The majority of web comics I come across follow layout patterns reflective of their print predecessors. There’s usually the comic strip with a horizontal series of panels or the typical printed comic book page layout. I’m fine with these conventions, they offer a sense of familiarity and comfort that allows comic art to translate to the new web based medium.
However, these design elements are holdovers from the restrictions of the printed page. Continue reading
Those who are annoyed by the typical motivational posters probably get a kick out of spoofs. Bad Day Studio has posted some with villains giving the motivation. My favorites are still over at Overcaffeinated and if you know anymore send them in.
Comics related podcasts are still pretty rare, but there are a few others out there doing interesting things.
Check out Comicology.net (www.comicology.net) for a cool podcast by Neil Gorman. Neil is a tried and true fan of comic books and each week talks about his most recent trip to his local comic book shop and has some really interesting picks to discuss. He’s also said some very nice things about us, so check him out for more print comics related talk.
I was checking out the comics syndicate site uComics (www.ucomics.com), the online home to such well known print strips as Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, Ziggy, and many others. While poking around I came across something that sounded like a great opportunity for aspiring cartoonists. They have a feature called Comics Sherpa whereby aspiring cartoonists and comics artists can submit their own work to be displayed on the uComics.com site alongside their already well established strips.
In my endless search to actually know what I’m talking about I came across this article. It was posted on June 03, 2004 but history never goes out of date. Mainly talks about the emergence of sprite comics from Bob and George by David Anez to today’s sprite goliath 8-bit Theater by Brian Clevinger.
One of the biggest anime cons on the east coast is Katsucon hosted in Arlington, VA. This year the con is hosting an expanded webcomic track from many different great manga-like webcomics. These include some of our favorites such as Applegeeks and MacHall along with others like the infamous Order of the Stick, Paradox Lost, Seraphic Blue, and the outstanding VG Cats. Those living near Arlington or with some extra miles should enjoy this con.
The NPR show On the Media recently ran a piece on the depressing state of comics in the newspapers and ever growing influence of the web. From the site you can listen to the audio of the show. If you download the MP3 version the comics part starts at around 32 minutes.
There’s an interesting article being run over on Comixpedia. It’s a walkthrough / discussion of creating experimental comics for the web created in comics form. It’s reminiscent of Scott McCloud’s own explanations of comics. The article is a good read and worth checking out.
One of the biggest advantages we like to say is related to webcomics over the printed strip is the lack of censorship. Both the newspaper strip and the comic book have huge censorship going back years and continue to this day. Probably the biggest two stories (US Customs and Gorden Lee) today are surprisingly related to the CBLDF. Another good one is the changes Scott Kurtz has to make to his strip for it to be printed. With internet becoming more and more popular how far will focus groups go to censor art on the web such as our beloved webcomics? For those who don’t think this will happen soon I’ve already been blocked from reaching one at work called Loserz (for adult content).
This comicon is quickly becoming one of the more popular cons as there are many artists living in the Pacific northwest. It has been held in Seattle, WA in early Feb for the past two years and has moved to the Seahawks Stadium / Qwest Field Events Center. This year there will probably be more then 3000 attendees. Many guests and exhibitors this year include Scott Kurtz, Penny Arcade, PV Comics, and Broken Saints.