Comic Con International 2010: Snowflakes By Zach Weiner & Chris Jones

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Reviews, Independent,

I was talking to Zach Weiner (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) at this year’s San Diego Comic Con and he mentioned that he and artist Chris Jones (the guys behind Captain Excelsior) had a webcomic called Snowflakes that they do with James Ashby. Weiner scripts, Jones arts and Ashby plots.

Zach said the problem with doing a kid-friendly webcomic is that parents tend not to seek them out for their kids - they go right to the “safe” sites like Disney or Nickelodeon and that’s it. And that’s too bad, because they’re missing out on a real treat. Snowflakes began in 2009 and it updates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Because it’s the internet, all of the previous episodes are posted so you can always start back at the beginning and catch up.

Here are the basics, cribbed from the site: “On a mountain top somewhere in the Andes mountains, a small group of very, very, very old nuns maintains a cozy orphanage. The kids have lost their families, and it may never stop snowing, but there’s always a fire in the fireplace and a never-ending supply of snowballs just outside the front door.

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Read More | Snowflakes Website

Comic Con International 2010: Zach Weiner And Chris Jones

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Reviews, IDW Publishing,

Captain Excelsior is a webcomic that I discovered late. I met Zach Weiner at the 2008 San Diego Con and he gave me an ashcan of his webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal he was handing out. That led me to his website which had a link to Excelsior. See how this whole “internet thing” works?

Captain Excelsior was almost completed by then so I went back to page 1 and read through the previous installments all in one sitting. Created by Weiner and illustrated by Chris Jones (artist on Grumps), the series is about Captain Excelsior, a super-hero who’s having some issues.

One of his sons has no super powers, another might be gay, his high-strung daughter can’t find a date for the prom and she kills people when she gets angry, his ex-wife is getting remarried and he’s having trouble navigating the dating world because, well, he’s a doofus. He’s a better super-hero than he is a father, but he’d have to be: he’s a terrible father.

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Read More | Captain Excelsior

Q&A: Zach Weiner and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Interviews,

Zach Weiner has been aware of all internet traditions since the late 1990s, and his website, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is one of the most popular webcomics around. There are dozens of adjectives to describe the (mostly) single-panel daily strip, but the best one is this: funny. Zach brings it. SMBC is a hilarious mix of cartoons based on pop culture, science, relationships, and nerd humor, making it a must-read for thousands of fans.

In addition to his solo work on SMBC, Zach has also written Captain Excelsior a 96-page graphic novel illustrated by Chris Jones. Captain Excelsior reads like a mash-up of NBC’s The Office and Ben Edlund’s The Tick. Zach and Chris finished it at the end of 2008 and the whole full-color thing is available for a free read over at their site. Start here and work your way through – you’ll want to keep clicking to the next page. More work from Zach is promised in the future and eagerly awaited. Now grab a bowl and a spoon and have some Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal with Zach.

TOM: When did you launch “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal”?

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