Intervention: Your Online Life, In Person. A Convention with Webcomics, Videos, Music, and You – September 10-12 2010 at the Hilton Washington DC.

Intervention is a convention for the independent comics, art, and music creator. The con was started by webcomic creator Onezumi Hartstein and web developer James Harknell. This goal is to bring together different independent creators to party, educate, and appreciate the opportunities the Internet gives to all of us.

Intervention will have awesome geek-related programming and gaming all day and night from Friday through Sunday. There will be one dance party where the audience can assist the DJ in making live music and one NYC-style dance party. In addition to the Artist’s Alley/Vendor Room over 23 webcomic and New Media experts will attend. The con is still being planned. Discussion is being held on the Intervention forum.
If you need more information or you want to schedule an interview with the con chairs, please contact onezumi@onezumi.com.

For some reason I just don’t like guest artists. Maybe if I explain myself this might make a little more sense. I love webcomics, especially those driven by story arcs, because they allow characters to grow with me as I read through the archives or catch the updates. But it completely destroys my train of thought to have fan pages thrown in the mix that have no input into the comic. There are countless webcomics I have stopped reading because their guest strips ran too long and I had obvious way to skip them.

What spanned this little thought was a forum post that got alerted to me. J Gray of Mysteries of the Arcana is putting out a call for submissions to help promote other comics for two weeks. It is very nice that he’s taking the time to help others and with very little restrictions to what you can send him. I can only hope that he doesn’t through these into the main story line if I go back and try to read through the archives. I say put them on the front page but leave them in their own gallery.

How do you make a grown man squeal like a little child? You have BioWare create their own webcomic and publish through Dark Horse. I don’t know how many others of you out there are like me but anything BioWare is instantly bought by me. Ever since the original KotoR I have been an acolyte and never been disappointed. I can only hope that continues with DragonAge. That being said it also appears there is another webcomic I was unaware of it and it’s time to let my fingers do some research.

I have a vague memory of having seen something from Mr. Colbow before. It was probably for older post similar to what Google decided to alert me on but it looks like he’s created a bit of a stir on the problem with DRMs. For some reason he decided to torture himself and attempted to view DRM protected media at his library and finds out that although everything is free it takes forever to find out that you have no idea how to get it to work.

Yay! The Escapist has announced the winners to their contest. Going through 350 comics, how in the world did they manage to get that many submissions, they narrowed down the field to 18 finalist. Finally the infamous panel of judges duked it out with foam bats until they all got tired, fell to the ground, and peacefully discussed how the winner should be. After an era of minutes passed them by they concluded the winner was Out of Tens. Congrats Decoy Doctorpus!

For the entire month of March at Schlegel’s Coffee Shop in downtown Chillicothe, OH is displaying the artwork of Wes Molebash.  The entire run of Max vs. Max strips (from the beginning of the series through February) will be on display. On Saturday, March 13, the Chillicothe Art League hosts a Gallery Stroll through the downtown.  Wes will be there from 6 PM until 9-ish so those who happen to be stalking him will no where to find him.

Would it be possible to comb through the entire archives of XKCD? A couple of years ago I managed to accomplish this but that was without the past 2 years of updates on top. At this point it would take more than a week. That doesn’t stop some people from saying they have read all of them and know which are the best ones. It’s your turn to read through and find out if he got it right.

The Escapist took submissions for a huge contest. Apparently it was so big they secured help from webcomic industry veterans Ryan North, creator of Dinosaur Comics, Brian Clevinger, founder of 8-Bit Theater and Shamus Young, the man behind Stolen Pixels to be judges for the event. The contest submissions were due no later than noon EST on February 28th. Due to the great response, winners will be chosen and posted this week.

Has anyone taken this survey?

Back from blogging purgatory (working on two comics along with a real, honest-to-goodness social life is tough work!) to drop the news of a phone app based on one of our favorite webcomics! Lucas Turnbloom’s Imagine THIS is now available in handy, portable format for all of you who love reading comics on your smartphone/mobile device of choice (not this guy, no sir).

The official word from the bird himself:

Can’t get enough “Imagine THIS”? Yes, I know. It’s truly hard to live without the mediocrity.

Well, now you can take the mediocrity with you — on your phone!!

Just point your mobile device’s browser to: gocomics.com/imaginethis and, BAM!!!

Can’t pass up that fun, now can you? Let me know when I can view this on my brand spankin’ new iPad and we can talk more seriously. And yes, it is great to be such a delusional fool.

Just a quick note for you guys. Those guys over at Comic Book Resources did a really interesting interview with Joey Comeau and Emily Horne the creators of A Softer World, one of the most original Web comics out there. I’m a fan of any interview that helps me understand a creature better, but this one is even more interesting just because asking these guys to give us a look at their creative process is a much less generic question than it normally would be.

