Stopover at LinT: Hooray for Happy Creepy Grins!

This seems to be a good week for memorable webcomic moments. First we get someone being clouted in the face with a shoe, then we get this:



Given that in the entire comic run of LinT I don't think we've ever seen Zedwig even come close to a smile, that cheesy grin is creepier than what he's saying. Even more so when technically Fang (that's the blonde) supposedly has Zedwig under mind-control.



On another note, I'm going to be away for the week (why yes, I'll be busy traveling again. Life imitates art and all that). I'm going to get my advanced open water.

If I'm behind on mail... you'll know it's because I'm busy 30m underwater ;)




With an underwater slate maybe.




Yes I am incorrigible.

Stopover at Penny and Aggie: Now... that was worth waiting four years for...

From the most recent installment of Penny and Aggie:

I snorted with laughter. Then I read it again and couldn't stop giggling.

Other than the richly-deservedness of it, why do I have the overwhelming urge to place an order for the Marshall shoe now?

Stopover at Siam Reap: Angkor Wat!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently but naturally I'm spending my holidays with my family overdosing on turkey and doing all those family thingies that people do.

I also decided to take a break from exploring webcomics and switched to exploring a real life destination that was on the "list of things to do before I die". So I spent my Christmas and the few days thereafter in Siam Reap, Cambodia.

Just a fair warning, this post has almost next to nothing regarding webcomics.

Prior to my trip I really didn't know much about Cambodia except for the tragedies of the Khemer Rouge, landmines and Angkor Wat. So visiting Cambodia, albeit as a touristy tourist, is something new to me.

Siam Reap (meaning "The Siamese Defeated"), is called such after the Cambodians repelled the Siamese occupiers who had had hold over the land for a few hundred years. This is also why the tension between the Thai-Cambodian border is so tense at the moment, as the Cambodian fear a repeat of being under Siamese rule. Back to the topic, Siam Reap is not the capital of Cambodia (Phenom Penh is) but merits its own international airport due to its proximity to the much vaunted Angkor Wat. This is the place most tourists go when they come to see the famous temple.

The advantage of a notebook and a well-stocked pencil-case is I can continue comicking while waiting in between connecting flights. Mind you, you may be subject to curious onlookers. It's amazing how random people start coming up to you and strike up a conversation when they see you drawing. I recently discovered the existence of chinese calligraphy brushmarkers, which are beyond awesome for inking on the run and will probably be what that makes me give up traditional brushes if I ever do.

Have sketchpad? Never be bored! iPod is optional but recommended!

The thing I noticed quickly is many of the Cambodians are very fiercely patriotic. This is reflected almost every aspect of Cambodian life, from my fiesty tour guide who frankly admitted he thought the Siamese were very "not good" people, to the motto of the local beer. (The local brew, Angkor Beer is something rather like a Carlsberg with a heavier alcohol content. Insisting on Angkor Beer for dinner will get you respected smiles from the restaurant staff it seems. "My Country, My Beer" seems to be the prevalent attitude; God help you if you prefer Singha Beer instead.)

This man was selling palm wine. I was tempted to try some but the tour guide warned us our fragile foreigner stomachs would not be able to handle it. And he's not talking about the alcohol content.

The language, Khemer, is rather reminiscent of Thai. In fact it shares about 4000 words with the neighbouring language. Given that my command of Thai is about as good as my Spanish (that is, limited to a few common and basic day to day words) I stuck to English, that seemed to get me by well enough, although the occasional sign language helps.

Poverty is prevalent behind the veil of affluence put on for the sake of the tourists. Four star hotels and even an air-conditioned mall nestle next to a dirt road pitted with holes; every time a car goes by a cloud of red laterite dust gleefully swirls around. Apparently December is the dry season in Cambodia.

Siam Reap is very dependent on the tourism industry, so much so that the recent economic crisis has hit them very hard as the expected flood of peak tourist season has been nothing but a trickle so far. While that augurs well for me as a visitor since I hate crowds, there is a rather melancholy feeling when you're sitting in a half-filled restaurant that was obviously prepared to cater for more people than your humble self.

The christmas turkey is almost visible in this picture.

The dependence on tourism is so much so that the money used is transanctions in Siam Reap is a bizarre mix of US dollars and local Cambodian Riels. That is, anything above the value of 1 US dollar is traded for in US dollars, anything less than that is traded for in Riels. So Riels are something like the paper replacements for coins, which does not seem to exist here. It also involves some mental arithmetic since 1 US = 4200 Riels so if something costs $1.30 USD you end up paying 1 US dollar and 1200 Riels (I don't think I've even seen anything smaller than a 100 Riel note, so they write off the extra Riels). Odd, but interesting system.

The whole of Siam Reap however, is more or less centered around the Angkor Wat. With good reason, the place is bone-chillingly awe inspiring. I spent half of today walking around what I thought WAS Angkor Wat, only to find out it was not even a tenth of the entire Angkor Wat complex.

This picture was just postcard perfect.

Angkor Wat is really beyond words to describe, and even the hordes of (very) pushy hawkers trying to push souvenirs onto you can't quite take away the awe of the place. The main section of Angkor Wat reminds me of CS Lewis' decription of a "Narnia within Narnia" where what you think is the temple is actually a temple around a courtyard within which lies a smaller, more magnificent temple. And within that temple is YET another courtyard with an even smaller temple in the middle.

When in Angkor, do as the Khemers do?

Almost every inch of the walls and archways is filled with stone carvings depicting scenes from the Hindu epics of old. Each balustrade is a giant naga, a snake/dragon kind of creature which always has odd-numbered heads (with seven heads, one for each day of the week being the highest number).

In the shadow of the Naga. I'm going to so use this effect in my comics sometime.

