By Chris Arrant

Earlier this week, a new comic debuted on the webcomics collective Act-I-Vate. Or is it new? That’s part of the story to The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad, which was “brought” online by Eisner-nominated cartoonist Joe Infurnari (The Process). According to the cartoonist, this comic was found in the attic of his childhood home that dates back to the early 1950s. The never-before seen flagship comic to a failed start-up known as Jolly Brand Comics. In the comic, Ultra-Lad goes through the rigors of youth, arch-enemies and adventure.

For more, we talked with Infurnari.

Newsarama: So, what is your comic, The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad about?

Joe Infurnari Well, I’m reluctant to call it my comic because it’s more a reprint of a lost piece of comics history called The New Adventures of ULTRA-Lad!

While rummaging through the attic of my childhood home, I found a very mysterious old comic. I had been up there to look for some of my older comics from when I was a teen and this comic, The New Adventures of Ultra-Lad was not at all familiar to me. I did a little research on it and it appears to have been a comic printed very shortly before the Seduction of the Innocent controversy and as a result of that, this ashcan comic never saw print as it was ultimately intended. In fact, the New Adventures of Ultra-Lad was to be the flagship of the startup, Jolly Brand Comics. Publisher Arnie F Junio had sunk all of his money into getting Ultra-Lad off the ground and the whole venture collapsed when the gavel fell and the writing was on the wall for comics. The artist and/or writer for this book are not credited and I fear their name(s) are lost to posterity.

So there I was with this rare comic whose art and dialogue is remarkably ahead of its time and whose story ties in strongly with my own work! I couldn’t let it or the creators pass away into obscurity. When the opportunity to do a webcomic on Act-i-vate came up, I discussed a few possibilities with Alexis Sottile. This time around we thought I should do something unconventional and post up pages from this comic that has inspired me so much. It’s a way for this lost tale to be brought to light and made available for anyone to enjoy for free. The comic itself is at times funny and campy but not without serious subtext. It deals with a lot of the issues of youth, growing up and growing old; things that will resonate with many comics readers in today’s market: the older comix reader who thrills at being transported to his youth and the young comix reader who delights at Ultra-lad’s outrageous feats of daring adventure and action.

NRAMA: Are you sure about this, Joe?

JI: Yes, yes I am.

NRAMA: …okay. Moving on… How does what you’re doing for Act-i-vate fit in with the Eisner Nominated webcomic you do called the Process?

JI: It does…a lot! After reading this very rare comic another feat of cosmic coalescence triggered the realization that this book had encapsulated many of the themes I was already dealing with in the Process. Some of these include identity, ideas about one’s interior life versus the external world, looking at your life from its beginning in youth and infancy and from its end in old age and death. It’s also an example of an idea that I hold dear. That is, taking a medium or in this case, genre, not accustomed to such philosophical and grand themes and use it to tell stories laced with such primordial concerns. In the case of this ULTRA-lad! book, it deals with an old man at the end of his life and his struggles with his Jungian shadow, ULTRA-lad!, who represents his lost childhood and vigor and in many ways his frustration with the fragility of his own life and the failed promises of youth. The arc of this story is the grappling with one’s life and moving beyond it without regrets. To free oneself from the shackles of your past and to grant oneself acceptance of a life on one’s own terms. Of course, this is the subtext that is buried within a hilarious, campy and action packed romp of a comic! It’s also one of the major drives behind the Process.

NRAMA: What are the virtues of working on a webcomic over print?

JI: For the ULTRA-Lad! story, the virtues are that a lost piece of comics can be brought to light and made available for free! The incredibly successful rediscovery of Fletcher Hanks that seems to have sparked a desire to unearth other under-appreciated comics creators like Boody Rogers and Rory Hayes shows that people want to look at and read this stuff. I’m not entirely sure that ULTRA-Lad! will stand anywhere near as tall as these other figures from comics’ past but I am hoping to simply give this character his chance to shine in the most democratic way I could think of, on the internet for free.

NRAMA: How did you get hooked up with Act-I-Vate?

