Monday, April 01, 2013

ARCANUM, Thrillbent & Digital Comics

So my new comic, Arcanum is up at the new, relaunched Thrillbent 2.0 site. Let's tackle things in order, General to specific.

DIGITAL COMICS

For about three years, Mark Waid and I would go to lunch and have the same conversation. Or rather, the same two conversations simultaneously:

1.) John: You need to BRAND YOURSELF. You are value-added, you need to be doing more creator-owned stuff!

2.) Mark: Digital comics are THE FUTURE-BALLS!

He may have phrased that slightly more elegantly. But Waid's had close to 30 years in the comics business, and he'll tell you himself the growing cost of shipping paper around was affecting not just bottom lines but creative decisions at the big publishers (This was before the fine folks at Comixology even existed). Waid wanted to experiment  with digital delivery at some of his other gigs, but the will -- and financing -- wasn't there.

At the same time, he'd become fascinated with the new story-telling techniques being shown off by guys like Yves Bigerel. Waid was really churning a lot of interesting ideas about the economics and the storytelling form.

At the same-same time, I was on my 4GM hobbyhorse -- although by that point we may have crossed into open-source warfare theory. Comics, even the slightly fancier ones Waid was plying with, were dumb files. We all had computers and tablets in our homes. The Coasean Floor was in theory next to nothing. What the hell? Where were all the creator-owned comics being delivered straight to a willing and eager audience?

The answer, of course, is that they were just called "Webcomics" and were already wildly successful. Well, some were. Others weren't.  Same's true in any business. But they were out there, and they weren't paying the distribution cost for 7000 pamphlets to be sent out to 2000 physical stores in order to tell their stories and reach fans.  They were paying very reasonable hosting fees and reaching THE PLANET EARTH.

So we started scrawling on napkins. Little words to live by, like: "Everyone already has a wide-screen" and "Motion comics are the devil" and "The Reader controls the flow of information" and "Information must be dumb." We talked to the webcomics people, trying to figure out what we could use from the single-page comic model in long-form storytelling. Mark made some speeches that pissed everyone off. We put a little money aside, we called some friends. That led us to ...

THRILLBENT COMICS

Mark created a new comic in the wide-screen format we'd come to believe would serve as a shorthand industry standard, and structured it in a pulp update fashion. One page at a time seemed like too little narrative, particularly for a weekly update structure. I'd like to give full credit to Warren Ellis's webcomic FreakAngels here -- we glommed his 6-page format as our base, and tweaked it to be 8-10 "slides" in our format. As usual, Warren's about five years of everybody else. Luckily his drinking inhibits his world-conquering instincts. Various versions of the comic reader we use have existed, this one is just tuned to my obsessive notes about skeumorphics and the physical artifact of the page turn ("No mouse, arrows=page turn" reads on of my blurry little scrawls).

That's a big thing to understand. We're not saying we're "creating" anything here. The webcomics people built the model, Warren created an early model of the narrative structure -- no, we're synthesizers and advocates. We're the guys who are tugging on the sleeves of our friends in long-form storytelling and saying "You could do it this way."

The question, of course, is how you make any goddam money doing it.

We don't know.

That is the sound of my business manager's head exploding.

That's not to say there's no way to make money at it. The trick is, now we have to go figure it out. Comics are learning that, just like music learned and TV is beginning to learn, there's no future in taking the check and just doing your job within the existing structure.  

That's not to say there's no work out there in the established marketplace. I just had lunch with an agent who said "Look, there's a good living in being the Executive Producer who babysits cash-rich network shows." Not everyone's cut out to be a marketing human. But there's something new here, something cool and challenging, that may cost you in time or money but the trade is freedom. It's going to come form the edges, of course -- established people like Waid in comics, or Rob Thomas and Veronica Mars Kickstarter in TV -- but those humans will be good test cases and have the social capital to burn.

Comics in particular is a weird case. The mainstream comic companies have so few people writing so many titles, it may in fact be easier to become a writer on a television show than to become a writer of comic books, by which I mean to say still very goddam hard. But for a medium with far fewer capital requirements, that flies in the face of sense.

So, how to make a living doing this type of digital comics? We're going to try ... everything. Our collections will be on sale on Comixology, of course and we'll have a storefront up soon. All our for-pay installments will have a little extra, some DVD bonuses, as it were. We've got a Thrillbent app in development that will do some very cool stuff, allowing you to read the comic, look at the inks or read the script over layout, all when you buy one issue of the comic collections. 