If you’ve never read A Softer World, I highly recommend giving it a try. In a world of copy-cat Web comics, this is something truly unique. I’ve often criticized photo comics because I don’t think they can capture action at all. Photos have always been meant to take a single moment in time and make it last forever. A Softer World uses this to it’s advantage, as each comic is just a small moment in time, incredibly created from a bit of clever text and an excellent but often only loosely related photo. There’s nothing like this anywhere else. You owe it to yourself to at least give a try.

Much thanks to our good buddy Funny Ninja for pointing us to the interview. We love getting notes like this, even though sometimes we drop the ball, we do like to use them on the site when we aren’t being lame.

Back to the normal Inbox size. It really was getting old finding 30+ unread Google alerts. With Brigid finding herself overloaded with other work I looked wide and far to find an additional writer to help bring the wealth of news on manga I know everyone needs. News sites are about complete coverage anyways and the more writers I can get covering absolutely everything webcomic, the better. So if you’re an inspiring writer or an established one looking for a platform to spread your wealth, give me a call and we’ll see if we can work you onto the team.

If you’re reading about webcomic news chances are better than normal you’re using a Mac, and chances are outstanding you know how to use a Mac. Does that mean there’s going to be a revolution in webcomics with the release of the iPad? The general consensus is a big flat no. Comics Alliance did a decent round-up of creators and perhaps my favorite comment came from Ryan North: “All I can say now is that any device that makes webcomics easier to read in bed and on the toilet is one that gets a thumbs up from me.” For me it’s a chance to get a full screen portable machine. The iPhone has been providing that but frankly that tiny screen drives me nuts. Perhaps with the (max)iPad someone will get serious and develop a Photoshop app.

Valentine’s Day Brad Guigar raised a toast to daily comics. His first comic strip, Greystone Inn, debuted Valentine’s Day, 2000, and updated every Monday-Saturday for 5.5 years. The day after it ended in June 2005, Evil Inc began. Both ran in daily newspapers, including the Philadelphia Daily News. Evil Inc appears in front of an estimated 1.5 million newspaper readers a week. Guigar also produces Courting Disaster, and for a year-and-a-half, produced a weekly full-page comic, Phables, that shared stories about life in Philadelphia. Phables earned Guigar a nomination for the Eisner Award in 2007 — the highest honor in comics. His obsession continued with one cartooning book, “The Everything Cartooning Book,” and co-wrote  “How to Make Webcomics”. Editor-in-chief of Webcomics.com where you can find the popular podcast, Webcomics Weekly, that he co-hosts. With over 13 print collections and his appearances at conventions across the country it’s surprisingly his wife of 12 years hasn’t divorced him.

Life is so busy for me that it is rare that news of our co-founder Zampzon jumps up and slaps me. Apparently he’s some kind of activist in his home in the lone state and has been featured on the Dallas Art News. In early December they were running a special feature called Webcomics Imitating Art where  webcomic artists use their characters and style to recreate a famous work of art. Instead of the six works they expected they managed to receive nineteen valid entries. This has led to a new guest webcomic artist program where each artist will have 4-5 strips displayed on a per week basis. There are rules of course, but only eight of them. The best one being “Webcomic artists will retain all rights to their work.” Amazing…

Wondering about how much a manga webcomic artist can earn?

AnimeNewsNetwork recently shares that Shuho Sato Earns Y500,000 in Web Manga in 2010 So Far.

If you are interested in other related news (pretty old in fact), when Shuho Sato started his web manga online, he earned 100,000 yen on the first day of his launch! That’s about USD$1,090!

That’s something to look out for, if you want to be a professional webcomic artist along your journey of life.

Anyway, Shuho Sato’s webmanga is a “seinen”; which means it is catered for the mature crowd; so be sure not to look at it if you are not of legal age!

Also, AnimeNewsNetwork also reveals that manga publishers in Japan lose several billion yen last year.

This means that traditional manga magazines are losing its appeal. Maybe its time for webcomic to rise to popularity?

This is further acknowledged by Ken Akatmatsu, author of the famed Love Hina series, that says that tankobon sales fell 4.9% last year.

‘Tankobon’ generally refers to traditional paperback comics, where comics are published on paper.

Also, the manga industry in Japan is really on the decline.

I did a little study before about Shuho Satou, in his income and earnings and how he managed his expenses by managing assistants for drawing.

With the reason launch of Apple’s iPad, I really wonder if the webcomics will pick up its pace and become a profitable medium for comics or not, after seeing how the traditional mediums are faltering.

What do you think?

Some points to note:
1. ‘Seinen’ means “young adult” in Japanese literally, and it means that the comic is generally catered for the ages between 18 to 30 years old.

2. ‘Tankobon’ means “independent book” in Japanese literally; the irony is that manga is usually in series. However, it still generally referred as paperback books.

Despite plowing through 20 alerts in my last post there are 17 more jumping out at me slapping me in the face. That doesn’t include the 10 personal emails from those of you counting on getting a mention by emailing directly. Don’t worry because I’ll get to them eventually, if only as inspiration for coming up with new scripts.

From Comics Worth Reading we find out that Phil Foglio began online serialization of his graphic adaptation of Robert Asprin’s Another Fine Myth. According to the site, the comic version is “the first professional comics work by both Phil Foglio and inker Tim Sale.”