JI: It was a strange confluence of events that can only be attributed to a powerful coalescing of cosmic synergy. Out of the blue, Dean Haspiel contacted me through Facebook about an online anthology he was putting together. We wrote back and forth a couple times before I was on board to do a story for his series of Next-Door Neighbor. Simultaneously, I had been in contact with Heeb/Smith Mag comics editor and Act-i-vate minister of hype, Jeff Newelt about doing some comics with him. I knew he was involved with Act-I-Vate but hadn’t been thinking about the uber-collective when I was writing him. At best, I thought I might get a comic inHeeb (which I did). Behind the scenes, Jeff sent a link to my site, www.joeinfurnari.com, to Dean as somebody to invite into Act-I-Vate. Dean agreed and when approached to do it, I leapt at it!

NRAMA: Why’d you choose to this comic out through Act-I-Vate and not your own solo comic website like you have for the Process?

JI: I didn’t include it in the Process site despite being a ‘chapter’ of the Process because it’s really it’s own thing and should be able to have it’s own life on it’s own terms in a more neutral space. The Process site is great. I am very happy with it and how it’s grown, I just felt that this comic should be given it’s own due and the best way to do that would be through Act-i-vate.. I’ve incorporated it into the chronology of the Process but I feel it also benefits from being somewhat separate. I’ve also tried to look at it that the ‘universe’ of the Process is vast and to have it on another venue helps expand it’s readership beyond just www.theprocesscomic.com.

NRAMA: What else are you working on?

JI: Readers should check out the latest issue of Heeb magazine for my one page comic called “Workin’ Girl Golem” and keep their eyes peeled for my Next-Door Neighbor contribution with writer Alexis Sottile. It’s called Vs. and I guarantee it will definitely leave an impression. It’s a true story of my hilarious and horrific New York rental history and is not to be missed by anyone who’s ever lived in this city or considered moving here. I’m also resuming my work on the Process as well as the Borrowed Time series with Neal Shaffer and Oni Press.

To read the first installment of The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad, go to http://www.act-i-vate.com/56-1-1.comic. For more of Joe Infurnari’s work, visit www.joeinfurnari.com.

Now what are you waiting for!? This new piece of the Process puzzle starts here!

Unlike this site, The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad will be updated regularly on a bi-weekly basis. I apologize to fans of this webcomic as I settle out my work schedule and resume posting new pages of the Process. Take heart, The Transmigration of Ultra-lad is part of the Process! As I may have already mentioned it’s a future chapter that doubles as a standalone story. Here’s the back story:

While rummaging through the attic of my childhood home, I found a very mysterious old comic. I had been up there to look for some of my older comics from when I was a teen and this comic, “the New Adventures of Ultra-lad” was not at all familiar to me. I did a little research on it and it appears to have been a comic printed very shortly before the “Seduction of the Innocent” controversy and as a result of that, this ashcan comic never saw print as it was ultimately intended. In fact, the New Adventures of Ultra-lad was to be the flagship of the startup, Jolly Brand Comics. Publisher Arnie F Junio had sunk all of his money into getting Ultra-lad off the ground and the whole venture collapsed when the gavel fell and the writing was on the wall for comics. The artist and/or writer for this book are not credited and I fear their name(s) are lost to posterity.
So there I was with this rare comic whose art and dialog is remarkably ahead of its time and whose story ties in strongly with my own work!  I couldn’t let it  or the creators pass away into obscurity. When the opportunity to do a webcomic on Act-i-vate came up, I thought I’d do something unconventional and post up pages from this comic that has inspired me so much. It’s a way for this lost tale to be brought to light and made available for anyone to enjoy for free. The comic itself is at times funny and campy but not without serious subtext. It deals with a lot of the issues of youth, growing up and growing old; things that will resonate with many comics readers in today’s market: the older comix reader who thrills at being transported to his youth and the young comix reader who delights at Ultra-lad’s outrageous feats of daring adventure and action.

So there you have it! See you next Monday at Act-i-vate.com!

As a special treat to you RSS feed readers, I'm including this image as a sneak peak. Thank you, loyal reader!

See you there!

I think there might have been a couple of you that I didn’t see at the show last night. That’s cool, good thing is you’re in luck because they now have an audio podcast of the entire thing! You can visit the CBC site and comment on it or you can listen to the podcast directly here. Of course, iTunes users can listen to it by following this link.

