It’s time for a review. This time on the chopping block is Hereville, the adventures of a plucky young girls and her quest to become a fair dinkum dragon slayer. Along the way she’ll meet witches, battle trolls and teach us all a little bit about bravery and a lot about Jewish culture. Find out what we thing of the whole thing on this episode of Digital Strips.
As always we welcome your comments and suggestions as to how we can help bring the best 10% of Web comics to the world.
Much like the once shrouded-in-mystery world of male modeling has its walk-offs, held in abandoned warehouses to determine the cream of the crop, so too, apparently, do cartoonists and illustrators have cartoon-offs.
Now, this might just be because it comes from The New Yorker, a publication famous for feeling elitist and making you feel not so elitist, but this phenomenon has gone completely unnoticed by me, a cartoonist/illustrator by trade. Regardless, it happens, it involves XKCD creator Randall Munroe and Farley Katz, writer for The New Yorker, and it’s awesome.
Surprisingly, the article itself is amusing and includes a nice Q&A with Munroe at the end. My favorite part is when Munroe is clearly the winner of the event; it’s like this was actually a pitch for him to work for The New Yorker which Katz decided to post live for everyone to see. Click through and enjoy the fun.
Scanlations helped create the manga publishing industry, but some publishers regard them as a major threat nonetheless. This week, ICv2 interviewed Tokyopop marketing director Marco Pavia and one of the questions that came up was whether scanlations are stealing sales, as some retailers claim. Pavia didn’t sound too worried:
Honestly, it’s a challenge to battle all those sites. On our site, we’ve run manga for free for a limited time and we’ve seen a spike in sales. Two Fruits Baskets ago, we released a whole volume online for free for a limited time, and we actually saw a spike in that volume’s book sales over the first week compared to the previous volume’s book sales over its first week. A few other series–Loveless–some of our original stuff–we’ve definitely seen a positive impact on sales when we’ve released something for free for a limited time as a promotional, marketing tactic.
To be honest, I wouldn’t know where to begin. We know about some of the top pirate sites, but they’re ubiquitous. It would be challenge to try to fight them. We certainly don’t have the resources to fight each and every one.
It’s a month full of fantasy paintings, crappy word balloons, and surprisingly, not a zombie in site. It’s Zuda Watch for October 2008. We learn a lot about our selves, what kind of comics we like, what kind we don’t like and how important the basics really are when it comes to making a really great comic. Come and learn with us won’t you.
Hmm, this is interesting: Chuck Rozakis, who has a background in economics, is writing about the theory of webcomics at ComicMix. Check out his latest column on the Superstar Theory, or why we can’t all be Scott Kurtz.
Speaking of Scott Kurtz, he and Dave Kellett will be speaking about webcomics tonight at SCAD.
Here’s a nice freebie from Dark Horse: They are posting vol. 1 of Banya The Explosive Delivery Man online, for free, a chapter at a time. It’s a Korean comic (manhwa) and, as you would expect from the title, pretty violent but also nicely drawn and worth a look.
Ambrosia Comics has gone on hiatus, and they have released creators from their contracts, which is refreshing.
Inspired by visits to two conventions in two weeks, where she met lots of artists and saw lots of comics, Johanna Draper Carlson samples some new webcomics at Comics Worth Reading.
Xaviar Xerxes talks to Gordon McAlpin about Multiplex at Comix Talk.
The Black Cherry Bombshells made it to the top of the Zuda competition a few months ago despite the protests of the Digital Strips Zudawatch gaggle. Find out what makes creators Johnny Zito and Tony Trov tick in this interview at Pink Raygun. And here’s a little Zuda-on-Zuda action: Over at ComicMix, High Moon creator David Gallaher interviews Zito and Trov as well, to kick off his new column Mixing It Up.
It’s official: Zuda Comics is the fairly wide-open door to success that so many webcomickers have been yearning for.
CBR reports that Cartoon Network, yes that Cartoon Network, is fast tracking several Zuda comics, specifically those that won in the first stretch of the contest, to be animated projects in as little as 18 months.
