BUISINESS
Publisher Devil's Due announced a partnership with Kevin Spacey's Triggerstreet.com for webcomic competitions at the Triggerstreet.com site.  Stephen Cristy from Devil's Due compared it favorably in terms of financial rewards and creator freedom to the DC Zuda site.

The Platinumized Wowio is set to relaunch in less than a week (there's a countdown timer on the site now).  Comics Worth Reading comments on the new Wowio business plan (one quibble though - Johanna says "WOWIO worked for everyone: free comics for readers and real payments for creators of 50 cents a PDF download."  - well yes, but apparently it didn't work for the owners of WOWIO very well as it appears they have yet to make any profits)

With all of the Platinum and WOWIO news, I've missed mentioning DJ Coffman's recent "I'll draw anything for $2" promotion.  It seems to boil down to the equivalent of selling sketches at a convention and I'm sure others have done similar things before but Coffman seems to be particularly happy with his effort and its results so far.

DEAD TREES
AppleGeeks signs with Dark Horse to do a book in 2009.  Congrats to Hawk and Ananth.

TECHNOLOGY
Everyone seemed to be linking today to this article on webcomics through the Nintendo Wii.  Four Japanese publishers are teaming up to do this in Japan.

WANT ADS
Laurent Q writes at Panels and Pixels: I'm a french writer (novels and comics-books) seeking artists. Several project accepted by french publishers are awaiting their artist.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
Ouch - get better soon Aaron Diaz!  (He had a bike accident and got hurt).

Looks like DrunkDuck webcomics site is running an awards program this year.

Last not least: an animated version of the caustic clip-art webcomic, Get Your War On.

We’ve just finished a couple of great days at the San Diego Comic-Con, seeing old friends and meeting so many new ones! Although we’ve seen CryptoZooey in the news a lot since its debut, we think this may be the first review of the new book and couldn’t wait to share!

There are a lot of moments that we’d like to highlight from our first two days (and we will do a more in-depth report after the Con is over), but there was one person who visited us to look at the new book who we’re fans of. Check out Felicia Day and the Jackalope!

So busy…

Did a brisk business once the doors finally opened. Met lots of fans, met lots of peers, met lots of friends. There’s a social aspect to this event that is easy to understate.

I saw Randy Milholland across the way as we were setting up, and I hollered out “HEY RANDY!” Milholland turned to see me, and so did an unfamiliar face. Turned out it was Randall Munroe of XKCD fame, and of course I didn’t recognize him right away. But now we’ve met (he’s charming, and every bit as knowledgable as his strip may lead you to suspect). Oh, and Milholland and I had a great talk, too.

Had a wonderful dinner with Joey Manley and friends, and we had some fascinating business discussions. The food at Bocca was delicious, too.

But I don’t have time to tell you about everything. I can’t even scratch the surface.
As of this morning there is only one advance-copy pre-order sketch edition available. I expect it to be gone before 10am.

And now I need to get back to work

Baby's First Internet is a comic/illustrated story by Kean Soo and Kevin Fanning that is solid gold baby!  It's very funny: a laundry list of 'net bad behaviors told through rhyme.

DJ Coffman has posted some comments on the new Platinum-owned WOWIO deal and he explains why he's passing on it.  From DJ's explanation it does seem like WOWIO is becoming a bit more like a webcomics portal and it also seems to shift the risk of getting advertising onto the publisher (that's you the humble webcomic creator under WOWIO's contract speak).

I used to be cool. While my formative years were spent in geekish pursuits such as listening to heavy metal, playing Dungeons & Dragons and reading comic books, (which are all considerably cooler pursuits these days), I didn’t hit my cool stride until I was in my 20’s. It was during that time that my musical tastes and collection had earned me street cred among all the cool people. I listened to artists and bands years before most of my friends heard of them. I’d gone from high school outcast to the cool go-to guy for all music related questions.

Want to know what that cool trip hop song in the commercial was? Ask Dave. Want to create the PERFECT mix tape for any occasion, Ask Dave!

I was like some revered character from the movie, High Fidelity. I took this honor seriously and cultivated it, reading and listening to anything I could get my hands on, always staying on the cutting edge of what was cool.

Somewhere along the way, I began to lose that coolness.

With marriage and adult responsibilities (read: bills). I couldn’t keep up with the ever-evolving music scene. Even if I could, who was left to impress? I’d moved away from my friends and all the cool indie record stores. I am now married and don’t need to impress women with my musical knowledge anymore (not that any were ever that impressed to begin with). Despite all this, I still listen to cool music, and like to think I still have a sense of what all the “cool kids” are listening to.

Recently, though, something happened which convinced me that I’m holding onto a fading past and I am in fact, no longer cool.

That realization came the other day, in the shower oddly enough, when I found myself singing (…brace yourself…) a Veggie Tales song! (I shuddered a bit as I typed that) Yes, not only children’s music, but Christian children’s music, which (no offense to Christians) is about as far from cool as you can get.

Somewhere, the Music Gods are demanding that I turn in my music collection.

Before you start thinking that this was some voluntary transition, it wasn’t.

My indoctrination to the stylings of the friendly singing vegetables with a wholesome Christian message came via my one year old son, who absolutely loves listening to their CD in the car. Try as I might to avoid it, over time, the songs GOT INTO MY HEAD!

