kev/null » webcomics http://kevnull.com Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:34:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Connecting with Comics and Dodging Dodgeball http://kevnull.com/2006/04/connecting-with-comics-and-dodging-dodgeball.html http://kevnull.com/2006/04/connecting-with-comics-and-dodging-dodgeball.html#comments Thu, 13 Apr 2006 18:46:27 +0000 Kevin Cheng http://kevnull.com/2006/04/connecting-with-comics-and-dodging-dodgeball-2.html APE was really great. It was my first comic convention and I met a ton of people who were creative in different ways than one might see in the design community – refreshing. Probably the coolest thing, next to seeing Matt Groening again, was checking out the booths and finding someone over a sketchbook behind each one. Each had differing styles: abstract, cartoon, manga, superhero, photo-tracing, etc. Thanks again to Brandon and Nicole for their generosity in letting us clowns sit with them. Too bad I didn’t get the graphic novel done in time because I had so much on my plate.

I always seem to put a lot on my plate – some would say too much. Jamie, who has a lot on his own plate, asked why I was doing the graphic novel. He said he could understand all my other ventures: Off Panel, OK/Cancel, and the encore presentations of the IA Summit presentation but couldn’t see how the graphic novel fit.

Which is precisely why I’m doing it – it doesn’t fit. Doing a project like Soul Jump is really all about connecting with a different community and doing something for the sake of it and it feels great whenever I get even a little done on it.

I turned off dodgeball recently. It’s a tool that tells you on your phone where your friends are and you use it to let your friends know where you are. It’s great ofr nights when you want to be out and all your friends are roaming all the time. I still remember in university when as a group, the destination might change at the last minute but because not everyone had cell phones, one or two stragglers sometimes end up at the original destination and go, “where is everybody?” The problem is that I have no will power. If I know my friends are out and not too far away, I’m more inclined to join them even if I hadn’t planned on going out. Turning off dodgeball was liberating. Now I am back to controlling when I go out and when I’m dealing with all that stuff on my plate.

Like starting on the first two pages of Soul Jump.

]]> http://kevnull.com/2006/04/connecting-with-comics-and-dodging-dodgeball.html/feed 0 8 Presentations in 20 Days http://kevnull.com/2006/03/8-presentations-in-20-days.html http://kevnull.com/2006/03/8-presentations-in-20-days.html#comments Mon, 06 Mar 2006 08:12:12 +0000 Kevin Cheng http://kevnull.com/2006/03/8-presentations-in-20-days.html The month of March is looking to be slightly extremely insane. I was happy to help get some of our work at Yahoo! accepted into the IA Summit – we’re presenting a 45min session on Communicating Concepts through Comics and doing a full day workshop where we teach people to use the technique. There’s also two South by Southwest panels I’m participating in, one as a moderator and one as a panelist. The following schedule is as much for my own record keeping but in case you’re interested:

In preparation for these, I’ve been visiting or revisiting some presentations with particular attention to Lawrence Lessig’s presentation style and Dick Hardt’s derivative (which I’m less of a fan of). I also went back to Jeff Veen’s presentation notes – the most important and potentially obscure of which is to remember to take off the conference badge because it reflects and distracts. Finally, I watched a video of a dry run. Let me just say, listening to your own recorded voice is strange, watching a recorded video of yourself presenting is just plain unnerving.

If anyone has any additional presentation tips I’d definitely love to hear them.

__Update:__ Berkeley got postponed. Did Fray Cafe open mic. Added Lap Pop.

]]> http://kevnull.com/2006/03/8-presentations-in-20-days.html/feed 1 Mentions of Kevins http://kevnull.com/2006/02/mentions-of-kevins.html http://kevnull.com/2006/02/mentions-of-kevins.html#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2006 11:20:54 +0000 Kevin Cheng http://kevnull.com/2006/02/mentions-of-kevins.html Today, I found a blog that was aggregating Kevin blog entries out there and he made a pretty extensive list, too. He mentions my OK/Cancel presence but I guess didn’t discover this one (or realized they were one and the same). Given how common the name is, it’s pretty impressive he did this.

Speaking of mentions, I’ve noted this before in both Flickr and OK/Cancel – our project Off Panel Productions got mentioned on C|Net News.com and made the front page’s prime real estate. Sweet!

]]> http://kevnull.com/2006/02/mentions-of-kevins.html/feed 2 Webcomics and Weblogs http://kevnull.com/2005/08/webcomics-and-weblogs.html http://kevnull.com/2005/08/webcomics-and-weblogs.html#comments Sat, 20 Aug 2005 04:54:26 +0000 Kevin Cheng http://kevnull.com/?p=373 I’m sitting in BarCamp which can only be described as a major conglomeration of geeks. There are, and will be, some interesting discussions. Currently, the discussion is about _Blogging for Profits_. The more this discussion unfolds, the more I start to recognize that webcomics have paved the way. Sure, there’s podcasting and video and endless other things that will change dynamics slightly but web comics have explored every possible way of monetiing and doing it full time because comic artists care more about the possibility of doing it full time.

Penny Arcade mentioned how Kottke going “full time blogging” is _not a new thing_ and they’re right. Web Rings (referral links to each other), affiliate programs, advertising, merchandising, donations, commission, sponsoring articles, print versions of the product … if anything, web comics have explored _more_ avenues than blogs and keep in mind, most web comics like PA have had a blog element already so all the issues of trust, conflicts of interest, how do we know they’re not selling out, etc etc have _also_ been covered.

It’s nice to think of oyurself as a trailblazer but sometimes, it might be worthwhile to go “hey, maybe this isn’t a new problem”.

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