Answer: a whole damn lot. In the less than 24 hours since I last posted, Rich Burlew has added more than 500 supporters and US$63,000 to his already-impressive numbers so my prediction of tapering off to 325 large as a final tally? Busted. Let’s just shoot the moon and call it a cool half-mil. And yes, I know I said the widget was so I wouldn’t have to keep coming back to it. But it’s just so compelling.

• Speaking of dollars and the passage of time, let’s talk Jin Wicked for a moment. Ms Wicked was the creator of the much-missed Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break (entertaining for a half-decade but gone lo these near-four years) and continued her daily autobio comickin’ with A Dollar Late and A Day Short (for about two years, ending in September 2010 with a meditation on dying). She’s back, with A$L&ADS turning in what is hopefully the first of many new updates.
• I’m particularly glad to see A$L&ADS come back, as it may nicely fill the gap that will be left as Bucko hits its 102nd and final update, precisely filling one year with the self-described dick and fart joke murder mystery. At least, it started as a murder mystery, and it really turned into something much deeper. The journey that Bucko and his friends took was really about crossing the boundaries of enclaves (in this case, Portland hipsters) and learning about other tribal groups (bike fixers, steampunkers, Suicide Girls, juggalos, cops, and book fetishizers), each of whom was given that which we generally deny the Other: a chance to be seen as their own people, each with virtues and reasons to like them. Guys, this comic made me consider the possibility that juggalos are actually people and for that I will both thank and curse Erika Moen & Jeff Parker in equal measure.

  I have just one quibble with Bucko, and it’s not forcing me to reconsider my prejudices regarding murder-clowns. It’s that the “murder mystery” part of the story kind of fell by the wayside. I mean, that dude is still dead in the bathroom (although presumably they moved the body), and it never got resolved. The Scooby Gang would have figured out it was the crooked land developer who stabbed the guy before making plans for group sex, not that that is a disturbing mental image in any way. Anyway, guy’s dead and the cops are too busy gettin’ it on in the cruiser, which means the ultimate lesson of Bucko is, Whatever life throws at you, make sure you sex it up, which you have to admit is a pretty good moral. Carry on, Parker & Moen, I rescind my complaint.

• Let’s finish up with a quick schedule of appearances for Scott C, who will be doing drawing and craft demos around the New Jersey/New York area for the next couple of weeks, starting this Thursday, 2 February, at the Barnes & Noble on Rt 1 southbound in Princeton. Unfortunately, there’s no way I’ll be able to get from work to that store in time for the 6:00pm start, so everybody say hi to Scott for me, hey?

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Hmmm, no footnotes. Weird.

Firstly, some things I missed when sick (boo, hiss) last Friday: the irrepressible KC Green not only kept TopatoCo from burning down while his indenture-holders Jeff and Holly¹ were off in the Bahamas, he also hit Gunshow #500 in a suitably Snakespearean fashion.
Also, for those planning out what to do in the coming week, Angela Melick² will be giving a talk on writing comics at the Vancouver Public Library on Monday, 6 February, starting at 7:00pm. Watch out for the crazed, killer squirrels.

Also, in today’s Holy crap, did you see the OoTS Kickstarter? update, Rich Burlew has now exceed the previous highest-funded comics project on Kickstarter by nearly 150%, and is rapidly closing in on a quarter of a million friggin’ dollars after less than ten days. I’m putting the over/under at US$325,000, and the supporter tally at an even 5000 pledges. Of course, if the pledges get a second wind, we’ll see numbers that may take years to be equalled.

Now, to business³. Last week saw the debut of Jim Zubkavich’s Skullkickers on Keenspot, the news of which was previously discussed. Mr Zub has kindly agreed to answer some questions about the web-release version of SK, why the parallel channels for comics distribution, and what to expect in the future. But for those with impatient tendencies, here’s the money quote:

In our first week at Keenspot we had more unique IP visits (i.e.: new readers) than all three printings of Skullkickers #1 combined.

For full context, read on.

Fleen thanks Jim Zubkavich for his time, and also for comics that feature enormous slavering monsters getting kicked in the head because that’s awesome.