Vote for your favorite webcomic at The Washington Post. Comic Riffs is asking you what the best webcomic in the past decade after having asked about the best comic. At the moment the voting is being dominated by Penny Arcade and PBF.

Mischief in the Forest is in the final push. They are only $928 away from the goal of $6000 for printing costs.

Haven’t read it yet but apparently we have a comic written by a 5 year old. Don’t know about you but that sounds like comic genius. Take a look at Axe Cop.

How do you get a writer or artist for your comic? You hold a contest of course.

The WebComicList had an awards show this year with nine categories: Best Black and White Art,
Best Colour Art, Best Non-traditional Art, Best Gag-a-day comic, Best New Comic, Best Longform comic, Best Character, Best Writing and of course Best Comic.

Honestly you guys have been creating so much news lately my inbox has exploded. There pieces of it lying everywhere and picking it back up is such a daunting task I’ve been putting it off for week. I guess that’s what I get for trying to enjoy my holidays and going on vacation. So despite how much I hate doing this I’m going to have present the news quickly without vetting it.

Ethan Young of Tails was interviewed by fandomania. Kelly goes through the usual questions of getting an introduction and finding out what he likes best about his comic. There’s also the usual question about switching from self-publishing to being a webcomic.

Amazing new find in Doctor Popular. He’s started a fantastic new project around creating 3D comics without using glasses. It’s a slow and cumbersome project but the results show a lot of promise. I wonder if he could make the movement much smaller and speed it up faster than 24 fps?

The Washington Post is holding a vote on the The Best Comic of the Decade. Apparently Girl Genius told their readers and they now hold nearly half the total votes.

Catch an interview with the fantastic creator of Skin Deep, Kory Bingaman. It has the usual questions about who are you and what is the process behind creating the strip.

The comic DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary comes to an end. After six years and the real world intruding Erika Moen decided to end the diary and move on to other projects. Don’t despair as she closes out with style.

Girl Genius wins the BF award for best comic of 2009.

Officially the most random place to find information about webcomics. Amy Cook has decided to post a list of the best online comics in different categories and it’s kind of all over the place.

Harvest of Time wins best gaming related comic at Joystiq.

The more and more common occurrence of a webcomic landing on the black & white has blessed Squid Row. On Jan 4th it began it’s first run.

Webcomic Overlook gives us a review of SuperFogeys. Still one of the more entertaining superhero strips I’ve ever read.

I just got done editing the show that will go up tomorrow, a review of “Boxcar Astronaut.” At the start of the show I made a comment about how it’s very rare that we – as Web comic reviewers – get to look at a completed comic as a whole instead of as a work in progress. That tends to be the nature of the beast with comics in general but especially when dealing with the Web variety that we love so much.

Generally, but not always.

Realm of Atland posted the final strip of Season One yesterday. No small feat considering this comic has updated almost every week for the past four years and change. This means that as of right now, the whole of the comic is one story arc: one long, epic, self-referential, beautiful story arc. I love it when this happens. When someone can start something so big, so long ago and see it through taking us along for the ride. It’s a beautiful thing.

This milestone has given me a chance to think about why completed stories as so special. They mean for once, we’re seeing the story as the creator sees it, fully realized. Plus, there’s the facts that we get some closure, loose ends get tied up and the whole story is laid before the reader.

Daku and Zampson reviewed this strip way back on Episode 70. I’m going to take some time this weekend to listen to what the old guys had to say then and reread the whole archive see how the strip compares now.

As I’ve started typing up show notes for each episode I’ve noticed that we mention RiceBoy a lot. Something I did not foresee when I first discovered “This poorly drawn comic that won’t get to the point.” But the whole was more that the sum of it’s parts, the comic was greater than the some of it’s pages. And as I read, Riceboy went from Internet oddity to Internet classic.

Realm of Atland is a lot the same. Each page is great. It’s amazingly drawn, well laid out and expertly written. But it’s when you take these pages, all 268 of them and put them in chronological order that you get an experience that will make you laugh often, tear up occasionally and more often then you’d like admit, get a little bit of a boner.

The great thing is, while this epic story-telling endeavor has come to a close, more is yet to come. On March 11th after a short hiatus the Realm of Atland will return with Season Two which means I should have something to read for the next four years.

As much as I’m looking forward to the new chapter, I’d be OK if it never came. Piekos has left Barry and crew at a very satisfying juncture, and if they have to live there in my mind for the rest of my life, it would be fine by me. Much better than if they were forever mid fight-scene after the comic faded.

That being said, there had better be an Season Two as planned and it better be awesome.

So if you’ve never heard of Realm of Atland, go check it out. If you have heard of it, but never got around to reading it, this intermission is a great time to go and catch up. If you’ve been to the site but wrote it off as “generic fantasy crap” or “gratuitous big-boobed trite” go check it out again. It’s so rare that someone in Web comics actually reaches their goal like this and we should celebrate it when it happens.

Especially when it happens with so much style.