The webcomics blog about webcomics

Dammit, Where’s Hermione And That Time Twister When I Need It?

First of all, look up there at what I got in the mail today, still in its protective plastic shield to guard against troublesome postal carriers and customs guys! There’s so much cool emananting from those ladies, it threatens to make me sit at the dork table in the lunchroom.

Okay, for those of you going to NY Comic Con next week, here’s some panels you may want to keep an eye out for. Some of them are directly related to webcomics, some have webcomics luminaries associated with them, and some are nothing to do with webcomics per se, but will be useful or awesome nonetheless.

Comics for the iPhone and the Big Small Screen, Friday, 2:15 to 3:15, 1A17
With the advent of bigger screens and increased bandwidth, mobile comics are now poised make a creative and economic leap to become a major force in the world of comic books. Uclick, the top name in mobile comics, leads the way with their expanding line of GoComics for the iPhone, and they’re at NYCC with comic creators and technology experts to discuss the exciting opportunities offered by the next generation of mobile devices. I don’t think mobile comics have reached anything resembling their potential yet, but am I the only one to think it’ll be achieved not by the corporate model?

The Business of Webcomics! LIVE!, Friday, 3:15 – 4:15, 1A21
Watch PVP Online’s Scott Kurtz take thematic suggestions from the crowd as he, on stage, creates a brand new online property while Penny Arcade’s Robert Khoo simultaneously turns these concepts into monetizeable business models. Take notes! I saw them do this at SDCC 2007 and the side discussions on things like character design were much more interesting than the business end of things, especially when Khoo says things like, “Don’t try to squash the comic into a business model or niche … it’s my job to drum up that business. Just make a good comic.”

Zuda Online, Friday, 3:30 to 4:30, room 1A06
Zuda Comics invites you to read, vote, and create — and come hear what’s new from the internet’s hottest web comic lineup. With new projects and concepts premiering constantly, DC’s innovative online imprint helps makes your creative voice heard. Sayin’ nothing.

Comics and New Media, Friday, 7:00 – 8:00, 1A18
Edit to add: Josh Neufeld posted in the comments to both correct the time & location of the session (as always, double-check for last-minute shifts) and to point out that I’d missed his web-to-print transition in my cursory research; Fleen thanks Neufeld and apologizes for the omission.

What challenges do we, as publishing professionals, face with the rise of new media? How has it influenced the editorial process and the promotion end of things? How have web comics affected the industry? And, what happens when web comics transition to printed books? This round table includes Larry Smith, Josh Neufeld, Lisa Weinert, and Kate Lee. Am I alone in thinking that maybe including somebody who’s made the transition from web to print would be useful on this panel?

Gabe and Tycho Spotlight, Saturday, 12:30 – 1:30, 1A06
In their first East Coast appearance since 2005, meet Penny Arcade’s Gabe and Tycho as they field questions about their web comic, PAX, Penny Arcade Adventures, Child’s Play, becoming gamer dads, and life in general. Consistently a funny offering.

Intellectual Property 101, Saturday, 2:45 PM to 3:45 PM, 1A21
Artists often spend years creating winning characters or works, only to lose at the bargaining table because they haven’t prepared for the deal or have failed to properly protect their rights. Scheduled topics to be discussed include an overview of copyrights, trademarks, and rights in ideas, the importance and how to register your copyrights and trademarks, what to do if someone is improperly using your works or ideas, non-disclosure agreements, work for hire relationships, the pitfalls of joint authorship, employment contracts, and negotiating licensing agreements. This seminar will be conducted by attorneys Thomas A. Crowell, an IP and Entertainment Law practitioner with The Law Office of Thomas A. Crowell, LLC, Walter-Michael Lee from the IP Practice Group of Gibney, Anthony & Flaherty, LLP, and Sheafe B. Walker, an Employment Law practitioner with The Law Office of Thomas A. Crowell, LLC. Want to do this for a living? This one’s important.

