The Worst Writer in the World: Webcomics

Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary talks webcomics as profitable business

Really, really, really, really, REALLY inspiring video of Howard Tayler - the creator of the daily webstrip SCHLOCK MERCENARY, a comic that's allowed Tayler to quit his day job and work for himself full time - as he speaks on how to turn a webcomic into a profitable small business for yourself. He got ME excited, that's for damn sure. Check it out below:

If for any reason the player below is buggy and doesn't work (it works for me, but I'm always paranoid about these things working cross-PC-Mac-etc.), go check it out at the source, pun intended: http://www.opensourcetv.tv/video/7.html

Many thanks to the glorious DONNA BARR for turning me on to this one! Thanks, Donna!

Just Read: Desert Peach #16

Working my way through the entire Desert Peach saga (30 issues + two AFTERDEAD GNs in total), a series that follows the exploits of The Desert Fox's gay younger brother, Pfirsich Rommel - The Desert Peach! And here I am at the more-or-less halfway point - issue #16!

First off, the cover sports a simple but utterly beautiful use of watercolor, one of the prettiest covers of the series yet - past covers offered a greater dollop of exquisite detail, but this one makes simplicity look damn good.

Inside, then, the story follows the attempted mating of Pfirsich's white purebred mare with a black pureblood stallion (the mare is a breed that boasts blood purer than humankind can scarcely fathom...well...except for the fact that people were the ones who bred them, or anyway an Arabic people did, which blow the European peoples' little brainpans).

Anyway, long story short, Pfirsich wants to work closely with the Arab folken to enact a successful mating with the mare, an event which would double as a friendly-relations event between the Germans and the natives, but then Peach's subordinate, Udo, rather fancies a mating between the white mare and some other gray speckled horse. He tries to sneak said mare out one night, to make the coupling happen the way HE wants it to, but of course it all goes horribly awry and leads to - I kid you not - a horse orgy with army men stuck in-between. The look on Udo's face as he gets tangled/tied to the white mare's rump as a black, quite erect stallion rears up for the mount, is beyond priceless and perfection itself!

It's a disaster of sexploitative length and breadth (tee hee) that leads to (a rare happenstance for this series) a direct kind-of sort-of "to be continued...", in which a particular event what's threatened poor Udo for the past six issues or so, finally looks to happen in issue #17. (Wedding bells anyone? - shotgun wedding to keep the peace!) Auteur Donna Barr begins to inch toward a looser, more kinetic style, leaving behind the smoother, more crisp pages of the early DP books. Which isn't to say that detail is lacking, but said detail becomes vastly more wild and fancy free as compared to the rigidly controlled linework of Barr's 80's work. This is the perfect story for Barr to cut loose, because horses rampaging and rutting amongst a small turmoil of human bodies stampeding to put it all under control = the very organized chaos Barr's pen-stroke evolves into.

While the social and cultural issues usually explored in a Barr story take a back seat for the situation here - a thing Barr obviously couldn't help but work into an issue-length fiasco out of sheer glee (horse sex! horse sex! army men in the middle! whoooo!) - sixteen issues in, and this is actually a breath of fresh air, allowing DP a chance to get down and get nasty not to mention funny and ridiculous before tackling the intricacies of a multi-cultural wedding in the next ish (which should have big-big cultural insights aplenty!).

Desert Peach #16 is a whirlwind ride of humor, humanity, and absolute artistry, if you like your art a fair shake on the naughty side.

Story - 8/10 (hysterical, dense, fast-paced, everyone in character, awesomeness)
Art - 8/10 (a wonderful blend of intricate and expressionistic, drop dead gorgeous cover)
Importance - 8/10 (Udo's goin' ta the chapel!)

TOTAL SCORE - 8/10

For more "Desert Peach" visit http://www.donnabarr.com/

To order copies of this Issue #16 (which is now SOLD OUT from Donna herself, Mycomicshop.com still has a few for $4.00 a pop at http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=300451

Gillian's Heart - It's Mr. Right!!! Sketch

In preparation of the second "Gillian's Heart" short story - this one to be published in the HERO Initiative and Ronin Studios' HOPE ANTHOLOGY coming in 2009 - our wonderful artist Rick Worley worked up a rough sketch of the character who'll star in this second short, the man who acts as Gillian's nemesis:

The Libertarian Anti-Hero MR. RIGHT!!!

Don'cha love it? In Rick's own words:

"Well, hm. Maybe a bit of explanation. First, I'll start with a disclaimer and say that I know the picture isn't perfect, but it's meant to give the idea. He looks kind of thicker than I'd like, but it's hard to put the muscular Superhero physique underneath a coat like that. I think that when I draw him again I'll be able to find a better balance. The coat is based on different references I found of German World War II soldiers. The goggles are meant to look something like aviator goggles from a similar time frame. This might make a little more sense if I showed you a picture of my idea for Mr. Right's older costume..." [Note from Dave: Mr. Right is planned to have a more spandex-y costume from his true-blue superhero days, before he parted ways with the other heroes who he found compromised by government interests, whereafter he himself became what you see here in the sketch - a militant guerrilla maverick!] "...but I haven't finished one yet, and I want to send you stuff as I do it. More or less.

