Earth Bear Homestuck to the C&H show

Here's a bit of an update for page 82 for Tomb of the Undead, sort of the "with commentary" portion of a DVD, or something like that.

On this page we've got the uniting of Ian Escutcheon with Casey and Howard finally formalizing. The blood spatters on Escutcheon and Bolam will last for a while - my sister didn't understand it, and kept wondering if they had like sweaty armpits or something. So DON'T FORGET, he's been shot, and it's blood, and it's not sweat.

The scene, Call the Office, is named after a legendary / infamous bar in London, Ont., that I'm not sure I've ever been to, but certainly knew about when I would visit friends in college at Western University. I thought it was a cool name for a club. In any case, that's a little 'behind the scenes' take on this last series of images.

Dr. Miller, Dr. Bolam and Evelyn return to Escutcheon's office in search of a new direction in Call the office.

See more by following the links:

• King Street Capers (updated Jan. 21)
• General comics (updated Jan. 22)
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Jan. 21) 
• Dinosuars (updated Jan. 23)
• Sketch Gallery (updated Jan. 17), or the
• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Earth Bear Homestuck to the C&H show
This week I have been immersed in Home Stuck,  at MS Paint Adventures.com. I wasn't sure what this was, but a video hyped it up for me.I've included it below - the webcomic/game is really cool, and I can't stop reading it (and it's like more than 7,000 pages in size, meaning, you can take it the distance. It's a fun read). There's also a much more in depth discussion on the Cyanide and Happiness cartoon show, which is definitely worth a read.

In other news,
Check it out!

Homestuck
Andrew Hussie
MS Paint Adventures.com

This week I have been immersed in Home Stuck,  at MS Paint Adventures.com. I wasn't sure what this was, but a video hyped it up for me.Simply put, it's a webcomic, but it's like, animated in some spots, and the characters are especially well fleshed out. It's VERY interesting, and it's immense, so ... if you like it, there's lots there to stay interested in.

MSPA stories exist in the format of "mock games", specifically text-based adventure games. You advance through the pages of the story by clicking links which sound like commands you would type in a text prompt to get a character to do something. Generally, the character will respond to that command on the following page.

Click to read more.

Cyanide And Happiness Opt Out of Old Model For Animated Show
Charles Kenny
Animation Anomaly.com

While it is tempting to brush off the C&H decision as merely the latest in a long line of internet phenomenons whose creators are unwilling to bend to the demands of traditional business models, that isn’t the case. The decision to go the alternative route was not rushed by any stretch of the imagination.

Click to read more.

Sweet Deal
Jason Poland
Robbie and bobby.com

classic.

There's not a lot to say other than this little comic was a load of fun to read when it was Tweeted out yesterday. Loved it.

Click to read more.

Super-Hating Silent Pirates with Cyanide and Happiness, Turbo Sloths and a Broctopus

Texty is not equal to sexy, but I try and get the exposition done and over with quickly, not to make it seemed rushed, but I can only imagine readers don't want too many long pages of just people standing around chatting, esp. without any menacing gestures or swinging emotions.

Therein lies a good note for when I write a script again, I'll make a point to infuse a lot more action into what's going on - too often I've found people are just standing around. Television often makes a good example of not having people just standing and talking, often they're on their way to do something. If you watch CSI, those guys are always pacing the hallways giving the exposition, rarely standing still unless evidence is in their hands.

In any case, that's my reflections on page 81. How long do you suppose Escutcheon remains in that bloody shirt? Or Bolam for that matter!

Dr. Miller, Dr. Bolam and Evelyn return to Escutcheon's office in search of a new direction in Call the office.

See more by following the links:

• King Street Capers (updated Jan. 10)
• General comics (updated Dec. 10)
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Jan. 14) 
• Dinosuars (updated Jan. 17)
• Sketch Gallery (updated Jan. 17), or the
• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Super-Hating Silent Pirates with Cyanide and Happiness, Turbo Sloths and a Broctopus - webcomic / graphic novel news
Some really interesting news coming from some of the webcomic sites I've been following lately. Firstly, very exciting is a new message from Nick Marino (creator of Super Haters), the first since Nov. 30, when his characters left the comic when a subspace distortion or temporal displacement and "POP" were gone.