Working for Wizard Magazine, Saturday, 3:00 to 4:00, 1A17
Sit down with the entire Wizard staff — from editors to staff writers to the Price Guide team to the techies at wizarduniverse.com — to talk about the comic book industry’s #1 source for news and entertainment for the last two decades. Hear how the magazine is put together every month and get the inside scoop on what it’s like to work in comic publishing. Drop off your resume and writing clips for possible freelance or full-time work, then sit in and ask questions of the staff, and make suggestions on what you want to see in the magazine. Brought to you by the editorial staff at Wizard Magazine and Wizard Entertainment! Uh, yeah. I offered Rick Marshall (formerly one of “the techies”) a dollar to go to this panel and heckle. Don’t tell him, but I’m planning to increase that offer until he goes.

CAG and the Benefits to Web Comics, Saturday, 4:00 to 5:00, 1A23
Web comics are on the rise! Join the Comicbook Artists Guild (CAG) as members discuss the benefits of membership. Build your portfolio, gain instant exposure, and link your web comics to other web pages joining this growing movement. It’s easy. It’s cheap. It’s immediate. And CAG can help connect you with other artists, writers, and creators to make it happen! I really wish I knew who was going to be on this panel; sounds good, though.

Making Comics with Penny Arcade, Sunday, 12:30 – 1:30, 1A24
Created originally for grade school classrooms, watch, learn and participate as Penny Arcade’s Gabe and Tycho teach you and your kids how to make comics! Although appropriate for all ages, this is a very kid-safe panel! Gotta confess, this is the one panel I most want to see this weekend; in part, because Mike & Jerry have written about what a thrill they get from working with kids, and in part because I want to see what “kid-safe” Gabe & Tycho are like.

NYCC Classes: Comic Strips, Sunday, 1:00 – 2:00, 1A15
How to write and draw newspaper-style comic strips. Pacing, design, and even syndication from working comic strip creators. Panelists include Chris Eliopoulos, Chris Giarusso, Danielle Corsetto, Brad Guigar, and Tom Wilson. Hosted by Matt Herring. Guigar and Corsetto, of course, have mastered the newspaper-style form while on the web. Oh, irony.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The Panel!, Sunday, 1:30 to 2:30, 1A14
Harvey, Doug Wright, Joe Shuster Award-winning, and Eisner-nominated creator Bryan Lee O’Malley sits down with NYCC to discuss his ground-breaking, slice-of-life series Scott Pilgrim. From its genesis to the NYCC release of volume five, O’Malley talks frankly about where Scott Pilgrim came from and where the series is going from here. With moderation by Douglas Wolk and a fan Q&A to close the discussion, this is a must see event at NYCC 2009! Oh hell yes. You all know that Scott Pilgrim 5 drops on Wednesday, right?

Not listed in the program guide, but Carla Speed McNeil will be on two panels, where she is consistently an awesome speaker:

Her Face Was an Open Book: The Art of Character, Friday, 6:00 to 7:00, 1A24
How does character design play into a cartoonist’s working process? Does a creator’s idea of who a character is ever change after that character appears as an image? How hard is it to draw a character that fits a prose description? We’ll discuss these questions and more with Christine Norrie (Breaking Up), Dash Shaw (Bottomless Belly Button), and Thom Zahler (Love & Capes). Moderated by Douglas Wolk (Reading Comics).

The Beat Presents The Art of Storytelling, Sunday, 11:15 to 12:15, 1A06
As comics have become a more influential part of pop culture, their stories and characters are known more widely than ever. Step inside the minds of some of the comic biz’s best storytellers to find out how they approach their craft and shape their visions to create their best known works. Moderated by Heidi MacDonald, with Jim Lee, Marv Wolfman, and more.

So Ready For The Weekend

Just had lunch with Official Friend o’ Webcomics Rick Marshall (currently doing his best to get webcomics coverage added to MTV’s Splash Page); we’ve made plans concerning the upcoming New York Comic Con (The Big M will have a large presence there, and Marshall will be moderating one panel on Saturday (5:15 to 6:15, 1A07, “Radical Publishing”). If you bump into him during the show, make sure they let him out of the MTV booth long enough to get some food.

