Thursday, June 30, 2005
Just found through
Digital Strips - two webcartoonists have posted videos of how they draw their respective funny cartoons. First is Krishna Sadasivam of
PC Weenies, who has a quicktime video called
'How I Draw The PCW (Part 1)'. The second is a
step by step guide by Scott Johnson of
My Extra Life, another single panel comic.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
So
Argon Zark, by Charley Parker, celebrated it's 10th anniversary yesterday. Argon Zark was the first comic to be made specifically for delivery on the web. According to Parker, both
Doctor Fun and
Where The Buffalo Roam preceded it but neither actually originated on the web. So in turn, depending on how you look at it, that could mean Webcomics, as a medium, are 10 years old. Kind of makes our fledgling one-year-old funny cartoons seem a little meagre.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
So
this is what passes for news over at
Frank's other site. It's a classic example of how a spurious individual can take actual events and twist them in such a way as to cast someone else in a very unflattering light. It's a disgrace. Really. I mean that. Honestly.
Anyway, Blank Label Comics seem to be expanding. Dave Kellett, creator of
Sheldon, and Greg Dean of
Real Life have just joined the collective. You can read more about it at
Comixpedia.
I was going through our stats today and I found this
blog in there. It's, supposedly at least, the blog of a seven year old Ramones fan. I, for one, hope it's true because, surely, we need more children listening to the likes of The Ramones. I also noticed we've been turning up in a number of forums recently. Most notably the
SternFanNetwork,
eXeem forums and the
Prog Archives (your ultimate prog rock resource). It's a pity I can never find out where we're turning up, except for the eXeem one which actually turns up in a google search for BifSniff Cartoons. Well, at least people seem to like our
funny cartoons.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Yes, Frank has just informed me that BifSniff Cartoons is one year old. That's right for one measly year we've been pumping out these remarkably funny cartoons at a rate of one per week. If anyone's interested
this is the first BifSniff cartoon to hit the site. It was followed, on the same day, by
Neanderthal Drive-by,
The Bullet Warden,
Bill Suffered,
Gangsters and
Johnny Forgets Himself. How they shape up to the newer ones, I don't know really. I liked them then and I like them now but I think we've developed a bit more of a distinct syle. Still one year, how bad.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
A really interesting
piece by Jon Rosenberg of Goats. Here he contends that an experiment with micropayments not only failed but actually cost them money. His theory being that fans chose to spend 25c on the micropayments, rather than $18 dollars on a t-shirt or other such item. He admits that not all those who paid the 25c would have bought a t-shirt but maintains that enough of them would have to make a significant difference to their pockets. He's right, of course. Webcomics like theirs strive on what he calls the experience-based economy, whereby people purchase souvenirs so as to be a part of something. It's a major factor in the development of webcomics. However, it probably shouldn't be seen as death knell for micropayments.
Goats is an established comic, thriving in a certain environment. What they offered through bitpass was an extra - an opportunity to a part of the wider Goats experience. That doesn't mean micropayments aren't a valid way of earning revenue. It might just be a case of finding a way of implementing them. Just because this particular business model didn't suit one webcomic, doesn't mean it won't suit another. People harp on alot about finding THE business model for webcomics but, in the end, their isn't just one. There is, in fact, a multitude of ways to generate an income on the internet if your central product is good enough. You just need the time, the patience and the ability to spot your opening.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Ok, we seem to have had some sort of server outage. All access to the site was dead and we don't really know how long. We received no warning and, as yet, no explanation. If anyone was trying to access the site and failed, let us know what time it was and where you are (so we can calculate the time difference). That way, if it was out for a long time, we can take it up with the hosting company. If you're running the cartoon feed on your site, we're really sorry for any disruption.
Friday, June 10, 2005
I was considering doing a post about the whole furore over the Adventures Into Digital Comics thing (Tycho at
Penny Arcade said
this, then Eric Burns at Websnark said
something,
Scott McCloud demanded an apology, Cayetano Garza Jr. offered his
rebuttal and so on and so forth). Then I saw
this and it pretty much summed up what I thought of the whole thing anyway.
The next funny cartoon will be up at some stage tomorrow, I think.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Just a quick warning that the funny cartoon is going to be late this week. Somethings come up at short notice and it probably won't go up til Saturday. In the meantime, why not run through our links page or even click on a couple of ads - they might be entertaining (*cough*).
Actually, a couple of sites I found through
Drawn that are worth a look are
Julie West's site and
the art of Eric Feng. I had seen Julie West's illustrations around the place and had been very fond of it. But I never knew who she was. Her stuff is really nice though. Eric Feng's stuff is just plain fascinating. If your, in any way, interested in illustration
Drawn is a great site to check out.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
So, Frank seems to have some extra time on his hands again and, as ever, that means our little site of funny cartoons gets yet another makeover. No seriously, we've tried to streamline the site a bit and get rid of a few things that weren't working. We've also tried to make the archiving a little easier to follow. We found recently that some visitors, those not so familiar with blogs, were getting confused by it. So, hopefully, we've made it a little more intuitive. The blogroll was getting out of hand as well; so we set up a links page and are now displaying a randomly selected, abbreviated list of links on the homepage. We like to think that this makes the whole site seem less cluttered. The last major change we made is we've reduced the number of cartoons on the homepage to four. We hope this will make life a little easier for dial-up users.
Those of you with a keen eye for detail, will have noticed we have added google ads to the top of the page. Now, we can't just tell you to click on the links (that would be wrong) but if they interest you (even vaguely), then don't feel guilty about clicking them. We won't be offended. We trust you'll come back to us and the money we might get back will, at least, be a small comfort if you don't.
Friday, June 03, 2005
This one's for my buddy Allen; who had a bit of a scare recently and, absolutely, insisted I make fun of him for it. Of course, he didn't have to have a heart bypass or anything but you know, I'm not an investigative reporter or anything.
I did rant a bit about Liverpool winning the chamions league the other day, so I feel I should also mention that
Cork City are top of the league after beating
Shelbourne at Tolka Park!
Frank and I have this
exact conversation every summer - or, at least, something very like it.
Achewood really should have it's own TV cartoon.
It's really just that funny.
We're still closely watching our ranking on google for funny cartoons. I don't really understand the way we seem to go up and down but I do expect that we'll take up a, somewhat, permanent residence in the top ten for funny cartoons soon. Or at least we will if I have anything to do with it.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Well Bifsniff Cartoons was, albeit briefly, in the top ten on
Google for funny cartoons. We've been working towards this for a while and considering the way google fluctuates, I'd expect us to be moving up and down around there for a while. Considering we get a fairly handy stream of traffic on that phrase already, I'd imagine being in the top ten will be a pretty nifty boost.
The really funny thing about this
Boy on a Stick with Slither is that I sometimes do it. Even more than that, myself and my buddy Shane used to laugh about how we used to plan out whole conversations in her head all the time. Not big conversations. Not clever retorts. Not mind shatteringly intelligent statements. No, just plain, run-of-the-mill 'hi, how's it going' type stuff. Whole routine conversations would be mapped out before I got out of bed in the morning. Whole conversations that never got used, I might add.
Found through
Incandescent, the
Simplified Spelling Society are
protesting spelling bees all over the States and Canada. Apparently 'Enuf is Enuf. Enough is too much' and they're 'thru with through'. SSS member Alan Mole claims 'Our odd spelling retains words like cough, bough, through and though. This increases illiteracy and crime.' I'm really just lost for words, oddly spelled or otherwise, on this one.
