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Comixpedia's List of 25 People Of Webcomics for 2005

December 5, 2005 - 18:03

5. Phil and Kaja Foglio

In April of 2005, the Foglios moved Girl Genius from the direct market to the web. Established comicbook veterans, the Foglio's move suggested that online publication would begin to rival the direct market, even for established artists. Following in their footsteps already in 2005 were Batton Lash (Supernatural Law) and Carla Speed MacNeill (Finder). We caught up with Phil Foglio to assess what turned out to be quite a year for Stuido Foglio.

Q. How would you assess the results of putting Girl Genius online this year?

Excellent. As of the beginning of November, we've quadrupled our number of readers, and tripled our sales. Plus I've saved almost $20,000 by not publishing the periodical comics.

Q. Are you meeting your expectations in terms of business when you made the decision to update it on the web?

Yes indeed. Now I must admit, that all I wanted to do was to do better than we were doing at the time, and we're certainly doing that. But I am well aware that the traditional ratio of readers to buyers is like 7 to 1, and we have yet to see as much of an increase in business as our apparent numbers say we should have. I think a large part of this is that sales have been good enough that a number of our books are temporarily out of print (just in time for Christmas!), and a lot of people are saying that they're waiting to order until after our newest collection comes out. (January)

Q. Has publishing Girl Genius online had any impact on your creative process in terms of approach the stories?

Very much so. Before it was "Gotta get 32 pages done before the end of the month!" Now it's "Gotta get 3 pages done in a week!". There's a lot less pressure, and surprisingly, we'll be producing a lot more Girl Genius material per year.

Q. Has publishing online led to more immediate feedback from readers?

Definitely. We've got a very active Yahoo group, with several hundred members, and within minutes of a new page going up, they're dissecting it to within an inch of it's life. It's great.

Q. What were the highlights of 2005 for you?

Girl Genus was nominated for an Eisner. Didn't win, but that's life.

Going online definitely counts. Not just because of the increased revenue, but because the webcomic community was very welcoming, and continues to be very supportive. The traditional comics industry never really knew what to make of us, and tended to ignore us. The online people however, mention us (favorably) quite often. It's a bit unsettling.

Q. Any thoughts on what you're hoping to accomplish in 2006?

There's a number of projects that should finally see the light of day in 2006. The Girl Genius RPG from Steve Jackson Games, Putting the finishing polish on the first of the Girl Genius prose novels, and we finally found someone to help produce t-shirts. As far as the webcomic goes, I'd like the readership to crack 6 figures and make us enough to get my kid piano lessons.

Q. To the extent you read comics online, what do you think were the milestones for webcomics generally this year?

Generally speaking, I think the biggest thing was established print comics coming to the web. We may have been the first, but already there's also Carla Speed MacNeill's excellent Finder, and Batton Lash's very funny Wolf & Byrd, Supernatural Law. Once people see that we're doing well, you're going to see a flood of comics making the switch.

As for specific highlights, Randy Mulholland (Something Positive) seems to be doing well enough that he doesn't have to go back to work in the real world. In Shaenon Garrity's Narbonic, Helen & Dave have finally realized that they were made for each other.

 

4. Brad Guigar

Guigar had an immensely busy year. A longtime creator of webcomics, Guigar recently transitioned from his first webcomic, Greystone Inn to a sequel, Evil Inc., which focuses on a corporation run by supervillians.

Guigar was also a key part of two of the biggest stories in webcomics this year. Along with the rest of the Blank Label Comics founders (Kristofer Straub, Steve Troop, Paul Taylor, David Willis, and Paul Southworth), Guigar left Keenspot to go independent. At first, it simply looked like veteran Keenspot members striking out on their own, something Howard Taylor had done earlier in 2005. It was, however, merely a prelude to the formation and announcement of a new webcomics collective, Blank Label Comics. Since beginning, they have quickly added additional members (Dave Kellett, Greg Dean, and Howard Tayler) and showed off how nimble and aggressive a well-organized group of talented creators could be.