  • Via Shaenon Garrity, news of the second annual scholarship in honor of the late King Features editor, Jay Kennedy. It’s from the National Cartoonist Society Foundation, which means that it’s got a focus on traditional newspaper-style strips. But check out this part:

    Applicants must be college students in the United States, Canada or Mexico that will be in their Junior or Senior year of college during the 2009-2010 academic year. Applicants DO NOT have to be art majors to be eligible for this scholarship.

    Along with a completed entry form, applicants are required to send 5 samples of their own cartooning artwork; noting if and where the work has been published (either print or web). [emphasis mine]

    You’ve got a couple of weeks, college students. Between this and the Penny Arcade Scholarship (2008 winner discussed here), opportunities for young practitioners of the geekly arts are only getting better.

  • Yay! Something*Positive 1938 is back! And we’re only about four months of story-time into the sage of the MacIntire ancestors, so there’s plenty of Depression Era (the original Depression era that is, not this weak-sauce knockoff going on now) wackiness to look forward to.
  • I am morally obligated: moustache (eventually to be found here).

Ah, Wednesday, You Kill Me Sometimes

Eight years? Yep. Little Gamers isn’t so little anymore.

  • Will somebody please give Brian Warmoth, Friend of Webcomics, a break?

    CBR News has confirmed that Devil’s Due Publishing, the home of Tim Seeley’s “Hack/Slash” and Milo Ventimiglia’s “Rest,” among other titles, laid off two employees today: editor Cody DeMatteis and Marketing Manager Brian Warmoth.

    Warmoth, you will recall, fled Wizard online (no link because they piss me off) scarce 11 months ago, and like fellow FoW Rick Marshall, has been both searching for and deserving of a permanent, long-term position in comics. If you know of any such, drop us a line and we’ll see that he gets it.

  • Is it just me, or is Project Wonderful (even in these dread economic times) expanding its pool of advertisers? From the beginning, the users of PW (both those placing ads and those providing space) have been almost exclusively associated with [web]comics. As a result, there is a certain amount of monetary recycling within our semi-dysfunctional humble li’l community but relatively little cash brought in from “outside”.

    But of late, we seem to have been more broadly discovered by those wishing to vend to the sort that would frequent comicdom — for example, Sore Thumbs presently is seen as a good venue to advertise naughty ladies that want to meet you. Hey, as long as webcomics is getting paid, I have no problem with this.

  • Finally: horrotacular photowork from Paul Taylor — a model, a camera, and bingo! His demon characters spring to creepifying life. Yikes.

Hopes, Dreams, Etc.

Couple things going on in the world of webcomics. For starters, the Applegeeks crew are due in next month’s Dark Horse Presents on MySpace. The topic of Dark Horse in general came up at lunch with Rick Marshall yesterday, and we’re astonished by the string o’ webcomics talent that they’ve been trafficking in.

But the big story is undoutedbly the news from CBR that Platinum have entered into a deal to produce a Hero By Night TV show. You remember Hero By Night? Created by a guy named DJ Coffman who, as of this writing, hasn’t actually been contacted by Platinum regarding said deal? Since the partner mentioned by Platinum in their press release, IM Global, appears to have a track record in distribution and has a number of projects in the pipeline, this may be more than just a PR announcement where the project at issue never comes to fruition.

That leaves the obvious question, What about DJ? The contracts offered by Platinum for the 2006 Comic Book Challenge aren’t public (momentary pause here to offer some kudos to Zuda for their disclosure of the contracts; I don’t like a lot of the terms they contain, but at least they’re where we can all see them), so I asked DJ for some broad outlines about the agreement he has with Platinum. I didn’t ask for the particulars of rates or dollar figures, but did get some interesting details:

Fleen: You transferred the rights to certain original characters and situations to Platinum for immediate use in comic books. Does the licensing/exploitation of those characters and situations to other media obligate them to other payments?

Coffman: Yes. The TV stuff is covered and just about anything else under the sun is in there, even things that haven’t been invented yet. Even a spinoff based on characters from he universe I’d get royalties and bonuses from, but I can’t say how much, of course.

