Friday, May 27, 2005

Adventures into shit skateboarding

So there's a trailer for Top Three Films' webcomic documentary, Adventures into Digital Comics, on their site now. The film, written and directed by Sébastien Dumesnil, is a look at the growth of webcomics and it's relation to the collapse of the print comic industry - or something like that. Could be interesting.

Joey Manley has announced on TalkAboutComics that the first WebcomicsNation betas are up.

Found through BoingBoing, the Shit Skateboard Company and their very stylish premises.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Liverpool FC - Kings of Europe!

I'm not a big one for such an abstract concept as destiny. It's not a word you'd find very often in my speech. But in the last couple of months it's been cropping up quite a bit. Last night was destiny fulfilled. Three nil down at half time. People left the pub and went home, disgruntled. We were horror struck. How could it go so wrong? How could Rafa get it so wrong? Then came the second half. Andrew Sull defiantly stated it wasn't all over yet and how right he was. Eight minutes in, Stevie Gerrard rised up in the area to meet a Jon Arne Riise cross and bang! We were back in it. Six minutes later and, thanks to Vladimir Smicer and a Xabi Alonso penalty, we were all level. After that they threw everything they had at us and we absorbed it all. Jamie Carragher was everywhere, it seemed. Jerzy Dudek put in possibly the finest performance of his career. The match went to extra-time and Milan dominated. We were all on the verge of having a banger. Then three minutes left in extra time, Shevchenko was through on goal. Shevchenko, supposedly the best striker in the world, against a keeper who has been consistently slated all season. Two, not one, two(!) magnificent reflex saves. My eyes came out on stalks. That was it. We knew then that we'd won it. Nothing could go against us now. The match went to penalties and while we were still on edge, we knew we'd already won. It was our destiny. It had been written in the stars. It was pre-ordained. Liverpool F.C. are the kings of Europe once again. We drank, we sang and we danced in the street. My throat is dry, my mouth hurts from smiling, there's some nasty bastard dancing a jig in my head and I didn't see my bed till gone five in the morning. I couldn't be happier. To top it all, at the end of the night a very pretty little blonde lass told me I was nice; twice - albeit just before she ran off to find her boyfriend. It didn't matter, the sentiment was enough. Last night was magic.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Blank label macabre

So it seems there was something, more than coincidence, going on with the Keenspot exodus. All six creators have bandied together to create a new collective - Blank Label Comics. In todays announcement, they state that they are not going to be competing with the online syndicates like Keenspot or Modern Tales; they're essentially just going to be a cooperative like Dayfree Press. There'll probably be alot of talk about it, maybe even some controversy but in the end, it's really just a natural progression for industry - if we can even call it that.

On any other day in webcomics, this would probably have been the burning issue. But with the aforementioned news, it kind of got overshadowed. Randy milholland has started a spin-off to Something Positive. The new comic is Midnight Macabre. At Comixpedia he is quoted as saying with regards donations - "I'm launching the strip a few weeks early because you guys have been very kind to me ($22,000 last year and, hell, $6,000 last week!)." Now that's impressive.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Cowpunching crimes reported in Achewood

After I did my post yesterday about people hotlinking and the such, I dropped back to Comixpedia. There, Rob Balder of Partially Clips had pretty much summed up my thinking on the subject. Which is handy because it means I don't have to. Though, of course, I never had to anyway.

I'm not the biggest fan of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal but sometimes...

I've been a fan of Cowpunch for a while now and since he gave us a mention in his blog, I thought I should return the favour. Very original. Very good.

I've become very fond of Achewood and one of the reasons, besides being very funny, is it's propensity for jumping around different formats.

Today's funny cartoon is, probably, the first one I've ever looked at and thought 'shit, they're not going to get this'. That's no indictment on Frank's art, it just suddenly seemed very vague. Apparently though, I was wrong.

A free browsable database of crimes reported in Chicago, just in case you're interested.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Bitchslapping the fans

I was over at Comixpedia earlier, having a look around the forums and someone was asking for advice, after finding that people were posting his comics on their sites without his permission. Now he actually didn't seem too perturbed by the whole thing, mostly because it was driving extra traffic to his site. Still, he felt the need to ask for advice on the matter. It's a fair enough concern really, considering these people are chewing up his bandwidth.

However, some people's reactions seem just just a little reactionary - you've got to stamp it out, violating your copyright etc etc. It's like the music industry's reaction to file-sharing. Instead of making the effort to adapt to a new technology, they lashed out and ended up treating genuine fans like vermin. Except, with webcomics it's not a case of adapting to a new technology. It's the technology that's been there from the start. It's the technology that webcomics have been built on. We've received huge amounts of traffic from people posting our funny cartoons on their sites or in forums. Occasionally some one hotlinks us and we could get narked about it but we don't know that we're not getting traffic from it. The point is that the person liked our stuff enough to want to show it to other people. Why should we bitchslap them for that? Realistically, how many of these sites are likely to crash yours? And even if it starts to become a problem, why not find some polite way around it. I quite like discovering that one of our funny cartoons has turned up on some fishing forum somewhere or that some lass, from the other side of the same city I live in, is using one of our toons in her sig in some forum she frequents. It means we've succeeded to some degree and that's what we want. Now, of course, it can be a problem if your main source of revenue is based on people turning up at your site but, in the end, all that means is you've found a flaw in your business model. Sorry but that's life.

