Today starts a new feature on the Kenny Chronicles: Link of the week. Every Friday from now until whenever, I’ll be linking to a comic that I follow. I’ll be going in nearly alphabetical order, and I will only link to comics that update at least once a week. There will be a few exceptions, since I’m making my own rules.
Today will be an exception to a couple rules. Today I’d like to point your attention to Comicraft, who are TODAY ONLY(all time zones) selling all their fonts for US$20.10 each in celebration of the new year. Even one that is normally US$395! The font I use in my comic was bought in last year’s New Years sale for $20.09 and is named “¡Los Vampiros!”. I bought the International version that is normally $99. Seriously, choose the International font if you use this sale, it costs the same and has ALL the accent marks and upside-down punctuation you could ever need. Comicraft has a LOT of great fonts for every purpose. For more information on the sale, click here.
And, I can’t mention Comicraft without mentioning Blambot, another font provider for cartoonists and illustrators. They have a wide variety of free fonts every day(generally without international letters), and their pay fonts are usually $US20. Most webcartoonists get their fonts here.
If you want to be more unique(some fonts get over-used, after all), I recommend Comicraft’s sale. If you want a good font for free or when Comicraft isn’t doing their January 1st sale, I recommend Blambot.
Every Friday, I’m posting links to my favorite webcomics, and since I’m going alphabetically, that means the first comic to get a recommendation from me is Bear Nuts, by Alison Acton.
These bears live at the Discount Zoo and get gawked at, have stuff thrown at them by kids, and all around have no privacy. Well, they have their cave with their stolen plasma TV, couch, private bath and all the amenities, but it’s still humiliating. This character-driven story follows the lives of (in order of picture) Death Bear, Crack Bear, Gimpy Bear, Evil Bear, Prozac Bear(let’s hope there aren’t any trademark suits in Alison’s future), Nerd Bear, Tanked Bear, Gay Bear, and Lech Bear. It’s cute, very professionally-drawn(great expressions!), and has entertaining storylines. As you can tell from the picture, it’s not a kids comic(PG, maybe PG-13), and the first comic makes it clear what age-appropriateness to expect(okay, PG-13). I had the same tactic with my first Kenny Chronicles comic. It’s clear what Gimpy’s hobbies are between comics, and Tanked is always drunk. The character dynamics work well against each other. Evil Bear has horns! Death Bear can kill with a touch. Prozac Bear… well, just make sure his meds don’t run out.
Bear Nuts is the reason I’ve started offering vote incentives, too. They have a new vote incentive with each comic, and it’s gotten them VERY high up on the TopWebComics ranking(having a great comic helps too). I’ve gotten some traffic via TopWebComics, and I’ve started having some behind-the-scenes stuff to share(pics of the full 3D models used in recent comics), so I’m on board with the vote incentive idea. I already have a buffer building for them, too! WOW, A BUFFER!!!
World-traveler and cartoonist Ryan Estrada created a comic about a werewolf(She’s the one on the left), but this story occurs BETWEEN full moons. The comic makes great use of situational comedy, showing the guy bringing a girlfriend home so she can meet the parents, who seem very disapproving of her being a werewolf. The comic is an 8-page complete story, so don’t worry about it taking much of your time.
Here’s the big news, though: the comic is being turned into a movie! Ryan and his production team are independently creating it, and they need your help. If you help fund part of the movie, you can get anywhere from a mention in the film credits to a cameo, all the way up to having the world premiere right in your living room. There’s even an option to have your DOG featured in the movie, since the main character is a professional dog-walker.
I really want to see this movie finished. Ryan has done animation before, and has drawn comics for a significant portion of his life. He has the artistic chops to do this. If you contribute, tell them you heard about it here and a portion will be contributed to Kenny Chronicles as well! In fact, if this post leads you to get mauled by a werewolf, I’ll also contribute to have my name listed in the credits.
Whether you pay to have a cameo shot or not, read the comic. The link is right in their sidebar. I wouldn’t be making this post if there wasn’t a funny comic to link to. It’s worth reading.
This week, I’d like to share with you: Sasquatch. Or the yeti. Whatever you call him, also call him Charles Christopher because that’s his name.
Charles Christopher is a BEAUTIFULLY-drawn comic by Karl Kerschl(as if you couldn’t tell from the image), who happens to be a professional cartoonist(obvious in his art). He’s worked on such comics as Superman, Teen Titans, and The Flash! The art is both immersive and dynamic. The humor is silly and charming.
The story mostly focuses on Charles, although it bounces around to the various creatures of Cedar Forest. The skunks and the raccoons have been my favorite characters so far. Karl mixes very expressive, human-like expressions with realistically-drawn forest critters as if they’ve always talked like that. The skunks’ trademark thumbs-up always makes me giggle. Oh, and otters. There’s a storyline with otters!
But, it’s not all giggles and drunk sparrows. There are some serious storylines in there, mostly focusing on Vivol, the former circus bear that is now a respected resident of the forest. I personally prefer when the stories are funny, but the occasional character-building gives a lot more depth to the experience. These are characters that people care about, and the comments certainly back that statement up strongly. I’ve never seen a cheery sidekick character get so much response as Townsen.
