Press Release: Intervention '11

Hi, everybody. I received the following press release last week about Intervention, an internet culture convention, and it looked like an interesting con. I'm a big fan of the internet, not just for webcomics but for all sorts of information and cool things, and the guest list for Intervention includes such awesome online cartooning humans as Dave Reddick, Steve Napierski, T. Campbell, and Chris Flick. The con's September 16-18, in Rockville, MD, so if you're around the area, you may want to check it out!

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Press Release:
INTERVENTION CONVENTION BRINGS CYBER-LIFE TO REAL LIFE

Event brings creators and fans together for weekend of learning and fun

ROCKVILLE, MD: Intervention, taking place at the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville in Rockville, MD, from September 16-18, 2011, is an indie creator and geek culture convention for the Internet generation. One part conference, one part fandom event, Intervention aims to provide both creators and fans a venue to learn, appreciate, and celebrate the opportunities technology provides.

“James [Harknell] and I wanted to put together an event that would complement the existing print-centric conventions – we wanted to showcase the creators who use the Internet as their primary publishing method,” says convention founder Onezumi Hartstein. “I went to conventions for years to promote my webcomic, and was always treated well, but felt that web creators needed their own space. We’re giving them that with Intervention.” After a very successful first run in 2010, this year will mark Hartstein's second time organizing the event.

Over thirty guests are currently scheduled to attend, bringing three days of panels and educational workshops. Fans of all stripes are also encouraged to submit their own cutting-edge programming, showcase their own works, and schedule their own meetups at the event. A special track of children's programming will be overseen by Matt Blum, managing editor of the GeekDad blog on Wired.com.

Sponsored by Think Geek (www.thinkgeek.com), Wacom (www.wacom.com), Foam Brain Games (www.foambrain.com), Smith Micro (www.smithmicro.com), 4Imprint (www.4imprint.com), Squishable (www.squishable.com), Toy Vault (www.toyvault.com), LH Productions (www.lighthouseprod.com), and Bawls Guarana (http://www.bawls.com) the convention will also feature video and board gaming, an extensive Artist Alley, live action roleplay (LARP), musical performances, a Steampunk-themed dance, and plenty of giveaways. A charity auction will benefit the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org), a civil liberties group that aims to defend freedom on the Internet.

Tickets for Intervention can be bought at http://www.interventioncon.com for $40 for the full weekend (through August 31, 2011). Tickets bought at the door will cost $45, with single-day rates available. More information about guests and events can be found at http://www.interventioncon.com.

C2E2: Part 3 of Is He Seriously Still Talking About This?

Hi again. C2E2 was two weeks ago, but I still have things to say about it. It was such a dense weekend that I feel I would run out of time for saying before I ran out of things to say about it. If that makes any sense.

So, here it is, Saturday afternoon, and I wanted to post some more about my C2E2 experiences and the cartoonists I talked to.

Of course, even though I focused primarily on webcomics, there was a lot going on at C2E2 beyond the world of cartoonists for whom the internet is their cartooning backbone. The big superhero-comic publishers, Marvel and DC and Image, all had a notable presence, with Marvel heavily promoting the upcoming Iron Man 2 movie via comic and video-game tie-ins. (The video game looks awesome.) Local Chicago comic shops occupied a large swath of the floor, and I bought a copy of Scott Pilgrim from one of them in anticipation of (once again) the upcoming movie. On the stage out in the hall, the local folk-rock-about-superheroes band Wednesday Heroes played a set or two every day. There was more to see and do than one person could even conceive of doing.

So, I did what I could. I attended a couple of panels--including one on black comic creators and black superheroes--and I watched the Iron Artist competition on Saturday evening, for me the highlight of which was watching Gordon McAlpin and Tom Brazelton draw their own interpretations of the theme "Snake Pliskin in Escape from the Princess Bride." On Friday night, there was a Webcomics Town Hall, which probably merits its own entry. So I'll save that topic for another time.

Before I go fold my laundry, I'd like to tell you about two webcartoonists I met at the con and about their work. (Actually, I'll tell you about them after I fold my laundry. You probably won't be able to tell the difference.)

Chicago native Sean Archer creates the webcomic Milo the Cloud, about a light-hearted cloud and his eclectic peers (including an aichmophobic balloon and a bazooka-toting cardinal). What struck me about Sean's work is the creativity that he displayed in merchandising and promoting Milo the Cloud. He had Milo figurines for sale at his booth, and he told me about the process of creating and painting each of them by hand. Additionally, he had an a capella CD of unofficial theme music for Milo the Cloud, which he created and performed with some of his musical colleagues. Milo the Cloud is a humor-based strip with some continuity and an idiosyncratic. It struck me as similar to Ed Contradictory, which I mentioned in a previous C2E2 entry, so if you like one of these comics, you should probably check out the other too.

