Rich Stevens is actually doing it:

Someone actually pledged $666 to dare me to break vegetarian and eat a pound of bacon. Daniel Valentine, you amazing dark wizard of death. I am going to survive this and evolve new mutant powers in the process! Perhaps this will be the radioactive spider that eventually teaches me about responsibility.

Speaking of Valentines, Daniel and otherwise …

• You know who is every lady’s dream valentine? Brad Guigar, but that’s too bad because he’s only got eyes for his wife, sons, and cartooning¹. Today he celebrates twelve years of juggling those competing demands on his time in a manner so deft that he cartooning gets stronger, the wisdom he shares gets wiser, and the husband-and-father routine becomes more natural and rewarding².
• Know what else is associated with Valentine’s Day besides Brad Guigar? Yes, yes, we know, “horny werewolves”, thank you Internet Jesus. I was just gonna say “sexy times”, and use that to point out that the long-awaited Smut Peddler collection (with a submission period of more than a year, recently closed) is nearly completion. Posted today: the cover, by the too-talented-to-be-believed Emily Carroll. Prepare to read this with somebody you love (or at least really, really like).
• For your consideration: not quite a tip jar, not quite an obligation, more an expression of appreciation for those that don’t like to buy stuff. John Allison has introduced a subscription model for Bad Machinëry that is entirely optional, and for which you, the subscriber receive nothing in particular above and beyond the sense of satisfaction you get for supporting an artist. I was recently asked what the proper way to read a webcomic was (the original intent was RSS or go to the page), but my reply was:
  

  Mentally track how many pages you read, buy $1 of merch for every 10 pages.

  If you don’t like stuff cluttering your home, here’s your alternative; by my calculation, Mr Allison gives you about 250 pages per year, making the Silver level of subscription about right.

• One should note that asking for money for doing a comic (whether in the form of donations, a tip jar, fund drives, and the like) attracts a range of opinions, from support to criticism. Also found in the world of comics and no consensus opinion: motion comics. For those of us of a certain age, motion comics (no matter how well done, and often they aren’t well done) will always invoke the super-cheap Marvel animated show of the ’60s, where panels were slid on the screen with entirely static characters and a voice track overlaid (seriously; they made the animated Star Trek look like a Pixar production).

  That being said, I freely admit my own youthful experiences color my impressions of motion comics. Done well, it might add something to the original that I never realized was lacking. And if anybody is going to do it well, it’s probably Rob Balder, who is launching a project to motion comic-ize Book One of Erfworld. I have affection for Erfworld, in a way that I didn’t for Iron Man or Hulk when I was three or four years old. Technology has progressed by leaps and bounds, as has the judgment of what constitutes proficient voice acting. Hell, the US$24,000 that Balder has set as his goal may well exceed the budget that Marvel was working with back in ’66. So despite my misgivings (again, born entirely of my past experiences), I’m very curious to see how this could turn out.

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¹ A lesser man would have a mistress, but Brad’s not lesser in any sense of the word. Ladies.

² I don’t have empirical, observed evidence for that like for the other two things but come on — dude’s obviously got love for his family seeping from every pore. Every moment he’s cartooning, he’s champing³ at the bit to get back to his family.

³ You’re welcome, Brad.

A little (simulated) murder, and little (definitely non-simulated) mind-gaming, a little (clandestine) blowing town for some far-off destination (I’m betting on Vegas and/or Tijuana); it must be the 3000^th extravaganza. It started with Maura hatching a fairly evil plan involving Pale Suzie, Suzie’s horrible cat (who has a history of violence), and a faked death. Naturally, mayhem become Red Robot, who just wants to join in the fun. Repercussions will inevitably follow, but for now let’s just enjoy that evil grin in panel #5.

If we’re being completely honest, the very sexy Richard Stevens III has actually done more than 3500 installments of Diesel Sweeties, once you count the year and a half he ran as a syndicated strip in newspapers, all while bouncing from crazed idea to even more crazed idea. It’s a hell of an accomplishment, and one that would break lesser mortals, or at least anybody that didn’t regard the phenomenon of sleep with a mixture of pity and contempt. Congratulations on the fairly arbitrary Big Round Number, Rich. Now get back to work baking tomorrow’s cookie.

• On the far end of the webcomics long runner count: Reptilis Rex, which launches today with an archive of a week’s worth of strips¹. As previously noted, Reptilis Rex claims to be the work of one “William Tallman”, which is an admitted pseudonym. Now obviously this is a fiction, and the strip is not produced by a lizard man from the center of the hollow earth, chupacabra, sasquatch or any other type of cryptid. We can reveal, as the result of an extensive investigation, that “William Tallman” is actually an established webcomicker, lying low from the potential wrath of angry corporate interests.