The architecture is amazingly symmetrical and built to precision. It is so precise that if you stand at the doorway of the innermost temple, you'll see it lines up perfectly with the straight walkway to the door of the outer temple that surrounds it, and the walkway beyond that. Walking in this place is like a real life lesson in perspective.

"And the vanishing point is over there!"

Their stairs aren't particularly friendly to use though, the sharp 45-60 degree incline and piddly step width (about half the size of a normal step) will give anyone with vertigo a hard time. Once you get to the top the view is amazing though.

There is a monk up at the very top of the stairs, rather like the hermit on top of the mountain...

There is also a sense of sadness as you walk through this place as well. When you walk through the ruins of this place and realize some of the gaps in the walls are bullet-marks, and many of the statues that used to stand in the place have been plundered or damaged and left in pieces.

A stone lion standing guard.

Angkor Wat, like I said, is not the only temple in the Angkor complex. There are dozens more, and to get to them you need to hire a car or tuk-tuk (basically a cab drawn by a motorbike instead of a horse). Sometimes the trip is more interesting than the temple, especially when you pass small villages and farms on the way that can yield some interesting conversation if you press  your tour guide with the right questions. My favourite occured when we were passing an army camp on the way to Banteay Sirei.

Tour Guide: That is the Cambodian Army's shooting range. For 1 US dollar a bullet tourists can go in there to learn shoot gun. (Seeing the horrified look on my mom's face). Don't worry, Madam, only they let you use the small guns only.

Dad: (Curious) What kind of guns?

Tour Guide: (Completely straight face) AK-47s.

Of the many temples I visited, Ta Phrom stands out as the one of particular note. You may remember it from the Tomb Raider movie. Yeah, the one covered in trees.

And this is why Ta Phrom is awesome and majestic.

Well er... I like trees. And giant trees growing in ancient temples are very interesting. It just gives the who place an added facet. I really have to come up with some fictional places in one of my comics with an architecture/nature combination like this.

Angeline Jolie walked past these same roots!

On the way out I ran into a quintet who were busking with some traditional asian instruments (mostly erhus and what looked like a xylophone). They stood out from your normal buskers in one way: they were all landmine victims. Most of them were missing limbs, one of them was blind.

Me picking up a few pointers from the pros.

But their skill and cheerfulness was nothing short of inspiring, and I went home feeling a little awed and humbled that I still have two hands I can draw comics with.

So Cambodia was different. Another one of those places out of my comfort zone, but I'm glad I went.

All that said, I'm happy to be home, with all of a new year in front of me, a buffer of comics at hand and ideas for many more. The economy may suffer, and no one's immune from paycuts and layoffs, but hey... Life is still good.

Stopover at No Rest for the Wicked: Andrea's back!

Being the ardent reader of No Rest For The Wicked that I am, I was overjoyed to find Andrea's resumed updating NRFTW again!

I first reviewed NRFTW back in some of my early journey legs. And while some comics have dropped off my reading list, NRTFW was one I faithfully followed, even during the hiatused times. I used to say that discovering NRFTW was one of the finds that made starting this blog and comic reading adventure worth it. And I still do.

So yay! I'm happy. This just made my week. I'll even call it an early birthday present!

Stopover at NaNoWriMo: Looking over Longingly

Well folks, it's that time of the year again and NaNoWriMo, or November the National Novel Writing month is upon us.

I want to write a novel. In fact, last year, at around this time, I tried to start one but I was in the midst of a depression and upheaval that I'd rather not talk too much about. As you might have expected, the project didn't quite get off the ground.

What I learned however, no matter how good you think you could write at one time, it's hard to write a whole novel off the bat when you have been out of practice.

So I blinked and the next thing I know it's November again, and I want to take a steps toward writing a novel again. But I need to learn to walk again before I can fly. So taking the advice of a very wise friend, I'm starting small, and instead of an actual novel I will just write short stories for practice during the course of the month. Practice for when I feel ready to tackle a whole novel and not neglect my comics at the same time.

The subject matter will vary I suppose, but I guess I might take the opportunity to expand on my miscellaneous comic universes and write about those stories and stuff that never make it into my comic. I don't intend it to be all comic stuff though... we'll see how it goes. I like some variety, which is probably why I found the novel focus tiring.

The downside is I'll probably be inflicting my meagre literary efforts on you lot on my blog. Haha!

Hey, whatever gets me writing more, right? I do not intend on Little Drops of Sunshine being the only piece of writing I've ever done that I felt really proud of.

Stopovers at two "Dies and is 'Ded' Laughing" moments

As you all know, I've been busy recently and even went for a spate of time without reading webcomics. Now that I'm bent on catching up, I'd like to share two moments from two of my favourite comics where I laughed so hard I choked:

The first is from LinT, where great drama and strife is being enacted.

Both moments need context to understand, so I'm going to be obliged to give a quick background blurb. Naturally, spoilers abound!


At the moment, Sangwine, the blond elf is confronting his long-time rival, Al'bert, who taunts him back by professing he knows where Sangwine's house fairy (long story), Hope, has been taken. The result is Sangwine flying off the handle and threatening Al'bert with the worse fate that can ever befall an elf.

And I'm not talking about balrogs here.

(Clicky to see full sized page at source)


Next is Nahast, which managed to impress me by not pretending, like most fantasy comics do, that long flowy hair can hamper vision, and women do not need support while running around:



So while the girls go off to do their erm... supporting, Xu're, the shaman and his spirit guide, Thunder, arrive at the lighthouse where Tzelan is training the girls...



I suspect the thing that makes both jokes work so well is because they're so subtle and told with an entirely straight face. Ironically, it because these two comics are primarily fantasy comics, unlike the humour strips that people call the 'funnies', that makes the joke all the funnier for being unexpected.

