Magellan recently turned 5 years old and with 500 pages under my belt as we start the 5th chapter I thought it was a good time to have a competition to bolster the fan-art stocks. I guess it’s not technically fan-art if it comes in via a competition…? Anyway…

Magellan Comp-Art competition!

• First Prize: $US100
• 2xRunners up prizes: $US25

Paid via Paypal – or if you don’t have a PP account I’ll send you a cheque (but you’ll have to wear any banking fees at your end).

Rules, requirements and regs…

• Send your art – which can be of any Magellan character/s – to xmung-one(at)bigpond(dot)com. Include your name and email address.
• Enter as many times as you like but you can only win one prize.
• File format can be tif, jpg, png – nothing over 1MB thanks.
• I’ll publish entries as they come in. If you have a webcomic, deviant-art page or art blog, etc send the link with your entry and I’ll link to it.
• Competition closes 3 April 2009.
• The winners will be decided by myself and a small panel of other prominent (non-bribable) webcartoonists.
• Most awesome entry wins!
• The judges decision will be final, no correspondence will be entered into, etc… plus by entering the competition you agree not to flame us if you don’t win.
• Have fun!

Any questions, clarifications, please emai me.

What’s big and warty with very sharp teeth and lurks in the dark? I don’t know… but it’s right behind you!!  

Something nasty is living in the sewers of Sydney… but not for much longer! A conspiracy of freakish proportions is about to bubble out onto the above-world, taking down a few unsuspecting super heroic types in the process. Magellan, the webcomic by Stephen Crowley about super hero wannabes, has just kicked off its fifth major storyline – Worst Field Trip Ever. 

This new story builds on almost five years and 500 pages of Magellan back history but is still an ideal stepping on point for new readers (and even for those who haven’t caught up with the cadets and various goings on at Magellan Justice Academy for a while – you know who you are!). If you haven’t checked Magellan out already you can find it every Tuesday and Thursday at Graphic Smash, with a mirror at WCN and Comic Genesis.

Join the Academy!

So for those of us in America, most of the country is EFFING COLD these days. Seriously I need to put on pretty much ALL of my clothes just to venture out onto the frozen streets of my beloved Chicago and not immediately die.

It sure would be nice to get away to an island paradise. Let’s get real though, who can afford a vay-cay these days? Well maybe the next best is thing to get there in your head and to aid in this self delusion Thor Thorvaldson has brought his tales of tropical monkeyshines back to Graphic Smash. Take it from creator Thor Thorvaldson himself:

Tales of Marga is back! Hide the Bacardi!

Finally, because three of you demanded it – Tales of Marga is back every Wednesday with new installments! Thrill to the adventures of Xiomara and her crew as they take on Evildillo and his Union of Villainous Individuals! Enjoy!

Soul Chaser Betty Graphic Novel Comes To Stores

  

Popular action adventure web comic, Soul Chaser Betty, originally serialized on Graphic Smash and Web Comics Nation, is set for release to comic stores this February.  This “director’s cut” edition contains the complete story of Betty’s first adventure, and features new story, new art, extended scenes and a pin up sketch gallery. 

Readers join Betty, a cross dimensional bundle of trouble, as she is recruited by fate to join a secret group of warriors.  Known as the Soul Chasers, they are the only hope standing between the world we know and a monstrous invasion from the Dreamscape.  Soul Chaser Betty is an action adventure fantasy chock full of battles, fearsome creatures and sharp humor, all set in a small town during the “awesome” 1980’s.  Get ready for a mythological action adventure that Ain’t-It-Cool-News called, “An incredible tale full of humor, great writing and an incredible artistic style…An engrossing read from start to finish.”  

Released in black and white, 176 page digest format, Soul Chaser Betty (ISBN-13: 978-0-9794751-0-8) is priced at $14.95.  The book will be available for pre-order at comic shops and through Diamond Comics Previews during December, 2008.  Books ship to retailers in February, 2009.   

