My Poorly Drawn Life

My Poorly Drawn Life is a diary/sketchbook comic by Tania del Rio. It’s the visual equivalent of a blog, with typical topics including taking care of pets, interacting with husband Will, fan interests, and the daily life of a freelancer working from home.

Volume 1 is over 400 pages, two years’ worth, for $25 (which includes an original cover sketch). That’s an awfully big chunk of random events to have in print. Read weekly, or whenever a new installment goes up, it feels like sharing with a friend to hear “oh, the dog got sick in the middle of the night and I had to clean it up.” But all in one chunk, it seems like a testament to trivia. I found myself wondering whether all this really needed to be on paper.

Of course, you don’t have to read it all at once. If you have the self-discipline, you can just read a few at a time, and it wouldn’t seem so redundantly fixated on small things. The art is sketchy, as suits the intent of the strip to quickly capture everyday events, and the lettering is quirky. It takes some practice to read it easily.

Templar, Arizona

Templar, Arizona is by Spike. The first volume, The Great Outdoors, is 112 pages (including sketches and notes) for $15 (although there are slightly imperfect copies available at a significant discount).

It’s described as “slice-of-life drama and comedy in a semi-alternate Arizona.” I’m lifting the tagline because, while the art is lovely and the characters intriguing (as established mostly through dialogue), I have almost no idea what’s going on with them or the rules of the world they live in. This is very much a character-driven project, with very little plot. In this volume, two characters go to a bar and talk about what they want in life. Then they go meet someone else.

This slim book is only a first chapter. When world-building is so important, instead of buying the print editions, it makes more sense to explore the archives online, especially since that’s where the About the Comic information is posted. In that section, Spike talks about how she’s been working on this since she was a child and how she works without a script. She’s lived with the characters a long time, and so she knows a lot more about them than we do. I don’t feel like she’s sharing enough of that on the page for me to feel entirely comfortable joining in. I’d guess that fans of Finder would enjoy it, although I find Carla Speed McNeill’s work more understandable, due to its stronger plotlines.

And he’s winning! Which is a good thing — it would be kind of embarrassing for an established graphic novelist to get whupped.

(I was also curious about Tri-Boro Tales strip this month, because of its look, but the lettering is unreadable on my laptop.)

Is GWS your only business? That is, does your webcomic support you?

Almost entirely. I do caricatures on the side for extra money and for the practice, but to be honest, I can’t remember when my last gig was! For at least the past two months, GWS has been my full-time job and my only source of income.

How long has that been the case?

I’ve been living off income from a mix of the webcomic and caricature gigs since June of 2007. I’m still a little shocked that it’s working, although I’m just barely hanging on. I’m breaking even and am able to pay my bills, but my bills have become enormous in the past year (new house, new car, both necessities). I still have a roof over my head, so I see it as a success thus far!

Are you willing to share readership figures?

Sure. I’m averaging between 25,000 and 32,000 unique visitors a day. It’s not Questionable Content or PvP numbers, but it’s pretty high and it’s keeping me alive. That, and I have some of the greatest, most dedicated, and generous readers in the world.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to get to the point of living off their webcomic?

My first piece of advice is ALWAYS to “make a good webcomic.” If your comic appeals to a great deal of people, is well-drawn, well-written, consistent, and updated on time, you’ll likely do well. You also have to be pretty business-savvy, which I’m still working on! And don’t procrastinate on merchandise. Do it early, get it ready, look it over, and THEN sell it. I’ve definitely learned that the hard way.

I think you also have to be patient, and willing to accept the facts if it won’t pay the bills. Your readers are essentially your employers; if they decide you’re worthy of a raise, they’ll make it happen, because they want to continue reading your strip. If there aren’t enough readers to make a career out of it, then you’ve got a really fun hobby, not a failed endeavor.

If you’re going into it with the mantra “eye on the prize,” the prize needs to be “making a great comic strip,” not “making great money off a comic strip.”

What’s your current update schedule? How do you think a schedule affects readership?

I update five times a week, although it’s been rocky the past week due to the holidays and preparations for the second volume coming out.

