Zortic
The March of the Collectives
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A collective, loosely defined, is any sustained grouping of webcomic creators. What they do together varies greatly from group to group. Some are largely a peer group offering each other critical feedback and encouraging support. Others throw in cross-promotion for each others' work. Some build a collective brand with logos, advertising and a central website. Some share business experience and expertise in areas as varied as merchandise, books, conventions, hosting and website creation.
And what did I find from my research? There's a tremendous number of collectives out there (and that I never want to attempt another "survey" article again). And, oh yeah, checking out collectives can be a great way to find excellent new comics.
- Altbrand
- Ape Law
- Blank Label Comics
- Bomb Shelter
- Boxcar Comics
- Dayfree Press
- Dumbrella
- Eyeskream
- Found Hat Press
- SpinZone
- The Nice
- Transplant Comics
- Amber glych Greenlee
- Barb Lien-Cooper
- Bernie Hou
- Brad Hawkins
- Brandon Carr
- Bryant Paul Johnson
- Chris Shadoian
- Clay Yount
- Dave Roman
- David Malki!
- Desmond Seah
- Fred Grisolm
- Gordon McAlpin
- Ian McDonald
- Joe Dunn
- Jon Morris
- Kelli Nelson
- Lou Graziani
- Mark Mekkes
- Mike Krahulik
- Mike Maihack
- Mike Russell
- Mischa Unovich
- Mitch Clem
- Ovi Nedelcu
- Ryan Estrada
- Ryan Sias
- Shaenon K. Garrity
- Ted Rall
- Terrence Marks
- Thomas K. Dye
- Tom Brazelton
- Trade Loeffler
- Tyler Martin
- Wes Molebash
- Zach Miller
- What Birds Know
- Wondermark
- Yirmumah
- Zortic
- Features
Thursday News And Blues Round Up (UPDATED)
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 1, 2007 - 13:04
COMIXPEDIA
I want to throw out a thanks to current (and very recent) sponsors of Comixpedia including the movie The Abandoned and the webcomics Zortic, I See You and O''deer. We have three slots available right now on the side bar - cheap! - click here to get more details and order.
INTERVIEWS
- McKenzee and Ursula Vernon got "namechecked" by the Indy Weekly in an article on the North Carolina comics scene. It's a well-done article.
- An interview with Traci Spencer, creator of the the fantasy/adventure comic Compass published on Girl-A-Matic.
- An interview with the Marvelous Patric at ComicBloc.
- Thomas Nickel writes that he interviewed David Lloyd of V for Vendetta and Kickback-fame about his first very own graphic novel Kickback. The interview can be found here.
- Belated link - but Brigid has a good interview up at Digital Strips with Wendy Pini, the creator of Elfquest, who announced at the New York Comicon, that in conjunction with publisher Go! Comi, Pini would be creating a three-volume, full color manga, The Masque of the Red Death, based on the Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name. The comic will be published first as a webcomic before collection in print volumes.
- Digital Strips also has an interview up with Gabe Strine, the creator of Brinkerhoff.
TOOLS
- A new version of Balloonist is out - the Balloonist software creates cartoon speech bubbles. Some of the new features in version 2.0 are: Curved Stems, Ruffle Harmonics, Better Line Break Control, Zoom Control, and well more (click for details). I've never used this software but I've seen it and the creators seemed to have spent much of the effort behind the new version in responding to current users requests.
EVENTS
- The date for 24 Hour Comics Day 2007 is Saturday, October 20th. If you're interested in being or recruiting a host for this event you can get more details here on what hosts are required to agree to.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
- I've been meaning to plug the wonderful (relatively) new comic Voids by Shayna Marchese. Today, she posted a Flickr series of photos on how she creates the comic - that's as good a hook as any!
- The juggernaut that is Richard Stevens III rolls on. He recently discovered a quote of his showing up in Google's quote-a-nator thingee. (more details on the Diesel Sweeties site below the comic) Also is it just me or does the mohawked character in the recent web-DS storyline look a lot like Comixpress proprietor Logan DeAngelis?
- Frank Frisina, the writer of the poker-themed webcomic Life's A Bluff emailed me that artist Brandon Carr has returned to working on the project.
