Back in March 2004, Bill Duncan wrote a feature looking at the then new explosion of smaller collectives of webcomics. The article mixed in larger publisher sites like Modern Tales and Wirepop, but mostly examined on creator-focused groups such as Altbrand, Ape Law, Dayfree Press, Exile Comics, PV Comics, Razor Comics and Rocketbox Comics. Some of these have thrived since, most notably Dayfree Press which has continued to maintain an active roster.
But since then other successful groups such as Dumbrella and the newly formed Blank Label Comics reemphasize how important collectives can be to furthering the success of webcomic creators. In large part these two groups most visible success is in shared business and technical savvy.
It is probably fair to look at any collective and ask what is its identity? Sometimes that’s not really apparent. But two examples where there is an impression associated with the group name that come to mind are Boxcar and Pants Press. The newly formed Boxcar Comics has the good fortune to have well-known D.J. Coffman as a member and he seems to have passed along some of his promotional and business experience to his new colleagues. The lower-key Pants Press group’s members may not stand out for marketing activity but they have received consistently high critical marks over the last two years. That can speak volumes too.
While we’re on the subject of collectives, feel free to tell us about yours – make sure to include its name and URL.
Wow. After noticing a banner ad up on CP’s main page, I am now aware of a new collective known as…
THE RYANS
Be afraid.
Kelly J. Cooper
Comixpedia Editor
I’m a member of the collective Big Cheese Press, which is absolutely the best way to make comics. As a collective, our identity is formed around the fact that we all did newspaper comics together in college. As such, we’re all great friends, have plenty of training (years of quality comic-making) and our stuff all has a somewhat similar sensibility and sense of humor. The strips are all in the vein of newspaper strips (Peanuts, University^2, Calvin and Hobbes, etc) with variations (one is more autobio, another more Peanuts-inspired, and so on).
Our humor is geared more towards college-age-ish 20-somethings, because that’s what we all are, and updates 5-times a week, because that’s what we did in college. We put up the site because we wanted to continue making or posting comics even after we graduated a year ago. In sharing a site we can lean on each other, talk to each other more than we would otherwise (we live in different parts of the country now) and are encouraged/challenged by each other’s work. Most importantly, I get to read comics by my talented friends every day, which is awesome. Check out our work daily.
-Joanis (Rockstar Weekend) http://www.BigCheesePress.com
There is Panel2Panel.com, a collective consisting of Amber “Glych” Greenlee and her varied works, Ryan Howe, Park Cooper, and Barbara Lien-Cooper of Gunstreet Girl, and yours truly of Tangents Webcomic Reviews (and Steve Anderson of Reel Advice on Tuesdays).
You can find us at: http://www.panel2panel.com/index.html
Robert A. Howard, Tangents Webcomic Reviews
http://www.tangents.us