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    Archive for the 'Online\Digital Comics' Category


    Virtual Hosting Blog » 50 Tools and Resources to Help You Start a Webcomic

    Posted by Chris Mosby on 12th January 2008

    Read the rest of this post at the link below

    50 Tools and Resources to Help You Start a Webcomic

    By Laura Milligan

    Creating your own comic strip is now easier than ever, thanks to online resources like Web hosting systems, webcomic communities and support networks and collections of design tools and tutorials. To help you get started, we’ve organized 50 of the best resources on the Web. Read below for inspiring examples, sites that offer free fonts, design tips and more.

    Useful Guides

    To get an overview of the typical webcomic start up process, read these useful guides that provide tips on starting your own online series.

    1. Create Your Own Webcomic: This article provides readers with ideas for coming up with plot lines, characters, design themes and more.

    2. How I Make a Webcomic: This “investigative report” explores the different strategies webcomic artist Jonathan Requesens uses to create his comic OshKosh and Josh.

    3. How to Make Your Own Webcomic in 3 Steps: This simple post on the Megatokyo Forums gives tips on drawing, editing, uploading and more.

    4. How to Make Webcomics: The artists behind Player Vs. Player strongly recommend checking out this book, which includes “a guided tour of everything you need to know to make, post and profit from your own online comics.”

    5. Fleen: This popular webcomics blog posts articles about industry news, tips on making your webcomic a money-making machine and lots more.

    6. Hyatt Art Webcomic Forums: Participate in the chats on Hyatt Art to share tips with other artists and learn what’s new in the webcomics world.

    7. Manga Punk: Even if your webcomic won’t be in the style of manga or anime, this site has lots of valuable tutorials for drawing people, eyes and more.

    8. A Guide for the Novice Webcomic Artist: From plot to production, Ghastly’s Ghastly Journal offers up great tips for beginner webcomic designers.

    9. The gURL Guide to Making a Comic: This guide to making comics is completely accessible even for beginners. Get tips on coming up with a story line and choosing your style, read about the history of comics and more.

    10. Mega Online Comic Manual: Create, Share and Profit from Webcomics: Posted by Danogo.com, this tutorial provides a detailed introduction to starting your own webcomics and links to sites that make designing, managing and hosting much easier.

    Virtual Hosting Blog » 50 Tools and Resources to Help You Start a Webcomic

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    INVINCIBLE JOINS THE NEWSARAMA DAILY COMICS LINEUP - NEWSARAMA

    Posted by Chris Mosby on 3rd December 2007

    FOR GOD SAKE, READ THIS, YOU WON’T REGRET IT!!!

    INVINCIBLE JOINS THE NEWSARAMA DAILY COMICS LINEUP - NEWSARAMA

    INVINCIBLE JOINS THE NEWSARAMA DAILY COMICS LINEUP


    Press Release

    Invincible, the best-selling, critically acclaimed Image Comics series by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley comes to Newsarama!

    Newsarama.com, Hiddenrobot.com and comic creators Kirkman, Walker and Ottley are pleased to announce that the first volume of Invincible will be reprinted in its entirety as a free daily serial strip on Newsarama.com.

    Invincible Daily debuts Monday, December 3, 2007.

    Starting with page 1, each weekday a new Invincible Daily page will appear at http://hiddenrobot.com/IDAILY/,
    and then stored in an easily accessible archive so fans can read the
    released pages as often as they like, or so new fans can start at the
    beginning of “probably the best superhero comic book in the universe”
    at any time.

    A decidedly fresh take on the superhero genre, Invincible
    is the story of Mark Grayson, a typical teen who discovers he has
    astounding super powers gained through his otherworldly lineage. How
    will Mark come to cope with his developing powers while juggling all
    the standard demands of young adulthood?

    “‘Invincible’ is about Mark Grayson and what it’s like to grow up as
    the son of the most powerful superhero on the planet,” explains series
    co-creator and writer Robert Kirkman. “We’re right with Mark from the
    beginning, from the day he discovers his new powers to the first time
    he fights a super-villain. I like to think of it as a practical
    exploration of the super-hero genre. I’m trying to show how mundane the
    fantastic can be if that’s all you experience all the time.”

    Invincible has garnered considerable praise since it launched in 2003 and legions of readers since.

