In the eternal struggle between "story comics" and "gag comics," I tend to come down on the side of the long form.  Yes, a little chuckle is good, but I'd rather follow characters through an adventure, even if that adventure is just them trying to return a library book or attending a "meet the tenants" party in their apartment building.

Charles Gaines is conflicted. 

Can a socially responsible citizen love the characters of Marvel but hate the company of Marvel?

More importantly -- should he see the new Ironman movie or not?

The Parts of the Sum - The Art of Collaboration

Artists are notoriously temperamental and unstable creatures. So it's inevitable that when two of them come together the explosive reaction is going to be comparable to matter and antimatter interacting. However, its up to the skills and control of the artists involved to determine if that explosion is a cheer-inspiring pyrotechnic fireworks show or an horrific explosive force that destroys them both.

Growing Up

Now, admittedly, I've been playing Mr. Recluse for the last year – I hardly lurk on boards anymore, I may rummage through my blog lists every moon or two, and my e-mail engine is getting a severe case of cobwebitis.

So it's possible that I may just be out of the loop, and thus very much wrong in what I'm about to say... but here goes anyway.

I think that webcartoonists and enthusiasts are starting to grow up.

Since I could really only get away with writing an entire column out of quotes from previous columns in a year-end review, I thought I'd go ahead and jump at the opportunity. This is my last column for a while, but I'll keep in touch. I already have an idea for my new webcomic. I won't give away much, but let's just say it involves a fire-breathing monkey who is addicted to Ebay, and a cow bent on changing the world so it is black and white "just like the old days."

But I digress.

Tired of hearing this yet?

DRAW.

Suffering from Decompression Slickness?

There just aren't any rules for creating comics. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don't, and you can figure out principles to guide you in the use of these things, but there's never any rule that always works.

"Decompression" is a term used to describe the American comics that have been influenced by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's Authority comics. "Decompressed storytelling" refers to comics that slow down the action so that what had taken a panel or two now took several pages. Ellis and Hitch didn't invent the idea, but The Authority made it very popular in American comics. It's heavily influenced by Japanese comics, especially the stuff that was first popular in American comic book stores; stuff like Akira and Lone Wolf and Cub.

How The Awesome Power of The Webcomics can help Print Comics Creators?

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about how the world of print comics and the world of webcomics interact with one another (or, as is more often the case, fail to interact with one another). I suspect that there are a variety of reasons for those who do print comics to have not embraced webcomics (beyond the loopy evil webcomics zealot in me who wants to think, "HA! They feel threatened by the awesome power of The Internet!").

When Our Leading Edge Sliced Through the Fun Jugular

I wanna charge The Tortured Sympathetic AntiHero with Murder of the First Degree.

He's killed all my fun.

When Punchlines Go Bad

Webcomics are no longer a laughing matter.

I think that’s because few people can tell a joke anymore.