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¹ Don’t call her “Tallahassee”. Just … don’t.

² Right-hand rule represent.

³ If you mentally pictured Mark Wing-Davies and David Dixon toasting To business!, I like the way you think.

So let me just point you towards some nicely informative (verging on rebuttal) comments from Gordon McAlpin regarding my characterization of iBooks Author’s EULA yesterday. He may be my one-time nemesis¹, but Gord² is a smart guy.

Oh, and because it’s easier than constantly pointing out how they’re doing:

Whatever number is associated with that OoTS campaign³, just assume I’m muttering Holy crap under my breath.

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¹ Cf: here and here for the full story.

² Can I call him “Gord”? That’s really got more of a Canadian feeling to it. Although it does offer some intriguing possibilities regarding movie puns. Klaatu barada nikto, y’all.

³ So to speak.

So Rich Stevens turned 35 a few weeks back and celebrated by sharing gifts with you, the members of the world that are not Rich Stevens. These included special pricing on merch and free shipping, but also an ebook for free download containing a whole mess¹ of his comics.

Then earlier this week, he shifted tactics, making a second ebook of comics, this time specifically for the iPad, utilizing the brand-new iBooks Author app, again for free. Free turned out to be a critical distinction, as charging for it would open up the can o’ worms that is Apple’s iBooks Author EULA which would require a large cut of revenue to Apple as well as their permission to distribute it through their store. He may well be the first person out of the gate with a release produced via iBooks Author; certainly anybody that got their hands on the tool day-of-release is still waiting for Apple’s approval to sell content.

Rich Stevens don’t got time to screw around waiting for corporate approvals — guy gets an idea Monday, experiment launches Tuesday, Thursday he writes up his impressions.

Some 10,000+ downloads later, his most important conclusion may be that a significant number of readers out there would love to have a delivered-in-chunks, read-at-once model for their webcomics. Sifting through RSS feeds, remembering to hit sites, making time to read one of each of X number of strips per day², relying on bandwidth or signal at the time — for a large number of people (and probably growing as tablet use spikes upward) will find a bursty delivery, followed by the opportunity to read ten or fifteen minutes worth on the train, waiting for an appointment, or over lunch (wherever you happen to bef … I think the iPad part of this is key) to be an optimal experience.

This first delivery dropped a month’s worth of strips, leading to an easy magazine metaphor; should Apple find some way to have a rolling approval for this kind of distribution (instead of requiring pre-approval for each “issue”), and likely if they can permit creators to keep more of the fruits of their labor (30% is somewhere between usury and science fiction), this could be the first iteration of that Next Big Thing that forward-looking webcomickers have their eyes on³.

There will be further experiments and refinements — Stevens knows that fast turnaround and incremental improvements reach a good final state much faster and cheaper than trying to get to 100% on the first go — which process requires input. One key question (from my perspective as a non-iPad owner) would be how to adapt this model away from a single platform; I don’t have an answer and wouldn’t expect Stevens to have one yet either, considering the entire thing is about three days old. But if you have thoughts on the matter, the discussion is taking place on Google+. I can’t wait to see how this one turns out.

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¹ One of the more obscure English measurements.

² For me, X ranges as high as 75 or 80 and as low as mid-30s, depending on the day.

³ In my opinion, one of the most useful things that Scott Kurtz has done via his occasional participation in print vs web shitfights is to very publicly never lose sight of the fact that webcomics as we now know there are a transitional mode of distribution. There will be a next thing, whether it’s some form of e-magazine, or the only slightly hyperbolic direct-to-brain HyperComics that get thrown around from time to time.

Not permitting webcomickers to fall into the trap of print comickers who don’t see a way to adapt is crucially helpful; just living with an understanding that business model and technological change are a given gives the current (and more likely, the next) generation of comics creators a better chance at not being left behind by those changes than some of their predecessors have proved to be.