- Kris Straub's new/old parody (meta-parody?) gamer comic Insert Cartridge isn't bad. It's just not that cutting as parody really. On the other hand a couple of the jokes, despite Kris' insistence that he's trying to mimic the mediocrity of many comics in the genre, are pretty funny. (UPDATE: I didn't mean and I doubt Kris meant to say that the entire gamer comic genre is mediocre. More that there are many mediocre comics in that genre that are merely aping the tropes of it)
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- The Joystiq blog names Fanboys Online as its webcomic of the week.
- Dani Draws has a list of 101 projects an artist can take on between assignments. A lot of them would make good exercises to kickstart creative juices if you're feeling uninspired.
WCCA Ceremony Audio available on The Gigcast Feed
Submitted by NightgigTim on February 21, 2007 - 19:42
The WebCartoonist's Choice Award Ceremony at Megacon was recorded and is available on The Gigcast Rss Feed and for download at www.thegigcast.com.
The Presentors included the following:
Tuesday Mid-Morning NewsBlast (UPDATED)
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 6, 2007 - 13:13
COMIXPEDIA
- First off thanks to our current sponsor, the webcomic Zortic by Mark Mekkes. There are three (slightly cheaper) ad spots below that are still available.
- Don't forget! This Friday is the last day to post your questions for our upcoming community interview with the creators of the Blank Label Comics collective. Post your questions in comments to this thread.
HEADLINES
- Nerve.com presents its Comics Issue with "an essay on just what Sandman means to goth girls of all ages." (probably NSFW) (hat tip to The Beat).
- DIGITAL STRIPS is taking your calls. The formerly non-live podcast is jumping on the live livecast bandwagon this Wednesday (feb. 7th) at 9 PM (presumably ET).
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The first extensive review of PvP: Animated that I've read is at Digital Strips as well (and includes some comments from PvP creator Scott Kurtz)
INTERVIEWS
- Shaenon Garrity interviews Box Brown, whose daily strip bellen! follows the relationship of significant others Ben and Ellen and was recently added to the Modern Tales lineup.
- The Beat catches a video interview with James Kochalka (creatror of American Elf) at the opening of Fine Toon: The Art of Vermont Cartoonists opening at the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe Vermont.
VALENTINES DAY
- Blind Date II is coming soon - we'll start posting comics on Valentine's Day (and then throughout February).
- Chris Daily has Valentine's Day cards featuring your favorite Striptease characters in some sizzlin' smokey positions, bringing you the romance as only they could for purchase. For only $5.00, you get five high-rez images of the cards ready to print.
- FLEEN points out other V-Day cards from The Devil's Panties, Scene Language and Dinosaur Comics.
WIKIPEDIA WATCH
- Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary provides the most recent wiki-rant. In a comment there I tried to lay out my current thinking of what's "broken" about Wikipedia. It is simply that the deletion process as it currently exists is not really the same as the creation and editing process. UPDATE: Tayler writes further in response to feedback.
- Brad Guigar also wrote about the recent deletion of the Wikipedia entry for his comic Evil Inc. which appears not only on the web but in several newspapers.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
- Terrence Marks has a great post up explaining how useful Piperka is for reading webcomics. Piperka is hard to sell (like Tivo was/is) but once you start using it, you get how useful it is.
- I forgot to post about Benjamin Birdie's new project but The Beat reminded me. Birdie has teamed up with blogger Beaucoup Kevin on The Rack about a comic book shop.
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So long as we're browsing The Beat's webcomic entry archives check out some other plugs from Heidi MacDonald:
- @ the 8 Spot by Wilson Ramos and Eric Rivera is a weekly webcomic that chronicles the life of comics freelancers.
- La Muse by Adi Tantimadh and Hugo Petrus is a weekly science-fiction comedy webcomic.
- FLEEN also has multiple webcomic plugs today.
- And Journalista! gets in on the plug action too linking to the blog Same Hat! Same Hat!! which looks at Sascha Hommer's comics -- many of which are available online, including his full-length Insekt.
- Heck even the Comics Reporter is doing it! Here's a review of Daniel Spottswood's Disquietville Volume One - much of this comic also appears online.
Wikipedia and You
Submitted by Terrence Marks on January 30, 2007 - 10:53
Pop quiz.
