Site News: Registered User Purge… SORRY!

Just so people know, I had to go through and delete a couple thousand registered users.

I apologize in advance if you got caught in the deletion (People with names, posts, or avatars were likely spared), but I had to do the purge to get rid of a huge number of spam accounts.

Additionally, the purge was to help with the general security and stability of the website. New user registrations (please wait a couple days from this post) will be required to add more info and have a stronger password. Please bear with us as we move forward for a more secure website, and more registered user functionality.

Existing users might receive an email asking to change their passwords.

Webcomic Beacon #344: Comic News & Discussion for May 28th, 2013

Monty Rhode joins Kittyhawk, Ben Carver, and Fes Works for another edition of the newscast! Comic News & Discussion this week: The 2013 Reuben Awards, Kindle and Fan Fiction, Yahoo buying Tumblr, and more!

Once again, there was an “after show” discussion. Got a little heated… and a little ugly… as we talked about advertising and Blip.tv, but it all turned out OK in the end. The “after show” is actually something that was long ago offered during our TalkShoe days. So if people like this extra, not-really-webcomic-beacon content, let us know! Same goes for the pre-show (which I try to keep much shorter).

A coming episode of The Webcomic Beacon will be our opinions on Strip Search.

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2013 Reuben Awards
The NCS (National Cartoonists Society) takes another wack at integrating webcomics in the fold and apparently there’s some controversy because all the short form web comics are from the syndicated site GoComics.com. Comics Beat reports that this is the first time they had a “webcomics” category.

2013 Nominees:
ONLINE COMICS – SHORT FORM
Graham Harrop – “Ten Cats“ (winner)
Jonathan Lemon – “Rabbits Against Magic“
Michael McParlane – “Mac“

ONLINE COMICS – LONG FORM
Vince Dorse – “Untold Tales of Bigfoot” (winner)
Meredith Gran – “Octopus Pie”
Pat N. Lewis – “Muscles Diablo in Where Terror Lurks”

Complete list of winners on Reuben.org.
– 2012 Nominees for comparison.

Kindle Worlds
Amazon Kindle launches option for fanfics to actually get exposure, actually earn money, and pay royalties to the actual copyright holders. As found on Endgaget.
Extra News Flash: Fanfic writers still manage to bitch (about the contract terms). We discuss this on the show.

Tumblr and Yahoo, Sittin’ in a Tree…
Yep, it’s official. For $1.1 Billion, Yahoo has bought yet another website service (remember Geocities?). What does this mean to webcomic artists that choose to publish through Tumblr? At least porn is OK… For now… As reported on The Independent.
Also, Yahoo may be buying Hulu for $600,000… huh?

You can now Email Money through Gmail.
With Google Wallet and Gmail, we can now send and receive money. What may this mean for creatives selling their work? HOW does this work, in relation to how PayPal already works?
Google Commerce Blog post – More on Google Wallet
But if you’re selling physical goods, you won’t be able to use Google Wallet; also, Google ends Google Checkout, as reported on MakeUseOf.

PayPal Screws Over German Kid, German Kid Screws Them in Return
So PayPal has a bug hunt program, which has made them one of the most secure sites on the Internet. Recently, a 17 year old kid found an exploit and turned it in for the bounty. PayPal, being as they are, said that the kid was too young to receive the bounty, so the kid released it into the wild. As a pentester (Kittyhawk) I’m familiar with the phrase, “Too young to get the bounty, but not too young to go to jail.”
In the meantime, don’t go to PayPal with any other windows or tabs open, and especially DO NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER. It runs in the background of Windows, so you can’t be sure it’s running or not.

Fan Grabs (A “Netflix” for physical Comicbooks)
Interesting, but we don’t see thing business model working.

NOT MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:

Chainsawsuit Podcast
Was going to title this ‘new Chainsawsuit podcast’ but those crazy fellas (Kris Straub and Mikey Neumann) over at Chainsawsuit are already up to three! The podcast can be found over at www.chainsawsuit.com or on itunes, and may be of interest to anyone who follows the old Webcomics Weekly gang (or a podcast being produced for free…)

Amy’s Baking Company and Social Media
Amy’s Baking Company was a restaurant that showed up on Kitchen Nightmares and handled their social media in a… unique way. Found on Know Your Meme. We’ve discussed many times on the show, as to not be an ass to your audience on online, and especially not social media, but… wow…

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Webcomic Beacon #343: Going on Indefinite Hiatus… or Simply Quitting Your Comic

Fes Works is joined by Mark Savary, Kelly Turnbull, Arne Schulenberg, Eric Kimball, Jason Dunstan, and Tom Szewc for this… sad but very real possibility for most webcartoonists. That’s right, you’ve gotta know when to fold ’em, and put your webcomic on an indefinite hiatus… or… to simply quit. An absolutely enlightening discussion.

