Today is the official launch day of my book on Webcomics! I can't tell you how excited I am! This is the first textbook on webcomics, and it's only one of three books about webcomics that are currently in print! (The other two are both how-to books by Brad Guigar. Well-worth picking up if you're interested in creating webcomics, but they are for a pretty specific audience.) My book is intended to be be more broad in scope, and has more of an academic framework. I've tried very much not to write it in academic-ese, though, and it hopefully has a more approachable style that virtually anyone can embrace.

There is something of an irony in publishing a pulped tree version of a book about an exclusively digital media. I go into a little more detail on this in the book's introduction, but essentially the benefit I think this format has is that it puts all of the information about webcomics within the confines of a readily available unit. Just by the nature of the internet, there's almost certainly bound to be more up-to-date information online, but it has to be sorted and filtered from a huge collection of sources that would need continual maintenance to keep it organized at all. I tried to write the book as timelessly as I could, so it might not go out of date as quickly as the previous few books on webcomics have. (Which is one of the reasons why so few remain in print! The others are very much of their time!) I've actually been keeping up with webcomics news generally, and I am pleased that there's nothing blatantly outdated in it yet -- which is saying something, considering that I turned in my first draft a year and a half ago and I haven't been able to make any substantive changes since last November!

I'm really proud to see this get out into the world. 80,000+ words was really daunting when you consider most of what I write is in the 500-1000 word range. I'd like to think I pulled something together that's worthwhile and will contribute to people's understanding of a medium that not nearly enough people talk about! Of course, it also terrifies the shit out of me as there's a lot of people whose work I know and respect will likely read this, and I'd hate for them to walk away from it thinking, "Damn, Sean, that really wasn't all that good. I'm disappointed." Or just as bad, a bunch of webcomic creators read it and think, "What the hell?! Sean clearly doesn't know what he's talking about!" My various webcomics columns over the years never generated much feedback, good or bad, so I really don't know how this will be received. I did put a lot of work into it, so I obviously hope it's received well but, like I said, I'm also terrified it won't be.

While I wait to find out, I'm still happy to ramble on about webcomics with everybody! If you're interested in talking with me, I'd be happy to chat! I'm open to interviews, podcasts, AMAs... whatever outlet where you've got a webcomics-interested audience! (Which, frankly, should be ANY audience! If you're online, you're probably reading webcomics whether you know it or not!) Shoot me an email at sean@seankleefeld.com and we'll get the details sorted! I've spent a LOT of time thinking and writing about webcomics, and I'd love to share what I've discovered with everybody!

When I was growing up, I got the same basic education most American kids got when it came to slavery, emancipation, the Civil Rights movement, etc. -- we were taught slavery was an ancillary issue at most when it came to the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was a pillar of moral fortitude and would have done much more for Blacks if he hadn't been assassinated, and then everything was fine until 1955 when a tired, old woman named Rosa Parks was too exhausted to get up from her seat on a bus. That was the conversation others had when it came to those topics and, since that was all I heard, I didn't know to believe any different.

But I got lucky. I happened to get a copy of a comic book biography of Frederick Douglass that contradicted was we were taught. I've told this story before. But, in effect, I stumbled onto the same conversation, but one being held by a different group of people. These weren't older white men dictating what should/shouldn't be taught in public schools, these were Black people who had heard the same stories but had a very different lived experience. It was only in stumbling into that conversation, almost accidentally, that I started to think about what was considered "normal.

Now, I was stupid kid at the time, and it would take several years before I started to really understand the entirety of the context there, and how/why there were different conversations happening in the first place. And one the elements that took me longer to start to internalize is that everything is subject to our perception of normal, based on the conversations we've been a part of.

tw: rape

When I was in college, maybe 19 or 20 years old, there were a group of about eight or ten of us hanging out. General laughter and nonsense you might expect from a group of college kids. At some point, I made a rape "joke." It was largely received as I had expected, and most of the others laughed or chuckled along. But one woman immediately shot me a death glare like I'd never seen. She didn't say anything and the group conversation continued on with the general laughter and nonsense from before, but her stare stuck with me. A few weeks, maybe a month later, I learned that she had in fact been date raped about a year earlier. That death glare made complete sense, and I'm sure the only reason she let me off that lightly was because we were friends.