Well, it’s finally official. My none too subtle hints and news leaks have been pretty transparent but here’s the official announcement. Look to the Act-i-vate site for my upcoming webcomic, “The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad” in early June. I’ll have more exact information as we approach launch so please stay tuned.

This story is a future chapter of the Process is a standalone story told out of sequence. It’s comprised of scans of a long lost comic from early in the last century so the print quality and pages are a little worn and deteriorated with age. The comic title is “The New Adventures of Ultra-Lad” and this issue’s story is entitled, “The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad”. Here’s the logo design as best as I’ve been able to reconstruct it.

So there you have it. Aren’t you excited!? I sure am and I’ll be posting more teasers prior to launch. Once we get that show on the road things will get a little more regular here on this site as well. Your patience and my hard work will be rewarded.

Here is all the relevant info:

COMIC BOOK CLUB
A Live Weekly Talk Show about Comic Books

***BEST OF NEW YORK PRESS 2007***

Hosted by Justin Tyler, Pete LePage, and Alex Zalben

Tuesday, May 27th @ 8:00 PM

Featuring:
Selena Coppock (Boston Comedy Festival)
Joe Infurnari (Eisner Nominated “The Process”)

Tickets: $5
Online: ThePIT-NYC.com
Phone: 1-800-838-3006
Questions? 212-563-7488

The Peoples Improv Theater
154 West 29th Street, 2nd Floor
Between 6th and 7th Aves.

Check out our website:
http://www.popcultureshock.com/cbclub

Check us out three times a week on Pulp Secret:
http://www.pulpsecret.com

The show is sponsored in part by Midtown Comics:
http://www.midtowncomics.com

Check out our podcast:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=273148505

If you can’t make it, you can always listen to it via podcast. I’m sure my awkwardness will be palpable even in that medium.

Thanks for the pic, Daniel! Once again, I am left with a warm feeling with the happiness that my art has brought someone else. You guys are the greatest. Thank you.

Now, you’re probably all wondering if I get such a warm fuzzy from showing you my art why I have been so stingy of late. Yes, I’ll admit that this project has suffered from neglect and I promise that will soon change. I am currently in the process of finishing up one project as I prepare to launch a couple more. My previous state of the webcomic address was before the Eisner Nomination and my opportunities have multiplied since then. It’s been a bit of a juggling act trying to keep all the balls in the air. But come early June, you will all have some more graphic storytelling from me. I’ve already hinted at it but I’ll have to say this. It is a future chapter of ‘the Process’ told out of sequence in searing four-color glory. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll be thrilled. That’s a promise. Once this project launches, I can then go back to a regular schedule of Borrowed Time 3, the Process and ‘PROJECT X’. Thank you for your patience and loyalty.

This gentleman is a fan of this project and was particularly keyed up about Ultra-Lad. So much so in fact, that I had to warn him that if he sent me any more ideas about the character, I’d have to credit him! In all sincerity, this sort of thing really makes me feel good…it’s not often that I get to meet someone this excited about one of my creations. Frankly, his enthusiasm is infectious and I am very thankful to have his support. Cheers, you are a Prince among men

Want to join in the love? Well, it’s a simple donation away. A $25 donation gets you a black and white sketch and a $50 donation or more gets you a full color sketch such as this. Please note, photos of you with the sketch are optional and public display of said photos is not required.

This is a fine example of the kind of color sketches I can do for YOU when you make a donation of at least $50. Have a favorite character or situation you would like to see me illustrate? Well, hit that there ‘donate’ button, add the appropriate dollar amount with your sketch request and click ’send’! Very soon you’ll be receiving a little piece of wonder like this in the mail.

What, you say, “you’re still hyping!?” YES, cuz this sketch request was very well timed as I am planning on developing this character further. Keep your eyes peeled because you’ll never guess where he’ll turn up next!

Getting Personal Pays Off

Online comic book author-artist nominated for ‘huge honour’

May 05, 2008

Doug Foley
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 5, 2008)

Putting his life online has paid off for Joe Infurnari.

The Hamilton-born artist has been nominated for an 20th annual Eisner Comic Industry Award for best digital comic for his online story, The Process.

