San Diego Rest Of Weekend

Luggage arrived! And with it, my special folder, full of sample pages. I used it to pitch Penny and Aggie, Burgerzone, The Verge, The Alchemists and Rip and Teri to various publishers Thursday-Friday.

(This blog hasn't shared The Alchemists with you yet. That will change.)

I missed most of my panel wishlist.

Panel highlights: Got to see GoComics lay out a strategy; these guys essentially own American mobile comics right now. Scott McCloud's family, normally a well-oiled machine, gave a thoroughly chaotic travelogue of their yearlong 50-state tour, but we all loved them anyway. Warren Ellis downed four Red Bulls and a small bottle of some alcoholic energy drink called Sparx during his two-hour talk, then lit a cigarette in open defiance of con rules. Best panel I attended: easily Scott Kurtz and Robert Khoo's "Create A Comic And A Marketing Plan" exercise.

Had dinners with Tokyopop, ComicMix, the McClouds and company. Missed: dinner with David Willis and friends, Stu Levy's birthday party.

Saw: too many good people to list here, and I will only forget someone and feel horrible. I have a lot of post-con catching up to do.

Probably should have stopped by the Dumbrella table or panel. I've had a difficult time with one of the Dumbrellans lately, but Comic-Con is an occasion to forget, or at least smooth over, such differences. As it was, I felt awkward and unsure of my welcome there. No offense intended, fellas.

Weirdest thing that happened all weekend: I ran into Frederik Hautain (my superior at Broken Frontier) by happenstance... twice. Neither of us had seen a picture of the other, and the first time we shared an elevator, neither knowing who the other was.

That's my con experience. Gary Tyrrell outdid himself with Comic-Con coverage this year, so if you want more info, you know where to go.

San Diego Wednesday

Blackberry charger failed to interface with any available outlets. Phone broke. Luggage failed to arrive with me. I staggered into bed and managed to comfort myself with ninety minutes of Cartoon Network before passing out.

Not For The Squeamish or Tasteful

Randy's latest horrifying guest strip.

He showed this to me and added, "May the God you pray to protect you if you ever let me do a Penny and Aggie strip with no script provided."

My Uncle Arthur's Scrabble Solitaire

"This verbiage's a zealous attempt in reeling play, but I would be considered a quirky fox for having one weak card to join me."

A self-reflexive metacommentary using every tile on the Scrabble board. Arthur gets bored when he has no Scrabble sparring partner.

R Stevens May Get This Letter Someday

Mr. T. Campbell,

Your new Manga work "Divalicious!" is being added to the growing collection of works of this genre at the Library of Congress. Your work presents a special problem since your name is very common and conflicts with other authors of the same name. In cases such as yours, where the author has used only an initial with a very common surname, we try to find out what the initial is for, or some other distinguishing information, such as a birth year. We use that information to qualify the name to separate it from others using the same name.

We currently have 20 other authors that use the name "T. Campbell". writing on such different topics as native Americans, Northern Irish politics, rotational bridge bearing, drugs for arrhythmia, the Bible, and birds of South Africa. We can't be sure that you aren't one of these other writers since single writers sometimes write on different topics.

It would help us tremendously, if you are willing to divulge the information, if you could provide us with a fuller name, if only the name for which the initial "T" stands. Since there are many many Terrys, Thomases, Timothys, Toms, and Tracys in our catalog, your birth year could also be invaluable. We would use this information as a qualifier to your name, keeping as the main heading for you as a writer, the form you have given on the title page. If your surname had been as distinctive as Amy Mebberson's, we wouldn't need this additional information. There is only one other Mebberson in our entire catalog of over 30 million entries. (Scott Mebberson)

I hope you are able to help. Lacking additional information, we will have to set you up in our catalog as an undifferentiated name, which will lump you with all the other "T. Campbells" whom we have been unable to differentiate. We are loathe to do this, since it invariably lumps together writers of considerably different genres and interests.

Sincerely


[name and address]

COMIC-CON 2007 IS OVER

SO TIRED

Awards Awareness.

I promised myself I wasn't gonna say anything else about the Eisners' "Best Digital Comic" category. I'm starting to campaign for the awards myself, which makes criticizing their decision-making process poor politics on my part.

But Sam and Max? Frikkin' Sam and Max? Best digital comic of 2006?

Sam and Max is a property that's been around for twenty years, and it represents a lot of work. But the digital version only updated with eight installments in 2006, and they were-- stop me if this sounds familiar-- neither the beginning nor the ending of their sequence.

That sequence currently amounts to twelve pages, and the only thing remotely remarkable about it is the use of mouseover word balloons, which might make it more DIGITAL!!!!!, but not necessarily better. (The interface annoys me, frankly.) They're twelve modestly charming pages, but a magnum opus they are not.

Comics are supposed to be fun, but comics are also supposed to be work. Hard work. I understand that most of Steve Purcell's time is being eaten up by other things, but if he's only produced a scant handful of pages, and at a slower rate than one per month, then he doesn't deserve to be elevated above his colleagues.

Who are those colleagues? The other digital nominees are either weekly features (Minus, Phables) or long-form works completed or in progress (Bee: "Motel Art Improvement Service," Girl Genius, Shooting War). I would have been happy to see any of them take the Eisner.

I'm not calling for a replacement of the Eisner committee. I spoke to Jackie Estrada this morning and she's quite forthright about changes she'd like to see. But I'm still left with the impression that Sam and Max won because it was familiar to the judges (the twenty-year factor) and because it was easy for judges to digest (the twelve-page factor).

Not. Good. Enough.

I'll be doing what I can to make things better for myself and for my favorite strips. Jackie suggested some "for your consideration" packages that summarize extensive online works for the judges' eyes, sent to her at jackiee@mindspring.com. Maybe you might like to send her some too. Let's make next year better than this one.

Redacted

(Post temporarily redacted as a professional courtesy.)

Temporarily Out Of Service Due To Mechanical Failure.

Comic-Con has been a lot of fun so far, but it started out with some bad news. My Blackberry's charger had some unanticipated requirements, and then my cell phone broke, not long after I took this picture with it.

This has blown my blogging plans for the next two weeks completely out of the water. Sorry, folks. I'll catch y'all up August 6.

Girl Attempting To Avoid Harry Potter Spoilers

Seriously. A teasing friend was dropping loud hints.

My God daughter's First Independence Day

"How Not To Die At Your Convention Booth"

One quickie just in time for San Diego.

I Think I'm Slowly Coming To Hate "User-Edited Content."

Another day, another user-generated comics project. It's an exciting time to be making comics, with companies like DC and Virgin and Planetwide Media falling all over themselves to give me a new set o' tools.

At the same time, some of these companies are pretty obvious about their contempt for writers and artists. Especially writers. Oh, it's one thing for a company to admit that it wants my comics to be part of their intellectual property farm-- DC, Tokyopop and Platinum all more or less admit this freely. I'll play that game if the bennies are good enough.

It's quite another thing to make professional creators into the puppets of the general audience. I've already laid into Myspace/Virgin's Coalition Comix. Now the makers of ReBoot are commissioning five pitches for ReBoot stories and using reader feedback not only to determine which of the five will get made into an online comic and film(!), but how that fifth pitch will develop.