It was a finale to Super Haters as a daily webcomic and the birth of Nilufa and Destruct-o-tron's new journeys in different media. Which is beginning very soon, thanks to this update!

Check it out!

Coming January 21, 2013!! A new Super Haters short story featuring art by the incredible E.D. and written by yours truly. E.D. also made this trailer (which fucking rocks, if ya ask me!).
Read "When Ya Comin' Back, Kid Raptor?" at http://comics.superhaters.com/

- Nick Marino.

The Cyanide & Happiness Show

No networks, no regional restrictions. We’ll be using Kickstarter to raise money for production. We firmly believe the entertainment industry is changing, and the Internet will eventually become the only way people watch shows. Especially the people that make up our awesome fanbase. The Internet is already the largest network, available when you think about it. Why go anywhere else?

Click to read more.

Silent Pirate Fan Art

A little shameless plug, but I was happy to share some fan art with the creator of Silent Pirate the other day and he featured the work in his gallery, which you can find here. Also, check the comic out!

Other stuff I've been following up with lately include PyramidCar.net, featuring the art of Scott Campbell, which has been fun. Check it out here.

Also, a fun webcomic to follow along with is Turbo Sloth  by Ben Pernick- it's funny.

The Walking Dead Vol. 15: We Find Ourselves Graphic Novel Review 
Chris Beveridge
www.fandompost.com

The Walking Dead continues to hit some strong notes here as it moves this community storyline forward, dealing with ways to shore up what’s protecting all of them, expanding their overall knowledge of the area outside and working to really make it a community. The open nature of discussing what needs to be done is well handled and it has some interesting ideas, whether they bear fruit or not, it’s good to see the slow but steady focus from survival in the present to thinking long term.

Click to read more.


Fairest Vol. #1 – Wide Awake Graphic Novel Review  
Chris Beveridge
The Fandom Post

Fairest had me intrigued with the first issue, but in reading the first story arc in full here it becomes apparent just how engaging and fascinating the storyline is. Rose may be the weaker of characters here overall in terms of story, but there’s a lot of exploration of her whole True Love’s angle that’s well done. Everyone has a storyline of importance here and they all blend together well into a narrative that compels you to move to the next page quickly, but with artwork that makes you linger over it as long as you can.

Click to read more.

A Truly Humbling Moment | Broctopus
Broctopus Team member Ryan
www.thebroctopus.com

Welcome to The Broctopus Webcomic. We had a dream to create webcomics and we have made that dream a reality. Please enjoy our take on games, movies and whatever else!

Click to read more.

Increasingly impassioned with webcomic community

Well, here's the update for Page 80 of the Tomb of the Undead. I really liked the opening scene, and felt it really said a lot while they were entering the scene. I think this might be the turning point in the comic where I started to get the hang of drawing these characters - but then again, the artwork continues to be an evolving animal, changing in complexity (both up and down) and reflective of my attitude when I'm creating it, which is that special something about creating art.

I hope you like it.

Dr. Miller, Dr. Bolam and Evelyn return to Escutcheon's office in search of a new direction in Call the office.

See more by following the links:

• King Street Capers (updated Jan. 10)
• General comics (updated Dec. 10)
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Jan. 10), or the 
• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Webcomic news
I've recently become much more impassioned with webcomics than graphic novels, and think that the work I'm doing falls more in line with that species of art. But, who am I to classify it - in any case, the online community seems much more vibrant around webcomics than graphic novels anyhow. I think I'll be happier there.

Webcomics I've been following up with:
Buttersafe  from Alex Culang and Raynato Castro @buttersafe
Silent Pirate from Ahmed Fahim
Curvy from Sylvan Migdal @SylvanMigdal
Zombie Ranch from Dawn and Clint Wolf @zombieranch
Tripp from "Spinester" @kingsburymanx
Katamari from Alex Culang and Raynato Castro (the folks at Buttersafe) @buttersafe
Garfield minus Garfield from  Dan Walsh  @GMinusG
Super Haters from  Nick Marino @Super_haters
Goblins from  Thunt @Thunt_Goblins
Cyanide and Happiness from Kris Wilson, Dave McElfatrick and Rob DenBleyker @Explosm
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal from Zach Weiner @smbctheater

There are a whole cast of other webcomics out there I'm interested in following up with, but haven't yet jumped at like El Goonish Shive, Accursed Dragon, Tales of a Checkered Man, which are next on my schedule. 

