I gave up my subscription to Wired a couple of years ago, when I realized I didn’t even understand the titles of the articles. But this month, they have a treat for manga fans and a special treat for the curious-but-intimidated: How Manga Conquered the U.S., a ten-page manga, which is available for download from their website (it’s a 1.9 MB PDF). If you like your history presented by short-skirted schoolgirls, this is the comic for you! Seriously, the manga itself is very good, but Wired‘s awkward presentation really gets in the way.

The manga was written by Jason Thompson, whose knowledge of manga is literally encyclopedic: A former manga editor himself, he is the author of Manga: The Complete Guide, which covers literally every manga translated into English. Jason does a nice job of showing both the big picture and the interesting little details. His script includes cameos of well known personalities in the industry, examples of manga conventions, and even an interview with a blacked-out scanlator.

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It’s time again for the annual Bomb Shelter Comics Webcomic Idol competition! Voting opens today and there is a great crop of talent for the BSC crew to pull from, with genres ranging from anthropomorphic humor to zombie action (I think this will be a tradition for all Idol contests going forward). The list includes big names as well as unknown and should make for a spirited bout from week to week!

Your first round of voting will cut the pool in half, down from ten to five, so make your voice heard! Choose from these ten finalists and don’t forget to stop by the BSC message boards for the judge’s critiques on each contender!

• Bear and Kitten
• Dead of Summer
• Gun Baby
  
• Grumps
• Fear, My Dear
• Lucid TV
• Shi Long Pang
• Simluated Comic Product
• Templar, Arizona
• WitchHound

I’m going to begin with an apology, not for the fact that this is the first you’ve heard from me for a couple weeks, but for the story not really being about Web comics. It is however about comics and about the Web so I hope you’ll forgive me.

I found this Washington Post article about Gary Trudeau, the man behind Doonesbury, and this new book he’s helped but together. It’s called The Sandbox: Dispatches from Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and is basically what it’s title proclaims it to be. For a year now, Doonesbury’s Web site has had a section that lets soldiers currently serving in Iraq post their thoughts, experiences and stories about what they’re going through. The book collects many of these stories and puts them all in an off line presentation more comfortable for many.

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Although Too Much Coffee Man has been in my reading queue for quite some time I have never gotten around to reading it. This is likely going to change as Shannon Wheeler has gone beyond animation and puppets to bring you a full blown Opera. That’s down right artistic of him. The press release title does a nice job of summing up my reaction: “Improbable Marriage of Classical Music and Comic Book Characters Gives Birth to Caffeinated Opera”

Shannon Wheeler, at the Stumptown Comic Fest, discussed the SEQUEL Continue reading →

There is no real meaning to the name behind the greatest new kid on the block. When the big guns are asked what it takes to succeed at webcomics they usually chuckle and say start before the year 2000. That’s only funny because you can probably name on one hand every comic which has succeed that has started less then four years ago. It’s even taken for granted that every webcomic will not be known the first year and then will barely break even given another year. That was before Randall Munroe laughed in our faces and divided by zero. xkcd is a comic started in Sept of 2005 with literal notebook doodles. I defy you to find anything with less artistic skill behind it!

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It is so much fun being way behind everyone when it comes to reporting the news. Despite being covered already it never hurts to get information out to just a few more people. Todays news is all about the big guys who have only recently discovered the doughy goodness that is webcomics. You may notice a lack of one of the major players, why hasn’t Marvel joined in on the fuss?

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