See page 319 in the December Diamond Previews.  Vendor: TwilightTangents.com.  Order Code:  DEC084285 

Fans of independent comics are urged to reserve copies in December! 

For more info, including a preview of the first chapter and more, please visit: http://www.twilighttangents.com/betty.htm

I am taking care of all past debts related to those websites at this time, and it turns out that I do not have current mailing addresses and/or tax forms for a number of people who are owed some amount of money due to their comics being locked behind a subscription wall at some point in the past or present. I’m in touch with most of the cartoonists by email or otherwise, but I’m posting this here, just to catch any stragglers or wanderers who may have dropped off my radar. If you are one of those people — or if you even think you might be, but aren’t sure (because you got an advance or whatever) — please get in touch with me immediately and I will give you instructions on providing the information I need so that I can cut you a check.

And if you’re not one of those people, but you know someone who is, please forward a link to this post to them.

The email address to use for this correspondence is joeymanley at gmail.com

Popular Graphic Smash launch title, Soul Chaser Betty, is now available in print!  The 176 page black and white graphic novel compiles the entire Betty story, with newly revised art, additional scenes and character sketches wrapped up in a full color cover.  The book won’t be available in stores for a while, but you can purchase signed copies at the author’s website.

SOUL CHASER BETTY ($14.95 + S&H)
HOW DID YOU SPEND YOUR SUMMER VACATION?
Staying the entire summer at her grandmother’s po-dunk farmhouse isn’t Betty’s idea of a good time.  But things soon go from bad to worse when renegade necromancers and exiled chaos demons begin invading her dreams, and then her reality.  Suddenly, making new friends, the local bully, and the haunted woods out back are the least of her worries…

What’s a girl to do?

Join Betty, a cross dimensional bundle of trouble, as she enlists with a secret group of warriors known as the Soul Chasers.  With her new partner, Rolf, she’ll learn to fight back against the forces of darkness that are bent on shattering the barrier between the world we know and the dark land of dream.

Will she be able to wield the true power of a Soul Chaser?  Or will this be the worst summer vacation ever?

Order copies at www.TwilightTangents.com
Read it online at www.webcomicsnation.com/bman

Do you miss the Marvelous Patric?

I miss the Marvelous Patric.  MP ended his long running GS series, Aces high recently and at that time we promised you some thing new.  Here’s something new:

If the title doesn’t say it all, then that image does.  It’s Willy Wonka on crack.  (Or perhaps, more crack than the original.  Like A LOT.)  It’s crazy, it’s funny, it’s EFFED UP in all the right ways.  Welcome to the Fun Factory.  Your golden ticket drops on June 4th.  Only at Graphic Smash. Be there.

Today I’m happy to announce that the Modern Tales family of websites (Modern Tales, GirlAMatic, serializer and Graphic Smash) is the first major webcomics network to embrace the downloadable CBR format for full-length, high-resolution digital comic books.

Not familiar with the format? CBR format has rapidly become the preferred means of digital comics delivery for people who mostly like to read comic books or graphic novels when they read comics in print (as opposed to newspaper strip fans, who are very well-served by traditional webcomic technology). Unlike traditional webcomic strips, Comic Book Reader files are complete issues of “comic books” or even full-length “graphic novels” in digital form, released all at once, downloaded onto the fan’s hard drive and consumed at his/her leisure, with crisp graphics and immediate page-loading.

Like MP3 files, CBR’s first gained prominence in the file-sharing world. Apparently there are a lot of comic book fans out there who enjoy scanning their collections (or even the comics they just bought this week) and sharing them with their friends. I don’t necessarily approve of this activity, but I have a lot of respect for the way that P2P and filesharing systems often stand at the forefront of innovation when it comes to media formats and user-friendly ways of doing things.