Most of our titles, when they hit enough readers and chapters to make sense, will Kickstart to physical collections. I've participated in a few successful Kickstarter campaigns now, and I'm impressed at how a particularly well run on can both invest the current fans of a property and create new ones. 

We may also experiment with time-shifting: the weekly installments are always free, but a collection of the next month's or so will be for sale, giving you both the spiffy collected portable version and a jump ahead on your favorite stories.

This may evolve as the site ages and we scribble numbers on index cards with Sharpies and frown -- you know, business things. We may go to a subscrpition model for some content, we may find ways to do ads within the comics reader ... we don't know. We'll be looking at a lot of different solutions, and anyone who has a bright idea, or even some success with their own model, should definitely drop us a line. I'd say "swing by the forums", but we're still arguing about whether we should have forums.

At the same time we're still putting up the pdfs and cbz of each installment for free. Grab the first week of Arcanum on pdf (link down there on the bottom right fo the page), toss it in your favorite reader on "full screen" and "slideshow" setting in the View menu and rock out. We like the "Get it free, but the more convenient form is for a little money, plus it helps us out" model.

We're even making a pretty radical jump with this version of Thrillbent: embeddable comics. Embedding/sharing is what made videos and music go viral, and as I said our comics are dumb files. Share 'em. Put them on your site. Make our content part of your content. As I said at WonderCon, nothing's more important than treating your audience like partners instead of suspects.

ARCANUM

Mark's carried the bulk of the content weight, time for me to share.

Arcanum is a partnership with Genre19 artist Todd Harris. Those who watched Leverage know I'm fascinated with systems. How they break, how they react, how they both define and are defined by the people within them. I wanted to combine one storytelling world system -- counter-terrorism/intelligence -- with one that it was not equipped to handle.

Also, my mind was fried by the UFO-conspiracy show U.F.O. when I was a kid. I LOVED the idea that instead of a giant alien armada invasion, there was a pitched, secret battle going on between one government agency and the mobile, untrackable forces of an enemy who struck in small, subtle ways in order to disrupt our lives, all while refusing to play by the "rules" of modern combat. Anyone who's gone through a TSA line lately will tell you this story has some modern-day relevance.

But what if the enemy literally didn't play by the rules? What if they were so totally alien as to be beyond alien? As a lifelong fantasy fan, I was always struck by just how comfortable we've become with the Tolkien tropes of fantasy. There's even a thriving sub-genre of urban magic where elves and dwarves and other fey live right along in the human world, some secret some not, but integrated.

Call me crazy, but if confronted with a big-brained biped who solved interstellar travel but otherwise obeys all the laws of reason and phsyics or immortal creatures who can bend the laws of time and space at will, I find the damn magic users more terrifying. 

To borrow from Charles Stross's excellent blend of Cold War tropes and Cthulhu (read the essay in The Atrocity Archives), I think the alien invasion story spot-welded to the most traditional fantasy tropes I could find will create some fresh horror. Because Arcanum is a sci-fi horror story. It's going to get very dark. Consider yourself warned. This is a covert war against a hyper-intelligent enemy which shares neither our biology nor our morals.  With all that entails.

Here's the first installment of Arcanum. Click on the image to advance it. You can also check it out, along with other cool stuff, over at Thrillbent.






251 comments:

«Oldest   ‹Older   201 – 251 of 251
HP Printer Support Number said...

Type HP Printer Tech Support services. msc and press the enter key at that point double tap on the print spooler. Stop the spooler and restart it.

jameswill11 said...

QuickBook Support Phone Number have customer service executives that are exceptionally supportive and pay complete awareness of the demand of technical assistance made by QuickBooks users. Our research team is often prepared beforehand because of the most appropriate solutions which can be of good help much less time consuming.

jameswill11 said...

Their pre-preparedness helps them extend their hundred percent support to all the entrepreneurs along with individual users of QuickBook Support Phone Number.

Jamess said...

The most time-consuming business type is retail. It requires large amount of a while time and effort. With QB Enterprise it becomes super easy to handle the complete hassle Intiuit QuickBooks Support

rdsraftaar said...

How come us different is quality of one's services inside the given time interval. The locus of your services will be based upon delivering services in shortest span of the time, without compromising aided by the quality of your services. QuickBooks Tech Support Phone Number USA is engaged in pre-research to produce themselves prepared in advance for the possible errors of QuickBooks. This practice helps them produce you the specified wind up in the given time window. We are there to help you 24*7 even as we do not disassociate ourselves with your troubles even through the wee hours.

accountingwizards said...