On another note, most of you should notice that the current theme over at Comixpedia is Mystery comics, which alone should tell you why I asked for recommendations to Mystery-themed comics last post. Thanks for your suggestions so far, and keep em coming. Even if they're not used here or there, the recommendations will come in handy next time I'm bored and want to sink my teeth in a big fat mystery!

Stopover at The Tenth Life of Pishio the Cat: This is me waiting far too long to write about this.

Several months ago, there was a completely new comic that debuted on Graphic Smash.

It was called The Tenth Life of Pishio the Cat. Other than having an incredibly long title, it also had something many other comics didn't... a refreshingly original plot for a webcomics and non-human centric characters.

From the very first few pages, I fell in love with Zack Giallongo's amazing art and set-up. This comic, I knew, was something special, and did something very few comics manage to do within their first few pages: Get bookmarked immediately.

I would have written about Pishio long ago, but seeing that the comic had barely started, I resolved to wait a while for a substantial archive to build-up. (My magic number is 20 pages).

However, in that time the comic had managed to get a WCCA nomination and recently went independent, moving from Graphic Smash to WebcomicsNation.

A perfect time to start writing about it, since the archives are free now. ;)

The premise behind The Tenth Life of Pishio the Cat is simple. Pishio the Cat has been carelessly squandering his nine lives. When his luck finally runs out one day and he finds out that he's dead, he strikes a bargain with the powers-that-be for a last chance. Unfortunately, that involves risking his life-on-loan doing a dangerous task that even the powers-that-be cannot do. Can a cat find redemption?

With the recent NYT article and it's subsequent Slashdotting, a number of complaints about webcomics surfaced. While I am rather skeptical about the NYT article's viewpoint due to the writer's position, the discussion on the Slashdot thread I found more interesting, as a lot of them were from the viewpoints of the actual audience webcomics target. But anyway, one particular complaint was the lack of good-quality artwork in the webcomics.

Personally I think there's plenty of stunning artwork in webcomics. But because webcomics are learner's medium, the masterpieces get drowned in a lot of practice works, so the means the skill level of art is dragged down. It's a price we pay for not having editors.

All that said, the art Pisho is what you get when the comic artist in question is a professional illustrator from the start.

(Cat and Cock fight! (Yes, I'm aware how dirty that sounds) Click the thumbnail to see the original page).

The art speaks for itself, and in many cases, the writing as well. Zack is obviously from the the school of "show, not tell", so dialogue and narration are kept to a "need to know" basis, and never so much that the reader feels info-dumped. Instead, he prefers to let his composition and illustration skills do the talking and you get page after page of silent panels, where the reader is let to decide for themselves what they are seeing. Most of the time it works pretty well.

Those who need dumbing-down of their reading material and the main character narrating exactly what's going on so the reader gets it probably won't like Pishio. But those who like doing their own interpretation, a little bit of thinking, and lightning-bolt casting squirrel shamans will love Pishio.

All in all, Pishio is good from the get-go, and continues to be good so far. I'd even go so far as to call it a completely original, less-whimsical and more-violent cousin to Ursula Vernon's Digger. Given that Digger is one of my favourite webcomics ever, consider that high praise indeed.

Stopover at No Rest for the Wicked and Nightfall Yonder Bremen: Well, I'd say it's a pretty good indicator...

Ok, there are few comics out there that I can genuinely admit to waiting breathlessly for updates because they have me hooked so badly. But I can certainly say Andrael Peterson's No Rest for the Wicked is one of them.

For those of you who need an introduction to NRFTW, I point you towards the 6th Leg of the blog, which is where I fins stumbled across it (and was very very very glad I did).

But what I want to talk about today isn't NRFTW. Instead it's the little bit of news that's currently on the front page of NRFTW.

You see, No Rest for the Wicked now has its own fancomic.

It's called Nightfall Yonder Bremen, and while it has barely started, it shows a lot of promise, seems competently executed and most importantly, tries to stay faithful to the original material.



I can't help but wonder how many webcomics out there have their own well... fancomics? Heck, some of the more popular webcomics out there ARE fan-comics (See Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi). Sure, many have had guest comics and fan art. A few have fan-works like fanfiction... but a fancomic of a webcomic?

At the very least, it does say something for No Rest For the Wicked. I'd say that it's a pretty good indicator of being a good read. ;)

Stopover at Astronaut Elementary: The WCN Effect

I'm not sure how I missed it, seeing that it was on Websnark, but Dave Roman's Astronaut Elementary apparently moved from GAM to WCN, which is the webcomics equivalent of shifting rooms in the same building, except that one is behind the subscription curtain and one isn't.

I like Dave Roman and his stuff, and naturally his being able to unleash his creativity unrestricted upon the rest of the webcomics world can only be a good thing in my view. But I can't help but wonder about this new shift in direction, especially when I know Dave isn't the only one to be/who will be doing this.

From the point of view of Joey Manley of course, it probably wouldn't make that much of a difference, because whether it's Girl-a-Matic or Graphic Smash or WebcomicsNation, they'll all under the Modern Tales umbrella. Still, I can't shake off the feeling that things are going to change a lot after this. Like it or not, the WCN effect is in motion, and I highly doubt that there is much anyone can say or do to change that.

Ps: I realise that with that last link I am admitting to reading the webcomics tabloid, but tee hee... that silly stuff is interesting sometimes. ;)

Stopover at WebcomicsNation

Webcomics Nation launched today. Granted, I've been a beta tester for WCN for a while so it hasn't really felt very different for me.