The following strip, which is from my birthday, represents the comic pretty well:
Go read the comic at www.abominable.cc! I highly recommend starting at the beginning. The latest comic has humans speaking, which is downright out of the ordinary for this comic, hence the sample strip above. The comic updates every Wednesday.
It’s time for another link of the week! Going down my list of watched comics, the next one in alphabetical order is… The Book Of Biff.
The Book Of Biff is a single-panel weekdaily comic that focuses on Biff, a bizarre individual(whom I doubt is fully human) with huge eyebrows and a line for a mouth. He’ll often discover things like the green stuff with his sushi is NOT mint-flavored, or that having a detachable nose is a valuable asset for any babysitter. He occasionally visits the moon, grows mashed potatoes, and mixes tragically incompatible hobbies.
Chris Hallbeck does great visual gags, and is consistently funny. In addition to that, the blog posts underneath each comic are ALSO always entertaining. Usually he’ll tell of some related experience, which is scary enough that he’d actually have a related experience to what’s happening to Biff.
You can go enjoy the comic at www.TheBookOfBiff.com, and remember to watch out for his invisible green car.
This week’s link is for Doc Rat, a comic that features a lot of medical humor that will easily be funny to the general public. Jenner is a VERY talented artist, and apparently a doctor as well(write what you know). Usually the comics will play on words, although recently he’s had a storyline where the doctor(Benjamin Rat) has recently proposed to the dentist lady, right after fighting off a gang.
The comic isn’t the only feature on the website, though. There’s also a monthly caption contest! At the top, there’s a link that says “Prizes!”. If you click on it this month, you’ll see a puppy carrying a bedpan and a syringe. Submit a funny caption for that, and Jenner will send you the original artwork with your words added! There’s a link to the previous winners(and LOTS of great honourable mentions) from that page and from the home page. I’ve submitted one caption so far. It’s hard to come up with a funny caption or word bubble for someone else’s art.
The only nitpick I’d have is the lack of an rss feed, but I know of some workarounds. I haven’t shared my unofficial feed with anybody yet because there’s a 1-day delay due to the latest comic not being listed on the archives, plus some services don’t show it properly(works well in Google Reader). You can subscribe to that feed here. Another workaround is RSSPECT, which creates an rss feed based on when a page has changed. Unfortunately, it only tells you that it has updated, making it hard to pick up where you left off if you missed a few strips.
I’m glad that I’m able to keep up with this comic. It’s funny, it’s consistent, and it’s well-drawn. You can find it at http://www.docrat.com.au
Wild Onesis a Facebook game which pits 2-6 random players against each other and sets them loose with rockets, bombs, grenades and more. I love fighting games with cute characters! I wouldn’t mind if they added some blood to it, but that’s just personal preference. You start out the game with a dog, whose special weapon is a bomb shaped like a bone. After you level up a little, you get to add a bunny(superjumps!). You can customize the colors however you like, so I made myself a mini-Kenny! After you level up some more, you can buy a panda(punching power), and later a monkey(can climb walls, dude).
The game was already pretty cool in alpha testing, so I was excited when it finally went into beta mode. Playdom keeps adding more stuff and has a forum where you can suggest more features. I’m eager to find what they add next. They recently added a heart-shaped bomb for Valentine’s Day, as seen on the left.
Click here to let the fur fly! BUT IN ADDITION… when you join, friend me on Facebook with a message asking to be my neighbor on Wild Ones! Neighbors can send each other free gifts, and I need people to give and receive weapons.
While I’m on the subject of Facebook, I should also point out the Kenny Chronicles fan page. I keep an archive of old vote incentives and post site updates there, plus there are ways for fans to contribute to the fun in usual Facebook fashion.
Yesterday’s comic just begged to have audio attached to it, so instead of a link of the week, I’m changing the name to “Friday Feature” and presenting to you the YouTube version of the Bed Rock comic.
Today will be an exception to a couple rules. Today I’d like to point your attention to Comicraft, who are TODAY ONLY(all time zones) selling all their fonts for US$20.10 each in celebration of the new year. Even one that is normally US$395! The font I use in my comic was bought in last year’s New Years sale for $20.09 and is named “¡Los Vampiros!”. I bought the International version that is normally $99. Seriously, choose the International font if you use this sale, it costs the same and has ALL the accent marks and upside-down punctuation you could ever need. Comicraft has a LOT of great fonts for every purpose. For more information on the sale, click here.
And, I can’t mention Comicraft without mentioning Blambot, another font provider for cartoonists and illustrators. They have a wide variety of free fonts every day(generally without international letters), and their pay fonts are usually $US20. Most webcartoonists get their fonts here.
You start out the game with a dog, whose special weapon is a bomb shaped like a bone. After you level up a little, you get to add a bunny(superjumps!). You can customize the colors however you like, so I made myself a mini-Kenny! After you level up some more, you can buy a panda(punching power), and later a monkey(can climb walls, dude).