    In bringing the series to Newsarama, Hiddenrobot founder Tim Daniel
    came late to the party but now refuses to leave and would like more
    readers to join in, “I’ll admit, I was a skeptic. It’s almost like I
    purposely went out of my way to ignore this book because I thought it
    was just another superhero title cluttering the shelves, but I kept
    hearing about the title everywhere, and finally around issue #39 I
    picked it up. That’s pretty late right? Well, the pace, action, and
    characterization instantly surprised me. I returned to the store and
    bought every issue they had left and then when I was done with those I
    came to my senses and started with the first trade ‘Family Matters’.
    Soon thereafter, I started to pursue Robert with the idea that other
    readers could discover Invincible in a no risk, no cost opportunity through Newsarama. Grounded, Kabuki and Powers
    have been such a success in terms of readership and subsequent trade
    sales, it was only natural to think that an engaging title like Invincible could really appeal to Newsarama’s vast readership.”

    There are those who will look at Invincible and think it’s
    just another superhero series, and to those people, Kirkman has some
    encouraging words. “Take a minute and read the online daily. It’s not
    what you think, there’s much more to this comic. Retailers and fans
    alike all seem to enjoy it, I recommend giving it a shot. It’s a
    different kind of superhero comic, it’s really like nothing else on the
    shelves.”

    The daily presentation of Invincible will encompass the
    first three collections in the series, “Family Matters”, “Eight Is
    Enough” and “Perfect Strangers”, or the same number of collections that
    comprise the Ultimate Collection Hardcover Vol.1. Once concluded, Invincible will remain available in archive format similar to those volumes of Kabuki and Popwers now available through Newsarama giving new readers a chance to discover Mark Grayson’s earliest adventures.

    The entire series is available at comic book shops and bookstores, and
    for order through online retailers in various forms including eight
    trade paperback collections, three Ultimate Collection Hardcovers and the Complete Invincible Library Vol. 1.

    And there’s even more, explains Daniel, “Thanks to Robert having a
    moment to clear his schedule and give the go ahead, we’re excited to
    get underway with Invincible Daily. New readers and longtime fans will also be able to delve even deeper into the world of Invincible
    because on the same day HiddenRobot in conjunction with web developer
    Steven Cambria are set to introduce a new site dedicated exclusively to
    the world of Invincible. We really hope fans of the book will
    have a place where they can gather and explore further this excellent
    book.” The new site will be made available through the daily
    presentation.

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    JOURNEY INTO COMICS: GIT’S CHANGING FORTUNES & SCHULZ - NEWSARAMA

    Posted by Chris Mosby on 27th November 2007

    JOURNEY INTO COMICS: GIT’S CHANGING FORTUNES & SCHULZ - NEWSARAMA

    JOURNEY INTO COMICS: GIT’S CHANGING FORTUNES & SCHULZ


    by Michael San Giacomo

    Just when it looked possible that someday most of Marvel Comics would be available on DVD, Marvel pulled the plug.

    Ray Pelosi, of the GIT Corp. which has been producing DVD’s of whole
    catalogues of Marvel Comics, said they will sell off their current
    stock by the end of February. That’s it, that’s the end,” he said.
    “After that we are no longer permitted to sell Marvel DVDs.”

    GIT’s Marvel pipeline was cut
    shortly after Marvel announced Digital Comics Unlimited, which offers
    more than 2,500 back issues to customers at Marvel’s website.
    Subscribers pay an annual $59.88 subscription fee, or $9.99 a month for
    all the comics they can view. The catch is, they can only view them as
    long as they subscribe.

    In addition to DVD collections of X-Men, Avengers, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and others, Pelosi said the final Marvel products coming out in December would be Civil War — The Complete Collection and House of M — The Complete Collection.

    Pelosi said though he has lost Marvel, he gained Archie. He announced
    the Spring production of DVDs of Archie Comics, but was still trying to
    decide how to package them.

    “We may go for smaller sets, like all the Valentine’s Day issues and
    specials,” he said. “Archie has been around since the 1940s and there
    are too many books for one set.”

    He said he would try to convince Archie to let him collect the Golden
    Age Archie Comics superheroes, (then called MLJ Comics) including
    titles like Zip, Blue Ribbon and Pep with characters like The Shield, Steel Sterling, The Comet, The Hangman, Black Hood and Mr. Justice.

