OUT OF SKIN by Emily Carroll is a beautiful and haunting online comic. Go see it please and check out the many more comics on her site.
Posts tagged webcomic
24 hour comics day comic posting
Hey, the 15 page comic I worked up on 24 Hour Comics Day will post here on the Bean on the 28th of October. In the world of my head, people have their Halloween Parties on Monday.
The Webcomic List or where to find webcomics
I ran into this a while ago, when I was searching for webcomics and webcomic social areas online. I must admit, at the time I did not give it the attention it deserved.
The Webcomic List is an index of webcomics, but its more than that. It automatically scrapes the web for updates on all the comics people have added to the index. And, the best part…which I really didn’t know until I returned to it just recently…if you create an account and mark some favorites it will recommend more comics for you. See:
This is especially important if, like me, you find yourself kickin around the interweb looking for something new to gawk at.
But lets not fool ourselves by thinking that the Webcomic list is the only such engine out there.
Belfry webcomics index isn’t just a list and recommendation machine, it is also a forum and has an area where members can share reviews of comics.
Komix! also indexes webcomics and provides a way for users to bookmark their place in each comic they are reading.
Comic Rocket also offers bookmarking by importing the entire site of a webcomic within a frame that keeps track of the last page read and any pages the reader has saved.
And let us not forget webcomic hosting sites like smackjeeves, where webcomickers without sites of their own, or perhaps to tap into the community, can post. Webcomic hosting platforms often come with a rating mechanism, track most popular comics, and include forums for discussion. I mention only one here; be aware, there are many. So go forth and read comics.
Marcus Trapp
You may have begun to wonder what was happening to good old Marcus Trapp. The idea has not vanished. In fact, it may end up being my magnum opus. One of the things on my list of to dos for Marcus Trapp was some site artwork. How do you like it? It’s kind of hard to draw a character who will look completely different every time he is re-incarnated. I should give him a birthmark and incorporate that into some site artwork too. I mean, a comic ‘s got to have a logo.
Ghosts of Tiny Animals
There is no comic posting on the drawing board today. In the meantime, I heartily suggest checking out the Ghosts of Tiny Animals. It is infrequently updated, but so beautiful.
Webcomic findings
‘Cause as many as I’ve found already is never enough.
Hemlock – on smackjeeves. beautiful, bold black and white style.
Curio – a dreamworld. completely amazing and terrifying in the way that really beautiful fish at the bottom of the ocean are terrifying. great color work.
Prague Race – beautiful pencil work, or what looks like pencil work. Can you ever tell now a days? crazy detail backgrounds and environments. completely enviable world construction.
saint for rent – glorious, moving pictures. no really, it’s “semi-animated” and sehr sehr gut. about an inn for time travelers.
Judecca – murky colored fantasy world. grim, and beautiful in the insidious way that makes you attached to a character after a couple pages.
Ava’s Demon – glorious, glowing color. I really like the one cell at a time delivery, it makes paging through the story like a reading a book. it also makes waiting for the next bit really really difficult.
nimona – is hilarious and with unique styling. Hilarious!
water – great big hook of a beginning and wonderfully executed brushy style.
shambles – not really sure where it’s going yet, but it is beautifully done. I always admire people who can wield color so well.
Spera – an enormous collaborative comic with artists from all over.
Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks | Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong
Okay, I was crazy excited about Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong when there was only page one. Then, apparently I got distracted (and did not subscribe to the rss feed) and forgot to read it. What a dunce am I? Anyway, Faith Erin Hicks is still the bomb and in combination with Prudence Shen is making another fabulous comic! Fabulous!
Stupid Snake – Wordless Graphic Novel
It looked interesting and after clicking through a few pages I started from the beginning and then I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop watching Stupid Snake – Wordless Graphic Novel. It is a lovely web comic.
Sigh
I upgraded my webcomic installation and it stalled (perhaps because of the network I’m on or what else I was doing at the time). So now, all the links to my comics are 404s. All the pages are still there in my site, so I’ll get this settled sometime soon.
Guess it’s good that I was ending stuff up. All the new comics will be fresh starts….and thinking of that. I created a networked wordpress to test some work stuff. Now that I have it, I could give some of my comics their own blogs – you know, instead of having them running in the back of my blog and showing up mixed in the rss feed. I dunno. Is this a good idea? I have a couple of stories that I know are going to continue and grow…
Stuff to think on.
Broken pages.
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong
I’ve talked about Faith Erin Hicks before when I raved over her comic Friends with Boys. She’s got a new one online now as a collaboration with Prudence Shen, author of Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong. You can read the webcomic as it airs by going to Page 001 | Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong.
I am crazy excited about this. And, and, and,
Mini comic posted
Hey, in case you weren’t looking, ‘A Trip to Weeki Wachee’ just posted on the bean. Start reading now.
John Allison’s Scary Go Round
I talked about Scary Go Round by John Allison before. I love the stories. I love the style. Mr. Allison is a fantastic comic artist and story teller. At some point during my frequent visits to his site he managed to tug the strings of poor artist empathy in me while at the same time wooing me with pulpy and palpable copies of the comics I love online. I am endlessly impressed by artists who do not fill their time with solid reliable work the way I did. John Allison is just such a person. Instead he valiantly struggles on as an independent cartooner.
If you have not yet, you should check out Scary Go Round presents Bad Machinery. And use your reliable paychecks to pick from the fabulous things for sale in his shop.
Faith Erin Hicks
A little while ago I may have mentioned Friends With Boys because it is an awesome comic that has now come out in honest to goodness touch-able form. Really, you can buy it from bookstores (if any have managed to survive around you) and hold it’s wood pulpiness in your hands. I did. One of the coolest things about Friends With Boys is that the author has more comics in pulpiness and intangible form. Check them out on faith erin hicks’ webpage » Web Comics.
