GirlAMatic.com LiveJournal!

Von Allan's "Li'l Kids: road to god knows... adventures!"

2008-08-19T14:34:25Z

My first graphic novel, collecting a variety of short stories I've written and drawn, is now available. Yay! It's titled Li'l Kids and is 88 pages in length and features three short stories plus all kinds of concept art. Plus, there's a lot on the writing side of things, too. Not only did I include the script from each story but I also did a breakdown detailing how each story was put together - right from the brainstorming stage to the final script. Hopefully you'll enjoy the peek behind the curtain!

And I've made it available a few different ways, too. First, you can download a free PDF Ebook version at my website (http://www.vonallan.com/shop.html). The link to the PDF is there and there's also a link to a torrent version of the book, too. So if you're not sure about purchasing it sight unseen or if you just prefer an ebook version, this is the way to go. If you do download it, please share it, too. It's licenced under Creative Commons, so if you like it please pass it around to friends and family. One of the hardest things about being an artist is avoiding obscurity. This is an attempt to avoid some of that so please, I would dearly love it if you pass it around.

If you want to purchase a copy, there are a few ways of doing it. The print version is up on Amazon now as well as Barnes and Noble (I'll post the links in just a sec). It will be in a few stores here in Ottawa, Ontario in the near future (including my old bookshop Perfect Books). I'm not positive about comic shops yet. That should be finalized in the next week or two, but things are still up in the air on that front.

The Amazon links are as follows (and yes, in the interest of full disclosure, I do earn a few cents if you purchase a copy following these links):

Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.co.uk

And the link to Barnes and Noble is right here, too!

I'm still a little dazzled that I have my first book out, too. I hope you like it!

Von
<x-posted to altcomix, girlamatic, art_ottawa, comic_creators, ottawa_art and webcomics

girlamatic @ 2008-07-21T22:24:00

2008-07-22T05:25:26Z

Hi folkses!

If you're interested in seeing a partial inking process of Jupiter, check out here or here!

New Editorial!

2008-04-30T15:07:58Z

http://www.girlamatic.com/comics/gam-edit.php?view=archive&chapter=13693&mpe=0

No Open Call

Well folks, after much thought I’ve decided that, this Spring, GirlAMatic will not be holding its usual open submission call.

At first, I thought that just postponing the April call until May would be enough, but there are just too many things going on behind the scenes right now for me to conscience bringing new people on board. I’ll open the submission floodgates again in the Fall. Until that time, here’s what potential GAMmers can do to improve their chances of becoming actual GAMmers:

-Build your archive.
When I tell people that I need to see at least half a dozen pages of continuity to get a feel for their work, that doesn’t mean that that’s all one needs to have finished. That’s just the minimum it usually takes for me to decide if a series is right for GAM.

A full, ongoing and regularly updating archive tells me that the creator in question is making her/his webcomic because that’s what they want to do. Whereas a few pages that were created just for an open call tells me that that creator has no real idea what’s involved in producing consistent updates every single week. Adding a few extra pages to beef your proposal won’t cut it either. If a series creator can’t show that they update their story regularly, on their own, without editorial mandate, then I can be pretty sure that they’ll wash out of GirlAMatic in short order. Hey, if committed, seasoned pros find the pressure difficult at times, then what chance does the unlearned amateur stand?

If you’re uncertain, try putting your series up on your own site (or blog, or whatever) for awhile. Update weekly. If you can manage that for six months without burning out or calling it quits entirely, then we can talk. Your series still might not be right for GAM, but at least you’ll know what it takes and there are other Modern Tales sites that will gladly look at your submission.

-Write your proposal now.
Seriously. Then put it away and forget about it until you’re ready to submit your series for my review. Then take it out, read it and be amazed. Then be prepared to rewrite the entire thing.

-Get to know us first.
GirlAMatic is a family. If the first question in your submission is, “How much money can I make?”, then it’s a pretty safe bet that you won’t be joining our family. It’s not that we don’t want to make money, far from it! But getting rich isn’t why we do what we do. If it was, we’d all be politicians or plastic surgeons.

-This is a creative field, so for cryin’ out loud, use your imagination!
The comics industry is full of unfunny gag strips, bland slice-of-life chronicles and trite superhero stories. I’ve seen more than my share of manga-afflicted artwork and “tell” rather than “show” writing. There is so much more to good storytelling than aping the stuff you grew up on.

Read more than just comics. Learn what makes good storytelling good and apply that to your work.

