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Goats

Back, Back, Waaay Back!

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 24, 2008 - 11:16

It's snapshot of the ComixTalk archives time again. Here's a look back at what we were writing about on January 24th in years past.

2007:

2006:

2005

2004

  • absolutely nothing!

The March of the Webcomics

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 4, 2008 - 12:49

Back in town with a rolling update for Friday (and the weekend). Should be new cover art and articles up on Sunday.

HEADLINES

BUSINESS

  • Satstu.com has an article on the state of the not-growing newspaper comic strip business. It also has a link to Chicken Wings which is a webcomic aimed at the aviation industry. In 2008 I'm going to predict that if there's enough public interest in something there will be at least one successful webcomic about it. How much public interest in a subject is enough? That's something I hope we can all get a better handle on this year - maybe with actual numbers and demographics.

CONGRATULATIONS

  • Congrats to Jeph and Christi on their engagement. And hope everyone caught Jeph's pretty cool little reader-participation holiday comic. My gift to the happy couple is that something happens in Questionable Content this year. I keed, I keed...

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

  • New Years Day, Goats wrapped up its multi-verse saga with Jon in charge of hell? The first comic in the next storyline is up now... Don't let anyone kid you - combining consistently funny updates with a (somewhat) coherent storyline is hard. Throw in some actual character development - that's ISO 9000 there, baby! Last year, Goats began to hit a stride of humor and unpredictablilty in a just-plain-fun story - let's hope Rosenberg can do it again in 2008.
  • A long way off but a firm date in May for the wedding of Brent and Jade should shake things up at PvP. PvP is more sitcom than storyline but every now and then Scott Kurtz successfully mixes up the elements of this long-running strip.
  • SMBC is brillant. I love the punchline picture / set-up text jokes (kind of a reverse humor-fu) - here's one of my recent favorites with the added wha! of mixing D&D and sex. Probably too PG-13 to ever fit comfortably in newspapers but somehow it'd be great to sneak this into mid-America's breakfast reading.

COMRADES IN ARMS

ComixTalk's People Of Webcomics List For 2007

December 20, 2007 - 13:31

And now... the fourth annual People Of Webcomics list! I'll be the first to admit that this list gets harder and harder to compile as the lines between "webcomics" and just plain "comics" blurs harder than a greasy windshield in the middle of a West Texas downpour. Plus as publishing comics on the web and other digital formats becomes more commonplace it gets harder and harder to find those "firsts" that take comics in new directions whether artistic, technical or businesss-oriented.

I Don't Like Mondays

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 15, 2007 - 09:17

AWARDS 

  • In a bit of a surprise (to me at least) Papercutter #6 edited by Alec Longstreth won Outstanding Debut in the Ignatz Awards (A surprise not because Longstreth's book didn't deserve to win but because very famous cartoonist Bill Griffith had a book nominated in this category: Zippy: Walk a Mile in My Mu-Mu). Chris Onstad won the Outstanding Online Comic for Achewood.  The full list of awards are available here in simple text form, all on one page (please someone at the WCCAs use this format for releasing your list of winners next time).

INTERVIEWS

TECHNOLOGY

  • Joey Manley has a big post on questions and comments on tailoring stats for webcomic creators in the next generation of his hosting service WebcomicsNation. I still need to read it a bit more carefully but if you're interested in stats or WCN you should probably give it a look.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

MoCCA Has Big Exhibit on Webcomics

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 7, 2007 - 09:13

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) is proud to announce its upcoming exhibit: Infinite Canvas: The Art of Webcomics, set to open on Sept. 13.

"Infinite Canvas: The Art of Webcomics” brings comics from the web page to the MoCCA stage. The exhibit explores three aspects of online comics: the unique format and design of webcomics, their appeal to niche audiences, and the transitions between web and print comics.

Curator Jennifer Babcock, who also draws the syndicated webcomic C’est La Vie, explains that webcomics are free of the space constraints and editorial censorship to which printed comics are often subjected. Webcomics also provide an outlet for a greater diversity of creators and audiences, she says, resulting in numerous niche-specific features.

This exhibit incorporates original artwork, prints of finished art, and digital displays. Featured in the exhibit will be the immensely popular Penny Arcade, PhD, Sluggy Freelance, User Friendly, Diesel Sweeties, Mom’s Cancer, Finder, Supernatural Law, Something Positive, Scary Go Round, Young Bottoms in Love, Narbonic, Goats, and “My Obsession with Chess” by Scott McCloud, among many others.

Monday

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 13, 2007 - 12:22

This week's guest blogger is Tim Demeter who does way too many cool things for me to list 'em. Needless to say I'm grateful for him to take sometime out of his busy schedule to guest blog for the site again (he helped out last summer as well).

