...is exposure. People have to know your name.

The Indy Star did a story about Indiana-based webcomics, and while we only got a link on the main page of the story, the auxiliary page has some thoughts shared by our own Artis.

Also, hi there, Hoosiers!

The second step to taking over the world, of course, is having the hardware to back up whatever plan you might be hatching. To that end, I've been working on buying a brand-new system for some extreeeeeeeem programming. That is, programming on a computer that doesn't crash every half-hour. That's a nice dream, isn't it? Yes, it is.

Also, the con season is starting to get going, here. Look to the Upcoming Events page for a schedule of where Artis and I might be this season.

So I fully intended to move code over and do some site work the last two weeks--and I did--except that, uh, it turns out that the new Metrophix code breaks some of the current site workings. That's... always a little embarrassing. However, one of these weekends I should get the assorted issues resolved (either through cleverness or a baseball bat), so I can guarantee that the site will be unavailable some weekend in the near future... just not which one.

In the meantime, well, have some comic.

Whether agree with him or not, I think it's a fact that Scott McCloud has had a tremendous impact both on the way that comics as a medium are approached and, particularly, on the direction that webcomics have taken. Currently he and his family are participating in a year long tour of all 50 states. Recently, they came here to Indiana. In fact, Mr. McCloud gave a talk at my university. It's a good thing they held it in the IT building. The auditorium ran out of room, so they had to put people in other rooms and show them a live feed of the talk.

Leave it to a cartoonist to pace a powerpoint well.

What do I think of it all? Well, I do think he's a genius. Now this does not mean perfect. He has been wrong about some things, but all in all he does possess remarkable foresight and insight. Tycho and Gabe of Penny Arcade tear into him a lot. But he has enough of a sense of humor to include their comics about him in his talk. The truth is that any controversy surrounding him mostly stems from a misinterpretation of his statements as unbending and iron clad facts rather than flexible and changing frameworks of thought. It is, I think, the difference between seeing the world in stark black and whites or in overlapping shades of grey.

This becomes much more apparent if you see him talk, though it may not seem so in writing. But speech possesses a tone that is hard to capture in text.

Perhaps it's just me, but I've noticed a lull in anime. I've had a lot of trouble finding anything good lately. Perhaps I just haven't looked hard enough.

But finally there might be something...a movie called Paprika.

(another trailer here) To be honest, I have no idea how it will turn out, but I am definitely intrigued. The sheer visuality of it looks delicious.

Ah me, I wish the American animation industry had as much diversity as the Japanese one. I suppose it's a symptom of farming out the animation overseas...not to mention the pervasive viewpoint that animation is for children only, which is gradually changing. I am not one of those people who believes that anime is inherently superior to anything coming out of other countries. Far from it. There are a number of western animated pieces that I treasure. But I do think that the growth in the industry is stunted, at least here in the states. I think it's a matter of options, mostly. Our animation doesn't cover very many genres and it doesn't really reach out to as many audiences...and certainly not new audiences. But hey, maybe that will change.