The weekdaily schedule has more to do with how the story’s told than a direct influence on the number of readers, but at the same time, an increase in readership is bound to happen when there’s more material. I used to update three (sometimes only two) times a week; moving to five per week has allowed me to develop the characters more fully, spend more time on storylines, and throw in stupid stand-alone jokes once in a while without sacrificing precious time. And being consistent with the schedule is a HUGE help. Updating late once in awhile is okay, as long as you keep your readers in the loop about it and don’t make empty promises.

Where’s your RSS feed?

Ha! Yeah, I know. This is the e-mail I get most often, right next to “I spent my entire work day reading your comics and I think I’m getting fired for it.”

There are two reasons that I don’t have a feed yet. One, I simply don’t know how to create and maintain one! But I can learn that. So two, and most importantly, this is my only source of income, and I’m afraid I’ll lose advertising and merchandise revenue if people are ONLY seeing the strip. Even people who never click on ads are helping my advertising revenue by simply visiting the website and increasing the visits to that page (and thus, the value of my ad spaces).

What I’d really like is a feed that allows my readers to see when there’s an update, so they’ll know when to check the website. I’ll be working more on this in January and asking my readers what they want.

Was there ever any thought of going to a publisher for your books? For example, Dark Horse seems to be collecting webcomics, including The Perry Bible Fellowship and The K Chronicles.

I love doing this on my own, at my own pace, without a publisher. My own choices directly affect the amount of money I make, I can affect the sales by selling the books for less or providing a deal, and while I’d probably be making the same amount either way, I don’t have to accept a paycheck after both a publisher and a distributor have taken out their cut. The downfall, of course, is that I have to do all the work on my own, pay for the books upfront, and I can’t afford to pay Diamond to distribute my books to comic shops.

Also, I’m not sure how I’d find a reliable publisher who encourages dick and vibrator jokes.

In the future I’d love to go through a publisher to do a long-form GWS comic, but I’d really like to continue producing the collected books on my own for now.

How do you determine pricing for your books?

I’ve been going through Lulu.com for the past year, which is to say that I didn’t get my shit together early enough to go through a real printer - like I said, I’ve learned the hard way! They’re pricey and they’ve recently raised their rates, but I didn’t want to make my readers pay more, so they’re about the same as they were a year ago, with a special bundle deal for two-book buyers.

I’ve done freelance work off-and-on for the past several years (though significantly less this past year). After a while, I began to price my jobs according to what felt right to me, and that worked very well for me. The economy being what it is, I decided to keep my profit margin on the books fairly low (especially with the bundle deal) so that the prices are about the same as they were last year.

Basically, I pick a number that feels right. So far it’s worked out!

If you’ll indulge me in a little whining, I was surprised by your current special offer (which has one book for $25 or two for $30). That seems like something of a disadvantage to those who bought your first book when it first came out. In the bigger picture, how do you balance keeping both old readers and new in mind for offers?

I’ve been taking hints from some of the smartest small-business owners in my town (coincidentally, most of them are also women). The talented owner of my favorite fancy restaurant has nixed her prices to offer $10 entrees (they’re usually $25+) to accommodate the decrease in customer spending due to the new economic climate. I thought it was a smart move.

I wanted to offer a nice Christmas gift at an affordable price. If I could pick up a double-book set of my friend’s favorite comic (or one they might like) for $30, I’d be all over it.

Now, if I was offering *just* the first volume for $5, I think that’d be a bit much. But the only sweet deal here is the double-book sale. So far I haven’t heard any complaints. People seem to understand that businesses everywhere — including us tiny ones — are hurting a little this year, and we need to make changes in our prices in order to maintain a living.

But to answer your question — keeping old readers vs. new readers happy — I don’t know that I can. It’s a strange situation because you can’t really point out who’s been reading longer; the archives are available to everyone and there’s no real “record” of long-time readers, besides my own crappy memory. If there was a way for me to reward and thank people who have been reading for four years, I’d be open to it.

That said, I’m willing to accept suggestions!

What other outlets have you tried for income? Which didn’t work?

Freelance work. I cringe at freelance work, and that’s why I’ve stopped taking it.

I’ve become spoiled in that I don’t want to create art unless it looks great when it’s finished, so I’ve learned to only take jobs that I’ll enjoy. Luckily, that means that the work I produce tends to be some of my best stuff. In the past year or two, I’ve worked on anthologies for a few editors who I know personally and feel comfortable with, and with most of them, I’ve done the work for free with the hopes of receiving royalty checks in the future. So far it’s been a much better business for me; the work has been satisfying and the pay has been extremely reasonable for both parties.

