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Cat and Girl

Livin' For the Webcomics

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 16, 2006 - 10:56

Yirmumah tackles the most important issue facing America today: the next American Idol.  (I'm rooting for crazy grey-haired guy too)

And apparently, the nasty feud between west coast toonist Boxjam and east coast toonist Case Yorke has ended.  Peace out y'all!

And lots more webcomics news after the jump!

Mitch Clem Has A Lot To Say

March 12, 2006 - 10:51 | Al Schroeder

In the punk-snarky Nothing Nice to Say, then the magical-realistic Coffee Achievers, and now in the journal webcomic San Antonio Rock City, Mitch Clem has been delighting readers and enlightening music lovers for years now. Al Schroeder interviews Mitch about webcomics and music.

"Attitude 3" Available for Pre-Sale on Amazon

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 7, 2006 - 20:01

Ted Rall's book series on alternative comic strips turns its focus to online comics in this third installment, titled "Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists," now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

In addition to samples of each comic, the book features extensive interviews and memorabilia from the creators' lives and early efforts.

Ted Rall announces anthology of online cartoonists

Submitted by Tim Tylor on December 13, 2005 - 19:39

Cartoonist and commentator Ted Rall is turning his attention to webcomics in his third Attitude anthology, due out in June 2006. Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists will feature the work of twenty-one cartoonists publishing their work over the internet.

Lulu Award Nominees Announced

Submitted by Erik Melander on June 8, 2005 - 13:58

The nominees for the Lulu Awards have been announced. A number of webcomic creators are among the nominated.

Infinitely Innovative: An Interview With Tymothi Godek

February 7, 2005 - 00:00

Timothy Godek has been producing some delightful comics with the new Infinite Canvas software on his Yellow Light Comics website. His
Tree City was praised by Scott McCloud, and another favorite is his Everybody Loves Chris Ware webcomic.

What is Comixpedia for?

Submitted by Stark on November 9, 2004 - 08:07

I have just read the new article 'Beyond Journal Comics: Life-like Webcomics' and I must ask: what is the point of this article?

Okay, I'm being a bit unfair to pick on this article in particular because of something that is endemic across the site, but this is where my patience snapped.

When 'Comixpedia' launched, I was very optimistic; I thought that finally there would be a site covering webcomics in critical depth. However, instead we get numerous articles like the above: 750 words that skim the surface of a topic, patronising lists of obvious terms (does anyone, anyone really imagine that people need to have the difference between autobiography and biography explained to them?) with random words made into links and absolutely no attempt at analysis beyond a couple of throwaway questions. How much thought goes into creating an article like this? Ten minutes, maximum, with maybe another five to collate the links? It's lazy, that's all it is. Lazy and patronising, both in its condescending tone and in its assumption that people are so stupid as to find something so devoid of original thought interesting.

And the reviews are no better: mere descriptions of comics, again with random linked words. One single (pre novel-writing-month) article on http://www.websnark.com/ has more depth of analysis than every review Comixpedia printed in its first six months. So it's a good thing that Burns is now writing for Comixpedia, but it doesn't excuse the lack of substance that still abounds over the entire rest of the site.

I know that people aren't getting paid for Comixpedia work, but really, what is the point fo doing something if you don't do it properly? A real, meaty site dedicated to webcomics would be a wonderful thing but Comixpedia just isn't it.

So I suppose the question is, what is Comixpedia meant to be? Is it just a glorified news site for which people occasionally dash off articles form the top of their heads, articles that say nothing -- candy-floss for the eyes? Or is it a serious attempt to provide commentary on the emerging medium of webcomics? Because if it's meant to be the latter, you really need to shape up and start writing articles that assume your readers are intelligent, knowledgable people, not children who need to have it pointed out to them that there are 'many moments within journal comics and illustrated blogs that definitely fall within the slice of life category' as if it's some great revelation, rather than something which any webcomics reader with half a brain has already noticed for themselves. That assume your readers can understand basic critical terms like 'focalisation' and 'diegetic' and discuss such things in articles that provide real insight.

So which is it?

I Have No Political Leisure: An Interview with Dorothy Gambrell

October 24, 2004 - 22:00 | Al Schroeder

Dorothy Gambrell currently juggles multiple webcomics, including Cat and Girl, The New Adventures of Death and beginning this year, the overtly political The Ralph Bunche. All this plus a job, a band, and who knows what else. Nevertheless, she managed to find a few moments to answer some questions about her newest webcomic and what prompted it.

