Movin’ On Up: From Mayor of Webcomictown to Guv’nor of Webcomica!

BUSINESS
Blogger/superhero Cory Doctorow writes about his dandelion theory of distributing his stories and why he doesn’t like micropayments.

The Beat reports that Elephantman is now available on iPod comic site Clickwheel (full press release after the jump)

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Comics Worth Reading likes Dennis West’s Backyard Frontier: the story of a boy and his alien.

REVIEWS
Chris Mauter posts a review of the Penny Arcade collection: Attack of the Bacon Robots! that originally ran in TCJ.  Interesting but a few quibbles – I’m not much of a videogame player and I don’t think it’s true such knowledge is needed for every PA strip (a few yes, but far from most) and clearly this book was intended for the PA fan (i.e, the completist), not to attract new readers. (I almost forgot that Modern Humor Authority ran the definite review of this book – check it out here.)

ELEPHANTMEN Joins Clickwheel

Clickwheel LTD is proud to announce a new addition to its premium roster in ELEPHANTMEN.  Written by industry mainstay, Richard
Starkings with art by Moritat and Ladronn and published in print by Image comics, ELEPHANTMEN tells the story of the ‘Unhumans, The result of genetic engineering, the Unhumans have since served their wartime purpose and must now find new ways to survive in society. True to it’s Sci-Fi themes, ELEPHANTMEN and Starkings are eager to help Clickwheel push the boundaries of comics as we know them:

"I’ve been interested in CLICKWHEEL since Tim set up the site," says ELEPHANTMEN and HIP FLASK writer/creator Richard Starkings. "Of all the sites that approached COMICRAFT with the whole ‘iTunes for comics deal’, it seemed clear that CLICKWHEEL had the cleanest, best designed user interface, and as ‘Purveyors of Unique Design and Fine Lettering’ the presentation of a download site is obviously going to be important to us. Plus — Tim didn’t even approach me, he got my attention just by doing a good job, what a concept! When Tim added 2000AD to CLICKWHEEL I realized that we were more than a perfect match — I’ve often said in interviews that ELEPHANTMEN is the strip I would have contributed to 2000AD had I ever had the opportunity. 2000AD’s founding fathers, John Wagner and Pat Mills were a huge influence on me and we even share cover artist Boo Cook from time to time!"

"Tim and I have been working out the logistics of posting ELEPHANTMEN on CLICKWHEEL for the last couple or three months but now the contracts are signed, the ink is dry, the hands have been shaken, the tees crossed and the eyes dotted and… I’m sorry, I’m drifting… ELEPHANTMEN will be available for download every month on CLICKWHEEL for just $1.99 an issue. Every ad, every letters page, all the back up features and indicias will be included — everything except the staples, and Tim tells me he’s working on making small pieces of bent rusty metal downloadable even as I speak."

Tim Demeter, Clickwheel Editor in Chief adds: "I lettered my very first comic with Comicraft fonts and it’s a true honor to be working with Rich.  I’m really excited about this for a lot of reasons, none the least being that ELEPHANTMEN is a great book. It’s the type of quality we want people to think of when they think of Clickwheel.  I’m also happy to announce that ELEPHANTMEN is the first of many, many new comics to come at Clickwheel in the coming weeks."

ELEPHANTMEN is available monthly at Clickwheel.net. One $1.99 purchase earns three formats: PDF, CBR and iPhone formatting.  (Via the Clickwheel iPhone reader available free on the Apple App Store.)

Xaviar Xerexes

Wandering webcomic ronin. Created Comixpedia (2002-2005) and ComixTalk (2006-2012; 2016-?). Made a lot of unfinished comics and novels.