One thing that really worked well for me in the past, when I was taking more freelance work, is that I started charging according to how enjoyable the job would be for me (as I mentioned earlier, I was charging an amount that felt good, rather than sticking to a pricing formula). That was the best move I ever made. I’d charge one amount for colorful cartoony illustrations, and three times as much for detailed realistic drawings of buildings. Or I simply wouldn’t accept jobs that didn’t suit me — often the hyper-realistic ones — in the hopes that the client would find someone who could do a better job on them than myself.

Weren’t you part of ex-Marvel head honcho Bill Jemas’ 360 effort for a while? What happened with that?

To be honest, while I enjoyed the people I worked with there, I felt like 360ep was a hobby business. In other words, I was relying on them to do all of my merchandising, books, publicity, etc. for GWS, but they weren’t relying on my property for their own income, and that affected how hard they worked for me. The only merchandise they produced for me was a line of t-shirts which were available on a print-on-demand site… something I could have set up myself. After two years of little progress, I bought back my contract and started to create products on my own. It’s possible that 360ep is doing a great job with other properties; perhaps we just didn’t match up. Either way, it was a learning experience.

Thanks again to Danielle for her time!

Betty is a teenage girl going to live with her grandmother while her parents work out the details of their divorce. She’s in a car accident on the way to her grandmother’s farm and is knocked out. While unconscious, she discovers that she has been chosen to be the new Soul Chaser.

Soul Chasers are a group of seven warriors who fight in the dream realm to protect human souls as they pass through on their journey to the spiritual sphere. They fight against Kayin, a being that takes souls and drains them of energy. His goal is to be powerful enough to cross over into the physical world and rule the universe. However, Betty is unlike the other Soul Chasers. Her unique abilities are a signal that the laws governing the balance between Kayin and the Soul Chasers have changed. Kayin senses the alterations and quickly exploits the new situation to his advantage. Will the Soul Chaser be able to adjust to the changes and stop Kayin?

Let’s start with the bad and work our way to the good. The art in this book is amateurish. First, the anatomy is off. This is most noticeable when a face is drawn at an angle other than looking straight at the viewer. Everything looks wrong; the jaw lines, the nose angle, the general shape of the skull, etc. Worst, the faces are inconsistent from panel to panel on the same page. Second, I had problems with the shading. In several panels I couldn’t figure out where the light source was supposed to be. It looked like shading was used at times to fill in details instead of indicating shadows, and this made me feel a little disoriented when looking at the panel. Finally, the art looks flat and static. Part of the problem was the incorrect shading, and the rest is the bad anatomy. Because everything feels like it’s on the same vertical plane, a lot of visual dramatic tension is stripped from the story.

Also, some of the artist’s choices bothered me. The two lead girls in the story dress like they’re auditioning for an 80s T&A film. They wear cut-off shirts that barely cover their cleavage and Daisy Duke shorts. Further, Betty spends a lot of time NOT wearing any pants. Given that Betty is underage, I found the amount of fan service in the book disturbing. Since Betty is the heroine, shouldn’t we be admiring her battle prowess and not her tight butt? Don’t worry, ladies, there are a few panels of a shirtless hunk too. Unfortunately, he isn’t seen hanging out in his tighty whities like Betty.

The metaphysics of the book leave much to be desired. There’s a point in the story where Kayin captures Betty and for no good reason goes into a nine-page exposition about the structure of the universe, his life story, and his place in various world mythologies. When you equate the Biblical Cain, the Greek ferryman of the dead Charon, and the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl you’ve done more than stretch credulity to the breaking point. You’ve actually blasted it with a nuclear missile and erased it from existence. Thankfully, you can ignore all of the bad comparative mythology and still completely understand everything in the book.

Now on to the good. Soul Chaser Betty, at its core, is the old classic good vs. evil story where the bad guy seems undefeatable. Betty is the young recruit who starts out as the underdog but has the potential to become an epic hero. Of course, time is short, so the dramatic tension is whether Betty can achieve her full potential in time to save the universe. (The same scenario has served well for Star Wars and Harry Potter.) The story is fast-paced with battle scenes appropriately spaced to keep the reader’s interest. The only times the story gets bogged down are the nine pages of metaphysics by Kayin and toward the end. The last chapter of the book gets very exposition-heavy. There are several pages where a third of the page is word balloons. Since everything is coming to a conclusion, it would have been better if this information had been more evenly spread out early in the book. This would have made the ending much tighter and more gripping.