Most writers know that audience feedback can improve the work. But you've got to know when to ignore the audience's short-term wants and listen to the little voice inside you that made you a writer in the first place. Projects like these silence that voice. And that's a disservice, not only to the writer, but to the supposedly empowered readers.

One More Otakon Report

Jamie Noguchi has a lot of war stories from Sunday. It's kind of a funny coincidence that he's giving con sex advice at more or less the same time as Rich Johnston is.

Done!

Widened everything else a bit, too. If you hate it for the next couple of weeks I'll see about changing it in early August.

Adding A Banner

Back at the keyboard for a little while. Time enough to pimp this blog out a little.

Signing Comics With Sugar-Frosted Fingers? Totally Worth It.

Cake from the festive booth at the New York Comic Con.

SOMEBODY REGISTER THIS URL

Cute Animal Photo On Internet #3,158,408,374

Hi, Winston.

Papa's Favorite Xmas Card

Jenga

Saving some phone cam pix for later use.

Helping Paint Dave's Home Office

Otakon Report

1) I don't mean to pick on the Otakon staffers, because they're courteous and they try hard. But it really is the most ADD convention crew I've ever seen. I went straight to the registration desk and told them I was here for the noon panel. They didn't find me in their database, so they sent me to Information. Information sent me to Panel Ops. Panel Ops found me in its records and escorted me to Con Ops. Con Ops gave me a form which I filled out and then took back to Registration. This all took about twenty-five minutes, and I left out the best part: I was asked for my badge before any of this began. Before I got to the registration desk the first time. Yes, they were inspecting us for badges before we could get to the table that gave out badges.

And then there was the fact that the dealer's room was only open for two hours on Sunday, and the line was so long that they started turning people away well before it opened.

2) Didn't get to say hey to Fred Gallagher, Michael Poe or the Applegeeks boys, but they were so swarmed with fans we probably wouldn't have had a meaningful talk anyway. So I'll say here what I would have said there. Fred, congrats on your baby! Michael, hope things are picking up since I last spoke with Elizabeth. And Hawk, sorry if the History writeup embarrassed you-- I know you'd rather not be treated like a token. It's just a topic that interested me, and I was short on examples.

3) Did see: Dirk Tiede, Brion Foulke, Jennie Breeden, K. Brooke Spangler, Bill Holbrook, Matt Koelbl and the Little Gamers guys. Pontus and Christian, I've already marked your book.

4) Best question from the "Webcomics Howto" panel: Should you plan for a comics series to last, effectively, forever? Short version of my answer: that depends on the kind of creative person you are.

Blowing Bubbles: Jeff Webber

Jeff Webber, VP of product development for uclick, talks about the current state of mobile comics in America and his company's present and future.

More Harry Potter Lies

You Couldn't Pay Me To Deal With Certain Megatokyo "Fans"

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Otakostume

Noted For Future Reference:

Firefox tabs to try later. Also, this. I need to take a day just to read Lifehacker.

And one for Xaviar: "Does Monetizing Your [Comic] Cost You Readers?"

Heading Into Otakon...

And I note that the website still doesn't say anything about when the Webcomics Howto panel is supposed to be. I'd love to say that was unexpected, but Otakon has never been the most organized of conventions. Last I heard, we'd been changed from 10AM to noon, but I'll be getting there early just in case (and to check out the artists). Hope to see one or two of you there.

Attention E-Mail-Less Donors! (Penny and Aggie)

Eric S. Goldberg, Alison Buck and Erin Lindsey: please send me your correct e-mail addresses so that I may send you your just rewards.

Mad Men

The new show about advertising in 1960, Mad Men, includes a character named "Campbell." He's a bit of a sleaze, although, to be fair, most of the others are too.

My dad was an advertising executive.

He will never hear the end of this.

OMG HARRY POTTER SPOILERZ

By Greg Eatroff:

"Snape says something really REALLY sarcastic."

"Big musical number. FINALLY.

"Hagrid is discovered harboring dangerous illegal creatures in the woods by the school.

"Back at Hogwarts, Ron is appointed 'Head Boy' and that night in their dormitory shows Harry that he takes the title very VERY seriously. We later learn that Ron has been placed under the 'slashficcius' curse."

Click for more.

You're A Myspace Virgin? Oh, Myspace/Virgin!

MySpace and Virgin have teamed up to destroy the profession of comics scriptwriting.

Okay, not quite. Coalition Comix promises to let the readers vote on every plot twist, creating a story plotted by its readers... and hopefully redeemed by the writers' concepts, characters and dialogue, because MySpacers and comic book fans are not exactly known for their literary skills.



Putting in Mike Carey as writer... er, "story master"... is a good start. But I'm skeptical. Interactivity seems to work best when the interaction is limited to the truly arbitrary decisions (should we kick out Sanjaya this week?) instead of every plot twist, or when the stories are simple (Choose Your Own Adventure, Interplanetary Spy). Virgin doesn't do "simple," and neither does Carey. These stories seem like they can't help but be watered down: the setup forces the writer to give the audience what it wants right that second, not what is best for it. Remember how awkward and forced the writing was in the reader-determined battles in DC vs. Marvel? Even moreso than in the average superhero crossover, I mean?

But let's check back in a couple months and see how they've done once the hype cycle is over. That's a good rule for Zuda, too. Good rule for life.

"Bedside Manners"

Begins today.

Man, look at Gis go.

Why I Don't Draw My Own Things: Sketchbook Entries

Even more San Diego memories: I actually did a couple of sketches back then for Kevin Brown, who has my thanks for preserving them.

Why don't I draw more often?



Brown also asked a number of artists to draw Meaghan Quinn, who'd recently married Frank Cormier, in a sexy pose. I was all too happy to dive in over my head:



For the full list of Sexy Megses, go here and scroll down.

I don't have any copy of the cartoon I drew for a unicorn-themed book in San Diego '05... was that for Aeire?... Hope I catch up with it someday. At any rate, you can probably imagine the images from the caption:

UNICORNS EAT GRASS
UNICRONS EAT ROBOT WORLDS
DELI MIXUP: FATAL.

I do know where my 2006 Comic-Con sketch is, but I don't like it, so no link for it!

Here's hopin' I have a sketch or two to show you after SDCC '07. Anything to make my artists look better by comparison.

Tommespin Lives Again!

Many thanks to Sir Alan Dicey for his continued efforts as Fans' official archivist.

Me at San Diego Comic-Con 2003...



And me with Tom the Fanboy, dressed as his namesake Tim the Fanboy/Timmespin.



A good time was had by both.

Alan Moore Trivia Question

Anybody remember this exact quote from Alan Moore? In the book Comic Book Rebels, he talks about the collaborative process and calls it "cultural sex."

Paraphrased: "It's like some kind of cultural sex for me, this cross-fertilizing of different imaginations."

I'll probably have to track down a copy of the book and nail this down. It's a metaphor that's always stuck with me.

(watches all my artists back away slowly)

Best Lines of the Day

Finished: Marathon six-hour-plus "Sketch" session, completed via phone, Skype and Google Documents, despite two interrupting phone calls and a thunderstorm which briefly knocked out power, then knocked out my Internet for twenty minutes. WE HAVE SURVIVED AND CONQUERED.

