DC enters webcomics; New BL con in the works?

DC Comics has unveiled its first real online comics initiative, Zudacomics.   News and analysis here, here, here, and here.

Thus far, DC’s strategy is not to offer their main line of comics in digital format, but rather the creation of what seems to be an intellectual property generator slash American Idol-esque popularity contest, and I’m not sure an entirely convincing argument for webcomickers to abandon what they’re doing now and embrace yet another middleman has been made.  Then again, the allure of simply being published by DC is probably enough to pique the interests of a great number of creators.

Edit: Red flags regarding details on ownership, or lack thereof, are already being raised by professionals over at The Engine here and here.

Edit 2: Blog@Newsarama has a pretty good list going.

Edit 3: The Beat has another round-up of the best analysis, snark, and cynicism.  Sigh… despite being the more progressive of the big two, DC still can’t win.

Edit 4: And perhaps the most perfect summary, until more concrete details emerge as the launch date approaches, at The Comics Reporter.

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David Welsh is first to notice that the former Ice Kunion website now redirects to http://www.freemanhwa.com/.

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MangaBlog has PR from Yaoi Press with details of yet a second BL-specific convention: Yaoi Jamboree.

Not much to comment on yet since there are few pertinant details available, such as whether this is a convention specifically for this publisher, or if this is a genre expo and other BL pubs are welcome.  But wow… 2,000 18+ yaoi fans in the middle of Arizona’s sweltering heat?  Mmmm mmmm…

I am creepy. (._.;)

Edit: Yaoi Press indicates in the comment section that Yaoi Jamboree will indeed be open to all publishers of BL which, if all of them were to attend, would give this BL con an exhibitor list that rivals the population of small Eastern-European countries.

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Every manga plagiarism controversy ever.  Hah.

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I’ve avoided linking or commenting on the seinen manga discussion over at Precocious Curmudgeon not only because the original post that inspired it was admittedly flamebait, but also because some of the most salient and agreeable responses were made here and here by a gentleman who shares the same name as I, so for me to jump into the discussion would be awkwardly redundant.  However, I have to link to it now, in order to provide context for Christopher Butcher’s great response at Comics212.

Actually, I can’t say I completely disagree with the original, slightly-combative post that kicked off the debate, in spite of the odd assumptions it makes about seinen publishers and readers, and attribution of arguments and institutional animosity to them that were never made/never existed; the belief that the act of publishing is a purely number-and-cents exercise that doesn’t take into account the taste of individual publishers and editors; and the somewhat nonsensical proposition that manga publishers should stop trying to license less-than-mega-profitable books that, if taken to its (il)logical extreme, would negate the publication of all manga that isn’t named Naruto or Fruits Basket.  The manga publishing industry as a whole should recognize weaknesses in the market, so those weaknesses can be met head-on, or at least managed sensibly.  The promise of manga is the elevation of comics beyond any niche – not through the dumbing-down of everything to the mass market-palatable kiddystuff of so many PG movies - but by separately addressing the needs of all kinds of readers with an equally varied assortment of material.  If we fail to do that, “manga” would eventually replace “spandex” as a derogatory term for the kind of narrow genre isolation (or simply the mere perception of it) that plagues the medium.  We do not want to find ourselves on the top of TCJ’s list of what’s killing the industry 10 years from now, do we?