Break Song: It All Makes Sense At The End by Molly Lewis

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To Be Clear…
The “old format” of The Webcomic Beacon will officially retire on it’s 6th anniversary: December 6, 2013.

We’ve had a great 5+ years, and we’ll end with a “final hurrah” this Fall 2013:

Party

The Webcomic Beacon’s “Top 100 Favorite Webcomics of All Time” four part series, a retrospective episode, and likely one last contest or giveaway with a “Semi-Finalé” episode .

The Webcomic Beacon (as it has been known) will go out with BANG!

The comic news and discussion episodes will persist as long as there is interest, over the summer and beyond the 6th anniversary. There may be occasional topic or interview episodes over the summer, as well.

From here on out, the focus of The Webcast Beacon Network will be in expanding content to outside the podcasts themselves; as well as looking at the creative drive and process in multiple mediums. I will be scouting for content contributors, as well as new podcast affiliates.

Anyone that thinks they could help out with the WCBN or WebcomicZ in some way can email webcastbeacon-at-gmail.com or webcomicz-at-gmail.com. Though I will be looking into adding a content submission form as well. Any new creative-focused-podcasts, of differing medium focuses, could also try to court us, but I’ll be looking for a variety of factors for when looking at new affiliate programs (or even regular content producers).

So, hopefully Webcomic Beacon listeners can catch up on their backlog of episodes, as we slow updates until Fall 2013.

-Fes

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Webcomic Beacon #342: Comic News & Discussion for May 12th, 2013

Kittyhawk rejoins Ben Carver, Terence,  and Fes Works for another edition of the newscast! Comic News & Discussion this week: Penny Arcade’s new Kickstarter, webcomic Apps, Wacom’s FINALLY updated driver for tablets, Comics Alliance shutting down, and more!

Actually, there was a tangenting after-show discussion on the condole video gaming industry and the state and progress of American mobile phone companies. It was interesting enough that I just added it after the show. If you like this sort of extra content (even if it is not really related), we’ll keep including them after the show.

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WCBN – The Artistic and Business Sides of Making Comics and Webcomics
Three panels recorded at Anime Detour 2013 with Randy Milholland, Lee & Lisa Blauersouth, Gerbil, and Fes Works. These three panels (in six video parts, totaling about 3 hours), cover everything from starting your comic, getting into the webcomics scene, and business aspects to consider.
Check out all the videos here: 
► The Artistic Side of Making Comics
► Breaking Into Webcomics
► The Business Side of Making Comics

The New Webcast Beacon Network is Here!
The website is here, with a greater focus on articles and content not needing to be tied to a specific podcast (like the Webcomic Beacon or Webfiction World). More opportunity for editorials, event reports, special focuses, reviews, etc. In a few weeks, we hope to open up public submissions for articles as well, with the opportunity to also have them posted as audio articles. As with every time we try something new, it is an experiment moving forward. Also we welcome WCBN’s first new integrated affiliate: EpiGuide’s EpiCast!

Penny Arcade DLC Podcast Kickstarter
After PA’s “controversial” KS for an ad-free site, they’re back again with a KS for a podcast with a funding goal of just $10 (reached in seconds, lol). I think this is performance art criticizing the use of KS, but hey, maybe they’re using it to get buzz too. Bonus!
►Penny Arcade post – ► Penny Arcade DLC Kickstarter

Webcomic RSS Aggregation App now on iTunes Store
And this time it uses creator permission! It’s called Comic Chameleon. It is a free, ad-supported App. Creators, whose webcomics are on the App with permission, get a percent of the revenue made through the App’s ads! Ok, possibly not an RSS aggregation app, but we discuss it and give our first impressions of it on the show.
► iTunes Link

Apps Are Where It’s At… Or Maybe Not?
A post by Tom Falco, of webcomic Tomversation, talks about the value of an app for your webcomic, over at the Webcomic Alliance. Is this good advice? A few notable webcomics have experimented with this as a distribution format (I know of CAD and C&H as two off the top of my head), but does anyone know how this actually goes in practice? Is the app market an avenue to head down to grab new readers, or does the loss of website hits (ad revenue, etc) and low visibility of your webcomic (within the massive market that is mobile device apps) cost you more in effort than you get back in value?