Intuit QuickBooks Support accords assistance to the QuickBooks users’ worldwide. The support team could be reached through various modes such as: phone support, email support, live chat, FAQ, QuickBooks community etc. Solving the Quickbooks related problems and issue Remotely . QuickBooks in current time is Number #1 accounting software popular in america , Canada , Europe and Australian market for business management. It handles and manages business , payroll , banking even your all transaction as well . Reflects on the efficiency graph of business. Its not merely simple but additionally may be manage easily , accounting software which helps to handle finances smartly. The QuickBooks technical service number is active at any hour for assistance.

accountingwizards said...

QuickBooks Payroll Support Phone Number could be the toll-free level of where our skilled, experienced and responsible team are available 24*7 at your service. There are an array of errors that pop up in QuickBooks Payroll which are looked after by our highly knowledgeable and dedicated customer care executives. There are several regularly occurring Payroll errors with this software which may be of a little help to you.

Mathew said...

A lot of us resolves all of the QuickBooks Payroll Support Phone Number issue this sort of a fashion that you'll yourself feel that your issue is resolved without you wasting the time into it. We take toll on every issue by using our highly trained customer care.

Blogsilly said...


QuickBooks has made payroll management quite definitely easier for accounting professionals. There are so many people that are giving positive feedback if they process payroll either QB desktop and online options. In this web site, we will enable you to experience to create and put up the checklist for employee payment. To have more enhanced results and optimized benefits, you'll be able to take assistance from experts making a call at Support for QuickBooks Payroll. Well! If you’re not in a position to customize employee payroll in Quickbooks while making the list optimally, in QB and QB desktop, then see the description ahead. Here, you obtain the determination of several sort of information that which you’ve close at hand for assisting the setup process with comfort.

accountingwizards said...

Our dedicated team is sure with you. These are typically surely working at any hour to aid and make suggestions if you come across any QuickBooks error/s. Our Intuit QuickBooks Support team surely have in-depth knowledge in connection with issues and complications of QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Payroll Support said...

QuickBooks Support Phone Number The best part is the fact that not merely you’ll prepare you to ultimately resolve your problems nevertheless you may be often acknowledged by our technicians and he/she could keep updating you concerning your problems. you've got a complete information what the problem your package is facing.

Mathew said...

We are able to also assist you to aided by the integration of third-party presentations so that you use QB to its maximum potential. If you wish to be involved in any application or third-party tool then dial our toll-free QuickBooks Tech Support Number Accounting Support Services.

QuickBooks Support Phone Number said...

No doubt, here you will find the unmatchable services by our supportive technical workers.Attributes of QuickBooks Tech Support Phone Number client ServiceWe offers you QuickBooks Tech Support Team.

Mathew said...

QuickBooks Tech Support Phone Number is almost always safer to concentrate on updated version since it helps you incorporate all of the latest features in your software and assists you undergo your task uninterrupted. You will discover basic steps that you need to follow.

Bryan Willson said...

The group working behind the QuickBooks Support Phone Number are recognized to be the ideal engineers within the entire industry and with their timely advice, you may be planning to find a reliable solution that is worthy enough your money can buy you spend on them. The engineers and technicians will work hard to provide an agreeable QuickBooks Premier Support Number that you desire to own for reaching them at any given situation.

Bryan Willson said...

There you may need QuickBooks Premier Support Phone Number for QuickBooks Pro-advisors, the certified experts with tremendous experience taking care of QuickBooks errors and Data damage related issues. Dial QuickBooks Help Number for complete diagnostics of the QuickBooks Data files for Errors and accounting issues.

QuickBooks Payroll Support said...

QuickBooks Technical Support Number can be so robust financial accounting software that it scans and repairs company file data periodically however still you can find situations where in fact the data damage level goes high and required expert interventions. There you need QuickBooks help number for QuickBooks Pro-advisors, the certified experts with tremendous experience focusing on QuickBooks errors and Data damage related issues.

QuickBooks Payroll Support said...

Virtually every Small And Medium Company Happens To Be Using QuickBooks Enterprise And For That Reason Errors And Problems Related To It May Be Often Seen. These issues And Troubleshooted By The Expert And Technical Team Of QuickBooks Enterprise Support Contact Number Could Be Used To Contact. Commercial And Finance Operating Bodies Usually Avail The Services Of The Quickbook Enterprise Support As They Are In Continuous Usage Of Workbook, Sheets, Account Records, And Payroll Management Sheets.

Jamess said...

QuickBooks Support Number are often applied to one laptop or multiple computers. It is applied to the Windows software systems still as waterproof operative system platforms.

rdsraftaar said...

Everbody knows that the errors that pop up in QuickBooks are far too less for you really to ignore this software, resolving them is truly important. QuickBooks Support executives work very hard to land you from the issues that may pop up in this software.

