Recent Entries

Entry tags:

Theme Week: YA Web Comics

Having been kicked in the pants by a special someone, I'm going to try really hard to post a review of a webcomic every day this week.

I also want to stick to a theme this week.

This weeks' theme? YOUNG ADULT WEB COMICS, webcomics aimed at a younger audience.

I'm especially looking at Bad Machinery, Monster Pulse, Paranatural, Selkie,What Birds Know.

Any other suggestions? Link us up in comments here OR write and post your own reviews!

EDIT TO ADD:

Now that I think about it, most (all?) of these aren't YA, they're more middle school.

Entry tags:

review

Riot Nrrd

It's time to talk about Riot Nrrd again! The art has improved since

brigid mentioned it last year, and the comic continues to be awesome. It recently passed 100 posts, so it's not too late to catch up with the whole archive. Start at the beginning, where three young women who are about to go to college decide to create a comic together. They all have different ethnic backgrounds, different skills and different body types, and it's full of all sorts of intersectional goodness! (some of which would be spoilers ...) Also, occasional meta dispatches from the Joss Whedon Puppyverse, and the comic has transcripts. I can't remember seeing a webcomic with a transcript anywhere else. Woohoo!

The Cynical Tales of Light

I would like to plug my webcomic The Cynical Tales of Light. It's a humors comic about an unfortunate mage name Light. I hand draw the artwork, lettering and mostly used markers to color it.

Here's a little preview of the art style.

To see my comics visit http://cynicaltalesoflight.blogspot.com/

Blogs about webcomics

What blogs do you follow to keep up with news in the world of webcomics, discover new ones, and so on?

I read Storming the Tower for thoughtful reviews and discussion, and Fleen for frequently-updated news/gossip/etc. Storming the Tower is written by someone with fairly similar tastes to mine, while Fleen casts a wide net over the whole world of webcomics. Both have their place in my RSS reader :) I've found several new favorites from both of them.

How about you?

Entry tags:

TopatoCo is hiring

Do you live in/near Easthampton, Massachusetts? Are you looking for a job/internship in the fast paced and exciting world of webcomics product distributorship? Jeffry Rowland of TopatoCo is hiring.

Entry tags:

recomendation

Let's talk about lesser known comics

Hey, webcomics community! Let's talk about lesser known webcomics, ones that are relatively recent but have already established themselves as quality. By "lesser known" I mean not one of the usual suspects one sees when reccing webcomics... PvP, QC, Hark! A Vagrant, Octopus Pie, Penny Arcade, Something Positive, and other ones that are awesome and we love but are pretty popular. Bonus points if they are feminist or deal with characters who are not white able bodied heterosexual males.

Riot Nrrd Comics is one of my newest faves, and my heart skips a beat every time a new one goes up. The art is a little young, but the writing-- and especially the characters-- are very, very strong and more than make up for the art, which looks like it's going to improve.

Depending on your social circle, either every single person you know reads PhD Comics or else nobody's ever heard of it. It's a bit of a niche comic, albeit a very well established and long running one, about academia and the pursuit of a fancy, expensive, piece of paper. Also: the nature of humanity.

Unshelved is another all or nothing comic, with this one's milieu being not academia but the closely related world of public libraries. As a special bonus, they do book reviews as well. Dreamy!

Darryl Cunningham, on livejournal, has published several extremely popular comics about controversial subjects-- vaccines, the moon landing "hoax," psychiatric care. While certain of his work has garnered a lot of attention, not all of it has. Check out the rest.

Kagerou, by Luka Delaney, is one that I've fallen behind on. It's got a big archive, and it's really fun to go back and look at the starting art and what Luka is creating now.

I first ran into Ugly Girl a few years ago. It's an intimate look at high schoolers dealing with personal relationships and general life stuff, and it's really compelling. Giving the characters labels instead of names (spaz, fat girl, ugly girl, etc) is an interesting choice that says a lot about the society they (and we) live in.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Skin Deep before, a beautifully illustrated, colored, and written comic about mythological creatures and their world.

What are some of your go-to lesser-known webcomics recs?

FRIENDS 4 EVER!!!! 150th strip!

FRIENDS 4 EVER!!!! SUPER SPECIAL MARSHMALLOW-FILLED 150TH STRIP!!!
Yes, it's true. F4E! has reached it's 150th strip.