Babendererde does create a likable cast of characters. Betty is your typical teen hero. She’s energetic, brash, and a little over-confident. She’s also very passionate about being a Soul Chaser and cares deeply for the welfare of her comrades and friends. Betty’s grandmother is an interesting character who seems to have inside knowledge of what’s going on. Betty’s friends provide emotional support and don’t think she’s crazy when she tells them about being a soul chaser. I’ve found friends that accept your sanity a valuable asset.

As a free webcomic, Soul Chaser Betty would be worth checking out. However, I can’t see paying for this story as a graphic novel. There are simply too many other books out there with much better art, story, and characters. At the book’s price point, you could get one Marvel Essential, or one DC Showcase, or two volumes of a Shonen Beat title, or a volume of Tezuka’s Phoenix saga. Babendererde needs to hone his skills both artistically and as a storyteller before he’s ready to publish books that compete with the vast array of graphic novels currently available.

You can see a preview of the first chapter and get more information about the book at Babendererde’s website. A complimentary copy was provided by the author/publisher for this review. Although available from the author since 2007, the book is now available for order through comic book stores with Diamond code DEC084285.

They publish three pages a week, I’m told. And I have a soft spot for a webcomic that starts with a stranger cooking an omelet with fresh-grown chives. If the most recent Buffy-looking panels don’t interest you, go back to the beginning. The effect on page 17 (maybe 18) is really nifty, while the plot looks a lot like Hero Squared.

If I were Pixar right now, I think I’d scrape together 40 or 50 bucks and spend 10 minutes or so to put together the biggest piece of junk ever imagined — just to give people something to complain about. Y’know, like “Pixar’s lost it!” or “it was bound to happen someday!” or “Is that John Ratzenberger’s butt?” (Well, maybe not that last one…) Just so they could get it out of their systems and get back to enjoying the movies, without looking for reasons to tear Pixar down … like us Americans are so fond of doing. The Pixar films are so phenomenally good; it’s amazing that they haven’t had a misstep so far.

WALL*E
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WALL*E is the ninth incredible Pixar movie in a row to acquire rave reviews and big box office numbers. It’s an unheard-of feat in movies as well as much other entertainment. Everybody does a bad movie once in a while, or a TV show has an “off” season, or an actor makes some bone-headed personal or professional gaffe. Not Pixar. It’s almost unreal.

And it’s not like they don’t take chances. In every movie, they tackle some seemingly impossible technological problem in computer-generated (CG) animation — people, fur, underwater, rain, outer space, huge frickin’ crowds of things — and stomp it into the ground. They certainly don’t make it easy for themselves in their storytelling, with toys, bugs, monsters, fish, and cars that act like people. A dysfunctional family of super-heroes. A rat who wants to be a great chef. A robot love story. All easy peasy. Unreal.

I won’t waste your time with a long plot synopsis of WALL*E. I can tell you everything you need to know in two sentences (one, really — I just generally run off at the keyboard): Even robots can fall in love. And sometimes it takes a little guy to save the world.

If you haven’t seen WALL*E yet, you have a pretty big hole in your soul and just don’t know it yet. A pretty-close-to-perfect film — a slightly less-than-perfect DVD. Let’s take a look.

The Pixar Story

After the movie itself, the best thing on the Special Edition is The Pixar Story, a 90-minute documentary outlining the studio’s meteoric rise to the top. Most people think of Pixar as the near-perfect merger of the creative (the moving image, or animation), with the technological (creation by computer), but actually Pixar is a tripod, with financial (money) being the third leg, as you can’t have the first two without a lot of the third. And having a lot of the third buys you the opportunity to play (i.e. think outside the box). Play is what makes Pixar go round and round.

Pixar has become almost legendary in the field of business as well as entertainment for their far-thinking attitudes towards employee satisfaction, and a lot of that is on display in the documentary. It’s obviously a lot of fun to work at a place like Pixar — happy people do better work, after all — but you also get a very strong sense of pride in their craft, as well as a huge emphasis on education and legacy.

