Titans of Small Town

Unfortunately, I'll be out of town, but on April 11th Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics), Chris Hastings (Dr. McNinja), and Chris Onstad (Achewood) will be in Brooklyn for "a kickass one-night webcomics gallery." $20

http://roflcon.org/2009/03/25/dinosaur-comics-dr-mcninja-achewood-titans-of-small-town/

My New Favorite Toy!

Infinite Monkey Comics might just be the pinnacle of human achievement. All you do is pick a keyword or two and from the seething, primordial chaos of twitter and flickr, the randomizer makes you a comic (in the vein of ASW). Go on, try it. I expect to be old and gray by the time it ceases to astonish and delight me.

A few of mine: God, orgasm, succeed, lies, truth, fury, fuck, Shawn Main

NEWW Photos

Having failed to collect my thoughts about the thoroughly thrilling Webcomics Weekend, I'll instead link to other people's photos from it.

Specifically, check out Jayson Eliot's collection from the infinite canvas room or these images (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Highlight of the weekend. Wish I'd brought a camera to capture the whole room.



http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=neww&m=tags&z=t&page=1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62711467@N00/sets/72157615771933244/

Wednesday Comics

“The concept is that we are trying to recapture the spirit, format, and sense of enjoyment that people had form reading the Sunday comics that arrive in newspapers every week.” - Dan DiDio, newsarama

This summer, DC will put out 12 weekly enormous broadsheet comics that need to be unfolded like a newspaper to be read. 16 pages each telling the story a different character (some popular, some obscure), each written by a different writer (the names of top talent are being bandied about). It's an interesting experiment in form from a company that's been lagging behind on innovation of late.

"So, let me get this straight: Good creators, making stand-alone stories about good characters in a format that'll allow for experimentation in the form that hasn't been seen since the days of Little Nemo In Slumberland? DC may just have made a significant grab for the comic win of the year." -Graeme McMillan, io9

Muppets Comic

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=2275&disp=table

Boom! Studios releases a Muppet Show comic today, created by Roger Langridge. CBR has an 11 page preview. More information about the mini-series can be found here.

This was obviously created with a lot of love, but I always have mixed feelings about re-hashes that read more like tributes and don't bring anything new to the table. I'm worried this suffers from "in the box" thinking. If I were Boom! Studios, I would've gathered every artist with an interest in the property and had them each do a short piece to create a massive anthology style work. 4 issues of 22 Langridge pages feels like something that exists only for the fanboy and fangirl completists.

Why I like webcomics, a NEWW recap

I don't write much, it's not my greatest skill. I feel that is a necessary precursor to my attempt to convey an important idea through the written word. Maybe I'll audio record my ideas and attach that at the end.

I just got back from New England Webcomics Weekend. I really like webcomics. A lot. I read 63 different comics online. Ugly Hill ended, bringing that number temporarily down until I added FreakAngels. I will certainly be going through the promotional materials from NEWW and adding a few more to that number. While at NEWW, I had some great conversations with creators, conversations that led me to realize why webcomics are so important to me. Here's my thoughts from two, each with their own insight.

First, in talking with Brad Guigar about the spiraling death of the newspaper industry, I wondered if any other creative art has used the internet to such success as webcomics. iTunes works, yes, but creators didn't come up with that, and there is still a corporate barrier to entry for any new musician. Webcomics creators and the community have been having the conversation about how to make money off of this for over a decade now. There are so many webcomics creators, and between them, they have tried every method of money making that I've heard conceived. So, if any industry is going to give up the analog ghost and join the digital world, they would do very well to look at what various webcomics have done. The Webcomics Weekly crew have talked about this, I'm not coming up with anything new in this insight. It hit me pretty hard though, now having all these creators in the same room, that when talking about what someone has done, you could find them, ask them, and have them tell you that micropayments didn't work for them or that working with a syndicate was a dead end or whatever their experience was. NEWW was infinitely valuable for this, and I hope we do it again.

My second insight, and the one that is more about my personal values, is a specific relationship I see between webcomics and capitalism. Many many people before me have talked about the relationship between art and capitalism, and the full history of art for money. In talking with Chris Yates, I realized that I like that webcomics are free. Not just because everybody likes free stuff, but because the focus and creation of the comic is mostly separate from the question of how to make money off of it. To restate: as far as I can tell, the question of how to make money from webcomics comes AFTER and is secondary to the question of how to make a good comic, how to make good art. I like this. I wish that all art was mostly like that, that creators were able to focus on making something beautiful or funny or touching or sad or whatever first, and then figure out how to survive doing it in a capitalist economy. There are many artists of all mediums doing this, but in webcomics, it appears to me to be the norm. I think that's why I want to be part of the webcomics community, and I hope that doesn't change.

Audio recording:
http://tr.im/ccnewwmp3

Google #1

At work today, I Googled "considering comics." Nowadays, our blog is coming up as item #1 under this search. This is new. This is exciting. I'm going to go eat a crayon to celebrate.
-Ravi-

Laughing out loud - contemplative sigh edition

Sometimes the goal of a comic isn't to make you laugh, these strips today didn't, but I liked them and wanted to share:

XKCD - Alternative Energy Revolution
Subnormality - Shoveling
BoaSaS - Call it what you will

Saturday Morning Watchmen

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/485797

I realize this is parody, but it breaks my heart by becoming the thing it seeks to mock.

PDF as gateway

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2009/02/in-which-an-electronic-version-of-sunken-treasure-goes-on-sale.html

I won't belabor a retelling of the story you can simply read, but here's the short version: Wil Wheaton releases a novel through Lulu print on demand. Decides to also release a $5 pdf of book. Pdf sales quickly match physical sales. Then physical book sales increase as well.

Lock grandpa in the attic, giving it away free (or cheap) online is an entirely viable business strategy.

Comic Journaling

Every once in a while, I make a comic image to journal a special moment my life. Often, I create these memoirs during my graduate classes, and I hear my classmates snickering over my shoulder. Not surprisingly, I seem to be regarded by my colleagues. I just wish I knew in what way I was regarded.