Archive - 2007 - Story
December 24th
Happy Last Week of December!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 24, 2007 - 15:39
Whatever your holiday -- hope it's a good one. Posting will be up to you (blogs and the forums) until January.Â
December 18th
Platinum Launches SPLASTIK Cartoon Network - Affiliation with Keenspot?
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 18, 2007 - 10:04
Saw a press release from Platinum Studios this morning (parent company of webcomic site DrunkDuck) announcing launch of SPASTIK (flattering name, that one) which looks to be basically a webtoon site. Interestingly it lists a number of other webcomic-related sites as "affiliates" on its front page, one of which is rival webcomic site Keenspot's Keentoons site.Â
December 17th
Rolling Into Tuesday Morning Update
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 18, 2007 - 01:00
I'm back from India! Happy holidays to all of you (including all of you Pastafarians too!)
COMIXTALK
- Our End-of-the-Year roundtable featuring some of the best comics journalists and bloggers on the Internet is up on the site. It's a great wide-ranging discussion of good webcomics, interesting business developments and predictions for 2008.
- We've got an interiew with Matt Melvin of the uber-popular webcomic Cyanide and Happiness.
- We're still looking for questions for our upcoming community interview with the members of the Blank Label Comics collective. Post your questions in comments to this thread.
- Don't forget to check out our advertisers - current sponsors include the Learn to Draw the Human Figure anatomy course, Mary Janice Davidson's latest book Swimming Without a Net and The Webcomic Beacon podcast.
DEAD TREES AHOY!
- The New York Times has an article on how some webcomics are creating solid sales in print and includes mention of Diary of A Wimpy Kid and Shooting War. Brian Fries, the creator of Mom's Cancer offers his response to the article. Fies argues that Mom's Cancer (which is not named in the Times article) was one of the first webcomics to cross-over to print. He could be right (although once he got a print deal he took Mom's Cancer off the web so his approach was different than these other examples), anyone want to offer a counter-example?
AWARDS
- Instructions on submissions for nominations for the Eisners are here - the deadline is March 14, 2008. For webcomics there is a separate set of instructions:
Entries are also being accepted for the category of best webcomic. This category is open to any new, professionally produced long-form original comics work posted online in 2007. 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 jackiee@mindspring.com.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
INTERVIEWS
- Pretty interesting interview with Colonel Sweeto himself, Nick Gurewitch.
- CBR has a zaftig interview with Tycho himself, Jerry Holkins.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Gary notes that Brian Warmoth is leaving Wizard magazine. Warmoth did the Cursory Conversations series of interviews with webcomic creators and with his departure I wonder if anyone is still around at Wizard that is interested in webcomics.
- Lots of webcomics show up in Time's Graphic Novels of 2007 article. One shows up in USA Today's list.
- Broken Frontier takes a look at Phoenix Requiem, the new webcomic from Sarah Ellerton (creator of Inverloch).
- T Campbell argues for including PostSecret and I Can Haz Cheezburger? within "comics".
- Neil Cohn has an essay on the structure of manga.
Call For Questions For Blank Label Comics
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 17, 2007 - 07:36
Back in February of this year, we hosted the results of a ComixTalk community interview with the members of the indepedent creators collective, Blank Label Comics. Given that this is an end-of-the-year kind of issue for ComixTalk, I thought it would be great to do another interview with the members of BLC so we could book-end the year between them.
Moreover, although there has been a good deal of press on Halfpixel, the new collective formed by Scott Kurtz and former BLC members Brad Guigar, Dave Kellett and Kris Straub, there is still plenty to catch up on with the six current members of BLC: Howard Tayler, David Willis, Paul Southworth, Paul Taylor, Steve Troop and Greg Dean. Please post your questions here -- I'll collect them on December 21st and send them out for answers with an eye to publishing the full story here in January 2008.
December 7th
Next Week You're On Your Own!
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 7, 2007 - 23:20
Just a heads up that I won't be posting all next week as I'll be off in India. Be sure to check out the reader blog posts and the forums for news and discussion.
December 5th
New Daily Webcomic Coming From Shaenon K. Garrity
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 5, 2007 - 13:52
New webcomic from Shaenon K. Garrity! I have no details to add to this excerpt from an interview with Shaenon Garrity and her husband Andrew Farago:
I’m writing a couple of weekly webcomics, Smithson.com and Li’l Mell, and rerunning my daily strip, Narbonic, with commentary. The fifth print volume of Narbonic will be available very soon, and may even be available by the time you read this interview. Oh, and I’ll be launching a new daily webcomic at the end of the month. I’m drawing the first strips now, so I’m pretty busy. If you want to check out my various projects, I’ve got a lot of links at my website, www.shaenon.com. (That’s right, none of the other Shaenons jumped in and grabbed that sweet URL.)
December 3rd
It's December Already? UPDATED
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 3, 2007 - 15:19
COMIXTALK
- Check out this month's cover art from Ryan Estrada!