My best line of the day: "Maybe that's what I want. You want to watch? Or you want to do the taking down?"
My collaborator's best line of the day: "Y... you-y-you-YOU NEED TO FIND JESUS, SIR!"

My Blog Can Be Everybody's Blog!

Thanks to RSS2HTML, I can syndicate my blog posts on other PHP-enabled websites. And soon will. I love this tool!

My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Saw it a few days ago out of passing interest. It's the sort of half-"mainstream"-superhero, half-true-American-mainstream confection that I used to see at the Small Press Expo all the time. I went in with low expectations, but not low enough.

The central concept is right there in the title, and it's not a bad one. The two male leads are quickly established as the kind of guys whose tastes work against them... they're looking for "hellcats in bed," and then don't understand why the few women they attract turn out to be hellcats everywhere else. (It's not that all women are crazy, guys, it's you.) Plus, there's Barry/Professor Bedlam, the Super Ex-Girlfriend's very own psycho ex-boyfriend (and a wry twist on Lex Luthor). The movie understands dysfunctional relationships really well. But it doesn't seem to understand functional ones, and that makes one of the subplots excruciating and the third act a wreck.

Jenny Johnson/G-Girl is so thoroughly OTT that Matt Saunders can't help but be sympathetic. But Hannah, who is supposed to be Matt's true soulmate, is first a doormat, and then becomes another version of Jenny, less jealous but almost as power-drunk, with nowhere to go but crazier.

Meanwhile, having established Jenny and Barry as in need of serious therapy, the movie then turns around, shrugs, and announces that all they really need to calm them down is to reunite like childhood sweethearts should. Lynn Johnston, is that your name in the credits?

We close with Matt and Barry walking off to enjoy a beer while their super-powered girlfriends go to work. I half expected to see a title after the cut to black, announcing that both men had died of crushed pelvises two weeks later.

More P&A Fanart

posseforlife's Penny


Magick Lorelai's Penny


Olivera T.'s Lisa

Testing...

New blog header. May look odd for a bit. Stand by.

Received Via Snail Mail

Dear G & T:

I seem to have stumbled into something of an unexpected government windfall... on MY birthday, no less. The coincidence is too blatant to ignore. (Fate Boot-To-The-Head!)

So if I ride... EVERYBODY rides.

Good luck, Gisele. You totally deserve to get your creativity and talent running under your own steam. Really really.

Penny's strength and Aggie's heart!

Enclosed: a check for $650. Our largest single donation to date. I'm not going to name this donor here because I don't want complete strangers to hit this guy up for a loan, but you have our everlasting gratitude, JGT.

P.S.: If it's not TOO much trouble, my sister's birthday is July 28... >wink wink<

We're all over it, man! Birthday cards for all donors as soon as we can churn 'em out!

The Pleasures Of Google Docs

Using Google Documents to collaborate more openly on projects like "Sketch" and the Cool Cat Studio finale. I miss page breaks and word count from MS Word, but I love what it does for the writing process to get back-and-forth from people I trust. I'll be using this one more in the future.

Cool Cat Studio Finale In Progress

Completed Act One of the script for the final Cool Cat Studio story. My favorite single word in it: "Bleah-eige."

Webcomics Review: Magellan

Conflict of interest alert: With no prompting but some editing from me, Matt Koelbl reviews Magellan for Broken Frontier.

Nice To Be Reminded...

...that Divalicious' critical reception has been largely positive.

P&A Sprites!

Created by Amber, who's also given the world a P&A fanlisting. Whee!

Aggie
Brandi
Cyndi
Duane
Jack
Karen
Katy-Ann
Lisa
Marshall
Meg
Michelle
Penny
Rich
Samantha
Sara
Stan

Aggie and Stan are my favorites.

"Undressing Her"

"Undressing Her" is my favorite Cool Cat Studio story to date. Who is the mysterious Liz, and what does your answer to that question tell us about you?

Webcomics In The News 7/17

Profile of one of the entrants in this year's Comic Book Challenge.

Marketing course targets Web producers, including webcartoonists.

How they see us: The webcomics-as-intellectual-property-farm theory is covered in the LA Times.

Yesterday...

Cookout with friends.

Today: mostly ghostwriting. Four weeks' worth in the can.

Also On Friday The 13th...

I learned that Margie, the woman who helped my parents raise me, is finally responding well to her eye surgery. Margie's left eye can see me again.

Publishing has its ups and downs. There are more important things.

What Made My Friday The 13th Complete

The news I got on Friday the 13th was this:

Barring a last-minute rally like the one that saved Jericho, Divalicious Volume 2 will be the last volume.

Amy Mebberson and I were in bad moods after hearing that.

But there are compensations. We will get the chance to revise, retool and expand Volume 2, adding forty-two pages, so that it represents a proper conclusion. And I've found a wonderful collaborator in Amy, one with whom I think I'll be working again.

I've been here before. We'll survive.

Fans Annotated Flash Forward

I don't have any idea why the Fans Annotated page has jumped forward to the last page I uploaded eight days before you were supposed to see it. I'm having Mosso look into it now (note to self: ticket number #44113). In the meantime, enjoy some ahead-of-schedule annotations, on me.

Slowwwww w w w w w w

On an older computer today, one which does everything with great reluctance. Perhaps it will train me to ration my words more carefully.

Spotted on 49th.

Reported as probable vandalism. Proceeded to gym.

Weekend Question

From about July 21 to August 5, I'll be on the road. My current (borrowed) laptop doesn't travel well (yes, ironic, yes, yes). So I'll be working via Blackberry and cameraphone. (No iPhone, not yet. Might purchase in early 2008, depending.)

I'll be traveling to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, San Diego, Wilmington, Figure Eight Island and the Research Triangle. Attending Otakon (briefly), Comic-Con International and Trinoc*con. Beachcombing with extended family for 4-5 days. Jotting down ideas for comics in 2008. Accessing the Web very little except to do e-mail and post.

During that time, would you rather see this blog become:

1) A notebook of sketched concepts?
2) A scrapbook of photos?
3) A travelogue?
4) A journal of freewriting?
5) All of the above at least once a day?
6) Something other?

Go nuts in the comments. I'll leave this at the top until Monday.

"POTTER... PLOTTER?"

Had a good time at Harry Potter 5 last night. Enjoyed the film itself more than some of my companions, because I'm less of a literary purist and because my sieve-like memory had barely retained any of the knowledge of the book going in (was this the one where Dumbledore died, or was it Sirius Black...?).

The big objection Greg shared with me was that some plot points had been changed to make Harry more heroic and less of an asshole, and I think that's a change you need in a film like this. A book can retain more sympathy for a badly behaving protagonist, because the words can guide you more firmly into that character's point of view. Harry's frequent cold behavior to Ron and Hermione gets on my nerves as it is, so I'm glad to see more scenes where he's at least trying to act like a human being. Daniel Radcliffe makes the most of them.

