In the world of web comics there are so few places that we can call home. From the moment we started putting up squiggly lines we have all understood that those who would follow us will come because they want that quick laugh or the easy access. Such a nature is both the greatest appeal and our worst nightmare. If you don’t update every day or at least when promised you can lose half your readers over night, just because you got caught in a snow storm. At least you’re just as likely to get them back by having an outstanding next strip but the losing and gaining of readers will give even the greatest comic gray hairs, unless you shave.
Monthly Archives: May 2007
We’ve Got Comics from Sea to Shining Sea
I’ve recently entered the real world. The world where people have careers, offices and even their own staplers. It’s a beautiful thing. However, as I sit a my desk and try and figure out what it is I’m supposed to be doing, I get a lot of great ideas for comics. Ideas that, knowing me, will never see the light of day.
So while I may not be drawing as many comics as I would like, I have been able to listen to a few more Web comics podcasts, which is nice. A relatively new show (three episodes to date) that I’ve really enjoyed and would like to share with everyone is Comics Coast to Coast.
Ninja Bunny Passes A Milestone! ~OR~ It’s A Bunny Who’s A Ninja, What’s To Get?
It’s highly likely that Ninja Bunny by Philip Spence has been written about before in this space, but it wasn’t by this cape-wearing webcomic afficionado, so deal with my thoughts on the incidental silliness of the Bunny one more time.
Of course, these write-ups have to be birthed from somewhere, and this edition comes courtesy of a milestone for Ninja Bunny, the 200th strip milestone to be perfectly exact. After only a year and a half’s existence in the ‘Tubes, this achievement seems to be a big one, but truthfully, it’s not hard to make yourself seem bigger and better than you really are on this, the Internet. Post something for a year or so, send the AP your press release, and voila! You’ve got yourself a milestone, regardless of content, quality, or frequency of updates! What remains is to decipher said milestone and see whether it is truly something to celebrate.
DS 117: Review of The Retriever
Digital Strips : Show 117 [18.2 MB] |
We pulled out one from the queue to get you this one before you forgot about us. Back in the day we had some guest reviewers and this one was one of the ones that was suppose to be reviewed then. That doesn’t mean this dark but engrossing strip gets passed by. Turn off the lights and turn up the brightness to set the mode for The Retriever.
In this episode we talk about:
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Nice Kitty!
Seven Seas changed its webcomics around lately, and one of the new ones is a truly idiosyncratic Japanese comic called Neconoclasm, by Yizuno Asaki.
Neconoclasm gathers so many Japanese manga tropes into a single strip that it’s practically a primer on manga all by itself. The characters are cat-girls. (The title is a pun on neko, the Japanese word for cat.) They are cute (moe) cat-girls. And the format is 4-koma, vertical four-panel strips with humor that takes a little getting used to.
(Actually, this comic will make no sense at all unless you remember to read it right-to-left, because it’s imported from Japan and Seven Seas chose to keep the original, unflipped format. It’s a bit tougher with 4-koma than with regular manga, because with a smaller strip you don’t have as many visual cues.)
Oh Yes, It’s Bloggin’ Night! ~OR~ Piquers Of My Interest
It’s been a long time coming, this update. Every time I sat down to write about… well, something, I just lost the motivation after opening the WordPress page. Since then, there’s been enough news popping up for a proper update, so why not? I’ve chosen tonight to put up posts here as well as on my own personal blog, so let’s just see what happens together. I’ll start things off with this teaser panel from the latest Digital Unrest. Good, good stuff.
If Everyone Would Just Call Me When they Update, that’d be Great
I’m constantly trying to help more people find the joy and happiness that can only found by reading web comics. The problem is, a lot of people not in our little world are tainted by print comics. Print comics may often be trite, cliche and overdone, but they are reliable. People like to know that a new strip will be there for them everyday.
Some strips are really good. They update every day without fail. Other choose a less frequent schedule but still hit each deadline like clock work. Made props goes out to all the work horses our there.
The Trees Are Crying
I love my comics coming out in portable form. There are very few things better then spending some hard earned cash on some well drawn and well written art. At the last NYCC I couldn’t help but buy the comics of every artist that agreed to let us interview them but even then I missed getting Ugly Hill. Darn that Paul Southworth and all his creative talent for taunting me. Here are some more creators that insist on proving I don’t know how to save.
Shortpacked! – The past two years of shenanigans from David Willis arrives in it’s first print collection Shortpacked! Brings Back the Eighties. Continue reading
Robot Raptors are Science
I’ve noticed I started a lot of posts with apologies for the long period of time since the last one. I’ve decided not to do that this time, largely because I doubt I’d mean it. I’m becoming sort of a jerk.
Anyway, I just going to drop a quick link here to Randall Munroe’s ‘ the creator of XKCD ‘ report on his lecture at MIT. From what I could tell from his blog post and can imagine from these pictures, it looks like it was one heck of a good time. According to Slashdot, the audience was bombarded by balls. Sometimes I hate not being? on the East Coast. Usually not, but sometimes.
DS 116: Review of Animals Have Problems Too
Digital Strips : Show 116 [20.7 MB] |
It’s not often we review a single panel comic and this one is a doozy. The Geek decided to make me read 400 of these and there were so few of them I liked but there was plenty to talk about. Join us as figure out all the hidden secrets that make this strip worth reading.
In this episode we talk about:
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download