Take a Moment to Savor the Wealth of Webcomic Goodness

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 4, 2004 - 12:07

First of all it's a slow news day again. But second and more importantly be sure to check out the invaluable guide to freshly updated webcomics from Ash. And third and most importantly give these folks a hand (and feel free to add more in the comments) for providing some webcomic goodness today:

8-Bit Theatre
Achewood
Adventurers
Alien Dice
All Grown Up
Badly Drawn Kitties
Bob and George
Bob The Squirrel
Calvin and Hobbes
Cat and Girl
Catharsis
Chopp Block
College Roomies From Hell
Comic Strip
Daily Dinosaur Comics
Dandy and Company
Diesel Sweeties
Dilbert
Dog Complex
Dominic Deegan
Dub This
Errant Story
Garfield
General Protection Fault
Get Fuzzy
Greystone Inn
GU Comics
Help Desk
Its Walky
Jerk City
John and John
Kevin and Kell
Kid Radd
Least I Could Do
Modest Destiny
Off the Mark
Ozy and Millie
Patches
Planet Zebeth
Polymer City Chronicles
Purple Pussy
PVP Online
Real Life Comics
Scary Go Round
Schlock Mercenary
Sinfest
Slackers
Sluggy Freelance
Snoopy
Superosity
Taking the Bi-pass
The Adventures of Megaman and Link
The Creatures in My Head
The Dementia of Magic
The Lounge
The Pondering Monkey
User Friendly
Warbucket
White Ninja
WIGU

Webcomics are still a part of "popular culture"

Submitted by m_estrugo on February 11, 2004 - 19:43

Today, I went to an exposition about Romanesque art. I love going to these events as I'm an enthusiast of history of art and that stuff.
Anyway, the place had leaflets announcing upcoming events; one of these leaflets featured Roy Liechenstein's famous picture "Wham" for an upcoming exposition about Pop Art. I was curious and got one, to read about this interesting exposition and entertain myself in the bus.
"Pop Art is a 20th century art movement that utilized the imagery and techniques of consumerism and popular culture ... Pop Art favored figural imagery and the reproduction of everyday objects, such as ... comic strips."

Comics are part of popular culture. Comics are everyday objects, apparently as banal as a can of soup. Or, at least, that was the perception of comics in the United States around the half of the XXth century.

Ocassionally, some exceptional works were praised because of their beautiful art and/or its expressivity; anyway, the most outstanding comics of the XXth century, such as the daily strips "Wash Tubbs" by Roy Crane, George Herrimann's "Krazy Kat" or the fabulous "Spirit" by Will Eisner (oh, yes, I love older daily strips) were just a part of popular culture, and as such, nothing more but products to be consumed and disposed of rapidly, light years away from "the beauty arts" such as painting or sculpture, as banal as a Coke.

Or, at least, that was the situation on the last century on the US. And how it is now? Did this perception change on all these decades?

In my opinion, comics (and especially webcomics) are still part of popular culture, even if there's a growing number of creators considering comics more as a way of expression rather than a mere facility. This "comic as a piece of art" awareness has grown bigger on other parts of the world, like Europe, where creators have widened their point of views about comics, where comic conventions and new releases are usually commented on the cultural section of the newspapers, where libraries feature specialized sections for comics together with novels, poetry books and biographies.

But, still, even in Europe, comics are perceived by a grat majority of the society as just another artifact of popular culture, like fast food, sports events or TV reality shows. And it shows!

At the time I type this, the most popular webcomic around is Penny Arcade, a comic strip that narrates the antics (?) of two gamers. Not surprisingly, videogames have also became an icon of popular culture on these last decades. And the number of webcomics featuring either gamers or the characters of the same videogames they play or played has grown enormously, for the despair of some columnists. And, while it's true that there's a large number of artists trying to use comics as a means of expression, far beyond fashions and fads, the truth is that the number of banal webcomics out there outnumber them easily. Despite dreams and theories, at this moment, webcomics are part of the popular culture of the early XXIth century, and it's unlikely that they will become a "higher art" on the short/medium future.

With this, I don't want to satanize popular culture. Nor I want to say that we, webcartoonsits, are condemned to be "vaudevilians" for the rest of our lives. I just wanted to remember that, unlike some people tend to think, comics, and by extension webcomics, are still part of the popular culture, at least, for a while.