Author Archives: The_Best_Jason

Chris Jones Has A New Portfolio Site

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Do we talk about portfolio sites around here? No. If you’re a professional artist, or want to be thought of as one, you should have one.

But for Chris Jones, creator/collaborator on numerous (Grumps, Captain Excelsior/Stupendous, Byron Pinkleton, and Snowflakes, just to name a few) webcomics, it feels appropriate to mention such an announcement. And it’s an easier way of linking to all of his stellar, grotesque, hilarious work in one shot. So click that image below and get to browsin’. You’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

The Chris Jones Portfolio website

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Digital Strips Podcast 253 – Review – Shadowbinders (Just Don’t Go Near The Large Barnyard Animals)

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Barnyard AnimalsWe’re making up for a shorter episode last week with a podcast chock full of webcomicky goodness. First up, a segment where, as mentioned earlier, we put two comics head-to-head in a “we swear this isn’t a review” contest to see who pulls off the “this title could only exist in webcomics”. The competitors:

Who emerges as the winner? The fans and readers, that’s who! These are two amazing comics that we are lucky to have received and which, without the magical medium of the Internet, we might never have seen otherwise. While Ratfist actually wrapped up this past week, Battlepug rages on, and as mentioned in a previous news post, a Ratfist collection, complete with bonus content, is coming later this year courtesy of Image Comics. Do us all a favor and pick it up while you keep reading Battlepug to help ensure we keep seeing awesome experimental stories like this on the Web.

Leading us into the second segment is an audio ad, the first we’ve received in at least a year! This one points us towards Gene Gardens (9:45), a comic that is hard to find online but whose Kickstarter you can readily assist with. Help creator Shawn Granger raise the funds to produce the Gene Gardens graphic novel by clicking any of the previous links.

And the second segment is full of Digital Strips News Minuteness, so much so that there is nothing Minute-y about it. You can find all of those stories on the site (save the one about Daniel Lieske’s app for The Wormworld Saga), some of which even have conversations already ongoing. Jump in and let your voice be known!

Our review is brought to us by the coolest of subterranean adolescent crimefighters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, more specifically a remix of the title screen tune of the NES video game of the same name, titled, “Go Ninja, Go” (16:40). Bringing that same sense of adolescent wonder is a fun tale of steampunks and real world teenage angst.

Three other comics are mentioned while we suss out the review.

While uneven, Steve and I agree that this comic packs promise and personality. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Sin Titulo Is Updating Again

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Sin Titulo returnsAgain, there is nothing else that need be said to this matter. Sin Titulo is an Eisner Award winner, it is created by the immensely talented Batman collaborator, Cameron Stewart, and it features a mystery that still, to this day, baffles the fluff out of me. Cameron was busy with other comics of equal awesomeness, but with those now on hold for the foreseeable future, he is jumping back into Sin Titulo whole-hog, hoping for updates at least three, if not four, days a week.

I think you know what to do.

*whispers* 1… 2… 3…

(together) Thank you, Cameron!

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Now That RatFist Is Over, Go Tell People About RatFist

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RatFist coming to bookstores in DecemberAnd that is creator Doug TenNapel’s desire, not my own (though it is certainly a sound one). In the upcoming Episode 253, Steve and I put Ratfist up against Battlepug to see who wins the Internetiest Webcomic Title Of All Time and came away with a realization that we loved both comics equally, though for very different reasons. I also got to tell Steve in that discussion that Ratfist was ending this week, which he conceded to be a good thing as so many comics seem to wear out their welcome.

With 150 updates in the bag, Ratfist has called it quits, but not only can the comic be found in its entirety at the handy dandy, easy-to-remember URL, but a collection featuring bonus content and landing at 176 pages drops later this year from Image Comics (front cover, pictured left). Doug encourages people to tell everyone they know about the comic and for existing readers to pick up the book to show the big publishers that putting out books based on webcomics is a great idea. Can’t really say I disagree with any of these sentiments.