BUSINESS

  • Gary Tyrell at FLEEN has a good post on DC Comics Zudacomics project. Zudacomics is DC's webcomic portal for new stuff from creators - not it's "putting DC comic books on the web" site, which oddly enough DC hasn't gotten around to creating yet. Apparently DC must think that the music industry's Internet strategy is awesome as it and Marvel appear to be following large parts of it - although not yet suing large numbers of their customers so good on them for that bit of common sense. Is it just me or is the huge rise in scanlation trading online (scanlation is the direct equivalent of ripping CDs into mp3s) at least somewhat the fault of DC and Marvel for failing to put their immense catalog of material online in any meaningful way for consumers? Sort of related here is Joey Manley's recent post spelling out his view that Modern Tales as a subscription site was a success, but one limited by the subscription site model. Manley links to a post about Zudacomics and cracks wise that:
    It’s interesting and illuminating to see the “mainstream” comics community try to get a grip on how the digital distribution of comics can be monetized. Sometimes, it literally feels like they’re repeating every business idea that took the webcomics community by storm over the past ten years, and in exactly the same order, only to discard each in turn (as did we, for the most part) and move on to the next.

    I'm interested of course in any comics publishers' projects involving digital distribution of comics. It's the future of all media, not just comics and the sooner comics sorts out how to survive the intertubes the better for comics. Anyhow back to Gary's post and zudamania. I think DC's insistence on a 4:3 format for comics isn't going to be a problem for people willing to get into bed with Zudacomics in the first place. The 4:3 ratio is probably equally useful to Zuda to make their site slicker and more consistent for readers as it is to any print spin-offs Zuda pursues. But I definitely think Gary's point that a successful Zuda might benefit some non-Zuda creators more than anyone actually on Zuda to be pretty insightful and likely correct.

INTERVIEWS

DEAD TREES

  • Journalista! points to this Publisher Weekly post on Amazon's new self-publishing program:
    Through Project Vine, readers with a history of posting accurate and helpful book reviews are being invited to receive advance copies for review purposes. And, through CreateSpace, a division of the company that already provides CD- and DVD-on-demand services, Amazon has added book publishing options.

REVIEWS

TRANSITIONS

  • Newsarama is reporting that Mike Wieringo passed away this Sunday of a sudden heart attack. Wieringo wasn't that much older than me (he was 44) and he's also one of the few names in comic book land I was familar with before I got into all this webcomics. By all accounts not only was he very talented but a tremendously nice guy. He had a blog and I imagine there will be some info on memorials there.

SWAG

NOT WEBCOMICS

  • Sometimes superhero movies are cool, sometimes they are ridiculous. Sometimes they're just a muddled mess where the director/writer/whatever can't figure out what kind of movie they're making. Time Nerd World blogger Lev Grossman posts about the planned Thor movie and I have to agree with his doubts about the direction Marvel supposedly is taking with it. The main reason I'm linking to this NerdWorld post though is to harp on the planned The Incredible Hulk movie which is being touted as a "re-do" of the Ang Lee movie (and not a sequel). I'm not sure how I'd script it because I don't think you'd want to make a movie too crowded with Marvel Universe characters but wouldn't you rather see a new Hulk movie along the lines of this "World War Hulk" comic book mini-series Grossman blogs about than another origin story? The Hulk is a big scary ambiguous bad guy (sort of like the Terminator character in T2) that blows stuff up. Make that movie without any pretense to being something else and you'd probably have the summer hit Marvel wants.

Updates On Entries in the Ill-Fated Webcomic Directory Project?

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 24, 2007 - 14:31

I built a "library" of webcomics and creators back in the fall of 2005 which I put into beta before realizing it was too much editorial work to deal with and the same information could be better provided through the community edited webcomic wiki - COMIXPEDIA.

Nevertheless looking back on the assortment of names collected (some from me, some sent in from you) I wonder if anyone has any significant updates on these creators 18 months later. Maybe we should interview some of them?

Reinventing Micropayments

May 7, 2007 - 00:30 | Joel Fagin

Just as Bitpass bit the dust and Scott McCloud decided the right number for The Right Number was free, Joel Fagin offers another look at how to make micropayments work for webcomics -- by examining iTunes, the most successful micropayments system in history.

News for Thursday, April 19, 2007 (UPDATED)

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 19, 2007 - 09:20

NEWS

REVIEWS

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

  • Ali Graham's new webcomic Afterstrife (love that name) has finished its first chapter and is in the midst of a week of guest comics before the next chapter begins. The comic features the adventures of two young recently-dead characters in their afterlife, but for such a potentially ominous setting, it's been surprisingly funny so far. Afterstrife is a nice evolution of Graham's writing and art chops from his previous work and well worth checking out.
  • Turtle Vs. Bunny by Joe Dunn (with the help of the votes of millions!). Have y'all already seen this? A very cool, interactive spin on the classic fable of the tortoise and the hare, Dunn's TVB lets readers decide whether Turtle or Bunny will come out on top that week.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

News & Views for Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 11, 2007 - 10:33

First a quick thanks to current advertisers: The Learn to Draw the Human Figure video course; The Lethal Lady website and blog; the webcomic Life on the Fringe and the DrunkDuck Civil War Webcomic Event. Thanks also to all of our PW sponsors including the very current ones: Freaks N Squeeks; Alma Mater; and Cartridge Comics, Lummox. PW ads appear depending on who is the top bidder right now. You should still check out Cartridge Comics though! :)

Also be sure to check out contributor Joel Fagin's webcomic tutorials site and this month's cover artist Michael Lalonde's very funny webcomic Orneryboy.

HEADLINES

JUSTIFY MY THEIR HYPE

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS