Weekly Arts, Comix and Media round up for May 27th, 2009
by Jason Thibault

It’s been another busy week on the internets. A lot of stuff going on in the comics industry with the convention season upon us. A lot going on in the social media space as well, just cuz there always is.

Comics
Heidi over at the Beat posted on the new upcoming documentary on comics writer and cult icon Grant Morrison. The internet was abuzz late last week when a trailer for said documentary was released.

She also digs up some old gems in Comics Archaeology this week and makes me sorta miss the way things used to be.

Comic lettering legend Todd Klein wrote a nice article on creating a lettering sampler.

Smoky man has a chat with artist Chris Sprouse over at the Sardinian Connection on breaking into comics, art styles and working with Alan Moore.

Jock can really draw his ass off. Love these Batman sketches.

Scott McCloud hipped us to this really cool webcomic, Man-Machine with a side-scrolling interface.

Comic News showcases a really cool Fan-Made Green Lantern Trailer. The creator Jaron Pitts grabbed bits and pieces from  30 other films, worked some Adobe AfterEffects magic and came up with a rather slick looking result. Warner Bros. (or whomever is making the real movie) is going to have to haul ass to rival this.

Paul Pope shows a killer 2-page spread of his work on an old DC classic, Adam Strange by for DC’s new Wednesday Comics.

Over the Memorial Day long weekend MTV splash page spoke with comic legend Joe Kubert discussing his experiences during the Korean War.

Tom Spurgeon of Comics Reporter features his annual Comic-Con By The Numbers: 100 Tips For Attending San Diego’s CCI 2009!

The Erudite Baboon does a piece on the creative process…and does it in style in the form of a webcomic.

Topless Robot tells us the 5 Things Comic Book Movies Need to Stop Doing.

Johanna at Comics Worth Reading talks about breaking into comics, by going back to an old-school book that you need to read if you’re considering trying to enter the profession. I still have my old dog-eared copies of Lurene Haines’ books.

Josh Flanagan takes us through several comic scripting programs for writers over at Comixup on Pop Culture Shock.

On The Business of Art

TechDirt continues along with their discussions on future business models for creators with last week’s More Artists Recognizing The New Business Model: Sell The Scarcity.

Artist Evan Roth has initiated the Intellectual Property Asshole Competition. He recreated two famous images of President Obama in the form of paintings and has put them up for sale. He’s awaiting a cease and desist order from lawyers repping  Shepard Fairey and/or the  Associated Press.

Finance Your Freedom made some solid points on Why the Job-ification of Your passion can be the ticket to hating your life.

Simply badass new concert poster designs by Rhys Cooper who never fails to impress with his drawing skills. I want ’em…all.

Angela Ferraro-Fanning at Freelance Switch featured 72 stunning business card designs from http://creattica.com/. My faves were the FridgeWorks and Muku designs. But I have a pretty kickass biz card of my own.

You need to go check out both versions of Aaron Horkey’s Flight of the Conchords Poster. I’d buy the second one but good luck on that.

Kevin tong shows us how to properly ship a poster.

Writing

Last week over at Write to Done, there’s a pair of articles on thinning out your writing and removing the unnecessary. First up was Leo with The Elegant Art of Writing Less. Then Mary Jaksch followed up with Wordflab Surgery. They’re a great pair of articles and a good refresher on how easily our writing can become bloated. There’s some fun to be had on the comments as well. Personally all it took for me was reading a few James Ellroy novels. Out went the adjectives and adverbs.

Internet Life and Social Media

Wired posted on the continuing oddities of the PirateBay trial. Last week the judge reviewing Pirate Bay trial bias was removed for bias. They also featured a report on How Game Design Can Revolutionize Everyday Life.

On mashable there were three very handy articles. First up was their PrintFriendly Makes Blogs Printable Video. And two for Twitter users; Top 5 Ways to Share Videos on Twitter and HOW TO: Create Custom Twitter Backgrounds.

FOX’s director of publicity exerts control on Dollverse Fansite making the corporation look like quite the assholes in the process.

And finally Rama wonders if Brad Pitt is cool enough to play Steve McQueen in an upcoming biopic on the manliest of manly actors from the 60’s and 70’s.