Comic in Print Review: The World of Quest, volumn 1

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Did your grade school have a big toy? A big piece of play ground equipment for the kinds the climb all over to burn off extra energy and possibly hurt themselves. My school had a great big toy. It came with all the essential big toy parts, ladders, slides, monkey bars but ours also have a castle, complete with turrets and a draw bridge, a space ship with lasers, a view screen and a helpful robot and a superhero/supervillian lair full of all kinds of super equipment.

While all the “cool kids” (no one is really cool in fourth grade) were playing football and trying to kiss girls, my friends and I were having the time of our lives pretending to be all the cartoon heroes of the time: Ninja Turtles, He-man, Darkwing Duck, the Thundercats. I don’t know who kids these days are pretending to be, but they should be imaging that they are in the World of Quest.

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the unfeasible adventures of guest strips

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Beaver & Steve Guest Strip CompetitionBeaver & Steve has been around for a few years now and as sporadic as the stories have become, so has the updates. Recently artist and creator James Turner has been troubled with getting guest strips to help him out in this cause, but currently it’s been getting dire.

Instead of leaving Beaver and Steve in the abyss, he’s thrown the gauntlet down to other artists and creators out there for a fantastic competition to contribute to a storyline for the next 4-5 weeks!

The first script is available in which any artist is able to draw and contribute and send to James himself. Each strip is then judged by himself (and probably his girlfriend who tags along to many conventions with James) and chose who will complete the rest of the weeks. The competition ends on May 1st, which means less than a week you’ve got to draw and send over your entry.

You can do whatever you wish with it, be inventive but entirely be Beaver & Steve. If you think you have what it takes, not only to be helping out fellow artist James Turner but also winning yourself a fabulous prize of the two Beaver & Steve books available signed and personalised, then visit Beaver & Steve’s website for more information and happy drawing!

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British Shingdig

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British Webcomic Piss-Up 2008The whole of the UK and several other countries around the world celebrate St. George’s Day when the tale goes St. George sleighed a dragon.

For the past six years the British webcomic community come together, either in the form of Britains overseas or located within the British Isles and join in the great British Webcomic Piss-Up.

For the past few years the Piss-Up was organised and began with Eddie Bowley who gave webcomics the chance to participate by using a specific theme within their comics, such as swords, shields, dragons. This year the baton was passed to Jon Scrivens with the event focusing around castles.

Only a few participated this year, but check out the British lineup for this year and celebrate St. George’s Day in style!

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Sunday (Wednesday) Sitdown ~WITH~ Frank Frisina

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In terms of dream crushers, my next interviewee is the tops. When it came time to choose a new artist to kick start his strip, Life’s A Bluff, Frank Frisina did what every talent scout worth his salt does these days: he held tryouts. The call went out and was answered by many artists, many of whom are already well known in the webcomics and digital comics communities.

With the field narrowed down to a select few (including yours truly), the site’s new main backer, pro poker player, Phil Laak, got the final say in who would usher in the next era of LaB greatness. Sadly, he chose Ryan Estrada.

But this is no place for sour grapes or spilt milk! That place is called LiveJournal. No, this is where I will probe Frank’s mind on the success of LaB under the watchful, cartoony, bulging eye of Mr. Estrada. He’s gotten himself into a bit of hot water with the Poker Player’s Alliance (PPA) as well, so we’ll start off with whether or not he’ll still be doing LaB and go from there. Enjoy the e-mail conversational goodness, after the break!

Life's A Bluff logo

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More Web Thievery ~MEANS~ You’re Entitled To Whatever You See!

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The first time was sad, but kind of exciting. The next time, you had had enough of the bullying and it was time to fight those the gothic geek chic crowd to a standstill. This time? It’s just sad, and very tired.

