Today on the site, R. Orion Martin explores the world of Chinese web comics, interviewing two artists who publish primarily via online social media, due partly to the country's tightly controlled publishing environment.
Meanwhile, elsewhere:
—News. The always controversial political cartoonist Ted Rall has been fired by the Los Angeles Times over a disputed story about a 2001 jaywalking incident. The Times explains here, and Rall defends himself here. [UPDATE: Rall has another post up today, with an "enhanced" version of the audiotape evidence of the 2001 encounter.]
Bluewater Entertainment, the schlocky publisher of hacked-out biographical comics on people like Sarah Palin and other flashes in the pan, has changed its name to the most preposterously idiotic thing it could: StormFront. As most people know, and the briefest Google search would have revealed to the comics publishers in question, "Stormfront" is also the name of one of the most prominent and notorious White supremacist websites in the world (no link). Any bets on how long it will be before they change their name again? I'm surprised they've made it three days....
—Reviews & Commentary. Rob Clough takes a hard look at Dustin Harbin's Diary Comics.
At Paste, Shea Hennum has a good piece on how many big comics-news sites have endlessly and breathlessly plugged sales news on the Marvel Star Wars tie-in comics while ignoring the more impressive sales of Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan. I do think it is worthwhile to note that while I have no doubt that cultural bias plays a role in this, it is also true that many of those sites, while nominally about comics, in actuality devote an enormous and ever-expanding amount of space to movie and toy news. They aren't exactly trying to capture the art form in its essence; they're trying to get clicks from a certain demographic. This doesn't invalidate Hennum's analysis in the slightest, of course.