It wasn’t all fun and games behind the scenes at Pixar. A lot of struggle and hard work went into what appears almost effortless on screen. Written, directed, and produced by Leslie Iwerks, granddaughter to the legendary animator Ub Iwerks, the Emmy Award-nominated The Pixar Story is one of those great documentaries you’ll want to watch over and over.

Special Features

I was more than pleased to learn in director and co-writer Andrew Stanton’s commentary that he didn’t have a political or environmental agenda in the creation of WALL*E. Originally called “Trash Planet,” the film was simply about there being too much trash, to serve the main idea of the last robot on Earth not knowing that he could stop doing the job he was programmed to do as a trash compactor. The film had been in production for four years and as time went on in the real world, the background of fictional Earth became more and more prophetic. In a year where everything became way too political, it was a relief to learn that the center of this story was more about the emotional core of the love story, rather than a polemic. I sure got tired of people grabbing hold of this film to support their particular political agenda.

Stanton’s commentary is warm and funny and to the point. Although he’s doing it solo, he seldom runs out of things to talk about. It was a relief to listen to after hearing so many “gang” commentaries on other DVDs with people joking around and talking over each other. This was a class act.

Also, on one set of deleted scenes, Stanton does before and after “intros,” so make sure that you stick around after the scene finishes to get the full commentary in this section.

Featurettes

Be sure to check out Imperfect Lens: Creating the Look of WALL*E for a discussion of some of the new, yet traditional, filmmaking methods the Pixar crew attempted and conquered in WALL*E. This time around, they were looking at more deliberate “camera movements,” as well as more experiments in depth of field and pull focus techniques. Keep in mind that no actual cameras are actually used in the making of Pixar films. All “traditional” camera movements are created in the computer in an attempt to “look” real by creating artificial dimensionality. This is most evident in the first third of the movie, where there is (mostly) no dialogue and no humans, and the storytelling is primarily done with the pantomime of the characters, as well as the basic storytelling tools of the filmmaker. After you watch this featurette, go back and watch the first 33 minutes of the film again to see how much film technique is used to propel the story forward.

Life of a Shot: Deconstructing the Pixar Process is another fascinating look into “how it’s done and how many people it takes.” The key stat here is astounding: If one person did all of the work of the entire Pixar crew for each of the 1,500 shots of the film, it would take that one person 442 years to complete the film. This is a team sport, people!

But the special feature that everyone will be looking for is the new short film BURN*E. In the tradition of previous short Jack-Jack Attack (from The Incredibles), this new film takes its cue from the actual WALL*E film itself. It stars BURN*E, the little repair robot who gets inadvertently locked out of the Axiom by the returning WALL*E and EVE after their cute space flight. As we find out in this short film, poor BURN*E is the unsuspecting victim of several different events that happen throughout the course of the movie, unbeknownst to us — until now! BURN*E ranks right up there with the amazing streak of creative and hysterically funny shorts produced by Pixar. (And yes, the amazing theatrical short Presto is also in all versions of the DVD.)

Other tidbits picked up in various featurettes include learning that in its original stages, the tone of film — especially in the Axiom spaceship sequences — was much darker; the design of most of the robots on the Axiom were modular and loosely based on the Lego concept; most of the robots don’t have elbows (one of the exceptions is HAN*S, the out of control robot masseur who pretty much single-handedly takes out all of the GEL*A steward robots in the big fight); and that the human points-of-origin and inspiration for the WALL*E and EVE characters were Buster Keaton and Sigourney Weaver. By the way, Weaver has an actual role in the film. Do you know who she plays? (Hint: NOT EVE.)

What’s Missing?

Speaking of voices, the discs do not have the usual Pixar/Disney feature on the voice talents in the film. There is, however, a great featurette on the animation sound design, as the creation of the various sounds that the robots make is integral to the film. Although they have a human voice at their core, the voices of WALL*E and EVE are largely distorted, filtered, or what-have-you by sound engineer Ben Burtt (who provides the core for both WALL*E and M*O). The voice actors who provide the voices for the humans are mentioned in passing but not given a feature of their own. But this featurette is so captivating that the loss is barely felt.

