There's a new Linux magazine called "Linux Voice" which is a little different to most magazines: they aim to contribute 50% of their profits back to FOSS projects, and they intend to release all their content under an open license (currently CC-BY-SA) within 9 months. Oh, they've also got a comic strip

"Elvie" is created using open source software: MyPaint, The GIMP and Inkscape running on Linux Mint. I won't post a lot about it on this site, as Inkscape is used mainly for the final layout, speech bubbles and text. Like our Greys comic, we intend to make the source files available for download. The first issue of the magazine has arrived with subscribers now, and will be in shops in the UK at the end of this week, and in various other countries soon afterwards.

Here's Elvie in my subscriber copy:




We would also love to have Elvie translated into other languages - we hope the open license and availability of the source files will help with this, as it did with The Greys. If anyone's interested in helping with this, we're mainly seeking people to commit to translating the first two strips at the moment, just to start things off and hopefully encourage more translators to come forward. If you're interested, please email "mark AT peppertop.com", reply here, or send me a private message.

The first two Elvie strips are now on our website:

http://peppertop.com/elvie/comic/000-introducing-elvie/
http://peppertop.com/elvie/comic/elvie-001/

If you're interested in how we combine the artwork from MyPaint with the lettering and frames from Inkscape, we're making all of the source files available via GitHub:

https://github.com/Peppertop/Elvie


As always, we're also on the lookout for new translators. We already have a Brazilian Portuguese translation of one of the strips, but more languages would be nice

Wow this magazine looks really nice. How often do you plan to publish?

blue.bear wrote:Wow this magazine looks really nice. How often do you plan to publish?

Sorry, I've only just spotted your question.

I just contribute to the magazine, in the form of the comic strip and occasional articles. It's created and published by a small group of professionals, with a background in producing a Linux magazine for a large UK publisher. The magazine is published monthly, and the fifth edition (with my favourite Elvie strip to date) just landed on my doorstep yesterday.

It's comparable, price-wise, with other specialist print magazines, and is available in a large number of newsagents and supermarkets worldwide - though a subscription works out cheaper in the long run. They also sell individual back issues, and digital subscriptions if you don't want the print version. See the "Shop" link at the top of their website (www.linuxvoice.com). If you're interested in Linux then their fortnightly podcast is also worth a listen.

A bit of thread necromancy to let you know that our Elvie strip has now been appearing in print every month for 5 years! Initially it was in Linux Voice magazine, then that publication got subsumed into Linux Magazine (Linux Pro Magazine in the US), but they kept the cartoon running.

To celebrate this milestone I've written an article about how we create our strips. It doesn't go into much technical detail, so don't expect it to be a howto for creating comics with Inkscape, but it might interest some. It's in issue #220 of Linux (Pro) magazine, which should be on news stands now. Or you can order a copy (print or pdf) here: http://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2019/220

Do you maybe have some kind of arrangement with them that you can share the article freely after a certain time? I know of some German authors who did this.

oh, and: Congrats! That's quite an accomplishment!

Unfortunately not for the article. We had originally hoped to write it back in the Linux Voice days, and all their content was made available under a Creative Commons license after a while, but there's no such deal with Linux Magazine.

The Elvie cartoons themselves are all under a Creative Commons license, and the MyPaint and Inkscape source files are pushed to GitHub several months after initially appearing in print.

Ah, okay. Thanks

Wow, congratulations from me too! Here's to the next 5+ years. May you never run out of ideas.

Dillerkind wrote:Wow, congratulations from me too! Here's to the next 5+ years. May you never run out of ideas.

Thanks. Coming up with new ideas (or new ways to re-hash old ones ) is certainly the hardest part - nerdy Linux and tech stuff isn't always the easiest topic to extract jokes from!