Benign Kingdom¹, which Kickstarter was sitting on for a while, has gone live. The principals involved are Yuko Ota, Evan Dahm, Becky Dreistadt, and KC Green (who’s involved in nearly every cool comics Kickstarter anyway). They’ve got four art styles that are radically different from each other, but each of them is at the top of their game and will do an amazing art book.

In addition to hitting 25% of goal in the few hours since their campaign went live they also have a secret weapon that all but assures success.

Ladies and Gentlemen: George².

He’s got a history in running independent publishers, a day job making comics happen for Oni, who have published one or two comics projects you may have heard of. He’s worked either high-level staff positions or behind the scenes of numerous conventions, appearing where things needed to be done and making the necessary arrangements. His cheery demeanor masks an organizational genius, one for whom the words on time and as promised carry the same import as I like to breathe do for ordinary civilians. It’s his involvement that makes me believe this line from the Kickstarter pitch:

If this goes well, it could be the foundation of a much bigger project in the future: Benign Kingdom could print more books, and maybe involve other artists! Thank you very much for your support!

… has already been planned for, and merely awaits the passage of time to bring to fruition. This isn’t a one-off, it’s a new publishing venture, much like Box Brown’s Retrofit Comics, with the intent to bring you stuff you wouldn’t get to see otherwise, from creators who need to connect to their audiences in a fundamental, dollars-and-cents way. In the time that I’ve been writing this, another 5% of funding has been achieved, including a top-tier reward³ (which I confess, I didn’t think would sell, but shows you what I know) claimed. Right now it’s four friends (plus George) working to a common goal, but in a year or two it could be the next Flight.

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¹ For the moment, it’s not showing up in Kickstarter search, so use the direct link. I imagine that wil sort itself out in the next day or so.

² Or Mr Rohac, if you’re nasty.

³ The top-tier goes for US$1250, and the key differentiator from lower tiers is: You are drawn as the ruler of Benign Kingdom, by the four artists. As of this writing, four more instances of this reward are available, which opens the possibility of a dynastic conquest for the Benign Kingdom’s throne as the various pretenders vie with each other for supremacy. The resulting blood feud is expected to last for two and a half centuries.

I’ve been waiting all day for some news to officially break so that I can expand on things, and it stubbornly refuses to.

Break, that is.

In the meantime, let me note with some amazement that Rich Burlew (cf: yesterday) is also running a Kickstarter with the intent of putting some older volumes of Order of the Stick books back in print. In about three days, more than 2000 backers have raised more than US$97,000, overachieved his goal by more than two-thirds (those full-color, full-size glossy books don’t come cheap), and still have 27 days left to go.

Oh, and he’s got the second most-funded comics Kickstart ever (by a margin of more than US$50,000), and is rapidly closing in on slot #1. These numbers are changing even as I type this, so expect significantly larger numbers by the time things wrap on 21 February.

So frontloaded, in fact, that we have to get a milestone comic (SMBC #2500, woo!) and the launch of an established creator’s third daily webcomic out of the way in the intro just to get to everything that’s happening today. Don’t blame me if the rest of the week is quiet.

• TCAF, which just might be the consensus choice for Everybody’s Favorite Con (and it’s free!) announced its slate of guests and exhibitors today, and hoo boy will every other show of 2012 have a hard time matching this lineup. I was going to try to just list out the most notable attendee for each letter for the alphabet, but by the time I hit “B”, I was already confronted with Bá, Beaton, Becan, Bechdel, Brosgol, Brown, and more Brown. Also, there’s nobody listed under “I”, “Q”, “X”, or “Y”.
• Know who else has a name starting with “B”? Rich Burlew. Know what he did today? Upended his storyline, getting rid of a supplementary villain that’s been around for a few hundred updates/coupla years, and recasting The Villain’s Sidekick as The Guy Who’s Been Pulling All The Strings All Along. Burlew’s always been a master of the long game, and he proved it today. If you don’t read The Order of the Stick, you’d have to go back to update #457, or maybe #446 to get the full impact of what he’s been doing; the fact that today’s update is #830 should not deter you in the least.
• You know what else starts with “B”? Cow Boy, at least the second part of it; it’s coming in print this spring from Archaia, but for the moment writer Nate Cosby¹ and artist Chris Eliopolous² have put the first five pages up, and it’s a beaut. It’s got the potential to go really dark, but for now the visual incongruity of a ten-year-old bounty hunter in the Old West is great.
• “B” is also for “backdated”, which is what you’ll find if you take a look at what Jim Zub is doing with Skullkickers. Long story short, there’s now two short stories, a cover gallery, and the start of serialized Swords ‘n’ Sorcery mayhem, rerunning from the beginning of the Image series, five days a week.