What two things do A Doemain of Our Own, Abby's Agency, Acredale/Apathy Kat, Acts of Gord, Akaelae, Altermeta, Angel Moxie, Ashfield Online, Astounding Space Thrills, Badly Drawn Kitties, Boat Anchor, Bobbins, Building 12, Carpe Diem, The Class Menagerie, Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break, The Cyantian Chronicles, Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, Dead Days, Dragon Tails, Evil Inc., ExtraLife, Flipside, Fluble, Full Frontal Nerdity, Funny Farm, Gene Catlow, Goblin Hollow, Krakow, Krazy Larry, Living in Greytown, Lizard!, Marilith, Misfile, Movie Punks, Namir Deiter, Nerd Boy, No 4th Wall to Break, Pastel Defender Heliotrope, Poisoned Minds, Purple Pussy, Return to Sender, Shifters, Sore Thumbs, Spamusement, The Suburban Jungle, Superosity, Tales From Band Camp, Tales Of The Questor, Unicorn Jelly, The Way To Your Heart, Whimville, White Ninja, and Zortic, have in common?
Biggie Panda: Old Skool Webcomics
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One way to think of the history of webcomics is as the big bang of comics. At the beginning there were far fewer webcomic creators and they were (virtually) clustered together much more tightly (hence all the wistful talk of "webcomic community") and then, if the inflationary webcomicology theory is correct, those early webcomic exploded into the universe of comics online we have today.
- Altbrand
- Keenspot
- Bob Roberds
- Boxjam
- Chris Crosby
- Dave Kelly
- David Willis
- Fred Gallagher
- Greg Dean
- Ian McDonald
- Illiad
- Jeff Darlington
- Jeffrey Rowland
- John Allison
- John The Gneech Robey
- Jon Rosenberg
- Josh Lesnick
- Maritza Campos
- Mark Mekkes
- Mike Leffel
- Pete Abrams
- Peter Zale
- Scott Kuehner
- Scott Kurtz
- T Campbell
- Tatsuya Ishida
- Terrence Marks
- Thomas K. Dye
- Tim Broderick
- Chopping Block
- Girly
- Penny Arcade
- PvP
- Sinfest
- Sluggy Freelance
- User Friendly
- Zortic
- Features
PC Weenies on this weeks Gigcast
Submitted by madscott on January 26, 2007 - 07:26
I'm late blogging about it but what better way to avoide work on a friday then to listen to PC Weenies’ Krishna Interviewed!
Listen to it on www.thegigcast.com
or download it from HERE
Gigcast #70, Webcartoonist's Choice Awards Details w/ Mark Mekkes!
Submitted by NightgigTim on December 29, 2006 - 09:12
The Gigcast Talks about the Webcartoonist's Choice Awards with Mark Mekkes of Zortic. We discuss the Nomination and Voting Procedures, and go over the timeline.
Along with the usual mix of community news and info and the music of Johnathan Coulton, Friction Bailey, and Mario Ajero.
Web Cartoonist Awards will be at Floridas Megacon
Submitted by madscott on November 4, 2006 - 17:40
As I was booking my tickets and starting to organize some Gigcast things (by the way we will be getting a booth again this year) for February's Mega Con I noticed some great news.
From http://www.megaconvention.com
September 20, 2006:
MegaCon is proud to announce that it will be hosting the 6th annual Web Cartoonist Awards. After six years of growing, world-wide popularity, the WCCAs will, for the first time ever, be presenting the 2007 winners at a live ceremony. If you would like more information please contact Mark Mekkes at zortic@yahoo.com or visit the website at www.ccawards.com
Zortic hits 1000!!!
Submitted by Mark Mekkes on September 19, 2006 - 21:24
Others have done it first, and others will continue to do it, but there’s still something magic about hitting those 4 digit numbers. Today Zortic presents its 1000th official comic! It’s been a long, hectic ride that’s been a ton of fun.
Technically there are a lot more than 1000 comics available. In addition to the 1000 continuing storyline strips there are “director’s cut†added comics, an entire hidden alternate storyline, and a stand-alone introductory storyline for KeenPrime subscribers (now also available in book form from Indy Planet).
So if you haven’t started reading yet, there’s a lot to catch up on. So help celebrate by stopping by and enjoying Zortic now!
