasy sitcom Sebo by Jamie Robertson, Colin White’s autobiographical, politically charged Colin White Comix and Joe Alterio’s youth-and-quest story Fading Fast.

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Sunday News

May Day Webcomics Awareness Day (aka Online Comics Day) is tomorrow May 1st.  Workers of the world activate!  And Webcomics Awareness Day (aka Online Comics Day) is May 5th (thanks for the correction Mr. TCheck this site for more details on Webcomics Awareness Day.

The Webcomics in Print blog is having a competition tomorrow (Monday) to win a copy of Beaver & Steve’s first book A Shoeful of Trouble.

If you make a webcomic about ninjas you probably ought to read about the last authentic "fighting ninja" in the world. 

Google has released a Windows version of Sketch-up for free (Mac coming soon).  You can print out models separately or place them in Google Earth.  It seems like this could be an excellent drawing aid.

In notwebcomics news, hurry before it’s gone: a parody of V is for Vendetta called "C is for Cookie"

And I don’t get quite so excited about PHP, but I thought this post by Ferrett about it was funny.

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Wednesday Newsy-like Stuff

RSSpect adds support for podcasts with a new feature: special iTunes-ready RSS feeds.

Digital Strips catches an interview with Garen Ewing, creator of Rainbow Orchid which made the leap to the web last October.

The Kea’s Nest has a short blurb about Chopping Block.

Nathan Mazur is scared of bees. He also posts his one-panel comics online.

And in notwebcomics news – here’s a creative use of chalkboard art.

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