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.

A New Face Joins Wishtales Publishing

Happy Monday, my readers. I've got news to share with you today.

You may remember Wishtales Publishing, which I mentioned shortly after its launch last September. Wishtales is bringing aboard former Disney cartoonist Eddie Pittman and his comic "Red's Planet." I've come across Red's Planet a couple of times before receiving the press release, and I liked what I saw--Pittman's professional experience in storytelling through animation comes through strongly, and it's clear he's put a lot of effort and planning and fun into his comic. "Red's Planet" stars a runaway foster child, Red, who is accidentally abducted by aliens. She finds herself marooned on an unfamiliar planet with a weird alien entourage who are even worse than her foster family. It's sharp, cartoony, and an engagingly weird fish-out-of-water adventure.

Incidentally, I had a chance last week to catch up on Moon Town last week, and Steve Ogden is really knocking it out of the park with this one. I can see why he won the "Best New Comic" award in the 2009 Webcomic List Awards. Bottom line is, if you like quality sci-fi storytelling, you can't go wrong with the Wishtales guys. Give 'em all a look, because I'm sure at least one of these guys has got a comic you'll enjoy.

The press release is as follows:

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CARTOONIST AND FORMER DISNEY ARTIST EDDIE PITTMAN JOINS WISHTALES

March 2, 2010 – The independent publishing studio Wishtales has added to their roster of all-ages comics with the addition of Eddie Pittman, creator of the brand new online graphic novel "Red's Planet."

Pittman began his animation career with Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida working on Mulan, Tarzan, Fantasia 2000, The Emperor’s New Groove and Lilo & Stitch. He currently resides in Orlando Florida where he provides a variety of services including storyboard and illustration work.

Pittman recently began publishing his all-ages science fiction graphic novel "Red's Planet" online. Dell'Aringa and Ogden were immediately taken by his wonderful style and smart writing. Emails were exchanged and Pittman eventually provided artwork for Dell'Aringa's first book "Out of Orbit."

Dell'Aringa and Ogden soon realized that Pittman was a perfect fit for Wishtales.

"I brought it up to Steve early in the week and it just seemed like a no-brainer for us. Eddie is not only a wonderful artist, but a wonderful person, too. We share a lot of the same ideas about art and about all-ages material. It's a natural fit. We're just ecstatic Eddie felt the same way," said Dell'Aringa.

Pittman's "Red's Planet" is the story of Red, a 10-year old girl who after running away from her foster home is mistakenly kidnapped by aliens. She soon finds herself across the galaxy and marooned on a deserted planet with an eclectic group of castaways who are much worse than her foster family.

Pittman was happy to join the budding publishing studio.

"I couldn't be more excited to be a part of Wishtales. Tom Dell'Aringa and Steve Ogden are two of my favorite storytellers. Having the opportunity to work with them and bring strong all-ages content to life through Wishtales is a dream come true," said Pittman.

Wishtales we be exhibiting for the first time at the 11th annual Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo in Columbus Ohio in April 24th and 25th, where they will be showing off material from their many creations including "Red's Planet," "Moon Town," "Marooned," "Rag the Viking," "Croaker's Gorge," "Cubicle Pigs" and more.


Wishtales Publishing Studio
http://www.wishtales.com

Red's Planet by Eddie Pittman
http://www.redsplanet.com

Marooned by Tom Dell'Aringa
http://www.maroonedcomic.com


Moon Town by Steve Ogden
http://www.moon-town.com

Snowflakes Collaborates with AHA's Be The Beat Campaign

You know me. Even when I'm on hiatus, I can't help posting webcomics news.

A couple days ago, I received a press release in my inbox regarding the webcomic Snowflakes, an all-ages strip created by the cartooning trifecta of James Ashby, Chris Jones and Zach Weiner. The Snowflakes creators are collaborating with the American Heart Association to promote the Be the Beat cardiac arrest awareness campaign to teens and tweens.

When I first received the press release, my first thought was that the project had potential, but I was concerned that it might simply be a shabby token effort. Having checked out the strips that Ashby, Jones and Weiner have created, I can say that they're still producing top-quality cartoons for this project. Weiner stated in the press release, “The opportunity to use our humor and storytelling to promote a great cause was impossible to pass up,” and you can tell the team believes in the undertaking.


It's a challenge to make art that both educates and entertains, but I found myself laughing and learning as I read through the Be The Beat strips. What really carries the day is the characterization: obsessive student Wray's over-the-top, juvenile imagination, as her workbook partner Sloan plays the uptight and reasonable straight man. I'm not in the campaign's target market of 8-to-15 year-olds, but if anything, it shows that just about anyone can get something out of this stuff.

You can read the series at the Be The Beat website, with new comics Monday and Friday through February, or check it out at the Snowflakes website (which also updates on Wednesdays with its normal storyline). My only real complaint is navigability--it takes two to three clicks to see each strip at the BTB site, and on Snowflakes' site, the two simultaneous unrelated storylines keep interrupting each other in the archives. Still, I found it worth the navigational hassles to check out. It's some quality educational cartooning.

