And the hits just keep on comin’!

Wowio is now part of Platinum Studios and wouldn’t you know it? Former Platinum advocate and all-round chatty fella, DJ Coffman, has decided to pick apart the new agreement for Wowio distributors for everyone to enjoy.

Until you’re up and making webcomics yourself (which, judging by the crop we currently have to choose from, would be about 98% of our viewing audience) this probably won’t shake up your day too much, but it is interesting nonetheless. Coffman takes a look at such important aspects as royalties:

In light of Platinum Studios telling me that Hero By Night only generated 800 bucks in ad revenue for a webcomic that has been online since October 2006 and consistantly had the HIGHEST pageviews on all of Drunk Duck… I don’t have faith that they can either A. figure out real well paying advertisers, or B. tell the truth about how much they actually made off of web advertising revenue.

As well as the unnecessary “you can charge people for it if you want to” clause in the contract.  It’s perfectly acceptable to ask for compensation for your work, heck, it’s even encouraged once you reach a certain level of performance, but to allow PlatiNowio to take 50% of the profits is ridiculous when there are plenty of other, do-it-yourself methods out there that allow the creator to retain 100% of everything.  To help you out, there are even books that have been published to assist you in this venture.

Given the recent history between Coffman and Platinum, his take on this new joint project is a welcome one indeed.  I know I would be wary about entering into any contract with Platinum about anything, but the again, I’d leap at the chance to sign a contract for anything right now.

Webcomics have been part of the Seven Seas mix since the beginning. The L.A.-based publisher launched in 2005 with a line of nicely produced global manga that seemed specifically designed to appeal to pre-teens: Amazing Agent Luna, Last Hope, Blade for Barter, and from the beginning, they put the first 75-100 pages of each online for free. Currently their front page features four manga series that update several times a week, including Aoi House, which
runs on the Megatokyo model only with regular updates: The entire archive, now up to four volumes, is online for free or available on dead-tree media in your local bookstore.

Now they are doing something a little different: Their new series The Ninja Diaries will be serialized in the weekly Los Angeles lifestyle paper Metromix, both in the print edition and on the website. This obviously brings their work in front of a larger audience than the readership of the Seven Seas website, but will it be a happy marriage?

The manga itself looks pretty good so far. In the first four pages, DeFilippis and Weir introduce their characters and even give them a bit of personality, work in a timely joke, and set up the main story arc. If you’re one of those people who hates global manga on principle, this might be the comic that makes you abandon those principles, because Elmer Damaso’s art is clear and deft; the manga influence is there, but it isn’t obnoxious. My one quarrel with it is that the female character has manga eyes and smoothed-out features, while the guys just look like normal guys; it’s as if the girl was pasted in from some other strip. Japanese manga artists do this a lot—I had the same complaint about Battle Royale—but as this will be many people’s first manga, I wish it were more consistent.

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The Zune is Microsoft’s MP3 player, which apparently doesn’t just play music, it plunges you into an entire world of digital media.

Zune Arts is Microsoft’s bid to cool-wash the Zune by supporting emerging artists and tying them to the brand. And what’s cooler than webcomics? So the Zune folks turned to Steve Niles, the author of 30 Days of Night, who in turn teamed up with artists Dr. Revolt, Gary Panter, Kime Buzzelli and Morning Breath to produce an online graphic novel, The Lost Ones. Go, read, although you may have to be patient with the Flash animation on the site. We’ll be reviewing it shortly.

Or, you could skip the Flash and win a limited-edition print copy of The Lost Ones, complete with a poster. You could also contribute to a more interesting Digital Strips in future. Here’s how: Comment to this post with a suggestion for a webcomic we should be reading and reviewing. We can’t promise we’ll review every one, but we will at least check it out. We do promise that we will select two winners at random from among the commenters. Send in your suggestions before August 5 to qualify. In the meantime, click “Read more” for the 411 on The Lost Ones.

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Over on Blog@Newsarama, Paul Levitz, the President of DC Comics, has presented the community with the company’s current thoughts on the digital medium and where they might take it. Judging by the reader feedback thus far, it seems they still have a long way to go before they “get it”.

This most recent attempt is an animated(ish) version of the popular series-turned-graphic novel-soon-to-be-turned-into a movie, Watchmen. Though I am certainly an avid fan of both Marvel and DC and have been for years now, I can cop to having never read this beloved classic. Just for kicks, I also love movies and have yet to see Gone With The Wind or any of The Godfather trilogy.

So until I see the Watchmen Motion Comic (I guess they want to make it obvious what it is…?) for myself, I can only rely on the words of those who, at least purportedly, have seen it and can make judgments on the quality and promise of such a service. You can read my favorite comments after the break…

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Earlier this year, BOOM Studios caused quite a bit of controversy but also sold a lot of comics by distributing the first issue of North Wind for free online. Retailers howled at first, but quited down a bit when the issue posted record sales. Now they’re extending that strategy by adding webcomics to their site. They started off with several pages each of six different series and will update each with five pages a week. It looks like all the launch titles are from their backlist, and the intent is clearly to drive sales of print comics.

