We’re in the middle of the Convention season and the biggest one of them all is mere moments away. No matter how many other conventions come along to support webcomics this convention is still held as the pinnacle. San Diego is the one where all of comics show themselves despite upstarts in New York and at Wizard. It has the Eisner’s, Heroes, and Neil Gaiman. How can you resist?
| This is a good one although there was a bunch of agreement on most parts. Round table covers the whole DC webcomics thing that everyone is talking about.
In this episode we talk about:
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 Digital Strips Update July 9th 2007 [9.35 MB] |
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The great comic wheel has completed its revolution: Kodansha is publishing a Japanese version of vol. 1 of Megatokyo. I posted the press release in full at MangaBlog, and Publisher’s Weekly Comics Week has a story on it as well.
This is, of course, richly ironic, since Megatokyo is not only a thoroughly American comic, it is a comic about Japan as perceived by Americans. I can see the appeal, though. When I lived in France, I totally loved reading travel guides to the U.S. and earnest magazine articles that explained our peculiar customs. It’s always fun to see your culture refracted through the lens of someone else’s. I especially like the fact that Kodansha is adding special notes for Japanese readers, as I could have used some explanatory notes the first time I read the first volume.
DC is going into the webcomics business, and the site may provide an opportunity for creators with more talent than connections to break into the biz. The site is zuda.com, and there’s a placeholder up right now. Publisher’s Weekly has an overview, and ICv2 has more detail. Even the New York Times has picked up on the story (registration required).
The Times gets it right away, describing Zuda as “a virtual slush pile, accepting submissions from the public and paying for the best comics that come in.” Creators submit an eight-page sample, and every month, starting in October, DC Director of Creative Services Ron Perazza and Comics Online Editor Kwanza Johnson will choose 10 submissions for readers to vote on. Continue reading
 Prolific Web cartoonist and general nice guy Wes Molbash has been invited to be half of an exhibit at the Pump House Center for the Arts in Chillicothe Ohio called the Art of Cartooning. Any sort of publicity like this is awesome and I for one am proud of Molbash. The exhibit will be running from July 17th and run through August 25th and any one in the Ohio area should head out and support one of our own. You can get all the info and check out an invitation designed by Molbash over at You’ll have That.
| By this point we all understand what’s going on so let’s stick to the facts. BTW, don’t ever get sick when you’re on vacation, it really sucks all the vac out of vacation.
In this episode we talk about:
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Digital Strips Update July 1st 2007 [8.11 MB] |
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Wendy Pini’s new comic, The Masque of the Red Death, has finally gone live at the Go!Comi site. You’ll have to register to read it, but registration is free and they promise not to hand your name over to the spammers. As I registered, I kept getting a message that Safari is not fully supported, but it worked fine nonetheless.
I interviewed Pini for Digital Strips and Publisher’s Weekly Comics Week about the comic, which is a tale of love and betrayal set in a utopian future. It was inspired by the Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name but mixes up the elements of the story in a whole different way.
What I want to talk about here is the presentation. Continue reading
As promised, here is the second half of my interview with Dresden Codak creator, Aaron Diaz!
1) Which of the archived strips are your favorites and why?
I don’t know if I have a single favorite. There are a handful that I enjoy for different reasons. Girl vs. Bear, I think is my most balanced strip as far as using humor, adventure and science references. It has a good rhythm, and I really enjoyed drawing those Civilization Ghosts. Another favorite is Zhuangzi, which I think is understandably one of the least beloved among fans. In hindsight it was way too esoteric for its own good, and without an extensive knowledge of ancient Chinese literature I don’t think it makes a bit of sense. However, I will say that one guy once wrote a magnificent essay on the Zhuangzi comic and how he interpreted it. I think that’s the only essay on my comics that I’ve ever seen. It was pretty neat.
Digital Strips : Show 121 [15.7 MB] |
The whole crew is back together! Three long months and we have our reunion tour. For our first song we bring to you the little acclaimed by fantastic strip of imagination and water colors. A strip so good Bill Watterson came on the show to congratulate Ryan.
In this episode we talk about:
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Remember the days, oh say six months ago, when contests were a dime a dozen? Where did that expression come from anyways. When our past contest flopped like a hooked fish it raised concerns that no cares about contests anymore, or perhaps there are too many. Since then the only one I’ve heard about is Platinum Studio’s Comic Book Challenge. Does this mean you have to be a big guy and give away something more then just a couple hundred dollars to get the attention of the web comic community?