Posts Tagged ‘Matt Stout’
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This one is way late… mainly because I was enjoying such a great conversation (disguised as an interview) with Onezumi as she and her main man, Harknell, talked all about InterventionCon tonight with me and Matt as part of our weekly Lightbox – Illuminating Webcomics podcast.
As such, I’ll probably have a much more lengthy blog update post tomorrow. For now, I’m going to bed.
-Chris
Last night’s Lightbox Recap:
Oni & Harnell - the masterminds behind Intervention Con
Hello everybody. This is the recap and lengthier blog post that I said I would write last night. I just wanted to thank Onezumi and Harknell for braving the wonderful world of Talkshoe last night and talking to Matt Stout and I and discussing all things InterventionCon-related. Matt and I normally record the show for only an hour but we all talked for almost two hours, so obviously, we were having a good time.
I also want to thank the ten or so people that listened to us live and participated with questions in the chat room. I also have to apologize for demolishing Hue-x-ley’s (did I get it right this time?) name pronunciation last night. I can be brutal with unfamiliar names sometimes and always cringe when I have to pronounce a name I’m unsure about.
But anyway, I met Onezumi for the first time a couple of years ago at Katsucon 14 in Crystal City – I’m pretty sure it was #14. I wasn’t there as an artists. I was only there because a) my daughter really wanted to go and b) I knew there were going to be a lot of webcomic creators there – including Brad, Kris and Dave from Halfpixel. Capes & Babes wasn’t even a small blimp on the webcomics radar screen yet… I think I had only gone to Heroes that summer and probably had less than 200 strips online at the time. But I had already started networking and getting to know a lot of other more established webcomic creators and those that were at Katsucon all suggested that I meet and introduce myself to Onezumi since she was really responsible for the the webcomic presences that was at Katsucon that year.
If you have ever been to an anime con before, you know it can be even more crazy and chaotic than your typical comic book convention. As such, it was extremely hard to track down Oni mainly because she was sooooo busy trying to help out the webcomic people that had tables at the con and, since I had never met her before, I didn’t know what she looked like. But after looking like an out-of-state tourist asking for directions in New York City, enough webcomic people were able to finally point her out to me and I went up and introduced myself.
Again, Capes & Babes was in its infancy at the time so she very easily could have brushed me off or pretended to be interested in my little comic strip endeavor and simply forgotten about me as soon as I left her immediate presence. But she never did. Instead, she asked me for my card, gave me her’s and told me to get in touch with her in a few months when BaltiCon 43 rolls around because she was looking for new creators to display there.
It’s exactly because of this attitude with new, old and trying to get old webcomic creators that I absolutely KNOW InterventionCon will not only be hugely popular, it will also be a great success.
So, if you’re not doing anything September 10 – 12 and you live in the Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia Tri-state area, you absolutely need to come to this event. Everything you need to know about InterventionCon can be found on the Con’s website but for directions and anything else, you can just click THIS LINK to see more information.
I’ll be there and so will so many other webcomic creators, artists, musicians, bloggers and internet enthusiasts. It truly will be Your Online Life, In Person.
-Chris
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Matt Stout and I had another great Lightbox Podcast recording session tonight where we talked quite a bit about the Wibiya toolbar that’s at the bottom of my site. I’m going to write up an additional blog post tomorrow (Friday) that highlights some of the things we talked about.
But for now, it’s late and I’m hitting the sack.
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Okay, I’m back from my nightly slumber and I thought I’d talk a little bit more about the Wibiya toolbar…
First, I want to thank everyone who took the time and gave me their own personal feedback over the bar. As I talked about during the Lightbox Podcast with Matt Stout last night, it seems that from the input I got from my friends, the majority of people hate it – and they hat it for a variety of reasons.
My web designer friends hate it because of the Live Notification “pop-up” box. Others hate the Live Notification box because, on their laptops, the pop-up window obscures the last panel of the strip. Some hate it because they think it looks completely alien on my site (even though I tried to make the green of the bar blend in as much as possible to the green color scheme of the current site re-design). Overall, the overriding consensus I got yesterday was that I should get rid of the bar. But I’m not going to and here’s why…
As much as I understand why my web designer friends hate intrusive things like this web bar being on a particular site, I think it’s important to realize that not all websites are one and the same. Some websites are functional. Some are informative. Some are entertainment. I don’t believe all websites should look, function or act the same. Some people detest videos on websites as the upload can sometimes be slow, clunky or just a pain in the butt… yet, that doesn’t seem to have hurt ESPN. The videos on ESPN are a unique part of their website – and people have come to understand that.