Wacom Feel IT Driver Update
After… YEARS, Wacom finally releases an updated driver for tablets (i.e. ‘slates’) and Tablet PCs that “have Wacom feel IT technologies or Wacom Pen based technologies.” and “older Penabled Tablet PCs running Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP Tablet Edition.”
► Wacom Feel IT Driver Download

Old News by Now, Comics Alliance Shut Down By AOL
As reported by basically everyone, including at Comics Beat and confirmed on Robot 6, AOL shuts down the comic news site, Comic Alliance. Didn’t know that they were owned by AOL? … Didn’t even know that AOL was still around? Anyway, Scott Kurtz was getting a little heat over a comment on Twitter, sarcastically asking where will he get his comic news now. Aside from being a fairly big comics news site shutting down and people losing their jobs; there really isn’t a shortage of comic news sites.

Also, AOL is still around?
Remember when AOL meant sub-standard dial-up internet connection, at ridiculous rates, and you could get their “free trial CD-ROMs” by tripping over them in the street? Well, apparently they used their pre-.com-bubble money to buy up more successful properties. Of course these sentences may make no sense to millennials who have no idea what I’m talking about. Dammit, I’m old. (They own Wimamp AND The Huffington Post? Huh.) We do have a bit of a conversation about AOL and JCPenny actually.

Free Comic Book Day
How was it? Who was involved? Did Fes get enough footage for the indie movie of the century?

STEAMPUNK LEGOS!
Every LEGO and Steampunk nerd out there is probably nerding out hardcore to the new LEGO line. Heard through The Mary Sue, which links to The Brick Blogger. While not actually called “steampunk LEGOs”, it’s a part of the Master Builders Academy. “Level 4” to be more precise. Anyone out there working on LEGO Brick based comics should be incredibly excited. If not for the “future through the past” theme, then for all the new LEGO pieces.

Hyperbole and a Half is Back!
After a long hiatus, Hyperbole and a Half is Back, and it comes back with a powerful two part comic about Depression.
► “Part 1” Depression post from 2011
► Pre-Cursor for 2013 post
► “Part 2” Depression post for 2013

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Webcomic Beacon #341: Bond? James Bond!

Rich Morris (Yet another fantasy Gamer Comic) joins Fes and Melissa Kaercher to talk about James Bond 007!

Why? Rich was once on the show to talk about Doctor Who because of his fan comic, The Ten Doctors; and has recently been working on a James Bond + Doctor Who crossover fan comic. With the 50 year anniversaries of both Doctor Who and James Bond happening relatively now, why not round things out with a podcast about James Bond?

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Cover by: Rich Morris (pencils), Christina Folker (Ink & Color)

Music:
“Elevator 1” and “Elevator 2” from Goldeneye 007 (N64 soundtrack)

“A Time to Live, A Time to Kill!”
by Richie Brackin (Lyrics and vocals) and Ken Fields (music and mixing)

Notes: The Geek Life, The Sound and the Foley, Webcomic Beacon Doctor Who episode, Webcomic Beacon Time Travel episode,  Webcomic Beacon Fanfiction episode, Rich’s Comix Blog, First page of A Time to Live, A Time To Kill, First page of The Ten Doctors, fan-made, mash-up intro sequence for A Time To Kill, Everything or Nothing documentary,

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Accepting Webfiction for Readings on Webfiction World!

Laptop

We are finally going to be opening up submissions for webfiction to be read on our Webfiction World podcast!

Right now, for Webfiction World, we select readings that are public domain, creative commons (allowance to use), or works with permission specifically given to us to use. We’ve recently had to go on hiatus, to figure out the next step for the show. Part of that is to propagate a new webfiction reading list; another part is to find 1-2 new readers as well.

If you have your own writings that you’d like to offer up for readings, you may submit the first chapter or two of an on-going, or completed, story; as well as one-off stand-alone works. We are looking at things that would take 15-25 minutes to read, which is about 3000-5000 words. (minimum of 2500 words, unless we pair short stories together in a single episode) The idea is to allow Webfiction World to produce new listening material, while also promoting the works used for new reading material.

For now, the chapters or short stories we read on the show should be available to read for free online somewhere.

If you would rather submit your own reading of your own material; audio quality permitting, we can work with that too.

Not all submissions may get used, per our discretion.

This will be a License to Use for us, for using your material on our show. Writers maintain all of the rights to their work. If you would later need to have us remove our reading (like per agreement with a publisher), we shall comply. We also do not sell ads on the webfiction reading episodes. We add some site info, a musical intro/outro, read the fiction, and tell people where they can read more.

Additionally, if you are interested in being a fiction READER for the show, email us for details. We’ll basically need an example audio performance or reading from you (maybe 1-3 minutes), in order to gauge your ability to read a writing; as well as gauge the quality of the audio of your current equipment and abilities.

If you need access to a file sharing option, please use this link to sign up for a free DropBox account.

► Email Webfiction World at WebfictionWorld-at-gmail-dot-com, with “Reading Submission: [Title of Piece]” in the subject (or specific question(s)).

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