It started innocently enough with me humming along in the car. Gradually, I started singing along in the car because my son seemed to enjoy daddy’s singing. I have absolutely no excuse for singing Veggie Tales songs in the shower, though.

So, if you have a question about what’s cool in music these days, ask someone else; someone younger. I have forfeited the right to be known as That Guy. I am consigned to the fact that I will never be cool again. I am now a Veggie-Tales singing dorky dad.

Well, at least one person still thinks I’m cool, and that’s my son. And I’ll take that over all the street cred in the world any day of the week.

Besides, it won’t be long before he is listening to some outrageous music that I’m just not cool enough to “get.”

For those cartoonists not able to attend the San Diego con, you can still have your "hanging out at the hotel bar with other comics creators" experience by checking out The Sequential Artists' Pub this Friday at 10 p.m. EST.

It's a bi-weekly informal gathering of cartoonists talking shop live using the Talkshoe service, and any webcomics creators are invited to participate. You can find more information in the Sequential Artists' Pub forums, and check out past episodes on the show's podcast directory. Hope to see some of you there!

Come see Tim Demeter run his mouth about Clickwheel's latest projects including something brand new for you iPhone IPod Touch users out there.  Room 32AB at 2:00 PM on Thursday.

See you there!

INTERVIEWS
Joey Comeau from A Softer World interviewed Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics -- sort of like webcomics own version of Interview magazine.

Rick Marshall has an interview with Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content.

TIPS AND TOOLS
JOURNALISTA points to an article by Ben Towles on artist supplies worth perusing.

Daniel Whiston has an interview with Alan Moore on writing that is awesomesauce.  (also h/t to Journalista!)

AROUND THE WORLD IN A BLOG
FLEEN points to a strange website called mezzacotta that apparently Irregular Webcomic creator David Morgan-Mar has something to do with. Funny, cryptic or what: the website states that the asking price for the URL and the "idea" is €1 million prior to launch and €5 million afterwards.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
A few folks pointing to Capes and Babes a comic about comic book culture.  A topic ripe for tackling (I like SubCulture which also hits this subject) and if anyone else has some sugested comics in this area fire away.  (Thanks)

The Fragile Gravity crew did a week of strips at Sluggy Freelance recently.  Go check it out!

Anyone been reading My Life In A Cube?  Funny autobiographical (?) stuff from about first job (thereabouts) working in a cube farm.

ALSO - Melonpool creator STEVE TROOP has a new comic called CryptoZooey!  He plugged it here last week but I don't think a lot of folks saw it over the weekend.  Full press release for the new strip -- click "read more"

CryptoZOOEY Announcement

"A girl. A quest. And the monsters that help her."

So begins CryptoZooey #1, the new all-ages comic book from Steve Troop, creator of the long-running Melonpool. Troop had intended to return to webcomics earlier this year with an entirely different comic strip about a kid who believes his father is a super hero–simply because his father keeps telling him that he is one. That project was scrapped, however, when Troop's sketchbooks filled up with drawings of the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and other creatures, in lieu of a father masquerading as a caped vigilante.

The death of zoologist Steve ("The Crocodile Hunter") Irwin in 2006 contributed to the change. Irwin died after a stingray attack in 2006, leaving his daughter Bindi to take over his hosting responsibilities. Around this same time, The Waterhorse--a movie about the Loch Ness Monster–-came out in theaters.

"I wondered what would have happened if Steve Irwin had been a cryptozoologist (a monster hunter) instead of a zoologist," explains Troop. "Maybe Bindi would have hosted a show about hunting monsters instead of animals. Once I started thinking along these lines, CryptoZooey practically wrote itself!"

CryptoZooey is a new comic book about a little girl who not only learns that her parents are the greatest monster hunters in the world–but that the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and other monsters are real! When her parents disappear, it's up to Zooey and her monster friends to find them.

Steve Troop's SciFi-comedy, Melonpool, premiered on the web in 1996 as one of the internet's first webcomic series. Melonpool has spawned five books and accolades from Ray Bradbury (legendary scifi author of Farenheit 451), Greg Evans (creator of Luann), Mike Kunkel (creator of Hero Bear And The Kid) and Paul Feig (creator of Freaks And Geeks).

During his two year hiatus from cartooning Troop created short films, or "Quickcasts," with puppets he designed, built and performed based on his Melonpool characters for Kevin Smith's Quickstop Entertainment. This quickly led to an apprenticeship with Puppetown Productions, home of the designers, builders and puppeteers behind Crank Yankers, Saul Of The Mole Men and musician Beck's 2006-2007 tour. 

Each 24 page full-color comic of CryptoZooey will be released four times a year and retail for $5.00 US. As a bonus, each issue will feature the real legends and actual science behind cryptozoology. A black and white 12-page companion volume, Finding CryptoZooey, featuring sketches and behind-the scenes info on the creation of this exciting new series is also available.

Both books can be purchased through the CryptoZooey Store at www.cryptozooey.com/store

DOWNLOADS:

• Text download of Press Release
• CryptoZooey #1 Preview PDF
• CryptoZooey #1 Cover Art
• Finding CryptoZooey Cover Art

CryptoZooey #1 Full Issue  and Finding CryptoZooey are available for review purposes. E-mail us with your Press credentials and we'll send you a link!

