rosalarian @ 01:19 pm: Evil Lia
So, uh... yeah. People have some strong feelings about today's YU+ME page.

I admit, having the romantic interest of a story turn out to be a killin'-machine is a bit strange, and not very common. Which is partly why I do stuff like this! At least I keep you all on your toes. I wanted a love interest who was very, very, very far from perfect.

Just remember, Lia was not only tricked into dying for someone who lied to her, but she has lost her conscience. Her conscience never outright spoke to her verbally, but she's always been in Lia's vicinity.


Have you noticed how there is no "devil on the shoulder" for these characters, just angels? Maybe it's just my cynical viewpoint, but I see people themselves as the devils, who are only kept from doing great evil by the intervention of their consciences.


But that's enough defending of Evil Lia (or Mara, as she is known). You will all draw your conclusions, and feel how you want. I just hope I don't lose too many readers over this.

Tags: reader responses, yume

arcana_j @ 08:41 am: So, I uh, killed my computer...
Long story short, I let in some malware. Yeah, it was dumb. Anyway, I'm waiting for the supplies that will allow me to (I hope) retrieve some files off of the corrupted drive and then reformat the whole thing.

In the meantime, It's just me and my netbook.

I really love my netbook.

Tags: dumbassery

onezumi @ 11:35 am: Vote!
Help my friend out here. He's in an art contest! :)

Tags: via ljapp

lizbaillie @ 10:25 am: New page of Freewheel is up! Campout news! And Jen Vaughn's Mermaid Hostel!
A new page of Freewheel is up! Jamie is all packed up and ready to leave home, but where will she go?



Also, some big news on the Freewheel: Volume One Fundraising Campout, which is a little Kickstarter-style pre-order-with-benefits program thing I just started to raise money for the first and very expensive printing of Freewheel: Volume One, which will collect the first five chapters. After I announced the Campout on Tuesday, it's already gone over the $100 just this morning! In fact, it's at $148 as I type this! We've got a Can of Beanz, two Can Openers and two Matches. Who will bring the Firewood and put us over the $200 mark?



In other news, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Jen Vaughn (the slammin' cartoonist behind such comics about menstruation as Menstruation Station and Don't Hate, Menstruate!) has started a new webcomic called Mermaid Hostel, which is about an underwater world not unlike our own in which mermaids exist and run a hostel in what I am assuming is the ocean. She updates it on Fridays and it is pretty neat. You should check it out! If you are a squeamish person, it is not about periods in any way (so far). I don't imagine that mermaids get periods but who knows?

tagancalera, posting in steamfashion @ 09:03 am: Love is Blind
Love is Blind, but I hope you're not - so you don't miss this gorgeous model wearing this wonderful dress designed by Sarah (aka Luscious Eve) and sporting heart and accessories by me (The House of Mob). Steampunk Valentine's. This is an advertisement/promo for a photoshoot that Projeck Generator (one of my new endeavors) will be organizing in Jan. (Packages start at $350 and at the bottom end include a printed movie poster of yourself and 5 edited photos, inclusion in Projek Generator magazine and a behind-the-scenes CD. Contact me at www.houseofmob.com if you're interested in more details).

thebeatblog @ 01:05 pm: Amazon reveals secrets of EARTH ONE and MORE OGNs for DC

http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2009/12/17/amazon-reveals-secrets-of-earth-one-and-more-ogns-for-dc/

While DC reps remained mum about the price and format of the Earth One OGNs, they announced last week — such elements being important clues to the intended audience of said projects — Amazon was not as tightlipped, and the listing for EARTH ONE: SUPERMAN by JMS and Shane Davis reveals that it will be 128 pages for $19.99. JOKER-sized, as Robot 6 points out.

Collected Editions also runs the numbers and with a discount, an OGN would run you less than six issues of a $3.99 comic. THE JOKER is selling for $13.50 on Amazon right now.

Evidently, DC sees real growth potential in OGNs, as IGN learned that several licensed comics would be moving to that format, namely the WARCRAFT series, which started out gangbusters but fell prey to standard attrition as time went on.

Blizzard’s fantasy and futuristic universes are about to get shaken up, courtesy of a comic book revamp by DC’s Wildstorm Comics. Today the publisher announced it intends to refocus its efforts on a series of original graphic novels, cancelling its current ongoing series endeavors for both franchises.

“While WildStorm and Blizzard loved the stories being told in the regular monthly comic-book series, we decided that the graphic novel would be a more suitable medium for the tales we wanted to tell next,” said Hank Kanalz, VP & General Manager of Wildstorm. “The larger format will give our artists and storytellers more room to explore Blizzard’s rich, varied worlds and flesh out the characters that inhabit these places.”

