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Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did

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Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did

#61

Post by dandrews »

calibraxis wrote: post #29
fernly wrote: post #10

I wonder if Watterson really believes the gag line for the third strip, "Nah, the art form's dying"? He might, being (apparently) a neo-luddite of some sort. But there has never been as many, or as good, comics as there are now, or as many busy, thriving comic artists. Hint: they are not found at gocomics.com.

Could you please share where I could find wonderful comics? Are these good places to look: http://www.webcomicsnation.com/ and http://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/42-web-comics-you-need-to-...

Also see Sluggy Freelance, running for six or seven years now. Long convoluted story arcs punctuated with frequent gags, and a cast of characters I've grown to love. I keep wondering/worrying when Pete Abrams is going to burn out.

http://sluggy.com

Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did

#62

Post by kbenson »

fernly wrote: post #55
chengiz wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a dying art form. Just because they are thriving doesnt make them art.

Really? The sort of comic I was thinking of would include, let's see, Sinfest, Romantically Apocalyptic, Drive, SSSS, Questionable Content... I could go on, but each one of these extends the field of comic-strip art along at least one dimension, and outstrips in subtlety anything attempted in newspaper comics. I'd even include XKCD, which certainly wouldn't seem like "art" to a casual glance, but what would you call…

Woah, Drive is still updating? I thought he basically got too busy, the updates seemed to be once every month or two. Must have changed RSS feeds on me or something.

Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did

#63

Post by kbenson »

jerf wrote: post #60
fernly wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? The sort of comic I was thinking of would include, let's see, Sinfest, Romantically Apocalyptic, Drive, SSSS, Questionable Content... I could go on, but each one of these extends the field of comic-strip art along at least one dimension, and outstrips in subtlety anything attempted in newspaper comics. I'd even include XKCD, which certainly wouldn't seem like "art" to a casual glance, but what would you call…

It's hard to prove it either way, but my suspicion is that there are already more people making their primary living from online comics than there are making their primary living making newspaper comics. And if that isn't true, Patreon will make it true in less than a year from now. Patreon really is a miracle worker from this sort of niche content. I've seen fairly niche people put up a Patreon campaign, then actual…

And Jeph Jacques, from the aforementioned Questionable Content: http://www.patreon.com/jephjacques

Keep in mind these people also still have their other sources of income: book runs, merchandise, etc.

Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did

#64

Post by thaumasiotes »

probably_wrong wrote: post #32
calibraxis wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you please share where I could find wonderful comics? Are these good places to look: http://www.webcomicsnation.com/ and http://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/42-web-comics-you-need-to-...

That second list has some very good ones. Some other ones that are or were popular: Girl Genius, winner of several awards for both story and art, a story about a world ruled by MAD SCIENCE: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ 8-bit theater (finished now), an overall parody of Final Fantasy: http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/03/02/episode-001-were-goin... Megatokyo - it used to be pretty big among manga fans, I don't know…

I'll link to favorite strips of mine instead of to the home page :D

Piled Higher and Deeper - grad students. http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=591

Extra Ordinary - surreal humor. http://www.exocomics.com/05

Boy on a Stick and Slither - surreal humor. It's dead now, and judging by my friends is a minority taste, but has several of my favorite strips to its name. http://archive.boasas.com/?c=286

minus - more surreal humor. Also dead, but excellent. http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus13.html

Jesus and Mo - making fun of religion and the stupid things it inspires people to say. http://www.jesusandmo.net/2006/05/11/skin/

Sam and Fuzzy - Hard to describe. The cartoonist does a great job making sure there's a joke in every strip, despite involved continuity. http://www.samandfuzzy.com/1482

Station V3 - originally great. Hit such an awful dry spell that I unsubscribed, but hey, maybe it's funny again. http://www.stationv3.com/d/20110722.html

Of those already listed, I also endorse savage chickens, xkcd, basic instructions, and sinfest.

http://xkcd.com/349/

http://www.savagechickens.com/2010/11/identification.html

http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2010/1/10/ho...

http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4746

Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did

#65

Post by [deleted] »

Angostura wrote: post #45
tesseract wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I could do better if I had more space" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes#Syndication_a...

Berkeley Brethed ran several Bloom County strips which featured the need for more space too, such as: http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add.php?iid=82665

[deleted]

Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did

#67

Post by Alex_MJ »

Natsu wrote: post #27
tptacek wrote: post #3

Whoah. Second panel of the second Watterson strip. Chills.

