It’s Quiet
Thursdays are always the slow news days.
I mean, sure, there’s the open letter that Scott Kurtz wrote to Megan Fox Tits Wolverine magazine’s con-booking guy, that was amusing, but it broke nearly 24 hours ago and everybody’s already seen & discussed it. And actually, the most amusing part there was the number of people that took Kurtz seriously when he described himself as “pioneer” and “tastemaker”; here’s a big hint to everybody: whatever Kurtz says that gets you all het up under the collar (and my grandmother used to say), his tongue is lodged so firmly in-cheek, if you saw it, you’d think that the Alien was gonna leap out of his face.
That still leaves us with not too much going on today, so we’ll have to go with some pre-news (that is, things that aren’t news yet, but will be shortly). For example, Joe Chiappetta has finished drawing his 500th Silly Daddy comic, although we don’t get to see it until Monday. But in the meantime, you can enjoy his Five Reasons You Should Care, which include:
3) Many of these webcomics (74) were created entirely on a mobile phone. Chiappetta is the first cartoonist to pioneer this field of phone-made webcomics, calling it “telephomics.”
… and:
4) The Silly Daddy website is one of the few cartoonist sites wherein all the comics are fully accessible to people who are blind or have low vision. Every webcomic posted has a described narrative that assistive technology software (such as JAWS or ZoomText) can read to the viewer.
Honestly, I don’t think that “telephomics” is going to catch on … it just sounds like you don’t know how to pronounce the word that you meant to say. But the transcription bit? That’s something I think we’re going to see more of in future (lots of comics have some form of transcription available, but often only by shifting over to Oh No Robot or using an on-page search field). Chiappetta does his as a narrative, David Morgan-Mar does his as a transcript, and … that’s about it. Okay, there’s the takeaway for today, kids — just because you can’t see (or can’t see anymore) doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy the webcomics. Keep that in mind for your next site redesign.
Ahem. ;-)
Ubersoft.net provides a full transcript of every comic under the comic itself. It doesn’t appear on the front page, but all you have to do is click on the comic title and you’re sent to the unique archive page.
By Christopher Wright on 11.05.09 3:22 pm
Of course, at the moment my site is down so you can’t verify my outlandish claims. But it’s there!
By Christopher Wright on 11.05.09 3:23 pm
Thanks Gary for covering my press release. Your insights are quite useful. Telephomics may not catch on for another reason: I can’t find one other dedicated cartoonist, or even half-dedicated cartoonist regularly doing this, but that’s OK for now. I think in late 2010, it will be a new ballgame when a whole new round of mobile technology comes out.
By Joe Chiappetta on 11.19.09 11:23 am
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