At Modern Tales, we’ve always attempted to bridge the gap between webcomics and indie print comics. We’ve spent a lot of our emphasis and energy trying to popularize the “longform” webcomic (that is, comics that are more like comic books or graphic novels than like newspaper strips). We’ve done a pretty good job, but that’s not an easy thing to do. Quick, humorous, non-continuity strips just work better on the web, for a lot of reasons. They always will. And there are plenty of great ones (we have some on our own site!), but — well, you know, there’s always more that comics can be. And we’d all like to see comics be everything they can be, right?

CBR format is, far and away, the very best way I’ve discovered to read “longform” comics in digital form. I’m not the only one who thinks so — recently the CBR format has been embraced up by several “real” comic book publishers, like Slave Labor Graphics (see EyeMelt.com), for example. It’s just a completely different experience from browsing comics on the web. Every line is crisp and clear; every page loads immediately; you can take your hand off the mouse, put one finger on the “page down” key, and lean back, read, and relax.

Seriously, try it out. Note: EyeMelt and others are selling their CBR files. Ours are free. So you really have no excuse not to give it a whirl.

First you’ll need some Comic Book Reader software, such as CDisplay (for Windows), FFView (for Macintosh), Qcomicbook (Linux/KDE) or cbrpager (Linux/Gnome).

Once you’ve downloaded one of the software packages linked above, here are the launch CBR’s from the Modern Tales family:

From Modern Tales proper:

Headsmen (Rogues of Clwyd Rhan one-shot) by Reinder Djikhuis

Fred the Clown Volume 2 #1 by Roger Langridge

Ballad of Little Monster by Herve Largeaud

Wahoo Morris (Free Comic Book Day issue) by Craig Taillefer

From GirlAMatic:

Galaxion # 1 by Tara Tallen

From serializer:

Make Love the Fetus-X Way by Eric Millikin

From Graphic Smash:

Charity Begins in Hell (Reckless Life) by Tim Demeter

See what I mean?

There will be more. Stay tuned to the respective homepages (or RSS feeds) of the sites listed above to keep up with our latest CBR releases. I’ll also be announcing the CBR/digital downloads/insert catchphrase here/etc. strategy for my biggest site, Webcomics Nation, shortly. Like all things WCN, the CBR system will be a bit more comprehensive, and maybe even more exciting, over there.

BRAAAAAAINNNNSSSSS….

Brains? Zed’s got one. Zed is a zombie with a bit on his undead mind, and it’s more than just a lunch consisting of grey matter.

Who’s Zed? Why the star of Graphic Smash’s latest series, Zed Reckoning, of course! If you dig Zombies (Heh, dig. Dead. Buried, Zombies. Get it?) then do not miss Zed Reckoning. Also if you like great action mixed with horror, or some the best artwork I’ve seen out of a new webcomic in a LONG time, you’re not going to want to miss it in that case either.

Seriously, this comic is a joy to behold and a blast to read, featuring some fantastic characters and settings. Zed is a great addition to our roster and c’mon, it’s about an ass-kicking zombie and who doesn’t like zombies and some good old fashioned ass-kicking?

It’s new comic time on Graphic Smash, peoples! Today I’m pleased to welcome Intergalactic Law by Lisa Fary and John Dallaire!

Intergalactic Law is a hugely entertaining mix of sci-fi and, um, lawyering. From the creator’s own mouths: We came up with IGL after watching too many episodes of Boston Legal and Star Trek back to back.

Equal parts crazy sci-fi adventures and wonderfully geeky pop-culture indulgence, IGL’s shiny sci-fi world is bursting with random around every corner, and oh, it’s frequently fall-down hilarious.

Also from the good news files, you may have noticed that Edge the Devil Hunter by Sam Romero is back up and running on Graphic Smash. Edge is one of my absolute favorites and if you’ve been missing it now’s the time to get caught up. A few pages and you’ll see just what I mean.

There’s more new and exciting stuff to come soon. In fact, you may have caught a tease for a second comic from the Brat-Halla team floating about. More soon!