  There are precedents to be found in series like Girl Genius, A Distant Soil, and Finder, all established creator-owned works which have engaged in variations of running old stories online to reach a new audience/run new stories online until there’s enough to fill a trade collection. It’s premature to say if Zub is looking towards such a future for Skullkickers, and he’s got twelve full issues in print already (with another 6-issue story due to launch in two months or so) to get through before that decision point gets reached. But others have found it economically preferable to get away from printing floppies, and we may see the same for Baldy and Shorty.

  I would also be remiss if I didn’t note where the Skullkickers reruns are rerunning — not on the main Skullkickers page, but at Keenspot. I may have missed something in the two years or so since the Great Keenspot Realignment, and I don’t recall any new properties being added to the Keen banner in that time that weren’t from creators associated with the Crosby-centric Blatant Comics. A’course, Skullkickers isn’t just any property, it’s got a huge mindshare and a lot of goodwill among those that comment on comics (although how much that translates into actual rent-and-groceries in indy comics is anybody’s guess), so the Keeners would have had to have some pretty good reasons to not want to partner up with Zub.

• One last “B”, although I can’t tell you everything on this one while we wait for Kickstarter to release the details of the project: Benign Kingdom. There will be four 32-page saddle-stitched art books from four creators/creator teams, and a limited-edition hardcover collecting all four. The creators involved are ____ & ______, _____ & _____, ____ ____, and __ _____³ with an assist from the newest challenger for the title of Nexus of all Webcomics and Heck Regular Comics Too Realities, which just means that neither Ryan North nor Shaenon Garrity are involved (as far as I know) since they’re the ones defending the title. Let the guessing begin.

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¹ Not the one with the Jell-O Pudding Pops.

² The one you were thinking of, unless you were thinking of the other Chris Eliopolouos.

³ Full names to be revealed once Kickstarter makes things public.

Probably the final followup on Monster Alphabet, whose tally hit US$25,078 or 5015.6% of goal as fundraising closed. Project creator Darren Gendron did tweet the worst-case clawback:

Looking over the numbers, at the most I lost 30 backers and $408. SD¹ lost 1/$50, but there’s almost 5x the backers for MA.

So, at absolute worst, Monster Alphabet raised US$24,670 (a mere 4934% of goal), which probably still sets some kind of record. There doesn’t appear to be an easy to to find the most over-funded projects on Kickstarter, but after a bit of poking around I unearthed only one that exceed Gendron’s approximately-5000% success: a 15,454% funded sculptural skulls project. If anybody has data to support other projects with a high percentage of success please let us know, but for now I’m willing to declare Gendron the holder of the #2 slot in the Overkill category.

One last thought — in case anybody is getting sick of Kickstarter stories, you might want to skip Monday’s update, on account of I’ve gotten a heads-up on a campaign that will possibly melt your brain in a good way. Just sayin’.
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¹ Scurvy Dogs, a boardgame and an earlier successful Kickstarter campaign.

In which some various things are elevated.

• What could possibly validate your nerdy idea as being Entirely Worthy more than to have fan-fiction written about it? David Malki !, Ryan North, and Matthew Bennardo have an idea:
  

  OMG Kirk/Spock #MachineofDeath fanfic. It’s … it’s beautiful. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7752812/1/Machine_of_Death

  bucket list several entries shorter, not even joking

  If that story gets SOPAed out of existence someday, I will chisel it myself in the marble of the Capitol steps.