I do find myself in an interesting position of course, as you know I'm involved in Comic Genesis (formerly known as Keenspace) and now I'm also in the rival WCN camp. Given that CG is having humoungous teething problems at the moment (Teething? More like sabre-toothed Fangs) it probably couldn't be a better time for Joey to lauch WCN.

Personally, I think WCN is quite easy to use. People have been making comparisons to Blogger and Flickr, and they're almost spot on except the interface isn't as shiny yet. The only thing that recently I realised annoyed me about it is the dubious HCI-design aspect of it, where it commits a cardinal sin in HCI (Human Computer Interface) and has a shifting interface. Bad Bad Bad. You want all your navigational stuff to stay the same if possible.

However, putting up a comic in WCN is something like

1) Press button that says "Add New Page"
2) Press button that says "Upload Comic"
3) Enter date you want comic to display.

It's much simpler, though more restrictive compared to CG, but there are a lot of cool features, such as this "tooncasting" which I would use on a lot of my pages if the green "Hosted by WCN" text wasn't so big and ugly. Automated gallery and cast pages are pretty cool too, I admit. And having free advertising doesn't hurt either.

The price is $9.99 per month, which some people have mentioned as 'steep'. It'll be interesting to see if the price remains there or if it goes up or down.

All in all, I think WCN will be a good thing for webcomics. Anything that makes it easier to put up a webcomic is a good thing, certainly, and I like the idea that there's an alternative for Comic Genesis.

Granted I may have ulterior motives since I help run the Comic Genesis Help Center and less complaining is always welcome ;)

Edit: And it's ad free. I forget to mention that.

Stopover at Comixpedia and Ping Art

I forget to mention my latest "The Essence of..." column is up on Comixpedia. Also up are a couple of other articles, including "Feeding Snarky" by Eric Burns and an interesting soapbox by Kelly J Cooper.

There's also a Inverloch interview, for those of you who are Sarah Ellerton fans.

Speaking of Inverloch, I must say the writing really tightened up recently. I didn't think you'd be able to explain away the thieves code silliness, but as comebacks in writing go, that's pretty impressive.

I've also decided to keep an art journal so I can keep track of my progress in art, for those of you interested in such things. I'm rather explicit in stuff like what I decided to learn and draw today, as evidenced by the fact the first real entry is called "Drawing Man-Chest".

And that's the blurb for today. We're going to have the next leg of your long-postponed journey up next for your reading pleasure.

Stopover at The Green Avenger: There's Something About Abby

(Holy Crap! An actual Webcomics Find Post! Who'd have thought?!)

There are many reasons I like hanging around the Keenspace/ComicGenesis forums. The main one is I get to see all the budding talent first-hand, as most people start off at Keenspace and go indie when/if they get successful. Personally I think that's a great system.

Eric Burns wrote this long snark about the School of Keen a few months ago. Personally I always thought there was more learning to be done in Keenspace than Keenspot, because Keenspot is more of a business propostion, and Keenspace is there for well... starting out, experimenting, and making a comic for the hell of it.

Back to the topic, here's on of my finds discovered from hanging around Keenspace:



I think I've often mentioned I've not a devotee of superhero comics, so I wasn't sure what exactly attracted me to this comic. It might have been the art, there's something uniquely characteristic in the art style. Or that it gave off a different aura from what I expected from a typical superhero comic. I'm getting to be quite good at detecting those kind of auras.

So I checked out Green Avenger, and was amply rewarded for it. Green Avenger is an interesting hybrid superhero comic. There seem to be two kinds of comics, the story comics and the unrelated semi-autobiographical slice-of-life comics (which are usually sandwiched between the story comics, and are light bits of humour or commentary strips).

As far as I can tell, the story is about Abby, a girl who moonlights as the Green Avenger. How she got her powers and what exactly she's avenging isn't exactly clear. In fact I have a theory that she's not avenging anything, and calls herself the Green Avenger just for kicks, and doesn't really have a clue about superheroing. She also has a telepathic ex-superhero friend called the "The Purple Lavender Fey" who seems like sardonic and serious foil for the happy-go-lucky Green Avenger.

Back to the story, this seems to be a "how superheroes deal with real-life" kind of comics. The amount of humanization the characters are given makes The Green Avenger stand out from the rest. I'm pretty sure the following scenario rarely happens in the run-of-the-mill Marvel comic, for example:



The story seems to be taking a dark and more serious twist recently, but remains intriguing. A definite plus is that the creator is colouring the more recent strips, which makes all the difference in the world. Especially since the comic is called the Green Avenger, after all. There is something endearing and quirky about this comic that I can't quite name, but whatever it is, it's really growing on me, and I can safely say The Green Avenger is one comic that I'll be definitely watching in the future.

By the way, is it ok for me to spaz out happily over this? I remember reading Argon Zark when I was a little kid of twelve or thirteen, and getting a mention is just undeniably cool, even if it's so many more years later down the line!

In other news, I'm almost finished with moving house again. Maybe staying put for a couple of months will result in more blogging from me as I get back into the mood for more Webcomic Finding again.

Stopover at 2005 Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards: Last Chances!

The deadline for WCCA nominations is less than 24 hours away, so this is in just before the deadline.

I'm not really in the mood for lengthy discourse, because I have been bitten by the DRAWING bug, which means I don't feel like writing but drawing lots and lots of pictures and practicing my anatomy instead. Usually I'd just procrastinate, but with the approaching deadline, I'll just reel off the ones I have nominations for and leave the ones I don't be.

Outstanding Dramatic Comic - This award recognizes the dramatic elements of an online comic's storyline.

Eight To One. Drama tends to work best when the characters involves feel human. And that what makes it work for me, really.

Outstanding Story Concept - This award recognizes the writer’s ability to create an engaging, enjoyable and entertaining plot using the proper linguistic tools of both the genre and the medium.

