Everyone has to aware of this by now but if not John Allison has picked up the pencil in exchange of the mouse for creating his comic. The acclaimed winner of the 2005 WCCA Best Comic has long been famous for creating a strip that is 100% computer generated while never using a scanner. After running for over 4 years that has all changed. For that past couple of weeks John has been drawing everything by hand and there doesn’t seem to be enough people who have taken noticed.
When DS first launched we had some pretty strong opinions about where the print industry is taking comics and how web comics should simply take over. Since then we’ve mellowed and learned it’s just a little more complicated and there’s reasoning, although flawed, behind syndicates keeping the same old strips around. How would the world change if the print industry were repaired and their misconceptions throttled into the 1950’s where they belong? First they could listen to readers such as Bob Mackey who wrote a rather scathing article concerning the state of comics.
Last month the two-day symposium “Asia in Comics 2005” took place in Akasaka, Tokyo. This convention might be considered the ComicCon of Asia but it would be more accurate to picture it as a gathering of Asian companies to discuss comics. Once again one of the major topics was taking comics online. Apparently a good example is Pape Popo by Shim Seung Hyun which is described by him as
The first [Asian] comic you read by scrolling down the page with your mouse, which is very different from opening a book and turning pages
I have always found Comixpedia to be an excellent site for news but I often overlook that the team has interviews, reviews, columns, and an assortment of features. There’s a recent interview with Maritza Campos of College Roomies From Hell that reveals just how long it has been running and where he gets his source material. For features make sure to catch the new Pen to Web Tutorial by Quinn Fleming. This should help me learn at least one thing useful when it comes to web comics.
Webcomic Telethon – It’s only another 2 days before Brad Guigar and the Blank Label guys launch the telethon to benefit victims of Katrina. All proceeds will go towards the Red Cross in an outpouring of relief from our little community. Knowing the genius of Brad this event is going to be another perfect opportunity for the rest of the world to see that there is a web comics community and when it decides to help it’s a force to notice.
Penny Arcade – Slap me around and call me Sue. This is like something out of one of the movies where you see the auctioneer spouting Continue reading
What is the first thing you do when you want to promote web comics, create a news portal? Perhaps create a review site or even a podcast. The last thing you try to do is run an open source text-driven resource open to anyone to submit articles. So of course Xavier Xerxes is just crazy enough to do it and it’s off to a fantastic start with thousands of changes and quite a few articles in the Webcomics Wiki.
Just how effective can user-contributed resources be without the strict rules followed by Wikipedia. Continue reading
If you haven’t heard all the news pouring out of the US news channels you are either living under a rock or read the story about the Mosque stampede first. For those who read Digital Strips before the news Katrina (a category 4 hurricane) swept over Florida and slammed into New Orleans with enough force to break the dykes holding back Lake Pontchartrain from a city that is below the lake’s level. For the non-physics majors out there that means the lake proceed to correct this little problem by flooding the entire city causing uncounted loss of life and over $20 billion in damage. Continue reading
It’s time for our second installment of the Scavenger Hunt. The quick low down, for those new to the “The Monthly Web Comics Scavenger Hunt“, is it is help promote webcomics by compiling a list of comics around narrow topics such as pirates as oppose to ‘humor’. The deadline for this month is of course midnight of the last day of September.
We want you to gather links to comics across the web that pertain, refer to, involve, or otherwise mention this topic and send us the list. On last day of the month the person who sent us the most qualifying links Continue reading
When it comes to webcomics there are two ways to prove you are on the way to making it. The first is when your work starts making an impact and when you have been running online for more then two years. So it was without surprise to find RyanEstrada.com celebrating two years on the web after Ryan has had such an impact (reaching 10,000+ unique visits last month) with his travel journals, 24/48/72/175 hour comic marathons, and Welton Colbert. In celebration Ryan has redesigned his site along the lines that have brought him to where he is now.
Someone was bound to chase after Ryan North after all the times he has been in the press. Ryan is the acclaimed creator of Dinosaur Comics which was nominated for 3 WCC Awards this year in addition to winning the Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic Award. In a recent announcement Dayfree Press released that Ryan was filling in the recently vacated spot from BOASAS. On August 14 Steven Cloud took Boy on a Stick and Slither with him to Dumbrella as the first addition to the collective in over three years.