Author Archives: The_Best_Jason

Tweet Thread of the Day ~FOR~ Friday, June 11, 2010

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Let’s finish off the week in TTotD with a plug for a true friend of Digital Strips, Lucas Turnbloom. Not only is the 2nd collection of Imagine This, “Dewey Defeats Truman”, ready, but a second, all-ages book that appears to feature many of the bears from IT, will also be releasing soon, both by the end of July.

RobertThePlant FINALLY, Details on my 2 new books: http://imaginethiscomic.com/?p=1928 3 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone

Check the article out and you’ll also find the announcement that he is working on a new webcomic for one of the stars of the former NBC show, Heroes. I doubt any of the stars had much to do with the fact that the show bombed creatively after the first season, so hopefully this is only the start of another great work from Lucas.

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Tweet Thread of the Day ~FOR~ Thursday, June 10, 2010

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Thursday was looking like another wash as far as intriguing tweets go when this juicy little bit of info came down the wire from Evan Dahm, creator of such incomparable works as Rice Boy and Order of Tales, the latter of which is the subject of this tweet thread.

evndahm ok I thiiiiiiink I should have the last big huge update of OoT up around the 4th of July but I am still working it out 31 minutes ago via web from Asheville, NC

i am getting all emotional thumbnailing the end of this comic. that is kind of silly. about 1 hour ago via web

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mdnytecartunr @evndahm Last, like, ever? I fell so far behind and now it may be too late! But your stories will always live on in my print library. 9 minutes ago via Echofon in reply to evndahm

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evndahm @mdnytecartunr I’m like 40 pages ahead of the current update, nearing the end. It will always be there for you to read though! about 1 hour ago via web

If you’re like me and have fallen behind, or have yet to read any of the story at all, you now know what your plans are for the weekend.

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Tweet Thread of the Day ~FOR~ Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

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Only the second day of this brand spanking new feature and Twitter decides to seize up and stifle the entire thing! So no thread for today.

Instead, go read this post about an interview with the guys behind The Guns of Shadow Valley, our pick to win the Eisner award this year. Then go read the interview. Then come back tomorrow, provided that Twitter can get its act together by then.

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Interview ~WITH~ Creators of The Guns of Shadow Valley (The Santa Barbara Independent)

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Yet another perk of following a webcomic’s RSS feed; creators tend to mention when they are interviewed or mentioned in other media, thus providing you with a quickie post you don’t really even have to exert any effort towards! Thanks, James and David!

Go here and read a nice write-up of the comic The Geek and I universally agreed should win the Eisner this year, including some process stuff (always a favorite of mine) as well as general items about the comic in general. If you haven’t already, the link below will let you read the story thus far. Highly recommended.

Click this to check out the best webcomic of 2010

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Wowio Now Owns ~MILLIONS~ Of Horribly Designed Webcomic Sites (DrunkDuck)

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Forget the hype, forget the press releases; the move by Wowio, the premiere site for eBooks online, to purchase DrunkDuck, one of the largest warehouses of webcomics on the Internet, gives them a load of digitally-distributed comics to choose from. Are they all great? No. Are some of them great? Not really. Are a select few worth taking a look at? Yes, and so Wowio now owns that handful of webcomics. With the recent buyout of WeVolt to leverage their social networking skills, Wowio is setting itself up to be a power player in the webcomics space. Of course, by power player, I mean, “company to own a lot of comics”.

Now if they would just buy out a web designer to alter the God-awful designs that haunt the spaces behind the DrunkDuck comics themselves, we might be in business.

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Tweet Thread of the Day ~FOR~ Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

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Time for a new regular feature for the site, and since The Geek has deemed me Master of Tweets for Digital Strips, I shall post daily that which tickles my fancy, straight from the free realm that is the Twitterverse. I kick this party off with a three-fer, some choice thoughts that seemed to permeate the thin layer between posts to become something larger in the scope of the community.

First up, Scott Kurtz take issue with Marvel’s idea to release a test digital comic book day and date with the print version, but still make the digital customer pay more. I couldn’t agree more with pretty much everything he’s said on the subject, but here’s what kicked it off:

Why Marvel shouldn’t care about what retailers think. http://bit.ly/9aa6Mt about 14 hours ago

You like this comic? Want to save a tree? You’ll need to pay more then, please.

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Next up, nearly everyone on the Internet today (everyone I listen to, anyways) passed around this YouTube link for a possible Mortal Kombat reboot. Too many people to choose from, so I’ll grab a tweet from Paul Southworth, whose backgrounds on Not Invented Here I praised earlier in the day:

Man, this new Mortal Kombat movie looks INTENSE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJHbdmbeaXQ

Upon further review, that would appear to be a joke link from Paul. He does that sometimes. Instead, I will borrow a retweet from him, courtesy of Scott Johnson, host of various excellent podcasts on the Frog Pants Network:

RT @extralife: Good lord. They really are doing this. http://bit.ly/bxrSnt #mortalkombatreborn

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Last but surely not least, Charlie “Spike” Trotman weighs in on the syndicated strip debate (not really a debate any longer, just a continuing thorn) and throws in some tips on how to grow your comic to boot. A lengthy thread, but when this girl gets goin’, it’s best to just sit back and listen:

“Syndicates are There for a Reason.” Oh, Daily Cartoonist. Why can’t I quit you? http://is.gd/cHz1v

Okay okay to be totally fair: Syndicates used to be meaningful, relevant organizations with a purpose. Syndicates got you into papers.