No Rest for the Wicked. I can't help it. I'm in love with that thing.

Outstanding Romantic Comic - This award recognizes comics that reach a high level of quality in addressing issues of love and romance in their stories, settings and characters.

It's possible that I'm an abnormality when it comes to preferences because I generally find stories that focus exclusively on romance boring. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind romances if they fit in the contexts, but I just find they don't work very well for me without something else to accompany. For this reason, I find it hard to think of a comic for this category (Yes, I know it says 'addresses romance' instead of 'focus on romance', but the way they named that category freezes my brain into typecasting it.

My vote goes to Penny and Aggie, although I wouldn't consider it a 'romantic comic', but it's got enough romance elements to work.

And this is where I leave it. There are several other categories I'm leaving blank because I can't think of anything that I feel would suit it.

Anyways, happy nominations, I hope your favourite comics make it to the voting round, I'll doubtless have a report on the voting round next.

Now my sketch pad is calling. *runs off*

Stopover at Websnark: Oh the Drama!

Yes, I'm a little busy at the present. Watch out for WCCA part 3 shortly and Super Hero Vindibudd next week or so.

In the meantime, Websnark has some pretty hot discussion going on. Lots of drama, but the one thing that really caught my attention was this:


Chris Crosby:

on Monday, the Keen Four voted unanimously on what to change the name [of Keenspace] to. There should be a public announcement of the name later this week.

By the 5th anniversary of KeenSPACE (June 2005), every site should begin switching over to the new name and URL.

Needless to say, this is going to affect a lot of people. Some will be elated and some complain.


Me? I'll be crossing my fingers and hoping the name they chose is a good one.

Stopover at 2005 Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards: The Problem with WCCA

Here comes part two... there'll have to be a part three, because there are just too many categories.

First thing I'd like to do is clarify something I said in my last post though. I clarified it in the comments of the other post, but I know a number of you don't read this through the blog but rather the RSS/Livejournal feeds, so I'm repeating it here:

Joe Zabel pointed out this following paragraph...

I have nothing against the said big guns, but throwing awards at comics that are already widely-acknowledged to be at the top of the field seems rather redundant to me. It's a waste of resources, and I highly suspect it makes very little difference to those that receive the awards.

...and argued that the WCCA is about selecting the best comics, not the little guys of webcomics. And in a way, he's right, but I realise that my very poor wording of the statement (my fault) gave the wrong impression of what I'm trying to say.

Here's my clarification:

My reasoning behind the statement was made after looking through the WCCA mission statement:

....This kind of recognition comes in a diversity of levels and a variety of forms; financial rewards, critical acknowledgements, and of course fan recognition. Every form of entertainment also promotes itself and it’s participants, as well as encouraging their strife for greatness, through some kind of award system ... But every kind of award helps to feed this desire for recognition from a target audience.

A fair goal, and don't get me wrong... I'm not talking about excluding the Big Guns just because they are big guns. I'm talking about turning attentions elsewhere because they've already won it.

The problem here is that the WCCA was created to emulate the Grammys/music awards. But unlike the Grammys or movie/music awards, webcomics don't come in crops of a completed one a year. Some of them last forever (seemingly) because it's a constant work-in-progress. They may be good, but because of the extended time scope, they also end up being accoladed for the same thing multiple times over for no reason other than a stretched time frame to completion.

The big guns have already gotten their accolades and awards long ago. Getting it again for the same thing over and over seems... redundant.

Imagine a "Grammys" where all movies ever made are eligible instead of the new ones completed. No matter what new movie of whatever quality comes out, movies with cult followings are probably still going to dominate. (Because they believe their comic is the best, and out of loyalty they want it to always be named as the best, to the point of fanatical voting to ensure it defends the 'best' title... even if it ceases being the best out there at one point.)

I see WCCA in the same situation. Instead of rewarding the best AND the new, they're giving the awards to the same people over and over again. And this breeds stagnation in the 'industry', because it's not about who's best anymore. If it's about those with the biggest fanbases who will vote for them. Isn't that what Top Web Comics and Buzzcomics are for?

It gets to the point where the awards start looking worthless to everyone else because it's been warped out of its purpose.

And ironically an effect of this is people stop bothering to nominate comics, so you have this narrow list of nominations comprising of fans of the previous winners.

If the WCCA was all about "The Top Webcomics" or "Most Popular Webcomic Championship", then by all means, Best/Most Popular Webcomic, small fry, big gun, I wouldn't care. (No offense to TWC or Buzz intended, but I see their systems more of championships-type contests, something different entirely.)

But I think WCCA is about what is acknowledging best that comes out. I know everyone and their mother will disagree with me, but I think the WCCA started on a flawed premise. They should be about the BEST and the NEW, not just the same old few BESTS that have already been acknowledged the best of their batch time and time again.

As time goes by, it's going to become a bigger and bigger problem, especially at the rate webcomics have been growing. The WCCA need to realise this or risk becoming obsolete (much like Webcomics Awareness Day). Something needs to be changed, one way or another.





Okay, soapbox over. On to round 2 of nominations:

Nominees, Part 2

Outstanding Use of Color - This award recognizes an online comic that has a highly successful use of color in its art.

Oddly enough, my first choice is A Lesson is Learnt, but the Damage is Irreversible. I don't understand the comic, but the colouring-work is quite the something else!

Others under consideration were Inverloch and Copper.

Outstanding Layout - This award recognizes an online comic whose art is notable for its highly successful compositional elements.

Another obscure comic you've never heard about, but Mute. It takes comic layout to a whole other level. Panels? Speech bubbles? Forget that. Comics can be so much more!

Outstanding Use of Flash - This award recognizes comics that make superlative use of Flash or a similar program to achieve in webcomics what cannot be done in print comics.