Come one, come all, read the latest strip, or start from the beginning.

Rec: Family Man by Dylan Meconis

Bunches of you probably read Family Man already, but if not, I've just written a rec for it over at my journal. The first book (containing the first two chapters) is coming out soon and she's taking pre-orders now! *fangirl glee*

Current Location: Baltimore, cat-side
Current Music: Little Shop of Horrors Soundtrack -- Mean Green Mother From OuterSpace

WINDUP COMIC FEST:: Saturday, May 22. Baltimore.

WINDUP COMIC FEST 2010

The Windup Comic Fest is a one-day sequential art event, held twice a year in Baltimore at The Windup Space. Indie comic book artists and comic book stores set up shop for an afternoon of comic awesomeness.

There is no cover charge. The Windup Comics Fest is an all-ages event. Alcohol is available for guests 21 and older. Parking is on-street, or in one of two nearby garages.

MAY 22, 2010. 2pm - 7pm. 12 West North Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21201

P.S. Vendor Space still Available. Check the website for details.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: Home
Current Music: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--The Arcade Game (from the other room)

DC Art Show with Local Webcomics Folks & Graphic Novelists

COOL YULE ARTY PARTY

Date: Tomorrow! December 12, 2009
Time: Noon - 6pm
Location: The Lustine Center - 5710 Baltimore Ave, Hyattsville, MD, 20781

What: Gallery Shows by DC artists. 4 Live bands. Holiday Crafts Festival. DC area Comics, webcomics, and Graphic Novelists.

Click the picture above to see the official press release.

Of course, Interrobang Studios and I will be there, but also a host of other folks from a local indie comics group called the "DC Conspiracy." If you're local, you should come out and see the sights!

Current Location: At the desk, behind the desk-cat.
Current Music: Daily Show Online. Oh Mr. Stewart. <3!

Anyone Going to AnimeUSA?

This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Interrobang Studios (that's me and Kevin ;) will be in some of y'all's backyard at AnimeUSA in Crystal City, Virginia. You can find us here:

Hope I get a chance to meet some of you!

I know that Mr. D. Tiede of Paradigm Shift is going to be a guest at AnimeUSA. I got linked to that website through a recommendation here. Thanks guys! Y'all have great taste, I look forward to meeting him. :)

Other cool news: I got interviewed at Big Apple Comic Con by U Frag TV. Starting at minute 25, I'm on right after Lou Ferrigno. Damn, son! (I would have embedded it, but it auto-plays. Yuck.)

I've been interviewed by other folks from cons before, but UFragTV's the first to post the interview.

If I sound a little quavery and like I'm the daughter of the old MicroMachines guy it's cause they were doing the interview LIVE and I was told that I might get bumped at any moment for William Shatner. *nerd-gasm*

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: Upstairs, juggling inventory sheets!
Current Music: Squirrel Nut Zippers - Bad Business Man

New York, New YOOOORRRK!

( Visit Interrobang Studios at the Big Apple Comic Con! Here's the Floor Map. )

Kevin and I are road-tripping to NYC tomorrow where we will stay with a friend in Brooklyn and live at our con table for 3 days. Check out the crazy hours on this con!

Friday, October 16, 2009 - 12pm - 8pm,
9pm - 12am Night Events
Saturday, October 17, 2009 - 10am - 7pm,
8pm - 12am Night Events
Sunday, October 18, 2009 - 10am - 5pm

That's 24 hours of convention! I'm gonna take some thick towels to fold and lay down just behind the table so that my feet don't fall off by day three. It's always best to stand, but that concrete is KILLER.

SOOO excited! *DANCING!*

Oh and this is the last time I do Chu-Chu Rocket for our table-map. Promise. We're just on a super-time crunch between these two cons. I'm gonna ask Kevin to help me make some graphics for so that I can build maps with OUR characters from here on out.

Wish us luck, and if you're local, come see us!

P.S. Ursula V's "Digger" was an AWESOME rec! I'm hooked! :D Thank you!

Entry tags:

review

Recommendation: Digger

"A wombat. A dead god. A very peculiar epic."

Digger by Ursula Vernon is a story-driven comic (I mean, as opposed to a gag-strip) that has been going for quite a while at a rate of two pages per week.

