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Sluggy Freelance

UberCon VI Convention Report by Phil Kahn

October 23, 2005 - 23:00 | Phil Kahn

I'm having trouble taking it all in. It was an amazing experience. I'm still shutting my eyes and taking myself back to the time I spent there, with all the good times I had and all the new friends I made.

There are three important things to know for reading this: I have never been to a gaming convention before. I have never been to New Jersey before. And I have never been a guest to a con before. So bearing those things in mind, here's my report...

Rebooting Comixpedia, Part 5: Genres and Formats?

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 12, 2005 - 23:36

I want to adopt a more systematic method of describing webcomics for Comixpedia. Part of this is needed for a forthcoming library of creators for Comixpedia. My first take is to adopt a list of genres and formats so that each comic can be tagged with both.

Here's how I would break down formats:
- Series (unlimited)
- Limited Series (published in serialized format)
- Novella (published as a complete webcomic)
- Short Story (published as a complete webcomic)

Genres could be pretty discrete or as simple as splitting up comedy and drama. But what do you think? How would you set up your ideal taxonomy for webcomics and their creators? Your comments will definitely help me with this effort.

Feeding Snarky by Eric Burns

August 21, 2005 - 23:00 | Eric Burns

So here's the thing. I like porn.

I don't talk a lot about liking porn, because you're not supposed to come right out and say it. "Man, what a beautiful morning," you never say. "I think I'll have a cup of tea, and maybe go down to the market, and when I get back I'm going to enjoy the bounties of porn that are my birthright as an internet consumer." People would look at you funny if you did, and your boss would stop letting you have complimentary coffee and donuts in the morning.

But I do like it. And most of you probably do too. We might not be cheerful about it - we might not march into gas stations with our head held high, grabbing the latest magazines off the rack and marching right up to the gas station attendant to make our purchases (that might be the one situation in life where you are that concerned about what a gas station attendant thinks of you) - but we do like it.

Which leads us inexorably to porn comics, which I don't often talk about either.

Sabertooth Games and Penny Arcade Partner for Card Game

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 7, 2005 - 23:27

Sabertooth Games announced that they were partnering with Penny Arcade to create a "Universal Fighting System (UFS)" game based entirely on characters from Penny Arcade. The card set is designed and illustrated by Gabe and Tycho and has everything from the "Divx" to Tycho's "Really Big Word".

In other card news, I'm not sure if John Allison has mentioned a date for the release of his Scary Go Round card deck but I definitely want one.

Wednesday Morning Around the Internets With Xerexes

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 13, 2005 - 11:08

Sluggy Freelance not only does pop culture parody well, but it often isn't afraid to let the consequences of the parody storyline seep into the core of the strip (e.g. Alyee from the aliens storyline). I have some high hopes for the "28 Geeks Later" storyline just beginning.

Everyone is off to Comicon. Any enterprising Comixpedia readers who are attending Comicon and might be interested in writing down some of their impressions of this years 'con (and have some sort of photo-capturing mechanical apparatus) should shoot me an email pronto (xerexes AT comixpedia DOT com) so I can deputize you as an official Comixpedia cub reporter.

Tom Spurgeon points me to The Quill Awards which are "a consumer-driven celebration of the written word created to inspire reading while promoting literacy." The nominees are picked by a panel but the public votes for the winners from August 15 - September 15. The Flight 2 Anthology, Megatokyo Volume 3 by Fred Gallagher and Hutch Owen: Unmarketable! by Tom Hart are among the books eligible to be nominated in the Graphic Novel category.

Last, although I haven't listened to it yet, Photoshop Radio from Photoshop World sounds like it might be a decent podcast to check out.

Oh wait one more thing. BRAAAAINNNNNSSSSSS!!!!!

Creator Bryan Prindiville of Bassetville to Appear on Today Show

Submitted by pclips on July 5, 2005 - 16:17

In what may be the broadest mainstream media exposure for a webcomic so far, Bryan Prindiville of Bassetville has been invited to appear on NBC's Today Show this Thursday, July 7th. Although the focus of the segment is not webcomics, Bryan has been told that he may show off his comic strip and give the address on national television.

An Incomplete List of Webcomics in Print, Collated by Kelly J. Cooper

June 26, 2005 - 23:00

Many MANY of our webcomicking friends have published print versions of their work. I've tried to find, track down, and remember as many as possible. But given the thousands (tens of thousands?) of webcomics out there, this was a daunting task. If I missed your comic, I apologize profusely and profoundly. Please add it via a comment.

Case Studies in Webcomics Book Collections by Rob Balder

June 26, 2005 - 23:00 | Rob Balder

Disclaimer

In this article, I am taking a look at the experiences of webcomics creators who have (or soon will) put portions of their archives into book collections. I'm using first person, because I will be including my own experiences as well.

This article is intended to tell a range of stories. It is not meant to be the definitive guide to putting your webcomic into book form. The creators I selected represent some, but not nearly all, of the most significant approaches and achievements in webcomics book publishing. You are especially invited to add your own experiences to the comment thread.

Feeding Snarky by Eric Burns

June 19, 2005 - 23:00 | Eric Burns

We're discussing print this month, which is an interesting topic for webcomics. Once, it was the goal. Everyone who was doing the web had an eye to print -- the early successes, like User Friendly, Sluggy Freelance, and Kevin and Kell all moved into print collections as a matter of course. Plan 9 Publishing became the earliest resource for webcomics to bridge into dead trees, and it remains a vibrant publisher of comics and cartoons from both the web and print sides of the aisle. Derek Kirk Kim is perhaps the most successful example of a person who has bridged from the web to a print collection, with the clear and obvious exception of Megatokyo, which has transformed itself from a webcomic with collections available in print to a manga produced by Dark Horse that happens to put up teaser pages in sequential order on a website.

Horror Comics

Submitted by pclips on June 16, 2005 - 13:21

Hey besides Bad Blood, Chopping Block and Midnight Macabre, what are some good comics for a site for fans of horror movies to link to?