For the record, I think is a VERY poorly named category. It really should be "Outstanding Achievement in Digital/Web Media" . The "Flash" in it is misleading, and most people are only going to think "Why only Flash?! What about Adobe Photoshop/Paint Shop Pro?"

The other thing about this is that the description of "what cannot be done in print comics is extremely vague. By that definition, Infinite Canvas would qualify, but that has a category of its own already.

I think I get what the gist of what they mean, of course...

Unfortunately I can't think of much, other than:

The Infinite Gag Strip, which uses Java... but you get the point.

Outstanding Use of Infinite Canvas - This award recognizes comics that make superlative use of the "infinite canvas" popularized by theorist Scott McCloud, where a large section of narrative is on one "plate" and the browser window is used to navigate along the narrative, rather than click to bring up new pages.

One thing I'd like to see other than this is a category for webcomics that use animation. I think that's an area that has been under-explored in webcomics still.

Ascent. I think the impresses me about it is how Sylvan Migdal makes use of Infinite Canvas without it being annoying, and creating it in such at way at it fits together in separate installments so well. It's not constantly eye-blowing and mind-shattering, but it's subtle and pleasant to go through.

Outstanding Website Design - This award recognizes outstanding website design of an online comic, where the design and interface of the entire site enhance the experience of reading the comic.

Alpha Shade. I like how they attempted to emulate a really book in digital format. It sometimes feels a bit crowded, but the points go for the experimentation.

Outstanding Comic- This is the over all most outstanding comic most effectively using every element of the creative process; art, writing and technical. This is the category that best represents the collection of all of the other categories

Copper. There are a lot of comics that shine is their own categories, but Copper is the best all-rounder I know of.





And that's for todays' batch of nominations. Whew!

Stopover at 2005 Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards: Vote, Damnit!

May is the month of comics. We had the rather obsolete Webcomics Awareness Day, then Free Comic Book Day and now it's time for the nomination round for the 2005 Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards.

Now, the mission statement more or less says that the formation of the WCCA is to encourage and reward outstanding online comics. Sadly, the WCCA HAS had kind of a bad reputation, mainly because in the recent years, it appears to have failed at it. These awards have been dominated by the likes of the 'big guns' of webcomics (PvP, Mac Hall, Penny-Arcade)... ironically those who are already drowning in fan-mail and accolades; those beyond the need to have this kind of encouragement already.

Now the odd thing here is, the winners of the WCCA awards are NOT decided by the votes of the fans. It is decided by the votes of their peers (if I may use such a term for other webcomic creators). One would presume that the majority would have had better sense than this. Unfortunately, looking at a few comics in some of the categories, it more like a popularity contest than a serious evaluation of anything.

I have nothing against the said big guns, but throwing awards at comics that are already widely-acknowledged to be at the top of the field seems rather redundant to me. It's a waste of resources, and I highly suspect it makes very little difference to those that receive the awards. Naturally, many people get turned off the awards because of this, and supposedly, boycotted last year's awards as a result... Ironically giving control of the whole thing to the people who vote for what they know instead of what they think is the best out of the lot.

(Or they vote for themselves, which is another matter entirely)

There's nothing much we can do about this really. I suppose it's too much to hope for people that will actually take a look at the other comics in the category and before selecting one of them for their vote... But one thing we CAN do however, is make sure that at least there's a decent selection up there. That means nominating comics you think really DO deserve the award, regardless of how futile the effort is.

And not only voting for that comic... but by making sure others know that you're voting for that comic, just in case someone else who agrees with you but would have never thought of voting is inspired to vote as well.

It's easy to be apathetic, but ignoring a problem will not make it go away. Before giving up, at least try to attack the problem head on first. Boycotting anything always should be the last resort.

I started this blog because I believe that there are a lot of good comics out there that people just don't know about. And they can't care about the comic you think deserves recognition if they don't know it's there. So make sure they know it's there!

If you have a webcomic, you have one vote. Same as me or any other eligible person out there. The playing field is level. The choice is up to you.

Remember...















...


please don't hurt me.



William G over at Delineated Life posted up his list of nominees. Interestingly, I was planning to do the same thing before he did, which is not the first time he's eeriely done something when I was considering doing the same thing.

Regardless, here they are. Like William G, I'm am not trying to tell you what to think. I'm just telling you I think, in hopes of giving the reader ideas for nominations. If you agree with my nominations and have a vote, please feel free to nominate that comic too. If not, please nominate another of your choice. In some case, I've also included my second and third choices, for variety's sake, and comments on categories I declined voting for because I'm not sure what it was about.

Nominees, Part One

Nominate those you know, but vote for the nominees you think are the best...

Outstanding Newcomer - This is an award that acknowledges the best new comic of this year. Eligible candidates would be any comic that debuted within the last year.

These are hard choices to make, but for my first choice I would have to go with Gianna Massetti of The N00b. While the art is not spectacular (but adequate) the writing, spirit and humour itself is a phenomenon that captures the heart. I would genuinely miss The N00b if it stopped, because it's one of my top favourites right now.

My second choice is probably one you've never heard of, but regardless: Zack Giallongo of The Tenth Life of Pishio the Cat. The comic concept is original, Zack is a top-notch artist, and the story is intriguing and compelling.

I would have liked to nominate Scarecrow for the third choice, but I'm not too sure if it's too early for this comic, it's started such a short time ago...

Outstanding Artist - This to award the artist whose body of work best demonstrates all of the visual elements of art including line, color, design and composition.

Kazu from Copper. Beautiful colours, poignant images and they go perfectly well with the context they are presented in. It's not perfection, but it comes close.