QuickBooks Payroll Support said...

The process is quite simple to contact them. First, you have to sign in to your company. There is a help button at the top right corner. You can click and ask any question about QuickBooks accounting software. You can even contact our QuickBooks Support Phone Number team using QuickBooks Support number.

Jamess said...

QuickBooks Enterprise Support Number Is Here to greatly help ease Your Accounting Struggle QuickBooks Enterprise provides end-to end business accounting experience. With feature packed tools and features, this application is effective at managing custom reporting, inventory, business reports etc.

Bryan Willson said...

If you’re looking for small-business accounting solutions, the first thing experts and happy costumers will recommend you is QuickBooks by Intuit Inc. Intuit’s products for construction contractors through the Quickbooks Pro, Simple Start Plus Pack, Quickbooks Premier Contractor, and Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions: QuickBooks Desktop Support.

Bryan Willson said...

QuickBooks Desktop Tech Support Number provides comprehensive support for QuickBooks Pro / Premier, Enterprise edition, Point of Sales and Company data file services. Company file Data Damage can occur as a result of surge or power failures while performing data transactions or malicious attack using the pc has affected the software when using the company file.

jameswill11 said...

The group of certified and trained professionals will always help you with amazing and quality services round the clock just to help you in raising the growth of the business and organizations to the next level. To troubleshoot errors and issues, avail services through the QuickBooks Payroll Support Number.

James077 said...

QuickBooks Support Phone Number Is Certainly One Stop Solution Our dedicated team is sure with you. These are generally surely working twenty-four hours a day to help and make suggestions if you come across any QuickBooks error/s. Our QuickBooks Support team surely have in-depth knowledge in connection with problems and issues of QuickBooks.

Blogsilly said...

Quickbooks Support Telephone Number
QuickBooks has completely transformed the way people used to operate their business earlier. To get familiar with it, you should welcome this positive change.Supervisors at QuickBooks Tech Support Phone Number have trained all of their executives to combat the issues in this software. Utilizing the introduction of modern tools and approaches to QuickBooks, you can test new techniques to carry out various business activities. Basically, this has automated several tasks that have been being done manually for a long time. There are lots of versions of QuickBooks and each one has a unique features.

Blogsilly said...

Quickbooks Support Telephone Number
QuickBooks has completely transformed the way people used to operate their business earlier. To get familiar with it, you should welcome this positive change.Supervisors at QuickBooks Canada Support have trained all of their executives to combat the issues in this software. Utilizing the introduction of modern tools and approaches to QuickBooks, you can test new techniques to carry out various business activities. Basically, this has automated several tasks that have been being done manually for a long time. There are lots of versions of QuickBooks and each one has a unique features.

kevin2 said...

Intuit QuickBooks Support take good care of your customers and bend towards backward to please all of them with our exuberant performance. All this work is done without compromising utilizing the quality of services because nothing seems good in the event that work is not done.

Blogsilly said...

Quickbooks Support Telephone Number
QuickBooks has completely transformed the way people used to operate their business earlier. To get familiar with it, you should welcome this positive change.Supervisors at QuickBooks Error Support Number have trained all of their executives to combat the issues in this software. Utilizing the introduction of modern tools and approaches to QuickBooks, you can test new techniques to carry out various business activities. Basically, this has automated several tasks that have been being done manually for a long time. There are lots of versions of QuickBooks and each one has a unique features.

kevin32 said...

Being a popular product among both small and large scale business running people, QuickBooks does have its very own flaws that may be immediately reported and corrected by contacting the QuickBooks Support team.

tom wick said...

Let me tell you that why QuickBooks is a lot popular, it takes complete care of the accounting work, which also include Quickbooks payroll support and management, bills and taxes, business payments as well as others. Now, this is exactly why, the accounting software has now become the best-selling package of accounting services. Easily dial our Intuit QuickBooks Support to get linked to our wonderful technical team.

QuickBooks Support Phone Number said...

But sometimes due to not enough technical knowledge or proficiency in accounting customers face various variety of technical error or issues. If you have any trouble in managing transaction, payroll, inventory or have any other QuickBooks Help Number related trouble.

Bryan Willson said...

We realize that the complexity of errors varies from organization to organization. You don’t have to worry for the as all of us is well-aware of recent software issues and complications. Also, they keep themselves updated because of the most advanced technology and errors introduced within the software on regular time period. You simply have to connect with us on phone by dialing QuickBooks Desktop Support Number.

Blogsilly said...

