One of the many things I like about Joey Manley is that he answers his email promptly. He dropped a fairly big announcement yesterday afternoon, I happened to catch wind of it in the first half-hour or so and send him some questions, and twelve minutes later I’ve got the answers. That’s the sort of thing that makes webcomics journo-hackery easy.

For those who haven’t seen it, The Colonel announced the upcoming merger of the Modern Tales family of various webcomics sites and the ComicSpace/Onlinecomics.net empire:

Today, Josh Roberts (owner of ComicSpace and Onlinecomics.net) and I are excited to announce that we have signed a Letter of Intent to merge our businesses into one corporate entity. We will be working with E-Line Ventures … to secure the necessary funding and support for us to effectively merge and run the combined business.

It’s been obvious to me, and to anybody else paying attention, that my websites are too ambitious, and have grown much too quickly, for one person to manage properly. As some of you know, I’ve spent the better part of two years looking for the right partners to help me step my efforts up….

A few months ago, Josh and I were corresponding on a technical issue, and our conversation sort of veered into this territory. Turned out he was in the same position I was in — and had turned down a lot of the same offers I had turned down, for the same reasons. Josh’s skillsets are quite different from mine, but his goals and plans are very, very similar. Each of us fills a gap in the other’s area of expertise. After brainstorming for a while, we realized that we would make a great team, that each of us would be stronger with the other at his side, and we decided, way back then, to merge our businesses — but only if we could find investors, and get the funding to build out the kind of stable business infrastructure we’ve both been lacking.

Naturally, this raises some questions (some of which Manley can’t answer at the present time — damn you, SEC-mandated blackout periods!), and once the various no-talk periods expire, I’ve been promised an interview with Manley, Roberts, and various other personages in the new company. For now, we can report that:

• While the timeline is still being finalized, the business merger will take place first, and the technical merger will follow. Says Manley, The various sites will be run as a “network” until the dev team has had time to finish the new, superdeluxe website. Look for the new site to launch 3–5 months down the road.
• Manley and Roberts will be co-CEOs.
• On the goals for the merged ComicSpace, Manley informs us that [W]e’ll have the budgetary resources to hire programmers and designers who operate at a much higher technical and artistic plane than I personally could have ever reached by my lonesome. That’s where the majority of our investment capital is going — the vast, vast, vast majority of it.
• Manley describes Roberts as a genius when it comes to creating simple but elegant online software: he’s quite the usability guru, he’s an amazing collaborator, a coder extraordinaire, and just a fantastic guy. Anybody would be lucky to have him as a partner, and I wasn’t the only person begging him to work with me, by a long shot.

More information to follow when it can be made publicly available. In any event, it’s safe to say that this merger and capital infusion could be the biggest thing to hit the business of webcomics in 2007 and well into 2008.

Editor’s note: As we discussed last week, we have an interview with Dresden Codak creator Aaron Diaz; he discusses his decision to quit his job and become a full-time webcomicker, merchandise, and what it’s like leaping into the unknown. And we would be remiss not to note that in celebration of his impending lifestyle change, Diaz is running six days of guest strips starting today, and a brand-new episode of Dresden Codak on Sunday.

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Dresden Codak update! Sort of! Latin heart-throb Aaron Diaz has announced that he’s quittin’ the day job and will be devoting this time to Dresden Codak as a career:

If you folks keep buying shirts and prints, I’ll be able to put up a comic every week!

Dresden Codak every week? Buy the damn shirts! Diaz has kindly agreed to an interview about this shift in his priorities, which we should have for you early next week. One topic of discussion is sure to be the viability of this change, since he notes that success in making a living from the comic is not guarranteed:

If not, then I will literally die!

Keep in mind, this is not a fearful-of-death kind of guy; this is a man who engages in Pretend To Be A Time Traveller From The Future performances in the deep southern section of the US, running the risk of having the crap kicked out of him. Don’t let Aaron Diaz die or we can’t be friends anymore.

From the Things that make you go “Huh” desk: Scott Kurtz pointed me towards an interesting tidbit in the announcement that Zuda has its first Instant Winner™ (sounds like a scratch-off lottery ticket, doesn’t it?) … except that said winner was invited to pitch the project before Zuda was announced. The work looks gorgeous and I’m looking forward to it, but still — huh.