Kris Straub is one of the nicest guys I've met in webcomics (although 99% of that was before my brief saying "hi, 'sup" at last year's SPX).  Besides being part of the ever-present Half Pixel crew (with whom he wrote How To Make Webcomics) and working on lots of comics and animated series (say, when is PvP Season 2 coming?) he's got a new album out called Aviators Hide the Tears that includes that rollickin' "I'm on the Internet..." song he wrote (I can't remember the name of it but it runs on his slipcast videos).

Also he does make a lot of comics.  His main gig these days is the science-fiction flavored Starslip Crisis which to my mind is one of the smarter comics out there.  Kris' strength and weakness in writing is often going meta on things -- making the joke and simultaneously analyzing it.  To my mind it works more often than not and really with Starslip he's broadened his approach to everything so that "meta-ish" isn't so predominant in his work anymore.

If you want a concentrated does of meta, however, check out Straub's re-run of his first comic, Checkerboard Nightmare, where he basically made a comic about webcomics and online culture, circa 2000ish.  For the re-run he's making short video commentaries.  We ran two Straub comics at ComixTalk -- Modern Humor Authority and later installments of Checkerboard Nightmare -- both some of my favorite things we've published.

The Jenny Everywhere "Draw" to Win Trading Card contest's submnissions are now closed and voting is open until the end of Saturday. The first 3 places will win a prize! 

See Contest Page 

See Voting Page

This was a joint contest by WAGON Webcomic Battle Trading Card Game, Jenny Everywhere: The Shifter Archive, and The Webcomic Beacon Podcast.

COMIXTALK
New feature articles this morning including the wrap-up of Tim Broderick's column on bringing his webcomic Odd Jobs to print in the graphic novel Cash & Carry.  Also today's the last day to send in a sketch if you're interested in doing the August cover for ComixTalk (more details here).

INTERVIEWS
ComixTalk interviews Tom Brazelton of Theater Hopper.

The Comics Reporter has an interview with David Malki! of Wondermark who has a book collecting the comic out from Dark Horse.

REVIEWS
El Santo takes a look at Octopus Pie.

Michael Payne looks at long-running webcomics Clan of the Cats and CRFH!!!.

Derik Badman reviews The Lady's Murder.

SMALL SCREENS
Journalista! links to a Wall Street Journal report that DC Comics will convert some of its comics into semi-animated slideshows to be sold at the iTunes store for computer and cellphone viewing.  This sounds like Clickwheel a bit doesn't it?  Anyhow, Newsarama has more on this.

PUBLISHING
Comics Worth Reading examines the webcomic efforts of publishers Boom Studios and SLG.

Just had a big feature in the Palisadian Post's LifeStyle section written by my good friend Michael Aushenker.  You can read the article here.

Also yours truly will be presenting at Comic-Con in San Diego from the Wed July 23rd thru Sun 27th. If you're at the Con, come by my table K-11 in Small Press and pick up new the new collection You So Loco and tons of new prints. Looking forward to seeing you there.

There's one last thing to pass on in this series about publishing your graphic novel through a traditional prose publisher: Does this work?

Easy answer: Yes.

The title of the series refers to the fact that I'm not a trailblazer in this - not even close. Big names in cartooning had already been courted and published before I ever thought of doing this.

So if you're trying to judge whether to try this by whether it's been successful for me, that'd be a mistake. It doesn't matter if it's successful for me or not.

For the record, things are going OK. It ended up being a soft launch:

• Although I had the book in February and it was available on Amazon, it took until April for Ingram to have it in their system.
• It took even longer to have Barnes & Noble accept it into their system, but it's on shelves around Chicago and I'm busy marketing it.
• Amazon had it up on their system since early February, and my rank gets up into the mid-five figures occasionally. That's not bad for a new, basically no-name author.

I'll be hitting two big selling events in June (Printer's Row and Chicago Wizard World). That'll be a good test. And I continue getting smaller signing opportunities, so that's not bad.

But my experience - good or bad - will not influence your experience. My experience should only serve to inform you. And I would be remiss if I didn't thank Xavier and Comixtalk for allowing me to do this column.

So, yes, try this!

Finish your graphic novel. Sure, there are a lot of people who are better artists and better writers - and both, but if they don't have a finished product then who cares how good they are?

Write a killer query letter.

Get the synopsis done.

Do your research and submit it to agents or publishers.

You may get rejected or you may get accepted and sign a contract, in which case you'll need to sell your book.
It's hard work, you may end up hating it so much that you give up cartooning forever. Or you may find enough success that you'll continue on.

But you won't know until you take that first step on a road less traveled.

In the eternal struggle between "story comics" and "gag comics," I tend to come down on the side of the long form.  Yes, a little chuckle is good, but I'd rather follow characters through an adventure, even if that adventure is just them trying to return a library book or attending a "meet the tenants" party in their apartment building.

Stories, however, can sometimes expand into what my brother Tom calls "a burgeoning apparatus." It can happen inadvertantly--complications rear up that expand the plot in ways unimagined at the start; minor characters pad their parts and suddenly become integral to things; the twist that would've led nicely to the conclusion turns out halfway through to be unworkable; and so on.  Or it might truly be an epic the author has in mind, something plotted out with a definite beginning, middle, and end that, due to the vagaries of the webcomics medium, ends up taking two or three (or four or five) years to reach its denouement.