That’s about it. I’ll meet you all back here in the Fall, when I fully expect to have my socks knocked off.

Until then, a bientot!

GIRLAMATIC! VOTE!

2008-04-16T14:28:22Z

GAM is five years old. The party may be over, but now it's time to vote for your favorite birthday card! See the entries here:

Andre Richard (Jeepers)
Dale Ingram (Hold My Life)

Jean Ciolek (Faery Underground)

John Peters (Gypsy)

Karen Luk (Raconteur)

Laura Wilson (Five Star)

Layla Lawlor (Kismet)

Leigh Dragoon (By the Wayside)

Marilyn Scott-Waters (Return of Dr. Dragon Wagon)

Rachel Moore (Pressing Dawn)

Ronnie Calson (Claviger)

Shaenon Garrity (Li’l Mell)

Stevie Wilson (Black Forest/Arcana Jayne)

Tara Tallan (Galaxion)

Traci Spencer (Compass)

Von Allen (Road to God Knows)

You decide what belongs in which category! Voting closes April 24th.

Happy 5th Birthday, GirlAMatic!

2008-03-30T22:23:34Z

Light the candles, GAM is now FIVE YEARS OLD! Hey! We’re almost old enough to
cross the street by ourselves!

It’s been an entertaining ride these last five years. GAM has seen it’s share of ups and
downs and has happily been the online home of many an excellent comics creator.
Sure, we’ve had some growing pains and toddler tantrums, but we’ve also had some supremely shining moments, and I wouldn’t trade a minute of it for anything.

For the rest of this week, March 31^st through April 6^th, GAMmers will be posting their birthday cards to the site. At the end of our anniversary week, readers everywhere will
have the chance to vote for their favorites in the following categories:

Most “HOLLYWOOD-SHOULD-TOTALLY-BE-ON-MY-SPEED-DIAL”

Most “I-AM-MY-OWN-EVIL-TWIN”

Most “MADE-ME-SNORT-X-BEVERAGE-OUT-MY-NOSE”

Most “I-TOTALLY-PWN-THOSE-MENSA-DORKS”

Most “ISH-KA-BIBBLE”

The GAMmers who win will actually get prizes! WOO! STUFF! (Hey, we’re five now.
Those Pitty Pincess Sparkling Death Ray Kits® don’t grow on trees you know!)

Happy Birthday GirlAMatic! This year kindergarten, next year, the WORLD.

Ever-so-tasty birthday cake image by GirlAMatic founder: Lea Hernandez.

NOTE: Due to a last-minute change in plans, GAM’s next open call will not begin until May 1^st, 2008. That gives you all an extra month to fine tune your submissions; don’t waste it!

girlamatic @ 2008-03-19T09:36:00

2008-03-19T14:36:26Z

New Outspoken interview, conducted by guest interviewer Lisa Jonté! In this edition of Outspoken, we spotlight Karen Luk, creator of the watercolor series Raconteur. Hear ye, hear ye, these folk tales with a twist.

Go read!

girlamatic @ 2008-02-13T09:46:00

2008-02-13T15:47:37Z

New Outspoken interview! In this edition of Outspoken, we spotlight Michelle Mauk, creator of the transcendental fantasy Voyage Moyen. There’s life, there’s death, and then there’s a strange world in between, through which Nate finds himself escorting a mysterious girl named Lunette. After all, it’s a little hard to resist the daughter of Death.

Go read!

girlamatic @ 2008-01-31T09:32:00

2008-01-31T15:32:37Z

New Outspoken interview! In this edition of Outspoken, we spotlight Rachel Hartman, creator of the offbeat trickster tale Return of the Mad Bun. Most rabbits spend their days munching on grass and bounding o’er fields. This one amuses himself by deceiving kings, seducing ladies, and driving villagers plain mad. This is one bun you won’t soon forget.

Go read!

girlamatic @ 2008-01-16T10:57:00

2008-01-16T16:58:20Z

New Outspoken interview, conducted by guest interviewer Karen Luk! In this edition of Outspoken, we spotlight Leigh Dragoon, creator of the fantasy comic By the Wayside. An exorcist and her assistant are on the run, and along the lines there is magic, blackmail, and family conflict. And, okay, occasional naked guys popping out of runes.