WELL NOW. The plot thickens. The WARCRAFT issue currently on sale will be the last pamphlet; details of the book relaunch are forthcoming.

A couple of things strike us about all of this. Licensed, manga-sized books have sold pretty well at other publishers so this is surely a viable format. However those were in B&W and manga-sized, a proven formula. A $20 hardcover is another matter. The net effect of all these moves is to spotlight an implied doubt over the continued viability of the floppy at DC — we’ve heard a few rumblings that more and more Vertigo projects will be going straight to the trade, as well, and looking at the numbers that Vertigo and Wildstorm periodicals are selling, it makes sense to try another format.

In a larger sense, DC has been in a tiring holding pattern ever since 10 Days That Shook The World™. Until the new publisher or publisher/president lineup is announced, everything is on hold. That’s one-third of the whole year without forward motion, which can’t be pleasant for a lot of people. BUT jungle drums are saying there will be a publisher announcement early in 2010–which could be in the nick of time.

Related: Marc-Oliver has a summary of Joe Q’s continued resistance to the OGN:

[F]rom the financial standpoint of a commercial artist, if I’m looking for a way to maximize my time versus how much money I make versus how much exposure I get—an OGN doesn’t make sense. […] I could do a year’s worth of work and put it out as one graphic novel, and I’ll be on the stands in perpetuity (if it’s good) but promoted for really only one month. […] And that’ll boost my career for that month. The book will come out and sell to fewer people because I’ve had to put something like a $40 price point on it. […] And let’s not forget, what if the OGN isn’t all that good?

Again, we can certainly understand how the numbers run this way at Marvel but…are there NO STORIES IN THE WORLD OF MARVEL that could best be told in one shot? Is that idea completely alien to everything about the way Marvel works?

Developing.

thebeatblog @ 01:02 pm: IRON MAN 2 trailer

http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2009/12/17/iron-man-2-trailer/

Larger HD version here.

Wow, this movie is going to make so much money. PLUS the reality of the RDJ/Rourke face-off — two survivors of the drug-addled ’80s in a scenery chewing contest? WITH LIGHT UP WHIPS.

thebeatblog @ 01:02 pm: Viz publishes not simple

http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2009/12/17/viz-publishes-not-simple/

Viz is talking up another one of their intriguing, indie-style manga, this time not simple [sic] by Natsume On. It’s a done-in-one manga that will be previewed at SigIKKI.com starting in January.

not simple follows Ian, a young man with a fractured family history, as he travels from Australia to England and on to America in the hope of realizing his dreams and reuniting with his beloved sister. His story unfolds backwards through the framing narrative of Jim, a reporter driven to capture Ian’s experiences in a novel titled not simple. 
“This new release will captivate readers with its unconventional story and artwork,” says Gonzalo Ferreyra, Vice President Sales & Marketing, VIZ Media. “Natsume Ono’s art blends manga aesthetics with a graphic style reminiscent of many western indie and alternative comics, and fans of both genres will enjoy this title.”

Natsume Ono is one of today’s top creators of seinen manga – designed for adult readers of mature and more sophisticated stories. She made her professional debut in 2003 with the web comic LA QUINTA CAMERA and subsequent works not simple, Ristorante Paradiso, and GENTE (a continuation of Ristorante Paradiso) have met with both critical and popular acclaim. In 2009 Ristorante Paradiso was adapted into an animated TV series. Her manga drama HOUSE OF FIVE LEAVES (Saraiya Goyou) is currently published in Japan in IKKI magazine.

 

thebeatblog @ 01:00 pm: GIRL COMICS: Will we ever, ever learn?

http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2009/12/17/girl-comics-will-we-ever-ever-learn/

ADDED: Here’s another interview with editor Jeanine Schaefer that answers many questions, including the secret origin of the title.

When I posted my little exclusive on GIRL COMICS the other day, I expected there would be the usual twiddle rompus in my comments, but I didn’t expect the full-on blogosphere firestorm of confusion and disparagement that ensued. A deadly gauntlet of clueless sexism and feminist suspicion greeted the announcement of a thing as simple as an anthology of comics. By women. Something the world has seen about a thousand times before. Granted there is always the threat of marginalization in such works, but it ain’t exactly a groundbreaking (or life-threatening) premise.

Yet the outrage! The concern trolling! Before we take a tiny sampling of reaction, I’d like to give another tiny sampling, below the cut, of the comics that the anthology’s announced contributors have written, drawn or edited over the last 30 years or so:

( Read more... )

marinni, posting in art_nouveau @ 02:36 pm: Emile Gallé. Part 2-- Vases, lamps, furniture.

Emile Gallé. Vases, lamps, furniture.

