Philadelphia comic book artist Box Brown is being commissioned as one of a rotating cast of artists that will be filing strips for Engadget: The Comic, published by the popular consumer electronics news site. We wrote about Brown, who relies on social media and a blog to get his message and work out, back in January.
The weekly comic strip focuses on developing tech news and the funny stories therein. See the comic here.
With any luck, comic artist Brian “Box Brown” will get a little closer to paying off his student loans with the delivery of the latest web and print installments of his Everything Dies comic series.
When Brown, 30, moved to West Philly near Clark Park in August 2008 for his then girlfriend (now fiance), he planned to work on comics for a few weeks before getting a day job in communications. Funny thing about late 2008, looking back, it turns out the economy was headed for the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Unable to find full-time work, Brown dug back into freelancing. He now works on comics “every single day including weekends” and also continues taking on illustration and design work on the side.
“So I kind of fell backwards into this as a career,” Brown tells Technically Philly. “But, in many ways, I’m thankful because I might not have had the courage to do it otherwise.”
After the jump, CoTweet gets big name clients, Viddler video of Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose and more.
A quick read of Ben Franklin;s bio will tell you that Philadelphia is home to many American firsts. Now you can add another: the first iPhone-exclusive comic.
According to the publisher, StopWatch Media, “The Carrier” is the first comic available only on the iPhone. That is, it was not also published in print or online. [iTunes link: paid, free]
“The Carrier” is a story about a man who awakes in Thailand to find a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist and must figure out the origins of the briefcase while he regains his memory.
“If you are a fan of the Borne movies, you;ll love it,” says writer Evan Young, who lives near South Street.
The story takes full advantage of all the features available in a programmable, GPS-enabled device. The story’s 35 chapters unfold in real-time. If chapter two takes place 45 minutes after chapter one, it will be available on your phone exactly 45 minutes after you view the last panel of chapter one.
In junior high school most students doodle or play hangman when not paying attention. Jason Richardson, on the other hand, wrote code.
“All during school I just wouldn’t pay attention to the teacher. It looked like I was taking notes but I was just writing code on graph paper,” he says. “I have a thing for creating.”
The 31-year-old founder of South Street-based J1 Studios spent his youth making board games, card games and video games and hasn’t let up since. Richardson is taking the hobbies of his youth and slowly building a geek media empire complete with anime-style comics, podcasts and video game development and will have a booth at the upcoming GameX expo.
But, if you ask Richardson, he’ll tell you it all started with an Apple II and a Zelda instruction manual.
Earlier this week, we covered Northeast Philadelphia’s favorite graphic novelist Duane Swierczynski.
We talked about social media – his blogging and tweeting – and other junk.
But dude’s dry humor is too good to not enjoy twice. After a ride through YouTube, watch our favorite posted interview experience of Duane’s from years passed.
Crazed graphic novelist and Philadelphia-native Duane Swierczynski isn’t the first comic-author using social media.
Last month, we spoke to the South Philly minds behind the Black Cherry Bombshells. But Swierczynski, 37, who has blogged since October 2004 and tweeted since last summer, recalls when fan chasing was a real game.
“I remember writing a fan letter to Clive Barker back in 1988, and I went through a lot of trouble trying to figure out the address, typing the letter, retyping the letter when I realized that I made a few bone-headed mistakes, and finally, waiting many, many weeks for a response,” Swierczynski said. “I still have the letter framed.”
“Now it’s extremely easy to reach out and say “yo” to your favorite writer. This is great, but perhaps some of the magic has been lost, too.”
That’s because fans of the man behind the newest editions of The Punisher for Marvel Comics can just get online and come find Duane Swierczynski in an instant.
Like other media, comic books have had to deal with the paradigm shift of the Web. Comic book artists that were previously limited to just ink on paper, now can use a wide variety of technologies to show the world their work. Just like the Internet has given independent musicians an alternative to record labels, the independent comic book artist can reach audiences like never before.
Tucked away in South Philly are two members of the city’s booming comic book scene, John Zito and Tony Trovarello who are riding the new wave of comic distribution. The two have been using the Web to publish Black Cherry Bombshells, a comic about a post-apocalyptic world where all of the men have been turned into zombies leaving the women to fend for themselves.
What sounds like a description of last week’s South by Southwest festival, is actually a entertaining read full of everything a comic fan for ask for: “gratuitous” violence, zombies and women who could take you in a bar fight. Technically Philly sat down with John and Tony to talk about the city’s comic book scene, the Web’s effect on comic books, and who played Lynne Abraham in their Ed Rendell musical.
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