If I’m gonna lay out a pair of sawbucks for this, I kind of need more info than a minute-long clip can provide, but the 1 minute preview is actually fairly promising. I’m not at all sold on Skull’s voice, but Brent and Francis are pretty good. I’m sure Kurtz will do well with the PPV format, but when sites like Homestarrunner provide hours of animation for free and turn a handy profit, I gotta wonder if Kurtz and company are kind of missing the forest because all the trees are in their line of sight.

EDIT: Kurtz actually covers this over on the PVP forums, and, well, he kinda inadvertently disses quite a few people who are making a living with free online animated stuff.

I would love to give this shit away like the comic strip, and we can do that with flash and the blamimations. But once you decide you want to do something for real, with production value and professionals involved, you have to spend money. So it’s a huge investment for us to produce this.

Once again spotlighting the HSR brothers, it’s entirely possible to create regular Flash-animated cartoons that are 100% professional in quality. I do wish Kurtz well in this venture, and should the inevitable DVD be resonably priced, I’ll likely give it a shot. However, I’m still of the belief that 20-30 bucks for about an hour’s worth of cartoons is just too much.

Spread the word!

Love him or hate him, when Scott Kurtz is on, he’s on. Take this mini comic he did for this year’s 24 hour comic event. Funny, funny stuff that would be right at home in the next edition of Bizarro Comix…if they plan on releasing a next edition, that is.

Spread the word!

This is huge news for webcomics - once of the biggest, Diesel Sweeties, is going to be syndicated by United Features Syndicate. Actually, that’s not 100% true. DS will continue as-is online, and R. Stevens will be producing a second, syndication friendly (aka: no sex with robots, I’m guessing) version for UFS. The sweetest thing is that it looks like Stevens is keeping at least part of his licensing rights to himself, which is an amazing feat if true.

Starting on January 8, 2007 Diesel Sweeties is going to be running in newspapers through United Feature Syndicate. These syndicated strips will also be showing up on comics.com, A.K.A. the best URL ever. Web-only and archived strips will still be here, same as always. We signed the papers a couple weeks ago and I’m still kind of shell-shocked. I’m working hard to finish the sample strips. The newspaper comics are going to be all-new strips with the same characters, seven days a week.

It’s a pretty cool deal: I get to do newspaper comics, while still maintaining my own copyright, website and t-shirts. The best part for me is that there will still continue to be new comics here on the DS site! A big part of how I maintain my “sanity” is by staying up late writing comics and posting them the moment they’re done. Continuing to have that flexibility in addition to working weeks in advance for syndication is really important to me and I’m extremely glad to still have it.

I’m psyched to get to do the one job I really wanted as a kid, while still maintaining my identity as web cartoonist. Throw in a pony and I’ll have burned through all three wishes in one go.

Spread the word!

DJ Coffman’s normally funny webcomic, Yirmumah, is taking a darkly serious turn this week with the second long-form story of the last few months - Origin: Chapter Two. While Coffman’s shown that he can tell some of the funniest gag strips on the net, I was pleasantly surprised at how well he managed to pull off the serialized semi-autobiographical Origin: Chapter 1, so I’m looking forward to Chapter Two despite the fact that I love the daily pop-culture overload in typical Yirmumah strips.

Spread the word!

One of my favorite webcomics, Sinfest, has not only recently broken free from Keenspot in order to make it’s own way in the world (winde web), but series creator, Tatsuya Ishida, has also recently introduced color Sunday strips, complete with longer format. As incredibly sweet as his art is in black and white, it’s doubly impressive in all it’s technicolor glory.

Spread the word!

OK, this would have been HUGE about 5 years ago, but even now, it may turn out to be a pretty big deal. Warren Ellis is lending his name to a new project headed by Modern Tales’ Joe Manley. Now, Ellis won’t actually be writing new comics for this project (appropriately and awkwardly named “Webcomics Nation Collective Edition Engine”), but will be slapping his personal seal of approval on every comic that is added to the portal. Like I said before, 5 years ago this would have been a juggernaut, but I’m hoping that there’s enough steam in Ellis’ proomotional engine today to make the venture a success.

I am working with Warren Ellis to launch a free webcomics portal using the new Webcomics Nation Collective Edition Engine. This latest addition to the Modern Tales family will be all free, all the time, and defined by “Warren Likes This Stuff.” He’ll be making a call for submissions soon. Gary Chaloner will be designing the site. This is the first new (as opposed to pre-existing) site to launch with the beta version of the WCN Collective Edition engine, soon to be a commercial product available to anybody who wants to launch a multi-creator webcomics portal (your own Keenspot or Modern Tales, in other words) inexpensively and with ease. The name of Warren’s new site, and its URL, will be announced soon, probably at The Engine.

[via]

Spread the word!

Cant really say that this is much of a surprise, though I didn’t see this coming either. After having a ridiculous amount of problems with Diamond last year, and facing the harsh realities of the monopolistic direct market, Claypool Comics has announced that they’re suspending their print operations and moving entirely to an internet publishing model. Here’s hoping that they find success in this move.

SEE YOU ON THE NET!

Claypool Comics Shuts Down Print Operations and Moves to Internet

After almost fourteen years and more than 300 issues — one of the longest runs in the history of independent comics — publisher Claypool Comics is telling the world of print, “Thank you and farewell.” After ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK #166 (shipping in February 2007), SOULSEARCHERS AND COMPANY #82 (also shipping in February), and DEADBEATS #82 (shipping in March), Claypool will cut back its line to DEADBEATS alone and put new adventures of that series’ vampire-haunted world on the Internet. Claypool’s trade-paperback comics collections (under the Boffin Books imprint) and back issues will remain available as long as supplies last.

Read More »

Spread the word!

I’m a fan of the strip, but I’m able to recognize that PVP’s Scott Kurtz has melted down in spectactular fashion online on more than one occassion. This has led to him being pinned with an online drama queen label, and not necessarily unfairly. That said, compared to a lot of other webcomic creators the man is the epitome of professionalism and level-headedness. I really wish he’d delivered this speech in person rather than just via his characters, but it still makes for an awesome strip nonetheless.

Spread the word!