Winners will be announced at the Comic-Con convention in San Diego, July 24 to 27.

“This is a huge honour. It’s been exciting,” Infurnari said recently over the phone from his home in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“I would have to say the competition is very stiff.

“The Internet has thousands upon thousands of web comics with new ones all the time. I can’t imagine how they would sift though the submissions.”

The awards are named for comics creator Will Eisner, creator of the popular Spirit comic character. Infurnari said they are the comic world’s equivalent of the Oscars with a gala ceremony every year at San Diego’s Comicon International.

What caught the Eisner judges’ eyes was Infurnari’s ongoing story that began with a storm in a desert, and currently reflects his own struggles with diabetes.

“It has taken a more personal turn,” Infurnari said of The Process. “The storm really gets the ball rolling, something magical, a thunderstorm in the desert, and it introduces a little boy at the end who turns out to be me .

“And there is another storm coming, my low blood sugar, and it follows me as I leave the drawing table working on the comic to address an imminent health crisis.”

Readers can see for themselves at theprocesscomic.com.

Infurnari, a Sir Allan MacNab high school and McMaster University grad, said The Process has allowed him to work out a number of artistic ideas while showing his own evolution as an artist and telling a story at the same time.

Infurnari has been living in New York for almost 10 years after studying painting and printmaking at Yale University, where he obtained his master’s of fine arts.

He earned as spot as a finalist three years ago in an online contest, Comic Book Idol, and since has published several books and expanded into web comics.

The Process, which has been online about 18 months, began as a sideline story in another Infurnari web comic in 2006.

He said good response to the storyline gave him the impetus to pursue it.

“I’m trying to do something different and really push myself and force myself to think of things in a new way.

“Web comics kind of have this almost diary kind of aspect. My personal diary is the artwork I am trying to create and the personal story I am trying to tell.

“Someone said on the Internet that I take my whimsy seriously, which is true.”

So please donate to the site and you’ll receive this brand spanking new desktop wallpaper! Don’t forget! Donations of over $25 get an ink sketch and donations over $50 get a full color sketch! If you didn’t win the free drawing, here’s your chance to get a piece of custom art delivered right to your door!

At your service…

Daniel, I’m prepping the drawing for shipping and I’ll send it out early next week. Now, for the rest of you email subscribers out there, I have a small consolation prize…desktop wallpaper! It’s a small thank you for your support of this project and with it comes a promise that there will be more giveaways in the coming months. Who knows, maybe it will be YOU next time!

Here are the links to the wallpaper:

Once again, thank you to everyone who participated and helped make this a success. I’ll have updates coming soon, I promise.

Joe

One of the highlights for me was the only panel that I attended, the Act-i-vate Webcomics Panel. In it, members of the Act-i-vate collective talked about the genesis of the group and how working online has changed the way comics are being created and delivered to their audience. It was great to see some of webcomics’ finest talking about the medium in an insightful way; in many ways crystallizing my amorphous thoughts and feelings. All in all it was a very inspirational panel and I left feeling energized and proud to be a part of this webcomics movement.

Some of the key points that really resonated with me revolved around the discussion of monetizing free online content. Many creators cited examples of publishing and selling books through esteemed publishers of content still available online for free! How great is that!? It was also interesting to hear Paul Maybury talk about reworking past pages (something that I am guilty of). In my mind it’s an example of how this malleable medium of the internet allows for artists to let their work develop organically while presenting it to its audience. Comicbooks are static but online comics evolve. Of course, this idea is central to the Process so it’s easy to see why I was so jazzed that other webcomics creators are exploiting the medium in much the same way. Speaking of jazz, Dean Haspiel talked about how, for his strips, he doesn’t necessarily know how they are going to end! Fluidity and openness to improvisation like this are keys to creativity. More and more, these webcomickers are capitalizing on the advantages of the internet to simultaneously deliver content and keep it alive and evolving.