For me, having a webcomic website is completely different than all the other websites I have ever designed or been a part of. The audience is different. The “message” is different. The goals are different. On my personal portfolio site, I have no ads. I have nothing that even comes close to looking like a Wibiya toolbar. I don’t even have a Twitter feed box so people can follow my Tweets while they are looking at my portfolio. All of that stuff would be grossly unneeded, misused and completely unprofessional for that site.
But for Capes & Babes, I’m trying my best to build a community, to get people personally invested in the characters of the strip and, perhaps, even myself. Plus my goal is to make it self sustaining so I am able to travel to conventions and meet people who might be fans of the strip. Unlike my portfolio website, Capes & Babes NEEDS to be as interactive as much as possible – and the Wibiya toolbar makes that just a little easier.
Having said all of that though, I have listened to what you all have said about the bar. I haven’t gotten rid of it completely for the reasons stated above, but I have made significant changes to the bar to try and find some sort of compromise between liking the bar myself and appeasing the people who might be turned off by it. For example, for now, the Live Notification box is gone. That doesn’t mean it won’t ever appear again. Instead, I will only use that pop-up box to announce very special things like a convention appearance and where I might be located at that particular convention. I have edited many of the social media icons to make them a little less obtrusive but still keeping them in the bar. I have also removed some of the other more “bells & whistles” apps of the tool bar as well. In short, I have tried to streamline it while still keeping it functional and relevant.
I also thought it might be handy to point out that if these changes still aren’t to your liking, you can always use personal control and shorten the bar so that it is practically invisible to your experience. All you need to do is click the double arrows at the right side of the bar and it will collapse. I don’t know if a lot of people realize this but that’s one of the first things I discovered about the bar and why I thought the benefits would outweigh the negatives.
I also thought it might be beneficial to highlight some of the things I personally like about the bar and detail them in the screenshot below:
Again, I am fully open to discussion about this tool bar. I’d still like to hear more feedback about it – have the changes I made satisfactory? Are they now a little less intrusive to you enjoying the strip? Are you STILL a Wibiya hater? Are there actually any Wibiya FANS out there? And if so, WHY are you a fan? How do you use your Wibiya bar?
Just understand… because this is a discussion, there are no right or wrong answers and it’s always a give and take. I am interested in hearing your opinions but, hopefully, you will be interested in my return comments as well. After all, isn’t that how we learn from one another?
-Chris
Hey everybody… I think ONE of the many reasons why Content Management Systems have become so popular amongst webcomic creators is due to its ability to allow a creator to post a strip and a blog in advance without having to worry about it. This is especially true for any creator that is on the road or traveling to, say, a comic convention.
And that’s exactly what I’m doing right now!
Today is Thursday and this afternoon, I will be leaving the (suddenly windy) confines of Northern Virginia and driving to Monroeville, Pennsylvania in order to participate in my second Pittsburgh Comic Con. And, as the bottom of the strip says… if you plan on visiting or attending the Pittsburgh Comic Con any time this weekend, and you stop by my booth and mention Friday’s strip to me (whether it’s Friday, Saturday or Sunday), you’ll get a FREE GIFT! How cool is that???
This year, I decided to take a chance and upgrade myself from “Artist Alley” to the “Small Press” section of the show so, as always, look for my five foot tall, foam core stand-up of Roy the Werewolf. You find him, you’ll find me. I look forward to seeing and talking to a lot of people this weekend. My first Pittsburgh Comic Con back in the fall was an absolute blast so I’m hoping this weekend’s Spring show is even better!
I will be rooming with my good friend, Dan Nokes so you should take a moment and check out some of his stuff.
Also, on a bit of a sad note, because I will (hopefully) be in Pittsburgh by this evening, there will NOT be a Lightbox – Illuminating Webcomics podcast this week – unless Matt is able to round up a guest host for me. But we’ll be back next week where I’m sure I’ll talk more about the con then.
Thanks to my relatively new Google MyPhone, I’ll also try Twittering a bunch during the con whenever I get a chance. if you’re not doing so already, you can follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/capesnbabes.
Anyway, that’s just about all I have for today.
-Chris
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Whew! This is kind of a late one tonight due to another recording of the Lightbox Podcast with me and Matt Stout. Also, I mentioned this at the very end of tonight’s podcast but we might not record a podcast next week.
I will be on the road to the Pittsburgh Comic Con on Thursday night – actually, I’m hoping I will already BE in Pittsburgh by Thursday night, but we’ll see about that. We might try to record an early one on Tuesday but a lot of things have to happen before that happens.
