So Stuff Sucks is wrapping up; we expect a formal epilogue shortly, but that’s pretty much it for the story. At first it seemed sudden, and while Greenfield’s vagabond existence and inconsistent access to network/hosting may have hastened the end, but it looks like the story was winding down anyway.

Daniel sits at the center of this semichromatic Amsterdam, but the story comes from him being buffetted by things out of his control. With Zemi now dealing with her attraction to Daniel (and no longer actively screwing his life up), Tony (a reliable source of hi-jinks) heading out on the road after the shop burning down (foreshadowed by the cursed toaster, record, etc), Mike gradually slouching towards maturity (or at least realizing that chicks don’t dig the BOOBZ cap), and the possibility of winning back the wicked Nicole dead and buried, what is there left for Daniel but to settle into a life devoid of wacky circumstance?

And in a comic like Stuff Sucks, a life devoid of wacky circumstance would make for boring comics. Pretty, but boring.

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that the comments I’ve been reading about the abruptness of the ending are merely because it wasn’t announced in advance. When a creator lets the audience know, I’m wrapping this up, expectations change and perceptions of the work shift. Although modern books & strips tell us comics go on forever, there was a time when they had a beginning, middle, end, and then the creator moved onto another project; perhaps playing off this idea, Brian Bendis recently remarked that he knows how he wants Powers to finish, and hopes that he can get away just running a last issue and never publishing another without saying so.

And in times of loss like this, it helps to find hopeful thoughts. Me, I’m taking comfort in the fact that Greenfield is young — younger even than the career of her spirit animal, John Cusasck; she’s got plenty of creativity left in her and many stories to tell. Me? I hope she does more of her diary-ish comics.

Short Things:

• Howard Tayler: DEVOURER OF SOULS
• New weekly webcomics podcast, featuring guys with a lot of experience.
• See? It was webcomics! Plus, watching Tony drink directly from the concentrated Twinkie™-filling delivery pipe at the abandoned Hostess factory was awesome.

Longer Thing: John Campbell, who took The Long Walk Into Mexico with Ryan Estrada to establish a comics commune has sent us a progress report:

dear fleen: john campbell here–i’m the dude who moved to mexico with ryan estrada. i’ve started a webcomic called pictures for sad children that updates monday-friday. i figured you guys should know about the first online output of the cartoon commune. it’s somewhere between silly and sad, like most of the things i make.

i made stevie might be a bear maybe and i also make hourly journal comics every january that culminate in hourly comic day. here are some other comics i’ve made so you know the sort of things that are in store.

i doubt a comic with a week of archives is cause for CELEBRATION, but i thought i’d make you aware! thanks.

Thank you, John Campbell! And you’re wrong about one thing — this experiment you’re running makes this particular comic with one week’s worth of archives of great interest and a cause for MEMETIC CELEBRATION. Good luck keeping the Internet running (or Buena suerte que guarda el funcionamiento del Internet, if Babelfish can be relied upon), and keep us in the loop with the big adventures.

Also, keep an eye on your buddy — I heard that Ryans are genetically predisposed to gettin’ whacked out on tequila and running off into the jungle, never to be heard from again. Either that, or Estradas are predisposed to unnaturally shiny teeth, I forget. Whatever, just take care of him.

Now I have to buy a shirt that I cannot in good conscience ever wear, because that spider-ridden bastard my good friend Jeff Rowland is using it to raise money for a good cause dear to my heart. Then again I suppose it’s my own fault; if I didn’t want Jeff Rowland to make fun of me, I should never have ventured onto the Internet. If you’re reading this, that same fate will befall you one day.

I know that I’m seriously going to regret saying this, but if you’ve ever remarked upon my facial hair, you are morally obligated to buy this shirt.

Dammit.

I’ve always loved the annual MoCCA art show, in large part because it’s a webcomic-friendly environment. And the parent museum of the show is getting in on the act, as next month sees the opening of Infinite Canvas: Art of Webcomics at the MoCCA galleries in SoHo; the show will run from 15 September 2007 to 15 January 2008. Here’s what Jennifer Babcock, show curator, has to say:

Basically I wanted to show the diversity that web comics allow in terms of its creators and audience. I will also be addressing how technology and the digital medium affect production, format, and marketing.

It’s a small show, but I think it will be great. It’s also going to be up in conjunction with our New York Artists Showcase, which will be displaying the works of Act-i-vate, a web comics collective.

There’s also hopefully going to be an online section of the exhibit, which will be hosted on MoCCA’s web site.