It’s also helped them evolve as creators; propelling their art and storytelling to new levels. They maintain regular schedules of updates that force them to constantly focus and push their stories from week to week. This sort of comics pressure-cooker has so many benefits to an artist. As the old addage says, ‘Practice makes perfect.’ But that’s not all! They actively comment and critique each other’s work as soon as it’s live. Their responses alongside readers’ feedback is almost like opening your studio to the world and having the world tell you what works and what doesn’t! For these reasons, there’s little question in my mind why Act-i-vate is the internet’s premier webcomics collective. Click the link to see what I mean.

Now from the sublime to the mundane, the other piece of news is that I have updated the way comments are handled on the blog. You can now reply to specific comments and receive emails when somebody replies to yours. This is going to be really good for creating the discussions that I hope to have happen here. Lastly, you’ll notice a link to email each post/page. Clicking this will allow you to send content to anyone’s email address. So please take advantage of these new features and participate in this content.

When this really sinks in, I’ll write a followup post but in the meantime, I’d like to thank the judges for their consideration and thank YOU for supporting this project.

Best,

Joe

Borrowed Time 3 will get cranking again after NYCC but in the interim, I’m working on a short story that will appear later this year. This one’s tuns o’ fun and has been good to help me get back into action. For a hint as to what this may be about, I’ll direct you this way. I’ll have more to say about this as we get closer to show time.

Once that’s in the can and BT3 is in full swing, I’ll resume duties on cardboard theater construction for page 33. The plan is to do double duty on BT3 and this project. Once Chapter 2 closes with page 34, I’ll take a short break during which time, I’ll plot out Chapter 3 and construct a majority of the remaining projected set pieces. With those things in place, I expect to be able to update on a more regular basis. Every two weeks will likely be the schedule but that’s still negotiable.

Something else I am considering is implementing some blogging about the actual nuts and bolts of my thinking behind each page and the overarching themes and motifs of this story. I have been reluctant up to now for fear of spoiling the mystery and discouraging participation. If I reveal too much of my own intended meanings, readers might be content to settle on my ideas and not explore their own. On the other hand, it might inspire some more comments! These have been hard to drum up so maybe if I let you in on my thoughts, you’ll share yours. Does that make sense? If I told you some of the things that have informed my decisions and cast a light on some of the big ideas, would you be more encouraged to tell me your interpretations? I’m curious to know. I always wanted this blog to create conversation and an exchange of ideas so let’s see if we can make that happen.

As April comes to a close, I’ll be shaking the bushes a little to generate more attention for this original art drawing I am having. I expect that there will be some media coverage to help make this happen. We’ll see how that goes but either way, come May 1st some lucky reader will be getting a fine piece of art.

How does all of this sound? Can you hang on for two weeks? I sure hope you do and I’ll reward your patience with tons of intriguing art and mysterious adventure. At the very least, there’ll be some studio shots, perhaps some coverage of NYCC and other fun stuff to boot.

Thanks for being such a loyal fan and reader. You are an integral part of this and I am very appreciative of your valuable time. We’ll be seeing more of each other very soon!

Joe

As promised, I’m holding a drawing for a drawing! First off, what do entrants have a good chance of winning? Why this drawing, of course! As chosen by visitors to this blog, the prize most wanted was this piece of original art. It’s the unused art for page 23! This is a fully rendered, finished drawing and not a sketch. It’s the real deal, people. The media used are marker, ink, watercolor and colored pencil on watercolor paper. It measures 12″x16″, is signed by me and is ready for framing. This is a rare opportunity to own a piece of original art from this webcomic. I’ll not be parting with any until sometime after this project gets published (whenever that will be) so don’t let this drawing pass you by!

Best of all, it’s absolutely free to enter! The winner will receive the above drawing delivered right to his/her door at no cost. How can you win? That’s easy. Simply sign up for the email subscription service by clicking the little envelope above or the image below and it could be your name that I pull out of the hat on May 1st! Either way, you’re a winner! Email subscriptions are the best way to always stay up-to-date with the very latest content.

After you have entered your email address (I promise that it will not be sold or distributed in any way), don’t forget to check your spam filters for the confirmation email to activate your subscription. If your email subscription is not active, I’m sorry but I cannot include you in this drawing. Only active accounts count. If you are already a subscriber, you can rest easy. Your name is already included in the drawing. Now go on and sign up, already!

Thanks a ton, Chris!

