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Comics and Community Service 2: Choosing Project Type

Submitted by John Baird on November 16, 2007 - 02:57

(Continued from Part 1.)

Increasing the involvement of webcomic creators with community service projects will serve to increase positive public perception of the medium. There are many things that go into planning a successful community service project. The first thing to consider is the type of activity.

Catching Up With Stephen Notley

November 11, 2007 - 23:04 | Xaviar Xerexes

There's an incredible wealth of articles in the ComixTalk archives: features and columns on craft, theory and business, insightful reviews and interviews with some of the most interesting folks in webcomics. We'll be taking a regular look back at past issues and catching up with creators we've previously covered.

Stephen Notley is the creator of Bob the Angry Flower which I'm sure is still the angriest angiosperm character in comics today. I caught up with Notley via email last month.

The Gaming Addiction of Slackerz

November 4, 2007 - 22:45 | Dr. Haus

Doctor Haus tries to review the comic Slackerz -- a one-shot gag strip that has fallen into treading where many other comics have treaded before. Can the comic be saved? Is Slackerz doomed to being "just another gaming comic?"

Read on as the Doctor tries to help bring Slackerz back from the brink of gaming addiction.

2007 Weblog Award Nominees Announced

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 1, 2007 - 16:30

I don't know much about the Weblog awards for blogs, but this [edit:] is the second year they've included a "comic strip" category. The nominees are:

And here's a link to the full list of award nominees if you're interested.

UPDATE: I've gone ahead and fixed the list of nominees here to add the creators' names and webcomic URLs. I have no idea about "Attack" though - please post a comment here if you know which comic the nomination is for. As noted in the comments below it appears that the "final nominees" are selected subjectively by someone(s) at the Weblog Awards (from a list of nominations by the public). Last year's winner - Least I Could Do plus Day by Day and Sluggy Freelance are all repeat nominees (they were on the 2006 list of final nominees).  [I guess it's also somewhat interesting that both years two conservatively-slanted opinion comics have been included in the nomination list, but no progressively-slanted comics have been picked for inclusion.]

Dark Horse Has Another Webcomic In Print Success

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 10, 2007 - 08:53

The Trial of Colonel Sweeto, the first print collection of The Perry Bible Fellowship is selling well. Publisher Dark Horse has had previous successes with webcomics in print, including Fred Gallagher's Megatokyo (now on CMX) and Penny Arcade by Tycho and Gabe.

A Doemain of Our Own announces change from online to print

Submitted by Linda Howard Valentine on October 3, 2007 - 19:39

Cartoonist Susan Rankin has recently announced that her long-running anthropomorphic strip A Doemain of Our Own will be changing from a free (mostly) weekly online comic to a periodic print comic in November. This change in format will not affect Rankin's collaboration with John Robey on NeverNever.

Jack Thompson Vs. Scott "Extra Life" Johnson

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 25, 2007 - 09:10

Scott Johnson, the creator of the webcomic ExtraLife, is running a "Photoshop Jack Thompson" contest which apparently provoked an email from Thompson demanding that Johnson "cease and desist". Thompson previously tangled with the creators of the webcomic Penny Arcade and is probably best known for continuously blaming society's ills on the existence of video games.

What Are Your 5 Funniest Webcomics?

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 19, 2007 - 10:08

Sid picks his 5 funniest webcomics (link just slightly b/c of cartoon nudity NSFW): Xkcd; Basic Instructions; Wulffmorgenthaler; Ctrl+Alt+Del; and JOHN AND JOHN.

I've read all of those except for John and John and while I've laughed at all of them I'm not sure any of them would make my list for the 5 funniest webcomics. For me those would be the comics that flat out make me laugh the most and the most consistently. What 5 comics would you pick?

Penny Arcade Vs CAD?

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 17, 2007 - 09:25

Damn Good Comics blogger Mr Myth says:

Stunning upset of the day: It isn’t unheard of for two popular gaming strips to happen to make near identical jokes on the same day. What was a shock, however, was the realization that on this day, Ctrl+Alt+Del managed to thoroughly out-humor Penny Arcade.

Both make jokes about a Halo-branded Mountain Dew called "Game Fuel". I'm not that sure CAD (which goes for a more straight-forward parody of the concept of a main Halo character endorsing ever more ludicrous products) made me laugh more than Penny Arcade here. Penny Arcade, as usual, took an approach to this "joke" that wasn't as expected as probably most gaming webcomics (including CAD) would do and it's that "left turn" aspect to PA that usually gets me, even if I'm not super-familar with the videogame they're mocking.

What do you think?

Comic Mix To Publish Webcomics

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 12, 2007 - 08:30

The comic book blog site Comic Mix announced at the Baltimore ComicCon that it was going to publish original webcomics beginning in October. There's a post on it at the blog Occasional Superheroine. Comic Mix doesn't sound like it's doing anything ground-breaking but it does sound like an interesting roster of creators who will post material there:

The list of talent Comic Mix has on-board is impressive, including Mike Baron, Rick Burchett, Chris Burnham, Michael Davis, Ian Gibson, Dick Giordano, Mike Gold, Stuart Gordon, Mike Grell, Bo Hampton, Glenn Hauman, Marc Hempel, Lovern Kindierski, Linda Lessman, Jay Lynch, Frank McLaughlin, William Messner-Loebs, John Ostrander, Andrew Pepoy, Bob Pinaha, Michael H. Price, Bill Reinhold, Nick Runge, John K. Snyder III, Joe Staton, Martha Thomases, Robert Tinnell, Timothy Truman, Trevor Von Eeden, Mark Evan Walker, Matt Webb, Mark Wheatley, Skip Williamson, Marv Wolfman, and John Workman.