Later, Guigar organized the Webcomics Telethon as a means for webcomics creators to help raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. This was a real success story with a tremendous amount of participation from creators and a good deal of money actually raised for the Red Cross.

Q. How would you assess your webcomic work this year? What were the highlights?

I'm very proud of the work I've done in 2005. I have two personal highlights. The first is the launch of a weekly comic about sex, love, and relationships. Courting Disaster started in January and I've been having a lot of fun with it. A running tag-board chat can be accessed below the comic and the conversation is wild.

My other highlight is the launch of Evil Inc. Evil Inc. is a spin-off of Greystone Inn, -- which I'd been doing since 2000. I loved Greystone but I felt it lacked a little focus and had a central theme that was difficult to grasp for newcomers. Evil, on the other hand, is a corporation run by and for super-villains. I'm able to throw a hefty dollop of comic-book parody in there and still do the same multi-layered storylines that I've really come to enjoy. The response to both new comics has been really awesome.

Q. The effort to organize Blank Label Comics must have been a major part of your life, leading up to its launch. Can you share some insight into how the group formed and what work went into getting it off the ground?

Blank Label Comics was formed when six of us decided to leave our webcomic host and produce our webcomics independently. As we discussed it, we realized that while none of us had all of the skills and know-how to do it, all of us together were unstoppable. So we formed Blank Label Comics as a cooperative group of independent cartoonists. Each of us handles the business of his webcomic as a separate business. Collectively, we join together to handle issues such as cross-promotion, advertising, comic convention appearances, and special projects.

Getting off the ground was an enormous task. Kris Straub wrote code to keep all of the sites updating and archiving... and has since been working on scripts for everything from RSS to blogging for BLC sites. Thanks to the hard work that he and our host, Bookworm Computing, put in, we have some tremendous site features -- like that little transparent BLC dropdown many of us use at the tops of our sites.

Q. You also organized the Webcomics Telethon to raise money for Katrina victims. I know you've organized such efforts before -- but this seemed larger. Do you view it as a success?

I'm still overwhelmed by the success of the Webcomics Telethon. Especially when you stop to consider that the final estimate we arrived at for the money we sent the Red Cross -- $28,635 -- is on the low end of what we probably raised. As you might remember, a lot of well-intentioned sites were organizing efforts only to see the Red Cross balk because they couldn't confirm the validity of any of the fund-raising. So, we decided not to get involved as middle-men in the donation process. Instead, we simply linked directly to the Red Cross donation page and asked people for a pledge as they clicked the link.

Now, obviously, some of the pledges we bogus. But we threw *everything* out that was even slightly out-of-the-ordinary. If we took the pledges at face value, we ended up much closer to $70,000. The official pledge estimate is made up almost entirely of pledges under $20. In the end, though, it wasn't really about the money.It was an event that spanned the universe of webcomics better than any other I could think of. We had participants that ranged from members of big web syndicates to that guy you'd never heard of before. We had a Pulitzer-Prize-winning political cartoonist and one of the godfathers of alternative comix participating. And the site updated every fifteen minutes for almost four full days -- with problems and complaints that could easily be counted on the fingers of one hand. And we did it all in under two weeks.

Q. Any thoughts on what you're hoping to accomplish in 2006?

I'm really going to work on making the Evil Inc site a full-scale entertainment site for comic geeks like
me. The strip is going to be the central draw, but I have tons of ideas for features to keep people hanging around after they've read the day's comic.

Also, since my wife is due to deliver our second child in January, my central goal is to simply continue to crank out six comics a week without going nuts. :)

Q. Are there plans for additional books next year?

I'm eager to get the first Evil Inc book ready in time for next year's conventions. I've been working on a new way to present a collection of comic strips. Instead of the usual three-strips-on-a-page, I'm using the individual panels of the strips and designing pages in a comic-book layout. Since I write in storylines, the end product reads smoothly throughout -- kind of like a graphic novel. I've experimented with a couple Best of Greystone books and the response has been huge. I can't wait to have an Evil Inc book out and see how it does.