I also got to meet Alina Pete, the creator of Weregeek. Weregeek has nothing to do with Werewolves--at least not directly. Instead, it's about otherwise ordinary people who, when the moon is right and mysterious forces align, are transformed into wholly different beings for their tabletop RPG sessions. It's a tongue-in-cheek look at the role-playing hobby from the inside out, and it's a lot of fun.

It can be a challenge to actually depict the imagined in-game world of an RPG in a comic and still keep it engaging, but Weregeek naturally moves between its characters' everyday lives and jobs and their in-game adventures. Kudos to the creative staff for pulling off that tricky balancing act! I'll have to read some more of this comic when I have the time.

Another thing that I will have to do when I have the time is blog some more about C2E2.

C2E2: Part 2 of X, where X = (However Many of These I End Up Doing)

Meeting Chris Hallbeck of The Book of Biff for the first time

Our conversation more or less went like this.

When you are a cartoonist, you talk to people by putting together words and pictures. Most of our talking happens with noises we make from our mouths, so cartooning is kind of an unusual way to talk. Some cartoonists are equally at home talking with noises or with silly pictures, cartoonists like Tom Brazelton or Kris Straub, cool guys who generally seem at ease chatting with anyone, even perfect strangers who visit their booths at conventions or dudes they know wholly through the internet.

But some cartoonists are most comfortable talking through cartoons. Nothing's stopping these cartoonists from coming to conventions, and if you go up to their booth, it's not like awkward silence is a given or anything. But your conversation will probably be weird, and if they do feel completely comfortable talking, it's probably because they're talking with you about what you'd like them to sketch for you. At comic conventions, you can meet cartoonists from all across the social spectrum.

I met a lot of cartoonists at C2E2.

It was undeniably cool to meet Chris Hastings of Dr. McNinja fame. I got to watch him draw awesomeness onto a fan's interactive poster, we talked some about creating the kind of comics you want to read and finding something marketable inside your heart, and we had not one but two deliberately awkward silences. I talked with Evan Dahm, who has plans to develop his fictional world of Overside even beyond Rice Boy and Order of Tales. I talked to people whose work I'm familiar with, and I met some new faces too.

Ed Conley creates the comic Ed Contradictory, a bizarre foray into self-aware cartooning, in which the characters berate the cartoonist, search for new characters for the comic, and travel back in time to keep themselves from time-traveling. The central cast includes a cute-mascot panda bear, a gentleman scientist and the fellow gentleman scientist whose brain he placed inside a robot, a mercenary, and the Magical Booze Fish. It's utterly nuts and unabashedly anti-fourth-wall, and Ed Conley was wearing a necktie when I met him. That's pretty cool.

I also got to meet Dawn Griffin, creator of Zorphbert and Fred. Her comic is about two aliens who don dog disguises in order to observe and study humans, but I'm largely aware of her work because her two lead characters have been sharing their webcomics Picks of the Day via their Twitter accounts. Dawn and I talked about a whole crazy spectrum of things, from balancing your day job and your comic, to her illustration work for the Abby's Adventures children's books, to self-criticism and self-confidence and how it's a good idea to get up and actually do athletic things once in awhile. Dawn is a pretty cool person with a pretty cool comic.

Do I have more things to say about C2E2? Certainly. Can I find time to say them? We shall see.

Don't forget I got a new "I am a Purchasing Rockstar" strip going up at Borderline Boy tomorrow.

C2E2: Part 1 of Man I Don't Even Know How Many

Joe Dunn and Phil Chan discuss their college-story comic Matriculated in contrast to their gag-format works (Joe Loves Crappy Movies and Another Videogame Webcomic):


I spent the majority of C2E2 conversing with webcomic creators about their craft, their stuff, and all things webcomics. This is a bit of an actual conversation with Joe Dunn and Phil Chan, writer-and-artist team behind countless comics for the Digital Pimp collective.

Most everyone who stopped by the Digital Pimp booth showed a preference for either Matriculated or JLCM, in terms of which Digital Pimp features they read regularly. Story-based comics and gag-a-day strips attract different sorts of readers, when the comic in question updates weekly, it adds an entirely different rhythm to the mix. Contrast a weekly humor strip like Rob & Elliot with, say, The Book of Biff, or consider the pacing of Matriculated itself.

Stay tuned for further words and pictures from C2E2!

Back from C2E2

Well, after a busy weekend of conventioning in Chicago (and a 5-hour drive home), I'm back from C2E2. It's 11:25 and I've got work tomorrow morning, but I just wanted to say it was a great time and it's given me a lot to think about. I'll hit you with some more posts as this week progresses about the people I met, the conversations I had, and the cool things that went down. But for now I've got some sleeping to do.

Convention Adventures, April 2010

Greetings, internet people.

