» Comic Book Resources reports that Cartoon Network is developing a number of webcomics for television that competed on Zuda. The first treatment is Peter Timony’s Night Owls. Other possible animated series include: Bayou, High Moon, Black Cherry Bombshells and Supertron.
» Randall Munroe’s XKCD joked that someone should create a program that reads your YouTube comment back to you before you submit it. Apparently, YouTube is going to do just that – or at least jokes that it will.
» Comics Riff Mike Cavna has named five webcomics to look out for: Achewood, Danny Dutch, Slow Wave, Thingpart, Traced.
» Fantagraphics is now posting Rocky, a “smash-hit” comic by Swedish cartoonist Martin Kellerman.
» Tall Tales Features’ Scott Metzger says he’s temporarily giving up Stewart and that Charly & Company creator Mike Sieber is joining TTF.
» Today marks the launch of Joe Carr’s The Catty Corner.
» Dennis West has a new comic: Backyard Frontier.
» Phil Johnson, a freelance writer for David Letterman launched a weekly feature last month called Schwilm.
» Karen Drastal has launched a biweekly feature called Baby Train.
» David Reddick (who also does the webcomic Legend of Bill) has launched a single panel called Reddickulous – which is also available through mobile comic network ROK Comics.
Interesting links! I think this Webcomics Weekly Roundup is going to be a nice addition to your Daily Cartoonist site. Thanks for adding it!
Definitely, these are some great news tidbits. I’m happy to see TDC is covering this part of the cartooning industry. In addition to the print side of things, now I have a new primary source for web comics news — one stop shopping!
ditto and ditto!
Youtube has in fact already implemented audio previews for comments.
Thanks for doing these. Interesting news.
Unfortunately, Zuda has an awful rights agreement and is taking advantage of creators:
“2. GRANT OF RIGHTS. … You grant and assign to Zuda … all rights in and to the Material … The Rights include the following:
“(a) All print and electronic publication rights, audio and/or visual recording and reproduction rights (including motion picture, television and radio rights), merchandising rights, computer software and multi-media rights, Internet and mobile device rights, live stage rights and commercial tie-in rights …
“(b) The right to prepare and use and/or license the use of all Versions of the Material … including in combination with elements from other properties. …
“(d) The right to edit, alter, revise and make any and all changes to any Versions of the Material, including making necessary additions thereto and deletions therefrom…”
Never trust any contract that uses the word “therefrom…”
I’m loving the Round Up! Thanks for bringing so many great links together in one place!
Ted is sooooooooooooo right. CN wants the Zuda content BECAUSE they don’t have to deal with the artist.
Zuda is a good idea but the contracts are SLAVERY bigtime.
That said, I think this shows that all of the “action” is in the comics/graphic novel arena. It’s amazing that Zuda content is going from “webcomic” to cable TV in less than 4 years time.
This content didn’t even bother going the “dead tree” route.
This development should make cartoonist and NEWSPAPERS rethink the whole “webcomic” thang.
Maybe newspapers need to include webcomics on thier websites. I don’t mean linking to Penny Arcade, I mean create a webcomic JUST for say, The Indianapolis Star or Washingtion Post? Can’t hurt to try, imho.
Most of the webtoonists I swap email with are already well aware of the horrible nature of the Zuda contracts. They’re an IP farm, pure and simple.
Some of us (not me) have blogged negatively about Zuda, trying to put the word out, but the fact is there are thousands of aspiring comic book creators out there for whom Zuda really is the best option they can hope for. More’s the pity. There’s some good stuff out there that deserves a better home.
Re: Randall Munroe and YouTube — this is the second or third time Mr. Munroe has quipped something brilliant and set things in motion. The first I can remember is his strip about gluing chess-pieces to the board so that you can get a good picture of yourself playing chess on a roller-coaster. There are hundreds of such pictures now on the web.
Unfortunately, The Roundup turned out to be a bit disappointing for me. I thought it would be more in-depth… and not just links.
Disappointing? I consider myself fairly plugged in to the Webcomics scene, and almost everything on this list was news to me. I thought this was a “slow news week,” and Alan found all kinds of cool stuff going on.
I’m already enjoying this more than the other “Webcomics Weekly”.
All the news without the snark. Very refreshing.