I noticed today that Stephen Cloud is trying to get Boy on a Stick and Slither published. It's one of my favorites, so if you know of any newspapers or magazines that'd be interested, why not drop him a line. Otherwise, just drop by the site and have a look through the archives. It's grand stuff, like.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

It's not the leaving of Keenspot

So there seems to be a mass exodus from Keenspot. So far Shortpacked, It's Walky, Krazy Larry, Melonpool and Checkerboard Nightmare have announced their intention to leave. It's all causing a bit of a stir, though it has to be said that no one has suggested that they were in any way unhappy with Keenspot. They all just felt it was time to move on or that they'd generate more revenue on their own. Schlock Mercenary has already stated that he's earning more since he left. Personally, I think it's probably in the nature of something like Keenspot to go through these changes. One of it's biggest advantages for a comic maker is the exchange of traffic gained from it's community element. So, obviously, there can come a time when a comic creator thinks to himself that he doesn't need this anymore. It's evolution and it works as long as Keenspot replaces them - which it looks like it's doing. So far they've added Pennie & Aggie, Mad About U, Todd And Penguin and Down To Earth to the fold (according to Digital Strips). We've also had James Grant proclaiming his willingness to perform fellatio to get his new collaboration Two Lumps onto Keenspot. Eric Burns reckons The Devil's Panties and Yirmumah will be getting the call soon - though I can't see what Yirmumah would get out of it really. Interestingly Yirmumah is now appearing daily at CrapVille.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Sniffin' out a business model

Something I spend alot of time thinking about is money. I like it, I need it but I never have nearly enough of it. So I spend a, possibly, inordinate amount of time thinking about ways to make it. In terms of these funny cartoons of ours, it's something I really want to pin down. Not that I'm delusional and expect to make my fortune (or even a living) from this but I would consider it almost imperitive that they earn their keep, so to speak. It's something that Frank and myself have regular discussions about. It's very simple - we'd like to find a model that means we can continue to produce our funny cartoons without them becoming a drain on our resources. The new mini-toons idea is already putting quite a drain on our hosting and if it carries on like this, it'll start costing us more money. Which, in turn, means we'd probably have to pull them - we just can't afford to have, what is effectively, a hobby costing us that much money. We're just not that nuts. Having said that, we're not really looking to turn this into a business. We both have other interests we're pursuing. It's just that if it becomes a drain on our limited resources, it kind of stops making sense. I am, after all, an inherently lazy person.

Now, from what I can gather, the normal reaction at this point would be to stick up a paypal donate button and simper, apologetically, about how we need your help. But both myself and Frank really would prefer to give something for something. I don't see anything wrong with the whole donate button but really, I just wonder how sustainable it is. Anyway, we had pinned our early hopes on CafePress and the idea that people would love to ponce around in BifSniff t-shirts, sipping drinks form their BifSniff mugs and running their mouse over their BifSniff mousepad. It may still happen I suppose but since all we know is people look at the shop and leave, without buying anything, then we've got to start looking elsewhere. I've always felt we'd do well as greeting cards but it's a difficult game to get into and it'd probably be a bit arrogant of us to think we could achieve anything just as a sideline.

We're currently looking at signed prints and some sort of personalised e-card/printable card set up - charging a nominal subscription. But something like that is going to cost money to set up and if it's not a success, it'd almost certainly finish us. So the signed prints might be our next step. Eventually, I guess, we'll get around to a book - though I don't just want to do a collection of cartoons, I'd like to be able to do something a bit more original. Anyway, I don't want to seem like I'm doomsaying or anything, we're a long way off getting fed up yet. I just happen to spend alot of time thinking about money.

Friday, May 13, 2005

De rigorous categorising of the CCAwards

So I just realised I haven't done a new post since the last funny cartoon went up. You'd know Frank was busy, wouldn't you? I was actually going to do a wee bit on my nominations for the Web Cartoonist Choice Awards because that seems to be de rigueur at the moment. However, I haven't, as yet, even looked at it. I will say, though, that I find some of the categories to be a little weird. Somebody from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal brought up the fact that there was no category for single panel cartoons, which I thought was odd. There's a short form category but even in there, single panels are still hugely disadvantaged because we don't have recurring characters. A representative from the CCAward committee did respond, suggesting that it would mean having to add too many sub-categories i.e. best art in a single panel, best writing in a single panel etc. It wouldn't though. Why should single-panel art be judged separate from multi-panel art? It's really just the writing/conceptualising that needs a separate category. The committee member did later suggest a pretty novel solution - a category for best comic without a recurring character. Which, I think, is a pretty good idea but, still, if you can have categories for 'outstanding gaming comic' or 'best use of colour', then I can't see why you couldn't just simply have 'best comic strip' and 'best single-panel cartoon'.