Last Sunday’s Fox Trot featured four webcomics. I wonder how many regular readers of the Sunday funnies would recognize any of these? Even Jason and Steve and I were puzzled by the fourth one, although we figured it out eventually. Are webcomics more mainstream than we think?

Also, the power of xkcd was demonstrated once more Continue reading →

Ace reporter Heidi MacDonald tracks down an SEC filing that indicates that Platinum has indeed bought Wowio. Scott Christian Sava talked to William Lidwell, the president of Wowio, and came out reassured. It sounds like the model will change a bit: Books will be offered for free viewing or for pay, and readers outside the U.S. can now access the comics.

The sales agreement indicates that all current Wowio contracts will be terminated, although an e-mail sent out by Lidwell seems to indicate that they are just being amended. (Be sure to read the comments to both of Heidi’s posts for enlightening snark and analysis.)

Creators who worked with Wowio up to now have generally had good things to say about the service, which allowed readers to download comics for free but paid creators 50 cents per unique download. Sponsorships were the key to Wowio’s finances.

Platinum has been attracting some negative attention of late, however, and an article in this week’s Publishers Weekly Comics Week paints a grim picture of the company’s finances. Continue reading →

Kawaii is the Japanese flavor of cute, made famous by Hello Kitty and her softly rounded, mostly nonthreatening colleagues (my favorites are the San-X characters, all of which are slightly twisted in interesting ways).

In Japan, these cartoon characters can decorate everything from cell phone charms to checkbooks and cars. In Meghan Murphy’s world, they talk back.

Murphy’s Kawaii Not takes kawaii and gives it some bite. Murphy appropriates not only the Japanese concept of cute but also the 4-koma format, a four-panel gag strip that runs vertically rather than horizontally. But there’s something very American about her straight-talking hearts, ice-cream cones, and even toilets; each strip starts out cute and ends with a twist.

Murphy is a professional illustrator by day; her work can be seen at her professional site, Murphypop. We decided to talk to her about what makes Kawaii Not tick.

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Serving as a follow-up to my previous post about Wizard and their valiant attempt to cover webcomics, Rick Marshall has posted his own thoughts on the subject over on his personal blog.

Marshall, you will recall, teamed with Brian Warmoth to bring the Cursory Conversations to the Wizard website every couple of weeks.  When the archives of these interviews were erased and forgotten, so were Warmoth and Marshall.  Then, months later, Wizard decides to do the same thing again, with the same creators, and hopes no one will say boo about it.

Well, boo.  Marshall gives some detailed accounts from not only his side of the story but from other vantage points of people who have worked at Wizard.  The very provocative and scathing post includes this quote which still shocks me on its fifth reading, coming from someone on staff at Wizard:

“Why would we want to cover any comics people just give away on the web? They’re not REAL comics.”

If that was the only criteria for real comics, the long-suffered debate over what webcomics are could have been solved years ago!  Still, if people with that much influence on the industry are that clueless about the exciting possibilities being explored on the Web, it explains why there are some who still have yet to wrap their heads around the concept.

Humor comes in all different flavors and colors on the Web, and webcomics is certainly no differrent in this regard.  You’ve got your Penny Arcade-ish, in-your-face action shots that inspire laugh-out-loud moments (known to some as LOLs) and there’s also the XKCD, dry comedy route that brings about more of a hearty chortle or two with nearly every update.

Now the sharp comedic writing of Gabe Strine can reenter those ranks as Brinkerhoff is back, with updates on every Monday and Wednesday.  A horribly overlooked gem of a webcomic, Brink has been the source of some of this blogger’s favorite webcomics moments, full of characters who expound rather extensively on all subjects without prejudice or fear of reprisal.

But I’ll let Gabe himself tell you all about it, after the break!  Welcome back, Gabe!

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Many remember the bi-weekly column over on the Wizard Universe site titled Cursory Conversations.  It was a great little pick-me-up for various webcomics creators and a good intro to the medium for newbies written by Brian Warmoth and Rick Marshall.

If you recall that, then you probably also remember that this welcome addition to the increasingly Maxim-ified Wizard world was cut before it could even build up a head of steam.  Then, that steam was forcibly evaporated, never to be found again.  Where did Warmoth and Marshall and their webcomics exploits disappear to?  The Internets would never know.

But lo!  The Wizard has again graced us, the webcomics people, with his presence, and brought us words from our gods from on high!  Listen as he tells us in his new column, Webcomic of the Week, of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja and Girl Genius! Marvel as you wonder whether or not these are the same strips they featured when Cursory Conversations began all those months ago!  Scream when you realize that it is indeed the same very strips!  And be thankful, ye who believe, that we have the Wizard to tell us of the webcomickers and their brave tales!

Sheesh.