I had every single C&H book growing up. I wish he'd draw again... maybe they can teach him how to make a webcomic? No confining panel structure here...

Yeah, but Watterson clearly doesn't like working with technology. He's very much a pen-paper-human kind of guy, and I don't see him all of a sudden deciding to step into the internet.

I'll be darned if he couldn't find someone to work with who could handle getting his work online though. It's mere wishful thinking, but he could draw and communicate (or not) in whichever way he wants, and some trusted friend and gatekeeper handles all of the scanning and online stuff, which could be kept very simple and noncommercial. No ads, twitter, comments section or any of the usual "social media branding" stuff, literally just a page with a comic on it.

Sigh. Man, I still miss Calvin and Hobbes.

Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did

#68

Post by jerf »

kbenson wrote: post #63
jerf wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to prove it either way, but my suspicion is that there are already more people making their primary living from online comics than there are making their primary living making newspaper comics. And if that isn't true, Patreon will make it true in less than a year from now. Patreon really is a miracle worker from this sort of niche content. I've seen fairly niche people put up a Patreon campaign, then actual…

And Jeph Jacques, from the aforementioned Questionable Content: http://www.patreon.com/jephjacques Keep in mind these people also still have their other sources of income: book runs, merchandise, etc.

Yes, Patreon is really transformative for those people who haven't had other means of monetizing.

I really think that in the long term Patreon is more important than Kickstarter for the arts. Kickstarter by its nature is much splashier and makes the big news articles, but it's Patreon that changes lives by chugging along month after month after month after month.

Can you imagine what Watterson could get directly from the public on Patreon? Most assuredly a better offer than any newspaper could ever offer him now.

Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did

#69

Post by bradleysmith »

MilnerRoute wrote: post #33

I wonder how he feels about the fan-drawn sequels? http://www.review-land.com/a-sequel-to-calvin-and-hobbes/

I do too. Thanks for sharing these, they're heartwarming for an old fan.

a few relevant links from there:

unofficial history of fan art projects: http://www.avclub.com/article/check-out-the-web-cartoonists-...

4 full color sunday strips put out by pantsareoverated.com (Dan and Tom Heyerman) where Calvin and Susie have a daughter, Bacon: http://www.pantsareoverrated.com/page/4/?s=hobbes http://www.pantsareoverrated.com/page/3/?s=hobbes http://www.pantsareoverrated.com/page/2/?s=hobbes http://www.pantsareoverrated.com/page/1/?s=hobbes

Phil Barry on DeviantArt did 3: http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/300/8/4/hobbes_and_ba... http://phill-art.deviantart.com/art/Hobbes-and-Bacon-2-33673... http://phill-art.deviantart.com/art/Hobbes-and-Bacon-3-35410...

User DomNX on DeviantArt did a series called "Calvin and Company" where Calvin and Susie have twins. The content linked in the article has been removed from facebook, as well as hir account on deviantArt (best I could tell). Found it from pinterest user Potatohappiness: http://www.pinterest.com/Potatohappiness/calvin-and-hobbes/ http://www.pinterest.com/pin/469218854897891171/ http://www.pinterest.com/pin/469218854897891153/ http://www.pinterest.com/pin/469218854897891162/ http://www.pinterest.com/pin/469218854897891165/

Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did

#70

Post by alexis »

jerf wrote: post #60
fernly wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? The sort of comic I was thinking of would include, let's see, Sinfest, Romantically Apocalyptic, Drive, SSSS, Questionable Content... I could go on, but each one of these extends the field of comic-strip art along at least one dimension, and outstrips in subtlety anything attempted in newspaper comics. I'd even include XKCD, which certainly wouldn't seem like "art" to a casual glance, but what would you call…

It's hard to prove it either way, but my suspicion is that there are already more people making their primary living from online comics than there are making their primary living making newspaper comics. And if that isn't true, Patreon will make it true in less than a year from now. Patreon really is a miracle worker from this sort of niche content. I've seen fairly niche people put up a Patreon campaign, then actual…

Yes, I can't stress this enough. I'm an investor in Patreon, but I've also been working closely with artists (like Zach) for the last few years as we've managed + run their crowdfunding campaigns on kickstarter and the like.

Patreon is the next stage in the evolution. It is my belief that this platform will spur the second renaissance for creators who can at last focus entirely on their art without just one well-funded patreon (e.g., Harper Lee and To Kill A Mockingbird).

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