Second choice goes to Sarah Ellerton of Inverloch. Without a shadow of a doubt, one of the prettiest and consistent (also in terms of production) comics I've seen.

Outstanding Black and White Art - This award recognizes an online comic that makes use of highly successful black and white art.

Personally, I really think that this category should be split into Outstanding Black and White Art and Outstanding Greyscale Art, because the two types of art are so different and require such different techniques altogether. But to get down to business:

Digger. Unfortunately the currect page doesn't lend itself well to showing off the gorgeousness of the art, but a peek through the free samples the archive should convince most people Ursula Vernon is the master (or mistress) of black-and-white!

Fallen Angels Used Books would get my first vote for the Greyscale category if there was one. Unfortunately, there isn't, so here it goes.

Let's not forget Flatwood, which makes a good marriage between pure black and pencils... and the creepiness that produces.

Outstanding Character Art - This award recognizes an artists' skill at rendering the characters of an online comic during the previous year, where the visual flavor of the character design is effectively presented.

Sadly, I couldn't think of anything for this. Mainly because I couldn't understand the point of the category.

Outstanding New Character Design – This award recognizes the original creation of visually effective character design specifically from the previous year.

Ditto.

Outstanding Environment Design - This award recognizes visual design work of environment, props, or setting of an online comic, where the visual flavor of the environmental design is highly successful.

Nahast: Lands of Strife, get first choice for this one. The world is complex and intricate, and best of all, it draws you right into it.

Reman Mythology I'm still waiting patiently for Amy to come back and update this thng, but damn, yes, the world building here is astounding and I want more.

Outstanding Character Writing - This award recognizes an online comic whose character or characters have been rendered though image and narrative development to an extraordinary level of quality.

Eight to One. Brian Duffy is just very very good at ripping out the core of a person's soul and transplanting it into a character drawn on a piece of paper.

Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic - This award recognizes comics that make the best use of anthropomorphic characters such as talking animals, plants, or usually inanimate objects.

I don't really see much point in have a whole category just for anthromorphism. A comic is a comic, but if I had to pick one I'd say Digger would do.

Shivae might count as well. What can I say? I'm a sucker for cute carnivores.

Outstanding Fantasy Comic - This award recognizes comics that stand out in their use of fantasy elements.

It took me just 0.3 seconds to come up with a name for this one:

No Rest for The Wicked.

I could read this thing over and over and over again. And again. It's the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen meeting Grimm's Fairy Tales. The results... instant genius.

Outstanding Gaming Comic - This award recognizes comics that successfully base their stories around video or roleplaying games, their characters, players and/or creators.

The N00b. I'm a bit jaded with the gaming genre, but the N00b really breathed new life back into it for me.

Outstanding Superhero/Action Comic - This award recognizes the finest comics that incorporate action/adventure elements including superpowered characters.

Probably predictable of me, but Magellan. I generally don't like the superhero genres, but this has made me like at least this comic in it, damnit! Relying more on good stories, grounded logic and excellent characterisation than the 'wow what powers does X have!'. Ultimately engrossing.



More to come, but I'm running out of time, so I'll finish the list of nominations later.

In the meantime, if you have any suggestions, post and let me know. It's astonishing how much your brain clogs up with cotton-wool when faced with all theses choices...


ps: Image of 'Captain Planet' is copyrighted, i think. Used here for parody purposes.

Stopover at Girl-A-Matic: Read it, you know you wanna!

It's a little late for a post on this (give me a break, it's finals!), but today is (still) Free Comic Book Day. Apparently this is day that comic publishers give out free comics to encourage readership.

For webcomics this usually doesn't mean much because most web comics are usually free anyway, but with the event of subscription-based comics, FCBD takes on a whole new significance.

Today is Free Comic Book Day 2005, Modern Tales has announced that all series on anthology site Girl-A-Matic are free to view for a 24-hour period. I realise a few people may be unfavourably indisposed towards the site due to the feminism 'debate' we had not to long ago, but since the opportunity's there, it would be a great idea to check out the comics when you have the chance to.

It's hard for me to do this, because there are so many comics on the site, but I thought it'd be great to take this opportunity to give a shout out to some of my recommended GAM comics:

Jupiter
Ok, I'm biased, and I admit it: Lynn's a friend of mine. All that said, this was the comic that drew me into following GAM comics. Jupiter is a circus girl with problems belonging, and runs away from the circus and joins a school ;). Paradoxes, jokes, strong character interactions and one hot knife-thrower...

Um... Damnit, did I type that last part out?

Kismet: Hunter's Moon
Someone once described "The Jaded" as a spy thriller. I'm not sure how that came about, but Kismet... now THAT's a spy thriller. Dark, atmospheric, bloody, and intriguing. If you think that GAM's all about 'girly' comics, this one will prove you very very wrong.

Bite Me!
Dylan Meconis is a comedic genius. Bite Me! is just plain FUN and Funny. Tired of the usual Anne-Rice-esque angsty vampire comics? Bite Me! is a whole new twist on the genre, delightfully and subtly satirical, and a completed comic to boot! I love this comic!

Dicebox
This one's a bit odd, but one thing you can't deny the art is jaw-dropping. The writing and story content is a Marmite-case (i.e. You'll either love it or hate it), and the subject matter is definitely not run-of-the-mill and might be a tad controversial. The story of two friends trying to make their way through a futuristic world... but they're not exactly what they seem.

There are loads more GAM comics that are great, but I'm sorry to say if I keep on writing, I'll miss the deadline and the archives will be closed.

Also um... not sure if you'll be interested, but for a few more hours, the archives to this comic are kinda open for the next few hours too. Maybe I flatter myself, but if you've ever been curious well... now's the time.

Happy FCBD!