The biggest omission — at least for me — is the lack of trailers for the film. I always enjoy looking back at how Pixar markets their films, and for many, trailers have become a minor art-form (via commerce) themselves. The lack of them is is deeply felt, especially since in the past, Pixar promotions — especially the teasers — often featured material that didn’t appear in the actual movie. Although thinking back on it, maybe most, if not all, of the material shown in the WALL*E trailers and teasers was eventually used in the movie itself, so maybe that’s why they aren’t here. Still…

Easter Eggs

WALL*E (Blu-Ray)
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There are three Easter Eggs on the Special Edition WALL*E DVD (on Blu-Ray, they’re features). Disc 1 has two, both on the Main Menu: a Title Animation Test (a trifle, but funny story) and Geek-O-Rama, which is difficult to describe, but includes the line “You’d have a big bowl of geek!” The third egg, on Disc 2 in the Behind the Scenes section of the “Humans” area, features an Original Development Test.

As per usual for a Pixar release, there are a bunch of Easter Eggs in the film itself, including references to previous Pixar films Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and possibly others. Plus, some of the Pixar in-jokes and good luck charms such as the Pizza Planet truck (from Toy Story), “A113,” John Ratzenberger, and the Luxo Ball (hint: look for it in Presto) also appear. Plus, there are a couple references to Apple computers as well. (Another hint: WALL*E’s truck is a great place to find eggs!) Reportedly, there may be a “hidden Mickey” as well (although it’s really hard to spot, and may be inadvertent). Good hunting!

Formats

WALL*E is packaged in a wide array of choices, either as full-screen or widescreen format in the single disc package, or as a three-disc Special Edition in widescreen only. The single disc includes the film, the feature-length commentary by director Andrew Stanton, Presto (the hysterically funny short that played in the theaters with WALL*E), the BURN*E short, a couple of deleted scenes, a feature on the all-important sound design of WALL*E, as well as the usual amount of ads and propaganda from the friendly Disney folk.

The Special Edition adds a second disc of features including The Pixar Story documentary, more deleted scenes, a whole bunch of featurettes, a look at the BnL shorts from the film, a kid-oriented storybook feature, a guide to all the robots in the movie (except the robot mice that appear in the film, who are all cleverly called REM*E), and the wildly funny WALL*E’s Treasures and Trinkets — a series of short “blackout” gags, some of which were posted here last week. The third disc is a downloadable digital copy of the film for your computer or electronic device. (Make sure you keep the paper insert with your special code!)

There are two Blu-Ray packages: The regular two-disc set includes everything from the Special Edition DVD (and more), except for the downloadable digital copy of the film. But look, that’s included in the three-disc Blu-Ray set!

It looks like much of the packaging (at least for the DVD versions) is cardboard. I’m all for being green, and the Special Edition package is very clever and well designed, but I’m also interested in protecting these reasonably expensive DVDs from wear, and this package just doesn’t cut it. In just a weekend of sliding the discs in and out of the case to do this review, I’ve already lightly scratched one of the discs. I’m guessing that if you have kids, the three-disc Special Edition discs and packaging will be trashed within a month. (Disney may be already anticipating this. The ubiquitous message about registering your discs for their Disc Replacement Program is nowhere to be found in the WALL*E packaging.)

Now, there seems to be a lot of really clever people working at Disney who daily do the impossible. Surely, there must be some way to come up with some compromise packaging that is green as well as protective. Or at least gives the consumer an element of choice. Even the grocery store gives us a choice of “paper or plastic.”

(A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the studio.)

This is just another example of why this is my favorite webcomic: it combines terrific art with wonderfully creative ideas that say something significant about our world.

Chocolate-Face Grace is a weekly “comic about a father and daughter, written by a father and daughter.” Rob and his daughter Grace write them together, then Rob draws and posts them. His aim is to “reflect the bond between parent and child as they navigate the chores of daily living, divorce, and homework through fantasy and play.”

I like historical comics about distinctive eras because, if the creators are on the ball, it’s a wonderful use of the medium, with visuals contributing to the feel of the setting. They haven’t gotten heavily into the time period yet, but I liked the train station scenes.

There are only 15 pages so far — the whole thing starts here, although the first three pages have a different feel from the others. I like best Old Bones, just a short scene (two pages) showing her interaction with her aunt and dog.

New pages are put up in batches of two or three weekly. There’s a lot of potential — I hope it keeps going.

Marvel Entertainment is launching more never-before-seen digital comic titles exclusively for Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited subscribers. The Marvel Digital Comics Exclusive titles launch with the first issue of Marvels Channel: MONSTERS, MYTHS and MARVELS: Galactus on Wednesday, October 22.