I still think Harry Potter and Dumbledore's Army would have been a better title, though. The Order of the Phoenix doesn't actually do that much unless you argue Harry's band is the new Order, and that's not what they call themselves.

Webcomics 7/13: For "Zuda" read "Smurf"

Only time for one post today. I've had worse Friday the Thirteenths, but I've had better. Off to Harry Potter with Greg, Charles and Jeneen, which'll help take my mind off my troubles.

I'm getting Zuda tired of Zudaly Zudaing about Zuda as the weekly news Zuda Zudas to a close, but Todd Allen's aggregated Q&A is a nice summary of what we know, followed by some speculations.

I do think Todd is wrong to compare the 4:3 weekly comics to 1/3rd or 1/4th of a comic-book page. Most comic-book pages are 4-6 panels, so that would mean, by Todd's estimation, 1-2 panels per episode. These hypothetical breakdowns, pulled from Zuda's own site, would indicate that Zuda expects more:





This assumption grounds his later calculations, so I don't agree with those either.

I do think Todd's bang on target about the potential conflicts between "citizen cartoonists" and the "professional class." (Sigh) Great, more enemies.

The most troubling Zuda factoid so far is the year-long, 52-installment contract. Like Todd says, that sure makes it sound as if Zuda is limiting each feature's publication frequency to weekly. I hope not! We tried that at AdventureStrips.com and the results were a bloodbath. I'm amazed that strips like Penny Arcade have been able to get so popular with thrice-weekly schedules, but that seems to be about as infrequent as a bona fide webcomics hit can get.

Incidentally, Zuda sucks at keeping me informed about changes to its website. I signed up to hear about updates, and then they added a message board, press links, copyright info and an animation without e-mailing me. ZUDA YOUR PROMISES MEAN NOTHING

Finally, since no one else has made fun of this: Zuda claims that a 4:3 ratio is an industry standard. They're right, of course. It is. FOR THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY! Show me five successful webcomics that were using that ratio before Zuda's announcement, and I'll say "dude, even I think you read too many comics."

Non-Zuda corrections and apologies: there were a couple of omissions in my SDCC panel roundup which others caught; that's fixed now. The BF version will re-air next week. All apologies.

Also, as more details emerge, it now appears that the Japanese-language edition of Megatokyo has nothing to do with Warner. I'm surprised Warner didn't sew up international publishing rights, but there you go. Fred Gallagher tells all.

Farewell to Favorite Advertisers!

Penny and Aggie, Cool Cat Studio and Fans are trading out all but a few of our Project Wonderful ads-- the really small ones-- for ads from other advertising networks. More money for us in the long run, which is good!

But I can't help but be a bit sad that those sites will no longer be so involved with such a webcomics-friendly service. There were a couple of comics sites I was especially happy to receive bids from recently, and since I can no longer display them on those sites, I figured I'd just show them here. Lunchbox Funnies is a nice kid's-comic collective, and Dresden Codak is one of my ten favorite comics right now. So click those ads!

My Best "Sketch" Line of the Day...

"Vas deferens."

Divalicious Promo Art

Book Two is a little more serious than Book One.

EIGHTIES BUFFS: CAN YOU GUESS WHICH MUSIC VIDEO WE'RE REFERENCING?

RSS Follies

I'm currently in the midst of trying to create a more streamlined RSS for the comics and an RSS-to-HTML solution that'll help broadcast these posts through the network. Many thanks to Zachary Lewis and the FeedForAll folks for their help so far.

Zuda Roundtable

I won't pout that I wasn't invited to this Newsarama Zuda opinionfest. They got thirteen worthies in there and that's more than enough. Warren Ellis, R. Stevens, Scott McCloud and Shaenon Garrity say pretty much everything that's on my mind today anyway. Ellis provides the most new insight.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Chris Crosby.

Chris responds to my question about this year's Comic-Con: "This year is totally different because a bunch of us all agreed to post the same press release about it." I think that's the most satisfying and honest answer I could have expected.

He also responds to San Diego Memories 2003:

"Was it me who took that photo of you two together, or am I misremembering? I was using a strange and foreign camera."

I think it was, indeed! One more reason for me to wish I still had the shots.

User-Generated Blog Header

Yes, more blog changes.

Gisele and I are looking at adding at least one ad to the blog, and she figured we could pretty it up a bit while we were at it. She threw two designs my way, one with a close-up and one without. I nixed the 160x600 ad, but when it comes to the headers I could go either way. So... U DECIDE.

Click your favorite.

The Expressive Potential Of Favicons

Have these ever been used in a story?

Non-Zuda News Of The Day

This joint statement, already echoed by Editor and Publisher, reads that "webcomics have unified their presence at Comic-Con for the first time ever."

But what about this 2005 map, then? Best I remember, we were calling the booths near Keenspot "Webcomics Alley" in '05 and '06 too. What am I missing? Why is this year totally different?

(Also, presumably it is webcartoonists who have unified their presence for the first time ever, rather than the webcomics themselves which have finally assumed sentience and banded together to cast their creators into the pit.)

Thunder Road, the previously-announced first comic designed for use on American mobile phones, now has a press release and a trailer. Alternate history about post-nuclear war in the 1950s, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to present-day Iraq, we don't know what you're talking about.

Drunk Duck has entered into a relationship with MyLifeBrand. MyLifeBrand is aimed at people who want to develop "personal brands" as artists, musicians or experts. It's a good idea in general-- interoperable networks, serving related functions. Social networks that socialize with social networks.

MyLifeBrand is still in "the alpha stage," though (which is like a beta of a beta). And, to put it politely, it shows. And while cartoonists are often self-branders and vice versa, MyLifeBrand's other partners are a fishing community, the U.S. Navy, and a group of photo-eulogizers. If there's a lot of self-branding going on in those communities, this is the first I've heard of it.

Old Friends

Looking at Fans' dedication for the first time in years made me decide to track down the people who helped inspire the series, back in the day.

Greg Eatroff and I still see each other frequently, his Livejournal is here. Sara Cole and I do, too, but Sara doesn't have much of an online footprint outside of what I put here.


Chris Siefert: Busy at Sandia National Laboratories. Chris is such a great guy that he never even saw fit to bring up that Mobil had acquired a program he was working on in college. I didn't find out for years. Looks like Chris is doing really interesting research; I'm gonna have to spend more time looking it over. Hmmm, he has an e-mail addy...

David Larochelle is, or at least was, a PhD student at UVA. I can't find anything about his activities post-2003, but he and I saw each other after that. We'll see if his e-mail address still works.

Hunter Keeton is still in my call list; I attended his wedding and I've enjoyed the occasional visit with him and his lovely wife. Looks like he helped do a speech on the risks of giving sweepstakes recently. He and I could stand to catch up.

Matt and Liz Brooks maintain photo albums of their lives and family. I just found out they're expecting again. Liz does most of the albumming, really. Liz's journal is here, with miscellaneous additions here and another one here. She's one of the most prolific autobiographers I know.

Matt is here. He recently shaved his head to raise money to fight childhood cancer.

KT Hicks, married to Kevin Hicks (who seems altogether offline). Older Livejournal here. I saw Kevin and KT at Sara's baby shower for a bit, which was nice, though we don't sync our nerd wavelengths as easily as I do with Greg. (Things bogged down in a "Thundercats v. Transformers" debate.)