In other news, Fleen congratulates Jeph Jacques on 1000 installments, which today features sweaty naked old people because he hates you. And Joe Chiappetta may like his phone a little too much:

For three days in a row this week, the new Silly Daddy comics posted on my site were created totally on a Pocket PC Phone.

Check it out and have a good weekend.

Word went out yesterday: Zuda launches next Tuesday, and the initial lineup has been announced. They’re even doing a launch party in New York if you’re in town; I have a conflict (damn shame, too, since the venue is about four blocks from work), so somebody report on this for me, ‘kay? These things usually have snacks, and the SDCC Zudaparty had pretty good Zudabooze, so it’s totally worth your while.

Speaking of launches, there’s a new Clickwheel player in town, which editor Tim Demeter informs us has a plethora of new features:

• The beaker button will take you to an upload interface (you need to be logged in to use this part) where you can play around with your own files .
• The top hat is the Editor’s Picks, where I have preloaded a selection of Clickwheel material you can view right on the player.
• The “i” is more detailed info on how to work the player.

Please note that the first button Tim mentioned is a beaker, not a Beaker. We’ll report back more on the new player after we get a chance to play with it thoroughly (Demeter has kindly provided us with a test account).

And via Howard Tayler, who has had … issues … with Wikipedia‘s treatment of webcomics in the past: the Wikinews story referenced yesterday is happening here.

Editor’s note: We at Fleen are still getting some reports that comments are delayed or getting doubled up; if you’re having difficulty, please let us know on the contact page.

News leaking from the Wikiworld is that there’s an internal debate brewing about the Great Wikipedia Webcomics Purge(s) of Aught-Seven; reporters from Wikinews have been pursuing the story and there may be stern talkings-to in the future. We’ll let you know if we hear anything definitive.

Do you like Wes Molebash’s You’ll Have That? Of course you do! Are you able to set foot inside a church without catching fire? Got plans for Sunday evening?

This Sunday, October 28, I’ll be speaking at Trinity United Methodist Church during an evening event called Between the Lines. The event runs from 6 to 8 PM, and I’ll be speaking at some point in between those times.

Between the Lines is a monthly gathering hosted by Trinity Church that features local artists talking about their work and their faith. So if you’re in the area you should spin by and listen to me talk about YHT, how it’s created, and why I create it.

WARNING: I’m going to be talking about God and stuff. Sooooo . . . don’t say I didn’t warn ya. Also, I’m gonna talk about why I believe Christian creators should stop making Christian content. Should be exciting!

If any of you are interested in coming to the church on Sunday, feel free to drop me an e-mail and I’ll give you directions.

Per Wes’s website, that email would be the bold-faces portions of wesfillermolebashfiller@gmailfiller.comfiller. Be sure to ask which Trinity United Methodist Church, as there’s more than one.

Things noted today:

• If you are unfamiliar with Norton I, Emperor of the United States, may I suggest you browse through Neil Gaiman’s excellent Three Septembers and a January?
• Might be sold out by the time you read this — Ugly Hill merch to stave off the starvation of a child. Buy a sketch while you’re there.
• Speaking of merch, John Campbell (coinhabitant with Ryan Estrada of the Mexican [web]comics commune) is dipping his toe into those waters; this follows up a recently-wrapped three-week story and a 24 hour comic which has left him tired. Preordering his shirts so he has the money for caffeine and to keep cartooning would be a nice thing for you to do.

And we promised you naked yesterday, so please note that webcomics charity project coordinator extraordinaire Michael Rouse-Deane announces this year’s Tastefully Done calendar:

Last year Tastefully Done showed the world what it would be like if their favourite webcomic characters bared all in aid of Cancer Research. This year the tables have turned and webcomic artists have bared all in aid of Cancer Research.

With the talents of Corey Marie Parkhill at the helm with the cover and along with Whitney Robinson, Jon Scrivens, Kristofer Straub, Ryan Estrada, Fred Grisolm, James Turner, the crew from Digital Strips, Ben Stirling, Meghan Murphy, Chris Thomas and James Walker, Jared von Hindman, and Jodie Azhar baring all for a great cause.

Webcomic artists at their finest, with their clothes off, is hopefully gonna be an utterly delightful success like last year. For the price of $15 and through the www.lulu.com website, Tastefully Done warns you to bare witness to the outstanding artwork that can only be contained in one calendar, we give you Tastefully Done 2008! (emphasis mine)

I think I have to get two — one for getting autographs, and one to seal hermetically until the day that Kris Straub runs for high political office.

