Hi all and welcome to another edition of the Comics and Cartoons Mini Newsletter. For a complete list of past issues, please see the bottom of this newsletter for the list.
The times this newsletter get posted are probably going to change with the next issue, I have been posting them every two weeks, but by accident, I managed to make it hit the same time as the Artists Relations updates, so I'd like to change that.
So the next issue will probably appear sooner than normal to start the alternating. If you have some features I'd really like to have a big whack of features for that issue because it may be lacking in updates.
Your help is always appreciated.

Whats New

I have posted the latest Artists Relations Update for comics and Cartoons.

The Inking contest ended and you can see the winners on the original contest journal.

The Pass the Panel is fully underway! This is a fun challenge thats not too time consuming! I hope everyone has a look and participates!

All contests are over for now, and I don't plan to start a new large comics contest right now because pretty soon there are going to be a bunch of other events popping up site wide that will be fun fun fun and I don't want people to spread themselves too thin of feel overwhelmed. I want everyone to have an opportunity to join all the contests they want.
I do have some planned for sure though, never you fear.

If you read the AR update I posted you'll notice I have a little "Just for fun" thing. It would be awesome if some of you emote artists could make some fun comic emotes for subscribers to thumbnail in their journals! I'll see about getting some prizes for the best too!
This is nothing official, just for fun, and hopefully for some subscriptions.

Edjumikation

Today I'm going to explain the difference between a comic and a cartoon (in terms of Deviantart category structure). What we have here is a very difficult to explain difference, I hope I can make this clear enough.

In the simplest terms, a comic is sequential (or tells a story) and a cartoon does not.

A comic is a page or strip with one or more panels in sequence (See issue#6 for Pages vs Strips) that tells part or a whole story.
Here are some examples of comics:



a cartoon is a single image with no dialogue or caption that doesn't necessarily tell a whole story or show events past a snap shot in time.
Here are some examples of Cartoons:


Having said that, within comics there is often something called a "splash page". This is a page in the comic, usually separating chapters, that is a pinup style image. it often depicts events happening in the next chapter as a teaser type deal to urge you to read on. Sometimes these images are used at the end of a comic book to tease you into buying the next issue. These images tend to look like a single panel dynamic comic page and may or may not have dialogue or text on them. They also often work as covers.
Here's some samples of splash page images:


What separates a splash page from a regular cartoons is generally the dimensions (comics are most often drawn in 11X17 format so deviantart submissions would be in that same aspect ratio) and the usage and you can usually tell by the nature of the image itself.

Gallery News

I'll let out a little info here. I have been working on a system that would make it easier to post and read comics on DA. It's only in the planning stage so it's a long way off if it even gets accepted. There's no guarantee that the DA head honchos are even going to go for it, so don't get your hopes up just yet. I'll propose it and make many offerings to the DA gods and hope they like the idea. I wont say any more than that, but I promise as soon as I know anything I'll let you know what I am allowed to reveal!

There are also some changes going to happen. You may have noticed some other galleries are getting a bit re-structured. Comics is getting a tune up as well pretty soon, I'll have a news article to explain the changes when the time comes. Never you fear.

Features

Previous Issues

Issue #1
Issue #2
Issue #3
Issue #4
Issue #5
Issue #6