The March of the Collectives

A collective, loosely defined, is any sustained grouping of webcomic creators. What they do together varies greatly from group to group. Some are largely a peer group offering each other critical feedback and encouraging support. Others throw in cross-promotion for each others' work. Some build a collective brand with logos, advertising and a central website. Some share business experience and expertise in areas as varied as merchandise, books, conventions, hosting and website creation.

And what did I find from my research? There's a tremendous number of collectives out there (and that I never want to attempt another "survey" article again). And, oh yeah, checking out collectives can be a great way to find excellent new comics.

There's no one way to form a webcomics collective. A collective, loosely defined, is any sustained grouping of webcomic creators. What they do together varies greatly from group to group. Some are largely a peer group offering each other critical feedback and encouraging support. Others throw in cross-promotion for each others' work. Some build a collective brand with logos, advertising and a central website. Some share business experience and expertise in areas as varied as merchandise, books, conventions, hosting and website creation.

There's no one way to join a webcomics collective. Some creators are fairly exclusive with much or all of their webcomics activity within one collective while others are more promiscuous, joining multiple groups and spreading their webcomics identity and work across the landscape. Some creators join up with their friends and some look for a common theme or genre of webcomics.

There's no one way to run a webcomics collective. Some collectives are collaborative, some are democratic, some led by a few. In general though the idea of a webcomic collective evokes a smaller group of creators working together — an organization model on the opposite end of the spectrum from something like Marvel or a newspaper syndicate where a corporate owner employs a large group of work-for-hire employees. Still there's a tremendous amount of space in-between those two extremes and just about anything organized at all in webcomics to date seems to fall much closer to the "collective" ideal end of that scale.

A tremendous number of them too, I tell you. Even the list at Comixpedia.org is starting to get lengthy (although if your collective is not in there now would be a good time to start an article for it). I won't even pretend to have scratched the surface of what's available online today. In February and on into March, I contacted as many collectives as I could find and a number of them did get back to me with additional details about their efforts.

OLD SKOOL COOL

Back in the mists of webcomics pre-history I was part of a small collective called Altbrand that had a website, did comics together, organized events for the "webcomics community" and even hit a convention together (well most of us did – a few got sidetracked in Alaska…). Altbrand is no more.

There are other collectives that come to mind when I think of old skool, including Tragi-Comix which includes Bryant Paul Johnson, Thomas Gale, Chris Shadoian and Kelli Nelson; and Ape Law which includes Dan Christensen, Mike Hawthorne, Justin Ison, Jon Morris, Norm Scott, and Neal von Flue. I'm sure there are countless others that started up early on. Most collectives, like most webcomics, probably don't garner attention beyond their own immediate fan base. There may be no way to know how many collectives there were in the web's earlier years. One of the oldest of the old skool however, has to be THE NICE.

The Nice was founded by Terrence Marks back in 2000. The original members besides Marks included Peter Gullerud (Grootlore) and Jason Furness (Pixelated). Marks explains the origins of The Nice, "We're loosely affiliated with Purrsia; there's historically been a fairly high overlap between comics hosted on Purrsia and comics that are in The Nice, but it's never been 100% either way."

What (if anything) does the collective do as a collective? What are you doing on the collective website?

Marks: In the past, we've done swaps and crossovers for Halloween and April Fools' Day. We also have a forum that most of our comics share.

The Nice has 31 members:

Scott Kellogg – 21st Century Fox
Susan Rankin – A Doemain of our Own
Henbe – Adventures of Fifine
Tiffany Ross – Akaelae, Alien Dice
Ian McDonald – Bruno the Bandit
Graveyard Greg and Redkam – Carpe Diem
Matthew Bett – Cascade Failure
JB – Catharsis
Amber Williams – Dan & Mab's Furry Adventures
Denise Jones – Eversummer Eve
Robert and Margaret Carspecken – Faux Pas
Mark Stanley – Freefall
Graveyard Greg and Webtroll – Gaming Guardians
Peter Gullerud – Hueby, Pastor Dick
Leonard Cachola – Innies & Outties
Jodi Tong – Lang-Lang
Dawn Douglas – Leon & Kay
Dutch – Misty the Mouse
Richard Matheson – Mynarski Forest
Shaenon K. Garrity – Li'l Mell & Sergio, Smithson
Thomas Dye – Newshounds
Jason Furness – Pixelated
Flinthoof – Roomies
Terrence Marks – Spare Parts
The Brothers Grinn – Supermegatopia
JD Calderon and Daphne Lage – Tall Tails
Mike Russell – Vicki Fox
Candy Dewalt – Vinci & Arty
Bryan Richter – WLCD
Mari Rose – Wings of Change
Mark Mekkes – Zortic

BIG, BIGGER, BIGGEST

Today, however, some collectives are becoming quite well-known and their creators are helping each other to achieve greater success creatively and financially from webcomics. Some of the most visible names in this category would be DUMBRELLA, DAYFREE PRESS, BLANK LABEL COMICS (check out the community interview with the members of Blank Label Comics) and BOXCAR COMICS. Zach Miller, one of the co-founders of Boxcar Comics talked to us about their collective.

