Webcomic Beacon Newscast: Comic News & Discussion for April 29, 2012

Mac Paladin (Moonhawk Studios) joins us for this week’s news discussion. But first, bringing you the news, Marie Tary (Evil Space Cat) returns, once again, with Thomas Revor and Eric Kimball!

Promo: The Rampage Network

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Top Stories

Axe Cop the animated series
Original Source: Digital Spy

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Buzz

Heavy Metal looking for cover artists
Found via: Bleeding CoolOriginal Source: Dave Elliott

DC launches all ages magazine/app
Original Source: Comics Beat

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Business

Demographics of the online audience
Original Source: MTV Geek

Older readers go digital
Original Source: Editor and Publisher

Viz Media announces new division for innovating Digital Content
Original Source: Viz Media

Lawyer up: Gambitious ditches Kickstarter’s “backing” system for actual investment
Original Source: Penny Arcade

Pro pile on Kickstarter
Original Source: Bleeding Cool

Indian comic publisher sell 10,000 motion comics at (20 cents a comic)
Found via: Bleeding CoolOriginal Source: Rediff Business

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Legal

Why is Silicon Valley silent on Cispa
Original Source: GiGaOM

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Education

Writing Scenes in comics
Original Source: Making Comics

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Tech

Price Drops in tablets are coming
Original Source: Computer World

Archie Comics release OS independent digital store
Description: The store uses HTML 5 instead of the Comixology or any other app.
Original Source: Comics Alliance

Microsofts interconnected mobile platform could kill the single platform android
Original Source: GiGaOM

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Tidbits

DC’s Peel off logo a trend
Original Source: Bleeding Cool
Additionally: DC’s logo history (PDF)

Women more likely to combine social networking with media
Original Source: GiGaOM

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People

Interview with Jeff Jacques
Original Source: Bleeding Cool

Comic Artist John Romita, Jr. attempting to break world record for charity
Original Source: MTV Geek

Co-Creator of Jonah Hex needs help with medical bills after severe stroke
Original Source: Blastr

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Oddities

Goblins gives up its top ranking at TopWebComics.com
Original Source: Goblins Comic

Batman is gay according to Grant Morison
Original Source: Daily Cartoonist

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Comments

Good newscast as always. I enjoyed the discussion on DC’s super ugly logo.
I will say that I think Thunt’s decision to take himself off TWC was a nice gesture to the other creators out there. He’s opening a spot for some other potential comic to get good promotion. I’m not sure how much it matters though if you take an account the rampant cheating (maybe not from the creators themselves but the fans).
Also, in reference to Archer- that show actually uses 3D- it just mimics a flash style (or so i have been told). I think the style lends well to the humor and would work well with a show like Axe cop – which is something I will be looking forward to.

I have to disagree with Thom’s apparent rage on the Goblins and Top Web Comics.

Goblins has been in the top 5, if not the top 3, for YEARS on Top Web Comics. Its been certainly YEARS, 2-3 YEARS at least. Like Goblins, or not, It is a TOP TIER webcomic. It gets the traffic and it has dedicated fans that give him money.

The amount of traffic in from Top Web Comics is likely NOTHING at this point. Certainly, its nice to be very visible on a website like that. The first page of ANY webcomic list site will bring a lot of traffic in for low and mid tier webcomics.

Once you hit the kind of traffic that Goblins has, a lot of the traffic building techniques the majority of us try to employ… just don’t work the same way. A list site isn’t going to do much. Remember that Hunt actually use the vote-incentive model on TWC as well. He could have easily stopped using it, but, as far as I understand, he’s removing the listing altogether.

Certainly people can cheat with list sites with bots and such. And, like webcomic award events, the number placement on a list site is obviously not an end-all, be-all ranking. I think most of us know that. And Yes, TWC certainly benefits a lot from sites employing the vote incentive. Whether or not a list site works well for you, and is beneficial enough to keep up…. is entirely the call of the person using the service.

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