For Your Consideration: Joe Infurnari’s The Process

By Chris Beckett

Joe Infurnari is the artist for Oni’s Borrowed Time, written by Neal Shaffer. With that book, he showed that he is an accomplished comic artist. But online, Infurnari is experimenting with style, pushing himself to evolve as an artist while pushing the boundaries of comic storytelling. His webcomic, The Process, is an entertaining experiment that is well worth checking out.

The 411:
The Process webcomic
Story & Art by Joe Infurnari
Color, b/w, collage
http://theprocesscomic.com

What It Is (with apologies to Dave the Thune):

At Joe Infurnari’s website (artist of Borrowed Time and Wasteland #14), the artist is experimenting with his art – with style, with storytelling, and with the process. The tale begins with a mad stampede of strange creatures barreling over the rolling dunes trying to stay ahead of a great storm that pushes them forward. Witnessing this mad dash is a scrit, a small land crustacean similar to a small crab that is able to curl into a ball and shield itself with its hard outer shell. Unlucky enough to be in the path of these wild animals, the scrit rolls itself up and manages to avoid being crushed. But the storm is close behind and the tiny animal moves off searching for shelter.

Hiding under an overarching leaf of a tall plant, the scrit does not avoid being drenched as the upper leaves of this same plant quickly fill with raindrops, the rush of water cascading down from one upturned leaf to another before reaching the one just above the scrit’s head, sending the crustacean sluicing along the now moist ground. Realizing the flora of this strange place will not provide the shelter it needs, the scrit scuttles off to a cave. There it is indeed dry and warm, but as the scrit moves further into the darkness it discovers another inhabitant residing within the cave. A young boy has already sought shelter there, and when the boy sees the crustacean he smashes the tiny animal with a rock, killing it instantly and bringing chapter one to a close.

(more…)

The irony of showing “behind-the-scenes” views of the creation of the main hall of a theater is not lost on me. Can you really show ‘backstage’ glimpses of the construction of what goes in front of the stage? Only on the Process can you achieve such a paradox, folks. It’s like using photography (a supposedly accurate representation of reality) to depict the theater in one’s own mind (the immaterial and imagined). Such are the philosophical conundrums that I am playing with here and before I let any more cats out of the bag, back to the business at hand:

Once again, here’s some sneaks of the theater hall I’m constructing. Things are moving very slowly as you probably already know but I think the results are worthwhile. The side wall will have a large reinterpretation of this famous alchemical illustration. The theater’s two balconies form three levels that correspond to Freud’s Id, Ego and SuperEgo. The lowest, floor seating area is the Id, the first mezzanine is the Ego and the top balcony is the SuperEgo. They are analogous to their terrains and fauna as well. The lowest floor is underwater and full of various sea creatures including a giant squid. The Ego mezzanine is on land and has a dragon and lion. Lastly the SuperEgo upper balcony is represented by air or sky and has an flying eagle. Here are a few more shots showing the latest progress. I’ll have more as it nears completion…

Thanks, Tyler!

Studying the Process

As I said last column, many of the webcomics that exist at this time are actually print comics that are using the internet as an alternative means of publication. One of the biggest reasons for this is because it is no longer viable to publish a successful limited series that builds to a graphic novel. Too much of the target audience will wait for the eventual graphic novel. Thus the development of the webcomic to graphic novel publishing model.

One great example of this model is Joe Infurnari’s webcomic, the Process. This concept was created as a graphic novel, but chapters and pages of it are posted as a webcomic. What really appeals to me about this project is that while the concept is intended to be a graphic novel, there is a reason for it being a webcomic other than to just post pages as he completes them.

I asked Joe if he would help explain the Process:

JI: If my ideas and work are going to be presented in a medium, namely the web, it should make use of the things inherent to that medium (interactivity, updates as-you-go, and endless editability)…. I had the idea that I would try and involve people in its creation and thereby benefit from testing it in front of its audience. Readers are participating in an art project that is about creating a graphic novel. They should be encouraged to comment because that’s how things will get better. I’m showing them a lot of what goes into its making so that they can see the creative process at work, gain a better appreciation for it and participate in it.

