Test Post.

Ignore.

Notice of Resignation From The Blogosphere

Yes, I'm getting out.

Mostly out. I expect that something will occasionally move me to post on Webcomics.com.

But I've always felt that if you're gonna call yourself a blogger, you should post something every day, every weekday, or at least several times a week. I know that's not everyone's standard, but it's mine. I've had trouble living up to that standard before, and really can't do so now. And I don't want to imply a promise I can't keep. So the official line is "T Campbell-- Blogger No More."

What does that mean for the regular Webcomics.com blog? It means that I'll be doing my best to pass it on to other hands. According to this plan, I'll continue to be involved in a sort of editor-publisher capacity, and some of my general thoughts will be reflected in what we cover. And I'll make the occasional post that no one else is stupid enough to take on, like the "Unreliable Surveys." But that's all.

Also, the plan assumes that we'll be able to find enough writers to keep that blog going properly. We've got a few good leads, but we're still looking for more. If you're a good writer and you want to write about webcomics on a moderately well-trafficked site, now is an excellent time to let me know.

What it means for this blog is pretty obvious.

I have blogged on this site for five reasons. A look at those reasons and what's changed about them will tell you why I'm stopping now.

1) To keep my most devoted readers up-to-date on my latest projects, so they can see and support them. Thing is, most of my most devoted readers are reading Penny and Aggie. An announcement over there is going to get a lot more eyeballs than anything over here. So if you like my work, visit Penny and Aggie on the off days for the occasional announcement. (Or just hook yourself up with the RSS feed.)

2) To collect my thoughts about the webcomics field and share them with you. But that's what Webcomics.com is for now. And I find my thoughts are turning away from "what is happening in this field, and what does it mean for us all" toward "what can I make happen in this field, and what does that mean for me?" Which involves the kinds of plans that I have to keep secret for months on end. Secret plans != blogging.

3) To chart my own life and thoughts. This is something I'll miss, I admit. It's great to go back to my own entries from a couple months ago and see how they inform my thoughts now. But the kinds of things I'm thinking about right now involve how I can entertain and serve you better, and those are all rough drafts and sketches to bounce off close friends, not for public consumption.

4) To build traffic for this site. I have totally failed in this goal. The site's month-to-month numbers were in slight decline from a low starting point, even when I was posting entries here five times a week. I'm grateful to every one of you who stop by, really! But I can't help but think you'll be happier if I spend less time on posts and more time on plans and scripts.

Webcomics.com at least has an implied mission statement. This blog is just too diffuse to get a loyal fan base of its own, independent from the people who just check out everything I do.

(Incidentally, there were three major spikes in the blog's traffic over the last six months-- my thoughts on my Sluggy Freelance story, the For Better or For Worse parody, and the snapshot regarding a scam artist trying to exploit Megatokyo fans. The last spike was the biggest by far. Getting a link straight from Megatokyo will do that. But in all cases, the spikes melted quickly. My guess? Users failed to find any more parodies, Sluggy thoughts or scuttlebutt about popular strips, and lost interest.)

The management of online "brands" is evolving in curious ways. I think we went through a "cult of personality" phase where the best way to promote your work was to promote yourself and your views on life, but I think that phase is pretty much behind us. And since I have never, ever liked my essays as much as I've liked my comics scripts, the decision to do more of the latter is a pretty easy one to make.

5) My Protestant work ethic told me to. Hey, don't knock that Protestant work ethic, it's how I got into comics to begin with, one page at a time. I'm a firm believer in finishing what you start. But some projects, like Fans, Cool Cat Studio and Penny and Aggie, can move to planned endings. Other projects are conceived as ongoing responses to current events, like Search Engine Funnies, the Science Fiction Blog, and this blog. And those projects tend to go out without a bang. They end when I recognize that they no longer have the resources to keep going the way they should.

Of course, that was how Cool Cat Studio ended in 2002, and now Gisele and I are having the time of our lives, taking that one to the climax I'd hoped for earlier. So you never know, right? Could be that I'll be back here in three years with something good enough to re-energize this whole project.

Until then, if you enjoy my stuff (and why else would you have read this far?), check out Fans (currently updating hourly), Cool Cat Studio, Rip and Teri and Penny and Aggie.

If you want the successors to the essays I've done over here, take a gander at Webcomics.com.

And watch P&A on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the occasional announcement. We've got something coming up soon called The Versus Verses, something called Sketchies, and-- welllllll that would be telling.

Secret plans!

Thanks for reading.

Hello There!