See the announcements about conventions in the sidebar? I'd like to say a few more words about those conventions, because--as the write-up below of my visit to Wes Molebash's exhibition will attest--it is cool to meet other people who are into webcomics in person. I'll be attending two conventions in April, and if you also will be attending these conventions, it would be cool to see you there.

Friday, April 16th, through Sunday, April 18th, I will be at the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo. There will be a large contingent of webcartoonists there, and you will probably be able to catch me hanging out at table WC-B with my fellow cartoonist and boss, Gordon McAlpin, and Joel "Hijinks" Watson. Additionally, you can bet I'll be attending the Webcomics Town Hall panel at 7:15 PM on Friday. You will be able to recognize me by the "I Heart Workplace Romance" shirt that I will be sporting.

Should you wish to purchase an "I Heart Workplace Romance" shirt, Gordon will have them for sale at his booth. They are pretty awesome shirts, because I designed them. I'm just sayin'.

In other, slightly less shamelessly self-promoting news, I will also be attending the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo, April 24-25, in Columbus, OH. This looks like a good way to meet like-minded people, it is only an hour or two from where I live, and plus it is only eight bucks. Tom "Marooned" Dellaringa will be in attendance there, and hopefully I'll get a chance to chat with him and possibly pick up a copy of his short comic story A Tale of Two Robots (I love robots). In all likelihood, other cool things will happen as well: cool things that I cannot foresee, bounded as I am within this space and time.

If you are planning to be at either of these conventions, shoot me an email (DeathbyChiasmus -at- gmail -dot- com). It would be cool to connect with you and talk about--what else--comics.

Meeting Wes Molebash, Cartoonist and Living Legend

This past Saturday, I took an hour-and-a-half drive out to Schlegel's Coffee in Chillicothe, OH to see Wes Molebash at his comic exhibition. Wes is best known for his now-completed strip about married life, You'll Have That, and he's done several other comics. For the month of March, Schlegel's Coffee House is showcasing his current project, Max vs. Max, a strip about the personal ups and downs of underdog/everyman Max Stanton.

On Saturday evening, Wes made a personal appearance at Schlegel's, so I made a trip down to see him in person. It was great to see him in person and talk comics--and I suppose that this, for me, is the cool thing about webcomics, the connecting.

The internet (at least ostensibly) is all about connecting. When you're reading a webcomic, if you want to say something to the cartoonist, you don't have to get up and get a stamp and envelope and find the guy's address, as you would with a newspaper strip or comic book. You can easily shoot an email or drop a comment. Your reply back may be a simple "thanks for the email; I'm glad you liked today's comic!", and you may not get a deep and personal connection out of it, but the internet has made connecting easier.

There's no substitute for face-to-face communication, but be that as it may, the internet can facilitate saying "hey" in person too. Thanks to the internet, I got to meet some new people this weekend, including one Wes Molebash, a talented cartoonist and a down-to-earth guy.

If you get a chance like this to meet up with a cartoonist whose work you enjoy, I encourage you to take it. Cartoonists like talking with people who like their work! Sure, it's possible to be an obnoxious gushing fan or an obsessive stalker about it, but most people are pretty cool about their art appreciation, and when people are cool about it, cool stuff happens. Swing by a convention or an exhibition or the Buttersafe Expo sometime. I've got a couple of conventions that I'll be swinging by in April--but I digress. I'll drop some more details on that later.

Point is, Wes Molebash is a cool guy who makes cool comics. If you're near Chillicothe, you should swing by the gallery and check out his exhibit. At the coffee shop, you can purchase original Max vs. Max strip artwork, and Wes is also taking commissions and selling original YHT art in order to fund his upcoming wedding. Further details are available at the Max vs. Max site.

3/27: Week in Review

Happy Friday, all. It's time to take a look at what's happened this week, webcomics-wise.

First: I know this blog focuses less on "webcomics industry news" and more on "comics I liked this week," but it would almost certainly be remiss if I did not mention the New England Webcomics Weekend which happened this weekend. Three metric buttloads of cartoonists were in attendance, and many of them chose to create comics about their NEWW experience. Jeffrey Rowland, in his not-really-autobiographical strip Overcompensating, has particularly had a whole lot to say about it. Read his comic: he has a crazy knack for dialogue and I do not give his comic enough love.

Scott Kurtz also weighed in with an autobiographical NEWW comic that is perhaps funnier to webcartoonists than webcomic readers, and Kris Straub further celebrates with a suitably crazy Chainsawsuit comic. If you happen across any other shareworthy NEWW comics, feel free to share 'em in a comment.

Perhaps facilitated in part by the Webcomics Weekend, this has also been a big week for guest comics. Meredith Gran of Octopus Pie kicked off a guest week on Monday with this excellent strip from David Willis, Questionable Content dropped an enormous and exceptionally well-drawn guest strip from Lucid TV (lucid-tv.com), and Bobwhite rocked a guest week that included an F-Chords/Bobwhite crossover from the Straub. If you miss F Chords as much as I do, it was a welcome visit from Ash and Wade, however brief.