Prince of Thieves image

Comic book superstar and sometimes webcomic (or is that digital comic?) creator, Stuart Immonen has come to the aid of a friend who has fallen victim to the online art plagiarism scare, or OAPS (pronounce it and it’s pretty close to being funny) that is sweeping the Intertubes. Before, it was studio art, then came the T-shirt phase, and now the problem has hunkered down in the realm of possibly-fraudulent, definitely-stolen, Hong Kong-produced books.

At his request, you can find the link to the full post on Immonen’s site here and below are some choice soundbites from the whole debacle straight from the latest victim, Darren Di Lieto, complete with editorialized notes:

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Butternutsquash 5.0

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Butternut SquashButternutsquash has finally reached the big 5 year mark and in celebration they’re thinking of releasing either a book, some limited edition art, something for the fans from their extensive artwork.

The guys from Butternutsquash have done it all, including participating in the calendar Tastefully Done in 2007.

Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun and it seems the guys are trying their best to keep on top of their updates. Butternutsquash was also responcible for allowing one of their characters, Rob, to trawl through many comics in a coma. Who knows what the next five more years will have instore?

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Digital Strips 133 – Zuda Watch 2

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With our apologies, this is a Brigid-less podcast as someone had to do the hard work from the front lines and get the dirt at New York Comicon. But while the boss is away, the dorks will play. Midnight and I had the place to ourselves. Between loud and obnoxious parties, we did manage to be a little bit responsible. We brought in the paper, fed the fish and most importantly, watched the Zuda.

This month’s Zuda crop is full of grim looks at the future and punching. We explore both of these important literary themes in depth as we review each of the ten contestants and give our thoughts.

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Boxcar Comics Launches Collective Podcast ~BUT~ Why Am I Hearing About This From Fleen?

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Seriously, Boxcar contains the highest ratio of comic I read to comics I don’t in any collective, ever! Why the hurt, you lovely piece of train, you?

Broken hearts aside, it is true that the Boxcar gang is starting up a podcast. Titled, The Boxcar Comics Hobo Jamboree, it’s sure to be full of fun, mischief, and lots of dudes talking over each other.

Full press release in the cut (not out of bitterness, but for sake of keeping our front page nice and tidy):

As part of the revitialization of Boxcar Comics and the group’s continuing effort to promote themselves publicly in a cross-functional manner, we have created a brand new podcast at TalkShoe called the Boxcar Comics Hobo Jamboree!

Boxcar logo

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Let’s Watch Other People Talk About Things ~THE~ Long-Form Digital Comics Discussion Edition

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And boy, have a LOT of people already talked about this one!

After writing the previous post about the Eisner’s and whether or not Digital Comics includes Webcomics (it doesn’t), I did some backtracking and found several recent discussions and mentions about the long-form comics on the Web and whether or not they can be successful.

Seems everyone agreed that some degree of success can be achieved online and have moved on to specific venues in which that success can be found.

First up, I’ll give the floor to the Panel and Pixel forums, where this whole things started. Forum member Steve Horton kicks things off:

Panel and Pixel logo

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These Are The Guys You Can Hate For Your Webcomic ~NOT~ Getting Any Eisner Nominations

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As Brigid reported the other day, the Eisner noms have been announced and the list of digital comics (hey, they’re webcomics to those of us in the know) is fairly sparse with regards to those we’ve come to know and love.

First, let me refresh your memories (with appropriate pauses to accentuate applause that, as with any other nomination announcement, is strangely absent):

Best Digital Comic

The Abominable Charles Christopher, by Karl Kerschl

Billy Dogma, Immortal, by Dean Haspiel

The Process, by Joe Infurnari

Act-I-Vate LogoPX!, By Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson

Sugarshock!, by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon

No Kurtz, no Onstad, no Gurewitch, this year’s Eisner list is dominated, gloves up, man-on-man, by the comic book guys who play in that sandbox of graphic novelism and typically leave alone the gag strip mentality so many webcomickers employ. Also, it should be noted that this is the awards where they actually give things out and request that you wear a suit when you pick it up.

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