  To be completely clear, the fanfic in question is legitimately Kirk slash Spock in the traditional sense, but is rather restrained on that point. Take a few minutes and revel in what is (as near as I can determine) the second MoD crossover story — the first would appear to be a MoD/House crossover from November 2010, which you may read here (it’s very short).

  All of which merely begs the question: what is the most bizarre, inappropriate MoD crossover possible? I’m betting there’s a brony out there ready to rise to the challenge.

• Guys, I have a confession to make: although I appreciate things like the Capture Creatures project, I have no real knowledge of Pokémon. Oh, sure, I’m familiar enough with the concept — one can’t have lived in Western culture for the past twenty years and not be — but I’m of an age where the initial videogame, card game, and animation weren’t pitched at my age cohort, resulting in me never having really gotten on the Pokétrain at the beginning. I have never caught one of them, much less “them all”, don’t know what evolves into what, and have no opinion on how Snorlax is or is not awesome¹.

  I am, however, familiar with the basic idea of Pokémon — having been away in Western culture for the past two decades pretty much guarantees that — and understand that any attempt to present artistic interpretations means coming up with potentially hundreds of images. To move beyond this is my favorite to a comprehensive treatment of merely the first tranche of 151 Pokémon² is a serious undertaking. Trying to put together a group show of 151 artists each portraying one critter is certifiably insane.

  So naturally, that’s what’s happening in April. The Light Grey Art Gallery in Minneapolis isn’t even open yet, but for the second show they are wrangling 151 artists to each produce an 8×8 inch representation of a Pokémon (presumably, their favorite, or close to it) and calling the whole thing Pokémon Battle Royale. The list of participating creators features plenty of well–known veterans of web– and indy comics³, 150 of whom were somehow convinced not to pick Charizard⁴. Watch the PBR page for news, and check back in April for your chance to to purchase one of the originals.

• As of this writing, just over 60 minutes remain to get in on the Monster Alphabet Kickstarter. Also as of this writing, the fundraising total is less than US$200 from US$25,000; the original $US500 goal has managed a mindboggling 4967% success. I cannot speak for Darren Gendron, but I’d imagine that if you were the person that put him over 5000%/US$25K, he might slip a little extra something in your fulfillment package.

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¹ Although I imagine that some of you have opinions on the matter.

² Is the plural the same as the singular? Is it Pokémons? Pokémen? Surely it’s not Pokémans.

³ Note: it’s Chris Eliopolous, not Chris Eliopolous. They get that a lot.

⁴ Even I know that Charizard is super-popular.

It’s the passing of an era, as Pizza Island — bastion of crush walls and ladygossip¹ — announced its imminent closure. This is because either every member of the studio is the Yoko or because the demands of travel and expense make this the logical move, your choice.

While it lasted, the members of Pizza Island pushed themselves and each other to ever-better work, and one could argue that — shared space in the future or no — their artistic growth cannot be lost, and whatever pushes them (individually and collectively) in the future will be a different stressor (in the best sense of the word) and cause them to develop in ways that the studio couldn’t, merely because it’s a new source of change rather than that established over the past two years².

In other words, I don’t think that the Pizza Islanders are all broken up about it (although I’d imagine they’ll look back on their studio time with fond remembrance), and are busy enough with What Comes Next. Case in point: within half a day of the closure announcement, Meredith Gran produced an Octopus Pie strip that’s beautiful to look at and hilarious in about twelve different ways. It’s no exaggeration to say it’s maybe her best yet — a distinction that’s shared with about 85% of her updates because she just keeps getting better.

I have every confidence that the same will be true for the art that is next shared with us by Domitille Collardey, Deana Sobel, Sarah Glidden, Julia Wertz, Lisa Hanawalt, and Kate Beaton. In fact, I’ve got some American cash money right here — set aside for purchasing the next projects from these incredibly talented creators — to back up my words. Let’s let that be the takeaway here: if you love somebody’s creation, support it and then more cool stuff will be created.

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¹ I repeat: Jesus Tapdancing Christ.

² I’m not exactly certain, but I think that’s the longest sentence I’ve ever produced that vaguely made some sort of sense.