That’s quite a title. Written by Frank Tieri (he’s still around?) with art by Juan Santacruz.

This new digital comic initiative comes after the recent success of two exclusive digital comic tie-ins to the Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk movies. Digital-only exclusives will be published regularly on Wednesdays at the pace of three or more comics per month, adding to the ever growing collection of over 5,000 digital comics already online.

I hadn’t realized Marvel had done this before with movie tie-ins. I’m very curious to know how retailers react to Marvel reaching out and selling directly to readers, even if it’s not technically the same product. DC’s Zuda webcomic program, focuses on new products, not existing characters, in part to avoid that problem.

This is also the first time I’ve looked at their subscription fees. They’re not exactly user-friendly. $10/month, or a half-price yearly subscription of $60, paid up front and non-refundable. Plus, “All subscribers get the hassle-free advantage of the Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited Automatic Renewal Program.” That means that Marvel will keep billing you, at whatever rates are then in effect which they might change at any time (and non-refundably, remember) unless you remember to cancel.

I did find it interesting that Marvel is promising, in addition to “top Marvel characters and creative teams” and “fan-favorite holiday-themed specials”, some diversity in what they’re presenting, including “explorations into science fiction, martial arts and Western genres”. Titles mentioned so far are a Halloween Special by Dean Haspiel featuring Frankenstein and Werewolf by Night; an American Eagle story by Jason Aaron and Richard Isanove; five Fin Fang Four stories by Scott Gray and Roger Langridge; a four-part Kid Colt tale by Tom DeFalco (no artist listed); and yet more Amazing Spider-Man. This description, in its wishful thinking, made me giggle:

Peter Parker’s life is very involved and even with three issues a month, there’s just not enough time to touch on everything or everyone. So to help solve that, Spidey Brain Trustee Bob Gale brings you an ongoing collection of stories taking place within and around current Spidey continuity, exploring his supporting cast and missed adventures.

I’m moderately interested in some of this, the non-standard stuff mostly, but a digital subscription where you only rent the comics is of no interest. You have to be connected to the internet to read the comics and you can’t download the ones you want to reread. I suspect that if the material is any good, it’ll wind up in print eventually — and then I can read it for free at my library.

Note also that they’re promoting at least three new titles a month, and their subscription fee is $10/month, which means they’re roughly maintaining the $3/issue print price point. I suspect, with their traditional fanbase, they would get more interest if instead of putting out yet more Spider-Man, they created comics with truly fan-favorite characters and creators that have followings that aren’t quite big enough to support the costs of a print book.

Subculture — I didn’t much care for the print comic, because I found the characters cliched and two-dimensional. What better for them than a gag strip webcomic, then?

The Dreamer — Historical adventure with lovely art. Me, I’m waiting for next summer’s collected edition from IDW, but if you can’t wait, there’s lots of pages online.

Business Casual — This is a strip to read for recognition instead of humor, featuring programmers and tech support workers. But if you’re in that category, you’ll find something almost immediately familiar. For me, it was this one.

Night Owls — This strip about investigators of the unusual is set in the 1920s and is a Zuda instant winner. The twin brothers who do it, Peter and Robert Timony, were great to talk to, with lots of enthusiasm. And I loved the decoder wheel, it was a great convention promo.

Brian Moore — He had some print samples at SPX of his upcoming webcomic, which will appear at that link. (He previously drew Shaenon Garrity’s Smithson.) In his words, “‘The Sweetened By-and-By’ follows the story of Atom Klein, a Finder of valuable objects in a city full of monster-y people.” It’s unusual and well-drawn.

Mommy blogging is a hot new trend; now here comes the Mommy comic.

One of the newest members of comic collective act-i-vate is Jennifer Hayden, with a comic called Underwire. She describes it as “about womanhood, selfhood, and parenthood in the prime of life (your forties).” Her first story, “Watercress”, tells of lunch with her 12-year-old daughter in the city.

I look forward to seeing more from her. Since her background is illustrating children’s books, each panel is a complete scene. I’m curious to see if she moves into using paneled pages. Her next story is due up at the end of this month.