The main character, Digger, is a wombat, who apparently by nature are very sensible. She finds herself far from home, where things seem a lot weirder...

I'm afraid I'm not very good at summing up things. What I like about this comic:

The simple but effective art.
The humour, which hinges on "oddity", which however usually are part of the story, rather than degenerating to pointless gimmicks.
The feeling of a larger world Ursula Vernon creates by making references to the made-up peoples' mythologies part of the story
The fact that Digger is sensible and pragmatic.

My favourite webcomic. Make sure to have some spare time if you delve into the archives, it's over 600 pages.

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: upstairs, going downstairs for dinner.
Current Music: Negotiating for 1940's style Booth Bunnies

Hello?

Is anyone planning on going to Baltimore Comic Con?

( Interrobang Studio Appearance Under Cut. Two Large Graphics. )

We're booking an increasing number of cons and learning more and more each time we do them.

I spoke to the mod here once and she had wonderful recommendations for webcomics to read, but I have to wonder, are there other folks still following this community? Do you write or draw comics? Or are you an avid reader? If you write or draw, is it a hobby? Or are there other folks trying to do it professionally here in the community?

Heck, I'm the only person posting updates, and I don't want to be obnoxious. Would y'all like me to STOP?

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: Upstairs, behind a desk-based cat.
Current Music: Blake has crunchy things. He's eating them via Skype. TALENT!

The Road to Success through Art...

INTERROBANG STUDIOS WILL BE AT SMALL PRESS EXPO
SPX 2009 is in Bethesda, MD on Sept 26 & 27

Who else is going?

Also, my fiance & primary artist for our fledgling comics studio, Kevin Bolk, has submitted a t-shirt design to threadless.com.

Threadless only prints t-shirts (and pays life-sustaining $$$) for designs that pass their 7 day scoring. If you'd like to see this shirt on the street or in your closet--or perhaps you'd like to do a good deed for the day--please vote for this shirt:

Vegetarian Zombie - Threadless T-shirts, Nude No More

It will ask you to sign up for a free threadless account so it can track your votes, but I'm hoping (pleading?) that one teensy activation email wouldn't stand between you and a good deed. A really good deed. A feeding-our-tiny-family-style good deed. This is where I line up my four cats and cue Sally Struthers.

...fer real. An email & a vote, please. I've not found a new job yet. We need this.

And in case that's not selfish enough? If you really like the shirt? Post the vote link on your websites, forums, journals, & blogs. After you vote, there'll be an embeddable code generated on the right-hand side of the page near the bottom.

We can has a viral?

(Regardless of your voting/posting, thank you for reading! Hope we see you at the con. :D)

Current Mood: LUCKY!
Current Location: Downstairs on the ibook.
Current Music: Avenue Q - My Canadian Girlfriend

OTAKON 2009!

WE'RE GOING TO OTAKON 2009! This Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, June 17-19, Interrobang Studios will be in Baltimore!

We got table space in the artist alley after all! There was this huge waiting list and we had a snowball's chance--but then we got a BENEFACTORESS! 2x2x2 invited us to share her table space in the Otakon artist alley!

Swing by her webpages and check out her awesome stuff!

Did any of y'all have plans to attend? Will we get to meet you?

Current Mood: curious
Current Location: Downstairs. In front of the box fan.
Current Music: Box fan.

Who else is going?

I'm sorry for the double-post, but convention season is upon us. Who's attending which ones? Either as artists or as con-goers, I know there's gotta be a few in this crowd. Since we're scattered around the country, I thought I'd take a stab.

Interrobang Studios will be attending Wizard World Philadelphia.

We'll have 3 new books in addition to our 2 classics, a ton of art prints, handmade Spinks, and studio artist Kevin Bolk on site to take commissions. We'll be in artist alley, booth 33A--if you're in the neighborhood, it would be awesome to meet you.

We'll be hitting 4 or 5 of the major east coast Comics & Anime cons this year: Wizard World Philly, AnimeUSA, SmallPress Expo, and Baltimore Comic Con. (Otakon pending). What's your con season look like?

(Psst. If you know of any awesome-must-see artists attending any of these, please share the love. I'm gonna come out from behind the table at some point to hunt goodies.)