Clan of the Cats by Jamie Robertson and College Roomies from Hell by Maritza Campos have, I would say, undergone exactly this sort of balloonment.  And while I can't say whether the authors intended it, I can say that it's a big reason why I've stopped reading one of the two.

Now, both creators have been working on their respective webcomics for about as long as the medium has existed, Campos since January of 1999 and Robertson since June of that same year.  Both have also had more than their share of real-life tribulations: health and personal issues that I'll just note here as one contributing factor to the elongation of things.

For my part, I first found CotC by following a link from Mark Stanley's Freefall, then began reading CRfH after Campos and Robertson had their strips "cross over" in October of 2000.  The strips had a lot in common, but it was the core group of characters using humor to work their ways through some fairly serious situations that really attracted me.

And really, that's what appeals to me in most adventure strips.  The running, the shouting, the elaborate operation to find the Jade Fibula of Mozambique, that's all well and good--I mean, it wouldn't be an adventure strip without that stuff--but like I said at the beginning, it's the characters engaged in it that give any story its heart.  And with an adventure story, that goes double.

'Cause a plot without people is just an exercise in mechanics and isn't likely to be the sort of thing I'd be interested in reading.  "A person in a place with a problem" is what I look for at the beginning of any story, and the "person" part is paramount.  After all, if I'm gonna be spending the next who knows how long following characters through an adventure, those characters, whether heroic or villainous, had better be folks whose company I find enjoyable--or at least interesting.

Which is why I stopped reading Clan of the Cats around the end of 2006.  Yes, the "Vengeance of Dracula" storyline had been going on for more than two years by that time and yes, "vampirism" is number one on my list of fantasy tropes that have to work extra hard to get me engaged.  But if I'd continued to care about the characters, neither the length nor the vampires would've been an issue.

For instance, Dylan Meconis in her webcomic Bite Me! showed me that there was still life -- you'll pardon the expression -- in the vampire genre.  She recognized the old caricature, drenched in blood and darkness, sex and death, and while she was going primarily for humor, she was also interested in reaching beyond the trite to create full-blown characters out of over-worn material.

When Dracula showed up in Clan of the Cats, on the other hand, he not only embodied every vampiric cliche, he seemed to drain the strip of everything I'd enjoyed about it for the previous six years; it was practically metaphoric, the way he sucked the life out of it and made the characters into shallow husks of their former selves.  I hung on for a while, hoping against hope that Robertson would bring something into the story to hold the interest of a non-vampire fan like me, but it just kept getting darker and less like the comic I'd been reading.  So I went on my way.

College Roomies from Hell, though, has kept me even through a storyline that took the entirety of 2006 to cover a couple of days and ended in April of 2007 with the gruesome murder of one main character by another while a third looked on.

A shocking development to say the least, but it was true to the characters, true to the story, and very true to the world Campos has set up since the comic started.  The humor has gotten blacker since the beginning, but, well, it's always been pretty dark, what with the dormitory explosion that forced the characters into each other's orbits in the first place.

Harping again on my point, it comes back to characters.  As wrenching as they've been, the changes the roomies have undergone in the past 9 years -- which has maybe been six months in terms of the overall story Campos is telling -- work to that story's advantage, follow naturally from everything she's set up, and have kept the comic's claws firmly embedded in the squishiest part of my brain.

I suppose both strips are instances of what Eric Burns calls "The Cerebus Syndrome" -- a humor comic becoming more and more serious as time goes on.  College Roomies from Hell, I'd say, has made that transition successfully while Clan of the Cats was on its way to doing so but stumbled badly to my taste when Dracula hit the scene.  Robertson's a talented writer, though, and I did enjoy the first five or six years of his work.  So I check in every couple months to see if he's wrapped things up and moved on yet...

Theater Hopper by Tom Brazelton is a webcomic sort of, but not entirely about Tom, his wife Cami and their friends. The creator, Tom Brazelton (as opposed to his four-color alter ego) is coming up on six years of the webcomic.  Neither fatherhood nor the Star Wars prequels have stopped the man from making fun at and with the movies.  Over the last couple of months I interviewed Tom about the webcomic, his third print collection and other necessary pop culture topics.

I did a little math and it looks to me like Theater Hopper will be 8 years old in August of this year -- is that right?  Are you still enjoying working on it as much as when you started?

Actually, you're a little ahead of things. Theater Hopper will be 6 years old on August 2. But that's pretty close to 8 years!

Do I still enjoy working on it? Certainly. I like the challenge. I like pushing myself to create. I've been working on Theater Hopper longer than I've held some jobs, so there must be something attractive about it.

Actually, I think I'm enjoying it more than when I first started. I had to hussle a great deal to get the word out about Theater Hopper when I first started. These days, I know who my core supporters are and it's great to know that I've established myself to a degree.  That's not to imply that I'm resting on my laurels. I'm still trying to reach new audiences every day. But there's a little less of that "will anyone care?" anxiety that there was in the salad days.