If you've got any recommendations for me leave a comment and I'll look into it, for sure!

Lindelof loves Underwater Welder

I'm way behind in my updates, but here's a recap of page 79, to follow along with posting about The Tomb of the Undead. Some news for today . . . I registered the domain for the second chapter of this - though I likely won't get to it for ... jeeze, probably two more years. However, I know what I WANT to be in there, and I think it'll be a really crazy story.

I designed this all to fit into a trilogy, and I think after what I've done with the first installment, I MAY conflate the second and third stories into one, and use a flash-back mechanism to keep things really interesting. Although, that could be problematic in only one capacity. I'll require flashbacks to the "Good ol' days" similar to the Tomb of the Undead, when I keep jumping back to 32 A.D.

It's quite possible jumping to the end of the trilogy, while introducing the second part of the story, while continuously jumping back to the backstory and origins might be a bit much to make sense of, and could dramatically slow the story-telling way down.

I've got probably two years to worry about that, so ... I'm certainly a bit premature even mentoining it.

Without further ado, here's page 79, which wraps up the the final segments of Escape from M____.

Dr. Casey Miller, Dr. Howard Bolam and Evelyn escape from an unknown assailant in Escape from M____.

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas, (updated Dec. 19, 2011)
• King Street Capers I'll update this today, there are a few more comics in there.(updated Aug. 19)
• General comics There's new stuff here, too, check it out (updated Aug. 19)
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Aug. 16), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Hear from Persepolis director Marjane Satrapi (video), about how graphics are essential to winning a Newbery Award and what Damon Lindelof from Lost had to say about Underwater Welder.

Conversation: Graphic Novelist, Director Marjane Satrapi  
Jeffrey Brown 
PBS.org

Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" won international acclaim as an autobiographical tale, told first in the form of a graphic novel, later turned into a film, of a young girl coming of age amid the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

Click to read more.

Why a graphic novel probably can’t win the Newbery Award 
The Beat 
ComicsBeat.com

The Newbery Award is the gold standard for children’s books; it’s awarded to one book each year (along with a handful of Honor books) and signifies the level of excellence that such past winners as A Wrinkle in Time, Sarah, Plain and Tall and The Graveyard Book imply.
But could a graphic novel win this award? Librarian Elizabeth Moreau says No, because the rules for the award call for it to be based on words alone, without the impact of illustrations . . .

Click to read more.

Graphic Books Best Sellers: Talking About ‘The Underwater Welder’ 
George Gene Gustines 
artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

“The Underwater Welder,” by Jeff Lemire, enters our graphic books paperback best-seller list at No. 6 this week. It’s about Jack Joseph, a man feeling pressure because of his deep sea welding gig and the fact that he’s going to become a father. The introduction to the book, by Damon Lindelof, one of the creators of “Lost,” compares it to “The Twilight Zone.” The book starts out innocently enough, seemingly a story about Jack, his pregnant wife, their life struggles and Jack’s relationship with his own father. Things get a bit eerie after Jack emerges from one of his dives to a changed world. Mr. Lemire’s characters, even when they’re happy, have a melancholy look to them. They create an almost instant rapport with the reader.

Click to read more.

Please MIND Cow Boy and Bat Man

 Here's an update for page 78 - bringing back the villains from earlier (much earlier by now) in Part One. Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller from the Exorcist were my models for the Sadducees - though if you were to look at them, of course, you'd probably not "see it." Dustin isn't based on anyone in particular.

(You'd probably be surprised to see who the other characters are based off - ask away, I'll tell you).

The directors of the mysterious murderer chasing Evelyn, Casey and Howard is revealed to be Dustin Mugabe by his directors in Damnit Mugabe. Hope you like it!

