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Martha Thomases: And The Winner Is…

  • News
  • March 7, 2014

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Unlike my esteemed colleague Jen Krueger, I watched the Academy Awards all the way through on Sunday (although at the same time I was also fixing dinner, playing fetch with my cat, and incessantly checking my e-mails, and then later trying to find a position in bed so I could see but still be horizontal).

I like to watch award shows for different reasons than most people, at least if I believe the Internets.  All those technical awards that everybody hates?  Those are my favorites.  I love to see someone who is not a celebrity recognized for his or her work.  I love to see them get their moment literally in the spotlight.  I imagine their mothers at home, kvelling.

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you’re in love, the whole world is Jewish.

It’s also great to see ordinary-looking people recognized, people who are not genetically blessed and then prepped by trainers, stylists and plastic surgeons.

So, during one of the snooze-filled production numbers (and if they don’t want the show to run long, why do they do them?), I started to imagine a televised awards show for comics.

(more…)

Nominate Your Faves In 2014 Mix March Madness Webcomics Tournament Now!

  • News
  • March 6, 2014

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Yes, it’s that time of year again, where we take the best webcomics and put them head to head to highlight the incredible diversity of work out in the comics world, to raise money for various comics charities, and to have fun while doing it– time for the Mix March Madness Webcomics Tournament!

As usual, we always think we’ve gotten a good list together of webcomics– our directory lists well over three hundred webcomics  which are already going to the nominating round– but we always seem to miss a few newcomers, or strips that have just fallen under our radar for whatever reason. So we’re asking you: what strips have we missed? Just add them below with links to the site.

Our criteria for including them in the contest are pretty simple and broad:

  • They have to be currently in production, by which we mean “has come out with at least one new installment since the new year”. Surprisingly, this knocks out a lot of comics.
  • No paywalls. You gotta be able to read it to compare and contrast.
  • No adult webcomics. We do May Mayhem for the R and X rated comics, this is for family safe material.

Here’s how to do it:

First, take a look at our Directory page.

Then, if there are any webcomics you think we should know about and add into our Mix (so to speak) add them here. If you have email and Twitter contact info for the strips, so much the better.

Add a Webcomic!

Add a Webcomic!

  • Webcomic titleURLComic EmailComic Twitter 

Get your nominations in quick, we’re closing the window at midnight Pacific Time on Friday night and starting the seeding voting on Friday. And please, share this post far and wide so we don’t miss anyone!

Comixology Hacked – Change Your Passwords Now!

  • News
  • March 6, 2014

comics_by_comixology_logo_black_text_low_res-3132623Comixology sent out an email this morning discussing a security breach:

Dear Comics Reader,

In the course of a recent review and upgrade of our security infrastructure, we determined that an unauthorized individual accessed a database of ours that contained usernames, email addresses, and cryptographically protected passwords.

Payment account information is not stored on our servers.

Even though we store our passwords in protected form, as a precautionary measure we are requiring all users to change their passwords on the comiXology platform and recommend that you promptly change your password on any other website where you use the same or a similar password. You can reset your comiXology.com password here.

We have taken additional steps to strengthen our security procedures and systems, and we will continue to implement improvements on an ongoing basis.

Please note that we will never ask you for personal or account information in an e-mail, so exercise caution if you receive emails that ask for personal information or direct you to a site where you are asked to provide personal information.

We apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any questions, please contact us by sending an email to support@comixology.com

Sincerely,

ComiXology

Well, isn’t that a fun thing for the morning.

Dennis O’Neil: Complexly Evolving A Bible

  • Uncategorized
  • March 6, 2014

Settle down, now.  Sure, the Oscars have got you all excited, but for heaven’s sake, try to relax.  Take some deep breaths while we return to where we left off last week.

The subject, a week ago, was how mythology and religion had more or less parallel evolutions…  Well, not exactly that: more how what could be a subhead in the mythology section evolved in parallel with another such subhead, comic books.

Both began as technology-spawned mutations of forms that already existed: (drama>movies; comic strips>comic books.)  Both began with stories that were simple, plot driven and self-contained – “this episode” was all there was to this particular narrative.  And, over decades, both changed, in storytelling technique, in the kinds of stories told, and, finally, in the content of those stories.  Heroes became flawed, villains became motivated, plots became complex and, finally, in comic books, the complete-in-one-episode paradigm started fraying at the edges, becoming almost anachronistic.  (I’ve edited comic book continuities that ran about 2000 pages, and I doubt that I’ve got the record.) (more…)

Jen Krueger: Forgoing the Gold

This year is the first time in my life that the Winter Olympics and the Academy Awards have fallen in the same month. Because I grew up with a great love for watching both figure skating and movies, it seems like 2014 should be a banner year for me to tune into the events that represent the highest level of competition in these two pastimes. Instead, 2014 is the first year that I watched neither. (more…)

Happy Mardi Gras! Laissez Fan Temps Roulez!

