The News Blog of Comics Culture
And just like that, Yahoo head Marissa Mayer become the most important person in comics.
As you may have heard, Yahoo is planning to buy Tumblr for $1.1 billion, a move that aims to make the recently moribund internet giant a bit more relevant to the social media world.
TweetAs a prelude to Kieron Gillen’s actual recounting of the consequences from Marvel’s Avengers Vs X-Men event, let’s take a quick look at some of the dangling stories/ideas/moments which may or may not be addressed in the near future. This was a big event by any stands, with five writers and three artists involved, as [...]
A very special comics “experience” — the new xkcd: Click and Drag is an actually a vast, draggable world of in-jokes and wonder. There’s even a guide to the comic strip. It’s immersive and amazing.
Erin Polgreen’s iPad-based magazine of comics journalism, Symbolia, gets previewed as part of Christopher Borelli’s look at the rise of non fiction comics journalism. Polgreen was in town a while ago and showed us some samples of the project — not only was the lineup of creators impressive, but Polgreen has the smarts and focus to make Symbolia a must-read.
Future comics by Jen Lee. Expect to see this everywhere by the end of the week. Amzing.
Cartoonist Susie Cagle and Cartoon Movement are at it again with “Down in Smoke” a report on the pot wars of Oakland. All of Cartoon Movements comics are thoughtful piece of original journalism—but it’s also on the cutting edge of comics technology, with charts, timelines, animation and in this case, an “audio comic’ that includes embedded interviews with the people in the comics. Impressive.
Two recent surveys reveal seismic changes in how the consumption of books and movies—once the massest of mass media—is changing.
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My common complaint with the current wave of interactive/digital comics is the lack of ingenuity, risk, and execution, which fall into three camps. The first is the artist-centric camp where the person who made the comic is a competent cartoonist but has no knowledge of programming and is unconscious of interactivity, so the function feels gimmicky and not worth my time. The second is the program-centric, where the design is strong but the story is not much of a looker or read, and can feel more like a proof of concept than a whole-hearted piece. Finally, the third camp is the ones that peter out because the time and energy put into it outweighs the pay off, leading to burnout and an unfinished story.
A new comic up at Cartoon Movement by Dan Carino is a tragic look at self-immolation and the Tibetan situation.
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Is this a potentially workable pay model for web comics?!
OK, personally for me, Zombies officially went passe the moment Robert Kirkman appeared on The View, but that’s not deterring people from overdoing it. This web comic, I’ll let it slide ’cause it did more with the tired formula.
Zombies Eat Republicans uses a scrolling format but where The First Word stops, ZER takes it further by incorporating sound and music (although looping, which can become annoying) and having the panels slide into place instead of being a static layout, making the read much more active. The comic employs a dragging command to move the story along; though the arrow keys are available, I suggest the mouse or touch for more control.
While Marvel’s corporate policies don’t allow for too much investment in their print business, they have been really ramping up the digital side of things. Why? Rob Salkowitz looks at the meta side of the new online comics line and AR experiments in terms of how it positions the company:
Yusuke Murata is the manga-ka behind the very popular American football manga EYESHIELD 21. In between massive ongoing series—his next project is called onepunchman—Murata started posting a webcomic via Twitter, bsed on yet another series, Hetappi Manga Research Lab R. The story involves Murata being chased over a cliff by an editor and looming deadlines—no paranoia there!—and he uses unique folded paper and lighting effects to give the story more impact.
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