So I was going to try to write some more about what US copyright law actually says (since there seems to be a large number of misconceptions on the subject), but the comment thread on the latest webcomics vs. Fair Use incident has devolved to the now it’s personal stage pretty rapidly, so screw that. My thanks to Shane Mitrovic, with whom I had a nice, civil email exchange — you made some good points and though I still think my analysis was correct, you’ve made me see that I could have buttressed my points more thoroughly; email me if you’re curious. Everybody else, read Title 17 yourself, as I’m done getting beat up on this one.

News:

• An article! With/about Bill Barnes! At Comic Book Resources! It’s gripping.
• For those who missed our writeup when it was new last year, or when it joined Lunchbox Funnies earlier this year, Trade Loeffler’s got a really good comic called Zip and Lil’ Bit. It’s now onto its second storyline, The Sky Kayak. I have to admit that I missed this one until Loeffler emailed me — I read Z&LB about about 2 – 3 month intervals so I can get big gooey chunks of story/art all at once. For this one, an installment at a time is too little to savor.
• One of the coolest things I picked up at SPX was a new not-quite-mini, but not quite regular comic from Alex Robinson, called Lower Regions; I particularly liked that it worked purely visually, because there’s no dialogue, no captions, no words whatsoever, yet it tells a coherent story. In a similar vein, Girl Wonder has a new, wordless comic:
  

  In textless format, their new work The Tower tells the story of a princess who escapes her intended role in search of adventure. Completely scripted, penciled, and inked, The Tower will be updated at a rate of one chapter per week over ten weeks.

  Writer Brendon Bennets is currently employed as an actor in Christchurch, New Zealand. He maintains a blog on improv theater as well as several
  other comics he has written here. This is artist Saki Miyamoto’s first published work, and she hopes to one day publish a hand-bound picture book or comic on handmade paper.

  The Tower joins Planet Karen and Goodbye Chains as regularly-updating comics at Girl Wonder; thanks to The X-Man for forwarding me the announcement on this one.

Come back tomorrow, when we will feature nudity.

So Jeff Rowland got what could be considered a nastygram from somebody claiming to be John White, the man credited with taking the original photo of what’s now known as the O RLY owl. He’s demanding that Rowland take down some of his merchandise for including a design referencing said owl, or he’ll rat Jeff out to The Feds. To the best of my knowledge, the claimant has not been proved to be John White, but for the purposes of this this discussion, we’ll assume it is really John White.

Rowland’s LJ thread has already referenced TGTGDKCOAS¹, and that’s the line of logic I wanted to talk about. John White took the photo of the now-ubiquitous owl, and he does in fact hold both legal and moral rights to that image (we’ll leave aside the question of whether selectively asserting those rights a half-decade after the original posting has created an easement or not). We at Fleen believe strongly in creators rights, so why does this situation not make us want to side immediately with White?

Fair Use [via the Wayback Macihne; the new Fair Use Index may also be consulted]:

Section 107 [of Title 17 of the US Code] contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,� such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

It’s comment that’s most important here. Rowland isn’t just dropping the White’s photo of an owl into his design; he’s altered it and placed it in the context of a comment on internet culture (such as it is). As such, he isn’t really incorporating or referencing White’s photo at all … he’s referencing the meme of photo macros.

Let’s take an analogous situation: once upon a time there was a photo of Marilyn Monroe that Andy Warhol then transformed, which David Willis then referenced in his delightful Finger Quotin’ Margo design. The relationship to the original Monroe photo is present, but entirely abstracted by reference to the Warhol transformation, via the filter of Margo (but not Margo as owned by the syndicators of Apartment 3-G). In the same way, Rowland’s Oujia-esque desgin (woodcut look, color scheme, but not a Parker Brothers branded Ouija board by any stretch) has referenced not the original, but rather the original artistic alteration. That’s Fair Use.

And the denial of Fair Use is why White’s claim is annoying all of us at Fleen; claims like this assert that no amount of transformation can ever be sufficient, and that any resemblance is enough to trigger copyright protection. It’s the same logic that led Ira Glass to note that pancakes he witnessed were existing in violation of intellectual property laws, because Disney has made a habit of asserting ownership over every possible permutation of one large circle with two smaller, intersecting circles at the 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions. It’s flawed logic on the part of the Disney corporation and similarly flawed on White’s part. The O RLY owl is something different from the original photo, and comment on that cultural artifact (even on — gasp — merchandise for sale) is allowed.

