So Joey Manley has a new gig doing a gossip column at Comicon.com. His current offering is on those who provoke shitstorms in the webcomics world. There’s a lot of congratulation and self-congratulation in the comments section if you scroll down.

Opposing viewpoint is being provided by Contestant #4, Scott Kurtz, which may well be gone by the time you read this, so here’s a selection of his best points:

I’m concerned about the people who have elected themselves as the ambassadors of the webcomics community….When given the opportunity to present our community to the world, why in the HELL would Joey decide to display us at our worst? The drama and infighting and petty bullshit that the best of us participate in all too often? Joey, that’s what you want the world to know about webcomics? What were you thinking, dude?
…
Look, I didn’t vote for any of these guys to be my representation or PR manager to the rest of the world. It really irks me how so many of them have just stepped up and taken ownership of that role. From the public displays of dirty laundry to the self-important internalization and faux critical review of the work that’s out there…it’s all making me sick to my stomach.

Can’t you guys just let the work speak for itself? Seriously. The comics are going to do a much better job than you guys ever could.

Seriously, when Scott Kurtz is calling for a calm, rational approach to head off the next flamewar, and making a hell of a lot of sense doing it, one of us is off his meds. Manley’s running a column on a site devoted to print comics; people reading it may have never read a webcomic before. If that’s the case, the first impression they may get is, “Hey, this webcomics thing is filled with the bile and backstabbing that I despise so much in the print comics world. Pass.” If you’re trying to make a living (or even server costs) off of a webcomic (and Manley is), this is probably not the way to go about it.

There was Achewood. Then Rob and Elliot. Now Malfunction Junction. Two of them even centre around cars.

I think I’m missing a zeitgeist.

Lots of serious talk in various quarters about the angsty QC storyline. But Josh Mirman is the first to remind us that Serious Things provide the best fodder for humor.

“But that’s horrible!” I hear you cry. “He can’t possibly joke about that!” He can. He did. He paced the gag perfectly. It was funny. And admit it — in your evil, black heart, you halfway expected the story to go this way, so no use complaining about it now. Kudos to Josh for reminding us that the more time we spend agonizing over Meaning and Purpose in comics, the more we tend to ignore their core function: to make us forget life and its attendant stressors for a bit (laughing optional, but highly recommended). Accomplish that, and whatever Meaning and Purpose you want to argue over are moot.

In 1996, my father committed suicide. It’s been nearly ten years, and the impact of this event is still rattling around in my personality and my family. I’m still trying to find my way back to the person I was about to be when he died.

Jeph Jacques is using this to make jokes.

Unlike Faye, the reasons my dad did himself in were not nearly as mysterious. It really doesn’t make it any better though.

But Jeph is strolling blithely down a very dangerous road with his current storyline. By taking on such a personal and traumatic subject, he is running the risk of inducing emotional trainwrecks in complete strangers.

Which, in it’s own way, is pretty darned cool. Karma, Schmarma… Who wants a Shawarma?

I much prefer my random acts of emotional cruelty with a light cucumber/garlic sauce.

The more you think about it, the more remarkable the shift of Kestrel from Queen of Wands into a recurring character at Something Positive is. This isn’t a case of an open source character that anybody can play with; it’s not a studio player doing roles in various strips; it’s not a cameo, crossover, or spin-off of one strip into another. This is a creator giving up control of a creation and allowing somebody else to take control of their baby. It’s remarkable because people feel proprietary about stuff that they create, and to give it to somebody else just feels wrong.

Weirdly, this has been done once before, and in a creative realm at the very top of the uptight-about-IP scale: television. Even more weirdly, webcomics might be exactly the medium for this kind of experimentation with characters. Webcomics creators (as a rule) own their characters outright; there’s no publisher, production company, or multinational asserting rights or wanting sign-off. When you’ve done everything you wanted to do with a character, you have the option to let somebody else (somebody whose work and vision you respect) see where something can be added. That’s got to be a terrifying leap of faith, watching your creation leave the … aerie.

One of the most encouraging things happening in webcomics is the return of Lore “One Half of Brunching Shuttlecocks” Sjoberg’s Lore Brand Comics to regular updates. Three open panels of internal dialogue that leads to a humorous insight; it’s Garfield without the massive suck.

But what’s really interesting here is that the update schedule is better described as somewhat-regular, as Lore’s taken all his various projects away from the regular publication model. As he reminds us:

But that’s not the only paradigm out there. American television writers get the summer off. British television writers — well, I’m not sure how British television works, but apparently it involves all the good shows lasting maybe eighteen episodes. Some writers even work on projects one at a time with no particular schedule. Startling!

Of course, irregular schedules are no fun if you really want to keep current with a favorite site. This is why Lore Brand Comics (and his other projects) now feature RSS feeds for your comfort and convenience.

Interestingly, it’s led to far more updates than in the past. Lore Brand Comics hadn’t seen a weekly update in six months or more, and now we’ve gotten six in the past two and a half weeks (output on his other sites has likewise exploded). Webcomics creators with chronic trouble meeting a self-imposed schedule (which leads to frustration about not meeting a schedule, which rarely improves the flow of creative juices) may do well to consider this alternate model; it won’t work for everyone, but for some it may lead to a more relaxed creative environment and better comics.

You know how sometimes you have a dream and everything in it — no
matter how absurd — makes perfect sense? And how less commonly you wake up and it still makes sense? I dreamt the other night (and I swear I am not making this up) that Jeff Rowland had been named Minister of Culture for the state of Israel, and for the life of me, I can’t think of a single reason that’s not a good idea.