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
• King Street Capers
• General comics (updated May 5)
• Tomb of the Undead(updated Apr. 29), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Described as "Deadwood for kids," Cow Boy is cute ... but read how this story has a hard look at the price people say for choosing to be moral, and melancholy. Also, read how Lost co-creator and showrunner Damon Lindelof found his way to being involved with Jeff Lemire and a new Batman digital novel. Lastly, read about the thick and intense data being crammed into each issue of MIND MGMT - so much the author says reading it all in one sitting "might be hazardous to your mental health."

'Cow Boy' By Nate Cosby And Chris Eliopoulos: More Than Cute [Review] 
Matt D. Wilson
Comics Alliance

Speaking with Chris Sims and me on the War Rocket Ajax podcast a few weeks ago, Cosby described Cow Boy as "Deadwood for kids." Thematically, that's a pretty good comparison. Both stories take a hard look at the price people pay for choosing to be moral, and have a pretty strong underlying sense of melancholy as a result.

Click to read more.

EXCLUSIVE: Damon Lindelof On His And Jeff Lemire's "Batman" Digital Comic 
Jeffrey Renaud
Comic Book Resources

What happened was that I basically became obsessed with Jeff [Lemire]. [Laughs] I read "Sweet Tooth" and was like, "Holy shit. Who is this guy?" I googled him and found out about "Essex County," so I ran out and grabbed the collected edition and read it cover to cover. Then I tweeted about him and about how awesome "Sweet Tooth" was. And then, he tweeted back at me, we exchanged email addresses and just started talking to each other.

Click to read more.

Matt Kindt Shares the Secrets of "3 Story" & "Mind MGMT" 
Shaun Manning
Comic Book Resources

The series ... deals with questions of how we perceive the world and how those perceptions are manipulated, and Kindt said this will play out through the series' episodic format.

"I think a lot of the inspiration for how I'm telling the story this time around came from the actual format that the story is in," Kindt said. "At this point it seems like there's no one making monthly comics anymore. The monthly comics come out but they're mostly written for trades. So I'm actually trying to make a 24-page comic that is a satisfying read all on its own. To me, that means making something that takes a while to get through. And something that will take multiple readings to get everything out of it.

[....] So the inside covers/back covers have super dense stories and there are back cover ads with secret messages and that actually work as a bigger puzzle (when you put the first six issues together). And I'm writing a MIND MGMT field guide that I'm threading into the borders of each page -- guide excerpts that give you insight into the MIND MGMT organization but also serve double duty by commenting on the actual page you're reading. I'm hoping it's dense. I did a similar thing with 'Super Spy.' I was writing that book as a weekly 8-page comic. Each week had to stand on its own. And then when I put it together in the eventual graphic novel it became this crazy dense puzzle-box of a book. 'Mind MGMT' is following a similar path, I think. I think it will be way healthier to read this book in monthly installments rather than waiting for the collection -- that might be hazardous to your mental health."

Click to read more.

Lady, Go Hammer on Comic-Con and Gaiman's commencement

Here's an update for page 77. It's a quick study in regret and forgiveness - it shouldn't be considered disingenuous, I simply wanted the pace to keep up - so it had to be quick and dirty.

Dr. Casey Miller confronts Dr. Howard Bolam for everything that's happened to him so far in  You Son of a Bitch, Bolam! I hope you like it!

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
• King Street Capers
• General comics, (updated May 5),
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Apr. 29), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Neil Gaiman shares his vision while receiving his honorary Ph.D. in fine arts at the University of the Arts', thanks to his career as a "cartographer" mapping the world just beneath our "waking life." In other news, PopMatters.com interviews author Rob Salkowitz on his upcoming new book, Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, which sounds very interesting. Finally, classic graphic novel character Mike Hammer will be restored posthumously after his creator Mickey Spillane passed away in 2006.

Neil Gaiman’s singular vision 
Tirdad Derakhshani
Philly.com

Neil Gaiman has spent a career mapping out the myths that make our world worth living in.
A cartographer of the fantastical, terrifying, chaotic, and sublime world beneath our waking life, he perfected the graphic novel into a work of high literary art with The Sandman (1989-96)... On Thursday, Gaiman, 51, delivered the commencement address at the University of the Arts’ graduation ceremony, where he also was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in fine arts.