_______________
¹ The Great Todd Goldman/Dave Kelly Contretemps Of Aught-Seven.

What with the SPX roundups, a number of other stories have gone unremarked here in the past couple of days. Let’s catch up, shall we?

Early reports indicate that PETA tactical squads are preparing to move against several webcomickers:

• Jennie Breeden, for monkey spanking;
• Randy Milholland, for threats against koalas;
• And while a pooch has been referred to in less-than-loving terms (no permalink), since the comments came from an Otter, debate rages as to whether or not action is warranted.

More on these as the situations develop.

Speaking of Randy Milholland, even when he’s making up fake ads for the top of S*P 1937, they’ve got a terrific period feel. Well done, sir!

As has been noted many places, Yirmumah‘s reached a maybe-permanent end. DJ Coffman’s the kind of guy who’s always got lots of ideas on tap, so I don’t think we have to contemplate what the intertrons would look like without him. I also think that we’ll probably see more Yirmumah in some form or other before he’s done; like the majestic shark that must swim or drown, I believe that Coffman must eventually return to his signature work or die. (Note to self: look into booking Coffman Week on the Discovery Channel.)

Because he loves you and wants you to be happy, Chris MacNeil of Rooby Moon is cranking up production — in the past month he’s gone from one full-page Sunday style strip at random intervals to one per week, and now will be producing five B&W daily-style strips between Sundays. The only downside to this is that he’ll only be updating every other day, so look for five dailies and a Sunday over each fortnight. Still, this represents a massive uptick in delivered comics and I’m glad of it.

Speaking of anniversaries (we were so, dammit!) the next 24 hours or so will see two: Kathy Peterson’s Kidnapped By Gnomes turns over the odometer on strip number 100 today, and Sheldon hits the big 2000 tomorrow (hopefully without any computer crashes and general downfalls of society; just in case, I’m holed up in a bunker adjacent to the Fleenplex with all the necessities).

Editor’s note: We understand that some of you have been having difficulty posting comments — hopefully the new WordPress update will resolve the situation.

Timely mentions: A Girl and Her Fed are bustin’ out the bwow-chicka-wow soundtrack, and Paul Southworth’s Ugly Hill is still pining away for your wholesome love. Won’t you go take a look, please? Guy just had a kid, you owe him for doing his part to populate the planet with cool kids.

So, final notes from SPX — it’s not a webcomics specific show (really, what is?), but it’s got the same aesthetic as webcomics: lots of creative people, each one saying I made this, and other people responding with emotional and financial support. Witness, if you will, this entirely typical verbal exchange from Saturday afternoon:

This sort of thing was going on all weekend, and while not every exhibitor in the hall is as cool and talented as I hold Raina and Dave to be (not to mention lovely people — we’d been introduced previously, but this was the first time we’d had a chance to talk), every exhibitor in the hall was held in that regard by somebody. And chances are, that somebody came to buy.

What they tend to buy is on some form of wood — prints, art, books, Chris Yates’s incredible jigsaw puzzles — rather than t-shirts, which makes this an unusual audience for the webcomics creator. Although there were shirts to be had, and I did purchase one from Leah Riley (in the past my CBLDF boothmate, once one of the Lovely Ladies of Lulu, currently half of the husband-and-wife creative team behind Robohobo and Willrad, and always one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet). Not because my wife needed another t-shirt mind you, but because the design of a squid forming a heart with its tentacles was just so damn good. Missed my chance for her fabric sculpture robots because they sold out too quickly, dammit. But my point being, if it’s fabric and it’s good enough, it’ll still sell.

I’ll also note that those are just starting out in webcomics would find SPX an attractive place to get the word out. Case in point, I met a couple of guys named Doc and Todd walking around and dropping the business card for their new collective, Killjoy Comics. Five years ago, they probably would have spent most of the year producing minis and hitting two or three shows with cheap tables, trying to get the word out. Today, you can still do those minis, but you don’t have to wait to pull your readers in, because you can continuously post your work to the web while accumulating enough material for print.

We’ve really reached that happy point where the distinction between indy/small press comics and webcomics is largely academic. So if you read this, if you love webcomics like I do, make your plans for Bethesda next year — there’s a mountain of talent and it’s all deserving of your support.

Photos below the cut.
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