I'm double-checking your archives page now and yes, apparently, I can't add!  It's interesting to hear your thoughts on why you keep working at the comic.  I think a lot of creators online in the early days stuck with one strip in part because newspaper comic strips were their ideal but I see more and more now probably as many creators diversify their output as stick with one project.  Do you have any separation between your enjoyment of making Theater Hopper and making comics?  Do you you see yourself more as a comics creator as an interest in movies or as a movie fan who likes to make comics?

Branching off from your initial observation, I was never under any illusion that Theater Hopper would find its way to print - although that *DID* happen for about a year when it was published in a local alternative weekly.  When I started out, it was with the full understanding that "this is a hobby and if other people jive on it, cool." I've never nursed the "Us Vs. Them" mentality some in the webcomic field seem to possess when it comes to print cartoonists because I never aspired to be one. 

Additionally, I certainly see value in diversifying your portfolio. Tackling new projects reflects that you're a thinking person and seek challenges outside of the conventional. I've often floated the idea of doing a second comic, but I never pull the trigger because I'm short enough on time as it is. And, frankly, I love what I'm doing with Theater Hopper. I want to make it the best it can possibly be. That said, I don't feel tethered to Theater Hopper in the sense that "it's either this or nothing!" If Theater Hopper ended for any reason, I doubt I would stay away from webcomics for long. It's compulsory. I love the outlet of creating and I love the community. I would hate to lose some of the relationships I've established among fans and creators alike.

So maybe that makes me a comic creator first - although I would be remiss to categorize myself that way. I think if you had asked me that question 6 years ago, I would say I was a movie fan first, because I certainly didn't know what I was doing with the comics. But now with a little experience under my belt, I feel confident that I could take my skills into another arena if it came to that.

You've had some big changes in your personal life over the life of the comic -- most recently with the birth of your first child Henry last year.  What's it like having a one year old in the house?  Is he helping you come up with ideas for the comic yet? :)

It's a great thrill being a father and, luckily, Henry is a really great kid. Funny, adorable and has no problem sleeping through the night. So that's left me some free time in the evenings to work on the comics. Henry's recently learned to walk and running soon followed, so I feel like I'm on my feet a lot following after him, making sure he doesn't run into things or trip over himself. But otherwise, he's a joy to be around. I look forward to coming home from work every day to be with him.

He hasn't been contributing ideas to the comic just yet. But that's largely due to his taste in movie right now. It's a bit... shall I say infantile?

I've never been quite sure how autobiographical you mean Theater Hopper to be.  It does feature a main character named Tom with a wife named Cami and a beagle named Truman.  How much of your actual family do you try to work into the comic?

I've pretty much gone on record saying that Theater Hopper is semi-autobiographical. It stars a version of my wife and myself as well as my friend Jared. He's based on a real person. Our real-life 6 year-old beagle Truman makes appearances from time to time. In terms of exactly how autobiographical it's meant to be... well, certainly some of our conversations are exaggerated for comedic effect. But some of the exchanges I've had with my wife, for example, I've posted verbatim. We have a great time talking about movies and celebrity culture.

ComixTalk interviewed you before back in 2006.  One of things you mentioned was working for your college radio station - we've got that in common, I worked on air for KCPR when I went to Cal Poly.  Do you keep up with new music?  What kinds of stuff are you listening to these days?

I try to keep up with new music but it's difficult without that constant exposure I used to have. I don't really like listening to radio these days. We have a metal station in Des Moines that I was forced to listen to when I was driving my wife's car for a few days and I swear it was frozen somewhere in the middle of the 1990's. Monster Magnet, early Guns N' Roses... it was depressing.

But the Internet is great for finding new music. I'll often ask for suggestions in my LiveJournal. What's at the top of someone's iTunes play count or whatever. There's a much greater opportunity for dialogue online. "Why do you like this band? What about this song changed your life? What's a tune you could listen to over and over without getting tired of it?" That's the kind of stuff that inspires me to discover new sounds. I'm not really interested in what the media has to say about what's popular anymore. Considering American Idol is the country's most popular karoke contest, it's clear that we've been led down a dark path culturally.

In terms of what I've been listening to lately... actually, I've been listening to a lot of comedy albums. Greg Proops, Jim Gaffigan... that kind of stuff. Musically? Spoon, PJ Harvey, The Mars Volta. I've been really looking forward to the new Death Cab For Cutie album not to mention The Ruts and The Frames.

Okay what's your favorite movie for 2008 so far?

Hands down it's been Iron Man. Anyone that's been reading Theater Hopper over the last two years knows I've been eagerly anticipating it. I think Iron Man made the scene at the exact right time. After that, it has to be Wall-E. It's a classic just waiting to happen. People will be watching that film for years and years.

The first 4 months in 2008 have been an extremely dour affair. Nothing much to get excited about - except for Cloverfield, which really sucked me in with it's online conspiracy campaign. Forgetting Sarah Marshall also hit the right notes for me. A much more satisfying romantic comedy than, say, Definitely, Maybe - which wallowed a little too much in the unlikable aspects of its characters. Since then, it seems like comic book movies have been really hitting it out of the park. I really enjoyed Hellboy II The Golden Army, Wanted bashed me over the head with an awesome stick and thought that The Incredible Hulk had it's moments. Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was alright, but was overall a "WTF?" experience for me.

What movie still to come are you most anticipating?