We were actually close enough that she told me about the rape herself, without any incentive or prodding from me. I immediately apologized for my comment weeks earlier, of course, and she dismissed it with a "you couldn't have known" remark. True enough that I couldn't have known she had been raped, but I could have known -- should have known better than to try to make light of something so awful and traumatic.

But that's the problem. I was never a part of that conversation before. Up until that point for me, rape was only something that only existed in a kind of vague theory. While I was part of the conversations that said "rape is bad" that was about the extent of them. There was nothing about how bad it was, or what kind of trauma that inflicts, or how police and judges and the system in general dismisses women's rape claims as a rule and assigns a stigma to rape victims. The very concept of date rape didn't really even show up in public discourse until I was in college.

We're hearing more and more about the harassment and assault women are subjected to in the comics industry. That these events happen, sadly, isn't new. People have rightly been complaining that, "We've been telling you about this for years and you haven't been listening!" That's in part because many of the people who have the largest say in the overall conversation decide that they don't want any of this to be part of the conversation. They'll dismiss the accusations or maybe smooth things over with a pat apology and a promise it won't happen again. But they don't change the conversation at all. So the next person who walks in doesn't hear the message that "we won't tolerate that kind of behavior." In fact, they often witness first-hand that that kind of behavior is acceptable. Normal.

Which means the conversation needs to change. And we -- all of us -- need to change it. I didn't get that message in college -- I didn't have that conversation -- until I hurt somebody I cared about. Odds are that you already know someone who's been hurt. One in four women in the US have been raped or had someone try to rape them. That's just rape! Sexual harassment and assault is even more common. How many women do you know in comics? I know more than four, certainly! I've had dinners where, statistically, two of the comic creators at the table I was eating at had been raped. I've had dinners where I know conclusively that multiple people at the table were rape victims.

Start having that conversation now, if you haven't already! Anyone tries making jokes about that, cut them off! You see someone harassing a woman at the after party, cut them off! Tell them that isn't alright. Tell them that isn't how we're doing things any more. Tell them you're changing the conversation.

I originally ran this back in 2013. Fascinating bit of biology that provides a scientific reason we prefer horizontal comics over vertical ones.

---

Ever wonder why movies are shot widescreen? I mean, why don't we see movie aspect ratios that are taller than they are wide?

Part of the answer, of course, is that film projection manufacturers and film strip manufacturers have only made horizontal format materials so producers and directors have no realistic options for vertical format experiments. But the reason why manufacturers only make horizontal material is biological in nature. Specifically it's our eyes.

An eyeball is nearly spherical and the iris that allows light in is circular so the field of vision for single eye is pretty regular. The width is about the same as the height. But most folks have two eyes placed side by side, working in unison. So with each eye taking in a regular view and then overlapping it with the other, we get an overall field of vision that is wider than it is high. (We also get that cool depth perception thing people seem to like!)

This means we're all inclined to seeing the world more horizontally, so it's more natural for us to consume media that follows a similar format. Movies are a prime example. 

Comics generally are horizontal as well. You're certainly familiar with the traditional comic strip format and comic books are typically seen horizontally when looking at the full open spread of a pamphlet or graphic novel.

While there are obviously comics out there that run more vertically, I think (in my decidedly anecdotal experience) that those are more the exceptions than the rule. I suspect people are subconsciously less comfortable with that format and find reasons to criticize or dismiss the writing or the art.

When I was high school, I had a vague sense of business and the government being corrupt, but no real knowledge to base that on. I'd hear occasional news stories about some mega corporation getting a minor slap on the wrist for some major illegal dealings, but nothing terribly deep or substantive. Just enough to get the sense that when Michael Douglass gave his "greed is good" speech in 1987's Wall Street, I had an instinctive negative reaction. Despite the applause given to the character in the film. Despite the numerous people in the audience who cheered him on as a role-model. I had the sense that corporate American was bad, but it was more instinctive than substantive.