Boxcar Comics was founded by Zach Miller and Mitch Clem in 2005. Miller describes the theme of Boxcar as "Awesome."

What (if anything) does the collective do as a collective? What are you doing on the collective website?

Miller: We don't do much as a collective. We usually just help each other out with ideas and answering questions. We were going to get a booth at the San Diego Comic Con, however, it was completely sold out.

Boxcar has 15 members:

mmr21 (21 Dead Monkeys)
Ali Graham (Afterstrife, HOUSD)
Josh Meinzer (Aikida)
James Turner (Beaver and Steve)
Desmond Seah (Bigger Than Cheeses)
Fred Grisolm (Hate Song)
Zach Miller (Joe and Monkey)
Joe Dunn (Joe Loves Crappy Movies)
Brandon J. Carr (The Kenmore)
Gordon McAlpin (Multiplex)
Mitch Clem (San Antonio Rock City)
Clay Yount and Hampton Yount (Rob and Elliot)
Tom Brazelton (Theater Hopper)
DJ Coffman (Yirmumah)
Wes Molebash (You'll Have That)

OPINIONATED CREATORS

Webcomics have tackled opinion and politics with a renewed vigor not seen in traditional editorial cartoons. It's not surprising that collectives have organized around a shared interest in making opinionated comics. A couple of collectives featuring such comics include CARTOONISTS WITH ATTITUDE and SPINZONE COMICS. Cartoonists With Attitude was started by many of the cartoonists profiled in Ted Rall's anthology series, Attitude (Comixpedia reviewed last year's edition Attitude 3 here). Brad Hawkins, one of the co-founders of SpinZone Comics talked to us their collective.

SpinZone Comics was founded by Brad Hawkins, Jonathan Fischer, and Eddie Caplan in July of 2006.

Hawkins describes SpinZone as "a collective of webcomics that deal with political and social issues. At present, our political leanings skew leftward, if only because there are so many more left-leaning webcomics than conservative ones."

What (if anything) does the collective do as a collective? What are you doing on the collective website?

Hawkins: We haven't scheduled any group activities for the moment; our members are highly independence-minded, some are in other collectives as well. There isn't a lot of time to do the gang thing at the moment.

SpinZone has 7 members:

Brad Hawkins (Monkey Law)
Eddie Caplan (Line Item Vito)
Jonathan Fischer (Death of the Party)
J.E. Mills (Cosmic Awareness)
Ben Smith (Fighting Words)
Matt Bors (Idiot Box)
Scott Morris (Debt On)

ALL AGES ARE GO!

One thing I looked for but wasn't as successful in finding as I thought I'd be was genre or other theme-focused collectives. It's possible they are out there and I've missed them all but this doesn't seem to be that common yet. Not quite what I was looking for but still fairly focused in terms of subject matter (or rather approach to the subject matter is the new self-described "all ages comics" collective Lunchbox Funnies. Co-founder Tyler Martin talked to us about their collective.

Lunchbox Funnies was founded by Tyler Martin, Dean Trippe and Ryan Sias. They hatched the idea in mid-2006 and launched the collective's website just this past January. Martin describes Lunchbox Funnies as "All-ages comics for everyone!"

What (if anything) does the collective do as a collective? What are you doing on the collective website?

Martin: Currently the site serves as a launchpad for our comics, including information about the comics and creators, a shared forum and a blogsharing the latest news and offerings of the comics and creators.

Can you tell us anything about the plans/goals you have for your collective for 2007?

Martin: In addition to our own, we would like to feature other great all-ages comics, that aren't just for kids but that can be read, shared and enjoyed across generational lines. We'd like to promote the genre in general and become a site that can be used by readers as an all-agescomics hub.

We also plan to provide original content at the site including sketches, collaborative projects, tutorials, discussions and more.

Lunchbox Funnies has 8 members:

Aki Alliance by Ryan Estrada
Astronaut Elementary by Dave Roman
Butterfly by Dean Trippe
Cow & Buffalo by Mike Maihack
Lunchbox by Ovi Nedelcu
Silent Kimbly by Ryan Sias
Wally & Osborne by Tyler Martin
Zip and Liâ€™l Bit by Trade Loeffler

HYBRID MODEL

There's no rule that a collective can't contain creators and critics, cartoonists and columnists. PANEL 2 PANEL would break that rule if it existed. Panel 2 Panel was founded by Amber "Glych" Greenlee in 2005. Greenlee describes Panel 2 Panel as "Graphic work, good storytelling, rants, and reviews. Basically, I consider p2p to be 'your grown up webcomics and media site.'"