"My idea for his older costume, in part, is to make it a more traditional superhero costume, but with similar goggles, except that the goggles will be more explicitly based on American WWII combat pilots. His newer costume, by contrast, should have goggles that are rounder and slightly creepy. I'm thinking of having the older costume without the coat, but with a similar collar, possibly a little like one of those older incarnations of Nightwing. The idea, of course, is to have more of an All-American look in the beginning, and then progress to something that draws, I hope subtly, on imagery associated with fascist armies. The earlier costume could have some sort of wing insignia on the chest that would be in reference to both the fact that in his dreams he can fly and, of course, an American bald eagle. The newer costume, though you can't see it in the drawing I'm sending, should have a more subtle, industrial wing insignia on the belt that's similar to what he used to have on his chest, only with sharper angles and a shape that just slightly might recall Nazi symbols.

"I like the idea of the belt on the new outfit having several large, almost cumbersome, pouches, because you talk about all of the gadgets he has come to use. This would be in contrast with an older costume where he has very few gadgets or pouches and relies much more on his hands. I think it would symbolize, too, him becoming weighed down by what he's taking on himself. I kind of like the newer costume being bulkier for these reasons. I think the goggles might turn out to work well for some of your ideas in the script, because I noticed at least one occasion where you mentioned something might be reflected in his eyes, and that would be easier to do with the goggles, and might look good, as well, if I do it right. Anyway, I think that's probably a good start at explaining my thinking on this costume and what I'd like to do with the other version."

So there ya have it, folks - an artist with BRAINS, eh? Yay! Forgive me when I say: our Mr. Right short is going to be one memorable damn story :) --Dave B.

"Die, Byron! Die!" and Krumpholz Hit the Web!

Here's an interesting piece of news, and a bloody "about time" one at that: Karl Christian Krumpholz's BYRON: DIE, BYRON! DIE! has at long last made the move from a downloadabe e-comic to a totally free, effortlessly accessible webcomic!

BRYON is a comic about a Goth kid wannabe who finds himself tumblind head-first into real true-blue horror evil dark-thing Yog-Sothothery. It's charming, freaky, and funny all at the same time, which is a difficult blend to achieve. Krumpholz and his BYRON have been an intriguing new work I've championed for about a year and a half now (you can read my review of the first series "Mad, Bad, and Dangerous" HERE, and then my lengthy Inter-Review of the sequel "Die, Byron! Die!" by going HERE.

Here's an excerpt from that last review, so in my own words *ach-hem-hem-hem-hem*:

"For all those cool story beats, Krumpholz can likely be called an artist first and foremost, regardless of the strengths inherent in his writing, and Byron can stand alone as a truly visual—and a packed one at that—warehouse of black-and-white elegance. M, B, and D is a chock-a-block collection of square-shaped characters, sharp-teethed critters, and nearly panel-less pages. D, B! D! wields the same, though wherein the first series had moments of opaque action and compositions sometimes difficult to dissect, the second series shows Krumpholz already finding a far more elegant and easily sub-divided number of layouts, with clearer action, more distinctive characters, and a clean and polished line to every finished page. His style is incredibly suited to Byron's subject matter, being a cousin to Mexican folk art..."

-Dave Baxter, Broken Frontier

So take off and go read BYRON for free at http://www.slgcomic.com/Byron_ep_60-1.html It's now in duo-tone COLOR (Blue and white) and if you like what you see in the webcomic then go purchase the e-books for ony $0.89 a-piece.

Yeah, the webcomic is chapter 4 of the second series, but said second series is largely episodic and easy to jump into, even in the middle. And anyway, it's a great way to get a tast before spending *gasp!* less than a dollar for awesome small press entertainment. Not the best of all worlds (that would be totally free webcomics beginning to end that somehow, magically, the publisher and artist could earn a living from), but it's a step in the right direction, a direction BYRON and Krumpholz have needed to take for a while now.

Well, here it is! Enjoy! --Dave B.

ORCUSVILLE - A webstrip for gamers, geeks, and gods

Today I'm going to plug a buddy of mine's webstrip: ORCUSVILLE!!

Starring the arch-demon baron duke dude fiend from literal Hell, Lord Orcus, and his one secretary, Velia; his lone torturer, Vis, who's also a lawyer and eternal demon of arbitrary retribution; the only torturee of Orcus' domain, named Victor, forever strapped spread-eagle to a wooden block and suffering (in-between witicisms and/or pleas for mercy); and finally the unforgettable Doctor A. Thoth, the pan-dimensional Chaos Theory specialist of all the known multiverse!

The webstrip is updated near-daily, usually riffing on gamer-related humor, or just geek-related humor in general. Por ejemlpo:

And:

Pretty funny, n'est ce pas? Even better, Lord Orcus himself sometimes steps out from behind the black HTML'd border of his own webstrip to interview comics pros in a Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast style, such as his latest chat (read: ridiculous harrasment of) superstar artist Carmilla d'Errico, of Nightmares & Fairy Tales fame as well as her latest little diddy, Burn (see images below).

AWWWWW! Don't Orcus and Carmilla make a sweet ol' couple?

So go read ORCUSVILLE!!! There's a TON more stuff on the site (it's quite comprehensive). Written by Steve Saunders and art by Julio Falkenhagen and Freedom Drudge and, hey, for those of you who read the gods-beautiful awesome FICTION CLEMENS mini from Ape earlier this year, Orcus is co-written by that book's very author, Josh Wagner! Ah, yes, sometimes life can be so syrupy sweet... --Dave B.

THE PROCESS - Incredible webcomic from Joe Infurnari

This is probably one of the prettiest damn webcomics I ever did see. Very surreal, yet highly epic and accessible in a classic Jungian sense. It really works.

Yeah, and that's just a TASTE of what's at the site. Understadably nominated for an Eisner for Best Digital Comic 2008. And god, there's so much to be learned from the page design alone! This &*$^er's beautiful. --Dave B.