In the mean time, tomorrow morning (Saturday) is the Dale City Little League opening day. After opening ceremonies, the Challenger’s division (in which my sons plays) so I’m looking forward to that.
-Chris
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Every Thursday night, I record a Podcast with Matt Stout called “The Lightbox – Illuminating Webcomics”. Usually, it’s just me and Matt talking about our creative process or things we see in the webcomics community. Added to that, we normally record for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes.
But tonight was different.
Tonight, we recorded LIVE on Talkshoe because we had a special guest with us – our good friend Tyler James. Tonight’s podcast went way over what we usually record. I think we hit just a little over 2 hours or so but it’s a really great conversation about “the dip” creators go through.
Because of that, I didn’t start on the strip until almost 11 o’clock this evening so I’m keeping this blog post short and sweet. I’ll add the links to all the parties mentioned above later on tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
-Chris
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So, two aliens walk in to a bar disguised as aliens…
No, that’s actually not the set-up of a really bad and tasteless joke, but it COULD almost be the premise behind “Zorphbert & Fred†– a webcomic by Dawn Griffin.
In actuality, “Zorphbert & Fred†is a webcomic about two aliens that just happen to LOOK like dogs – and they look like dogs in order to perfectly blend in to our society and study us from the inside – out. No, seriously.
Even without reading Dawn’s bio on her website, it’s very clear that she’s a dog owner herself. Although I’m sure one could imagine how dogs might react in certain situations, fellow dog (and cat) owners will feel a kinship when they read Dawn’s strips and see the antics the aliens go through in order to perfectly blend in and not give away their “secretâ€.
Dawn comes from an illustration and design background and you can tell that from the expertly chosen color schemes she chooses in the color versions of her strip. But even when she decides to go “all grayscaleâ€, you can still see her graphic design skills shine through.
I also mentioned Dawn’s strip tonight during the Lightbox Podcast I record with Matt Stout (www.bigsandygilmore.com) in which I mentioned Dawn’s style kind of reminds me of a little bit of Disney, mixed with old style Warner Brothers with a hefty dose of Ren & Stimpy sprinkled in to the mix. Her style is loose but clean, graphic-y but sketchy and she really spends a lot of time with her colors and shading. For an example of what I’m talking about, check out the Christmas tree in the first panel of this strip: http://www.zfcomics.com/comics/the-aftermath/http://www.zfcomics.com/comics/the-aftermath/
With two “dogs†in the strip, it would be real easy to fall into a dog version of Garfield but Dawn doesn’t do that. Instead, “Zorphbert & Fred†reminds me of something more along the lines of Heathcliff on Red Bull but with a touch of heart. Heathcliff could sometimes be a bit too snarky for me but that’s not the case with“Zorphbert & Fredâ€. “Zorphbert & Fred†is cute but has also has some edge to it – but not in a nasty, snarky way. It’s way more zany than anything else.
I also want to mention Dawn’s website as well since there are some things I like about her site too. For example, I love the outer space background and the custom buttons she has made for the main navigation of the site in addition to the comic strip navigation buttons below the strip as well. This is anything but your “typical†comicpress-generated website. I also like the “Book-o-meter†graphic she has on her left side bar too.
Almost everything fits really well together in terms of website, art, writing and design. However, if there could be two things I would change about her strip it would be her choice of the dialog font she uses and the decision to include blinking Project Wonderful ads right before her blog post. I think the blinking ads are a bit much and can sometimes distract from her beautifully arranged and designed art of the strip. I would much rather her turn off the ability to accept animated banner ads here, but just the animated ones. The static ones are fine and don’t distract from the site at all.
When one talks about dialog fonts, that can always be a bit tricky. Some people prefer digital fonts while others prefer hand-lettering. Likewise, the choice to use a particular digital font can be extremely important as well. Although Dawn’s strip is very easy to read, I think, after long sittings, the use of Tekton as a dialog font can become difficult to read over time.
In fact, given the loose style she shows towards Zorphbert & Fred, I actually wouldn’t mind seeing Dawn try her hand at hand lettering the strip every now and then – just to see what that might produce. Or, in the very least, perhaps experiment with a slightly more traditional comic book lettering style or font. One might argue though, given the fact that the “dogs†are alien, having a more mechanical looking font suits their characters. Still though, seeing what she is capable of doing with sound effects, it would be very interesting to see a hand-drawn styled version of “Zorphbert and Fredâ€.