On a side note, I also discovered that one of my favorite nerdcore rappers, MC Lars, is also involved in the Be The Beat campaign, with a relentlessly, awesomely, unapologetically cheesy track promoting healthy heart habits and emergency responsiveness. You can scope his dope beats (ha!) at bethebeat.org.

Press Release: Guigar Celebrates 10 Years of Cartooning

Hi, everyone. Have a press release celebrating 10 years of cartooning for Brad Guigar, creator of Evil, Inc., and a host of other comic strips both online and offline. Congrats on ten years, Brad--here's to many more!

PRESS RELEASE

On Valentine’s Day, as many people celebrated romance, Brad Guigar will raised a toast to a passion that has been a driving force in his life for ten years — daily comics.

His first comic strip, "Greystone Inn," debuted on the Web on Valentine’s Day, 2000, and updated every Monday-through-Saturday for the next five-and-a-half years. The day after it ended in June 2005, his current daily strip, "Evil Inc," began. Although both strips are webcomics, they both ran in daily newspapers, including the "Philadelphia Daily News." "Evil Inc" appears in front of an estimated 1.5 million newspaper readers a week.

"Evil Inc" is a company that was formed by comic-book super-villains who realized that they could get away with more evil if they worked within the law. It’s a satire that pays loving homage to super-hero comics while reflecting on everyday issues — such as the blended family that is formed when a villain secretly marries the city’s top super-hero.

In addition to his daily labor of love, Guigar also produces a weekly comic, "Courting Disaster," and for a year-and-a-half, he produced a weekly full-page comic, "Phables," that shared stories about life in Philadelphia. "Phables" earned Guigar a nomination for the Eisner Award in 2007 — the highest honor in comics.

But Guigar’s obsession with comics doesn’t end there. He has written one cartooning book, "The Everything Cartooning Book," and co-written another ("How to Make Webcomics"). And he is the editor-in-chief of the daily cartooning-advice blog, Webcomics.com, where he shares his knowledge and experience in negotiating the tricky landscape of digital publishing with novice webcartoonists -— many of whom discovered Guigar through the popular podcast, Webcomics Weekly, that he co-hosts.

He has self-published over 13 print collections of his work — all available on his Web sites — and appears at a half-dozen comic conventions across the country to promote his work. He has talked comics at San Dieo’s Comic Con International as well as at Harvard University.

Surprisingly enough, his wife of 12 years hasn’t divorced him. In fact, she and their two boys have become almost as enamored with comics as Brad.

Superfogeys: Revelations are in Store

2010 looks to be an ambitious year for The Superfogeys. SF creator Brock Heasley writes, "In many ways, I've been waiting since 2006 to tell the stories I'm gonna tell in 2010. Longtime readers, your patience will be rewarded." As I've noted before, Superfogeys is a quality comic that hits all across the comedy-drama spectrum, and it executes its retired-superheroes premise with creativity and style. If you're not already up-to-speed on Superfogeys, now's a good time to get on board.

And if you're already a regular Superfogeys reader, you've got a lot to look forward to.

Press Release: Haunted Goes to Print

As I take my hiatus for the holiday season, looking over the webcomics-related emails in my inbox, I begin to realize: receiving a press release is like receiving a blogpost already halfway written for you.

Here is a press release concerning Joshua Smeaton's comic Haunted.

Haunted, the Xeric-winning web comic by Joshua Smeaton, makes its graphic novel debut. It is currently available for preorder from Orion Books.

What did you do for Halloween when you were 12? Trick-or-treat, bob for apples or run from a psychotic ghost bent on ripping out your soul?

It was supposed to be a night of carefree fun for a group of junior-high friends. All they had wanted was to sneak into the high school Halloween party thrown at an abandoned mansion. Unfortunately they aren’t the only uninvited guests.

Haunted is an adventure story about a group of kids that get trapped in a mansion with a murderous ghost. The story is a fantastical thrill ride with moments of calm made all the more enjoyable with its colorful vibrant art.

Haunted is a 104-page full color graphic novel priced at 12.95, ISBN 978-0-615-31563-8. Scheduled to be released January 2010. It is available in the November Previews catalog. Order Code: NOV090896. www.hauntedcomic.com

I took a look at Haunted for myself, and if it sounds like something you've seen before, that's because it is. The familiar teens-in-a-haunted-house trope is played entirely straight, with no major twists or turns on the basic concept. That said, it takes a done-to-death idea and does it reasonably well: the art is good, the dialogue is authentic, and the characters are an interesting, individuated bunch of quasi-delinquent teens. For all the familiarity of its premise, it doesn't really do anything wrong.

Might not be worth a buy for you, but it might well be worth a look. Ladies and gents, judge for yourselves.