Q. What do you think were the milestones for webcomics generally this year?

Keep in mind, I am unapologetically biased, but my top five list would start with the Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge. It generated a ton of interest in an underappreciated aspect of webcartooning: Consistency. Next, Keenspot's TV-development deal for YDK. Couldn't happen to a more deserving cartoonist. Even if nothing ever happens, it's a significant movement. Third, PAX's second year. An entire convention around a single webcomic. Fourth, Blank Label Comics launched. This was the start of a general movement away from large webcomics syndicates towards smaller, sleeker organizations. There's a reason the Webcomics Telethon wasn't organized by a large websyndicate -- too many cooks make for difficulty in the decision-making process. And speaking of which... the Webcomic Telethon for Hurricane Katrina.

 

3. John Allison (2004 List: # 20)

Allison has been a longtime creator of webcomics, beginning with Bobbins and more recently with Scary Go Round. This year SGR won Outstanding Comic at the WCCAs.

Q. How would you assess your webcomic work this year? What were the highlights?

I think I did some of my best work this year, and some work that was uninspired, but adequate. The problem with doing work I'm really happy with is that I find it very hard to top it, so I struggle a bit. Next year I am going to chill the hell out. Chill the hell out.

Q. You've seem to reach points where you felt the need to vary your approach to the art. Any insight into what drives that for you?

I got tired of working in Adobe Illustrator in the same way that a man who paints walls for a living would probably get tired after 50 straight weeks of rollering. Whenever I do too much computer art (for example, doubling up projects), invariably I throw down tools.

Q. Any thoughts o½n what you're hoping to accomplish in 2006?

I'm chilling the hell out, and refusing to double up. It's a two-fisted mandate for success (failure).

Q. Are there plans for additional books next year?

Another collection is due, but nothing else. because I am not doubling up any more. It also falls under the "chilling the hell out" remit. As always, the collection will feature the excision of certain artistic failures, and the insertion of just enough material that readers will suspect that not to purchase it would be to "miss out".

Q. What do you think were the milestones for webcomics generally this year?

When I won "best comic" at the WCCAs. The form reached its zenith at the precise moment that the award was announced, and will now swiftly tumble to its dismal nadir.

 

2. Joey Manley (2004 List: # 3)

Manley is the publisher of several subscription sites for webcomics including, ModernTales.com, Serializer.net, Girlamatic.com, GraphicSmash.com, and several single creator sites including AmericanElf.com. This year he also launched Webcomics Nation which offers a turnkey solution to creators seeking to publish webcomics and run a business around them.

Q. How would you assess Modern Tales and Webcomics Nation for this year? What were the highlights?

ModernTales.com has not been as active or as exciting as I'd like for it to be, over the past year -- in part because I've had to expend vast amounts of energy on recovering from the Great Server Crash, and launching Webcomics Nation. I do have big plans, though.

In 2006, all the Modern Tales anthology publications will undergo a significant upheaval and change -- for the better, I hope -- as we bring new business models and new editorial strategies into play. We won't be abandoning our core subscription business for those sites, but I do intend to supplement that revenue with more business models and revenue opportunities. For example, on ModernTales.com, you can look for some new "free zones" -- sections of the site where everything, not just limited samples, will be free. "Freeness" won't be the only thing that defines those sections of the site, though. The new Modern Tales free zones will be: "The Strip Lounge" (featuring daily humor strips, a la Keenspot or Blank Label) and a newly-resurrected "Longplay" (featuring o�ne-shot stories and graphic novels). So, see, you'd have a reason to visit them even if they weren't free. "Free" isn't enough.

