Webcomic News Roundup: Goats Goes Big, Webcomics.com For Sale
By far, the biggest item of note this week was announced today, as one of the longest-running webcomics in the ‘Tubes will now be collected in a series of 150-page Goats tomes. If you want to know the whole scoop, you can read my interview with Goats creator Jon Rosenberg here on ComicMix, as well as Gary Tyrell’s mustachioed Q&A stylings over on Fleen.
Here’s an excerpt from Tyrrell’s interview:
Q: Any of your other material — earlier strips, the tantalizingly incomplete Patent Pending and Worlds of Peril, your minicomics (including the long hoped-for Operating Thetan III) — that might now see print as a result of this deal?
A: Anything is possible, but a lot of the projects you mentioned were ended for good reason. Patent Pending needs to be completely rethought and redone if I ever decide to work on it again, it would have made a better novel than comic I suspect. The Worlds of Peril comics were the inspiration for a lot of what makes up The Infinite Pendergast Cycle, I like to think that it’s the story of what takes place in the aftermath of Goats proper. It’s not canon, though, so don’t be reading too much into that.
The first minicomic is going to be reworked slightly to serve at the intro chapter for Infinite Typewriters. The second one could theoretically be included as an extra in one of the other volumes. I don’t have any plans to produce OT3 at this time but if I can fix some of the plot issues I could see it appearing in the future in some form, either as a standalone or as an arc of Goats.
Anyone with $2000-3000 lying around and an interest in the webcomic scene might want to check on the current asking price for T. Campbell’s "www.webcomics.com" domain. It’s on the market for someone with several thousand dollars and a dream, so go for it!
Gigcast pointed me to a recent Pop Culture Zoo interview with David Malki of Wondermark about his webcomic and his work with publisher Dark Horse Comics. Here, Malki explains his inspiration for Wondermark:
I’ve always been a fan of the style of illustration that you no longer see anymore. With these old engravers and wood-cut artisans, it used to be that was how you would get illustrations in magazines. That’s all there was if you wanted to make an illustration into a printed image. Once the images became cheap to reproduce, this entire art form was lost. There was no more need for it. Its the lost art that I am really attracted to. Bringing back the aesthetic. There’s a big resurgence of new-Victorian and steampunk themes right now. You don’t see work of this level of beauty and intricacy right now and if I can reintroduce that to a new audience then I’m happy to do that. And also, I just like to make comics. Those (artists), their work is more beautiful than anything I could come up with on my own.
Over on the Diesel Sweeties news blog, Rich Stevens has posted a pretty compelling reason to attend this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, announcing that he’ll be joined at the Dumbrella booth this year by the aforementioned Jon Rosenberg, as well as Meredith Gran, Andrew Bell, Sam Brown, MC Frontalot, Chris Yates, Scott McCloud and Wil Wheaton. (Keep an eye here on ComicMix this Monday as we post the first part of a loooong interview with Wheaton about comics of the print and onlne varieties, as well as all writing, acting and all manner of assorted geekery.)
I posted about this earlier in the week, but it’s worth repeating: The Dollar Bin has posted audio from last month’s webcomic roundtable at Heroes Con featuring Nicholas Gurewitch of Perry Bible Fellowship (who I interviewed in April), David Malki of Wondermark, Julia Wertz of The Fart Party, Chris Harding of We the Robots and Danielle Corsetto of Girls With Slingshots, as moderated by Tom Spurgeon.
Oh, and Joey Manley recently "submitted without comment") an image of what looks to be the new design for Comicspace.
Twitter-stalkers of Meredith Gran and Jeph Jacques (Questionable Content) were treated to a streaming "sketch party" of sorts last night, which allowed viewers to see and hear (the latter not so well due to low mic sensitivity) the creation of pieces like the one I’ve posted below (by Jacques). You can watch the video from the event over at ustream.
Steven Cloud of Boy on a Stick and Slither is still accepting donations for his upcoming charity-driven trek across 1/3 of the globe. You can find out more info about the Mongol Rally at www.rallyforcharity.com, and be sure to check out my interview with him about BoaSaS and the rally.
And on a final, self-promotional note, the publishing side of the ‘Mix announced this week that we’ll be the proud host of a brand-new, weekly webcomic by Mike Oeming and Mark Wheatley that will start July 14. Keep an eye out for the first episode of Hammer of the Gods next week.