  Consider: “William Tallman” anagrams to “Anal Am Will Milt”, which stands for “Anal [collector, I] Am Will[is, fan of] Milt[on Bradley]”; as everybody knows, Milton Bradley is a subsidiary of Hasbro, who make the Transformers line of toys. Thus, “William Tallman” is clearly David Willis, well-known Transformers shill enthusiast, who is fearful of offending those who make his addiction possible and thus hides his new, non-Transformers-related project² behind a fake name. OPEN YOUR EYES AND SWIM IN THE TRUTH.

• In the middle of the webcomics duration scale: Gastrophobia, which has a totally-handy catch-up strip for those of you that haven’t kept current on the previous two “seasons” of the comic. If you want more to help you catch up on the story twists, Season One (cleverly paralleling the twelve labors of Herakles) is available from creator David McGuire’s store, and Season Two will join it shortly, providing the fundraising is successful over the next month or so. If you like ponies, you should really scroll down to the bottom of the list of supporter gifts because there’s one there that’s totally just for you.

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¹ A M-W-F strip, this puts RR’s archive at a total of three.

² His third simultaneous strip, the second with no relation to Transformers, which constitutes an unconscionable reduction in Transformers content in the eyes of his Cybertronian masters. Life thus imitates webcomics, as in the completely true diary comics of Jeffrey Rowland, whose corporate boss must spend an inordinate amount of time ensuring that one little boy continues to believe in him and buy his toys. Truths within truths — David Willis is a thinly-disguised Wigu Tinkle.

Let’s just end the week on an encouraging thought: the best creator-owned work remains as good as it ever was, and just keeps getting better. I have an embarrassingly large backlog of print collections to read, and I’m at least four or five books behind in my ordering. People will support good work, to the extent that as I write this, Rich Burlew and Double Fine are exactly US$8000 shy of having raised US$2 million dollars between them. That’s not Do this project, worry about next year later money, it’s Future investments and self-sustaining infrastructure money.

Oh, and today I realized that KC Green would absolutely kill as a New Yorker cartoonist. Feel free to tell him I said so at the TopatoCo Tag Sale next weekend.

So, Rich Burlew crossed the threshold for the #5 all-time Kickstarter fundraising total sometime overnight. Then somewhere around 9:30am (GMT-5) today, he lost it again, because coming out of nowhere is the campaign for Double Fine‘s next videogame, which set the record for 24 hours of fundraising and highest number of backers and is, as of this writing, literally adding backers and dollars faster than I can refresh the project page.

If you have to fall behind on a landmark achievement, at least there’s no shame when these guys are in the game; at present rates of growth, somewhat less than 48 hours will be necessary for Double Fine to become the all-time highest fundraising total on Kickstarter, and it keeps picking up steam⁰. As I write this sentence, they’re over US$868,000¹, having added at a rate of more than US$60,000 per hour since I started paying close attention a couple hours ago.

And, since as we all know Double Fine are slightly associated with Scott C, it’s all in the webcomics family.

Did I mention that Burlew’s campaign is (again, as I write this) over 1000% funding? Or that Rich Stevens had cleared 400% of goal in 24 hours? These are exciting times for creator-owned (in the case of Burlew and Stevens) and boutique/creator-driven (in the case of Double Fine) works; in case you were unconvinced on that point, allow me to direct your attention to this story.

Short form:

You can make all the arguments you want about Well, he didn’t have to sign a work-for-hire contract and Nobody forced him. Fine. Out of your system? Explain to me what benefit Marvel receives from enjoining Friedrich from stating a true fact. Explain to me how the Marvel/Disney corporate legal team could have possibly spent less than US$17K, and how spending more money than you receive can serve any purpose other than to punish Freidrich for having the temerity to say Hey, this deal is pretty lopsided, out of simple human decency and a sense of fairness would you re-negotiate?.

Where would Friedrich be if he owned Ghost Rider? What kind of hellish poverty will Burlew, Stevens, and the entire crew of Double Fine be much more likely to avoid simply because they’re not beholden to a publisher³ that demanded complete ownership of the things in their heads? How entirely malevolent does an entire segment of the publishing industry have to be that Rich Stevens has a brighter future by giving away⁴ something he owns than Friedrich and countless others have had by cashing checks for things they should have, but didn’t?

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⁰ So to speak.

¹ Probably hit US$900,000 by the time I’m ready to post.

² Money he doesn’t have; cf: destitute.

