I was going to be posting about an amazing comic that Kate Beaton posted yesterday, but it’s been temporarily pulled; it dealt with a death in the small town she’s from, and because it’s in the form of a “comic”, there was concern that some might feel she was making light of the situation. It was as fine a meditation on loss that I’ve ever seen in words-and-pictures, and hopefully it will be back to where you can see it soon. When that time comes, you will most likely be able to find it here.

Instead, let’s talk about Rich Stevens and his latest mad-comics project: a comprehensive, 3000-strip collection of Diesel Sweeties as an e-book, which he announced about 15 minutes ago, and which has already seen the addition of the most disturbing Kickstarter promotion I’ve ever heard of:

(And you better believe I will be adding weird rewards to amuse myself. Only $666 to make me break veg. and eat 1lb. bacon on camera.)

No, wait he’s added one since then:

Blame @jefflowrey for the fact that I just added a KS reward where I give up coffee for a month for $10,000.

Damn you, former Fleen contributer Jeff Lowrey! Why do you want to make Rich commit suicide? But apart from the amusing rewards offered¹, I wanted to draw your attention to this because Rich Gets It, where “It” is the issue of Digital Right Management and locked formats and suchlike:

I care about credit and copyright, and love the idea of selling ebooks, but as long as I am able to work on Diesel Sweeties, I would like payment to be optional. That’s the model which has supported me as my main job since 2003, through boom and recession. That’s the model this comic was designed for and where it’s going to stay.

Those of you who support this project will have free download as well as physical thumb drive options available. You’ll also be ensuring I can afford to make a really thorough ebook and both sell it and offer it as a free download.

I hope you’ll also store this collection and share it with your friends. Remix it for devices that don’t exist, buy a decommissioned missile silo and Apocalypse-proof it, print it out and ask me to sign a twenty-pound stack of paper when you see me at a convention. Once you get a copy, it’s yours. The only copy protection I need is the fact that tomorrow’s comic doesn’t exist yet and my brain’s the only place that bakes that cookie. I only ask that you respect the Creative Commons license and do not use them commercially without permission. [boldface original, large text my emphasis]

That entire last paragraph is pure genius, and that large bit? That’s what I want to beat into the brain of every IP lawyer that buys and bribes Disney an extension to copyright every time it looks like Mickey Mouse might enter the public domain. It’s what I want to tattoo on the inside of Christopher Dodd’s eyelids, so he realizes that creativity doesn’t have to fear piracy if it’s nimble and active instead of trying to hide from the changes in the world.

I may not have the spare cash to get ten copies of Rich’s e-book on thumb drives delivered in person and he makes me coffee², but you can damn well bet that I’m supporting this³. It’s not just an insane pixel-wrangling exercise (that’s Rich’s idea of a fun evening, anyway), it’s a manifesto for the future in 8-bit blocks of color. Get on board, or get out of his way.

By the way, as of this writing, the campaign has been live for one hour and twelve minutes, and Rich has exceeded his $US3000 goal by US$203 already. Keep it going, nerds!

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¹ Particularly check out the US$128, US$256, US$512, US$1024, and US$1701 levels. Update: the US$1701 reward is already claimed. I suspect Ryan North, Dylan Meconis, Jess Fink, or Ferocious J may have been involved.

² US$2600; I don’t drink coffee anyway. But me and Rich are still friends.

³ Possibly at the US$69 level; does “Principal Tyrrell” count as a fictional character?

Lots of call-backs today.

• Re: Rich Burlew’s Kickstarter, which we are trying mightily to mention only when it hits a significant landmark: how does half a million dollars/900% of goal sound? Burlew has now claimed the #6 all-time spot on Kickstarter¹, has cemented the all-time top creative work, and bested the previous comics Kickstarter by nearly five times over. Oh, and he still has almost two weeks to go. Sheesh.
• I believe that everybody knows that the Ryan North-written Adventure Time comic debuts tomorrow in comic shops everywhere. Did you know that as a result of like five tweets, Mike Krahulik will now be doing a cover for a future issue? And did you know that there will be a launch party for Adventure Time at children’s comics offshoot of The Beguiling, Little Island, on Saturday afternoon? And did you know that at this party, you can do crafts with Ryan North and Steve Wolfhard? It’s true!
• I only remember about three things² from high school French class, but I remember this: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Proof: David Malki ! dug up the SOPA/PIPA/ACTA debate of its day from the 1870s, and damn if a lot of the arguments aren’t familiar. Give it a good read, then resolve to stay ever-vigilant because it’s just a matter of time before the same arguments we just defeated come around again.
• Final thoughts: I think that Kris Straub is not going to a very good climbing gym³. Everybody knows the archer should only be trying to pick off top-ropers.