As a co-content provider for the Internet’s leading Zuda critique brigade (official name pending), I can speak to the quality (and not-so-quality) of the Zuda crop and this move is definitely a great thing for all those hopefuls who have already submitted their works or want to someday. Now, you’ve got a possible animated deal mixed in with an increased online presence and possible comic book deals to yearn for!.
Let’s see… the markets are failing… economy’s in a never-ending spiral… the political landscape is inspiring hope in no one…
Steve! Skype me! We gotta fast track this Zuda script of ours, pronto!
It’s starting to become one of my favorite pastimes, this idea of ordering webcomic collections with my DS money and then reviewing them. Especially since they are, by and large, collections I know I love and so can be based mostly on what the book offers that the webcomic cannot.
Of course, if you’ve got a new collection coming out that you want publicized, shoot us a copy (e-mail digital.strips@gmail.com for mailing address) and we’ll be happy to review it as well!
As a webcomic, Wondermark displays the dry, Monty Python-esque humor of creator David Malki! quite well, relying almost solely on his writing chops as the art is typically little more than clip art from the Victorian age. As a book, The Annotated Wondermark, the first collection of the Wondermark webcomic, is a much more varied example of the humor at play in the strip, as well as a better representation of how funny this guy can be even when he’s not making webcomics.
Needless to say, if your sense of humor is not of the driest, least saturated, most H20-deprived nature, most of Wondermark’s jokes will fail on every atttempt. On the other hand, if you’re the guy going around the office quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail to whoever might listen, stop doing that and pick up this book!
People seem to be making lots of lists lately. Dave White of Blog 7415 lists the webcomics he reads, the ones he has dropped, and the ones that are at the border, while Johanna Draper Carlson accentuates the positive at Comics Worth Reading with some new webcomics worth reading. And this post, 10 Great Webcomics You Should Not Share With Your Kids, from Wired’s GeekDad blog, has been making the rounds a bit but is worth a look if you haven’t seen it already.
At The Floating Lightbulb, Ben Gordon critiques the business model presented in How to Make Webcomics. Then Gary Tyrell critiques the critique at Fleen.
Meanwhile, Sean Kleefeld ponders why one would buy a dead-tree version of a comic that’s online for free.
Blooks are getting to be old hat, but can you really make a book out of a MySpace page? Randy Lander of Comic Pants takes a look at a possible first, the print edition of MySpace Dark Horse Presents.
We’re mixing things up again. Digital Strips 145
Here at Digital Strips, our goal has always been to bring to you the 10 percent of Web comics that are good. The problem has been that most strips that have been long enough to build enough of an archive to be reviewable already have a good deal of buzz around them. With this in mind, once a month or so, we’re going to forgo the in depth review and instead give a couple recommendations of strips that have caught our eyes (and therefore are worthy of your eyes as well) but are still too young in Web years to really really be reviewable.
This month we run the gamut in strips from the dark and druggy to the light and birdy. The strips are:
Sparko by Karl Stephan
Head in the Clouds by Niel Pearson and Tim Smith
Skadi By Katie Rice and Luke Cormican
With three strips this different there should be something you like. If not, let us know, we’ll do better next time. Also if anyone has any ideas for future episodes or even a name for this feature, drop us a comment as well. We like comments.
First up, I love RSS feeds. It’s the next generation of opening the Sunday funnies, but funnier, and even more convenient. And you can do it every DAY.
Second, I love Sinfest, a proud member of my daily RSS picks. There are many strips in the span of a month that are really poignant looks at different aspects of our society, and today’s full-color update is one of the best.
The strip’s creator, Tatsuya Ishida, has taken the banking industry to task for the better part of this week and the whole thing is capped off with a strip featuring no less than Uncle Moneybags (Monopoly), Scrooge McDuck (DuckTales) and Montgomery Burns (The Simpsons).
Oh, and the whole thing is set to the tune of the Geto Boys’ “Damn It Feels Good To Be a Gangsta” (link to NSFW version, beware!). Enjoy!