What (if anything) does the collective do as a collective? What are you doing on the collective website?

Greenlee: Well, all of us are working together behind the scenes on several different print publications. Barb, Steve, and Rob all have finished novels, and all but Rob have been published professionally in print mediums.

Currently, my main focus has been updating the site from an HTML codebase to a PHP one to allow for ease in updates and the like (For want of a code-monkey, a website could be lost). Once that's finished, we'll be able to more fully concentrate on our publication efforts.

Panel 2 Panel has 6 members:

Amber "glych" Greenlee (No Stereotypes, Red Dahlia, NonPersons)
Barb Lien-Cooper (Gun Street Girl)
Park Cooper (Gun Street Girl)
Ryan Howe (Gun Street Girl)
Robert Howard (review column Tangents)
Steve Anderson's (review column Reel Advice)

THE LATEST STYLE

Did I mention there were lots of collectives? There really are. There are several ones that started fairly recently and seem to be making a bigger ripple in the waters every year.

One that has a varied group of creators is PLAYGROUND GHOSTS. Playground Ghosts was started by Chris Yates, Colleen AF Venable, Steve Hogan, Chris Dlugosz, and David Malki in the Fall of 2005. Co-founder Malki describes Playground Ghosts as "more stylistically eclectic than most collectives. Only one of our member comics is what you might call a traditionally 'drawn' comic."

What (if anything) does the collective do as a collective? What are you doing on the collective website?

Malki: The collective website is mainly just a hub for news and a link to the shared forum. However as a collective we have a strong convention presence at shows across the country — even if not all members are present at every show, we fly the collective banner and share expenses.

Can you tell us anything about the plans/goals you have for your collective for 2007?

Malki: More shows! We hope to be at six big shows this year. We don't have much planned online, but by "banding together" we've helped each other tremendously with real-world merchandise issues, transportation, lodging etc … and really, none of us is a full time comics person, so on a personal and personal-professional note it's been great to network with a woodworker/printer, a book publisher, a graphic artist, a musician etc. (as well as all the people that they know).

Playground Ghosts has 6 members:

David Malki, Wondermark
Chris Yates, Reprographics
Colleen AF Venable, Fluff in Brooklyn
Chris Dlugosz, PIXEL
Steve Hogan, Acid Keg
Bernie Hou, Alien Loves Predator

Another one that attracted more attention last year was newcomer BOMB SHELTER COMICS. Bomb Shelter was founded largely by members from the former Interact collective (which no longer exists) in 2006. Co-founder Sean Conchieri told us more about his collective.

What's the "theme" (if any) of your collective?

Conchieri: Theme? Hmm. Given the variety of comics we have, there's not really one. We do have a great appreciation for the under-appreciated, though. We like to find talented people that don't really have their names out there, and try to get them the exposure they deserve. That's why Webcomic Idol was so exciting to us; a lot of talented people got quite a bit of attention, boosts in traffic, and now What Birds Know is nominated for a WCCA and has been reviewed in many a webcomics blog. Knowing that you played a small part in getting a comic like that the attention it so richly deserves – that makes you feel pretty good.

What (if anything) does the collective do as a collective?

Conchieri: Well, there was Webcomic Idol; I'm pretty sure you're fully in the loop on that. We also do podcasts, with Jerry Stephens and Chad Diez serving as the hosts.

Bomb Shelter features 17 comics:

And even more recent, is the new collective SUGARSKULL. Sugarskull was founded by Alice Hunt. Hunt explains, however that all the founding members "were instrumental in getting it on its feet, so I guess we all did! It was founded late last year and made its public debut on January 8th."

What's the "theme" (if any) of your collective?

Hunt: Sugarskull is designed to give quirky quality comics more attention. Though the Internet gives you as a cartoonist access to the whole world, unless your comic fits into one of a very few geek-friendly genres, your comic runs the risk of falling into the cracks. Sugarskull is our attempt to stave that off and promote good comics that might be hard to find. The comics are a little sweet and a little dark, like the candies that gave us the name, and each represents some kind of break from the usual webcomic fare.

What (if anything) does the collective do as a collective? What are you doing on the collective website?

Hunt: Right now, the collective has banded together to do cross-promotion and to use the site for updates and some exclusive material. Since the comics are all story-based and all quite different, crossovers are pretty unlikely, but we may have a fun event or two in the near enough future.