³ Can publishers be useful? Absolutely — take a look at TopatoCo, which does not demand total ownership of properties it publishes, because Jeff and Holly realize that is entirely out of proportion to the risk they assume in capital and effort to bring things to print. This is because they are decent human beings.

⁴ From the second update to his Kickstarter:

I am definitely going to be able to do my collections and offer them as DRM-free, payment-optional downloads.

I was going to be posting about an amazing comic that Kate Beaton posted yesterday, but it’s been temporarily pulled; it dealt with a death in the small town she’s from, and because it’s in the form of a “comic”, there was concern that some might feel she was making light of the situation. It was as fine a meditation on loss that I’ve ever seen in words-and-pictures, and hopefully it will be back to where you can see it soon. When that time comes, you will most likely be able to find it here.

Instead, let’s talk about Rich Stevens and his latest mad-comics project: a comprehensive, 3000-strip collection of Diesel Sweeties as an e-book, which he announced about 15 minutes ago, and which has already seen the addition of the most disturbing Kickstarter promotion I’ve ever heard of:

(And you better believe I will be adding weird rewards to amuse myself. Only $666 to make me break veg. and eat 1lb. bacon on camera.)

No, wait he’s added one since then:

Blame @jefflowrey for the fact that I just added a KS reward where I give up coffee for a month for $10,000.

Damn you, former Fleen contributer Jeff Lowrey! Why do you want to make Rich commit suicide? But apart from the amusing rewards offered¹, I wanted to draw your attention to this because Rich Gets It, where “It” is the issue of Digital Right Management and locked formats and suchlike:

I care about credit and copyright, and love the idea of selling ebooks, but as long as I am able to work on Diesel Sweeties, I would like payment to be optional. That’s the model which has supported me as my main job since 2003, through boom and recession. That’s the model this comic was designed for and where it’s going to stay.

Those of you who support this project will have free download as well as physical thumb drive options available. You’ll also be ensuring I can afford to make a really thorough ebook and both sell it and offer it as a free download.

I hope you’ll also store this collection and share it with your friends. Remix it for devices that don’t exist, buy a decommissioned missile silo and Apocalypse-proof it, print it out and ask me to sign a twenty-pound stack of paper when you see me at a convention. Once you get a copy, it’s yours. The only copy protection I need is the fact that tomorrow’s comic doesn’t exist yet and my brain’s the only place that bakes that cookie. I only ask that you respect the Creative Commons license and do not use them commercially without permission. [boldface original, large text my emphasis]

That entire last paragraph is pure genius, and that large bit? That’s what I want to beat into the brain of every IP lawyer that buys and bribes Disney an extension to copyright every time it looks like Mickey Mouse might enter the public domain. It’s what I want to tattoo on the inside of Christopher Dodd’s eyelids, so he realizes that creativity doesn’t have to fear piracy if it’s nimble and active instead of trying to hide from the changes in the world.

I may not have the spare cash to get ten copies of Rich’s e-book on thumb drives delivered in person and he makes me coffee², but you can damn well bet that I’m supporting this³. It’s not just an insane pixel-wrangling exercise (that’s Rich’s idea of a fun evening, anyway), it’s a manifesto for the future in 8-bit blocks of color. Get on board, or get out of his way.

By the way, as of this writing, the campaign has been live for one hour and twelve minutes, and Rich has exceeded his $US3000 goal by US$203 already. Keep it going, nerds!

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¹ Particularly check out the US$128, US$256, US$512, US$1024, and US$1701 levels. Update: the US$1701 reward is already claimed. I suspect Ryan North, Dylan Meconis, Jess Fink, or Ferocious J may have been involved.

² US$2600; I don’t drink coffee anyway. But me and Rich are still friends.

³ Possibly at the US$69 level; does “Principal Tyrrell” count as a fictional character?

Lots of call-backs today.

• Re: Rich Burlew’s Kickstarter, which we are trying mightily to mention only when it hits a significant landmark: how does half a million dollars/900% of goal sound? Burlew has now claimed the #6 all-time spot on Kickstarter¹, has cemented the all-time top creative work, and bested the previous comics Kickstarter by nearly five times over. Oh, and he still has almost two weeks to go. Sheesh.
• I believe that everybody knows that the Ryan North-written Adventure Time comic debuts tomorrow in comic shops everywhere. Did you know that as a result of like five tweets, Mike Krahulik will now be doing a cover for a future issue? And did you know that there will be a launch party for Adventure Time at children’s comics offshoot of The Beguiling, Little Island, on Saturday afternoon? And did you know that at this party, you can do crafts with Ryan North and Steve Wolfhard? It’s true!
• I only remember about three things² from high school French class, but I remember this: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Proof: David Malki ! dug up the SOPA/PIPA/ACTA debate of its day from the 1870s, and damn if a lot of the arguments aren’t familiar. Give it a good read, then resolve to stay ever-vigilant because it’s just a matter of time before the same arguments we just defeated come around again.
• Final thoughts: I think that Kris Straub is not going to a very good climbing gym³. Everybody knows the archer should only be trying to pick off top-ropers.