In any case, the choice of dialog fonts is, honestly, a nit-picky one based more on personal style than anything else. It’s certainly nothing that should keep you from enjoying a great little zany strip by Dawn Griffin called… Zorphbert & Fred.
-Chris
So tonight, Matt Stout and I conducted our first Lightbox – Illuminating Webcomics podcast without our buddy-in-arms, Rob. For the most part, I think it went well. Actually, EVERYTHING went well. Last night was the difficult part – at least for me as I had to get my new headphone/mic to properly work on my Mac AND with Skype… I also had to figure out how to work with Garageband as I had only previously opening that program up a couple of times.
But low and behold, I got everything to work – which is pretty amazing since I’m not nearly as adapt with audio files/formats as I am with graphic files/formats.
In any case, tonight, we only recorded for about an hour but most of that hour was dedicated to Facebook, Facebook Fan Pages and how you can use Facebook (and Facebook Fan pages) to help promote your strip. We talked about special Facebook offers, trivia quizes for your fans and making sure you keep adding content to your fan page.
Later one, we briefly discussed our studio set-up and some of out working methods.
All in all, a very fun show! Check us out on iTunes if you haven’t already!
-Chris
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Hey everybody, just wanted to take a brief moment to share with you the fact that today, you get a Chris Flick THREE-for-one-deal! What do I mean by that? Well, it’s simple, really.
You see, if you come here first, you get a new Capes & Babes strip done by yours truly.
Since it’s Wednesday, you can also check out my Weekly Strip that I do for the Community MX web site called “CMX Suite”. You can check out today’s “CMX Suite” by clicking here.
And then, if you head over to my friend, Matt Stout’s strip, Big Sandy Gilmore, you can see a guest strip I did for him.
So, there you go… a THREE-for-one deal!
But seriously, go check out Matt’s site.
So, to re-cap:
1) Check out today’s Capes & Babes strip
(which, if you’re reading this, you’re already doing)…
2) Then, go to Community MX and check out my “CMX Suite” weekly strip
(published ever Wednesday)…
3) And then go check out my Guest Strip for
Matt Stout’s Big Sandy Gilmore web comic strip.
Thanks everyone!
-Chris
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Before I begin tonight’s blog, I wanted to mention that on Friday night 9:00pm EST, I will be a guest on the TGT Webcomics Podcast. You can find the link hon Talkshoe or by clicking here. Needless to say, I’m REALLY looking forward to the show!
And don’t forget to check out the podcast I am doing with Rob Chandler and Matt Stout called “Lightbox – Illuminating Webcomics”. We record THAT show every Thursday night at 9:00pm EST on Talkshoe as well.
So for today’s strip, I decided to try some experimenting with UStream. Below is a recording of today’s strip detailing my rough script and thumbnails, my pencils, the lettering and, finally, the inking of the strip. The video runs roughly a little over 50 minutes or so and there isn’t any sound (so you’ll need to listen to your iPod while watching it).
I recorded the video using an old iCam that I had. Trying to use my iMac’s built in camera was just NOT going to work. I’m not sure how to record audio though while using the iCam. Is it “legal” to record music from your iTunes playlist while you’re recording a UStream video? And finally, for those that use UStream but don’t use a Waacom tablet, how do YOU record YOUR videos?
I had to really mess around with trying to balance the iCam on an old plastic cup so you could be able to see me draw at a decent angle – but if there’s ways to improve this, please let me know.
Here’s the video:
Or, if that doesn’t work, here is the direct link to UStream:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2437780
-Chris
I am officially declaring today “Capes & Babes Internet Day”. Why, you might ask – and, well, even if you don’t ask – here’s why anyway:
Today, I have a guest strip over at my good friend, Joe Comb’s site, Business Casual. But that’s not all.
My other good friend, Frank Zieglar, has ROY as a guest in his Kidd and Geezer strip.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!!!
Because Ben Avery listened to our The Lightbox – Illuminating Webcomics podcast last night and immediately decided to follow me on Twitter, he became my 1000th Twitter follower and now gets a much coveted, OFFICIAL Capes & Babes t-shirt! You can follow Ben at http://www.twitter.com/whisperingloon.
The Lightbox – Illuminating Webcomics podcast is recorded every Thursday night at 8:00pm est on Talkshoe. Last night was our fourth show so there’s still plenty of time to get on board and catch the early shows before we get so big, you won’t know what to do with us. The podcast is brought to you by Rob Chandler, Matt Stout and myself.
Have a Happy Capes & Babes Internet Day today!
-Chris
