Well I finally got to see "Adventures in Digital Comics", the long-anticipated documentary about webcomics. I'm not it in, but one of my black and white Pewfell strips appears on screen fairly briefly - big thrills! I didn't get paid, but I do get bragging rights and it qualified me to receive a free copy of the film on DVD! So was it worth the wait? Director Sebastien Dumesnil originally began the project about 4 years ago I believe, filming a number of interviews with some well-known webcomics personalities at Comicon in San Diego where he also captured on film the very first ModernTales.com panel - which I sadly missed. Over the years he's added some other interviews, of varying production quality. Scott McCloud gets some good air time and comes across well, but the interviews with Shaennon Garrity and Derek Kim suffer from very poor lighting and audio quality.
The movie gives a good overview of the recent history of the traditional comics market, and of the birth and early growth of the webcomics industry. However failing to secure interviews with some key players such as Scott Kurtz and the Penny Arcade boys who actually make a living out of their comics is a pretty major omission.
In general there is way too much time spent on the reasons why the print comics industry slumped in the nineties. There is no similar in-depth look at the history of webcomics themselves and no mention of early pioneers such as Sluggy or Argon Zark.
I wish the film-makers had spent more time looking at the actual webcomics, and what makes them so unique, rather than just having a lot of talking heads telling us that they are unique, and then only flashing us quick glimpses of what they are talking about.
Still, it wasn't boring and I believe this film was an early effort for the young filmmakers, and a labor of love. If truth be told I did find it inspiring. It has made me determined to redouble my efforts with my own comics, which have slacked off a bit of late. Also it got me my first movie credit and a listing in the Internet Movie Database. For ALL these reasons I am giving it a 7 rather than a six!
Chuck Whelon
http://www.pewfell.com
The movie gives a good overview of the recent history of the traditional comics market, and of the birth and early growth of the webcomics industry. However failing to secure interviews with some key players such as Scott Kurtz and the Penny Arcade boys who actually make a living out of their comics is a pretty major omission.
In general there is way too much time spent on the reasons why the print comics industry slumped in the nineties. There is no similar in-depth look at the history of webcomics themselves and no mention of early pioneers such as Sluggy or Argon Zark.
I wish the film-makers had spent more time looking at the actual webcomics, and what makes them so unique, rather than just having a lot of talking heads telling us that they are unique, and then only flashing us quick glimpses of what they are talking about.
Still, it wasn't boring and I believe this film was an early effort for the young filmmakers, and a labor of love. If truth be told I did find it inspiring. It has made me determined to redouble my efforts with my own comics, which have slacked off a bit of late. Also it got me my first movie credit and a listing in the Internet Movie Database. For ALL these reasons I am giving it a 7 rather than a six!
Chuck Whelon
http://www.pewfell.com
