Archive
February 20th, 2012
Comix Talking
Submitted by The Administrator on February 20, 2012 - 11:15
All the news that generates the page views!
STOP COLLABORATE AND LISTEN: The Webcomic Beacon matched some creators up for Webcomic Blind Date 2012 -- five pairs came through with a webcomic.
HYPE: Exactly what happened in A Wrinkle in Time -- a webcomic valentine from Faith Erin Hicks to the famous book.
TOOLS: Robot6 notes that Ben Towle has moved his webcomic Oyster War from Tumblr to its own website. He is using WordPress with the Webcomic plug-in. I suspect Comicpress is still more widely in use but I see Webcomic a whole lot too. I wonder what the actually numbers for both are.
MAILBAG: Colin P. Delaney writes in about The Amazing Adventures of Cat Prentis -- a seven-chapter, serialized graphic novel written by himself and with art from Tony Gazso. It's about teenager Catherine “Cat” Prentis, burdened by magical powers she can barely control, she must hide away her true nature as she muddles through high school, equally desperate to avoid both social stigmatization and the all-too frequent demon attack.
OMG OOTS
Submitted by The Administrator on February 20, 2012 - 10:40
The last day of the Kickstarter drive for reprinting Order Of The Stick books is at:
$1,063,398
I am flabbergasted. Over a million committed from 12716 backers.
February 13th
Hello ComixTALK, My Old Friend
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 13, 2012 - 06:53
So far 2012 has been a great year but it hasn't left me much time to spend on comics.
MILESTONES: Bucko, the very funny hipster mystery webcomic is finished. Comics Alliance has an interview with the creators Erica Moen and Jeff Parker. This was a really enjoyable strip and successfully translated a lot of Erica Moen's sensibilities from her diary webcomic to a fictionalized setting.
KICKSTART MY ART: In addition to posting about Christopher Baldwin's Kickstarter campaing for Spacetrawler Volume 2 yesterday, I wanted to write about Rich Stevens' now full-funded kickstarter drive. Stevens is going to put out an ebook compiling his entire run of 3000 Diesel Sweeties comics. Stevens has been busy experimenting with different approaches to digital comics -- he re-releasing his first book as a free ebook (downloaded over 140,000 times); he's been putting out a month's worth of comics at a time in magazine format for the iPad (10,000 downloads in three days); and for some time now he's offered PDFs of older comics for download. Stevens asked for $3000, he's north of $20,000 as I write this. If you're a fan, it's got a great set of rewards for supporters -- go check it out.
HYPE: Lauren Davis writes glowingly about The Wormwood Saga which has two long updates in its archive, with the third one expected in April.
MAILBAG: Marcus Muller writes about his webcomic King of the Unknown - a rock-powered webcomic that’s equal parts supernatural horror, raunchy comedy, action epic, and all-you-can-eat conspiracy theory buffet:
Stygian horrors, alien invasions, covert ops…all just another day at the office for the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Ever since a supernatural mishap transformed the King and forced him to fake his own death (and perhaps forced some of his sanity into early retirement), he has dedicated his new secret life to a shadowy government organization known as the Institute for Research and Study of the Unknown (IRSU). Their mission: to keep our world safe - and blissfully ignorant - from the unknown forces that constantly threaten our very existence.
February 12th
Kickstart Book 2 of Spacetrawler
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 12, 2012 - 11:04
Christopher Baldwin has a kickstarter campaign to fund Book 2 of his webcomic Spacetrawler. Spacetrawler is an epic comedic adventure story about a galactic activist group who recruits six humans to help them liberate a very put-upon species. He already has the printer lined up, the cover designed, and will have the strips for it complete and posted online before the kickstarter campaign is completed. This is a great story and the first book in print (which I have) was really nice -- I am sure this one will be great too..
Scholastic Webinar and Google Doodle Contest
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 12, 2012 - 10:59
Two interesting comics events for kids coming up in March:
First, publisher Scholastic is putting on a webinar featuring graphic novelists Jeff Smith (Bone), Raina Telgemeier (Smile), and Kazu Kibushi (Amulet). The announcement is aimed at teachers (it is during school hours) for their students to learn about " using words and pictures together to create a narrative" and the publisher has put together a graphic novels teaching guide, webcast lesson plans around the authors' books, and webcast tips for the classroom. You can register now for the webcast on March 7th at 1PM ET/10AM PT. I think it's pretty cool -- I don't know how flexible teacher lesson plans are these days with all of the testing and teaching to the test that goes on but I know my kids would love to get to see this.
Also -- Scholastic Book Clubs is hosting a contest to win a special Bone comics prize package! Click here to enter.
Second, Google is holding a Doodle contest for students of Kindergarden through Highschool age (K-12). This year's theme is "If I could travel in time, I'd visit…" One winning student artist will see their artwork appear on the Google homepage and take home some cool prizes. Submissions are due on March 23, 2012 -- more information on rules, forms and dates for the contest are here.
January 30th
Curse of ComixTALK
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 30, 2012 - 06:16
Neither alive nor dead, ComixTALK lumbers on. Fire? Fire, bad!!!
iWEBCOMICS: So Apple made a big education announcement recently that included new tools for making iBooks. Richard Stevens took it as an opportunity to release a batch of his Diesel Sweeties comics as an ibook. I'm not going to add much educated analysis of Apple's new iBook standards in general since I haven't had time to wrap my brain cells around the technical, business and copyright issues of it.
BOOK 'EM DANNO: Free Mars, a webcomic I've been a fan of for quite sometime has signed with Ape Entertainment. Ape will publish a collection in July, which will be available in print and in digital on iVerse's Comics + iOS app. If you haven't read this one, check it out. Lovely artwork, a fun story.
