DC Comics publisher/president Paul Levitz in a multipart interview from late July in San Diego; this is the part about online comics.

While we’re waiting for the Zudacontracts to show, here’s the key argument in favor of it from the guy who’s ultimately responsible for its success or failure:

At the end of the day, what you’re supposed to do as a publisher is create an opportunity for creative people to reach an audience and make a living in the process, and to earn your pay doing that by how you physically create the product for people, how you market the product, distribute it, connect it. Webcomics enable some people to bypass that all, and do it all themselves because they want to do it themselves and that’s a wonderful thing, but it’s also a hard thing.

Translation: “Webcomics hard.”

Analysis: Duh. Any creative endeavour that produces something worthwhile is hard; if a creator cares to put less than 100% into achieving a vision, I’m probably less than 100% interested in whatever gets produced. Please note that I’m not saying Only individual expressions of art are valid and if you lack the talent to handle the business and marketing ends of your art and you live a miserably poor life as a result, too bad.

But I am saying that the more — let’s call them agendas — come into play from people who aren’t the possessor of the creative vision but retain an ownership stake, the greater the — let’s call it dilutive — effect it will have on the creation.

Thinking back to my conversation with Robert Khoo at SDCC on the topic of collectives, I’m becoming more convinced that there’s a market for — let’s call it a turnkey webcomics management solution — Khoo-like people to handle the business aspects of a webcomic or collective, allowing the creator(s) to focus on creating, but not acting as a traditional publisher. It would be a revolutionary shift in the publishing model, but hell — isn’t revolutionary what the internet is supposed to do best?

New Little Dee book! Woo hoo!

Time to clear the mailbag — first of all, appologies to Mitch Clem for missing a time-sensitive piece of news. Make him feel better by checking out his webcomic, if you don’t regularly.

Next up, Wes Molebash of You’ll Have That fame is dippin’ a toe into the wearable merch pool.

Alert reader Dave Martin wanted us to know that Mike Witmer of 44 Union Avenue (also on GoComics) has started a new webcomic called Pinkerton. Dave tells us So far it’s a lot of fun… which is good enough for me. I love things that are fun.

[Quick note for any that clicked the GoComics links above — you’re likely to see a large banner for For Better Or For Worse, and should be aware that today is the start of the End Times for FOOB (with bonus points to Comics Curmudgeon fill-in Uncle Lumpy for the term Fööberdämmerung).]

Speaking of the Comics Curmudgeon (an entirely worthwhile daily read), somebody using that name (but not Josh Fruhlinger, the real Comics Curmudgeon) wrote the following:

Here’s some topics: How about Dinosaur comics [sic] sucking ridiculously lately? Is it just me or has it turned into nothing more than glorified chat transcripts? I mean if I see a dinosaur saying “dude” one more time I think I might… I think I might die.

And I love Ryan North, and I know he’s done a lot for the community. I also love Dino comics. But sometimes, when your old dog gets sick, you have to put it to rest, you know? I think Dino comics [sic] has probably reached that point.

Also, what’s with Ben Shur and iamarocketbuilder.com lately? Has there been any mention of that here? I really like what he’s done. I hope he continues. He’s kind of right, too. I mean— has Ryan North kept Dinosaur Comics on longer than he should’ve because it’s his bread and butter? Probably!

Dear Mr Not Really The Comics Curmudgeon: As tempting it is to say It’s just you, there is no correct answer to that question. Every strip is a matter of taste, and any collection of fans will disagree about the ups and downs of a particular strip (hell, even The Great Outdoor Fight has detractors). For myself, I don’t see a decline in the quality of Dinosaur Comics, and as awesome as that I Am A Rocket Builder page is, I don’t see that it’s directed solely at Ryan North.

Finally, for those not listening to the new Webcomics Weekly podcast (with ScottKrisDaveandBrad), it’s damn good. If you make a comic, listen especially for the Tips and Tricks section that has so far been kicking in about 30 — 35 minutes into the show. The discussion about hand-lettering vs. computer fonts was worth the price of admission by itself.

Happy 400th stripperversary to Bryan Paul Johnson’s Teaching Baby Paranoia, which in today’s round-number-intensive installment features mermaid boobies. Woo!

Mike Rouse-Deane of Webcomics In Print has expanded into webcomics review & commentary in print, with the launch of Webcomics Anonymous. If this whole, We like webcomics and we’re gonna write about ’em field gets any more crowded, I might be able to retire on the vast sums that Fleen has earned me. I’m gonna be eatin’ the generic cat food!

