Webcomic AND future comic alert: Tibet's Sacrifice: Exiled Lives
A new comic up at Cartoon Movement by Dan Carino is a tragic look at self-immolation and the Tibetan situation.
Future Comics: Zombies Eat Republicans
by Serhend Sirkecioglu
-- 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.The bigger picture on Marvel's new digital initiative
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:
Future Comics: That Twitter comic by the Eyeshield 21 guy everyone is talking about
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.
Future Comics: A Lebanese Webcomic with Democratic Storytelling
by Serhend Sirkecioglu
The Middle East is, except for The 99 (which I can't read without cringing every other page) not to my knowledge a big scene when it comes to comics, but I recently stumbled upon something from Lebanon: a rather standard web comic with a very noteworthy twist. Sarab, The Interactive Web Comic is a story where the reader votes on what happens next.
Future comics? Valiant unveils first talking comic book cover
Well, looks like this Valiant relaunch is going to go places we've never gone before. The first issue of X-O Manowar will have a QR Voice Variant—"the world's first QR code-augmented, talking comic book cover!" Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic supplies the art. On Wednesday, a preview poster will be shipped to local comic shops so you can preview the technology, which involves a QR code, a smart phone and a steady hand.
Future Comics: "The First Word" makes good use of scrolling, models
by Serhend Sirkecioglu -- Web comics have at least 3-4 formats, the reader (page-page), the slideshow (panel to panel), the vertical scroll and the horizontal scroll (which could be just be called the scroll and is panoptic). Personally I like the intuitive feel of the scroll over the reader; which feels more like post production 3D; and the slide show, which is just a slide show. I recently came across this comic called The First Word from Electric Sheep Comix which uses CGI models…in a way where I don’t cringe as much, but put the scroll to good use.
Future Comics: Ouija: A Panelplay
Artist Tommie Kelly sent us a link to his webcomic Ouija: A Panelplay, which uses what he calls "PanelPlay" which is basically clicking for the next panel, along with some subtle, appropriate animation effects. The story is nothing great, but it is a nice demo. I know panel-click advance comics have been around for a while, so in the comments, throw up some links to other recent Future Comics of note.
Brian Wood on digital vs brick and mortar: "Everyone is bleeding."
Responding to last week's Dark Horse vs the retailers controversy over the price of Dark Horse's simultaneous digital release, writer Brian Wood has summed up the very hard rock and very rocky hard place that we all find ourselves in. While acknowledging that no one wants to see their local comics shop go under, he says for creators, it is a rough time with big question marks everywhere:
The beginning of a new comic era…with track suits
An article in The Gauntlet, the University of Calgary's student magazine, boldly proclaimsThe beginning of a new comic era -- and Calgary's Maad Sheep Productions are just the guys to do it. What the article does not mention is that in order to flourish, comics creators must dress like a NASCAR pit crew.
Mike Perkins draws 6-page comic for Apparatjik World
In our tableted world, it's only a matter of time before a multimedia magazine with embedded videos and animations and music and all becomes all the rage and changes our culture forever. Just like they did when CD-ROMs were all the rage*...only those were just ahead of the platform curve. Eisner- and Harvey Award-nominated artist Mike Perkins emailed us to explain that he has a 6-page comic strip in one such magazine, Apparatjik World, which has a preview issue available for free download on the iPad. This one centers around the band Apparatjik, which consists of bassist Guy Berryman from Coldplay, guitarist/keyboardist Magne Furuholmen from A-ha, singer/guitarist Jonas Bjerre of Mew and producer Martin Terefe.
DC Digital: The day dawns clear on the middle of the end
After a hurricane, the sun usually comes out resulting in sparkling skies for the clean-up. As the East Coast attempts to clean up and dry off from a storm that could have been much worse (but was still pretty bad in spots) we wake up to a fairly epochal week in the history of comics. Because the internet wasn't around, we didn't know that the 1980 arrival of SUPERBOY SPECTACULAR or DAZZLER #1 -- the first comics produced by DC and Marvel that were direct market-only -- would mark the beginning of a whole new era for the comics industry, and -- despite the protestations of imminent death at every turn -- usher in a era of undreamed of creative fertility and energy.
Wednesday at 12:01 am the new era begins. Not the era of the New 52 -- despite any declarations to the contrary, that's really business as usual, just jump started in the manner of a car battery. No, it's the era of digital comics. While everyone has been transfixed over whether GREEN LANTERN by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy will be better than GREEN LANTERN by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy; or how Tony Daniels' DETECTIVE COMICS is going to vastly improve on his Batman comics, the real revolution has quietly been dawning on retailers and readers: DC's decision to go with simultaneous digital and print release of their comics.