Of course, I also realized that I couldn't ignore the capitalist society I was living in, so I made a lot of choices that were more practical for my comfort and survival. I chose not to pursue a professional career in comics, in large part because the pay is shit and, for any of the roles that sounded creatively attractive to me, the work was unsteady and provided zero benefits. I initially chose to go into graphic design because then I could make a comfortable living while still engaging in some degree of creative expression. And while I've since largely gotten away from design and work mostly at a kind of managerial level, that was more a matter of survival than trying to climb the corporate zigurat. It had become increasingly evident that I wasn't that talented a designer and fresh-out-school graduates could be hired much more cheaply.

In my years in corporate America, I learned how the game is often played. It absolutely disgusts me, and I'm terrible at playing it -- which is why I'm not making two or three times what I'm currently making. I'm not complaining, mind you! I make a pretty comfortable living, but if I had played by the "greed is good" ideology that permeates American business, I could be raking in considerably more. But throughout my career, I've gotten first-hand knowledge and experience dealing with the ideas that I only had a vague sense about as a teen. I've never had the power or influence to change things appreciably, but I've been witness to many compassionless discussions that reduce people to faceless numbers and statistics.

And with the internet, I've had more access to more information. I've spent more time learning about what goes on behind closed doors. I've seen more evidence of more backdoor deals. Not to mention that I'm simply older than I used to be, and have the benefit of having had more time to learn more. You know the saying about how people become more conservative as they get older? Well, the more I see and learn, the more radical I seem to get. Which brings us to Seth Tobocman's Disaster & Resistance.

I only recently discovered Tobocman's work but he's been working in underground type comics for years. But whereas creators like Harvey Pekar often spoke to their personal experiences, Tobocman speaks on a more political level. Disaster & Resistance is a collection of his short comics (typically 1-6 pages) on a variety of topics from the first decade of the 21st century. (The book was first published in 2008.) From student protests to Hurricane Katrina to Kenyan oil fields.

There are couple things really striking about the book. First, I read through it and, while Tobocman clearly indicates which events he's writing about and places them within their proper chronological context, everything felt amazingly current. Much of it felt like he was talking about today. I was actually really surprised when I saw the 2008 copyright date; I had assumed the book was maybe a year or two old because it seemed to speak very much to a 2020 audience. Second, because Tobocman covers a fairly wide range of topics, reading them all back to back presents a greater sense of just how corrupt things are. That vagueness I mentioned having as a teen was in part because I'd see one story here and another story there over an extended period. Seeing all of these pieces in short order gives the reader a much better sense that these types of issues are pervasive.

Tobocman doesn't present these pieces as if there's some cabal behind everything. It's not a conspiracy theory. It's just that greedy rich men always act in their own Gordon Gekko-ish self-interests and don't give a shit about who's hurt or killed in the process. We're not up against the Illuminati or any single closed group like that; we're fighting against an ideology that benefits only those in power, those with the most money, the 1%. Those people aren't out to "get us" per se; we're just inconsequential collateral damage. We're in the way of their amassing more wealth than they could ever hope to spend. Tobocman illustrates that very clearly here.

I think that's perhaps why the book feels so current. We're having demonstrated to us on a daily basis right now that our governments do not care about us. I'm speaking from an American perspective, of course, but that's plainly evident in countries the world over at the moment. With so many governments actively working against best practices for a pandemic in an effort to line their pockets with every more money, with so many corporations unabashedly throwing "essential" workers into the maw of COVID-19, with so many of the ruling class flagrantly violating the few pandemic rules they've even bothered to put in place, with protesters against the system being literally beaten to death... it's more clear than ever that the people in power do not care about you at all. We see that over and over again on the news today, but Disaster & Resistance shows you that this has been going on for years and years. What's on the news might be specific to 2020, but the ideology that brought us here is not.

Here are this week's links to what I've had published recently...