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¹ Yes, I know that we said he was approaching #5 before, but the threshold for that — some US$486,000 — did not take into account an active Kickstarter campaign, which doesn’t show in a casual inspection of top funding achievements. Burlew knew it, Gendron and I missed it. Slot #5 is now believed to be around US$556,000, which at current rates should be achieved by end of the week. Slot #4 is probably north of US$800,000, which Burlew will only reach if I publicly doubt he will, so I’m doubtin’ away.

² I’m of the opinion that if you know enough of a language to buy food, beer, a room for the night, and a train ticket, you’re functional in that language.

³ Re: “buttocks only”; I have been on gym routes that specified you had to climb with your back to the wall. Damn right I used the larger holds as butt-rests.

Or, “Ow, my back”. Let’s distract ourselves a bit, why don’t we.

• Christopher Baldwin is coming up on the end of Part 2 (of 3) of Spacetrawler, and is looking to hit the ground running on book production. He’s about 12 hours into a Kickstarter campaign that’s about 25% funded, which is good. Baldwin’s pretty aggressive about the campaign, with an unusually large number of donor levels/prize combo platters for such a modest goal (US$7000), and that extends to his campaign’s duration: a mere 21 days.

  Be sure to watch his video all the way through, as he’s got some pretty original thank-you gifts (including a series of postcards from around the galaxy, sent to you each month, written by one of his characters¹). He also pronounces some of those verging-on-unpronouncable-by-humans alien locations² with lots of spitty noises, and that’s always fun.

• It’s been a couple of weeks, so it’s time for me to remind you again about Saveur and their ongoing project of having comics artists provide recipes in comic form. This week’s contribution comes from Gordon McAlpin of Multiplex fame, and it sounds delicious.
• Just a heads-up: Chris Yates has stepped up his game, making his latest multi-layer Bafflers all curvy and organic and water-fally. Very cool.
• Finally, time for my occasional reminder that while it’s not always to the forefront of Sinfest, Tatsuya Ishida’s Criminy and Miss Fuchsia storyline is possibly the most heartfelt thing I read in my daily feeds, and he surpassed all previous Awwwww! moments with yesterday’s update.

  I can’t help but wonder if Baby Blue, the Sisterhood, or Big D is going to bollocks up the moment of simple contentment they’re enjoying right now³ (out of misplaced concern, misunderstanding or bad intent, respectively), but for the moment they’re happy in a way that anybody who’s felt that first flush of love will remember. Hopefully, their Valentine’s Day will be just as happy for them.

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¹ Can’t wait to see what Krep has to say to you.

² Like the Hotel Kppfing.

³ Possibly by hounding the poor escaped soul who remembers story time; I don’t think either Crim or Fyoosh have it in them to be cruel to himm, even accidentally.

As we start can I note that two new Achewoods in two days is a trend that should be encouraged? Yes, I believe I can.

• Also worth encouraging: the previews of forthcoming graphic novels that we’re getting a page (or so) at a time. Things like the really fun Cow Boy, giving us four or so pages of Boyd Linney (ten years old, bounty hunter, righting the wrongs of his family) in each update. If you haven’t been reading it, now’s the perfect time to jump on, as the thirty pages that have been released so far have brought us to what’s sure to be a pretty epic shootout.

  Likewise, the always-delightful team of MechaYuko-Ananth are using the next several updates of Johnny Wander to tease us with pages from their forthcoming Oni project, Lucky Penny. One page so far with the promise of another eight pages in February, which should be just enough to whet one’s appetite for the full book, which doesn’t yet have a release date (boo).

• As mentioned earlier in the week, Scott C opened a series of readings/drawing demos for kids in Princeton, NJ last night, and lucky for us Kate Beaton was there to document the evening. The crowd appears to have been held in rapt attention by the dynamic Mr C, and by the possibility of coloring¹. Did the young lady with the caterpiller realize she was being sketched? Surely Matthew and Jessica must have suspected, since at least one of them joined in with the arting.