Can you tell us anything about the plans/goals you have for your collective for 2007?

Hunt: To continue to rock, hopefully in the form of at least one of us hitting print. And maybe add another comic or two.

The current members are:

Jones
Sarah Glidden
Sarah Davis
Alice Hunt
David Patty

AND MORE AND MORE…

There are a lot of collectives out there that don't stress a theme or really much of an organizing hook. Some look a bit more like a webcomic host whereas others a bit more like a group of friends hanging out together online.

The webcomics collective EYESKREAM certainly has one of the cooler names in collectives. The Eyeskream Webcomic Creators Group was founded by Erik Bouchard and Douglas Curtis in February 2004. Co-founder Bouchard talked to us about their collective.

What's the "theme" (if any) of your collective?

Bouchard: There is no theme. We are more a community in a more traditional sense of the word, to provide a gathering place for webcomic creators and fans. Most of the time we are interacting on the eyeskream forum by helping each others and also others webcomics that are not part of our community but still welcome.

Can you tell us anything about the plans/goals you have for your collective for 2007?

Bouchard: After nearly three years (Eyeskream celebrated its third anniversary this February 9th) I think Eyeskream is now recognized among the webcomic community as a solid and serious collective. So this year we plan to release an "Eyeskream Magazine" in print. A sort of Heavy Metal-style magazine that will include and display work from our members that will be only in the magazine and not on the Internet.

EYESKREAM has 19 members:

Diana Sasse (Antique White House)
Ivan Pope (Boot_Error)
Christophe Shill (Casual Gamers)
Lou Graziani (Cy-Boar)
Bev (Chooken)
Lee Swain & Dan Liles (Flat Life)
Douglas Curtis (Flying Ferret)
Pavel Lujardo (Future Pig)
Matt Buchwald (Fodi)
Matt White & Gabe White (Gun Baby)
Jared Hindman (Head Injury Theater)
Eric Nault (Hellbound)
Adam Marien (The Mulberry Gallows Project)
Michelle Billingsley (Joe!)
Andy Slack (Pinch of the Glass)
Ross Curtis (The Rabid Rabbit)
Jack DeLong (Samurai Pride)
Lady A (Strange Fiction)
Michael Gregory – (Suspicious Minds)

Another collective founded in 2004 is FOUND HAT PRESS. Found Hat Press was founded by Phil McAndrew, Tyler McAndrew, Zach Chase, Stuv, and Mike Stevens. We talked with McAndrew about their collective.

Found Hat Press What's the "theme" (if any) of your collective?

Phil McAndrew: We don't have any sort of a "theme" other than we are all young, awesome, and extremely good looking.

What (if anything) does the collective do as a collective? What are you doing on the collective website?

McAndrew: As a group we will exhibit at cons together, hang out in real life and on the internet, and sometimes collaborate. We've worked on a couple of little anthology books together, stuff like that. I think the real function of our collective is to help each other out both creatively and professionally.

Our collective website is currently in need of some major updates, but we hope to have all kinds of fun things going on there once we do a little reconstruction. In the past we've had weekly sketchbook pages from members and interviews, a messageboard….. just fun little extra things.

Can you tell us anything about the plans/goals you have for your collective for 2007?

McAndrew: Well I can't really speak for the whole group with any amount of certainty, but I think everyone's first priority for 2007 is to draw more comics.

I think as a group, we plan to be at SPX and maybe the MOCCA Festival. Some of us might even be at APE or at comicon in San Diego. I'm sure we'll put together a mini comic anthology of some sort. We plan to continue being awesome.

Found Hat's has 11 members:

Phil McAndrew
Natasha Allegri
Mike Stevens
Jamie Dee Galey
Tyler McAndrew
Jess Fink
Ira Marcks
Zach Chase
Stuv
Eric Feurstein
Tom McHenry

Another veteran from 2004 is CLOVEN HAND COMICS. Cloven Hand Comics was founded by Andrew Jarvis in February 2004. Cloven Hand is much more of a community than a tight-knit collective. It has over 200 members. Jarvis talked to us about his collective.

What's the "theme" (if any) of your collective?

Jarvis: We are a very diverse community, but I think simply because of its name and the various skins the site has had over the years, we'veattracted an "alternative" / "twisted" mix of comics. I always was attracted to the idea of horror comics, but to be honest we don't have all that many horror — though I'm quite proud of this one.

What (if anything) does the collective do as a collective? What are you doing on the collective website?

I would say this is probably our greatest drawback, we have not tapped into the community aspect so much.

Can you tell us anything about the plans/goals you have for yourcollective for 2007?

To become easier to use and easier to connect everyone and get them motivated to participate in the community on a whole.

The March of the Collectives

Xaviar Xerexes

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