Kleefeld on Comics: Less Than Two Weeks Away!

https://ift.tt/37vXEBd

Kleefeld on Comics: Don't Send Your Talents to the Land of the Lost

https://ift.tt/2UQoeA1

Patreon: Webcomics Textbook: Resources, Part 2  

https://t.co/jsQLjvHLFF

Kleefeld on Comics: Comics Awfulness

https://ift.tt/3hDJdzF

Kleefeld on Comics: Creators vs Content

https://ift.tt/3hHU23I

Patreon: Webcomics Textbook: Resources, Part 3  

https://t.co/jsQLjvHLFF

Kleefeld on Comics: The Disappearance of Cadet Turner Review

https://ift.tt/37U1c0F

Back in November, I made note of The Mysterious Package Company's new experience, The Disappearance of Cadet Turner. This one starts with a fairly simple envelope, which includes a letter thanking you for your interest in the recently revived Super Star Cadets property and an official patch with your cadet number embroidered on it. When you go to the URL mentioned in the letter and log in with your cadet number, you're then kicked off on an adventure! A woman tells you about her childhood friend that seemed to have been sucked into the Super Star Cadets comic book and, since you happen to have the same badge number as he did, she feels it must be kismet and you must be able to help her. She then sends you the various materials she's collected and it's up to you to rescue her long-lost friend.

The box you get then includes a "vintage" Super Star Cadets lunch box, a somewhat damaged Super Star Cadets comic book, a cassette and headphones, some Polaroids, and a variety of correspondence. As with the other experience I got from them, the materials are excellent. Everything looks appropriately aged and used -- even bits from the comic had been cut out, not unlike the handful of issues from my youth that are missing coupons to get a comic subscription or a 'footlocker' of army soldiers. Also, I thought Polaroid had shut down their film division a few yeas ago, and I'm pretty sure I haven't seen even a photo of a 1/4" headphone adapter in at least 30 years! I've no idea how they got some of this stuff!

The overall story experience here is shorter than Forgotten Tomb one I had previously, but that's hardly a surprise given that it's about half the price. A more noteworthy difference, though, is that this one has more of a game element to it than the Forgotten Tomb. Forgotten Tomb was primarily a clever storytelling experience. There were a few puzzles that could be examined and worked on, but if you didn't solve them, you could still carry on with the story. With Cadet Turner, the puzzles are integral to the story and without completing them all, you simply can't reach the conclusion. Now, admittedly, these puzzles aren't particularly difficult but they also can't really be done in isolation from one another. You almost have to set aside an hour or two to go through them all at once. I suspect this is done to increase engagement since there aren't as many individual mailings to keep your interest up over a several weeks.

The other significant change over previous experiences is that they've added a virtual component. They recognize that the audio cassette they send likely isn't able to be played by the vast majority of people, so they have a digital version you can download. This then requires the user to "scan" (i.e. use the phone's camera on) some of the objects, and there's a clever AR integration for the last steps of the overall puzzle. I don't know how it works for iOS but it ran smoothly on my Android. However, I did not seem to be able to pause/save my progress, and I had to repeat some tasks after leaving the app and returning the next day. That's why I'd suggest setting aside an hour or two to go through puzzle aspects at once. (Possibly longer if you've got a child working on it.)

Like everything else I've seen from The Mysterious Package Company, this was all exceptionally well done! I am more partial to the Forgotten Tomb experience, I think, because it's a longer narrative, a larger "payoff" and it's easier to pick up and set down things at your leisure over a period of days or even weeks. But it's also got a considerably higher price tag, so it's a more "elite" experience by design. But that doesn't take away from the more fun aspects of The Disappearance of Cadet Turner; I think a 10 or 12 year old would have an absolute blast with this! (Although you might have to sit down and spend a lot of time explaining to them what a cassette is and what a Polaroid is and...)

They've currently got a 25% off sale running through June 21. If you're looking to fill some more COVID time, now would definitely be a great time to jump on this!

There are a lot of talented comic creators out there. If you look through the list of Eisner nominees over time, you can see more and more impressive works. (Side note: today is the last day for voting on this year's Eisners! If you're eligible and haven't voted yet, head over there to do so now!) The latest nominees generally blow the ones from ten or twenty years ago out of the water! The bar keeps getting raised higher, and more and more people are able to step up their game! There's just a wealth of fantastic material out there these days!

