This is the same old news we always here but it’s presented so clearly here. Newspapers have been declining since 1987 and trends have recently shown an increase in this decline. The web on the other hand has benefit ffrom this decline with a 30% increase in ad groththis year alone and consists of 5.4% of all advertising. Eventually we will finally see the retiring of the word ‘webcomic’ as are favorite medium over takes it’s print cousin.
It’s not often that one finds an article dedicated to web comics so I was excited when I was pointed to this essay by the UF Visual Rhetoric Research Group. I was hoping for it to be a well thought out and researched document concerning the rise of web comics. What I got was an attempt to make them in to second class citizens. This paper irked me so much that I felt compelled to dissect it.
Even though the paper has a childlike layout it presents a somewhat clear thesis for the comparison of web comics Continue reading
Following along with my “How To” posts we next have a look at the excellent process explanation found over at RPG World. Ian J. takes the read all the way through his process for creating his comic beginning with the pencil sketch.
Ian uses a non-photo blue pencil to rough out the comic first. For those that don’t know, non-photo blue won’t be picked up by scanners when you scan the image in “black & white” mode. This means Ian can ink over the pencil drawings and not have to worry about erasing the pencil work. Continue reading
We have scoured the web collecting the printed books of many popular online comics. The winner of the contest will receive over $120.00 worth of web comic books! You can see them all in this photo:
< click for a closer look>Keenspot.com Spotlight 2004 Keenspot.com From Pixels to Paper 2004 Megatokyo Vol. 3 by Fred Gallagher Greystone Inn Dilutions of Grandeur by Brad Guigar Chopping Block Collection by Lee Adam Herold Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud PVP at Large Vol. 1 by Scott Kurtz Dandy and Company Old Dogs and New Tricks by Derrick Fish Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell from User Friendly by Illiad Enter Yirmumah by DJ Coffman and Bob McDeavitt Dork Tower Understanding Gamers by John Kovalic Crap I drew on my Lunch Break by Jin Wicked
A big steaming bowl of web comic goodness, all this could be yours!
Ok, what do I have to do?
To enter the contest all you have to do is create one web comic about us. It can about our show, a specific show, us as individuals, whatever. It just has to be about Digital Strips in some way. You can use the character designs in our logo if you want and feel free to use any existing characters you may have in your own web comic.
Are there any restrictions on the comic format?
We are very flexible on this, but we have a few requirements. The comic must be no wider than 900. It can be in any display format; single panel, multi-panel, comic book page, vertical scroll, etc. But, it has to be single image, no animations or Flash files will be considered.
How do I get my comic entry to you?
There are two ways to make a submission:1: Post the comic somewhere on your own site and email us the URL of where we can get to it.
2: Send the image as a .JPG or .GIF file attached to an email.
Either way, send it in an email to digital.strips@gmail.com with the subject line “Contest Entry”.
If you would like to send us the original artwork that would be great too and is encouraged, but the contest entry only requires a digital file as described above.
How long do I have to create my entry? My genius takes time to bring to the surface.
You have three weeks to get us your contest entry. We will accept entries up to midnight on Friday April 29th. The winner will be randomly selected over the weekend and announced on our show May 2nd.
What if I don’t win? I’ll have done all that super clever work for nothing!
Not quite. While there can be only one winner of the web comic book stash every entry sent to us will have it’s moment to shine. After the contest is over we will post each entry one at a time to the front of our web site. Along with the image we will link back to your web site, should you have one. This guarantees promotion for you own web comic, should you have one. If you don’t have a web site or comic we’ll provide a link to whatever site you wish (within reason of course. What passes muster is at our discretion).
Also, we will put up a permanent contest entry page with all the entries on display which will also be linked to from our front page and occasionally pimped on the show.
We get promotion for our show, you all get promotion for your own stuff, and one lucky winner gets a nice big pile of awesome. The way we see it, everybody wins!
So there you have it. Our first big contest. The first of many, perhaps. You’ve got three weeks, now get cracking!
We start off the show by mentioning my own web comic, The Last Drop. Have a look and feel free to pick on me like I’ve picked on other comics. Also, we’re running a little tight on server space so we are going to have to trim down the show archives a bit. I will limit the archived shows to 8 episodes at a time. Now is your last chance to grab our earlier ones.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I am introducing a new character today, Sage. This is a type of guy I saw a lot of while spending my art school years in coffee shops around the city. The weird, quite, not-sure-if-he-is-dangerous type of person. Hopefully I was able to convey the idea I was going for here without any dialogue.
Here’s my attempt to catch up on news which I had meant to report but found myself too stunned by the cookie monster.
Last week Nick Anderson was awarded the 2005 Cartooning Pulitzer. As much as this was a shock to everyone because he wasn’t on the ‘leaked’ list from a few weeks ago it’s not that much of a surprise. He started his career with a bang getting the Charles M. Schulz Award for best college cartoonist in the United States, Canada and Mexico. What would have really been a surprise would be if a web comic artist won. There’s some outstanding work out there going unnoticed.
We’ve been hard at work arranging something special for our readers and the listeners of our show. In the two and a half months we’ve been doing this you guys have shown us a lot of love and encouragement in our little endeavor here.Well, now we want to give something back. We are planning a nice little surprise for you folks and if you’re into web comics Continue reading
Ok, I’ve moved my comic over to it’s own page. Digital Strips needs to stay focused on the task at hand, reporting on web comic news and the weekly audio show. You can check out my own comic, The Last Drop, at it’s new home and I will keep it going three times a week. I may also add some sketchbook dumps on Fridays too, who knows.
And thanks to everyone for the words of encouragement. I really appreciate that.
Dale Messick, the artist behind the long running adventure and mystery based comic strip Brenda Starr, has passed away at the age of 98. She had suffered a stroke in 1998 and her health has been deteriorating ever since.
Messick leaves behind a proud legacy of becoming a successful female cartoonist amongst a primarily male dominated industry. Brenda Starr has been running in newspapers since 1940. From the history page of comicspage.com, Continue reading