Ashby Gunter: mostly offline now. I last wrote about him here.

I have no idea what happened to Marc Cassell or John Baird. Their names are too common for me to be sure of any of the Google hits.

Colleen Cawood is in the periphery of my circle; last I heard, she was married with a child. I'll probably see her at a reunion sometime. Very hardworking person, was juggling two jobs on top of college courses. I should just ask our mutual friends about her.

Hug a friend today! You won't stay close to everyone you know!

San Diego Memories 2003

I wish I still had those photos of Tom the Fanboy, one of Fans' biggest fans, back when he dressed as "Timmespin" for San Diego Comic-Con '03.

Oh, Dear

If you think I've been mean to For Better or For Worse, you absolutely should not click this link.

Non-Zuda Webcomics Stuff

I'm late catching this interview/marriage album featuring Kazu Kibuishi, Amy Kim Ganter and the McClouds. Highlight is several clips of Scott McCloud officiating with that bedtime-storyteller voice of his. When Scott says "I now pronounce you husband and wife" or "Congratulations, it's a boy" or "Please come forward and receive your diploma," you know everything's going to be okay.

The first comic designed exclusively for mobile phones will be launching at San Diego.

Least I Could Do has started the clock, moving from the "unaging characters" rule to the "aging in real time" rule. I can't remember a serial strip making this change since Doonesbury got out of college. It's an interesting and risky choice, considering the strip has been about carefree promiscuity, which (ahem) doesn't age well.

Zuda Zuda Zuda Zuda Zuda Zuda Zuda Zuda Zuda

Heartiest congratulations to Fred Gallagher on two wonderful things that will soon enter his life: the official Japanese-language edition of Megatokyo and his first child. Not to denigrate the miracle of childbirth, but it's easy to guess how much both these blessings mean to Fred.

The timing of the publishing announcement may not be coincidental. It's good public relations for a certain much-discussed Web 2.0 initiative. Fred Gallagher is published by DC, which is owned by Warner, which IS BRINGING US ZUDA IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD ZUDA ZUDA ZUDA ZUDA ZUDA ZUDA ZUDA ZUDA

Heidi MacDonald rounds up yesterday's Zuda reactions. My fave so far, courtesy lolcomics:



Gary Tyrrell on Zuda. I briefly join into the comments:

There are reasons to be "wait and see" about the compensation. Unlike Platinum or Tokyopop, Zuda doesn't say "the good ones get into print," Zuda is saying "the good ones get a contract." That's a shift in focus that means more attention will be paid to the money involved. And Warner actually has the resources to offer such money. Doesn't mean they will. But if they're really committed to feeding a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire atmosphere around it all-- and distinguishing themselves from any clown with a few bucks and an Ajax programmer-- then they might.

If I worked at Warner today, I'd be watching conversations like this one, taking notes and taking meetings, determining how much money the WB would need to commit to make that "digital slush pile" designation go away forever. I mean, I certainly would have put specific compensation for freelancers into the press release if I thought it was attractive, and if I knew what it was.

There's A NEW Set of Seven Wonders Of The World Now?

The things we miss. I always thought the old list was sorta, like, permanent.

New Seven Wonders.

A Thing Of Beauty

Supposedly This Will Give Me A Million More Readers

Technorati Profile

My Famous Parents

From left and center. Pictured with Kathie Moore at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, for which Dad does a lot of interesting work. Via the Virginian-Pilot.

Your Comic Book Resources Quotation Nitpick For The Day

I like Comic Book Resources. I do not like verbatim reproductions of press releases. I like Scott Christian Sava and The Dreamland Chronicles. He gave me a nice interview and I'd love to chat with him more sometime. I do not like it when Scott overhypes, like when he claims that TDC is "consistently one of the TOP TEN comics on the web according to the TOP WEB COMICS list."

Please. Aside from the fact that those lists measure votes and not views or visits, they don't measure any comics that don't link to them. According to the Top Webcomics list, xkcd has zero readers. (Also, Dreamland has fallen to #13, though that may be a recent development.) At best, they indicate moderate popularity, but anyone who takes the "top webcomics" claim seriously needs to look at the research.

That said, winning two CBG Fan Awards is a worthy achievement for a relatively new cartoonist, especially since the CBG audience tends to be conservative in its tastes. (The best writer of the year is STAN LEE? Of 2006? Who was the runner-up, Jerry Siegel?)

Panels I Want To See At San Diego

I'll be signing Divalicious at the Tokyopop booth on Sunday 11-12.

Webcomics and Related Panels: (This section cross-posted to Broken Frontier. Updated thanks to Fleen.)

I won't get to all of these, but I'll print out this post and make the effort!

* means related but not technically webcomics. Room number follows in parentheses.

Thursday:

11:30-12:30 Episodic Games and Comics, featuring Penny Arcade and Sam and Max. (1AB)

12:30-1:30 GoComics Mobile Comics*. I interviewed a rep for this company recently; it'll be interesting to see where they take things post-iPhone. (2)

3-4 Spotlight on Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com's cartoonist, with an audience of three million monthly uniques on the Web alone. (2)

3:30-5 Spotlight on Scott Kurtz with emphasis on PVP Animated (Kristofer Straub and Ryan Sohmer also guest). (1AB)

5-6 Random House: Flight/Postcards. The Flight anthology was a major turning point for webcartoonists three years ago and is still important now. (10)

6-7 Dumbrella. Actually, I'm including this one as a courtesy to anyone who might use this list. Nothing against the Dumbrella guys, but I know enough about them that a Q&A would probably be superfluous. (10)

6-7 How To Become an Internet Geek Super-Star*. Not really webcomics but aimed at the same demo as many of the most successful webcomics. Dumbrella panel is billed as pure Q&A. Make your choice! (30CDE)

Friday:

2-3:30 Comics Arts Conference Session #8: Storytelling and Visual Language*. This is a really academic panel, intimidatingly so, but if you're looking for original ideas about comics after reading Eisner and McCloud, Neil Cohn is your guy. (30AB)

3:30-4:30 Business of Web Comics. Hmmm: Scott Kurtz (PvP) and Robert Khoo (Penny Arcade) will create a brand-new webcomic, live on stage, and show how the creative and business aspects of the property work (and don't work) in parallel. (8)

5:30-6:30 Scott McCloud and Family. Last time out, Scott was the most enthralling speaker I encountered all weekend, but he had a book's worth of information to throw at us. Don't know what he's got this time but I'm looking forward to finding out. (5AB)

Saturday:

3:30-4:30 Penny Arcade. I doubt I'll make this one either. Like the Dumbrella panel it's pure Q&A, and I already know these guys-- any questions I have about their new plans would be answered by the "Episodic Games and Comics" panel. But it'll be packed. (1AB)

5:30-6:30 Keenspot Unplugged 2007. Keen always hints at big announcements. It delivered in '05 and didn't in '06. How will this year break the tie? (3)

Sunday:

12-1 My Dad Makes Comics! featuring Sky and Winter McCloud (and others). Winter and Sky are adorable, and scary smart for their age. I don't know the others but this should be a fun one. (5AB)

1-2 What's Happening in Kids' Comics Today? Featuring Svetlana Chmakova, Kazu Kibuishi and Gene Yang (and others) with moderator Dave Roman. I'm happy to see things happening for these guys. This should go nicely with the previous panel. (8)

I still think DC may schedule some kind of expo for Zuda Comics before the show begins, since the site is supposed to go through changes that coincide with the convention. If not an official panel, maybe something at their booth. Keep your eyes peeled.

