Shadowline recently launched a webcomics page, and I visited it with great curiousity. At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson commented that there wasn’t a lot of novelty to it:

On the one hand, using creators with some experience means the publisher and readers can have faith that they know how to meet promised deadlines and their work will have a certain level of quality. On the other, this looks kind of like leftovers. But then again, why shouldn’t they reuse the material if it means reaching a new audience? Maybe because it diverts traffic and Google juice between two sites?

Well, as someone who regards leftovers as a tasty, no-prep lunch, I’m pretty much on board with this. Seriously, I sampled the comics on this page and liked most of them. I had seen Finder before—it’s hard to avoid, even for someone like me whose interests are pretty specialized—and I had heard of a few of the others, but having them gathered on a single, easily bookmarked page is mighty convenient.

At Publishers Weekly Comics Week, Todd Allen agrees that the lineup is solid but asks: Where’s the money?

There are no ads in the Flash-based Web comics player. There is no merchandise to buy. There are no links to other sites. This is odd, Continue reading →

Gary Tyrrell tackles a loaded question: How do you gauge the popularity of a webcomic?

It has been just about a year since Marvel Comics launched their digital comics site, and now they are moving in a slightly new direction with some online-only titles based on their characters. Johanna Draper Carlson has some observations and a poll at Comics Worth Reading.

How much of a High Moon fan are you? Would you dress up as a character from High Moon and take a picture of yourself in order to get some High Moon paraphernalia? That is a question that each of us must answer in our hearts, but if you think it’s going to be a yes, do it by November 1.

After a ten-year hiatus, The Mighty Tubularman is back!

The implosion of Platinum Studios has been a topic of conversation all over the blogosphere. If you’re just emerging from your cave, Continue reading →

The folks over at Frumph decided we didn’t have enough webcomics award shows/ceremonies, so they decided to create the WCRCAs (Webcomic Readers Choice Awards), not to be confused with the WCCAs (Webcomic Choice Awards).

Among the categories are simple ones like Best Art, Writing, Design, Author Congeniality (how well the creator tends to interact with the readers), Protagonist and Antagonist (separate categories), Supporting Character, and New Comic. Actually, that’s all the categories; you can bet that more will be added if the awards are popular. 

In terms of who won what, it’s a good smattering of strips you may not have heard of or strips that you’ve heard of but never checked out for whatever reason (new category: Best Strip You Meant To Check Out But Something Came Up). The categories were voted on by the fans, the weightiest aspect of the entire tabulation process, and then discussed and deliberated by a panel of qualified judges.

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Much like the once shrouded-in-mystery world of male modeling has its walk-offs, held in abandoned warehouses to determine the cream of the crop, so too, apparently, do cartoonists and illustrators have cartoon-offs.

Now, this might just be because it comes from The New Yorker, a publication famous for feeling elitist and making you feel not so elitist, but this phenomenon has gone completely unnoticed by me, a cartoonist/illustrator by trade. Regardless, it happens, it involves XKCD creator Randall Munroe and Farley Katz, writer for The New Yorker, and it’s awesome.

Surprisingly, the article itself is amusing and includes a nice Q&A with Munroe at the end. My favorite part is when Munroe is clearly the winner of the event; it’s like this was actually a pitch for him to work for The New Yorker which Katz decided to post live for everyone to see. Click through and enjoy the fun.

Scanlations helped create the manga publishing industry, but some publishers regard them as a major threat nonetheless. This week, ICv2 interviewed Tokyopop marketing director Marco Pavia and one of the questions that came up was whether scanlations are stealing sales, as some retailers claim. Pavia didn’t sound too worried:

Honestly, it’s a challenge to battle all those sites. On our site, we’ve run manga for free for a limited time and we’ve seen a spike in sales. Two Fruits Baskets ago, we released a whole volume online for free for a limited time, and we actually saw a spike in that volume’s book sales over the first week compared to the previous volume’s book sales over its first week. A few other series–Loveless–some of our original stuff–we’ve definitely seen a positive impact on sales when we’ve released something for free for a limited time as a promotional, marketing tactic.

To be honest, I wouldn’t know where to begin. We know about some of the top pirate sites, but they’re ubiquitous. It would be challenge to try to fight them. We certainly don’t have the resources to fight each and every one.

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Hmm, this is interesting: Chuck Rozakis, who has a background in economics, is writing about the theory of webcomics at ComicMix. Check out his latest column on the Superstar Theory, or why we can’t all be Scott Kurtz.

Speaking of Scott Kurtz, he and Dave Kellett will be speaking about webcomics tonight at SCAD.

Here’s a nice freebie from Dark Horse: They are posting vol. 1 of Banya The Explosive Delivery Man online, for free, a chapter at a time. It’s a Korean comic (manhwa) and, as you would expect from the title, pretty violent but also nicely drawn and worth a look.

Ambrosia Comics has gone on hiatus, and they have released creators from their contracts, which is refreshing.

Inspired by visits to two conventions in two weeks, where she met lots of artists and saw lots of comics, Johanna Draper Carlson samples some new webcomics at Comics Worth Reading.

Xaviar Xerxes talks to Gordon McAlpin about Multiplex at Comix Talk.

The Black Cherry Bombshells made it to the top of the Zuda competition a few months ago despite the protests of the Digital Strips Zudawatch gaggle. Find out what makes creators Johnny Zito and Tony Trov tick in this interview at Pink Raygun. And here’s a little Zuda-on-Zuda action: Over at ComicMix, High Moon creator David Gallaher interviews Zito and Trov as well, to kick off his new column Mixing It Up.

It’s official: Zuda Comics is the fairly wide-open door to success that so many webcomickers have been yearning for.

CBR reports that Cartoon Network, yes that Cartoon Network, is fast tracking several Zuda comics, specifically those that won in the first stretch of the contest, to be animated projects in as little as 18 months.

As a co-content provider for the Internet’s leading Zuda critique brigade (official name pending), I can speak to the quality (and not-so-quality) of the Zuda crop and this move is definitely a great thing for all those hopefuls who have already submitted their works or want to someday. Now, you’ve got a possible animated deal mixed in with an increased online presence and possible comic book deals to yearn for!.

Let’s see… the markets are failing… economy’s in a never-ending spiral… the political landscape is inspiring hope in no one…

Steve! Skype me! We gotta fast track this Zuda script of ours, pronto!

It’s starting to become one of my favorite pastimes, this idea of ordering webcomic collections with my DS money and then reviewing them. Especially since they are, by and large, collections I know I love and so can be based mostly on what the book offers that the webcomic cannot.

Of course, if you’ve got a new collection coming out that you want publicized, shoot us a copy (e-mail digital.strips@gmail.com for mailing address) and we’ll be happy to review it as well!

As a webcomic, Wondermark displays the dry, Monty Python-esque humor of creator David Malki! quite well, relying almost solely on his writing chops as the art is typically little more than clip art from the Victorian age. As a book, The Annotated Wondermark, the first collection of the Wondermark webcomic, is a much more varied example of the humor at play in the strip, as well as a better representation of how funny this guy can be even when he’s not making webcomics.

Needless to say, if your sense of humor is not of the driest, least saturated, most H20-deprived nature, most of Wondermark’s jokes will fail on every atttempt. On the other hand, if you’re the guy going around the office quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail to whoever might listen, stop doing that and pick up this book!

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