Fleen: Does your contract provide you with the right of independent auditing?

Coffman: Yes. If memory serves me, my CBC contract says I could have my own accountant go in and check their books and all that. If there was no further communication from them, I was planning on doing this anyways at some point regarding the online animations they put out (which are covered) and the downloads at Wowio.

Fleen: It’s my understanding that Scott Rosenberg (head of Platinum) has in the past started multiple companies in the area of comics and other media, including a new one called Vanguard Comics whose mission statement is eerily similar to that of Platinum Studios. Is the company that you are contracted with the same legal entity that made the announcement with IM Global?

Coffman: Yes. And it’s been my understanding from other legal eagles I’ve spoken with that if another company takes over Platinum, buys them out, changes names, the contracts still stand and are simply transfered over to the new entity, and I’d get a smaller contract to sign stating that I’m aware of the new owners of the property, and that contract continues under its term. I guess that’s common sense legal biz.

Fleen: Are there any questions that you have for Platinum Studios or IM Global at this time?

Coffman: Yes. Please tell me they have not and will not hire the special effects team for Stan Lee’s Harpies. That’s not too much to ask, right?

Judging from that clip, not too much to ask at all.

Finally, following up on Tuesday’s story about Help Desk’s financial woes, creator Christopher Wright is reporting that his readers have dug down into their pockets, and that the site will remain up for at least another month. Obviously, it’s not a long-term solution, but it’s at least a short-term happy ending.

My Two Minutes With Chris Onstad

So Chris Onstad made it to the New York Metro area on Friday evening; I had never met the gentleman before (unsurprising, as he keeps a relatively low profile, with even photos of the man being Pynchonesque in their rarity until this year), and found him a capital fellow. I have only one regret about the entire affair, which we will get to presently.

My buddy Brett and I met up with Chris Hastings, David McGuire, and Rick Marshall Willenholly at the bar next door to Rocketship. Our intrepid crew can be seen in this photo from the Rocketship blog report.

As it turns out, the line would wind through the comic shop, into the back hallways, and through a door back into the bar by the time we were done — Onstad, faced with a signing line more than five hours long, wisely fortified himself with all that the very skilled bartenders had at hand.

Finding out that Onstad was signing for five hours really puts the two and a half we spent in line in perspective — in part, it was so long because he took the time to greet every person that came up to him, shake their hand, and talk with them for a minute or two. For that time, the fan in question was his entire focus, which is a remarkably kind act on his part. Having obtained a sketch in my copy of The Great Outdoor Fight, I walked the line backwards and estimated that 150 people still remained at that time.

Things that stuck out during the evening:

  • Asking Onstad about his interview with Steve “Ratboy” Inskeep, I was told that it was “weird”. The taping took place at 8am with Onstad in a west coast studio, and inexplicably there was nothing to drink. There was no coffee, nothing in the studio … all I could think was, ‘There’s a warm Sapporo in my car … let’s rock.’ Weird or not, it was great to hear what Ray and Beef’s voices sound like.
  • Onstad drew a lot of Roast Beefs, but I chose Mr Bear, based on his self-evident badassery of the past few weeks. Here’s where the one regret comes in — had there been a light turnout and plenty of time to talk without holding up the line, I definitely would have asked for Ray ripping off Cody Travis’s face. But only after I got home did I even think that I should have asked for a picture of Ramses Luther Smuckles. Next time for sure.
  • Standing in line just behind Hastings, I was able to observe what two webcomics pros are like when they admire each others work, meet for the first time, and come to the near-instant decision that they need to work on a project togther.
  • McGuire has a terrific new giveaway to promote Gastrophobia — a sticker of an entire strip. Stickers I’ve seen plenty, but I think this is the first one I’ve collected with a full story in just a few square inches. Very clever.
  • There had been hopes to meet up with Magnolia Porter, but alas we missed each other.
  • Onstad confirmed to Hastings the answer to one of the great enduring mysteries of webcomics! Namely, the person in the gorilla suit at SPX07 has now been positively identified! As suspected in some quarters, the gorilla is a prominent webcomicker! Contacted via email for comment, the faux-simian muttered something about getting away with it, if not for those darn kids !

