Thursday, June 16th, 2005
Nate Piekos was nice enough to include a link to my ComicGallery 1.1 script in the June Newsletter for Blambot Comic Fonts & Lettering. Nate releases a new professional comic font and a new free comic font every month. He also does some lettering work for Dark Horse Comics, writes interactive horror fiction at VisitDeadEnds.com and still manages to find the time to publish his weekly Atland webcomic! Rumour has it that all this productivity is the result of a strange dark liquid Nate gets imported from Ireland.
Tags: webcomic
Posted in tools | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 15th, 2005
In my last entry on Celebrity and Authority in Digital Comics I linked to an article published by Scott McCloud which he has since chosen to depublish:
On the advice of people whose opinions I respect, I’ve decided to remove this essay. If I ever respond again, it will be on points alone, not the motivation behind those points.
Sorry for that 24 hour lapse in judgement. Like a lot of people, I get angry when friends are attacked.
—Scott
Depublishing is the practice of posting something to the web, often an inflammatory post to a weblog, then removing the inflammatory parts or deleting the content altogether. The term was first used during 2003, when the topic of accountability and weblogs was being hotly debated.
Dave Winer, who’s long running blog features posts about blogging software,
RSS,
XML and other technical topics, would often publish inflammatory remarks about other bloggers on his site and then
depublish them after reconsidering what he had said. People would frequently discover entries they linked to or commented on had suddenly disappeared, or been substantially edited, making their own blog entries nonsensical.
Rebecca Blood’s
The Weblog Handbook includes a section on Weblog Ethics and an excellent entry explaining the trouble with depublishing: “
Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry.”
The network of shared knowledge we are building will never be more than a novelty unless we protect its integrity by creating permanent records of our publications. The network benefits when even entries that are rendered irrelevant by changing circumstance are left as a historical record. As an example: A weblogger complains about inaccuracies in an online article; the writer corrects those inaccuracies (and notes them!); the weblogger’s entry is therefore meaningless—or is it? Deleting the entry somehow asserts that the whole incident simply didn’t happen—but it did. The record is more accurate and history is better served if the weblogger notes beneath the original entry that the writer has made the corrections and the article is now, to the weblogger’s knowledge, accurate.
History can be rewritten, but it cannot be undone. Changing or deleting words is possible on the Web, but possibility does not always make good policy. Think before you publish and stand behind what you write. If you later decide you were wrong about something, make a note of it and move on.
I make a point never to post anything I am not willing to stand behind even if I later disagree. I work to be thoughtful and accurate, no matter how angry or excited I am about a particular topic. If I change my opinion in a day or two, I just note the change. If I need to apologize for something I’ve said, I do so.
In addition to the ethical reasons to avoid depublishing, it’s often a pointless activity. Once you publish something online, it soon moves beyond your website to be stored on other people’s computers and on various servers around the world. During the depublishing debate with Dave Winer,
Mark Pilgrim wrote a script called “
Winer Watch” that would monitor Dave’s website and make note of changes to blog entries where posts were edited or removed. While Mark has since taken his script offline, there are other less specific systems archiving content. The
Internet Archive lets you search for content you may have thought deleted years ago, and many Search Engines maintain a cached copy of website content.
If you frequently find yourself wanting to depublish content, you should spend more time reflecting on what you’ve written before putting it online. If in doubt, ask someone to review your content before publishing it. If you later change your mind about something you’ve written, write a new article. Keep moving forward.
Tags: webcomic
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 10th, 2005
The discussion of the upcomming Adventures Into Digital Comics documentary has been followed on webcomic blogs including Comixpedia, DigitalStrips, and Websnark, with dozens of talented and prominent webcomic artists adding their comments. Most people seem to feel the debate is centered on notions of art vs business, or experimental art vs conservative art. However, after giving this some more though, I think it has more to do with issues of celebrity and authority.
In response to the initial inflammatory comic and article at Penny Arcade, Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics posted a public demand for an apology from Jerry "Tycho" Holkins for doing "real damage to the reputations of real people on false pretenses". The claim that they were purposefully ignored by the film makers appears to be totally inaccurate, and it was in fact the other way around. Scott Kurtz of PvP, Jerry Holkins and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik of Penny Arcade were emailed on several occasions asking them to participate in the film, but they never responded.
An interesting paradox of celebrity is that the more famous you become the more other people want to give their time and attention to you, but in turn you become less able to give time and attention to each of your fans. Celebrities must choose carefully who they acknowledge, and the growing number of people who they unfortunately end up ignoring. For example, Kevin Smith may be a very nice guy but he simply doesn’t have the ability to talk with each and every person who would want to talk with him, or be interviewed for every newspaper, magazine or documentary film he was invited to. He definitely couldn’t reply to every piece of email people wanted to send him. On the other hand, celebrities generally will make time to talk to other celebrities, including media celebrities.