Welcome to any new readers who might have come here by way of Newsarama. You've caught this blog, and me, in a transitional period, but if you're looking for samples of my comics writing work, it's best to check out the dropdown menu at the top of the blog and explore from there!

Happy to see you.

The Last Lie

"I'll have something more interesting up tomorrow." Said in the previous post. Two weeks ago.

Occasionally, I might be delayed by technical difficulties, but there's no excuse for this kind of failure to deliver. I have to hold myself to a higher standard than that, going forward.

I'm taking some important steps to make sure I can meet that standard. But I won't tell you what those steps are until they're made. Well, I will tell you that one of those steps is the decision not to tell you the rest of those steps.

The Brain Drain Continues...

Most of my thinking about webcomics just now is getting focused into the new Webcomics.com, meaning that I haven't got much left over for this space. I'm not yet sure where that leaves this blog... I've got some new projects to promote, but that's not really something you can sustain on a day-to-day basis.

Today, though, is an interesting day, projectwise. Spent some time talking with an ad rep and fixing bugs on Webcomics.com. Got to get RipAndTeri.com up and running, modify Faans.com, and outsource some work on Webcomics.com and "The Matrix," the latter of which is now 50% done.

Interesting to me, indecipherable to you. Eh, I'll have something more entertaining up tomorrow.

What I Did Today

Not much time for blogging about webcomics when I'm finishing a whole site about webcomics instead.

Webcomics.com. Check it out. Let me know what you think. "Finished" is a relative term, nothing carved in stone...

Zzzzz... uh... DAHHHHH?

I'm allowed a day off yesterday, I had to chase birthday cake with Halloween candy. I'm still vibrating now but I HAD TO. IT WAS HALLOWEEN.

The big news of the last two days has, of course, been the official Zuda launch, which took place around 6PM on October 30. Once again I feel as though I've been woken from a deep sleep and thrown into deep confusion.

In many ways, this is not what I guessed! Some of the PR may have been misleading, but in some cases I was just wrong. My supposition about weekly updates appears to have been inaccurate, though I'm not sure 52 comics installments is enough to hold a readership's attention for a year, no matter how you spread 'em... at least, not a readership with the numbers that Zuda would be looking for.

There's certainly more of a range in style and tone here than I would have thought, though many (not all) of the entries suffer from diseases common to American comic books: misused decompression, thin characterization that only serves plot, and plot that only serves action sequences. The art tends to retain fewer comicbooky bad habits, though the gratuitously T&A-displaying, third-generation-copied anatomy can be found if you go looking for it. (Believe it or not, Battlefield Babysitter, not every reader is so mesmerized by a drawing of a teenage girl's bare bum that you need to stop the narrative so that we can admire it.)

Favorite of the bunch? So far, I'm torn between Leprenomicon and Dead in the Now. The former drops us into the middle of things with a charming combination of humor and action... unfortunately, its last few pages hinge on a line of dialogue that we readers do not see, which is confusing and makes me wonder whether its omission was intentional. The whole thing errs a little on the side of confusion, though I'd rather have that than boring exposition. The title implies a really interesting MacGuffin and larger plot that the creators are presumably saving for after they win.

The latter is a great use of Corey Lewis' unique drawing and storytelling style, featuring the most idiosyncratic character of the lot... but I'm having a hard time getting over how similar it is to the beginning of Death Note. I think I'm gonna give my vote to Corey, though, because he's shown us the money often before and I think he'll probably take things in an interesting new direction.

Besides, which other Zuda feature has its own custom-designed Zudalogo? No other feature, that's which.

Best thing about Zuda: The full-screen reader (as opposed to the default reader), which, seriously and for reals, might eventually change the way we read webcomics.

Worst thing about Zuda: The current genre distribution and/or labeling. Seriously, guys, no romance? Not one romance? And does anyone understand "modern" as a genre, anyway?

Reportage on Zuda's actual launch party.

Land whales: Uclick, having brought original comics to the cell phone, now plans to bring those cell phone comics to the Internet.

Interesting survey of the major comic-book brands on Myspace.

Brad, Kris, Paul and Ringo: The Webcomics Weekly foursome go ahead and make the marriage official.

Favorited-- it's a three-way tie. This is the best I've seen from PvP in quite a while (coming on the heels of some work I liked... less). It's got that awareness of pop culture, human nature, and how they intersect that attracted me to the strip, way back when. Bonus points for making great use of a character the comic books have recently, messily discarded-- and for the spot-on dialogue in panel four.

"And yet, they're still safer with me."

"That was actually the real Bill O'Reilly."