Emile Gallé
[French Art Nouveau Glassmaker, 1846-1904]

Antique Aroma Oil Table Lamp Galle
 

( MORE )

Tags: emile galle, furniture, glassware

alias_sqbr, posting in snarkoleptics @ 05:54 pm: Gunnerkrigg Court: The introduction of Jeanne
So when it turned out that all the robots idolise this dead woman Jeanne I was a bit creeped out, it bought into all those creepy "idealised dead woman on a pedestal" things. I have thus found recent developments really interesting, and am curious to look at those original strips again. But I have no idea where they are in the archives.

So can anyone give me a pointer? At least to the chapter she's introduced in, where Kat goes exploring and finds all that robot stuff.

I have a mind like a sieve, while the slow build of Gunnerkrigg Court is very effective I always end up forgetting the context for new information. Clearly it is all a sneaky plan to force me to buy the books (Curse you Tom Siddell!)

Also Diego totally looks like he should be a character from Doctor Layton and the Mysterious Village which is kind of ironic :)

andiwatson @ 08:55 am: The View


********************************************************
COMING SOON:

Glister: The Faerie Host
Out January 4th 2010

Preview here:
http://www.bit.ly/7HQJLM

Extras include:
'Glister Vs The Toll Troll' short story
'Home to Roost' short story
'Glister and the Family Tree' preview

# Paperback: 80 pages
# Publisher: Walker (4 Jan 2010)
# ISBN-10: 1406320501
# ISBN-13: 978-1406320503
£4.99

Glister: The Family Tree
March 1st 2010

********OUT NOW************

Glister: The Haunted Teapot
Preview: http://bit.ly/7oIUVM
64 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 140632048X
ISBN-13: 978-1406320480

Glister: The House Hunt
preview: http://bit.ly/4HhSnK
80 pages
Walker Books
£4.99
ISBN-10: 1406320498
ISBN-13: 978-1406320497

jaborwhalky, posting in steamfashion @ 03:34 am: This is the sound off post for the Edwardian Ball coming up
http://www.edwardianball.com/




Are you going?

What are you wearing?

Plot your weekend here with others.

gregusa @ 03:04 am: Twitterings
Please feel free to comment on the Twittering.

• 14:35 Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole. Not like you. #
• 15:49 This should happen - RT @D_MacPherson: I see you lost another sponsor, Tiger. Perhaps you could get a deal with Trojan? #
• 18:51 I love email - "I've read every page of ur comic online and ur wrong about everything on so many levels". Hmm. You better buy the book then. #
• 18:57 ha #
• 19:59 I replied with this link - tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurVampiresAreDifferent #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

doronjosama @ 02:03 am: From Twitter 12-16-2009

Tweets copied by twittinesis.com

blackaire @ 03:34 am: Aw yeah.
The Witch's Alphabet

38 / 472 pages. 8% done!

Originally published at Caitlin Kittredge.

Tags: revision hell

monocat, posting in moleskine_users @ 06:33 am: 09xii09

sw_inku @ 12:05 am: Loudly tittering
( Daily ramble cut )Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

veniceparrish, posting in steamfashion @ 08:06 pm: It's Done, Finished! Presenting My Outfit......
I wish the full length pictures were bigger, but as I haven't posted pictures before, I'm still learning how all this is done!

So, I have worked for about two months on my costume. Almost every day, but not to say ALL day every day. So, it really wasn't two months straight work. And a fair amount of that time was online research and spending money on ebay and other sites.

( Read more and see Pics )

dannydarko89, posting in steamfashion @ 11:00 pm: Another pictureless update...
Welp, I purchased the fabric (at least the corduroy) today. I got 50% off due to signing up for some newsletter thing. I will have to go back and get the lining and notions, but I feel that I have accomplished something in the meantime. Looked at the chair I mentioned yesterday, its pleather, so back to the drawing board. While I wait for my patterns to arrive (which were ordered yesterday), I am going to be doing more planning and thinking about the type of wardrobe I would like to aquire, and the type of character I'd like to portray. So lets take a proverbial look at what I have so far: 1 Black Corduroy Frock coat (in progress) 1 Pair of Brown leather buckled low top boots Patterns for two types of vest There are a few directions I can go with what little I have. No matter what shirt and pants I decide upon, I could be a Professor, a wealthy Oil/Airship/Train baron, or some other type of character. In my searches I found these. I like 'em, and I know that while it says they are WW2 style, I know that they were also used during WW1 and probably turn of the century.  I don't know if trying to add them to my costume would be shoehorning them in, but i am pretty fond of them. We will see about those I do suppose. So basically, right now I'm trying to decide on a direction to go, any help would be appreciated. Thanks.