And there was a time when being in papers was a good decision that could eventually lead to a long, professional cartooning career.

BUT the average paper reader is now between 40 and 50. Less than 1/4 of Americans under 35 read a daily paper. The market is shrinking.

Newspapers are in decline. It’s much harder to make a living as a strip cartoonist. Syndicates can’t sell for artists like they used to.

Fiending for syndicate representation these days is like pounding on the door of a building under demolition, begging to be let in.

Cuz it’s been asked: If you want to be a professional cartoonist, 1) Start a webcomic 2) build an audience 3) publish & sell collections.

Don’t make any merch (books, shirts) until your readers ask, assume 1 in 100 will ever buy stuff, work hard, and know it’s not guaranteed.

That is what’s worked for me. Other stuff works, too, but that is what I did.

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Thanks for the wit and wisdom, folks, and all in 140 characters or less!

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Code Green ~IS~ … Well, Just What It Sounds Like

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If you’re sick and tired of the abuse the environment has been receiving lately (especially given the recent nastiness spewing forth to ruin poor Mother Earth) and if you’d like a cartoon or two to help you work out your frustrations, then this might be the project for you. Editorial cartoonist Stephanie McMillan is posting a new editorial cartoon every Monday on her site, Code Green, in an effort to help spread the word about the injustices occurring every day in various crimes against the environment.

The rub here is that she asks for donations for each cartoon used. Take a JPEG, hi-res or low, and use it wherever you see fit… so long as you pay for the work you intend to use. So far it seems like this pay-as-you-like method is working, and so long as the patron sees the value in these cartoons, she shouldn’t have to worry about being short-changed for this service. I’ll admit that personally I don’t have a need for editorial cartoons in any capacity, so this idea is clearly not for me.

But what do you think, Digital Strippers? Is there merit in this scheme, or is this yet another Internet monetary plan destined to go belly up?

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Warren Ellis ~PRESENTS~ Webcomics Week

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Warren Ellis, world-famous comic creator and writer of the popular webcomic, FreakAngels, is offering up his forums for yet another week to anyone who wants free advertising for their webcomic. Make no mistake about it; regardless of whether or not your comic is good, this will get some eyeballs on it. You can’t fault the guy for doing what he can to help now, can you?

Stop on by his forums and post a little something about your comic today!

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Badaboom Is The ~NEW~ Comic Sans

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This is more of a rant, so the bulk of the conversation will be reserved for an upcoming Digital Strips podcast (new show every Monday or your money back!) but stop… right… now. If you create a comic or are part of the lettering team on a comic, take a moment to review your fonts and typefaces. If Badaboom is among your repertoire, then congratulations, you’ve chosen a versatile font that can be used in a variety of ways and is the perfect comic-book-y font.
If only it could used for good

If, however, Badaboom is your only font, head on over to Blambot where you can pick up a multitude of free fonts for use with dialogue, sound effects, and more and stop ruining the webcomic community.

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Zuda Comics Is Dead! ~LONG LIVE~ Zuda Comics!!!

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Sure, most of the winners have found great success from the DC bump, but ask any of the other nine competitors in any given Zuda month and they’ll likely tell you the same thing: the system is flawed. Some of the winners would possibly say likewise. No voting system is perfect, of course; the United States alone is proof of that. But when something as important and possibly career-altering as a shot at a short-term comics deal hangs in the balance, the process to gain that prize should be a fair and balanced one (suck it, Fox News).

It’s not surprising, then, that the announcement came today via Zuda head honcho Ron Perazza that the oft-maligned comics contest would be ditching the democratic process for one with far less yeas and nays. Via the Zuda blog, The Collective, Perazza noted that, while Zuda has had an amazing crop of winners come through the ranks, it has let just as many potential superstars slip through the cracks. It doesn’t seem clear just what the new Zuda will entail, but rest assured Digital Strips will be there to cover this shift in the way a major player dips into the webcomics pool of talent.

Here are just a smattering of the tweets posted thus far from industry folks, almost universally praising the coming changes:

brockheasley (Brock Heasley, The Superfogeys: Looking forward to seeing what this means for the future of #Zuda . Could be very exciting!

pvponline (Scott Kurtz, PvP): Zuda is leaving the competition model behind in favor of an editorial one. SMART MOVE!

Iron_Spike (Spike, Templar, AZ): @pvponline Agreed. Ballot box stuffing assured talented unknowns would always lose to well-known, not-necessarily-better competitors.

peprally (David Maguire, Gastrophobia): Oh man, Zuda has decided to treat their artists like employees instead of contestents! http://zuda.blog.dccomics.com/

DavidGallaher (David Gallaher, High Moon): For the record, I couldn’t ask for a greater group of friends, editors, and creators than @zudacomics. It’s been the highlight of my career.

sequentialmatt (Mathew D., Sequential Life): Guess I missed out on any more chances of rejection by Zuda. I didn’t really want to draw goth elves anyway…

AdamAtherton (Adam Atherton, Lily of the Valley): #FF @Zudacomics I loved the Zuda competition and the opportunity it gave me so I’m very thankful, but look forward to the new changes!

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