The Daily Cartoonist » NoahRodenbeek

Bookmark Bar: Order of Tales hits 300

NoahRodenbeek — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:21:13 +0000

Order of Tales is an epic/fantasy graphic novel about a Teller named Koark. The orphaned son of Duke Themb, he is on a quest to fulfill the last request of his father. His family was charged with collecting and preserving the tales of all of the races of “a strange world.” Through his adventures he meets the Blackbirds, the Horned’s, and even a manufactured being known simply as “the Bottle Woman.”

Artist Evan Dahm began his epic, Tolkein-esque tale with the story of Rice Boy in 2006. The 39 chaptered, 439 pages-long graphic adventure follows the reluctant trail of a not-so unfamiliar character named Rice Boy and the even more familiar T.O.E. (The One Electronic) as they embarked across a huge, always-changing landscape to fulfill Rice Boy’s prophetic destiny.

Order of Tales picks up in the same world, but never gives a feeling of either prequel or sequel, although the appearence of T.O.E. raises these questions from Chapter 1.

On Monday, May 18, Evan will post his 300th page of Order of Tales, marking yet another impressive milestone in his already impressive collection. Be sure to drop by and check it out, but make sure you have a day or two available to catch up on the entire story. Order of Tales is an addictive read that Evan says may eventually be up to 800 pages long.

Bookmark Bar: Jonny Crossbones Goes Daily

NoahRodenbeek — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:39:18 +0000

Les McClaine’s adventure comic Jonny Crossbones can only be described as a reincarnation of Tintin. The staggeringly accurate, yet stylized figure drawing contrasts perfectly with the constantly overwhelming landscapes to create a world that will suck you in immediately. Starting today, May 4, Johnny Crossbones is accelerating from a M-W-F schedule to full-on, five-times-a-week until the story is concluded.
If you’re already a fan you’ll be excited to know that Les has expedited the strip’s releases to expedite the release of a collected volume. If you’re not yet a fan go to Chapter 1, page 1 and read “Dead Man at Devil’s Cove“.

On the Topic of Topicality

NoahRodenbeek — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:27:26 +0000

The question was raised in another article about how comics artists feel about being topical with their comics. The “why” of being topical is obvious enough; to bring in fresh viewers that aren’t acclimated to your pre-existing story. But the “how” and “when” aspects of this conversation raise some pretty interesting points.

Artist Jorge Cham of PhD Comics tends to break continuity of his story-lines to bring topical issues to light. His strip about the CERN Hadron Collider was actually what hooked me as a regular viewer at his site, but it has absolutely no connection with the strip’s continuity.

Strips like Penny-Arcade and, more true to the topic, PvP use pop-culture references seamlessly in their regular story-lines. To be fair, Penny-Arcade rarely uses story arcs, but they’re still a good example of real life influences being used as satire regularly.

It would be interesting to hear these same kinds of examples being used in print. Whether the satire is used in a story’s continuity or used to break the monotony of a story-line or used in some completely different way, how do you as artists use pop-culture references in your strips?

Randall Munroe to release XKCD, Volume One

NoahRodenbeek — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:17:33 +0000

If you haven’t spent an afternoon flipping through the XKCD archives, you haven’t truly lived. Okay, that’s kind of dramatic, but only a little. It has just been announced that XKCD artist Randall Munroe will be publishing his first book of compiled work. Randall Munroe is a webcomic pioneer and remains one of the most consistently relevant and hilarious webcartoonist of the day. I think you’ll agree this is exciting news. If you don’t, you need to have that afternoon I mentioned before.

Karl Kerschl guest artists on today’s PVP

NoahRodenbeek — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:59:38 +0000

Despite past animosity on this site, there is sort of a big deal going on at PvP with guest artist Karl Kerschl doing today’s strip. I don’t care what side of the print/webcomics fence you’re on, this strip is amazing.

If this post kicks off any kind of conversation it should be about how mainstream, print comics artist Karl has successfully kicked off a webcomics career with the Abominable Charles Christopher. Remember, we’re here to enlighten, motivate, and encourage. Save the bashing for Twitter or something.

As a p.s. to this article, the Charles Christopher site has experienced so much traffic from the PvP exposure Karl is having to explore new hosting options. So an additional congratulations to Karl for the successful day!