Ms Babcock also told me that she’s managed to get art from an impressive lineup of creators; as of press time, that included Penny Arcade, Mom’s Cancer, Questionable Content, PhD, Achewood, Goats, and with any luck, Scott McCloud‘s print out copy of My Obsession with Chess, which measures about 20 ft x 4 ft (aaaand cue Eric Burns).

Sounds like it’s going to be a great show; Fleen will be sure to cover it and bring you the full rundown once it opens. If you’re in New York City anytime in the five month run, check it out and let us know what you think.

Confidential to KS: Eyes open, unless they’re made of plastic.

Fifty!

Wrap party on Saturday, then the vain attempt (much like a scarred veteran of battles too horrific to recount) to reintegrate into normal society. Expect a spree at the Thousand Oaks FedEx Kinko’s no later than mid-October.

But since this is Scott we’re talking about, it’ll be a very polite and entertaining spree that everybody agrees illustrates the idea of sprees for a non-comics audience in new and innovative ways (and possibly garners an Eisner nomination for Best Spree) with group dinner to follow.

In all seriousness, Fleen congratulates Scott, Ivy, Sky, and Winter McCloud on their accomplishment, and wouldn’t wish another such tour on them on even our meanest days. Well done, and get some rest.

So Sluggy Freelance hit the decade mark on Saturday, with the usual animated GIF treatment (although this one was creepier than even the blinky FOOB eyes). I haven’t seen a lot in the webcomic-o-sphere about 10 years of SF, which I’m guessing is because the comic is what you might call an atypical outlier and people don’t know what to do with it.

For instance:

• Abrams was an early entrant into webcomics and can get significant names to do fill-in weeks for him, but still claims the number of other webcomics he reads as “none”.
• Unusually for any creator (much less one that’s been in the game as long as he has), his character designs are largely unchanged from Strip 1 to the present day.
• His merchandise line is relatively small and static, but he can support a family of four in New Jersey (trust me, that’s a significant accomplishment).

Most weird for me (and keep in mind that what I’m about to say is based on statistical methods that are extraordinarily suspect), Sluggy claims 100,000 readers (per the interview with Pete Abrams that ran yesterday morning on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday), but there doesn’t seem to be much overlap with other webcomics. There’s no links on sluggy.com to other comics, and you almost never see links to SF elsewhere. My own discussions with webcomics readers indicate that the more webcomics you read, the less likely you are to read (or still read) SF. It either acts like a gateway (where people eventually outgrow it) or it doesn’t (in that you may not read anything except Sluggy).

But on the chance that Sluggy is acting as a gateway comic, I’ll note that Weekend Edition Sunday has a nationwide Arbitron rating somewhere in the millions (best number I can find is 20 million for the weekday version). Somebody there has got to be checking out SF this morning, and having been dropped into year 10 of filthy continuity, may actually look to see if other “webcomics” are easier to start with.

Quickly now: Lucas TdS wrote asking about the Zeros 2 Heroes … let’s call it an “initiative” … with the following question:

Is this another sort of dubious-sounding comic-writer bilking machine?

Short answer: kinda. For the long answer, Mr T wrote about it last week, made some assumptions that maybe were reaching a bit, and wound up talking to one of their honchos. For the moment, let’s call it Zuda-Lite™, at least until we see the Zudacontracts.

And new webcomics interview up at Wizard, this time with Aaron Diaz of Dresden Codak, and I’m informed the next one will be with Kit Roebuck of Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life. As usual, Brian Warmoth’s done a good job and you should check it out.

I was kind of hoping the shirt would distract from the moustache.

Matt Boyd + Rich Stevens = YES. Boyd makes it sound like those old El Grande Historia del Rock compilation albums I used to find in the dollar bin during my regular pilgrimages to 12th & Poplar and the musical shrine therein.

Several points on contact on the WOWIO question (including comments from helpful readers) all agree — money comes from ads in the eBooks; to sum up — advertisers pay WOWIO, WOWIO splits with creators, allowing books at prices like “free”.

Downloaders of these free books have to provide certain information about themselves for purposes of authentication. To quote:

Signing up for a WOWIO account requires that you authenticate your identity. This is necessary to protect the content of our publishing partners and provide readers with free ebooks. WOWIO is currently available to U.S. residents only.

Authentication options include:

• a non-anonymous email address
• a credit card
• a scan of an ID like a driver’s license

It is stated that credit card info and ID scans are not retained “after the authentication process”. No disrespect to WOWIO or the many creators using the service to distribute their stuff, but there’s no way in hell that I’d ever transmit either of those things to somebody offering me something for free. Why yes, I am a cynical sumbitch, thank you.