Click to read more.

Writing to "Rain Dogs": Talking With Rob Salkowitz #2 
shathley Q
PopMatters.com

While I’m talking to Rob Salkowitz about his June 10-released Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture my mind drifts exactly to Frank Miller at the peak of his creativity, and to Family Values. Rob attempts rarely before seen—a business book that’s relevant for readers and enthusiast of popculture, and a popcultural book that’s instructive to business analysts. He talks openly about how his passion as a comics fan engaged him to undertake this project. And how his profession as futurist and business analyst allowed him the tools to interpret and describe the very crossroads of flux the comics industry now finds itself in.

Click to read more.

Max Allan Collins on new Mike Hammer novel, “Lady, Go Die!” 
nerdblog
blog.newsok.com/nerdage

“Of the half-dozen substantial unfinished novel manuscripts in Mickey Spillane’s files, this was perhaps the most exciting find,” Collins said in an email interview with The Oklahoman. “It’s the second Mike Hammer novel, begun in 1945 shortly after he completed ‘I, The Jury.’ It’s unclear why he set it aside, but he may have been told by an editor that until ‘I, The Jury’ came out, there was no need to finish a sequel. And when it came out, ‘I, The Jury’ was not initially successful — in hardcover, it was a disappointment. But when the paperback came out, Mike Hammer was suddenly a sensation.”

Click to read more.

Inspiration for the Joker and J. J. Abrams and prequels to the Watchmen

I've plotted out the next six pages for the next scene, which I hope to get some work done on very shortly. I'm really looking forward to putting them up soon. Until then, here's Page 76.

While I was drawing this page it struck me how difficult it is to draw someone putting on or taking off their glasses. Not easy. Usually when I draw the sketches for a scene they're very, very loose but for this page I remember actually going into great detail to design it.

There was a tough combination of vehicles, postures, movements and emotions to put into each cell - more so than in most pages I've put up, so this one's a great example of a lot of things going on in each scene, though it may not look it.

Dr. Casey Miller confronts Dr. Howard Bolam for everything that's happened to him so far in You son of a bitch, Bolam!

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Jan. 28), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
In graphic novel news we've got some details on the reworking of the comic The Man Who Laughs, which was the old imspiration for The Joker of Bathman fame, which is pretty cool. Read about J. J. Abram's latest concept borrowing from "Boilerplate" which is being adapted for the silver screen. And see who's writing the prequels for the Watchmen is released, despite the disatifaction of creator Alan Moore's protests to leave his characters alone. Check it out!

David Hine And Mark Stafford Make A Joker Of A Graphic Novel
Rich Johnston
BleedingCool.com

Batman and Azrael writer David Hine who seemed to, well, stop writing for DC with the relaunch, is continuing to write a Batman character in a new graphic novel, The Man Who Laughs, an adaptation the Victor Hugo which inspired the 1928 film starring Conrad Veidt with a “grim carnival freak-like grin” which inspired the appearance of The Joker.

Click to read more.

"Frank Reade" Flies Again with "Boilerplate's" Guinan & Bennett
Shaun Manning
ComicBookResources

Following up 2009's "Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel," which inserted the titular robot into turn-of-the-20th-century America, the husband and wife team of Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett return with another alternate history tale from Abrams Image. "Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention" resurrects the family of heroes first introduced in the pages of boys' magazines in 1868, which rose to even greater fame during the late 1880s and 1890s in the pages of dime novels under the banner "Frank Reade Library."

Click to read more.

DC Comics plans 'Before Watchmen' prequel comics
Curt Holman
Creative Loafing Atlanta

The graphic novel Watchmen has a reputation as the Citizen Kane of graphic novels, so DC Comics' decision to publish a series of prequels sounds as ill-advised as a film called Charles Foster Kane: The College Years. Nevertheless, this summer DC will release 7 titles involving such Watchmen characters as Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan, written and drawn by big name creators in the comics industry:

• RORSCHACH (4 issues) — Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
• MINUTEMEN (6 issues) — Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
• COMEDIAN (6 issues) — Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
• DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
• NITE OWL (4 issues) — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
• OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) — Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
• SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) — Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

Click to read more.