Teaching Baby Paranoia
Interviewing Bryant Paul Johnson
|
Bryant Paul Johnson is the creator of the long-running "semi-historical micro fiction" webcomic title, Teaching Baby Paranoia. I met Johnson at an SPX several years ago and I've always enjoyed reading his wonderfully smart, intellectually wacky comic. It's a bit like reading the history of a much more interesting world than our own. He also created a limited comic series for ComixTalk titled The Antecedent that might be described as semi-historical micro nonfiction and often illuminated many interesting parallels between American history and our recent era under that Texas yankee who used to be President.
I was really happy he was able to do a cover for us last month and than an interview now. Especially interesting is an update on the graphic novel titled The Lower Kingdom that Johnson is working on along with a preview of its first chapter.
Don't Go Back to Webcomicsville
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 15, 2008 - 09:53
TRANSMISSION X IN EFFECT
- Jesus! Sin Titulo is killing me with the suspense. This is one intense webcomic.
- Luz: Girl of The Knowing is such a well done comic it almost gets me past the fact that it is largely a public service message.
- Ramon Perez's Kukuburi was one of the best comics of 2007 and I'm really looking forward to where it goes this year.
- The Abominable Charles Christopher is hard to describe sometimes. Charming most of the time, it's a glimpse into the animals of the forest and the sweet yet apparently not to bright yeti that lives among them.
- Kissing Chaos is graphically inventive but a little bit underdeveloped on the narrative front at this point.
- I can't tell where Raising Hell is going - a romantic comedy set in a horror movie or a bit of a send-up of horror movies - either way it's another fun read with good pace, two solid main characters and nice artwork so far.
- The Port is sort of interesting, but exploding demon cats are kind of silly really...
AWARDS
- Only about a week left for working webcomic creators to get in their nominations for this year's WCCAs.
- Even less time to get in nominations for this year's Glyphs.
Milestones
- Missed it but earlier this month Bryant Paul Johnson celebrated 8 years of his fantastic comic Teaching Baby Paranoia.
- I think Nukees is hitting its 11th anniversary later this month... wow!
Justify My Hype
- I dunno - the sound of an empty milkshake is pretty dang sad...
News For Monday, January 29, 2007 (UPDATED)
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 29, 2007 - 11:07
Wow - it was a huge weekend for webcomics!
AWARDS
- The WCCA nominations are out (full list here). Webcomic creators can vote for their choice up until February 11th. This year, the awards are to be announced at MegaCon in Florida on February 19th.
- We also started a discussion on the weekend on which new comics from 2006 that didn't get a nomination for Outstanding Newcomer might have deserved one. Tell us what you think here.
- DAJB points out that the U.K.'s Eagle Awards are upon us again, and that they have a category for webcomics.
- The Comics Reporter notes that new at this year's Joe Shuster awards will be the Oustanding Canadian Web Comic Creator Award. The Shuster awards take place June 9th. Submission for nominations are open.
- Talk About Comics points to a report that the short film Everything Will Be OK directed by Don Hertzfeldt and based on his webcomic Anesthetics, won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival.
- The National Cartoonist Society is accepting nominations for it awards. Nominations are due by February 23rd. Apparently, you do not need to be an NCS member to be eligible for an NCS award. However, they do not have an award for webcomics nor do they seem to consider publication online as part of their criteria for qualified nominations. I wonder when that will change...
EVENTS
- I posted the Blind Date II pairings this weekend. If you forgot to sign up and want to participate I will try to facilitate additional pairings on a rolling basis today. Go to the thread and post a comment if you want to join up.
MAGAZINE
- Grant Thomas writes about putting a webcomic into print and discusses some of the differences between the print-on-demand and the do-it-yourself approaches.
- Xaviar Xerexes presents a look at Big Panda, a webcomics host and portal from the mists of history with comments from a long list of creators, including Chris Crosby and Darren "Gav" Bleuel, John Allison, Eight, John Robey, Josh Lesnick, David Willis and more.
BUSINESS
- MSNBC is replacing Fox Trot (and possibly The Boondocks) with new comics. They're conducting a poll on it. This is MSNBC's webcomic lineup we're talking about - probably a pretty high-profile placement (I don't have any actual data on traffic though). Unfortunately it appears they are only considering work from Uclick! - probably because of an exclusivity term in a contract.
HOW-TO
- Bryant Paul Johnson posted a very useful "how to" on how he makes his webcomic Teaching Baby Paranoia.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Bid to Win a Guest-Star Appearance in PC Weenies #1000.
- Love is Psychosexual wraps up on Adultwebcomics.
- Speaking of adult webcomics, check out the almost but not quite SFW (so far) There's Always Porn by Bob Sugar and Wiz Rollins.
- Webcomics In Print presents its weekly round-up of webcomics in print.
- Comics Worth Reading flags the release of the second Penny & Aggie book.
- The Comics Reporter points to a Washington Post story on Suicide Rabbit, a webcomic popular in China.
- T Campbell urges webcomics creators to vote responsibly.
- The Blank Label Comics group snagged nine WCCA nominations.