    He is also interested in releasing a DVD of the Silver Age Archie superheroes, starting with Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s The Fly and Private Strong and including the various incarnations of The Mighty Crusaders.

    Personally, I’d love to have all those comics on DVD since they are not
    only horribly expensive, but very hard to find. Not as many people
    saved Steel Sterling compared with those who horded Superman and
    Batman. I have a few of the MLJ comics and all of the Silver Age
    books…somewhere. It would be great to read them again for those Jerry
    Siegel stories and art by Rich Buckler, Gray Morrow, Dick Ayers, Steve
    Ditko, Carmine Infantino and dozens of others.

    I plan to drop a line to Archie Comics at http://www.archiecomics.com/talkback.html begging them to release the books. If you agree, let ‘em know.

    Pelosi said he has so far been unsuccessful in convincing DC to open
    their massive vaults for reproduction, but is always looking for
    suggestions.

    Marvel’s decision might put a slight crimp in the plans for Fred
    Wright, Ph.D., of the English Department of Ursuline College a bit east
    of Cleveland.

    Wright is conducting a survey, via Cleveland area comic shops, to determine if anybody is reading the things.

    “I am conducting research on how the entire runs of comic book titles on DVD-ROM (such as The Amazing Spider-Man
    from GIT) might affect the hobby of comic collecting,” he said in his
    survey. “As a comic book collector/reader, you might be able to assist
    me in the research by answering the following questions.”

    The survey is a simple set of six questions like: have you ever read a
    comic in electronic format? How does it compare to reading a comic
    book? If you have purchased a collection, would you buy another?

    And the pithy question, “Would you consider a comic book collection in electronic format to be truly a comic book collection?”

    Hmmmm. Good question.

    ( Wright said anyone interested in filling out the survey, or who has thoughts on DVD comics, can contact him at wredfright@yahoo.com)

    This boils down to what comic collections actually are and why we have them. As I said, I have all the Mighty Crusaders
    comics somewhere among my tens of thousands of unsorted comics in
    boxes. At least I think I do. Suppose I needed them for some reference,
    or just wanted to read them, it could take me weeks to find it. But if
    I had the Archie Silver Age DVD, I could see the books in minutes.

    Now that Marvel offers this service, we can even more easily track down
    a single story even if it not among the DVD sets, assuming it’s among
    the 2,500 offered.

    PEANUTS

    I just finished Charles Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis (slow reader, I know) and it has given me a greater appreciation for the man and his work.

    It also made me dig out the wonderful Fantagraphics collections of the strips.

    For those of us who grew up reading Peanuts, and that’s just about everyone born since 1950, the strip was an important part of our lives.

    The life of Charles Schulz reminds me of a line from an old Lou Reed
    song in which he told his ever-struggling father, “You’re not a poor
    man anymore. I hope you realize that before you die.”

    Michaelis’ book depicts Schulz as forever unsatisfied, a man always
    striving for something better, a man as sad as Charlie Brown. One of
    the more touching passages in the book comes after Schulz was diagnosed
    with terminal cancer and after he has retired from the strip. He says
    wistfully that “The little guy never got to kick the football.”

    Schulz was one of the most successful cartoonists in history, parlaying
    his strip into a billion dollar industry that continues long after his
    death on Feb. 12, 2000, the day before his final Sunday cartoon
    announcing his retirement was published.

    Schulz’s son, Monte, has criticized the book as inaccurate, but it’s
    impossible to know if he’s correct or just a beloved son reacting to a
    sometimes uncomplimentary book about his father.

    If Monte believes anyone would think less of his father because of his
    depiction as sometimes depressed and always unfulfilled, he’s wrong.
    The fact that Schulz was able to chain himself to his drawing table for
    five decades and produce all those amazing cartoons in spite of those
    emotional issues, makes him even more impressive.