Also running guest weeks recently were Allan Wood's daily journal comic Allan and Unwinder's Tall Comics by Eli Parker. Typically, Allan stays painfully close to the ups and downs of its author's real life, but Allan's guest week (starting here) featured a bevy of comics with a hilarious disregard for reality. Celebrating a year of Unwinder's misguided adventures, the Tall Comics guest week featured a variety of really extremely tall comics, including a truly inspired foray into clay-model photocomics. I myself even collaborated with my friend Joe Harris on a Tall Guest Comic! I am hardly an objective journalist, so go check it out.

And finally, at the emailed recommendation of one Sanjay Kulkarni (creator of Cowbirds in Love), I have begun tuning in to Moe. Moe features a unique art style, with bold linework, earthtone colors, and a kind of calculated sloppiness to it. This week's comics feature everyman Moe's clueless and solipsistic forays into the world of organized religion, starting with confession. I definitely recommend it--I laughed out loud at each of this week's updates, especially this one.

And with that, this update draws to a close. I'll see you next week, with more to say about webcomics as always. Got a good comic to share from this past week? Drop a comment!

Animation and Gaming Ohio 2009: A Guest's Experience

Well, here I am delivering the Convention Report--two days after the fact. This weekend, I had the pleasure and privilege of attending Animation and Gaming Ohio as a guest. As the second convention I've ever attended, it was still a very new and odd experience. Some people live for these things, to the point where conventions are like a second home. To me, they still feel like stepping into another world, an alternate reality.

This being an animation and gaming convention, comics and cartooning received very little direct focus: anime and video games took center stage. I talked to several people who read webcomics, but found very few enthusiasts: most were either casual browsers who didn't really follow specific titles regularly, or gaming enthusiasts who read easily-recognized titles like PA and CAD. Still, people enjoyed talking about webcomics, and passion is contagious. If you're enthusiastic about something, then as long as the other person has even a passing interest, they'll generally perk right up and get into the conversation too.

A number of cool things happened at the convention, and I got to meet several cool people. Here are some highlights.

My Panel, "The Harsh Truth about Webcomics"
On Saturday morning at 9 AM, I delivered a panel on the challenges of monetizing a webcomic. Five people showed up! I'd planned to speak to a larger crowd, so I ended up chucking my notes and simply talking about webcomics with the handful of panel attendees. We had a good conversation, and as we started bouncing ideas off each other, we had some valuable insights into turning online cartooning into a paying job. For example--why do you never see the online equivalent of a "funny pages" gathering several comic strips together in a single place? Would people subscribe to such a service?
For the follow-up panel on Sunday afternoon, we scrapped the premise of discussing webcomics at all and ended up talking about how Japan is weird. Not that the United States isn't also weird. But man, Japan is pretty weird.

Meeting DM Ashura
Bill Shillito, better known as DM Ashura, is a talented electronic musician whose music has been featured in various mixes of Dance Dance Revolution. He's also a very cool guy to hang out with. He and I talked about the value of a public space for gaming and what DDR has done to keep the arcade scene alive; I listened to his music and grooved out at the Saturday night rave that he hosted; we randomly sang bits of "Still Alive" at the closing ceremonies. All in all, it was cool to meet this guy, even if we only briefly discussed webcomics. Hopefully our paths will cross again in the future.

Signing Autographs with Steve Blum
I have to admit, I came into this event with only a vague idea of who Steve Blum is. He's done the voices for Spike Spiegel, Wolverine, and a host of other characters: which means that he is a big name in the voice acting industry. And DM Ashura and I had the express pleasure of signing autographs with him.
There was a line practically out the door, and almost immediately I could see why he was so popular with the fans. He was extremely personable, posing for photos with fans, signing personalized autographs on anything and everything they requested, doing voices on command. One guy had a friend whose sore throat kept him from attending the convention; this guy called up the friend and had Steve Blum talk to him as Wolverine. "So I hear you're out with a sore throat. I know how that feels, bub--no fun at all. So listen, take lots of antibiotics, get plenty of rest..." He's really an incredible guy.
Most people came for his autograph, but DM Ashura and I signed a few ourselves. I made a few doodles along with my John Hancock. One girl was cosplaying as Zach from Final Fantasy VII, and I got to draw a cartoon of Zach on her buster sword.

In summary, the con was pretty incredible. I met some very cool and talented people, I got to be a guest judge at a Rock Band Concert, I drew a bunch of ninjas and ate a bunch of delicious free food and played retro video games in the gaming room, and I killed a man with a trident.

Be sure to tune in again on Friday, when it's back to talking about webcomics as usual. See you then!