I wish I had more afternoons to while away reading her comics, and then when I am done I wish she had more comics I could while myself away within. Faith Erin Hicks is awesome. I kid you not.
more web comic love
I think I said before, you know back in my first web comic love, that I would follow up with more as I had time to read more of the ones I had bookmarked that looked as if they were really smashing. Well, I’ve had a little time and they were really smashing. Here’s some more of the maybe-you-haven’t-found-these-yourself type of comics, that I’m only doing you a good turn by telling you about them–so that you’ve heard of them now.
Friends with Boys — Ok, so I was reading this and it was wonderful with a bit of quirky and I was really interested to see where it was going but it wasn’t there yet. Then, I go back to it (’cause it’s taking me a really long time to write this post) and it has a massive amount of new pages and now I cannot wait another second for the next page! Oh, and the drawing style is absolutely beautiful!
Todd Allison and Petunia Violet — The style is fresh, endearing, and colorful. I like how it just jumps into the everyday life just before the intrigue explodes and takes you along with it. The characters are explained as the action progresses; yes, a great way to hook a reader. I am hooked!
Sfeer Theory — Really gorgeous and polished. I don’t know about you, but I often find it hard to get into a story that is also building a completely different world with hierarchies and vocabulary. I mean, it’s a hard thing to do–take a story completely out of reality as we know it and not belabor the process. Well, I am completely intrigued in this world, and really want to see where it’s going.
Fishbones — Nice style! Good story set up…surprised and liked the flash-back pages. Yes. Page 52, introduce new character as liking Giallo films, do I need any other reason to like this comic? (and yes, I owe all my knowledge of Giallos to Richard and doomedmoviethon, but you’ve been there, right? trying to explain something to someone and having to give a history lesson just to get to your original point. It’s nice to find people who just know.)
Dresden Codak — Oh it’s so pretty. And though I am still confusingly wrapped up in story lines and another world (like I said–hard to do right), I am still eyes-glued-to-screen on every single page. This is a comic that somehow creates a fabulous, complicated, touchable group of characters with a few words and drawn expressions.
Octopus Pie — is about two women living in Brooklyn. From the description, I have to admit, I didn’t really think it would appeal to me, but I had hopped to it from another comic that I already liked who liked it and then I couldn’t stop reading. I. Couldn’t. Stop.
The Meek — This is another some-other-world one that starts out all wild girl in the woods and ends up genie in a bottle who is going to take over your soul and end the world. After it hurts people that is. No, not horror. Definitely fantastical and earthy at the same time.
2D Goggles or the Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage — Did anyone else have to take History of Computers in school? Is this dating me? I came from the time when schools realized that computers were the coming thing but they were still new enough to need a full introduction to ignorant children. The point being, I had to study Charles Babbage and his Analytical Machine. I never thought I’d be using my learning to read comics one day.
Badirfilay — So pretty and weathered and gloomy and really just starting up. Even so, it’s been picked up my Manga Magazine. I”m excited to see where it’s going. I love the secret underbelly of society thing. Or, is it the secret controlling force of society thing?
Johnny Wander — What can I say… I am not the first to stumble upon this comic, think it was pretty spiffy and then promptly fall in love with all the characters. I have feelings of the stalker in me: I want to meet them and shower adoration upon them…only I’d freeze up and not be able to say anything ’cause that’s how I am. The rapper Adam WarRock mentioned in his forward to volume 2 that the comic felt like home when you were home sick. I’d have to agree.
Band Vs Band –Did you know I got a box set of Jem and the Holograms for Christmas. Band vs. Band by Kathleen takes all the best parts of cartoon bands and makes them gorgeous! I love the magazine covers and the band interviews.
Bucko — by Jeff Parker and Erica Moen, billed as a comical murder-mystery. Not sure where this is going but it is fantastic so far with a host of unique characters that split the action without managing to make it confusing at all. It makes me think of Canada, but I have never been there.
The worst part of web comics
is that they can sometimes live hard and die too soon. The ability of any story teller to put up their stuff as they spin it and countless web hosts to help them means that a lot of stories die half lived…forever frozen in history and the internet archive and destined to frustrate eager readers in perpetuity. This is a whole heck of a lot different from published comics that generally have a proposed story line and map to completion before presentation to potential readers. Webcomics are like swimming in comickers head soup–right there inside the ideas that make the stories, ideas that sometimes have no ending in sight.
As far as I can tell, this is exactly what happened with Hanna is Not a Boy’s Name. I stumbled onto it late, maybe a year or so from its first page and long after a devoted following had erected a facebook page for it. I bookmarked the site, subscribed to the RSS feed and checked back often as it continually did not get updated…not even a news item from the author. I wanted more, damn it! So I checked back again just as I was gathering my best of webcomics list and found out that the site had completely vanished. It was gone…I could not even scroll through the pages I had already seen, and as I fumbled through Google results I found it for sale! Oh my luck! Volume 1! I had wanted to possess it anyway…I am so giggly. I am waiting for the mail to arrive. (UPDATE: arrived and I am so ecstatic! Can’t wait for more.)
Ok, but not every stalled and deleted idea has a happy ending; case in point: Gjerde Sha: Part Time Zombie. It is markering genius! It is beautiful! It is not updated since June!
And, somehow even sadder, the comics that are killed…by an announcement that they will not continue. I was just getting all sewn into Will Work for Blood and now it is over. It was so promising, it was mysterious and bleak, it is over.