The Dark Knight is at the top of my list - although I won't have to wait long since, as of this writing, it comes out tomorrow!
I think Step Brothers looks hilarious and I'm down for anything involving Will Ferrell. I think John C. Reily has found a new voice as a comedic actor and it's been a thrill to watch.

Pinapple Express looks good simply because we haven't had a really good stoner movie in a long, long time and I think Seth Rogen is one of the most interesting comedic voices to emerge in the last 10 years. I loved him on Undeclaired and I think it's a thrill to watch a total schlub ascend the Hollywood ladder like he has.

I'll see Star Wars: The Clone Wars even though I'm not expecting much from it. Tropic Thunder looks wickedly subversive and funny. After that, you get into Fall and some of the more earnest offerings. Maybe Nick and Norah's Ultimate Playlist, but I haven't heard much about it yet.

Let's see if I can make you jealous - I just got a VUDU box.  Instant movies!  Now I just gotta go get an HDTV... :(  What's your home theater set-up?

You're talking to the guy who hasn't even bothered to get a NetFlix account, so you're not really making me jealous with the VUDU box. I feel like I'm a little behind the times when it comes to digital media. Vudu, AppleTV, Slingo... I'm peripherally aware of them, but I don't feel like it's time for me to make an investment in anything yet. It's still kind of "wild West" out there, you know?

The only thing I'm looking forward to at this point is the cost of BlueRay players coming down in price. By Christmas, I hope to see some more competitive options.  Right now my home theater setup is fairly standard a 5-disc Sony DVD player with Dolby 6.1 surround playing on a 32" Sony Bravia LCD. It's HD-ready. Just waiting to make the switch at this point.

No Netflix even?  That service actually is really super convenient.  Once you've got kids your time and disposable income goes way down and I found having 2 or 3 DVDs from Netflix around made it a lot easier to see movies in the little bits of downtime you get.

Okay before we move off of movies themselves what do you think about the world of CGI effects movies swim in these days.  I'm old enough to remember being a kid blown away by the first Star Wars and even Clash Of the Titans.  Now with a movie like Speed Racer it just shows there's almost nothing you can't create for the screen.  Are you still impressed by effects when done well or have you reached a point where "nothing's shocking" anymore and the effects are just like film, words and actors - tools to tell a good story.

My sister-in-law has Netflix and we just bum movies off from her. We're total mooches. I think my wife is coming around to it, though. We might sign up for it in the near future.

For the most part, I appreciate the artistry behind CGI. It's complicated stuff these guys are doing and I think sometimes their art gets sacrificed at the alter of commerce. Most of the time their work hardly serves to advance the plot or the characters. So, to that end, I get disapointed when movies become just another fantastic explosion after the other.  I'm a big fan of practical effects because I feel like there is more on the line. It's pretty rare these days for films to do location shooting and rarer still that they'll take a risk with a shot the can only do in one take. I think that's why critics and fans have been responding so well to movies like The Dark Knight and Hellboy II. The Dark Knight for it's use of stunt men and restrictions on CGI and Hellboy II for its extensive puppetry and complicated costumes.
Hellboy II could have easily spit out a bunch of weirdo CGI characters to fill the background of some of their scenes, but it wouldn't have meant anything. Sometimes there is more wonder to be had in a guy wearing a suit. I mean, would Predator have been more impressive if the alien were an effect? Probably not. You have to learn to showcase things appropriately. 

You, Gordon and Joe have become sort of the trinity of movie comics for me, but are there any other movie-themed comics out there that you are a fan of?

I feel kind of like a jerk saying so... but no.

I don't know why, but it seems like there haven't really been any sustainable movie comics in the field of webcomics except for Theater Hopper, Multiplex and Joe Loves Crappy Movies. That could be my own bias talking, but the other movie comics that I've stumbled across through the years either update inconsistently or fizzle out after a few years. I don't get it. One would assume that you would have an inexhaustible pool of ideas to pull from. I really don't understand why genre comics outside of gaming have failed to grab a foothold. Music-related comics seem to do okay, but why not movies? Think about all of the magazine and television shows dedicated to talking about movies.

Then again, maybe that's the problem. Maybe people think they already receive enough of this information through other media outlets. But you'd think there would be a wider audience interested in seeing that information pushed through a filter that speaks more directly to ground-level appreciation.

Theater Hopper has always been pretty focused on movies but also has a regular cast of characters and while not exactly an ongoing plot, it does have some recurring "bits".  Do you ever think about shifting the focus of the strip more to the characters and an ongoing plot or are you still having too much fun zinging the latest movies?

I think about it all the time. This is an especially timely question because I am currently putting together a copy of my third collection aptly titled Theater Hopper - Year Three.

During Year Three, it undertook two massive storylines that introduced the first wholly fictional characters to Theater Hopper - Jimmy and Charlie. Both of those storylines were very well received because they showed a dimension to the characters that made the audience invest in them as creations. They weren't simply avatars for my out-there opinions about films and demonstrated I could stretch beyond gag-a-day joke writing.

When I wrote those storylines, I was convinced that the only way Theater Hopper was ever going to make any traction is if I tried to become the next Questionable Content. Jeph does a really great job drawing you into the world his characters inhabit. Their problems become your problems and you want to see them succeed. For a while, I flirted with the idea that Theater Hopper should be the same way.