Go read!

girlamatic @ 2007-12-03T10:21:00

2007-12-03T16:22:03Z

New Outspoken interview, conducted by guest interviewer Karen Luk! In this edition of Outspoken, we spotlight Jason Thompson, creator of the eerie manga The Stiff. You know high school isn’t complete without teenage angst, love, and zombies. Jason, author of Manga: the Complete Guide, will be speaking at the Cartoon Art Museum on Dec. 6.

Go read!

girlamatic @ 2007-11-26T09:59:00

2007-11-26T16:00:57Z

New Outspoken interview, conducted by guest interviewer Karen Luk! In this edition of Outspoken, we spotlight Lisa Jonté, editor of Girlamatic.com. Lisa gives tips on the craft, remains mysterious about upcoming changes, and comments on the webcomics scene.

Go read!

girlamatic @ 2007-10-15T10:39:00

2007-10-15T15:39:58Z

New Outspoken interview, conducted by guest interviewer Traci Spencer! Whoo! I’ll leave her to introduce this month’s interview:

In this edition of Outspoken, we spotlight Tara Tallan, creator of the futuristic sci-fi adventure Galaxion. When Interplanetary Patrol assumes control of their vessel for an all-too-successful test run of the new jump engines, the crew of the Galaxion are stranded in deep space!

Go read!

girlamatic @ 2007-09-13T09:26:00

2007-09-13T14:27:35Z

New Outspoken interview! In this edition of Outspoken, we spotlight André Richard, creator of the deceptively adorable Jeepers. In a typical magical valley where typical magical adventures occur, it’s only a matter of time before you get tossed into vortexes of doom and have li’l undead spirits wreak havoc upon your person. . . .

Go read!

girlamatic @ 2007-08-15T10:55:00

2007-08-15T15:55:53Z

New Outspoken interview! In this edition of Outspoken, we spotlight Pancha and Elena Diaz, creators of the mythic Iceheart. The icy setting is lonely and forlorn, but the inn owned by Lilia’s parents is warm with welcome. Still, Lilia yearns for adventure, and a mysterious stranger comes to take her away. . .

Go read!

girlamatic @ 2007-07-15T11:31:00

2007-07-15T16:31:18Z

New Outspoken interview! In this edition of Outspoken, we spotlight John Peters of the musical action-adventure Gypsy!. What do you do when you’re an unwitting doctor forced to rescue a comatose client from the clutches of a winged frog? Make sure you’re accompanied by song and dance, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood puppet troupe, of course. It’s that kinda tale.

Go read!

girlamatic @ 2007-06-15T09:18:00

2007-06-15T14:19:04Z

New Outspoken interview! In this edition of Outspoken, we spotlight Katie “Kt Shy” Shanahan, creator of the off-the-wall journal comic Shrub Monkeys. Well, “journal comic” if you consider random gyrating robots and red-caped Spartans part of the norm. They certainly are in this comic, which revels in spontaneity and leaps out at readers with all the energy of a sugar-high. Katie is joined in this interview by co-conspirators Shagster and Hes.

Go read!

Jason Thompson at the Asian Art Museum 06-07-2007

2007-06-07T04:39:33Z

Hello everybody,

Some of you I haven't e-mailed in years, so forgive me for hitting you with this out-of-the-blue, last-minute message, but -- I am giving a presentation on manga at the Asian Art Museum tomorrow night (Thursday), June 7 at 8 PM!

http://www.asianart.org/matcha.htm

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco has a presentation on Osamu Tezuka, and since I live six blocks away and just finished a book about manga ("Manga: The Complete Guide"), it seems like a match made in heaven. I will be speaking at MATCHA, a nighttime party event for the general public.

MATCHA (admission $5) is a casual event where you can get access to the museum's exhibits -- the big ones being "Tezuka, the Marvel of Manga" and "Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales" -- listen to a Japanese DJ, drink alcohol, and generally hang out. I checked out the Tezuka exhibit and it's not huge, but it's good -- in addition to big names like Phoenix and Astro Boy and Buddha, it's got original art and plot summaries from several of his more obscure series. It's got Frederik Schodt giving a guided tour of the exhibit. It's got Shaenon Garrity, of Overlooked Manga Festival and Narbonic fame, doing manga workshops together with her husband and Cartoon Art Museum manager Andrew Farago. And lastly, I will be doing a 20-minute presentation on the world of Japanese manga magazines, starting at approximately 8 PM!