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¹ Yes, I know that we said he was approaching #5 before, but the threshold for that — some US$486,000 — did not take into account an active Kickstarter campaign, which doesn’t show in a casual inspection of top funding achievements. Burlew knew it, Gendron and I missed it. Slot #5 is now believed to be around US$556,000, which at current rates should be achieved by end of the week. Slot #4 is probably north of US$800,000, which Burlew will only reach if I publicly doubt he will, so I’m doubtin’ away.

² I’m of the opinion that if you know enough of a language to buy food, beer, a room for the night, and a train ticket, you’re functional in that language.

³ Re: “buttocks only”; I have been on gym routes that specified you had to climb with your back to the wall. Damn right I used the larger holds as butt-rests.

Or, “Ow, my back”. Let’s distract ourselves a bit, why don’t we.

• Christopher Baldwin is coming up on the end of Part 2 (of 3) of Spacetrawler, and is looking to hit the ground running on book production. He’s about 12 hours into a Kickstarter campaign that’s about 25% funded, which is good. Baldwin’s pretty aggressive about the campaign, with an unusually large number of donor levels/prize combo platters for such a modest goal (US$7000), and that extends to his campaign’s duration: a mere 21 days.

  Be sure to watch his video all the way through, as he’s got some pretty original thank-you gifts (including a series of postcards from around the galaxy, sent to you each month, written by one of his characters¹). He also pronounces some of those verging-on-unpronouncable-by-humans alien locations² with lots of spitty noises, and that’s always fun.

• It’s been a couple of weeks, so it’s time for me to remind you again about Saveur and their ongoing project of having comics artists provide recipes in comic form. This week’s contribution comes from Gordon McAlpin of Multiplex fame, and it sounds delicious.
• Just a heads-up: Chris Yates has stepped up his game, making his latest multi-layer Bafflers all curvy and organic and water-fally. Very cool.
• Finally, time for my occasional reminder that while it’s not always to the forefront of Sinfest, Tatsuya Ishida’s Criminy and Miss Fuchsia storyline is possibly the most heartfelt thing I read in my daily feeds, and he surpassed all previous Awwwww! moments with yesterday’s update.

  I can’t help but wonder if Baby Blue, the Sisterhood, or Big D is going to bollocks up the moment of simple contentment they’re enjoying right now³ (out of misplaced concern, misunderstanding or bad intent, respectively), but for the moment they’re happy in a way that anybody who’s felt that first flush of love will remember. Hopefully, their Valentine’s Day will be just as happy for them.

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¹ Can’t wait to see what Krep has to say to you.

² Like the Hotel Kppfing.

³ Possibly by hounding the poor escaped soul who remembers story time; I don’t think either Crim or Fyoosh have it in them to be cruel to himm, even accidentally.

As we start can I note that two new Achewoods in two days is a trend that should be encouraged? Yes, I believe I can.

• Also worth encouraging: the previews of forthcoming graphic novels that we’re getting a page (or so) at a time. Things like the really fun Cow Boy, giving us four or so pages of Boyd Linney (ten years old, bounty hunter, righting the wrongs of his family) in each update. If you haven’t been reading it, now’s the perfect time to jump on, as the thirty pages that have been released so far have brought us to what’s sure to be a pretty epic shootout.

  Likewise, the always-delightful team of MechaYuko-Ananth are using the next several updates of Johnny Wander to tease us with pages from their forthcoming Oni project, Lucky Penny. One page so far with the promise of another eight pages in February, which should be just enough to whet one’s appetite for the full book, which doesn’t yet have a release date (boo).

• As mentioned earlier in the week, Scott C opened a series of readings/drawing demos for kids in Princeton, NJ last night, and lucky for us Kate Beaton was there to document the evening. The crowd appears to have been held in rapt attention by the dynamic Mr C, and by the possibility of coloring¹. Did the young lady with the caterpiller realize she was being sketched? Surely Matthew and Jessica must have suspected, since at least one of them joined in with the arting.

