webcomics

Calibre: iTunes for e-books?

Calibre is a cross-platform, open-source library for your e-books that can also sync them to your e-book reader. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, it offers a massive range of individual book customizations, as well as format conversion and newspaper-style RSS feed grabbing, but lacks a slick interface that would go a long way toward convincing skeptics that it's a powerful tool.

The number of things that Calibre can do for your digital book collection is stunning. You can view books in a basic spreadsheet layout or with an adaptation of Apple's Cover Flow. Cover Flow here lacks a default image, and the sudden white rectangle where the book cover should be is jarring. It can be toggled with the big, white arrow icon in the bottom-right corner of the main window--an equally awkward placement. … Read more

Comics Sketch is still rough

Although the idea of Dave Chappelle writing or drawing his own comic book might be appealing to some, this is a different kind of Comics Sketch. By taking two great Web flavors, social networking and Webcomics, Comics Sketch mashes them up and wraps it all in a package that's not quite ready for prime time.

Users can read, draw, and share their own Webcomics using the built-in comics creation tools. It's a great idea, but the interface is clunky, the drawing tools are limited, and navigating within the site is slow-going.

The artists' palette features more than 70 … Read more

Zuda launches with comics contest, strong reactions

Despite a few hiccups on the big launch day, DC Comics' webcomics initiative Zuda Comics went live before the end of business Tuesday on the Left Coast. The first webcomics push by a corporate comic book publisher, Zuda is attracting a lot of attention as the webcomic-o-sphere tries to figure out what it all means.

What's a Zuda? Major publisher leaps into the world of webcomics

DC Comics has been publishing comic books even before Superman debuted in the first issue of Action Comics nearly seven decades ago. On Tuesday, they launch Zuda Comics, their first foray into webcomics, throwing the full weight of a major publisher into a game that has been dominated by independent and self-published creators.

So what took so long?

Web comics, print comics, and really really big print comics

I start off every day by reading my favorite Web comics. It's the online, nerdy version of paging through the funnies in the newspaper. In the last decade or so, Web comics have gotten pretty big, with huge comics like Sluggy Freelance, User Friendly, PVP, and Penny Arcade getting thousands upon thousands of hits every day. However, these Web comics usually stay almost entirely on the Web, with only the most successful comics materializing in the form of trade paperbacks and print compilations. As it is, Scott Kurtz's PVP is one of the only Web comics to become … Read more