A couple of really tangential panels that I may pop into because I'd like to meet one of the participants afterwards:

Sat 5:30-8:00 Gays in Comics Panel and Mixer*, featuring Megan Gedris and others. (6A)

Sun 12:30-1:30 Kids' Day Drawing Workshop: You Can Draw Star Wars* featuring Tom Hodges of Hyperspace and others. (30CDE)

Mostly non-webcomics panels and shows that I'd also like to attend:

Thu 7:15-8:45PM The Pixar Story: To Infinity and Beyond. Nice way to decompress and beat the dinner rush. (6CDEF)

Fri 12:30-1:30 TOKYOPOP Industry Panel. Professional interest. (10)
Fri 4:30-5:30 Center for Cartoon Studies: How to Dramatically Improve Your Comics. I want to see the CCS in action and I want to do better comics, so this is win-win. (24A)

Sat 10:30-11:30 Meet The Press. Heidi, Spurge, EW, Variety, Douglas Wolk. Even though I'm getting out of the press game I really want to meet these guys (or see again in Heidi's case). If only we could coax out Dirk Deppey. (3)
Sat 1-2 Where Do They Get Those Marvelous Toys? Starring Cory Doctorow, Greg Bear, Vernor Vinge and others. Since I can't reach Cory's full spotlight panel, this is the next best thing. (8)
Sat 9PM-11PM Spotlight on Warren Ellis. No explanation necessary. (6CDEF)

Panel I regret that I'll probably miss:

Sun 11:30-1 Comics Are Not Literature. Conflicts with the T-Pop signing and the "my dad" panel. Too bad: it sounds like a rousing debate. You should go if you can. (8)

I hope you have as much fun as I do! Unless I get run over on the way in. In which case, have more.

DC Spills The Beans (REVISED, UPDATED, EXPANDED-- If You're Going To Link, Link Here.)

We now know the name of DC's online initiative: Zuda Comics. Comics will be submitted by users and selected by editors, and the most popular of them will get a one-year contract. Comic Book Resources has an interview with Ron Perazza while The New York Times has more details (reproduced for non-subscribers at CNET.) Official press release is here. ICv2 has more facts here.

For now, a few thoughts:

Ron is a bit slippery when it comes to who gets which legal rights, but it does sound as if Zuda's contracts will be worth a closer look: "I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not exactly sure what the specific legal terms are to use, but throughout the company we make all sorts of deals and they're not all buyouts or work-for-hire and so forth. This is a creator driven initiative, so our deals reflect that." Glad to see they're at least taking the creators' rights question seriously, but we'll have to see a contract before we see what their answer really is.

(CLARIFICATION: No one should be under any illusions that publishing with DC means retaining as many IP rights as publishing independently: the Times reports that Zuda "views the initiative as a chance to increase its library of intellectual properties, which can be lucrative as films, television shows and toys" and that "DC Comics will also have the right to print the comics in collected editions." Two questions remain, one general, one personal. What are the specifics of the deal? And would such a deal seem a fair trade-off to you?)

Paul Levitz: "One of the problems that comics have today, I think, is that open door is much more closed. This creates a more open door." In other words, "We're tearing down the wall..." Backlash to this kind of statement has already begun. I think Levitz is using the word "comics" as shorthand for "direct-market comic books." This is a mistake, but it's a common mistake, and it's a hard one to avoid when your audience knows little about true webcomics. Levitz addresses the webcomics-illiterate on a daily basis.

The New York Times gets it wrong with its first paragraph. I wish I could say I'm surprised by that. This is not a "slush pile."

Slush piles contain every submission that a publisher receives, which means that many Web 2.0 sites like YouTube or Blogger, where publication is instantaneous, are like "digital slush piles" that almost never get edited.

But as Ron says at CBR: "If you want to actually make comics, you can submit your stuff to us and all the submissions will be poured through internally to make sure that things are of a certain quality or standard, then we select a bunch of those and put them online every month."
So, apparently, Zuda is a collection of its best submissions as chosen by editors. What you'll see on the site will already be filtered, unlike the content of a Webcomics Nation, Drunk Duck or Comic Genesis. More like Modern Tales.

It might be more on target to call this an "online comics reality show." American Idol puts twelve singers through a competition, and one of them gets a recording contract, a similar incentive to the one-year contract Zuda is offering. But obviously Idol gets thousands of applicants, and has to filter them before broadcast.

(The comparison breaks down a little because Zuda is also offering a chance to go straight from submission to contract, presumably by being so awesome that Zuda thinks it's worth taking the chance to lock you in immediately.)

Specified: you should put your work in a 4x3 format.

Proudly unspecified: what genre you should work in, whether you should do a continuity strip, whether you should be inspired by newspapers, comic books, or (Heavens!) other webcomics. Presumably original ideas are also welcome.

(I keed, I keed. It's easy to pick apart DC Comics' rhetoric as it struggles to come up with words that will play well with the webcartoonist community, webcomics readers, the comic-book community, the general public and Warner Brothers shareholders. It's probably not fair to pick on them for using Family Circus as an example. But the example says something about the culture clashes sparking behind an effort like this.)

Maybe should be specified: how frequently you should publish. If there's a one-size-fits-all deal for comics that come out three times a week and those that come out five times a week, that could be an issue. On the other hand, sometimes three-per-weekers outperform five-per-weekers: Penny Arcade, anyone?



The San Diego Comic-Con initiative is interesting: would-be cartoonists will be given postage-paid postcards to send back to Zuda. That idea seems to respond to the popularity of Postsecret, a blog that's currently #9 on the Technorati Top 100. Explosm.net, which topped two of our recent webcomics traffic surveys and placed fourth in the third, is #32 on Technorati. Postsecret usually features words and pictures in combination, in a sequence chosen partly by chronology and partly by the site creator. If you're flexible with your definitions, you could argue that this means Postsecret could be the most popular online comics series in existence. But that's another discussion.

Ron Perazza and online editor Kwanza Johnson will be among the attendees at the con, and it would be shocking if they didn't have some kind of panel on which they could field questions. Or duck them, depending.

Commentary here and here and here and here and here and here. That makes all my usual stops except Fleen, which might scarcely mention it at all.

Predictably, reactions range from cautious optimism to deep skepticism. I'm not committing to any judgment, one way or another, until there's fine print for me to read. But I'm so glad I decided to go to San Diego this year, after all!

Zuda Commentary Roundup

Here and here and here and here. Oh, and here.
Once Joey Manley gets done, we'll have the complete set, though I expect he'll take his time.

