For some reason, I am writing all this in the mental voice of a Muppets News Flash…
- Pigs of the Industry reviewed Cards Kill and Webcomic Planet covered Runners Universe. Webcomics Critique and Mister Hands reviewed Starslip, This Week In Webcomics covered Capes ‘N’ Babes and Spwug covered The Phoenix Requiem. Tangents reviewed The Wotch. iFanboy (via Comixup) brings us a review of Asterios Polyp.
- Optical Sloth reviewed Midville High and Just A Man, various Worms, multiple Lost Kisses and three XO’s . High-Low reviewed Sleeper Car and 1-800-MICE while Kleefeld pointed us toward a review of Logicomix. File Under Other reviewed five comics from Silber Media.
- Zuda’s September competition is well under way.
- And keep an eye on Eben 07 – this is the comic’s two year milestone. There were highlights Monday, we learned something about the shadowy Director of Operations on Tuesday and with more to see on Wednesday, Thursday, today and Saturday. Check it out if you’re not yet a fan.
- ComixTalk informs us about Splinters.
- In other news, Wizard continues to cut and Talkin Bout Comics gives Zuda a couple of attaboys. And it’s not comic related yet, but is this the real Danny?
- The reality is that ads aren’t going away, even though most ads do not fit in context or interrupt the viewer experience. Since we usually do enjoy products related to what we are interested in viewing, not all ads are bad. Obviously, Hostess comic ads are a little too blatant and paid product placement can compromise the integrity of a work – I’m looking at you Metropolis (third from the bottom.) Perhaps we could take another look at patronage funding.
- Need a copyright infringement letter on file? Courtesy of Journalista. I love the infringing weasels reference.
- Ever wanted to catch up on a webcomic that has a long archive but you’d rather not pull an all nighter to do it. Try out archive binge.
- Drawn! gets a site redesign, I saw these working illustrator tips, there’s a new visual narrative resource site and keep your eye on the comic news from Webcomic Beacon. They have some features – such as milestones – not available elsewhere. The Manga Critic hit 101 posts – courtesy of MangBlog.
- And we have another piece on the end of the direct market through Diamond. It appears that Diamond only stocked some of a certain line of books and the retailer was expecting the whole line to be available. I’m not a comic retailer but I do know that I want comic shops to carry the coolest comics they can find. If that’s a reliably selling series then I’d expect Diamond to have the whole series – or at least be clear about which ones they have available. Being vague about this sort of thing just wastes a customer’s time and annoys them. The more Diamond and retailers work together to serve the customer, the better their business.
- Does comic creating, even though you love it, seem hard to you? Will it ever come easy? Probably not but that’s okay. Really. It’s good.
3 comments ↓
Those ” Is the Direct Market Dead ” articles about Diamond always get my hopes up, even though they’re never accurate in the literal sense. You’d figure that with all the talk about the shrinking direct market and the complaints retailers have levelled against Diamond’s role in this, there’d be some sort of upheaval by now, yet here we are…
I’m not a retailer, of course, but I can only assume there are no better options than Diamond (for what they provide.) Things have changed – the business model Diamond prefers needs adjustment.
Rarely have I seen a company cut back on offerings so severely and not go under. When you cut back on variety (a big selling point for a catalog company) then it’s a downward spiral. That’s the wrong adjustment, from my perspective.
AdBlock helps.
But I’m waiting for the day in webcomics where you have to sit through the ad to get to the content like you do with a video like “The Daily Show” or on IGN
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