Calendars

I've been pretty dour on calendars as merchandise in the past, and, truth be told, I'm still not a huge proponent of the practice. As I've stated before, calendars have a very limited shelf life. Few people buy them before December or after January.

But recently, I've seen something that brought me around on the topic, and convinced me to offer calendars to my readers for the first time ever.

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Friday Archive Dive: Understanding Web stats

Today's Archive Dive is from Nov. 25, 2009, when we talked about understanding Web statistics.

We all obsess over our Web stats -- even though we know we shouldn't. But paying a little healthyattention to your Web stats is actually a good way to gauge your progress and tweak your site's performance. The trick here is not to get hung up on the numbers, but to pay attention instead to trends.

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Webcomics Weekly LIVES! Episode #69

This come-back Webcomics Weekly episode focuses on NEWW, scarcity, ending Starslip and the 2011 convention season.

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Comic Strip Superstar -- One Year Later

In August, 2009, Universal/UClick, Andrews McMeel and Amazon announced the Comic Strip Superstar contest. And one year ago today, they named Webcomics veteran Dana Simpson as the winner for her comic, "Girl." As the winner of the competition, Simspon has a development contract with Universal/Uclick and along with a $5,000 advance on a book to be published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. As part of that development deal, she must submit 20 samples of her comic every month in exchange for a $300 stipend.

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Stereotypes and the Dark Side of the Force

I just gave a presentation on cartooning to a group of Middle-Schoolers at my kids' school, and I touched on a topic that seemed right for sharing here: Stereotypes.

I was explaining how, in general. females are drawn with curved lines and males are drawn with angular ones. And we do this despite the fact that we've all seen females with more angular features and males with more curved ones. And, of course, when it comes to oddball characters or downright caricatures, these rules go right out the window.

But, in general, these are the rules we follow when drawing stock characters.

"So, stereotypes," I explained, "are good for cartoonists."

"All stereotypes?" came the question.

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