In addition to authenticating, you will be asked:

to enter personal information, including contact information and information regarding your personal interests and preferences. …

WOWIO collects and uses your personal information primarily for the purpose of subsidizing the price of ebooks available on the WOWIO site. Sponsors pay for the opportunity to present their products and services to you, and in return you get free books. Your personal information is shared with sponsors and other clients and partners of WOWIO in aggregate only. No personal identifying information is available to clients or partners. [emphasis original]

Addendum to the earlier Cycle o’ Money: Advertisers pay WOWIO, WOWIO splits with creators, you get free books, you get sold to advertisers. The farming of marketing info isn’t unique, and it is one of the things that makes our economy work. But I found this bit interesting: when talking about how WOWIO will never disclose info about you personally except in extraordinary circumstances (subpeona, other legal compliances, etc.), there was this tidbit:

… in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: … (b) protect and defend the rights or property of WOWIO

Okay, Not A Lawyer, but that’s pretty damn broad. The lack of boilerplate we will not sell or give away information about you text is worth considering. I’m not saying that WOWIO is a bad service or a bad deal (really, I have no opinion on it), but you’ll want to keep in mind that these free books aren’t really free, and you’ll have to decide for yourself if reading them (and supporting their creators) is a sufficient benefit to Brand:You.

Okay, I get it, sort of. Dave Kellett‘s wired into the Hollywood Elite, attracting the attention of luminaries such as Neil Patrick Harris, Cobie Smulders, Alyson Hannigan, and his wife Gloria Calderón Kellett.

I get that being tied into that power structure allows you to have the contacts to do what normally only the the targets of front-page coverage of US Weekly and InTouch Weekly get to do: throw a party in swanky Beverly Hills locales and have other people pay for it. I don’t resent that he’s able to do these things and I’m not, nor that he hasn’t seen fit to throw such a party for anything less than the launches of his various books (although if he felt like throwing such a party for, say, a celebration of webcomics journalism, that’d be might awesome of him).

What I don’t get is, exactly what the heck goes into the drinks known as the Squee and the Sheer Awesomeness? ‘Cause I got a bar and shakers right here in my dining room and a fairly good collection of ingredients and tools, but I ain’t grindin’ up lizard or nothing. While we contemplate such, be sure to pick up your own copy of 62% More Awesome, which I believe you will find as compelling a purchase as I did.

The long-awaited Wondermark film is here! Thrill to the debate of [web]comics luminaries as they decide: [David Malki !] vs Comic-Con: Who’s Better?

Highlights include daring aerial footage, special appearances by comics legends Stan “The Man” Lee and Scott McCloud, and a loving, lingering, longing closeup on Dave Kellett‘s junk (07:56, for those of you playing along at home). The soundtrack includes the original song, Comic-Con (I Have Loved You) (music: Kris Straub; lyrics: Erica Stephens, performed by Kris and the Straubtones); it’s a tear-jerker that’s sure to dominate MOR playlists for the next five years.

After seeing the movie countless times, I give it eight thumbs up and recommend you run out to get the Special Edition DVD with bonus features just as soon as it’s released.

Confidential to Andy Runton: You faithless whore. You never told me your mom doesn’t like facial hair.

Wired issue 15.09 (on stands today) has a pretty extensive profile on Penny Aracde (perhaps the first instance in a Condé Nast magazine of somebody calling their artistic/business partner a douche); it’s not online yet, but may be soon. Be interesting to see if PA gets a bump out of it — I’d imagine the demographics of “reads Wired” and “has heard of Penny Arcade” overlap pretty substantially.

In other news, fake history gets a workout in the new collaborative project The International History Club, with contributions from the likes of Chris VanGompel, Chris Jones, and Chad Diaz, Wiz Rollins, and KC Green. History is more frightening than I remember it.

From the Milestones Department:

• Benj Christensen’s I Am Geek hits one hundred strips,
• Kevin Wasden’s Technosaurs starts book 2, and
• Jason Sigler (my nemesis at Digital Strips, The Midnight Cartooner) celebrates the 3rd anniversary of The Amazing Superzeros with that most superhero-y of all traditions: the big-ass cast splash panel

And finally, a new project for all of us here at Fleen: Scott asks:

What’s the deal with Wowio? How is it ‘compensating’ its content creators? The site’s ‘about’ page briefly and vaguely mentions sponsorship, which can mean a bunch of different things, and the Wowio site itself doesn’t seem to have ads. I figure if anyone knows, it’s the good folks at Fleen, and if I’ve got the question, then others may be wondering, too. (The current ‘most downloaded’ eBook on the site is a Sore Thumbs collection, btw.)

Good question, Scott. We’ll look into it and get you an answer as soon as we can.