  I’m not entirely sure what the odds are that any of those kids will remember last night’s fun times as one more encouragement that helps make drawing a life-long pursuit, ultimately leading to pro-level cartoonings; probably not great, but you never know. I just like to imagine one of them finding those images in twenty years or so and realizing I met Scott C and Kate Beaton when I was six? Dang.

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¹ Although Beatoun has made soume public mentioun of mouving back tou Canada in the near future, oune can see that she’s “goune native” froum her time in Broouklyn. Spelling “colouring” without a “u”? I think that’s almoust enough to get your Canadian passpourt revouked.

Today, many are creating a comic (simple is fine) to describe what you’ve been doing each hour of the day. Haven’t been reading them? Pick a webcomicker, check their twitterstream, there’s a good chance they’ve got the comics there. My favorites today have been from Anthony “Nedroid” Clark, even though (as of this writing) he’s only up to 1:00pm. Special notice should, as always, should be given to John Campbell, probably the most prolific practitioner of Hourly Comics, as he’s spent the majority of days in the months of January 2006-2012 drawing them.

• For your consideration: Rich Stevens is making plans:
  

  I guess it’s time to see if I can Kickstarter a humongous comprehensive ebook edition when I hit comic #3,000.

  That strip he mentioned, number 3000? Number 2992 went up today and he updates like friggin’ clockwork, so you can expect it on Monday, 13 February 2012. Mark your calendars, bet the farm, bet the kid’s insulin money — it’ll be there, and then we’ll see what a 3000-comic collection looks like. My guess: pixelicious¹!

• Speaking of countdowns to things happening on Monday the 13th: Reptilis Rex launches then. The mysterious protection-program participant known as “William Tallman” will be teaching us all about secrets of the lizard-men from the hollow earth. Looks educational.
• Finally, in today’s BurleWatch™, sometime in the past 10-12 hours, the Order of The Stick reprint drive crossed the US$343,416 mark, making it one of the Top Ten of All Time Kickstarter projects. As of this writing, it’s nearly ten thousand dollars further on (US$355,223 to be specific), and probably in the 8^th or better slot.

  Near as I can tell, the top fundraiser of all time is this (admittedly cool) design project from December of 2010, with a total of US$942,578 from more than 13,000 supporters. I’m not quite sure that Burlew can hit those kinds of numbers, but he is more than a third of the way on both money and supporter count in about a third of his allotted time, so I’m not counting anything out at this point.

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¹ Shut up, it is too a word.

Answer: a whole damn lot. In the less than 24 hours since I last posted, Rich Burlew has added more than 500 supporters and US$63,000 to his already-impressive numbers so my prediction of tapering off to 325 large as a final tally? Busted. Let’s just shoot the moon and call it a cool half-mil. And yes, I know I said the widget was so I wouldn’t have to keep coming back to it. But it’s just so compelling.

• Speaking of dollars and the passage of time, let’s talk Jin Wicked for a moment. Ms Wicked was the creator of the much-missed Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break (entertaining for a half-decade but gone lo these near-four years) and continued her daily autobio comickin’ with A Dollar Late and A Day Short (for about two years, ending in September 2010 with a meditation on dying). She’s back, with A$L&ADS turning in what is hopefully the first of many new updates.
• I’m particularly glad to see A$L&ADS come back, as it may nicely fill the gap that will be left as Bucko hits its 102nd and final update, precisely filling one year with the self-described dick and fart joke murder mystery. At least, it started as a murder mystery, and it really turned into something much deeper. The journey that Bucko and his friends took was really about crossing the boundaries of enclaves (in this case, Portland hipsters) and learning about other tribal groups (bike fixers, steampunkers, Suicide Girls, juggalos, cops, and book fetishizers), each of whom was given that which we generally deny the Other: a chance to be seen as their own people, each with virtues and reasons to like them. Guys, this comic made me consider the possibility that juggalos are actually people and for that I will both thank and curse Erika Moen & Jeff Parker in equal measure.

