animation, comics, exhibits, events, etc!

We’ve all been quite busy lately. Mr. Murray is working studiously in sunny Pennsylvania; Mr. Dorison recently got married and has his own (NSFW) comic; Mr. M resides far away from us in the precipituousness of Seattle, with a comic of his own; Ms. Babcock and I are both wrestling with the demons of not-too-far-off Ph.D.dom (and she her comic as well); Ms. Schnelbach is furious on her own work, novel, and future plans; and Mr. Gniewek is telling tall tales in other locales at the moment, as well as gearing up for a big move of his own.

Regardless, I feel the need to poke my head around here once more, albeit in a different capacity. Inspired by the illustrious Raina Telgemeier, of Smile, X-Men: Misfits, Comics Bakery, and All-Around Awesome Person, I’ve decided to revive the stagnant SAC Blog to prime myself for the joys of the fantabulous funitude of the “holiday” season. The Telgemeister¹ mentioned on some-or-another social networking site that she is the proud owner of many, many animated Christmas specials. As I do not believe I’ll be viewing many specials this year (due mainly to a drastic uptick in the ratio of work needed to finish my dissertation vs. time left to do so) I feel the need to at least talk about them.²

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In Strip Search, Jennifer M. Babcock reviews and recommends comic strips available in print and on the web.

Although this topic has been covered by many before, I would like to give my personal opinion about the dont’s and no no’s in making a web comic. More importantly, I want to share my ideas about what makes a bad webcomic (because we all know that there are tons out there on the interweb). You can take this in however you want: for your amusement or for your own edification. You, of course, can choose to disregard what I say since I’m just another random person spouting my ideas from my digital soap box but as a relatively successful creator and as someone who prides herself as knowing a thing or two about webcomics, I hope you take the time to carefully consider the points I will make.

Before I get into it though, I just want to mention that my presence on this blog will be spotty from now until January. Currently I’m studying for my PhD oral examination, which requires studying six days a week for 6-10 hours a day. I’ll try to contribute when I can but I’ll most likely need my free time to rest and draw my own comic, C’est la Vie.

Anyway, here’s a basic rundown of what I think makes a crappy webcomic and also how to prevent yourself from making one:

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