Skip to main content

Jorge Cham

Comix Talk for Thursday, July 15, 2010

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 15, 2010 - 08:36

In the last issue of Dark Horse Presents on MySpace, there's a new Bee story from Jason Little; a comic based on the video game Mass Effect, a comic written byLeVar Burton plus a funny riff on a scene from Star Wars by Frank Stockton.  Future issues of DHP will be at Dark Horse's own website. (h/t Scott McCloud)

I also point you to a comic on digital civil rights in Europe that is pretty interesting, particularly if you're interested in the topic. (h/t BoingBoing)

CODE: The new convention Intervention will be hosting a workshop on Comicpress for Wordpress run by one of the developers, Frump.  This is a great idea, one that I'm surprised I haven't seen at other webcomic-friendly conventions.  Attendees to the workshop will get a bonus -- a free download of the automated Cast addon for ComicPress. The Cast addon displays cast members in a totally new way, showing when they first appeared in the comic, how often they have been in the comic, all of the comics they were in with links and other statistics as well as individual biographical information.

CONVENTION: Gary reports that Jorge Cham is organizing another Webcomics newspaper-style handout for this year's San Diego Comicon.

REVIEW: Roya Grinstead reviews the webcomic Romantically Apocalyptic with which the reviewer "was floored by its miraculous visuals, its marvellous concept, and its delightfully dark, whimsical, and twisted humour."

MILESTONE: Spwug notes that the webcomic Dreamless by Bobby Crosby and Sarah Ellerton has only one page left to post.  A review of the comic by Spwug is here.

DEAD TREES:  Scott Kurtz announced that he is leaving Image to return to self-publishing his comic books. 

The Queen's Hype: The Independent newspaper hypes some webcomics including The Oatmeal, Hyperbole and a Half, Cyanide and Happiness, The Perry Bible Fellowship, Ctrl+Alt+Del, xkcd, and Girl Genius.

Philed Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham

Webcomics Weekend ramblings and photos

Submitted by bobweiner on March 21, 2009 - 23:51

Wow. What an incredible day.

I wish I had taken more photos of the event, but I spent most of my time networking and talking with other cartoonists, readers and attendees.

My day started at 2AM - my excitement overwhelmed any sense of rest. I did some last minute packing and left home at 3:30 in the morning. The lines at the airport were long, but I wended my way through the snake-like security lines to make it to the departure gate.

DRAFT List of 100 Greatest Webcomics: Comedy and Drama

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 22, 2009 - 13:50

Last year I posted a couple times (Previous posts on this "research" project were here and here) about a possible article on "ComixTALK's 100 Greatest Webcomics" which would be something like the American Film Institute's list of the greatest movies of the last 100 years.

A recurring comment to the previous two posts was what is the criteria for this.  I'm always a little hesitant to give too much guidance when part of the point of asking this kind of thing out loud is to listen to the resulting discussion of what everyone else thinks the criteria should be.  For the AFI list judges picked films based on criteria such as Critical Recognition, Major Award Winner, Popularity Over Time, Historical Significance, and Cultural Impact.

That sounds about right to me.  We've got a round decade plus a year or two of webcomics to look at it.  Critical reception (both from peers and critics), and popularity are both relevant to thinking about the impact of a webcomic.  WCCA awards are somewhat indicative of what peers were impressed with in a given year and more recently awards like the Eisners and Ignatzs have recoginized webcomics.  Historical significance and cultural impact are a little harder to pin down but various "firsts" in webcomics are important and comics like Penny Arcade have had a much wider impact on popular culture than most comics do these days (put aside the legacy superheros of comics -- what other "new" comic, let alone webcomic, in the last decade has had a wide cultural impact?)

Another thing AFI did that might be useful here to help sort through the vast numbers of webcomics one could talk about is to also think about categories or genres of work.  Just as a simple matter of numbers if a webcomic isn't one of the best of a larger type of story -- or frankly, so startlingly unique it's hard to categorize -- then it's hard to imagine it's one of the 100 Greatest...

So to move things along I'm listing another "draft" of titles submitted by the crowds but this time I've tried to break them up into drama and comedy so as to help avoid complete apples to oranges comparisons.  In doing that I've realized (1) it's hard in many cases to decide; and (2) there are probably more comedic than drama on the list so far.  I think it would make sense to whittle down the two lists to 75 each so as the final list is no more than 3/4 of one type or the other.  Of course we could further do genre type lists but for now this was enough work on my part.

So -- your assignment (if you choose to play):

  1. Name the comic you're talking about (you're also welcome to nominate ones not on the list -- I KNOW there are many I haven't even thought about yet -- it takes time to review all of the corners of the web)
  2. Tell me where on one the two lists (comedy and drama) it should be (you could give a range of slots if you're not sure). (If you think I've got a drama on the comedy list or vice-versa let me know!  I'm not "done" - this is fairly dashed off still at this point)
  3. Tell me why!  Referencing awards, critics, historical achievements, strengths and weaknesses of the works are all really helpful!

November 14th DRAFT version of 100 Greatest Webcomics List

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 13, 2008 - 20:02

This is an update to a previous post here, thanks for the cumulative suggestions on that thread.  JUST so we're clear - this is open-sourced to everyone research for a possible article to appear next month at ComixTalk.  I don't endorse the list or the order at all; at this point I've tried to include all of the suggestions I've gotten and I also went through all of the comics ComixTalk has ever reviewed and pulled quite a few titles.

We're at the point where it'll be most helpful if you tell me comics you think should go on the list, where (what number approximately) and which comic should get bumped.  If you just want to change the order you can do that to but there'll be another post before the month's through asking for help with that.  

Webcomic Wire - 7/2/08

Submitted by NightgigTim on July 2, 2008 - 12:15

Drawn from sources that are hard at work…

Documentary about Creative Commons business models.
Jorge Cham of PhD Comics shows us the vicious cycle of staying up late.
Platinum Studios announces their top 50 for this years Comic Book Challenge. Good luck to you all! And just for the record PS paid DJ Coffman the money they [...]

Updates On Entries in the Ill-Fated Webcomic Directory Project?

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 24, 2007 - 13:31

I built a "library" of webcomics and creators back in the fall of 2005 which I put into beta before realizing it was too much editorial work to deal with and the same information could be better provided through the community edited webcomic wiki - COMIXPEDIA.

Nevertheless looking back on the assortment of names collected (some from me, some sent in from you) I wonder if anyone has any significant updates on these creators 18 months later. Maybe we should interview some of them?

Webcomic Spotlight: Piled Higher and Deeper

Submitted by hpkomic on January 18, 2007 - 02:54

I only stumbled onto Jorge Cham's Piled Higher and Deeper about a month and a half ago, but I've been hooked.

Blank Label Comics Appearance

Blank Label Comics members Kris Straub, Steve Troop, and Dave Kellett will be joined by fellow Los Angeleno cartoonists David Malki of Wondermark, Jorge Cham of PhD, Kazu Kibuishi of Copper, and Amy Kim Ganter of Sorcerers & Secretaries for a 7-in-1 signing at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood.

Signing at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood

Submitted by Brad Guigar on August 28, 2006 - 20:24

If you’re anywhere near LA on September 23rd, check out the signing at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood.