The cartoons will be paired with advertisements placed on targeted Web sites, and will also be available on the Google-owned video-sharing site YouTube.com, Rubin said.

In an interview, MacFarlane described the installments as “animated versions of the one-frame cartoons you might see in The New Yorker, only edgier.”

So what’s the big deal?

Bitstrips allows anyone to create a webcomic as easy as creating a Mii, or Yahoo Avatar. Friends can have fun building up caricatures of themselves and then write out a strip, gag or story about themselves. Once a comic is created, the finished product can be posted on blogs, MySpace, Facebook and a variety of other different sites. You can also leave comments, email a copy of the strip, flag it, rate it, and if the creator allows, you can even make a copy and modify it. To those with a good deal of discretionary time, this site is very sticky.

To experiment with it, here is a cartoon that I did back in 2003:

Here’s my attempt to recreate the same gag using Bitstrip:

But why would a syndicated cartoonist care about Bitstrips? In the short-term, there’s nothing to worry about. It’s too rudimentary for anyone to draw anything seriously and because the comic is hosted on their server, a creator’s ability to monetize their work is zilch. But it does do one thing better than any syndicate online offering: it allows visitors to comment, Digg, StumbleUpon, rate, or interact with other interested readers in a variety of ways. The ability to create a community is going to be paramount with the younger generations.

Here’s where it gets its kudos: It’s pretty easy to build characters and set them up in different scenes, sizes, colors, change and modify just about everything. You can create a three or four panel strip, a one panel gag or a multi-row story. And it requires no artistic ability.

Here’s where it falls short: There is no ability to change the width of the lines - it’s like drawing everything with a large sharpie. There is a limiting number of things like types of hair, clothing and scenes. If you save a character, you can’t go back and update the character - which is why my interviewee appears to be in underwear. I found it difficult to position items in the panel. Each time I tried to make the table larger, it made the characters larger as well defeating my purpose of placing them behind a large desk. And did I mention that it requires no artistic ability? Expect a lot of less than mediocre work.

The site reminds me of a point that Andy Rooney made several decades ago (and I’m paraphrasing): The computer doesn’t make us better writers, nor the microwave better cooks - it just made it easier to make lousy stuff. That said, the microwave and computer is now found in every home - the newspaper won’t always be.

From Drawn!

He writes:

A week or so ago Apple released the first update to Leopard in version 10.5.1. I had already installed Leopard on my MacBook Pro to get the hang of it, but decided to take the plunge on my studio Mac Pro with the update. I’ve been using it now for over a week and have had a chance to put it through some paces. Most reviews and articles on the new OS are geared for either geeks or general users, so I thought I’d write my experiences based on the point of view of a working artist/illustrator … detailing what is working and what isn’t with respect to what an illustrator needs out of their computer.

…

The verdict is that Leopard is a worthy upgrade, has few issues with the hardware and software I need to do my work as an illustrator, and offers some fun stuff as well as some very useful features. I would not call it a must have upgrade, however. If you find some of your hardware or software may not play well with Leopard, I’d advise you stick with Tiger until those issues are fully resolved.

As a reminder, if you purchase either the single license or family license through The Daily Cartoonist, I get a small commission. Please consider supporting this blog by purchasing books, and other products through this blog. Thanks.

The newspapers and magazines it advertises it will have include The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes. Are any syndication execs looking at this as a distribution channel? It charges users $.99/month to access blogs. How long will it take for a syndicate to step up and offer a kindle friendly format for comics?

For those bleeding edge techies, you can get on the list to purchase the Kindle. It’s already sold out and is now taking orders for the next availability (December 17th) with ability to ship and arrive before Christmas.

Disclaimer: The links I’ve provided in the above post contain this blog’s Amazon ID so if you do purchase a Kindle, I’ll receive a small commission.

How cool is this? Over on Tom Tomorrow’s blog he writes that he created a series of cartoons that can be projected onto sides of buildings in San Francisco and Seattle as part of promotional efforts for a new mobile service. Passers by can text their punch-line into the empty word balloon, completing the cartoon. The photo above is one of his panels being projected onto the side of San Francisco’s Castro Theater.

Right now Amazon has a “Pre-order Price Guarantee” which means that if you pre-order OS X 10.5 right now, they will honor the lowest price advertised between now and when it ships (right now the price is already $20 off the list price for a single user license or $10 off the family 5 pack). PLUS shipping is free.

Pre-Order from Amazon (Free Shipping):
MAC OS X 10.5: $109 (SAVE $20)
5-License Family Pack: $189 (Save $10)

Thank you in advance for those who’ll make their purchase via these links.

From the press release:

Thunder Road will be available for purchase chapter by chapter. Each chapter is 80 panels long and will be delivered in weekly installments of 20 panels to subscribers. “We’ve worked exclusively with uclick to take full advantage of the GoComics Mobile Comic Book Reader and create an all-out epic experience for your mobile,” Demory said in another interview. “With Thunder Road, we’re setting a new standard for the scale of action that can be conveyed on a mobile screen. It’s one hell of a ride.” The Comic Book Reader can be downloaded from the GoComics web site straight to mobile phones.

While the creators feel it is necessary for comics to move into more technical media forms, they also hope to eventually publish Thunder Road as a paper comic book. Sanders hopes the future holds an iTunes or Rhapsody kind of program just for comic books. “You could rent the comics or buy and own the comics in a digital format, and then you could transfer them over to your e-paper comic book readers,” mused Sanders.