This may be the first convention solely dedicated to webcomics. It is being held in Tilburg, Netherlands on May 1 in the Hall of Fame building. The website is in Dutch so use your favorite translator to read the contents in English. The convention is created by the newly formed Clickburg foundation.
The Washington Post ran a short article (reprinted at Editor & Post) about the dying off of print. Most notable are the quotes about how the younger generation 18-34 is simply not reading paper but instead going to websites and reading non-newsprint. What does this mean for syndicated strips and for web comics? Should we soon be expecting uComics and Comics.com to start using subscriptions?
Tim Buckley, the creator of Ctrl+Alt+Del, the excellent gaming web comic, has posted an auction on eBay for an original piece of artwork. The original hand-drawn cartoon being auctioned depicts several of the strip’s main characters. If you’re familiar with the strip I’m sure it’ll put a smile on your face.
Sorry folks, there were some real world schedule issues for me this weekend and we haven’t been able to record this week’s show yet. Expect the next podcast to be online Wednesday morning.
In my endless search to actually know what I’m talking about I came across this article. It was posted on June 03, 2004 but history never goes out of date. Mainly talks about the emergence of sprite comics from Bob and George by David Anez to today’s sprite goliath 8-bit Theater by Brian Clevinger.
For our final Eyeskream web comic we have True North. Written by Doug Curtis, who brought us Flying Ferret, this strips is about Swat the Mosquito awaking in the closet of Bucky the Golden Gopher to find that he must cope with winter. This is truly a gem of a comic with all the potential to be great. Generally the writing is silly and fun and is more a gag strip with most of the jokes having nothing to do with Swat being a mosquito but more with living in the North. Where the writing could improve is Doug does not go far enough along this vein. Continue reading
There was a story broadcast on NPR recently entitled, “Holy Evolution Darwin! Comics take on Science“. The audio can be found on their site. They discuss how creators like Jim Hosler, Jim Ottaviani, and Jack Chick are using comics to push ideas of science and creationism. Links to various comics online are also found on NPR’s page.
[Updated 2-18-2005] : I made a mistake with the artists names and who was for what in the original post. Thanks Jason.
The LA Times ran a commentary earlier this week severely criticizing the comics business. It was written by Gerard Jones, the author of “Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book“. The commentary gives a brief history of the business behind comics and points to the recent lawsuits involving Stan Lee and Marvel as an indication of overall business problems within the industry.
In our forth Eyeskream review we bring you Boot Error. This is a cute little whimsical strip that follows the inner workings of Horizon Corporation and in particular, the Marketing Department where Ed, Brooke and Max work. Written by Ivan Pope the major plot involves mostly around Ed and his experiences while still making a gag in each strip. Never following conventional panel layout every day will look different then the previous day. This allows Ivan to take full advantage of the web while still looking clean and well done. Using vector art the characters are simple yet cute giving an overall playful quality. With a little more creative help this strip could easily expand to updating every day.
One of the biggest anime cons on the east coast is Katsucon hosted in Arlington, VA. This year the con is hosting an expanded webcomic track from many different great manga-like webcomics. These include some of our favorites such as Applegeeks and MacHall along with others like the infamous Order of the Stick, Paradox Lost, Seraphic Blue, and the outstanding VG Cats. Those living near Arlington or with some extra miles should enjoy this con.