Hark! A Vagrant
Drawn & Quarterly Announces It Will Publish Kate Beaton Book
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 12, 2011 - 11:15
It's all over the intertubes this morning -- Drawn & Quarterly announced that it had acquired the rights to publish a hardcover version of Kate Beaton's work. Congrats to Kate Beaton. Given Beaton's enthusiastic fan base I suspect that the odds are really good D&Q will have a huge success with this.
Full press release follows:
5 Questions: Who Is Your Core Audience?
Submitted by Sam Costello on August 23, 2010 - 08:45
For a webcomic to be successful, it has to connect to a core audience. The core audience is the comic's natural readership, a defined group, the people who buy merchandise and recommend the comic to their friends. Core audiences are broad descriptions, of course (any single person in the group won't exactly fit the description), but they're useful in understanding a comic and its readers. For instance, Penny Arcade appeals to folks who enjoy video games (among other things). Hark! A Vagrant readers are educated, and have an interest in history and irreverent sense of humor. Understanding this helps determine what kind of content and merchandise may be well received by those comics' audiences.
You've Come a Long Way, Baby! (Wait, That's Sexist)
Submitted by Ben McCormick on August 13, 2010 - 13:00
When Cathy Guisewite started her comics career in 1976 there weren't many women making comics. 'Cathy' was one of the first mainstream comics written by and about a woman. When she announced she would be ending the long-running comic strip October 3rd it made me think about some of the webcomics I read that happen to be made by women.
Comix Talk for Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 20, 2010 - 10:23
HYPE
- I'm not sure I've linked to Awesome Hospital yet so here you go. It still feels a little derivative of Dr. McNinja to me, but it is pretty funny.
- Another list of webcomics generated at Warren Ellis' White Chapel forum. You're bound to find something new to you on it.
- Comics Alliance presents a Firefly fan comic from Mike Russell and Bill Mudron.
From the Mailbag: Patric Lewandowski started a fundraising project at Kickstarter with a goal towards funding a comic called Terminal Life.
In 1989, when I was 9 years old, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. He underwent surgery which removed an entire lung from his body. For the next nine years, he was in and out of the hospital and always near death. I grew up with a terminally ill parent and it had a profound impact on who I became as a person. This graphic novel, tentatively titled "Terminal Life" is about that first year when my father was diagnosed, had surgery, and it became apparent that my life had changed forever.
ComixTalk for Monday, March 15, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 15, 2010 - 08:00
AWARDS: The Doug Wright award nominees -- which honor English-language Canadian comics -- were announced last week. Kate Beaton's book Never Learn Anything From History is up for the Pigskin Peters Award (for unconventional, "nominally-narrative" comics); and among the finalists for finalists for Best Emerging Talent is Adam Bourret for his comic I'm Crazy. I gave I'm Crazy a mixed review, but Bourret certainly was a brave story-teller in his book and showed a lot of potential.
PLUG ONE: I haven't mentioned David Simon's Crimson Dark webcomic in quite awhile which is a shame because it's still one of the best 3d art webcomics I've seen. Not sure how it's working, but Simon started a "club" for supporters to subscribe to at $2 to $5 a month to help him with having the time to produce Crimson Dark.
PLUG TWO: The Covered blog which spotlights re-dos of classic comic book covers by new artists. I would love to see a webcomic spin on this.
TOOLS: Scott McCloud experiments with a simple browser-based drawing tool called Harmony.
Comix Talk for Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 27, 2010 - 10:40
So today is the Second Coming? The rumored debut of Apple's oversized iPod has sent the newspaper business into a tizzy but it is potentially VERY interesting to the world of comics. I doubt the first generation of it (if it exists!) will be affordable enough but eventually this could become a serious platform for comics. IF IF IF IF....
In non-rapturous news of the day, congrats to Ben Costa for winning a Xeric Grant for Shi Long Pang. I look forward to buying that book! (h/t Paperless Comics) And in a true spirit of public service, Gary reads Platinum Comics Licensing's press release to decipher the latest business plan: "an in-house version of CafePress."
INTERVIEW: Danielle Corsetto of Girls With Slingshots.
REVIEW: Delos reviews Insert Comic by Zack Holmes.
And how about some links to fill-out your morning read -- here's the list of webcomics the readers of the Washington Post nominated for its Comics Riffs poll on "Best Webcomic of the Decade": "Devil's Panties" ; "Devin Crane" ; "Eric Monster Millikin" ; "Girl Genius" ; "Girls With Slingshots" ; "Hark! A Vagrant" ; "Jesus and Mo" ; "Kevin and Kell" ; "Least I Could Do" ; "Navy Bean" ; "The New Adventures of Queen Victoria" ; "Order of the Stick" ; "Penny Arcade" ; "Perry Bible Fellowship" ; "Pibgorn" ; "PvP" ; "Questionable Content" ; "Red String" ; "Schlock Mercenary" ; "Sinfest" ; "UserFriendly.Org" ; and "xkcd."