On an unrelated, but no less important note, Fleen wishes a very happy birthday to Meredith Gran. It’s absolutely astonishing that you are only 24 years old and have already produced a body of such good work going back nearly a decade.

Can’t Talk … Voting

Making the rounds — a question from Rick Marshall (tireless promoter of cool things and friend to children everywhere) to various webcomic creators: Who would your characters vote for? Answers so far from Rene Engström and R Stevens in their LiveJournals, and by the time you read this, Marshall should have a collection of responses at his blog. Oh, and Rick? Keep coming up with cool ideas like this one before I have a chance to, and I’m bringing back the Sleestak references. Just sayin’.

  • The official rapper of webcomics sees his new CD shipping today; those of you that pre-ordered have probably been enjoying the downloaded tracks, but I’m a physical artifact kind of guy. That’s why I’m extremely pleased that The Front slid me a disk a few weeks back and I’m loving it. Bear in mind — I’m a suburb-livin’ white guy who can no longer deny that he’s in his forties, and thus not the prime audience for hip-hop of any sort. But Final Boss (like its predecessors) has earned its spot in heavy rotation for my commute — the only thing that makes me feel better about facing the working day than Front is Radio Lab, and Jad & Robert don’t rap.
  • Hey, webcomicker! Ever wish you could bend the ear of an entertainment lawyer? Joey Manley wants to hear from you. Expressed by the Colonel:

    Over the next few months, I will be doing a series of podcast/interviews with Phyllis Kaufman, a leading media/entertainment/intellectual property rights attorney here in NYC. The goal of these interviews will be to help give webcartoonists a sense of how to successfully negotiate a publishing/movie/videogame/etc. licensing deal.

    We’re still trying to figure out a structure for the set of interviews (whether we’ll take it medium by medium — a book deal podcast, a movie deal podcast — or issue by issue — or what). But I hope and expect that these interviews will be useful and meaningful.

    If you had Phyllis in the room with you, what would you ask her about this stuff? And if you have a contract that you’ve signed or are about to sign, would you be willing to share it with us (we promise never to tell anybody), so that Phyllis can speak with an understanding of the actual kinds of deals that people are having shoved at them? I’ve already shared with her the Zuda and the TokyoPop contracts, both of which are public info, but any further information we can obtain would be useful.

    Responses can go directly to Joey, whose surname is Manley, and has been known to keep an email address at the Google-based email service, which I understand is a dot-com.

Looks Like I Spoke Too Soon, Re: The Economy

So let’s try to find some fun where we can.

I should have written about this one yesterday, but I didn’t want it to get lost in all the other stuff. The opera made about this Dinosaur Comic is going to be performed in public. A guerilla group of musicians named Liederwölfe will perform the song of the sinister raccoons at 10pm this Friday, October 3rd, as part of the Pop Montreal independent music festival. So if you should find yourself in the vicinity of 30 Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, and can afford a ticket price of Pay What You Can, you should be there.

Interviews!

Ignatz Again? Krazy!

This year’s nominations have been announced, and in the Online Comic category, we find the following:

My question: what could top the famed gorilla suit? The awards will be given at this year’s SPX, October 4th, in Bethesda, Maryland.