And speaking of webcomics in print, I’ve been seeing quite a few of such at my friendly local comic shop; along with Guigar’s how-to manuals of evil and Satanic porn and other detritus of the intarwubs, there’s a shiny new print collection of the first Panda Express story.

PX! Book 1: A Girl And Her Panda features a total of four chapters plus bonus material; publisher Image has gone all-out, providing a nice, heavy, glossy paper, allowing for the gorgeous, subtle colors (I love that radioactive glow) of A Girl And Her Panda to really pop on the page.

Now you could read the 100+ pages of PX!B1:AGAHP online, but this is a book that deserves to be picked up and paged through, to really wallow in and enjoy particularly when you consider the following, posted by co-creator “Art Monkey” (aka Manny Trembley) the day before the the book hit shops:

… It’s all excuses but if I whittle away the debris and garbage to reveal my dark heart I’d have to say I’m tired of making PX! right now. I should’ve taken a break and worked on a different project after book one. But I wanted to stay the course with PX! (we have four total books planned and we’re only one and half books done with the mega story) But I feel like I’m forcing PX! And that’s a crappy feeling. The art feels forced and I’m less and less happy with my own production of the book.

I’m trying to force myself to finish Book two before I wipe my slate clean and draw something completely different. And frankly it’s not fun to force it. … The question I have for you guys is would you run screaming to the hills if we took a break and produced a totally different book for the site. A “PX! presents…” kinda thing.

You know what might make Mr Monkey (and his partner, “Grammar Cowboy”, aka Eric Anderson) feel better? If you bought the book. It’s lighthearted, all-ages fun, it’s got a goat who’s a jerk, and more radioisotope-powered panda than you can shake a stick at. Success for this book means that other creators maybe get the nod from publishers willing to pick up printing costs, and those who self-publish are more likely to get space in the Diamond catalog. Official corporate suits with MBAs think there’s a market for webcomics on the shelves, or DC wouldn’t have launched Zuda with an explicit eye towards reprint volumes.

It’ll be at least year before any of Zudabooks hit the stores, but in the meantime, your best-loved webcomics can be there if a couple of gatekeepers get convinced, and the way to do that is with the potential for revenue. That’s a lot of benefit for $17 now; pack lunches next week instead of hittin’ the cafeteria, and you’ll be thanking me while you’re enjoying PX!B1:AGAHP.

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.

Until recently, I had not considered gateway as a term used to indicate something one might outgrow. I figured it primarily as a passageway through which one is introduced to other things, so much so that I once got into a little trouble for calling Art Spiegelman’s Maus the “gateway drug” of comics in classrooms. Whether you believe that or not, my experience at the time teaching comics certainly proved it true; I just didn’t expect to see that phrasing in print (and in The Comics Journal, no less. Oops.)

Webcomics-wise, I suppose this shift makes sense. Gateways are liminal. I know a number of readers whose online reading wanes depending on storylines, offline time commitments, finding other favorites, intentionally paring down their reading lists, and so on. Some of them have outgrown the webcomics they started with, even if they’ve found new ones to read in the meantime, for a host of reasons. I can empathize: I still feel a little overwhelmed knowing that there are some major-name webcomics I should read and haven’t yet, even though my preferences still skew in certain, very particular, ways. I’ve found new favorites, but I’ve also looked at a lot of webcomics that did absolutely nothing for me. I don’t feel like I know enough to offer critiques, and, as a rule, I prefer to not write negative reviews. I hear that little voice: If you can’t say something nice…

But the comments in last week’s column made me realize that while I might not know webcomics all that well, I know comics. Not so much that I can keep up with you Spider-Man freaks (easy now: I say that with affection, not scorn), but I know how comics work, about panel transitions and zip lines and such. I think those things are transposable to webcomics. And I know reviews, in a less-defined sense; I’ve been writing for Xerography Debt for a while and I’m sure my old reviews lurk even still in the Popmatters comics archives.

So I thought I might tackle this week’s column with those things in mind–and also issue something of a challenge. Mike Luce was first out of the gate last week in commenting, and so I decided to highlight his webcomic Fite! (where the webcomic’s billed as “By Mike Luce (drawing as Thomas Blue)” which I’m not sure I understand…).

What sealed the deal for me to write about Fite!, even after clicking the link, was finding Joey Manley‘s review: “Following the story of Fite! is kind of difficult, since the characters speak in symbols.” After that, I was convinced.
(more…)

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.