Friday, May 06, 2005

Vote for the washed-up, middle-aged lothario

Today's funny cartoon is one of those ones that I didn't get to see before it was posted. This doesn't happen often and it's kind of odd when it does. Don't get me wrong, it's not a problem for me. When it comes down to it I trust Frank to do a good job and often I'm happier with the result than he is. But it is odd to see the cartoon after it's already gone out - to know that there are other people out there who have seen it before me. Today's cartoon, as it happens, is almost exactly as I'd envisioned it - something which has happened only once before. The only difference is Eddie himself, who now looks like a washed-up, middle-aged lothario. I didn't picture him that way but it works perfectly and somehow, I think, it really improves the cartoon. Though you'll never know that because you didn't picture him any way at all.

As Buzzcomix now seems to be on some sort of hiatus, we're going to switch our attentions to the TopWebcomics list. Again, it's just an experiment but if you like our stuff VOTE FOR US and do it often. We'll sort out a permanent vote button as soon as we can.

Found at Boing Boing - homosexuality is forbidden at Auschwitz apparently.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Whispered obituaries and cooperative guerrilla marketing

Well, I guess it's kind of a slow news day. Which is good on two levels. One, I'm in a slow mood and two, I can catch up on all the news I've neglected over the last couple of days.

To start with Fans, after over six years, is finished. I never followed it but if you like a good obituary, drop by The Living Comic.

PVP was seven years old yesterday, which prompted Websnark to link to the very first one.

Whispered Apologies is one of those great little ideas that only the internet could have spawned. Ryan North and Joey Comeau, of Dinosaur Comics and A Softer World respectively, have come together to put dialogue and narration to comic strips submitted by other artists. The results are interesting, to say the least.

Over at Voices In My Hand, Bill Charbonneau has come up with another unique promotional idea. Now fans of the irreverent single panel cartoon can download and print off a Voices In My Hand flyer. Then they can post the flyer around the on any corkboard or public noticeboard they can find. It's a great idea and one we might just steal ourselves. Of course, Frank would probably want a cast iron guarantee it was going to work before he'd be bothered putting in the effort - he's very busy you know.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Is this the way to Istanbul-o

Forget about webcomics. Forget about funny cartoons. I could, no, should talk about them but I'm not going to. Go to Comixpedia, go to Websnark, go anywhere but here because I'm not talking about them.

Why am I not talking about them? Well, for the same reason my head feels like a building site, my guts seem to be in a hurry to visit the inside of the nearest toilet bowl and I can't stop breaking into song - not to mention jumping up and dancing around the place like a giddy half-wit.

There I did it again.

Why? What's wrong with me? This. That's it. Liverpool are through to the final of the champions league. Jose, Lampard, Terry, Eidur, yes you Eidur - you were out-played, out-classed, out-manouvred and out-witted. Jon Arne, Stevie, Jamie, Sami, Milan, Djimi, Luis Garcia and everyone else in the team - you're all Kings amongst men. And Rafa, you're a gentleman and a scholar!

Is this the way to Istanbul-o?
Every night I dream of Alonso
Is this the way to Istanbul-o?
Whare Maldini waits for me

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Mad twanging rainbows up above

Well, well, a couple of blogs have picked up on the mini-cartoons already. I had a look around them and the toon does seem to fit quite nicely. We were a little worried about legibility but that doesn't seem to be a problem.

So what's in the news? Well, The Harvey Awards nominations have been announced. The awards, named after Mad magazine founder Harvey Kurtzman, are run by the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. A full list of nominations is available at The Comics Reporter. Of course, they don't seem to recognise online comics or cartoons, except for Komikwerks but I think that's because it's largely publisher based. Anyway, that's what The Web Cartoonist Choice Awards are for. Nomination rounds are beginning on May 8 and only webcomic creators can make nominations. You're unlikely to see BifSniff Cartoons in there but they do have a short form category, so we can't claim we're being hard done by or anything. Which is a pity because I do like being bitter about things and lately I've been disturbingly upbeat.

As it's the start of another month, I'm going to make a little plea that if you like our funny cartoons, please vote for us at Buzzcomix. Votes count extra at the start of the month and maybe we'll pick up some extra traffic. Vote every day if you like, there's even a button across the way to make it seem all formal and organised.

And now I leave you with a clip from a Rainbow - a show I used to watch as a kid. It might explain a few things.