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Webcomic Interview Round-Up

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RoundupBecause really, what else should a write-up like this be called?

Kate Beaton talks to Newsarama for a 2-part series (Part 1, Part 2)

The Boston Globe talks with Jeph Jacques, Jeffery Rowland, Rich Stevens, Randy Milholland,  and Michael Terracciano about the business of webcomics

At CBR, Talkin’ Comics with Tim sits down with Canaan Grall

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Escape From Planet Nowhere Returns September 4th

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I’m treating this as the best birthday present ever that was not specifically intended to be so. Otis Frampton announced on the site blog that Escape From Planet Nowhere, a wonderful, gorgeous space adventure comic (while it lasted) is returning September 4th. I have missed the flawless execution on the genre that this comic brought to the game and can’t wait to see where things go next.

From Otis himself:

Okay, so I kinda disappeared there for a while.

A long while.

The last year since I moved back to Minnesota has been rockier than I anticipated and my webcomic work has been the thing that has suffered most. But something had to be put on the back burner while I built up my business, and unfortunately it meant that I had little time to visit Planet Nowhere.

That being said, I’ve been working on new pages and when the webcomic returns on September 4th, I should be a couple of months ahead of schedule.

Sorry for the long absence. See you next month.

Damn. I was gonna have a hot dog.

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Giving Away Your Product (RSS Feeds Kill Page Views And Thus, Comics)

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MaximumbleRecently, Chris Hallbeck (The Book of Biff, Maximumble) stopped including the entire comic in his RSS feed for fear that it was giving away too much too easily. There was a day when this annoyed me and having to click through to view the actual website that housed a comic was enough to drive me to drop it from my list.

However, I’ve now softened on that notion. It could be because I have met Chris in real life on one occasion and now want to help him succeed in his endeavors in any way I can. It may be that the pervading sense of entitlement on the Internet is making me sick and I want desperately not to be a part of it.

Whatever the reason, I no longer care about that extra click and have even started going out of my way (and what a long way it is) to visit each website in my RSS feed to make sure their pages are getting the proper hit from my readership. This is likely a drop in the bucket for most of the comics I read on a regular basis, but it is certainly a behavior that I hope all readers consider. Eventually (hopefully), a comic can reach a level of superstardom so rare and so sky-high that page views are no longer a concern, and in this case, reading via feeds doesn’t register on my radar. But when I know the creator is struggling just to get each update online, when it’s apparent that this is a labor of love and nothing more, it’s my duty as a consumer of their content to at least give them the Web equivalent of paying a fraction of a cent for viewing their work.

So how do you feel about reading comic via a feed? Do you do what you can to make sure the creator gets the respect they deserve for each comic produced? Or do you read through your feed without visiting any actual websites, denying those content providers their proper due?

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Help Fund The Bean Vol. 1: Riddles and Shrooms

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Another day, another Kickstarter. This time around, it’s Travis Hanson, who’s asking for help getting his first collection of The Bean off the ground. He’s also posting updates to the project as they come along, so there’s more reason to visit the KS page and pledge your money to help him out. To his credit, it looks like the funding process is already going along swimmingly.

The Bean Vol. 1: Riddles and Shrooms

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Drawing Breasts Is Tough (But Fun) Business

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Epic BoobsIf you’re a man, and you enjoy drawing boobs, chances are you’re doing it wrong. And that’s not terribly unexpected! Neither having regular access to the subject you’re drawing nor experiencing them attached to you first-hand (for 99.843 % of the community, at least) leads one to draw from reference and/or flighty fantasy when drawing some monumental mammaries.

But artist Ovens of Chipperwhale is here to guide the fellas in the art, and joy, of properly depicting truthful tatas. Let them sag, don’t worry about always giving a proper salute! Nipples have their place on a breast, and it is not always pointing directly at you! And other unknown facts are yours if you follow the handy link below! WARNING: There are other links included in said article which can form quite the deep rabbit hole. Wordplay very much not intended, but well done nonetheless.

The art of boobs, Caperton (Feministe)

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