Stopover at Golden: The Opening of Pundora's Box

Some of you might be aware I'm currently involved in a multiple creator round-robin style webcomic project called Golden. Recently, it was my turn to carry on the story, so I had to rack my brains for an idea. Not being particularly good at humour (unlike the others on the project, who simply scintillate at this), I was willing to make use of anything that I could think of.

Punnery is for some odd reason, considered one of the lowest forms of humour available. If that's the case, then I must be the lowest of the low, because noting that the theme centered around birds, I produced this page. (Warning: Read this at your own risk. It's probably going to hurt)

It wasn't the first time my eccentric knowledge of ornithology stood me in good stead, but what I didn't realise was that by doing this, I pretty much declared open season on bird puns. Witness the following from Golden's Shoutbox:

moshunter: Owl owl my sides are hurting from laughing! Unexpected tern indeedy.
Komiyan: Oh man... Ping, you will be executed for crimes against punnery
Aja: That makes two penguin-related comics with a bird pun in the same day. (See link.)
Phalanx: De: *bows* Why, thank you! Aja: Ooh! I missed out on that particular bird pun...
Phalanx: I could have fitted it in really easily too! "The Fowl Forces of King Tuckiderby"....
Aja: No worries. It's already very emu-zing. **ducks**
Colby: Is there such a thing as "death by puns"?...
Phalanx: Quail-ly, yes. *rimshot*
Aja: Eh, there are worse ways to go. I wouldn't grouse about it.

Not to crow about it or anything, but when the comments are funnier than the comic itself, you know Pundora's Box has been opened indeed...

Personally I have spent far too much time laughing at this (And Aja's witty comebacks). You might knot agree with me, but bird puns rock.


...


Ok, I'll stop now.

Stopover at Scarecrow: Kids Nowadays Get the Darndest Things

I came across an interesting comment the other day, where a creator was vehemently insisting her work was not created "for kids". Somehow, the phrase struck me as odd, because when I think of my favourite books and films, I realised that a startling percentage of them seem to consist of material people tend to foolishly classify as "For Children".

One gets the gist of what they mean, of course. After all "Does not contain graphic violence, sexual situations and profanity" doesn't quite have the same ring. Still, "For Children" is a rather demeaning label. No wonder the film industry dropped that and started classifying stuff as "U - Suitable for All Audiences".

One thing I particularly dislike about classifying any kind of material for any kind of target group is that often psychologically excludes anyone not of the said target audience, to the point that they sometimes feel guilty reading it. In fact, it's a private theory of mine that many parents actually do enjoy watching childrens shows and reading childrens books on their own merit. They just wouldn't be caught dead doing so without the kid at hand to explain that they were 'supervising' and 'reading it to them'.

Me, I'm a sucker for children's books, because the majority of them seem to exhibit a lot more originality than stuff "For Adults". I've always believed that creativity can flourish surprisingly well under restrictive circumstances, and when you take away the easiest ways of amusing and audience (Violence, sexual innuendo, etc) creators are forced to explore different routes and find more creative ways of making a story interesting. And when people explore, people tend to end up experimenting more and rehashing old and well-worn concepts less.

Which brings us to my latest Find, Scarecrow:



Scarecrow is a young webcomic, and feels like something in-between a comic and a children's book, and while it has not proceeded very far yet, I already find it a very appealing. The mix of narrative styles and the "children's book" type illustration stands out in a field (No pun intended. I swear!) that seems to be dominated by ASHCB (American Super-Hero Comic Book) style and manga.

While nowhere on the site indicates it's 'for children', the style is very suggestive of that particular target audience. And other than the slight Messianic element to it, I have very little difficulty imagining any parent reading not thinking it would make great reading material to get their kids to start reading more.

I've often wondered why so few of the webcomics online seem to be written with an all-ages, but in particular, younger-ages audience in mind. Count Your Sheep is one, but I can't seem to think of any others. Ok, so webcomics are partially the rebellious progeny of the all-ages friendly newspaper comic, which according to some, nowadays apparently consists of the driest, most humourless stuff that can be found printed on dead trees. And like most rebels, the tendency has always been to push the limits in the opposite direction just because we can.

The question is: just because we can, must we do it all the time? Some things are like Infinite Canvas, where overuse of one often results in it getting old pretty quickly. For me at least, the novelty of webcomic freedom wore off long ago. Ironically, writing a webcomic for kids is probably tantamount to rebelling in the rebellion.

And all I can say to that is: Long live the Rebellion!




Incidentally, if you know of any other comics like the above, the comments section is now there, I'd love to hear of them.

Stopover at Count Your Sheep: Oddly approriate timing...

I'm a humongous Count Your Sheep fan. (Or Sheepheads, as some people call them). I was nuts about CYS back when it started, I'm still nuts about CYS now.

Now though CYS it deals a lot in nostalgic innocence and heart-warming moments, it's also a humour strip. And like most people who make humour strips know very well, it's hard coming up with a funny joke every day. I'm not sure I could do it, I have tremendous respect for those who try.

Humour strips are generally hit-or-miss affairs. Some days you get stuff that's so-and-so, and on other you get stuff that makes you laugh so hard you fall of your chair. CYS is no exception, but Adis has been on a roll lately, I really wanted to point out a couple of noteworthy strips:

Firstly, I really like the artistic experiment Adis tried with the background on this strip. It just works really well.

Secondly, there's last weeks Bruised Purgatory strip, which was responsible for a peal of very hysterical laughter from my room startling everyone in the vicinity. I use that particular phrase a lot myself, so it really strikes a chord. I wonder what people would think if I started using the other alternative? ;)

And then there's today's one-paneller:



With all the feminism talk lately, that was uncanny.

That just about sums it, really. The reason why I like CYS so much is that on a day of madness, it can still make me laugh.