- First up is our year-in-headlines review of webcomic news from 2007. Still to come later this week is our annual critics roundtable and the People of Webcomics list.
- Dr. Haus reviews another webcomic, this time The Prime of Ambition by Naomi Craig and Alyssa Follansbee.
- We also have another article in Tim Broderick's review of his path to publishing his graphic novel: this time he covers writing the synopis.
- And we have the second installment in Patric Lewandowskis look at the definition of "comic"; this month he explains the idea of applying four criteria to defining comics.
BUSINESS
- Bill Barnes, the artist on the webcomic Unshelved has left his "day job" at Microsoft to go work full time on the webcomic. (more at FLEEN)
- Potentially interesting item: FLEEN posted about a My Fridj website owned by a Dawn Douglass. Douglass countered that the My Fridj site was not really intended to be public (although she did blog about it in October without such reservations) and whatever "social media cartoon syndicate" she's working on is still to be revealed. It's clear from her website that she's engaged in a lot of research and thinking about the "digital comics" space (to put it in MBA-speak). And hey, she's a cartoonist herself.
- The Comics Reporter reported that Marvel will stop publishing DVDs of its comics, supposedly because of the new DCU website service.
MILESTONES
- Joe Dunn hits 300 episodes of Joe Loves Crappy Movies. This ongoing comic/review series is not just a funny comic, but Joe is a pretty good reviewer of movies as well.
AWARDS
INTERVIEWS
- Scott Kurtz interviews Tyler Martin - not a bad start to what Kurtz says will be a regular podcast called Webcomic Confidential.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Comics I Don't Understand has finally entered the 21st Century - moving to a blog format at a new URL.
- The 24 Hour Comics Day project is looking for new blood to organize future editions. More information here.
- Daily Cross Hatch reviews Captain Estar Goes To Heaven by Winston Rowntree.
- Cartoonist Ben Boxer and sums up about 14 hours of opera in one webcomic. (h/t The Beat).
- The Comics Reporter links to this funny "50 Answers" comic.
November 29th
Webcomics' Delight by the Webcomichill Gang
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 29, 2007 - 14:02
I'm working on updating the 2007 News Stories story when I can find time today (January through March is largely done at this point) so I doubt I'll get around to a news post. Be sure to check out the lastest reader blog posts though!
One of the stories I want to dig into more (but obviously haven't yet) is ongoing web versus comic book publisher saga, most recently visible in Marvel's decision to put some of its comics on the web. Here's a round-up of recent stories on Marvel DCU:
November 27th
Another Webcomic Rides The Bus
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 27, 2007 - 09:57
AWARDS
- The judges for next year's Eisner awards have been named. They are Bookazine Company pop-culture category director John Davis; comics and prose writer Paul Di Filippo; California retailer Atom! Freeman; Entertainment Weekly writer Jeff Jensen; and California librarian Eva Volin. (h/t Journalista!)
INTERVIEWS
WARREN ELLIS
- Does anyone know when Warren Ellis' upcoming Freak Angels is going to debut? UPDATE: Wow - that was almost psychic - Warren Ellis in a post to his email list this morning said the webcomic would launch in February 2008.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- The Comics Reporter reviews a recent Cul-De-Sac comic. This new/old strip by Washington Post illustrator Richard Thompson is quite good. Thompson brings to the comic years of experience creating comics for the Washington Post Sunday magazine. (You can read it online here.)
- Journalista! points to a review of the new Marvel DCU comics service in the LA Times.
- There is one of those "let's pretend we're not telling anyone about our million dollar web campaign" kind of marketing campaign going on for the next Batman movie.
- Ryan Estrada has a story running on the Penny and Aggie webcomic site.
November 26th
In A Big Webcomic, Dreams Stay With You
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 26, 2007 - 10:09
Rolling Monday news update...
HEADLINES
- Dirk Deppey has a good roundup of recent steps by DC and Marvel to try and crack down on file-sharing of scans of their monthly comic books. It's their right to do so of course under the current copyright laws, but both companies are still not offering legal alternatives for consumers to obtain their current material in a digital format. Carrot and stick usually work better than just the stick.
BSC Webcomic Idol 2.0
- The voting was over last night
but it may still be going (I just voted). In any event, current results haveand Templar, AZ won with 60% of the vote to 40% for Lucid TV. This is the second year of this event and all things considered it seemed to go pretty well. Hopefully it drew some more attention to some worthwhile comics.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
- Anne@FLEEN plugs We The Robots and after giving it a read I'd have to agree. Creator Chris Harding also recently appeared on the Half Pixel Webcomics Weekly Podcast.
DEAD TREES
- Comics Worth Reading has a review of HeavyInk.com which aims to be "both Amazon and Facebook for comics".
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Neil Cohn writes about recent research on eye movement across the comic page. The research shows that for an average of 8.5 panels per page, there are an average of 20.3 fixations. Most of their study focused on panels that were skipped over for one reason or another. Two types of changes to the page showed significant effects in decreasing the rates that they were skipped: balloon position and panel layout.