When two relatively unknown webcomic fans emailed several popular webcomic artists asking them to be in their no-budget film, it’s somewhat understandable that their request may have gone unanswered. The artists are essentially celebrities, at least within the microcosm of webcomics, and likely receive more email than they can realistically reply to. They have to choose who gets their time and attention, and who unfortunately does not. It’s also understandable that Kurtz, Holkins and Krahulik would have no recollection of having been asked to participate in the first place. Without any type of celebrity of their own, even media celebrity within the webcomic community, the film makers’ request was ignored.
Even non-celebrities have to deal with this issue from time to time. I know that on occasion people have sent me email about the articles I’ve written over the years, and I haven’t always been able to respond in a timely manner – and for that I apologize. I also know that I don’t receive nearly as much email as Kurtz, Holkins or Krahulik. I imagine there are many such emails those three either ignore, or take a long time in responding to.
What’s unusual is that when these artists heard about the trailer for the completed film and the webcomic community began buzzing about it, they chose to publicly criticize the film and voiced their surprise at not having been invited to participate. Rather than check their unanswered email, or contact the film’s creators, they assumed they were deliberately being excluded. The great irony is that their exclusion from the project was only a result of their ignoring the invitation to participate.
On the surface, the debate is one of celebrity and inclusion, but as things progressed other issues have emerged that further mirror those in larger communities.
In Kurtz’s rebuttal of McCloud’s call for an apology he says that "when you put yourself in front of a camera or you put yourself on the internet and you try to take a position of authority, you place yourself in a position of [potential] ridicule." Holkins response refers to McCloud as the "aging sovereign" of the webcomics community, and in his post he asserts his proven financial success and superior business model for emulation by others. He ridicules the concepts and philosophies from Reinventing Comics, and feels that it’s McCloud who should be apologizing for the charlatan’s advice he gives to comic artists about bad business models that will hurt their potential to make a living with their work.
What might have been resolved as a simple misunderstanding over unanswered email has grown into a debate around issues of charismatic authority and influence in the business niche of comic publishing on the web. At the heart of the new debate are two alternate business models.
McCloud advocates pay-for-content webcomics, where people either buy a subscription, as seen at Modern Tales, or by make use of a micropayment system, such as BitPass. This is the model he outlined in Reinventing Comics and McCloud has been experimenting with micropayments for his own comics. While sales for some online content, such as music downloads, are doing very well, the same can’t be said for webcomics in 2005. I know from personal experience, and having spoken with other people running webcomic subscription sites, there are very few if any artists making even a modest living this way.
The other business model, employed by PvP and Penny Arcade, advocates free online content used as a tool to build a fan base with revenue generated by donations, affiliated merchandise sales, online advertising, and appearances at comic conventions. Kurtz, Holkins and Krahulik claim to be earning a good income with this approach – although I suspect their financial success may be somewhat overstated.
The only other example of success with this form of give-it-away business model that I’m aware of is HomeStarRunner.com. That site has grown into a viable business for Mike and Matt Chapman, but it offers animation and games rather than just comics, and appears to have a much wider viewership than either PvP or Penny Arcade.
While it would seem there is room for both approaches to webcomic publishing, the real issue may be around who has the greater influence over other creators. Jerry Holkin’s has said "Penny Arcade has achieved just about all it’s ever going to". This public confrontation with McCloud over business strategy and credibility may represent a growing area of interest for him. What remains to be seen is if Holkin will choose to offer more advice to other creators, as McCloud has in the past, or if he’s content to simply criticize McCloud’s theories.
It’s an interesting discussion – at least it could be, if it focused on the business models and strategies and avoided personal insult and some of the straw men arguments that seem to be being put forward.
Tags: webcomic
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Friday, June 3rd, 2005
Adventures into Digital Comics is a documentary film about the “reinvention” of comics on the web. The film hasn’t been released yet but has already received some criticism from cartoonists currently publishing online.
Scott Kurtz and the creators of Penny Arcade were not mentioned in the film, despite having very popular online comics. They’ve posted articles and comics critical of the film’s pretension on their sites.
Adding his criticism for the film’s overblown talk of “revolution”, DJ Coffman also questions the timing and objectivity of a book about the History of Webcomics, scheduled for release later this year. The follow up discussion at Yirmumah.net includes some interesting comments from T Cambell, the book’s author.
From my experiences last year, I think what makes “Digital Comics” or “webcomics” distinctive from traditional comics is mainly just a change in the distribution channel. Instead of photocopied minicomics at the local shop, an independent creator can setup a website instead. Sometimes people try and charge for their content, or sell related merchandise like toys and t-shirts, but more often than not its a hobby or portfolio for finding other work – including print comics.
Certainly there are people who have implemented McCloud’s Infinite Canvas to create comics that can only be experienced in a digital format – but these people are vastly outnumbered by the amateur creators who could easily move their artwork between the web and print.