MORE HYPE: The Situation is all kinds of creepy weird goodness (h/t Lauren Davis). Get you there to read it and while you're there, remind yourself that Tor Publishing posts some pretty amazing webcomics to its website.
DEAR DIARY: Lauren Davis collects 17 journal webcomics worth paging through furtively.
MAILBAG: Greg Carter writes that the next LOVE IS IN THE BLOOD story is starting up on Valentine's Day! Art on the next story will be from Gina Biggs. I have to admit I have not read this yet, but Greg has been crafting quality webcomics for sometime now so I have it bookmarked!
January 16th
Blind Date III: The Date Blindening!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 16, 2012 - 16:46
This has been 'round the twitters and I need to post it here too -- Fes of the Webcomic Beacon podcast is organizing a Blind Date webcomic-making event this year. This is CANON folks! :) We did the first couple of editions of the webcomic Blind Date event here at ComixTALK (the last one was waaay back in 2004) but I just don't have the time to organize it so I'm pretty dang happy Fes is doing this.
Here's the scoop for this year's event from Webcomic Beaconland:
Please email us by JANUARY 27th, 2012, indicating that you are a Writer, Artist, or if you can do either (this will help in the imbalance of entries). Also include if you have any restrictions (such as you can’t work over a PG rating, etc), or any other sort of things you want us to take into consideration. The idea is that the writer would write the comic (or single panel), and the artist would draw it. In the end you will have to work together. We will announce and post the pairings on the website, and also will like the links to the final products in time for Valentine’s Day!
Comix Talk for January 16, 2012
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 16, 2012 - 12:27
I have a dream that my comics will one day live in a world where they will not be judged by the means of their delivery but by the content of their... well, content.
CHANGES: Paul Southworth handed over the art duties on Not Invented Here to Jeff Zugale. It's different, which I imagine is going to be more interesting and successful than simply aping Southworth. But it will take awhile for me to get used to it.
ALL AGES: Saturday Morning Webtoons is a new portal to several all ages webcomics
NEW(ISH) STUFF
Andrew Bonia has a new webcomic, On the Bounty with a Dinosaur Comics approach to the art (or I guess I should say Angriest Dog in the World approach). Definitely worth clicking on for some funny dialogue. Reusing the same art is a tough format though -- good luck to Bonia for as long as he can work with it.
Kevin Church's new webcomic is a Star Trek parody called Boldly Gone about another spaceship Captain living in the shadow of one James T. Kirk.
January 9th
Comix Talk for January 10, 2012
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 10, 2012 - 04:23
I meant to have something up yesterday but was still feeling the effects of a much-needed vacation.
AWARDS: Heads up, the Eisners are now accepting nominations up until March 6, 2012. I don't think the webcomic category requirements have changed but in any event here they are:
The best digital comic category is open to any new, professionally produced long-form original comics work posted online in 2011. Webcomics must have a unique domain name or be part of a larger comics community to be considered. The work must be online-exclusive for a significant period prior to being collected in print form. The URL and any necessary access information should be emailed to Eisner Awards administrator Jackie Estrada: jackie@comic-con.org.
MILESTONES: Tom Brazelton announced yesterday that in six months time he'll be wrapping up Theater Hopper. One of the nicer fellows I've met online and I wish the best of luck with this year's comics and whatever he turns to next. Also worth mentioning (because I missed it while away) Comics Alliance covers the ending of Kevin Church's The Loneliest Astronauts, which is a great concept for a comic.
REVIEWS: Comics Alliance has a review of Raised on Ritalin, a comic memoir by Tyler Page. Tyler also does the webcomic Nothing Better, which follows two women students at a small religious college.
INTERVIEWS: Tim O'Shea interviews Thomas Scioli, the creator of the webcomic American Barbarian, which is being collected for a print version coming this year from AdHouse.
HYPE: Comics Worth Reading notes the return of an old comic by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett, Section Zero, in webcomic format at MadGeniusComics.com. The web/comic is about a group investigating paranormal phenomena. In a blog post, Karl Kesel explains its revival on the web.
December 31st, 2011
Let's Say G'Bai to 2011
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 31, 2011 - 11:00
Time to watch Old Man 2011 give Baby 2012 the great high five of life tonight. I know I got sporadic on the posting schedule this past year, not sure yet what's in store for next year, but I will be AFK for ComixTalk until January 10th.
TOOLS: The Stumpy Pencil blog has some great digital art tools for Photoshop and other art asoftware available to download. These bubble texture brushes for photoshop are pretty cool. (I cannot write "pretty cool" anymore without hearing that SNL woman's impersonation of Miley Cyrus)
ARE WE NOT MEN? Heard this on the Radio Lab podcast this week and luckily for me everyone blogged it up already. The podcast is a cute overview of an import tax dispute where Marvel argued that the X-men were not humans so as to get a lower tax rate for toys than one applied to dolls.
WOMEN OF WEBCOMICS: Jezebel had a great list of women comic creators doing pretty cool stuff in 2011.
RANDOM HYPE: Hadn't read cartoonist/engineert Angela Melick's journal webcomic, Wasted Talent, in awhile but it's still pretty cool! INTENSE PORPOISE!
MORE RANDOM HYPE: Check out SCI-ENCE, a pretty cool comic with some actual scientific knowledge imparted. The art is really good, jumping styles too, and it has a strong point of view (basically skeptical, rational) that is probably more important to the creators than delivering the funny, so it can have a bit of an editorial comic to it at times (but a hipper one like Tom Tomorrow or Ted Rall). Anyhow - good stuff there (h/t BAD ASTONOMY)
NOT QUITE WEBCOMICS: Victor Hertz's parodies of corporate logos are dang funny (and pretty cool!) stuff. And unlike some lazy mockery, Hertz's stuff is all pretty dead on in its skewering of the companies.
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