As I would expect, things break down between cautious optimism and deep skepticism depending on whether the writers are friendly to DC Comics and the publishing model it represents or not. I'm in the "optimism" camp, for now. I want this to work. I want there to be more opportunities for cartoonists to leapfrog into good deals with high-powered companies. I've never really subscribed to the belief that wily cartoonists can do it all for themselves. But I'm not committing to any judgment, one way or another, until there's fine print for me to read.

P.P.S.

Official Zuda press release is here. A little bit more information, mostly common-sense stuff, about which Web 2.0ish technologies the site will be using, and how it plans to roll out some features at San Diego, well before the "content launch" in October.

P.S.

I should also be clear that in addition to the popularity contest, Zuda says it will offer some one-year publishing contracts right out of the gate.

DC Spills The Beans. Slush Pile or No?

We now know the name of DC's online initiative: Zuda Comics. Comics will be submitted by users and selected by editors, and the most popular of them will get a one-year contract. Comic Book Resources has an interview with Ron Perazza while The New York Times has more details (reproduced for non-subscribers at CNET.)

For now, a few thoughts:

Ron is a bit slippery when it comes to who gets which legal rights, but it does sound as if Zuda's contracts will be worth a closer look: "I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not exactly sure what the specific legal terms are to use, but throughout the company we make all sorts of deals and they're not all buyouts or work-for-hire and so forth. This is a creator driven initiative, so our deals reflect that." Glad to see they're at least taking the creators' rights question seriously, but we'll have to see a contract before we see what their answer really is.

Paul Levitz: "One of the problems that comics have today, I think, is that open door is much more closed. This creates a more open door." In other words, "We're tearing down the wall..." Backlash will probably begin before I post this, but I think Levitz, like Rosenberg, is using the word "comics" as shorthand for "direct-market comic books." This is a mistake, but it's a common mistake, and it's a hard one to avoid when your audience knows little about true webcomics.

The New York Times gets it wrong with its first paragraph. I wish I could say I'm surprised by that. This is not a "slush pile."

Slush piles contain every submission that a publisher receives, which means that many Web 2.0 sites like YouTube or Blogger, where publication is instantaneous, are like "digital slush piles" that almost never get edited.

But as Ron says at CBR: "If you want to actually make comics, you can submit your stuff to us and all the submissions will be poured through internally to make sure that things are of a certain quality or standard, then we select a bunch of those and put them online every month."
So, apparently, Zuda is a collection of its best submissions as chosen by editors. What you'll see on the site will already be filtered, unlike the content of a Webcomics Nation, Drunk Duck or Comic Genesis. More like Modern Tales.

It might be more on target to call this an "online comics reality show." American Idol puts twelve singers through a competition, and one of them gets a recording contract, a similar incentive to the one-year contract Zuda is offering. But obviously Idol gets thousands of applicants, and has to filter them before broadcast.

The San Diego Comic-Con initiative is interesting: would-be cartoonists will be given postage-paid postcards to send back to Zuda. That idea seems to respond to the popularity of Postsecret, a blog that's currently #9 on the Technorati Top 100. Explosm.net, which topped two of our recent webcomics traffic surveys and placed fourth in the third, is #32 on Technorati. Postsecret usually features words and pictures in combination, in a sequence chosen partly by chronology and partly by the site creator. If you're flexible with your definitions, you could argue that this means Postsecret could be the most popular online comics series in existence. But that's another discussion.

We'll see where things go from here.

(Cross-posting to Broken Frontier.)

P.S.

P.P.S.

Webcomics Links 7/8

Valve's gaming platform Steam now features Penny Arcade comics in its browser window. This seems to be part of a plan to transform Steam into more of a gaming community. It already claims 13 million users and 150 games. Formidable. This is an interesting move by PA into social networking. Shacknews has details and commentary.

Referencing Unshelved: NYT article on the hipster librarian movement.

And a profile of Connecticon, the convention saved by webcartoonists.

The Day Hope Died

No, I didn't really think that the odd little mix of speculative fiction, roman a clef, criticism and satire published here was going to make Lynn Johnston do a 180 on a story idea she's been setting up for at least three years. But I did hold out hope that the groundswell of similar criticism might have some effect on the plot's final stages-- or just be proven wrong. Naive, I know, but I'm like that.

Liz might consider Anthony but go her own way. One partner might pursue the other but have to overcome reluctance and resistance, thereby showing strength in both characters. At the very least, Anthony might man up and earn Liz, the way Ben Stone earns Alison in Knocked Up, just by showing an ounce of spinal fluid in real-life situations. (A rape-and-rescue scenario doesn't really count.)



Or maybe we could just give Anthony a shave and call it a day. Oh, well.

Most Popular Posts of Last Month

Heart of Hearts: Concluding Thoughts

Foobetter 'r' Foowurse

Comapnies Are Not Moral

P&A Fanart

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Movie

Fanart 7/7

Lisa by Olivera T.

Sevensevenseven

I miss the days when I could spend a full hour reflecting on the mystic convergence that took place on August 8, almost 20 years ago: 8/8/88. Apparently there was a big celebration back then in Eighty Eight, Kentucky. I remember a news article that said there was a similar celebration in the town of Sevens, back in 7/7/77.

Today is 07/07/07. I wonder what the mood is like over there now.

I miss Oxford, too, a little.

Uh Oh

Via Heidi.

Testing testing 1 2 3 (ignore)

My Best "Sketch" Line of the Day...

"[It's] A statement of Muslim tradition. It's not observed by all Muslims, but it's not to be trifled with. I memorized it after hearing of certain political events in Denmark. The statement reads: 'Those who paint pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection and it will be said to them: Breathe soul into what you have created.'"

P&A Fanart: Karen

From Olivera T.

Matrix Update

Only managed to complete about 3% of Phase Three so far, but I'm getting some help from an unexpected source which should make things go a lot faster next week. Can't wait until I can tell you who this guy is and why he's so cool.

More Fun Comics Links

Over at Broken Frontier.

Thanks to Nicolas Juzda...

From Nic: "Do you realize that your redesigned site/blog has a dropdown menu of
things you've written at the top of the page that, at least in
Firefox, actually doesn't *do* anything?"

Yeah, let's fix that, eh? Should work now.

Links 7/6

Man, another one! It's getting so I can't even keep track of all the online features making jumps to print. Congrats to Drew Edwards of Halloween Man for his pub deal with Silent Devil.

Via Wondermark: This intriguing journal comic from last year, Moresukine, is a skillful exercise in interactive cartooning. I spotted it but lost track of it last year.



Via Full Story: Edward Grug picks up on the branching-path comic format in this whimsical 24-hour comic.

Links 7/5

Wendy Pini begins her Masque of the Red Death at GoComi (signup required).

Scott McCloud article is novel for how non-novel it is. Side effect of McCloud's trip and teaching gigs seems to be exposing him to a lot of people for the first time who write about him without knowing what's been written before.

Congrats to ACT-I-VATors Dean Haspiel and Michael Fife for making the jump to Image.

My Fourth

Had a nice cookout with watermelon and a few of Sara's friends, then caught the fireworks from the fourth-story window of my apartment complex. I had a hard time staying away from the Matrix for very long, though. (Phase Three only 1% complete so far, but I'm accelerating.) I'm a workaholic, I think.