I'll admit at the time that some people would write and ask "What are you doing? How come you're not writing about movie X, Y or Z" and that kind of got to me. I feel like I reaped some benefits from telling a longer story, but I also felt I was sacrificing my identity a little bit by failing to write about movies.

I don't mean to speak on their behalf, but I think Jeph caught some flack for that because Questionable Content used to be more about music. Similarly, Scott Kurtz catches grief for subtly transitioning PvP away from gaming and more toward an office comedy. In the end, I didn't make the leap.

I try to mix it up from time to time, but I don't know if this long-term fence-straddling was the right thing to do or not. At least from a business perspective. Personally, I'm just happy to write the stuff that makes me laugh and others enjoy it, that's an added benefit. After all, the biggest advantage of the web is the ability to stay topical. So I do pride myself on that - staying in the moment and relevant.

Well the reason I asked is because Theater Hopper does seem to veer between story and movie-of-the-day.  Multiplex is clearly way over on the plot and character side of things and Joe Loves Crappy Movies, despite having strongly recognizable recurring characters, is really a review in comic form.  A very funny review but I can recall only one storyline that wasn't driven by the movies being reviewed.  As far as comparisons to other comics with a focus on a specific topic I think I'd pair Theater Hopper more with the approach of Penny Arcade or VG Cats than PvP or Questionable Content.

Because Theater Hopper dances between these approaches I don't think I'm as invested in the characters as much as some other strips I follow.  I guess I'd be curious if you've gotten that reaction from others?  Don't get me wrong --  I don't mean that I think Theater Hopper needs to change in one direction or another.

 I don't think anyone has stopped long enough to take that critical of an approach to it. I think if you appreciate the kind of relevant humor I provide (humor that I spice up with sometimes longer storylines) you're not going to lean back and say "You know, I'm maybe not as invested in the characters as I should be." You'd probably say "This is fine."  Anyone that's looking for a longer storyline will probably see pretty quickly that isn't what Theater Hopper is about and will move on. So I never really get to hear their impressions.
I think the problem is the semi-autobiographical stuff. I can't reveal TOO much about the characters that are based on real people because there's their privacy to consider. Similarly, I can't make things up about their background because readers will get confused and think that's reality.

I think that's why some of my readers are more invested in the characters that are completely fictional creations - Charlie and Jimmy. I can take them anywhere I want and make their lives twice as dramatic or over-the-top than I could with the "real" characters. But since they're in the supporting cast, you don't see that kind of opportunity to connect as often as you do in other strips.

BoxCar Comics.  What's going on with Boxcar these days?  Has it been officially resuscitated?  What's your role over there?

Boxcar is up and running again after some months of inactivty. Basically, our site crashed and after we brought it back online, we all kind of looked at each other and asked "What are we doing here?"

At the time, we were pretty much only good for a link exchange. We promoted each other's work on our respective sites, but that was about it. We decided either we needed to evolve or call it quits. So we set out a few simple goals for ourselves and have made strides meeting those goals. 

Right now, we've completed a group jam comic and put a group podcast under our belt. We're just about to release our second jam and podcast - which we're trying to do monthly. It's not much, but it's certainly more than we were doing before.

My role is to arrange the podcast. It's not too bad. Fortunately I've had some experience hosting The Triple Feature - the podcast I host with Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex and Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies.

I'm pleased with Boxcar's new direction. I don't think we'll ever get to a point where we adopt a business model, but I think we've justified our existence with our renewed investment. We've at least taken steps to define ourselves more. So that's a good feeling.

In terms of promoting the comic how does Boxcar help with that?  More generally, what kinds of things are you trying these days to get the word out about Theater Hopper?

Boxcar brings in steady traffic in the form of a link exchange between the other creators. Each of us publishes a widget that cycles through ads for our strips as well as promotes specific projects and news the group wants to promote.
In terms of promoting Theater Hopper, I've really had to scale back a lot of the advertising I've been doing, but I'm hoping to make a bigger push later in the year after I upload a newly designed look for the site using WordPress and ComicPress.

Beyond that, I try to hit the conventions that I can and also try to make my presence online felt around different forums and social media sites.

I understand that you have a new print collection of the comic coming out this year?  What's that titled and what content will it include?

In tradition with my other books, it'll simply be titled Year Three and I hope to have it out by the holiday season.  Originally I had planned to have it ready for Wizard World Chicago in June, but I would have ended up rushing it and it wouldn't have been as good.

The book will include all of the comics from 2005 to 2006 and each strip features original commentary not found on the site. I'll also be publishing the guest strips from that year as well as dozens of sketches that I produced. The book will also contain a glossary listing all of the films I made fun of that year and what page you can find them on so readers can find content more relevant to their interests faster. 

I'm really excited about Year Three. As I mentioned before, I think 2005 to 2006 was where the comic really started to come into it's own and it features some of the longer storylines I talked about. Fans are really going to like it.