Shadowline Webcomics launched with the following titles:

• Action, Ohio by Neil Kleid and Paul Salvi — Zuda competitor that came in second in May. Kleid has also written print comics for Shadowline.
• Hannibal Goes to Rome by Brendan McGinley and Mauro Vargas — Another Zuda competitor, the same month, came in fourth. Now with added color. (Why not? It’s the web.)
• Finder by Carla Speed McNeil — Much-praised graphic novel series, has been running online for years. Still formatted in proportions for print. I have no idea how what’s running at Shadowline relates to what’s running at its home site. I couldn’t find any information on the Shadowline site where I could find out more about the strip, the creators, or most importantly, where to buy material if it’s available.
• Platinum Grit by Trudy Cooper and Danny Murphy — Had ten issues published in print during the 90s. Also has a home site with comics to read.
• Yenny by David Alvarez — Had eight issues published by Alias from 2005-2007. Has been appearing online at United Press Syndicate’s GoComics site for the past few years.
• Brat-halla by Jeffery Stevenson and Seth Damoose — Long-running webcomic at Graphic Smash.
• Chicago 1968 by Len Cody and Jenny Frison — This one does seem relatively new, with a very interesting premise.

Is Shadowline Webcomics just an aggregator, or does it provide other benefits I’m not seeing?

On the one hand, using creators with some experience means the publisher and readers can have faith that they know how to meet promised deadlines and their work will have a certain level of quality. On the other, this looks kind of like leftovers. But then again, why shouldn’t they reuse the material if it means reaching a new audience? Maybe because it diverts traffic and Google juice between two sites? I dunno. I have to wonder if this Shadowline initiative is going to end up like many of the others: dead from lack of interest in less than a year.

Better Zombies Through Physics takes off from the thought experiment of Schrodinger’s Cat to postulate a business selling zombie pets. It’s illustrated by Sean Bieri to bring out all the humor, and the result is hilarious.

Socks and Barney — smart-aleck talking animals on politics. With all the lunacy of this election, I need some humor about it.

Just a Bit Off — relationship comedy with an interesting, big-head character design that does NOT appear to be Japanese-influenced. I’m not sure I’ll stick with this one, though, because while it has an RSS feed, it doesn’t include the comics in it. But it does make Mac and Mythbusters jokes. And it just went to two strips a week (from one).

Update: Jeff Zugale, author of Just a Bit Off, has adjusted his feed to provide full comics. Go Jeff!

EZ Street, by Robert Tinnell (Feast of the Seven Fishes) and “Baltimore’s own” Mark Wheatley (Mars, Frankenstein Mobster, Breathtaker). It’s described as being about “the love of stories, about ambition and dreams and fantasy, … an involving look at the creative process, the dynamic of families, the true meaning of friendship, and the quest for a really good comic.” It’s been nominated for a Harvey Award this year in the Best Online Comic category.

The other two are new stories of characters originally published in the 80s, GrimJack: The Manx Cat, by John Ostrander and Timothy Truman, and Jon Sable: Ashes of Eden, by Mike Grell.

There’s absolutely no word on pricing, which I’m curious about. The Grimjack book, for instance, was 150 online pages, and at a limited print run and in color, that can’t be cheap. They’re billing them as “collector’s items”, which makes me fear for the pocketbook. Perhaps this is just the launch, though, and they’ll be available after the show either at the ComicMix site or through stores or both. I’ll try to get more information.

Update: There will be 100 copies of each title available, and they were selected based on having creators at the show to sign them. EZ Street is $35, while the others are $25 each.

5% of nothing is still nothing. “We’ll make up for our delay by giving you more when we finally do pay you,” sounds like a con man’s trick to keep the fish on the hook.

It’s the story of a boy and his alien, a premise with lots of promise for humor as the kid teaches the visitor about humans and society. I have a weakness for such things ever since studying popular culture, because the professors loved the “what would a Martian think about this?” comparison to try and get people to step outside their comfort zone and see with new eyes what they’ve taken for granted. I hope Dennis can capture that fresh perspective.

It’s well-cartooned in a clean, welcoming fashion (unsurprising since Dennis is an accomplished graphic designer). Rufus looks like a potato with a crab’s eye stalks, made up of simple shapes — Dennis says he looks like a slug, which is also true.

The strip just started at the beginning of the month, so it’s easy to jump on now. There is also an RSS feed that contains the full strip in an easy-to-find location, a big plus and one of my deciding factors in whether to follow a webcomic.