QuickBooks (QB) is an accounting software developed by Intuit for small and medium-size businesses. With this software, you can track your business income and expenses, import and enter all bank transactions, track payments, sales, and inventory, prepare payrolls, store your customers’ and vendors’ information and much more. QuickBooks is a popular choice of many business owners because it allows to save much time and keep all finance-related information organized. However, if you or your accountants have never used it before, you will have to refer to QuickBooks Technical Support Phone Number to learn how to get the most out of this software. Also, you might encounter various technical issues while using this software. This is where Quickbooks Support can help you.


Mathew said...

Earnings: for starters, a business can simply survive if it is making adequate profits to smoothly run the operations of the work. Our QuickBooks Support Phone Number team will surely show you in telling you in regards to the profit projections in QuickBooks.

steffan said...

The application has made the accounting easier for everybody and has helped them in managing and organizing business smartly and effectively. However, after having numerous of positive point, the program is inclined towards errors and bugs. If you are also interested in the solutions linked to the accounting software, we advice you to definitely contact QuickBooks Tech Support Number.

Blogsilly said...

QuickBooks Customer Care Telephone Number: Readily Available For every QuickBooks Version.Consist of a beautiful bunch of accounting versions, viz.,QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks POS, QuickBooks Mac, QuickBooks Windows, and QuickBooks Payroll, QuickBooks has grown to become a dependable accounting software that one may tailor depending on your industry prerequisite. As well as it, our QuickBooks Support Number will bring in dedicated and diligent back-end helps for you for in case you find any inconveniences in operating any of these versions.

Blogsilly said...

We have a team this is certainly extremely supportive and customer friendly.Our customer service executives at QuickBooks Technical Support Number try not to hesitate from putting extra efforts to provide you with relief from the troubles due to QB Payroll errors.We take good care of our customers and bend towards backward to please them with our exuberant performance. All this is done without compromising with all the quality of services because nothing seems good in the event that work is not done.Our customer support team is enthusiastic and makes best usage of its experience. They just do not let go any issue even if it is fairly complex.

Blogsilly said...

Quickbooks Error 9999 as during program installation for business. Also an error occurs while Quickbooks is running, during windows startup or shutdown or even during the installation of the Quickbooks software windows operating system. If you would like to take a shot to Fix Quickbooks Error 9999 yourself, you can continue reading this blog.

Praneeth M said...

"It's very useful post and i had good experience with this salesforce training in bangalore who are offering good certification assistance. I would say salesforce training is a best way to get certified on crm.

salesforce training in marathahalli
salesforce training india
"

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this information. I’m learning so much about it now. เว็บพนันบอลออนไลน์ เว็บพนันบอลออนไลน์บนมือถือ

Jamess said...

QuickBooks Support Phone Number

QuickBooks Tech Support Phone Number

QuickBooks Pro Support Phone Number

QuickBooks Premier Support Phone Number

QuickBooks Payroll Support Phone Number

kevin32 said...


Just in case the issue is not solved, perhaps it could be time for you to consult experts like our ProAdvisors. We can go through all of the steps and solutions faster for a more convenient and better resolution of your QB-related issues.
visit: https://www.dialsupportnumber.com/quickbooks-error-code-6000-832/

kevin32 said...

QuickBooks Payroll Support Number
QuickBooks POS Support Number
QuickBooks Pro Support Number
QuickBooks Enterprise Support Number
QuickBooks Technical Support Number
QuickBooks Tech Support Number

Blogsilly said...

QuickBooks Support Phone Number
QuickBooks Technical Support Number
QuickBooks Tech Support Number

Blogsilly said...

QuickBooks Support Phone Number
QuickBooks Tech Support Number
QuickBooks Technical Support Number
QuickBooks Payroll Support Number

caramel said...

Wisata Kuliner Enak Belanda
https://Pojokkuliner.web.id

kopi.J said...

I think these information Will be helpful for you.

สูตรแทงบอลสูงต่ํา
วิธีแทงบอลออนไลน์
ตารางบาคาร่า
บอลสเต็ปออนไลน์
สูตรบาคาร่าฟรี2021

Thank you for your interest.

โรซ่า said...

Hello, we have a game to recommend.

เว็บ แทง บอล ไม่มี ขั้น ต่ํา
UFABET เว็บตรง
รูเล็ตสายฟ้า
สมัคร ufabet
ป๊อกเด้งออนไลน์ขั้นต่ำ1บาท

Thank you for your interest."

Aaraa said...

I am inspired with your post writing style & how continuously you describe this topic. . Aaraa couture

«Oldest ‹Older   201 – 251 of 251   Newer› Newest»