The presentation will be aimed at newbies, but I hope you can make it. A lot of it is material which ended up getting cut from "Manga: The Complete Guide" due to space reasons (I originally wanted to do a whole index of Japanese magazines, but it was too complicated to put in the book). I'll be talking about the basics -- shojo, shonen, seinen, josei, moe, bishonen, and all their various subgroups and the magazines that cater to them. Please show up and help provide a (I hope) friendly audience, since if this turns out okay, I'll probably be doing similar, longer presentations at other conventions this summer.

MATCHA is from 5 to 9 PM on Thursday, June 7. My presentation will be downstairs in the main hall at approximately 8 PM. Hope you can be there, and sorry for the late, late, late notice.

Sincerely,

Jason Thompson

June Editorial

2007-06-01T16:48:15Z

What's Going On In June?

Rachael Moore's Unicorn Campaign has ended! We miss it terribly already and hope all of you will send Rachael emails (lierne AT gmail DOT com) begging with her to create something new!

Layla Lawlor has comic pages on display in Cartoon North, a gallery show of sequential art in Ester, Alaska.

Starting in April, she's been re-running Freebird daily from the beginning; she'll catch up to the current strips and return to its Mondays-only schedule in mid-June.

John Peters (artist behind this month's excellent cover art) will be at MOCCA in June, debuting the first collected Gypsy book.

Tara Tallan will be appearing at the Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon (), June 8-10. She will also be participating in the Women of Comics portion of the show. June will also see Tara start the beginning of Chapter Two of Galaxion.

Michelle Mauk's Voyage Moyen is going to take a quick break in June. She will be putting up a 20 page short story in its place called "The Taking City". She will also be "gawking" at Anime Expo Long Beach on June 30th.

Girlamatic Goodness - Outspoken w/Rachel Moore

2007-05-15T15:25:31Z

Roving reporter Lynn Lau's [ maelie ] has given us another fascinating insight into the mind of Girlamaticer Rachel Moore, creator of Unicorn Campaign, in her latest Outspoken Column. I personally feel a deep and abiding affection for Rachel's sensitive, delicate line-work and her story has made a campaign into my imagination. Thanks again, Lynn, for another great interview!

GAM May 2007 Cover

2007-05-04T20:58:32Z

Originally posted by GAM interim editor Leigh:

Andre Richards jeepersjournal has kicked a little ass with his Girlamatic Cover image for May!

Thanks, Andre!

Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day!

2007-04-23T15:36:14Z

4 Girlamaticers have offerings on this beautiful Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day:

The Sleeping One
by Leigh Dragoon
Flash fiction dark fantasy

Battening Down
by Layla Lawlor
A story set in Layla's popular Kismet: Hunter's Moon universe.

Killian:Demon's Gate
by Katie Shanahan
A prose piece with beautifully illustrated border art.

Family Matters
by Tara Tallan
A rousing science fiction yarn!

Read and enjoy, and a happy PSTD to all!

Daily Freebird, Kismet Scrapbook & Question of the Week!

2007-04-16T06:58:23Z

I have several overdue announcements, all in one post!

First of all, Kismet Scrapbook is updating on Saturdays on GAM! These are letters, documents and other goodies from the world of Kismet: Hunter's Moon. I can't guarantee an update every single week, but there should be something new most weeks.

Second, I've gone back and transferred the archives of my non-GAM comic Freebird to Webcomicsnation.com -- which means it is now updating daily until the middle of June! Freebird is a humor/soap opera-type strip about the lives of a small group of eccentric neighbors living just outside Fairbanks, Alaska. Any resemblance to actual people is mostly coincidental.

And finally, I've been posting "questions of the week" at my creative blog, laylalawlor. Some of them are writing-specific, while others are geared more towards comics and others are more general creative questions for readers, writers or fans. This week's question is a comics question: how does your creative process change between different kinds of comics?

Biff! POW! BAM!

2007-03-28T22:12:03Z

Kismet's final days

2006-11-11T00:49:41Z

Kismet: Hunter's Moon has entered its final chapter and will wrap up on, appropriately, the last week of 2006. Christmas Day, to be precise.

Now you'll be able to read the story in its entirety, from the beginning, for free.

Another long Kismet story will follow in spring 2007. The title will be announced and sneak previews will appear on my workblog.

GAM-O-Ween and an Early Jayne Update

2006-10-25T16:19:56Z

GAM-O-Ween begins today and to kick things of Arcana Jayne is updating a wee bit early! So come come along to GAM and take a peek at our Snapsots from the GAM Halloween Party!

This year's candid captures of Jayne and company are courtesy of Michelle Mauk, creator of the fantastic, Voyage Moyen!