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    THE Z-CULT FM SAGA: TALKING TO SERJ & ZOG - NEWSARAMA

    Posted by Chris Mosby on 26th November 2007

    Read the rest of the article at the link below

    THE Z-CULT FM SAGA: TALKING TO SERJ & ZOG - NEWSARAMA

     THE Z-CULT FM SAGA: TALKING TO SERJ & ZOG - UPDATED
    Updated 11.26.07 - 4:30 pm EST

    In an updated post on Z-Cult FM, it appears that the site will shortly take down all Marvel trackers on their site. “Serj” posted:

    Every day I seem to have to announce some news here but here is a new news item for our site.

    First Marvel News:
    Yesterday Marvel contacted us further in response to our email to them. They provided a direct phone number to we could contact them directly and continue on our communication. We phone them up today first thing (US Time) and enjoyed a chat with them.

    They have now followed our removal process kinda but Z-Cult FM and Marvel have decided the following:
    * We will remove all Marvel comics from our trackers.
    * We asked for 7 days to remove the books from our trackers (due to time it takes to delete them all) and they agreed.

    So we would like to thank Marvel for following our removal policy (like all other publishers have done in past) and not going down the legal route once again.

    So 7 days from now there will be no Marvel comics on our website.

    We asked marvel if they wanted to say anything as the reason for the removal to our users and they mentioned they are doing it because of their new download site.

    We won’t be providing links back to Marvel’s new download service like we have down for SLG etc because I feel what Marvel is offering is NOT a download service but more like a preview site. The users who purchase to read the books can only read them, they can not store them for a later date. So I do not class this as a download service for digital comics so will not be linking to it. If in future Marvel add a download feature to it we will link to it and support the site 100%.

    Marvel have also stated their site is a work in progress so if anyone has any comments or suggestions be sure to contact them or start a thread on this site and they will read them.

    New 30 Day Policy on DC Comics
    DC Comics have not contacted us further about the issues over the last few days, but the staff of Z-Cult FM have agreed among ourselves we find it best if we start a new 30 day policy on all new DC comics.

    So as of today no DC Comic publications will be allowed on our site until least 30 days after they have been available in the shops. Any comics uploaded before this ban can remain but any comics that are uploaded since this ban was posted will be removed and the uploader reminded of our new policy.

    I must stress the following points before any people read this or news sites pick it up:
    * This 30 day ban is only for DC Comic books for time being.
    * DC Comics has not replied to our response that we made on Friday.
    * Z-Cult FM Staff have come up with this ban.
    * This does not come from DC Comics or any other publishers.

    I just wanted to clear that up so no confusion is started like the SLG issue that news sites picked up on.

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    NEWSARAMA.COM: MARVEL LAUNCHES ONLINE COMICS INITIATIVE?

    Posted by Chris Mosby on 13th November 2007

    Wow, this is big. 

    NEWSARAMA.COM: MARVEL LAUNCHES ONLINE COMICS INITIATIVE?


    MARVEL LAUNCHES ONLINE COMICS INITIATIVE?



    In a story published at USA Today.com
    Monday evening, the apparently official word of Marvel’s new online
    publishing initiative (hinted at by Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley at the New York Comic-Con last February) has been revealed.

    Called
    the comic book industry’s “first online archive of more than 2,500 back
    issues, including the first appearances of Spider-Man, the X-Men and
    the Incredible Hulk.”, Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited will
    offer the archive in a high-resolution format on computer screens for
    $59.88 a year, or at a monthly rate of $9.99, at Marvel’s website.

    According
    to the national daily, “Subscribers will be able to access the first
    hundred issues of key titles, turn pages with a click of the mouse or
    navigate a battle against Dr. Doom frame-by-frame with a ‘Smart Panel’
    viewing feature. The user can zoom in on details of art by Jack Kirby
    and Steve Ditko from the 1960s or catch up with today’s The Ultimates and New Avengers.

    “We
    did not want to get caught flat-footed with kids these days who have
    the tech that allows them to read comics in a digital format,” Marvel
    President Dan Buckley, told the publication. “Our fan base is already
    on the Internet. It seemed like a natural way to go.”

    To
    help market the initiative, To Marvel will reportedly offer a free
    sampler of 250 titles, and to protect current sales of comic books, new
    issues won’t be on the Marvel site until six months after they are
    published.

    Asked
    why people would pay for superheroes when newspaper websites have been
    unable to charge for content, Buckley said, “You can get the news
    anywhere. We’re the only ones who have Spider-Man.”