But what happens sometimes is that you read a really great comic or graphic novel -- maybe one that's won several awards or maybe one that just you really, really like -- only to later find out that creator behind it is a horrible person. Maybe they're a raging homophobe or they beat their spouse or they're a big proponent of eugenics. Whatever it is, you find out that their personal thoughts and actions are abhorrent to you at a deeply personal level. The question that people often ask themselves in these situations is: is it okay to support the work while disagreeing with the creator themselves?

That's actually a pretty big question, so let's break it down into some smaller chunks.

First, you have to weigh whatever it is they they've said or done that you don't like against your own moral compass. Are they being broadly hateful or just ignorant and insensitive about a nuanced issue? Is this something they might learn from if you (or someone) has a reasonable discussion with them, or are they dead set in their position? Does their apology (of they've issued one) seem sincere, and do they seem genuinely interested in learning about the issue to prevent it from happening again... or are they just providing lip service to placate the audience?

How much of their viewpoint infects their work? As a creator, they can't not completely separate themselves from their creation but can you find elements of their problematic issues upon re-visiting their work you already have? Does the guy who beats his wife generally show female characters in a negative light? Does the xenophobe fall back on any broad stereotypes?

These types of questions are what you need to address in thinking about continuing to get work from these creators. Because if you're buying their books, you're saying that you support them. You like their work and you're willing to part with a portion of your hard-earned money to tell them so. They won't know if you like the work because of the lead character or the witty dialogue or the general concepts or stylized art, or what. Your money will get interpreted simply as, "You like what I do, so I'll keep doing what I've been doing." The money you're sending them is telling them that they're successful, and that there's no need to change. Even if their work doesn't expressly showcase their worst ideas or behaviors, their thoughts and ideas and intentions are rooted in everything they do, so it's still a version of support.

Now, what about their work that you've already purchased? You may have bought it ignorant of their problems -- whether that's because it hadn't come publicly to light at all, or you personally just were unaware. You've already paid for things, and that money has gone back to the creator. You can't take that back. (Usually. If you just purchased their book; you might be able to return it for a refund.) Is it worth getting rid of/destroying the book?

If the very idea of having their work anywhere near you is that repulsive then, yes, absolutely get rid of it. If you can taste bile just at seeing their name on the spine as it sits on your bookshelf, you should definitely get rid of it just for your own mental health. That makes complete sense.

But that is for your benefit. It matters not at all to the creator or anyone else. You chucking the book in the trash after you've already paid for it doesn't impact the creator in any way, shape, or form. So, from my perspective, I don't see a problem with leaving it sit on the shelf. But I'm looking at this from a more academic perspective. If somebody brings the book up in conversation later, I might want to refer to it directly, maybe to point out particular flaws or examples of where the creator's mentality is on display in a manner that only makes sense in hindsight. I look at it like a professor of German history who might keep a copy of Mein Kampf -- they don't support Nazism, but it was a seminal work in Hitler's life and can be used to understand his motivations and other aspects of that period. If you find any books on my shelves from problematic creators, it's most likely because I didn't know of those problems when I first picked up the books but I'm not inclined to part with them because they still might come in handy as a piece of research material and, if it's a resource I do need to refer to in the future, I certainly don't want to try to get another copy and accidentally support the creator in question.

Now, there is an argument to be made for getting rid of books by problem creators in a more performative way. By making a public/internet display of your getting rid of the material (in the middle of a comic convention or as a YouTube video, for examples) that can be used to alert others to the problems you may have just discovered. The more work that you might put up for destruction -- the more financial loss you as an individual are taking -- the more powerful the message becomes. Burning a single copy of a monthly pamphlet comic, for example, only represents the loss of a few dollars. Burning an entire page of original art by an otherwise popular creator could easily represent hundreds, possibly even thousands, of dollars! Being willing to get rid of that to make a statement sends a much stronger message. You're effectively saying, "I am willing to spend $1000 to tell people what horrible things this person has done!"

But it's the public performance of that that sends a message. If you do the same thing by yourself in your basement or backyard, it's achieved very little, if anything. It's barely symbolic and, even then, only to you.

In short, if you continue buying their new material, yes, you are supporting whatever garbage caused you to question them in the first place, but you don't necessarily need to feel guilty holding on to their works which you had purchased previously. The "damage" (your support) has already been done; your best bet, as with many things in life, is to learn from it and move on.