  • Speaking of Achewood, the previously-referenced NPR interview has been positively identified as occurring on their flagship program, Morning Edition, tomorrow. Find a station to listen on here, or listen to the streaming audio after about 10am EDT (GMT-4).
  • Estradarama updates continue in yesterday’s post; Ryan himself has taken off for a well-deserved break for a few days, but has left an auto-updating runthrough of all the guest pieces on his site. The fun starts here and continues with a new strip every hour for the next almost three days. Having upped his efforts from last year, I suspect that next year will be the Estradaramest.
  • Rick Marshall Will ‘n’ Holly interviews Jennie Breeden, she of the leaf blower and panties; one of these days, I’m gonna have to just cut out the middleman and get the Rickster to just run these interviews here. This is how it’s done, folks.
  • Jeff Zugale made an odd discovery lately — doubling up his strip production at Just A Bit Off so he could have a buffer against a vacation, he found that doing two strips a week was no more difficult than one. So why stop when he got back? JABO will now run on Mondays in addition to Thursdays, and who knows? If he gets to three days a week, maybe he’ll find a gift from Ryan Estrada in his email next September.
  • I was going to tell you about Danielle Corsetto‘s print sale to raise money for a new printer, but she’s already sold out of the special packages ($20 = 5 prints of your choice!). What this means, of course, is that now she’ll be able to offer more prints, so start looking through her back catalog and figure out what you just can live without for the upcoming Holiday giving season.

Fancy Circumstances, Indeed

Dark Horse‘s MySpace offering for September hit yesterday, with three of the four entries from the world of webcomics. You got Mitch Clem‘s Nothing Nice to Say: Getting Hip (two pages), Chris Onstad‘s Achewood: One Dollar Genius (eight pages), and the very fancy Liz Greenfield‘s Steak and Kidney Punch (eight pages). And the other offering is an eight-page Larry Marder Beanworld tale, so it’s all good.

  • For further proof that Onstad is taking over the world, there’s another piece in the Sandwich Duel due today, and this little beauty on the Achewood front page (no permalink):

    Achewood NPR interview airs next week.

    My guess? Weekend Edition Saturday or Sunday, The Bryant Park Project, or Day to Day, but nothing known for sure at this point. Good news: NPR programs are generally available for streaming within a hour of their initial broadcast.

  • Interview day:
  • Ephemera note of the day: a micro-piece on webcomics bid’ness from Entrepreneur magazine; very little there you don’t know if you follow our happy little medium, but quite a bit new if you don’t. Secret fear: flood of I’m gonna make it big in WEBCOMICS ideas bubbling up in the brains of B-school douchebags types looking for easy pickings and providing crappy comics. I trust that if they show up, you will know how to greet them.

Link Love

Love, I tell you!

Back to college season is in full swing in the States, which is when a webcomicker’s thoughts turn to new (and returning readers). Along those lines, a mess of webcomickers appear to be linking the snot out of stuff today — pretty much you can pick a a comic over there to the right, and then follow the trails of recommendations.

Some names keep recurring, like Gastro~Phobia, but I found the most interesting (ie: never would have found them on my own) links over at Indigo Kelleigh’s Ellie Connelly. And the link from Rich Stevens to Kinokofry is the most dangerous — one click and I realized I can’t go there until I have three hours with no other demands on my time. College kids, your homework for this weekend is to grab a link, start exploring, then get good and lost. Allow me to help get you started: One Swoop Fell.

Updated to add: Looks like Gunnerkrigg Court took a few too many high-value links; since the main site is presently down, look to the mirror at Modern Tales for your fix.

  • DAMMIT JEPH I TOLD YOU — NO PICTURES.
  • PAX kicks off today, and have you seen the pictures of the cake done by Scott Kurtz‘s brother, Brian? What is it with the Dallas/Ft Worth area and insane-talented cakers? I have a colleague who does stuff like this in her spare time and she lives in Dallas. Also, I am very scared to ask this, but I have to: what does Gabe taste like?
  • Friend o’ Fleen Rick Marshall has landed at Viacom, where he’ll be an editor for their MTV Splash Page (comics, movies, and that side of the pop culture coin). Okay, cool, he’ll be eating, but there’s better news — he’ll be continuing his series of webcomicker interviews, this time on the pages of his personal blog, so nobody can ever take them away from us again. Everybody feel good for Rick!
  • Mr T in the pages of The Beat on waiting for WOWIO to cough up monies owed. For the record, have any WOWIO creators gotten paid for Q2 yet? I ask because we’re 2/3 of the way through Q3 and I haven’t heard of anybody getting paid since Platinum took over the checkbook.