    “If
    they put their monthly comic online at the same time, they’d be cutting
    their own throats and undercutting the retailers,” writer Peter David
    told USA Today. “The material is owned by Marvel, and they can
    do whatever they want with it. This is just another means of reprint
    when you come down to it.”

    “About
    90% of the comic books sold today are scanned and put online within 36
    hours,” Newsarama’s own Chris Arrant is quoted in the story.

    “Our
    quality is much higher; the library is huge and will never go out of
    style,” concluded Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada. “This is the
    legal way to do things.”

    Updated 11.13.07 - 5:15am - The AP version of the story has been released as well, and reads:

    LOS ANGELES (AP) -
    Marvel is putting some of its older comics online Tuesday, hoping to
    reintroduce young people to the X-Men and Fantastic Four by showcasing
    the original issues in which such characters appeared.

    It’s a tentative
    move onto the Internet: Comics can only be viewed in a Web browser, not
    downloaded, and new issues will only go online at least six months
    after they first appear in print.

    Still, it represents
    perhaps the comics industry’s most aggressive Web push yet. Even as
    their creations — from Iron Man to Wonder Woman [Newsarama Note: Marvel does not publish Wonder Woman]
    – become increasingly visible in pop culture through new movies and
    video games, old-school comics publishers rely primarily on
    specialized, out-of-the-way comic shops for distribution of their
    bread-and-butter product.

    “You don’t have that
    spinner rack of comic books sitting in the local five-and-dime any
    more,” said Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Publishing. “We don’t have
    our product intersecting kids in their lifestyle space as much as we
    used to.”

    Translate “kids’
    lifestyle space” into plain English and you get “the Internet.”
    Marvel’s two most prominent competitors currently offer online teasers
    designed to drive the sales of comics or book collections.

    Dark Horse Comics
    now puts its monthly anthologies “Dark Horse Presents” up for free
    viewing on its MySpace site. The images are vibrant and large.

    DC Comics has also
    put issues up on MySpace, and recently launched the competition-based
    Zuda Comics, which encourages users to rank each other’s work, as a way
    to tap into the expanding Web comic scene. Company president Paul
    Levitz said he expects to put more original comics online in coming
    years.

    “We look at anything
    that connects comics to people,” Levitz said. “The most interesting
    thing about the online world to me is the opportunity for new forms of
    creativity. … It’s a question of what forms of storytelling work for
    the Web?”

    For its mature
    Vertigo imprint, DC offers weekly sneak peeks at the first five or six
    pages of upcoming issues. The publisher also gives out downloadable PDF
    files of the first issues in certain series, timed to publication of
    the series in book or graphic novel format.

    The Web release of
    DC’s “Y the Last Man” sent sales of that book collection soaring at
    Bridge City Comics in Portland, Ore., the shop’s owner Michael Ring
    said.

    “They really do tend to be feeder systems,” Ring said of online comics. “They give people that initial taste.”

    For Marvel, the
    general public has often already gotten its initial taste through
    movies like “Spider-Man” or the “Fantastic Four” franchises.

    The publisher is
    hoping fans will be intrigued enough about the origins of those
    characters to shell out $9.99 a month, or $4.99 monthly with a
    year-long commitment. For that price, they’ll be able to poke through,
    say, the first 100 issues of Stan Lee’s 1963 creation “Amazing
    Spider-Man” at their leisure, along with more recent titles like “House
    of M” and “Young Avengers.” Comics can be viewed in several different
    formats, including frame-by-frame navigation.

    Ring expects
    Marvel’s effort to put a slight dent in the back-issue segment of the
    comic shop industry, where rare, out-of-print titles sell for hundreds
    of dollars on eBay and at trade shows.

    Though most comic
    fans are collectors, some simply want to catch up on the backstory of
    their favorite characters and would no longer have to pay top dollar to
    do so.

    About 2,500 issues will be available at launch of Marvel Digital Comics, with 20 more being released each week.

    News of the new Marvel initiative began appearing online Monday afternoon, via an AP wire story and sources like the CBC.ca
    website, prompting Marvel Comics to request any version of the story
    citing the AP or CBC be removed from websites due to the CBC version in
    particular being “filled with inaccuracies.” It is not immediately
    apparent what was inaccurate about the CBC version of the story.

    Look for more details as they become available.

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