  I have just one quibble with Bucko, and it’s not forcing me to reconsider my prejudices regarding murder-clowns. It’s that the “murder mystery” part of the story kind of fell by the wayside. I mean, that dude is still dead in the bathroom (although presumably they moved the body), and it never got resolved. The Scooby Gang would have figured out it was the crooked land developer who stabbed the guy before making plans for group sex, not that that is a disturbing mental image in any way. Anyway, guy’s dead and the cops are too busy gettin’ it on in the cruiser, which means the ultimate lesson of Bucko is, Whatever life throws at you, make sure you sex it up, which you have to admit is a pretty good moral. Carry on, Parker & Moen, I rescind my complaint.

• Let’s finish up with a quick schedule of appearances for Scott C, who will be doing drawing and craft demos around the New Jersey/New York area for the next couple of weeks, starting this Thursday, 2 February, at the Barnes & Noble on Rt 1 southbound in Princeton. Unfortunately, there’s no way I’ll be able to get from work to that store in time for the 6:00pm start, so everybody say hi to Scott for me, hey?

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Hmmm, no footnotes. Weird.

Firstly, some things I missed when sick (boo, hiss) last Friday: the irrepressible KC Green not only kept TopatoCo from burning down while his indenture-holders Jeff and Holly¹ were off in the Bahamas, he also hit Gunshow #500 in a suitably Snakespearean fashion.
Also, for those planning out what to do in the coming week, Angela Melick² will be giving a talk on writing comics at the Vancouver Public Library on Monday, 6 February, starting at 7:00pm. Watch out for the crazed, killer squirrels.

Also, in today’s Holy crap, did you see the OoTS Kickstarter? update, Rich Burlew has now exceed the previous highest-funded comics project on Kickstarter by nearly 150%, and is rapidly closing in on a quarter of a million friggin’ dollars after less than ten days. I’m putting the over/under at US$325,000, and the supporter tally at an even 5000 pledges. Of course, if the pledges get a second wind, we’ll see numbers that may take years to be equalled.

Now, to business³. Last week saw the debut of Jim Zubkavich’s Skullkickers on Keenspot, the news of which was previously discussed. Mr Zub has kindly agreed to answer some questions about the web-release version of SK, why the parallel channels for comics distribution, and what to expect in the future. But for those with impatient tendencies, here’s the money quote:

In our first week at Keenspot we had more unique IP visits (i.e.: new readers) than all three printings of Skullkickers #1 combined.

For full context, read on.

Fleen thanks Jim Zubkavich for his time, and also for comics that feature enormous slavering monsters getting kicked in the head because that’s awesome.

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¹ Don’t call her “Tallahassee”. Just … don’t.

² Right-hand rule represent.

³ If you mentally pictured Mark Wing-Davies and David Dixon toasting To business!, I like the way you think.

So let me just point you towards some nicely informative (verging on rebuttal) comments from Gordon McAlpin regarding my characterization of iBooks Author’s EULA yesterday. He may be my one-time nemesis¹, but Gord² is a smart guy.

Oh, and because it’s easier than constantly pointing out how they’re doing:

Whatever number is associated with that OoTS campaign³, just assume I’m muttering Holy crap under my breath.

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¹ Cf: here and here for the full story.

² Can I call him “Gord”? That’s really got more of a Canadian feeling to it. Although it does offer some intriguing possibilities regarding movie puns. Klaatu barada nikto, y’all.

³ So to speak.

So Rich Stevens turned 35 a few weeks back and celebrated by sharing gifts with you, the members of the world that are not Rich Stevens. These included special pricing on merch and free shipping, but also an ebook for free download containing a whole mess¹ of his comics.

Then earlier this week, he shifted tactics, making a second ebook of comics, this time specifically for the iPad, utilizing the brand-new iBooks Author app, again for free. Free turned out to be a critical distinction, as charging for it would open up the can o’ worms that is Apple’s iBooks Author EULA which would require a large cut of revenue to Apple as well as their permission to distribute it through their store. He may well be the first person out of the gate with a release produced via iBooks Author; certainly anybody that got their hands on the tool day-of-release is still waiting for Apple’s approval to sell content.

Rich Stevens don’t got time to screw around waiting for corporate approvals — guy gets an idea Monday, experiment launches Tuesday, Thursday he writes up his impressions.