These sections of the site will be advertising-supported. I plan to release more details at the same time that I make the call for submissions. And, remember, like I said, the subscription-based part of the site will still be there, and will still contain the same comics that it would have contained otherwise. We're sort of going in the reverse direction from the rest of the web. Everybody else is all-free and is thinking about offering some premium pay content on the side. Right now, we're all-pay, and are planning to add vast amounts of free material.

As for Webcomics Nation, well, what can I say? It's been a tremendous success, but also has plenty of room for growth and improvement!

Q. What do you think were the milestones for webcomics generally this year?

WCN launching was the biggest news of 2005, of course (grin); Finder, Girl Genius and Supernatural Law moving from the Direct Market to the web was more significant than may appear at first glance (I think this is a trend we'll see more and more of over time -- and the trend will eventually encompass even the Big Companies, who will probably abandon the monthly comic book pamphlet altogether in favor of the web, eventually) -- geez, everything that seems significant to me happened over the last few months -- that's probably just because if it's more than a few months old, I can't remember if it happened this year or last year.

The launch of Blank Label was also significant, for sure, as was the ability of Keenspot to weather that rough patch without faltering (a sign that they are stronger than many in the webcomics community thought they were).

 

And number one for the 2005 List is...

First let's take a look at a few people who didn't make the list this year but from whom we expect big things in 2006:

  • Scott McCloud: An extremely quiet year for McCloud in large part because he is working on the third book in his Understanding Comics series. Making Comics, due in 2006, is described as a comic about making comics.

  • Derek Kirk Kim: By all accounts working on projects expected to come out next year.

  • William Simons: Although the comics-on-iPod service, Clickwheel started this year, it is expected to relaunch next year with a new plan of attack. Simons is the CEO of Clickwheel.

  • Sebastien Dumesnil: Although the Adventures into Digital Comics documentary inspired large amounts of discussion on webcomics forums this year it isn't until next year that it is is scheduled for release.

  • Raina Telgemeier: Telgemeier is working on a comics adaptation of The Babysitters Club book series which is due out from Scholastic in 2006. If Scholastic does as well with this project as it has with Jeff Smith's Bone, Telgemeier will have a tremendous year.

And we would be remiss without a special honorary mention to Warren Ellis, a writer well-known for his work in comic books who used his significant online presence to publicize webcomics. His latest online project, the discussion form, The Engine has developed into a popular site for discussion and publicizing of webcomics.


And now the number one for the 2005 List:

1. Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (2004 List: # 5)

Along with Penny Arcade, Inc., business manager Robert Khoo, Holkins and Krahulik continue to cast a large shadow in webcomics. Holkins is the writer and Krahulik is the artist on the very successful team behind the webcomic Penny Arcade.

Beyond the growing audience for the webcomic itself, Holkins and Krahulik continued to provoke public controversy, most recently by tangling with the noted anti-videogame crusader, Jack Thompson. In addition, they once again held the largest convention dedicated to a single webcomic, ever, and also held another edition of their very successful Child's Play charity drive for children. We talked briefly with Mike Krahulik about 2005 and the year to come.

Q. How would you assess your webcomic work this year? What were the highlights?

I fell like we get a little better each year. This year I am especially proud of our "Annarchy" storyline.

Q. Outside of the webcomic, Child's Play and PAX were huge events this year - were you surprised at how much they grew from last year?

The growth that both of these events experienced this year was a big surprise to us. Obviously we hoped they would grow but PAX more than doubled in size and Child's Play is on track to destroy last year's numbers as well.

Q. Any thoughts on what you're hoping to accomplish in 2006?

I'm hoping the PA card game and the new books do really well. I'd love to see some toys in 2006 as well.

Q. Are there plans for additional books next year?

Our second book should be out around the middle of next year. That will collect all the comics from the third year of PA.

Q. What do you think were the milestones for webcomics generally this year?

I think the heated discussion over the concept of micro payments and the larger debate it spawned about web comics as a hobby vs a business was pretty important.

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