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: Under my hat
Current Music: Oscillating fan indoors. Neighborhood kids outside.

Interrobang Studios: Awesome.

Hello, It's nice to meet you all.

I've been involved in Interrobang Studios since 2005. I write, ink & color various ongoing comic strips--our site has run anywhere from five to three ongoing concurrent strips since it launched.

Interrobang Studios serves as the central hub for all our studios' comics, games, and projects. We have 3 active strips, each with multiple updates during the week at various (marked) ratings. We also have archives for earlier projects. We're constantly adding new side projects: printed comic books, additional games in our arcades, online mini-comics, etc. You can visit the main page and see it all or hit the individual comics directly:

I'm My Own Mascot: A black & white autobiographical comic about our main artist, Kevin Bolk. All of us tend to show up in it, as do gold pants.

Spinks! It's an all-ages appropriate strip about happy little fat things with tiny feet. It updates 3 times a week and has no dialogue--only onomatopoeia.

The Last Mystical Legend of the Fantastic Fantasy Trigger Star: An epic quest--with BOOBIES! (And mature themes). It updates 2 times a week on Tuesdays & Fridays and follows a rather disreputable hero through a dubious quest of more-or-less honor.

Pot Luck Comics: An archived mish-mash of parody and original strips that were too funny to skip, but not themed enough for any of our other stips. You'll find everything from Zelda to blind kittens in here.

A Girl Named Bob Our archive of all Bob's assaults on the working world. As a bitter and imaginative bank teller, Bob pilots her air raid-style flights of fancy with maniacal glee.

Punker Darren: This archive contains mature themes--mostly violence. Punker Darren won't take your sh*t. His bat and his kick-ass compatriot, Skinhead Fred, pound the living snot out of racists, bigots, hypocrites, and Hot Topic franchises.

We're slated to appear at Wizard World Philly, have arranged Project Wonderful web-advertising, programed the first of many browser based games, and put out 2 (soon to be 5 at the end of the next two weeks) print comic books.

Of course, I would be deeply grateful if you would check it out: Interrobang Studios and look for us at Wizard World Philly (should you be in the area).

A second purpose for the this post-- who ELSE is doing this? Who else is holding down two jobs or even three to launch THEIR Webcomic dreams? Who's got an art career? Who's writing books? Who's setting up their own business or their own future while going to school? While working full-time? While raising a family? While being a care-taker for a family member?

Tell me about it. Please. This is the most important and most exhausting goal I've ever set for my life-- It's the hardest damn thing ever, just b/c it's gotta happen every. single. day. I wanna hear what you're going through. I wanna cheer you on. I wanna know I'm not alone and these kinds of things do work out for people.

Entry tags:

"Skin Deep" by Kory Bingaman

Skin Deep, by Kory Bingaman, kicks off with Michelle starting college and trying to make friends. When she picks up and dons an ugly medallion she sees someone drop on the ground, she's catapulted into a world where mythical creatures, angels, and demons-- often disguised as humans-- live in and next to the "normal" world. Michelle finds that she's not only not human, but she's apparently the last of her race and someone is gunning for her. As she freaks out over falling deeper and deeper into freakyville, her new college friends (who are all apparently creatures of mythology) try to help her come to terms with who and what she is, and what she can do.

Bingaman dips into a large number of pantheons and mythologies, and Judeo Christian Angels rub shoulders with Native American trickster gods. Dropped as we are into the middle of things, it's very obvious that her characters existed before the story starts; they have personalities and history and motivations of their own that are larger than the existing story. The writing is very strong, the characters unique and interesting, and the art is not just good but improving as the comic continues.

Although the comic doesn't have that large an archive, the current storyline is a very good introduction to the world if you don't have time to devote to an involved archive crawl.

Hosting, KeenSpace, Etc.

So, it's been a LONG time since I did a webcomic. When I did mine before, I used KeenSpace (...back when it was still called KeenSpace) to host my comics-- as much for the general promotion and attention as for the hosting itself.

I've been working on a new comic lately and I'm trying to decide what the best hosting plan is. I'm plenty familiar with hosting websites in general, so I don't need help with that; I just want advice on whether I should just host it myself, host it through someone, etc.

All advice greatly appreciated.