Ever get frustrated with the breakneck pace of the modern life? Ever wish you were one of those carefree hippie spirits, your dreams undulled and your eyes permanently lit with sparkles? Chillax, broseph, because today, I'm going to dig in to Octopus Pie.  Octopus Pie is a fanciful take on a modern Odd Couple as they try to survive life's perils in New York City.  The comedy series is written and drawn by Meredith Gran (Not Gonna Take It, Skirting Danger).  The comic is very new --- barely a year old in fact --- yet it's already received a WCCA: the 2008 award for Outstanding Newcomer. (Octopus Pie was also nominated for 2008's Outstanding Black & White Art and Website Design awards.)

Eve Ning's life is one hassle after another. She has to deal with cranky customers at the organic grocery. Her boss is a manipulative jerk. Her boyfriend broke up with her by cellphone. And her mom is meddling far too deeply into her life. After she learns that Eve now has a free room, Mrs. Ning goes on Craigslist and leases a room out to Hanna Thompson, a girl Eve knew in pre-K and whose picture, for some reason, Mrs. Ning keeps around in her purse.

Hanna is the Yang to Eve's Ying. Eve is entrenched in the mundane aspects of corporate America. She's obsessed with things like career advancement and home security (that square!), the epitome of all things career girl. Hanna, on the other hand, prefers not to take life quite so seriously. She doesn't think twice about sticking bottle caps in her eyes or lounging around Central Park in the buff (link might be NSFW, though at a glance it's rather easy to miss and hardly titillating). You put these two girls together, and you're on a collision course with wacky!

Octopus Pie is grounded in reality, yet borders on the fanciful. After Eve's bike gets stolen, she puts together her own heavy bicycle with an electrified security system. Kinda nutty? Sure! But I once knew a guy who built his own party boat in college, so it's not outside the realm of possibility, really. Even when Octopus Pie takes on serious subjects, the comic, overall, retains a vibrant current through its simple art style and exaggerated sequences. The gags are pretty fresh and surprising, too, as they headed in directions I didn't expect.

A major recurring theme, by the way, is that Hanna is a pot user. It's the basis of her online business, Bake N' Bake (where pastries are created while baked). We meet Hanna's stoner friends and dealers. This is quite disarming at first, since the characters look like they were designed to be extras on the Powerpuff Girls. Yet smoking marijuana is portrayed to be as normal as any other hobby. (A laser tag tournament between Stoners and Nerds makes smoking weed equivalent to blogging about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.) While Eve is not alright with this --- and she shoos away Hanna's dealers at one point --- she begrudgingly tolerates it.

Hanna is always portrayed as being happier overall, what with her successful business, her affectionate boyfriend, and her sunny outlook on life. Yet, the reader isn't necessarily asked to subscribe to her world views. After all, she's not the one we sympathize with. On her FAQ, Ms. Gran says, after a bit of twisting, "yes Eve is me." Partly true. I think Eve is all of us. We may not all work at an organic grocery or cycle to work, yet we can sympathize with her down-on-her-luck character. Like how Eve holds on to her beliefs even if it means having to abandon her only shot at happiness. Or the urge to become a megalomaniac when everything finally goes our way. Or the feeling of shame and humiliation when you see a former significant other in public with someone else. Or the massive inferiority complex that we'll never be number one, ever.

Hanna is, more or less, a one-dimensional comedy character, and Eve is well-rounded, multi-faceted, and for real. Thus, we aren't totally surprised --- and, actually, quite elated --- when Eve unconsciously busts out a hidden talent. The skating chapter is my favorite in Octopus Pie. Eve unwillingly attracts a rival by the colorful name of America Jones, a girl who has been in a constant game of oneupsmanship with Eve since they day they were in Pre-K. She can't stand that Eve might be a better skater than her, and she's determined to prove it. This story takes on the tone of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series, where everyday trivialities are blown up into challenges of epic proportions.

Recently, Ms. Gran switched up the art style. The clean, tablet-aided style has given way to traditional ink illustrations. It's a little jarring, since I was a bit of a fan of the original style. The inked style feels grungier, more emotional, and far closer to what you envision when you hear the words "indie comic," as opposed to the the earlier polish and whimsy. Yet, Octopus Pie's strength has been the writing, and the new story arc --- with Hanna playing strong arm tactics on Eve's boss to get her a day off --- shows no sign of staleness.

This may be simply something to get used to. A similar style changed happened in John Allison's Scary Go Round. I liked the old Illlustrator look, yet, as I get used to the pen-and-ink look, I had to admit that the new style was far stronger than the old one. Will Octopus Pie follow the same path? Time will tell, but things are looking good so far.

I recently interviewed DJ Coffman after the latest webcomic drama, talking with the comicker about his new projects, and where he's going post-Platinum. It doesn't touch much on drama, but that's been done to death already anyway. It's over at Way of the Geek, and can be found here.

http://wayofthegeek.org/2008/07/catching-up-with-dj-coffman-or-go-with-t...

The wait is over! The new series by Steve Troop is available NOW! Check out the adventures of a little girl who searched for her missing monster hunter parents — with a little help from real monsters! If you’re still on the fence, feel free to read the new character bios as well ast the first five pages of issue one!

And if you like what you see, we have shirts and books available in the store! See you at Comic-Con (booth #1330)!

The Beat is reporting that Platinum's purchase of WOWIO is a done deal.  WOWIO is also aiming to relaunch the site between July 23rd and August 4th.

According to the SEC filing, Platinum is paying 3.15 million for WOWIO -- paid in shares of Platinum with payments stretched out over the next year.