In fact, I’m not sure I buy into the idea that “webcomics” are all that different from “comics” in general – at least not in an artistic way. There may be some changes in layout to better suit viewing on a screen, but this is a fairly minor issue.
The business side may be different, but that’s all up in the air right now. I don’t think there are ANY viable business models for online comics at the moment. My personal feeling is that there isn’t enough “history” of the business side of “webcomics” to really talk about yet. At least not business successes, at any rate.
News and reviews of comics published online have some value, and on occasion have helped me find some interesting new material. However, trying to create books or films about the “history” of something that’s still unfolding seems a bit premature. I also think there is a tendency for people to focus on what they would LIKE history to be, rather than what it will turn out to be on its own.
All the same time, I’m happy to see people making films and writing books about the things that interest them. I might disagree with the timing or objectivity, but still think it’s great they’re creating these works.
Tags: webcomic
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Friday, June 3rd, 2005
I’ve made a few updates to my Comic Gallery Script, and a new version is now available. ComicGallery 1.1 includes navigation links for going to the first or last image in the gallery, as well as enhanced XHTML output to allow you to replace the text navigation with custom images. You can see an example of Comic Gallery 1.1 at RealmOfAtland.com
Download
ComicGallery.zip
Be sure to check the Comic Gallery Tutorial for help with setting up and configuring the script.
New Features
The First and Last links are controlled by the variable:
- $firstlast=1;
- The default setup for Comic Gallery includes start and last links for navigating back and next through the images. To this option off, change this line to:
$firstlast=0;
Additional <span> tags have been added to the generated markup for use with CSS Image Replacement techniques. This will allow you to replace the text navigation for the gallery with your own custom images.
This zip file includes some sample images for you to get started.
Download
cg_nav.zip
Setting up your navigation images
Unzip the file and upload the files to a directory on your website as follows:
- YourWebsiteFolder
- comicgallery.php
- example.php
- kubrick.css
- images
- kubrick
- cg_nav
- back.gif
- back_on.gif
- back_off.gif
- first.gif
- first_on.gif
- first_off.gif
- last.gif
- last_on.gif
- last_off.gif
- next.gif
- next_on.gif
- next_off.gif
Add this CSS to your page (eg. example.php) and your gallery will display images for the First, Back, Next and Last links:
/* CG nav setup */
#cg_nav1 { height: 50px; width: 400px; margin: 0 auto; }
#cg_nav1 a, #cg_nav1 span { height: 50px; width: 100px; float: left; background: #fff top left no-repeat; }
#cg_nav1 a span, #cg_nav1 span span, #cg_nav1 .cg_divider { display: none; }
/* CG nav images */
a#cg_first { background: url(cg_nav/first.gif); }
a#cg_back { background: url(cg_nav/back.gif); }
a#cg_next { background: url(cg_nav/next.gif); }
a#cg_last { background: url(cg_nav/last.gif); }
/* CG nav rollover images */
a#cg_first:hover { background: url(cg_nav/first_on.gif); }
a#cg_back:hover { background: url(cg_nav/back_on.gif); }
a#cg_next:hover { background: url(cg_nav/next_on.gif); }
a#cg_last:hover { background: url(cg_nav/last_on.gif); }
/* CG nav unavailable images */
span#cg_first { background: url(cg_nav/first_off.gif); }
span#cg_back { background: url(cg_nav/back_off.gif); }
span#cg_next { background: url(cg_nav/next_off.gif); }
span#cg_last { background: url(cg_nav/last_off.gif); } Replace the cg_nav files with your own, but be sure to adjust the height and width settings in above CSS if you have different size images. You might also consider using CSS Sprites to reduce the number of image files needed for your gallery’s navigation.
Tags: designmeme, tutorial, webcomic
Posted in designmeme, tools | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 2nd, 2005
There’s something wrong with my television.
Every Sunday night at 8pm the TV turns itself on and changes the channel to the Crossroads Television System, the local christian channel. The first time it happened it was a little creepy, and reminded me of the movie The Ring. The next few times I thought to watch a few minutes of the program that came on. It seemed to be fairly generic tevelangelist fair, courtesy of Dr. Charles Stanley. I’ve since become somewhat used to this weekly event, although it’s strange that once every few weeks the TV seems to forget to switch itself on.
At first I thought my cats might have somehow been responsible, stepping on the TV remote and switching the TV on—but this has been happening for many weeks now, and I’ve made sure to put the remote out of reach. My next thought was that it had something to do with the Guide+ system that comes with RCA TVs that let you browse through the weekly TV listings. I’m not sure how that would explain why it switches to the religious station though, or why it’s not happening every week.
At this point I’m not sure if I should call a TV repair man, the local pastor, or a paranormal investigator.
Tags: spooky
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