Some 10,000+ downloads later, his most important conclusion may be that a significant number of readers out there would love to have a delivered-in-chunks, read-at-once model for their webcomics. Sifting through RSS feeds, remembering to hit sites, making time to read one of each of X number of strips per day², relying on bandwidth or signal at the time — for a large number of people (and probably growing as tablet use spikes upward) will find a bursty delivery, followed by the opportunity to read ten or fifteen minutes worth on the train, waiting for an appointment, or over lunch (wherever you happen to bef … I think the iPad part of this is key) to be an optimal experience.

This first delivery dropped a month’s worth of strips, leading to an easy magazine metaphor; should Apple find some way to have a rolling approval for this kind of distribution (instead of requiring pre-approval for each “issue”), and likely if they can permit creators to keep more of the fruits of their labor (30% is somewhere between usury and science fiction), this could be the first iteration of that Next Big Thing that forward-looking webcomickers have their eyes on³.

There will be further experiments and refinements — Stevens knows that fast turnaround and incremental improvements reach a good final state much faster and cheaper than trying to get to 100% on the first go — which process requires input. One key question (from my perspective as a non-iPad owner) would be how to adapt this model away from a single platform; I don’t have an answer and wouldn’t expect Stevens to have one yet either, considering the entire thing is about three days old. But if you have thoughts on the matter, the discussion is taking place on Google+. I can’t wait to see how this one turns out.

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¹ One of the more obscure English measurements.

² For me, X ranges as high as 75 or 80 and as low as mid-30s, depending on the day.

³ In my opinion, one of the most useful things that Scott Kurtz has done via his occasional participation in print vs web shitfights is to very publicly never lose sight of the fact that webcomics as we now know there are a transitional mode of distribution. There will be a next thing, whether it’s some form of e-magazine, or the only slightly hyperbolic direct-to-brain HyperComics that get thrown around from time to time.

Not permitting webcomickers to fall into the trap of print comickers who don’t see a way to adapt is crucially helpful; just living with an understanding that business model and technological change are a given gives the current (and more likely, the next) generation of comics creators a better chance at not being left behind by those changes than some of their predecessors have proved to be.

Benign Kingdom¹, which Kickstarter was sitting on for a while, has gone live. The principals involved are Yuko Ota, Evan Dahm, Becky Dreistadt, and KC Green (who’s involved in nearly every cool comics Kickstarter anyway). They’ve got four art styles that are radically different from each other, but each of them is at the top of their game and will do an amazing art book.

In addition to hitting 25% of goal in the few hours since their campaign went live they also have a secret weapon that all but assures success.

Ladies and Gentlemen: George².

He’s got a history in running independent publishers, a day job making comics happen for Oni, who have published one or two comics projects you may have heard of. He’s worked either high-level staff positions or behind the scenes of numerous conventions, appearing where things needed to be done and making the necessary arrangements. His cheery demeanor masks an organizational genius, one for whom the words on time and as promised carry the same import as I like to breathe do for ordinary civilians. It’s his involvement that makes me believe this line from the Kickstarter pitch:

If this goes well, it could be the foundation of a much bigger project in the future: Benign Kingdom could print more books, and maybe involve other artists! Thank you very much for your support!

… has already been planned for, and merely awaits the passage of time to bring to fruition. This isn’t a one-off, it’s a new publishing venture, much like Box Brown’s Retrofit Comics, with the intent to bring you stuff you wouldn’t get to see otherwise, from creators who need to connect to their audiences in a fundamental, dollars-and-cents way. In the time that I’ve been writing this, another 5% of funding has been achieved, including a top-tier reward³ (which I confess, I didn’t think would sell, but shows you what I know) claimed. Right now it’s four friends (plus George) working to a common goal, but in a year or two it could be the next Flight.

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¹ For the moment, it’s not showing up in Kickstarter search, so use the direct link. I imagine that wil sort itself out in the next day or so.

² Or Mr Rohac, if you’re nasty.

³ The top-tier goes for US$1250, and the key differentiator from lower tiers is: You are drawn as the ruler of Benign Kingdom, by the four artists. As of this writing, four more instances of this reward are available, which opens the possibility of a dynastic conquest for the Benign Kingdom’s throne as the various pretenders vie with each other for supremacy. The resulting blood feud is expected to last for two and a half centuries.