Friday, December 1st, 2006
My brother Kevin Robertson’s new comic American Soil is now available to order in both print and PDF copies. It’s a Horror Comedy Political Satire inspired by the U.S. led “War on Terrorism”, and set amidst an invasion of flesh eating zombies. Fantastic artwork, and a very entertaining script make this a great book for those interested in comics, horror films, and recent political events. I recently asked Kevin some questions about the book, and the process that brought it together.
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Tags: art, books, Family, film, politics, spooky, webcomic
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Sunday, January 8th, 2006
I just noticed that PV Comics, the webcomic collective I was helping with in 2004, seems to have closed up shop.
We here at PV Comics would like to thank you for the support and readership we’ve enjoyed since our launch two years ago. We’re taking a step back for a while, and wanted to take a second to thank everyone involved – creator and reader alike!
It looks like you can still read all the comics that were published there, as well as check out the sites to most of the 20 listed PV Comics alumni.
What you won’t be able to see anymore are some of the CSS techniques I used when putting the site together. It was the second site I designed using the CSS Imagemaps technique that I developed into an A List Apart article called Night of the Image Map. The first site was Nate Piekos’ Dead Ends, Massachusetts which gave me an excuse to use the spooky theme.
Tags: design, webcomic
Posted in web design | 4 Comments »
Sunday, January 1st, 2006
Here’s a special New Year’s offer I’m making to webcomic artists. If your New Year’s resolution was to setup your own website for your comic, I’d like to help you get started.
Sign up for any new 1 or 2 year hosting package with Dreamhost and I’ll help by setting up your blog for you! Wordpress, the most popular optional plugins, and one of 3 great starting templates. If you think it wouldn’t be too hard to setup Worpress on your own… you’d be right! If you don’t need any technical help, you can use the promotional code ‘WEBCOMIC’ when you sign up with Dreamhost and get an extra $15 off. More details are available on the Webhosting page .
I moved DesignMeme to Dreamhost in late November when I saw the prices starting at $7.95 a month. I was a bit surprised at how inexpensive that was compared to what I remembered from a few years ago. Since moving the site my Adsense earnings have really improved and now more than cover my hosting costs! Moving the site is something I should have done a long time ago, and if you’re considering making the move in 2006—I encourage you to go for it.
Tags: hosting, webcomic
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, December 14th, 2005
Ali G — no not him, this guy—was one of the artists involved in yesterday’s identity theft fiasco. The thieves were trying to pass off his comic as their own creation—but they were just linking to the image files on his server. After looking at his website stats Ali realize something weird was going on and mentioned it to DJ Coffman, who in turn let the rest of us know about it. Today’s HousD comic makes light of the entire strange incident.
My brother Kevin Robertson has also started posting comics. He’s added them to his blog and they’re about whatever happens to be going on in current events. The first two involve Cronulla and the Sydney Race Riots riots and Brokeback Mountain — so it’s probably safe to say he’s going to cover a lot of different things. I lent him my copy of Webcomics : Tools and Techniques for Digital Cartooning a couple of weeks ago and have been giving him some tips on running his blog, so it’s great to see his stuff online so soon.
And while I’m posting about current events, I should mention that the contact form has once again returned to the site. If you were wondering how to email me, now you can.
Tags: designmeme, Family, web, webcomic
Posted in designmeme | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, December 6th, 2005
It seems to be the time of year when the “best of 2005” lists start appearing. Most of the “best webcomics of 2005” lists are basically, whatever the people working on that site happen to like. If they don’t like the genre or the artwork themselves, it won’t be on their list. I guess in that way they’re like mini Academy Awards… with a lot less glitz and glamour.
That got me thinking about del.icio.us, the social bookmarking tool I’ve been using this year. It lets you check how many other people have bookmarked a particular site. If you think of a bookmark as being a vote for a particular website, then the info from del.icio.us provides a fairly good listing of the Top Webcomics of 2005 as selected by the audience. I guess in some ways that makes this the Webcomics People’s Choice Awards.
I’ve only included sites that have received at least 50 bookmarks / votes from del.icio.us users. If I’ve missed your comic, please email me and I’ll add it to the list—however, because of the changing nature of del.icio.us, I may choose to start adding new sites in an appendixes rather than putting them into the list. The list will be finalized at the end of 2005, which means after that I’m happy to hear about your site, but I won’t add it to the list for this year.
So here they are—
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Tags: web, webcomic
Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments »
Saturday, December 3rd, 2005
Adding to the the section on tools and workspaces I wrote for the Webcomics book, here is my list of the top 10 webcomic resources.
Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud
A comic book about comic books, and an incredible resource for anyone working in the graphic arts. Understanding Comics provides numerous insights for how to structure your comics.
DrawingBoard.org
Some of the best illustrators on the web post their artwork on this message board, and the numerous drawing challenges provide a great opportunity to improve your artwork and get feedback.
Strathmore Sketchbook
Everyone has a different type of paper that they like. I’m partial to Strathmore, and find the sketchpads fairly economical while giving much nicer drawing surface than whatever I’ve got in the printer.
Sakura Brush Pen
The organic and variable line weight of a brush, with the convenience of a pen. A brush pen won’t spill, and is cheaper than most ink and brushes.
Blambot Fonts, by Nate Piekos
Tons of comic lettering fonts for dialogue, sound fx, and titles. Each month two new fonts are added to the catalogue—and one of them is free for independent comic book creation and non-profit use!
Adobe Photoshop
Most web hosting companies limit the amount of bandwidth your website can use each month. Making sure your webcomic images are properly optimized is an important, and often overlooked step in online publishing.
Wordpress
A free blogging system you can add to your website. Having a blog is a good way to keep your webcomic readers informed, and makes updating services like Google and Technorati a lot easier. Some web hosting companies even offer wordpress to all their users.
Google Adsense
A great idea for making some extra income from your webcomic, signing up for google adsense lets you put ads on your website based on your specific content. Visit DJ Coffman’s thoughts on making money with your webcomic for more advice on advertising.
Comic Book Legal Defence Fund
News and information about comic censorship in the U.S. If you’re thinking of making an edgy or adult themed comic, this may be a good resource for you.
Coffee
Whether you get your fix from Tim Horton’s or make it at home in a coffee press, this is essential. Use with caution.
I’d be interested in hearing from other artists about webcomic resources they’d add to this list.
Tags: books, design, tutorial, web, webcomic
Posted in tools | 5 Comments »