  • News
  • March 4, 2014

18-150x150-4289659“It started when someone from Indiana was bartending at my place,” says Kirah Haubrich, recalling a fateful night before the 2011 Mardi Gras season. “We asked about his first Mardi Gras, and he says ‘I thought it was really weird, but I didn’t see a lot of cosplay.’ It’s because we all have costumes and no one thinks about that in particular. But if we had a scene, I said it’d be called Chewbacchus. Immediately, I turned to Ballard. And after the night I said Chewbacchus to him, three weeks later the Bar2 was being built.”

All it took was one seasonal play on words, and suddenly Haubrich and her friend Ryan Ballard became the unexpected founders of the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus, Mardi Gras’ only official Sci-Fi and Fantasy themed organization. Together with friend and fellow “overlord” Brett Powers (think of them as organizational leaders, but ones who can trade Close Encounters quotes), the trio first unveiled Chewbacchus to the world in 2011. With 400 members marching in that inaugural parade, clearly they had tapped into something.

via An Arduino-controlled, fire-breathing Godzilla at Mardi Gras?! Blame Chewbacchus | Ars Technica.

The Point Radio: COSMOS Returns With Love

  • Uncategorized
  • March 3, 2014

In 1980, we were all transfixed by the show COSMOS, hosted by the late Dr. Carl Sagan. Now Seth MacFarlane is producing a new COSMOS, headed by Neil DeGrasse Tyson and with strong ties and much respect for the original. We’ll tell you just what those are as Neil talks about his plans for the series, Plus DC decides it’s a look at the future for the next Big Event.
COSMOS premieres on NatGeo, Fox and several other outlets this Sunday (March 9th). See more at CosmosOnTV.Com

THE POINT covers it 24/7! Take us ANYWHERE on ANY mobile device (Apple or Android). Just  get the free app, iNet Radio in The  iTunes App store – and it’s FREE!  The Point Radio  – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE  – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Mindy Newell: Who Are You?

  • News
  • March 3, 2014

“Whooooooooo are you? Who? Who? Who, Who?”

WHO ARE YOU
Composed by Pete Townsend
The Who, 1978

Picking up from last week—

All our super-powered mythic creations, whether hero or villain, man or woman, are avatars—whether we realize it or not.

Superman, of course, is the Big Kahuna avatar of comics. Every corrupt politician that Superman put in jail, each mobster who pulled a gun and watched the bullets bounce off Superman’s chest, every misogynistic wise-ass jerk who insulted a woman and was punished by Superman was really being punished by these two bookish, nebbishy, and schlemiel-y kids from Cleveland, Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, who weren’t able to fight the anti-Semites or win the gorgeous goyishe blonde.  I doubt very much either of them were consciously aware of the psycho-sociological underpinnings of their alien hero who would capture the world’s imagination, but it’s all there, as many critics and writers, including Danny Fingeroth, Jules Feiffer, Grant Morrison, Scott Bakutman of Stanford University, and A. C. Grayling of The Spectator have noted.  Grayling’s article, “The Philosophy of Superman: A Short Course”, discusses the need for a Superman over the decades since his creation in the 1930’s, including the early 21st century and events post-9/11, stating that:

…caught between the terrifying George W. Bush and the terrorist Osama bin Laden, America is in earnest need of a Saviour for everything from the minor inconveniences to the major horrors of world catastrophe. And here he is, the down-home clean-cut boy in the blue tights and red cape.

Others more erudite than I am may have used more polysyllabic pronouncements when analyzing the characterization of the Man of Steel, but I will say that he is a fugue, an escape, an exodus into a world in which, simply put, the good guys win.

Depending on your definition of “the good guys,” of course.

(more…)

John Ostrander: Writing Tids and Bits

Absent any overall topic occurring to me, maybe we’ll try the ol’ shotgun approach – a bunch of writing tips with the idea that, if there’s enough of them, some should work. (My friend William J. Norris used to describe my sense of humor that way – if I just kept talking, a certain percentage of it was bound to be funny.)

Da tips.

Cast your characters. This can be short-hand for a character and can help with dialogue. Who would play your character in TV or movies or who would provide their voice if the character was animated? It doesn’t have to be a living actor; heck, it doesn’t have to be an actor at all. It can be somebody you know or knew, friend or foe or relative (the last can be a combination of the first two). It can be a politician or your boss or a co-worker. Somebody you find distinctive and whose voice is inside your head.

Using a person as the template can help you with how the character acts, who they are, how they physically express themselves. Mannerisms, habits, nervous tics can all work into the character. The cadence of how the template speaks, verbal habits, and so on can help you as you write the dialogue. It’s sometimes easier to identify these traits in others than in yourself. That gives you perspective on them.

These traits are all shorthand – you still have to do all the basic hard work of who they are, their background, and what they want but this can help, especially if you get stuck.

You/Not You. All your characters are you; all your characters are not you. You have to find the point where you and your character intersect if you’re going to write the character honestly. Every character – the good, the bad, main characters, supporting character, one line wonders – lives inside you. However, you also have to detach from them a bit. You have to have some objectivity in portraying them. Give them their own life. It’s like parents with kids; at some point, the parent has to acknowledge their kid ain’t them. The dichotomy between you/not you can be tough to master.

Make Them Turn the Page. (more…)

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