So in other words the Process is a webcomic that invites the reader to view the process of creating a graphic novel all while reading a story that involves the creator as a character interacting with the story he is in the process of creating while the audience is in the process of reading it. Have I said “the process” enough yet?

I’ll let Joe continue:

JI: That’s something unique to this blog and web medium where visitors can drop in and out of this digital diary of a comic’s conception. They get insights into how I do things and what I am thinking as I create these pages. Ideally, readers would also participate as well by telling me what works and what doesn’t. Out of all of this, there will be a comic that’s been market tested with a lot of the kinks worked out prior to publishing.

The strength of Joe’s webcomic lies in the fact that it is a very engaging look into the creation of a graphic novel and how he works as a creator. The design of the website makes the story particularly interesting to read, and it doesn’t hurt that the art is fantastic either. Its weakness, though, is that for such a long and involved story, it comes out so infrequently. This contradicts one of the cardinal rules of successful webcomics.

As Joe puts it:

JI: Regular updates are important. Visitors to the Process know that I am lousy at this but it is an important aspect to keeping readers engaged. If they can count on your comic being up every week or day, then you’ll have a devoted following.

As a result:

JI: The economics of this has been a hard nut for me to crack and I still haven’t been able to make any significant money from it… A webcomic, a medium that most people experience for nothing, is harder to generate an income from in my experience. Until it has a huge following, a webcomic is hard to get paid to create. I sometimes feel that frequent visitors to these free content sites who enjoy what they are getting should donate or contribute in some fashion. If I only got 50¢ per unique visitor a day, I would have a nice little perk every day! Contributing in whatever way possible is a way to ensure that you get your fix and it’s just plain the right thing to do.

For what it’s worth, I think Joe should take heart in the fact that the purpose of his website is to promote a graphic novel. He’s getting exposure and reviews that usually come at a cost. While he may not be making any money, he’s saving on costs that would normally go into promotion and printing. Plus, the idea is that the eventual graphic novel will sell well based on the quality of his webcomic. It would certainly be nice for webcomics to bring in money from donations, but realistically, you can’t really expect that.

The only way I know of that webcomics generally make money is by having such a regular following visiting for consistent content that advertising generates a substantial revenue. In my opinion, a creator is better off choosing either to use a webcomic to promote their graphic novel or to use their content to promote a regular webcomic.

###

Tyler Chin-Tanner started his own publishing company, A Wave Blue World, and writes and draws layouts for Adrenaline, its flagship series.

© 2008 Tyler Chin-Tanner. All rights reserved.
Email: tyler@awaveblueworld.com
www.awaveblueworld.com

Stay tuned as I’ll likely be posting more images as this comes closer to completion. In the meantime, if you’re looking for something to do, vote for what free giveaway you’d like to get in the poll!

UPDATE: Okay, people, it’s been a week with no clear leader. It’s go time. If you haven’t voted, now’s the time to have your say! If this giveaway is going to be a reality (and I hope it will), I need to see more of a response here and I need to have a clear winner. I know that a lot of you would be excited about getting any one of these prizes and I’m happy to make them available so let’s see the votes, please.

A bigger deal is the addition of galleries to this blog. This allows me to have whole chapters available as galleries of clickable thumbnails. Galleries for Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 are now available from the Table of Contents page above. Now, using the blog to see all the art relating to a chapter is easier than sifting through all the posts in the respective category. Clicking any of the thumbs in a gallery will open a popup window with the full size image as well as links to navigate throughout the chapter. As an example of this, you can click the thumbnail in this post. Galleries can also be experienced as a slideshow as well. Lastly, these galleries also afford readers the opportunity to comment on whole chapters instead of just individual posts. Yet another way YOU can participate in this webcomic. Please make use of this feature…be a part of the Process!

Stay tuned to this site, I’ll have a new page up before the end of the week. Thanks for reading!

This may be a long drawn out affair with the potential for surgery, physical therapy et al so I would again advise you to sign up for email subscriptions. That way you can always stay on top of things as they happen. If you do click the little envelope above and put in your email address, be sure to check your spam filter in case the confirmation email got snagged.

In the meantime, enjoy this little tidbit and stay tuned as I will be updating this blog with my progress with my health and with this webcomic. Thanks for your patience…