  I’m not entirely sure what the odds are that any of those kids will remember last night’s fun times as one more encouragement that helps make drawing a life-long pursuit, ultimately leading to pro-level cartoonings; probably not great, but you never know. I just like to imagine one of them finding those images in twenty years or so and realizing I met Scott C and Kate Beaton when I was six? Dang.

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¹ Although Beatoun has made soume public mentioun of mouving back tou Canada in the near future, oune can see that she’s “goune native” froum her time in Broouklyn. Spelling “colouring” without a “u”? I think that’s almoust enough to get your Canadian passpourt revouked.

Thanks to Darren Gendron (himself no stranger to Kickstarter campaigns) and his well-researched comment of yesterday, we can now track which All-Time Highest-Funded Kickstaters Ever have fallen to Rich Burlew’s majesty. Answer: all but five.

The jump from sixth place to fifth is pretty major, though — while OoTSDrive12 has added nearly US$40K since this time yesterday (to an as-of-this-writing US$394,188), fifth place requires clearing a hurdle of US$486,518. So, another two or three days at the present pace. Because I simply can’t keep up with the monstrous growth, from this point on I’ll restrict reporting to when Burlew crosses one of those Top Five lines (and there’s a big gap between fourth place and third), or when something particularly humorous happens in the storyline of his updates.

• In news that doesn’t relate to Rich Burlew getting a big damn check¹ in three weeks or so, I’m guessing that most of you have at least seen a reference to an astonishing comic done by French artist Boulet that exploded through the web-o-sphere yesterday. If you haven’t seen it yet, you need to right now. It is, in no particular order:
  1. hilarious
  2. amazingly drawn
  3. a product of the recent Angoulême festival, drawn as a 24 hour comic

  Okay, fine, Boulet confesses that he went over by two hours to finish it. Now go back and tell me that any normal human could produce that story (remember, no prep work before the 24 hours starts!) on an improvisational basis. I think we know where Boulet stands on the famed comics progression of First you get good, then you get fast, then you get good and fast².

• Whatcha doing Saturday night? If you’re in western Pennsylvania (specifically, in/around Pittsburgh), why not drop in on the ToonSeum? They’re repeating one of the best comics cross-promotions in the history of ever by once again partnering with Pittsburgh’s own East End Brewing Company³ to release a 700-bottle limited run of Belgian-style Illustration Ale.

  Like the May 2010 run of Illustration, each bottle will bear a label designed by one of six local cartoon artists, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the ToonSeum. Illustration Ale debuts on 4 February, 6:00pm, with a bottle and ToonSeum admission included in the ticket price ($30; $20 for members, available at the desk or online).

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¹ Anytime you hit Buy me a house territory, it’s a big damn check.

² Dave Sim; yes, the guy’s got some terrible personal views of how life works, but he’s absolutely right about that one.

³ “Pittsburgh’s micro-est microbrewery”.

Today, many are creating a comic (simple is fine) to describe what you’ve been doing each hour of the day. Haven’t been reading them? Pick a webcomicker, check their twitterstream, there’s a good chance they’ve got the comics there. My favorites today have been from Anthony “Nedroid” Clark, even though (as of this writing) he’s only up to 1:00pm. Special notice should, as always, should be given to John Campbell, probably the most prolific practitioner of Hourly Comics, as he’s spent the majority of days in the months of January 2006-2012 drawing them.

• For your consideration: Rich Stevens is making plans:
  

  I guess it’s time to see if I can Kickstarter a humongous comprehensive ebook edition when I hit comic #3,000.

  That strip he mentioned, number 3000? Number 2992 went up today and he updates like friggin’ clockwork, so you can expect it on Monday, 13 February 2012. Mark your calendars, bet the farm, bet the kid’s insulin money — it’ll be there, and then we’ll see what a 3000-comic collection looks like. My guess: pixelicious¹!

• Speaking of countdowns to things happening on Monday the 13th: Reptilis Rex launches then. The mysterious protection-program participant known as “William Tallman” will be teaching us all about secrets of the lizard-men from the hollow earth. Looks educational.
• Finally, in today’s BurleWatch™, sometime in the past 10-12 hours, the Order of The Stick reprint drive crossed the US$343,416 mark, making it one of the Top Ten of All Time Kickstarter projects. As of this writing, it’s nearly ten thousand dollars further on (US$355,223 to be specific), and probably in the 8^th or better slot.

  Near as I can tell, the top fundraiser of all time is this (admittedly cool) design project from December of 2010, with a total of US$942,578 from more than 13,000 supporters. I’m not quite sure that Burlew can hit those kinds of numbers, but he is more than a third of the way on both money and supporter count in about a third of his allotted time, so I’m not counting anything out at this point.

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¹ Shut up, it is too a word.