Penny and Aggie Alignments

Courtesy Aris Katsaris. Great stuff. Captures Sara's current non-sexual dilemmas in a nutshell. (Naturally, characters sometimes move out of their "chosen alignment" as they grow...)

Spotted on my July 4 walk.

Aaaand I'm Off!

After two sixteen-hour days in front of the keyboard, I need this holiday like I need carbohydrates. Have a happy Fourth, Americans, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Edited: Review by Matt Koelbl

I've never been a racing fan. It isn't that I have anything against the concept, but cars and car-related activities have never been my forte. Entertainment revolving around racing has never fascinated me. The Fast and the Furious? Fell asleep. Initial D? Couldn't stand it. Cars manages to be the only Pixar movie I haven't seen - and if Pixar can't grab my interest in racing, what can?

Misfile, apparently.

More.

Penny and Aggie

We had a continuity error scare last night, and I would show you the problem, but Gisele has already erased it from existence. (Can you tell which of the characters in this one used to be someone else? No fair if you've already peeked at the forums.)



Gis has also reformatted all the older strips. Look how much detail we can show you now!



Yay.

Speedlink 7/4

How to be a good virtual friend in a social network, by Nick Douglas.

Via the soon-to-be-defunct Cracked magazine, The Ten Most Useless Transformers.

In defense of the anthropic principle.


Webcomics: Just after I put it on a "hiatus list" for Broken Frontier, Hate Song returns-- at least for now. I can't get over how classy creator Fred Grisolm is compared to his main character.

Sore Thumbs fears Canadians' free health care and sexual deviance.

WARNING, LIBERAL VIEWPOINTS AHEAD: Jeffrey Rowland explains why he, and probably lots of other cartoonists, aren't doing more for the Fourth.

Transcript Re: Transformers

With Dave Belmore, one of the biggest Transfans I know:

davebelmore: The Chevy prodduct placing alone sickens me.
ALL of the Autobots are Chevys
ALL of them
Bumblebee is a Camaro for Christ's sake
me: Yeah, that may be tied to my problem with the previews-- the designs just seem to be very charmless. I could look at Bumblebee's original robot form and see what kind of car he was, you know?
And I don't know cars like you do.
davebelmore: Well you know what a VW bug is right?
me: Yeah.
Thanks to TRANSFORMERS.
davebelmore: well a Camaro is a muscle car on par with a Mustang.
me: Ooh.
davebelmore: It's a car that goes very fast very straight.
It's not even close to a VW bug.
me: They... do know the character was named "Bumblebee" because he was a yellow Bug, right?

On the other hand, David Willis, the other biggest Transfan I know, admits the film has problems but concludes "you should see it thirty times." I guess I'm a little torn on this.

With Less Than A Minute To Spare...

Fans Annotated is up. Still some work to do on the tech side of things, but you can start reading annotated comics, and I'm pretty sure that's what matters to you most!

In Progress...

New homepage for PNA being created as we speak. It'll be a template for annotated Fans, too.

Fans Annotated

Launches later today. Watch this space.

Convention Schedule

It's con season! Three conventions in three weekends!

1) First there's Otakon. I've been lax in the signup process, so I don't know if Penny and Aggie will appear on this list or not, but I will at the very least be behind the table for a webcomics panel that Kelly Price is organizing.

2) I'm going to San Diego this year. I didn't think I would, but Amy Mebberson, Tokyopop and my agent kind of ganged up on me. It will be nice to see people like David Willis again. I'll have to spend some of today filling up my social calendar.

Want to find me? I'll be spending most of my time at the Tokyopop booth this year, but naturally I'll visit Webcomics Alley every so often:



(Copied from Fleen which in turn copied from R. Stevens.)

3) Finally, I'll be at Trinoc*coN as a featured guest and doing lots o' panels, pretty much whatever they stick me on.

4?) Uncertain about Nekocon. It's right in my backyard and it's been webcomics-friendly in the past, so I might like to do panels if they got 'em. No table space, though: we don't have enough to sell this year.

And that'll be it for the year, most likely. If I attend SPX it'll be entirely incognito... I feel it's lost some of the truly indie sparkle that made it so much fun five years ago. We'll see about MoCCA next year.

Webcomics Links 7/2

Congratulations to Komikwerks partner Shannon Eric Denton on his new role as TV writer/producer, adapting one of his own webcomics.

I picked on Joel Fagin for what I saw as woolly thinking in his "Reinventing Micropayments" essay: he's back with a new one, "Abandoning Micropayments," that seems a lot sharper, and not just because the title agrees with me better. :-)

As mentioned in today's BF piece, Netcomics is showing The Great Catsby for free for an unspecified time. This is the most beautiful comic I've read in a long while, the more so for beginning in such off-putting and uncomfortable places. Highly recommended.

Broken Frontier: World Wide Webcomics

Boy, this one took a while, but there's a lot of good stuff in it. Some highlights:

Finland treats support for the arts as a matter of national urgency, and Finnish cartoonists report that their commission rates, adjusted for the exchange rate, are far superior to those of their American counterparts. With that kind of incentive, more Western Europeans are likely to be picking up styluses in the years to come...

As of February, after a year in the market, Netcomics was getting 2,000 pageviews a day. Ice Kunion is moving into the translated e-manhwa business and doesn't seem eager to repeat Netcomics' model: its website, still under construction, announces that upon its launch, all titles will be free to read.

More.

@Work

Posting will be light until I get caught up.

Also Done Yesterday...

Very, very productive Penny and Aggie and "Sketch" story meeting with Greg Eatroff, which grew out of an early viewing of Ratatouille. Film analysts are watching Pixar for signs of a stumble, citing internal politics at Disney, the gut reaction to the topic of rats in the food industry (which affects licensing) and the fact that it's the most unspellable major movie title of the year.

I'm hoping that good reviews and Pixar's brand overcome these factors, because Ratatouille is a treat.



After it was over, Greg and I realized the film hits its protagonists with seven different challenges in its third act, yet never feels rushed or jumbled.

"Seven," I said to Greg. There was a pause.

"Would it be possible to do eight...?"

And we were off.

Secrets...

I know that these "secret stuff" posts are either tantalizing crumbs or puzzling stats, but I want to show you, as best as I'm able, the things that fill my days.

Currently I have three secret projects.

One is code-named "the Matrix." Phase Two complete this morning. Hoping to be able to reveal this before the end of summer. Hint: not fiction.

One is that thing I'm doing with that guy, code-named "Sketch." Hoping to announce this fall. Hint: fiction.

And one is ghost-co-writing for a newspaper comic. I can't even give too many hints about that one, because it's ghosting! Probably won't reveal it until the gig is over, which could be years. But there it is. Code-name: "Refrain."

What Is The Matrix?

Project, codenamed "Matrix:"

Phase One complete.

Phase Two 98% complete. Estimated time to completion: 2 hrs.

Phase Three far more challenging. Estimated time unknown. At least it'll be fun before it gets boring.

Phase Four -- Do I have the needed programming skills? Uncertain. Outsource? If so, confidentiality a must.

Phase Five: rollout. Generally the easy part, but be! Cautious! Too much going into this to fumble.