I’m pleased to announce that Moon Town has been nominated in the category of Best New Webcomic 2009 over at The Webcomic List. (NOTE: the site has been very slow and/or not loading today. I guess they’re getting a lot of traffic because of the nomination announcements).

Thanks to the nominating committee, and as they say, it’s good just to be nominated.

The New York Times talks about media outlets trying to prepare for charging fees for their content. It’s an interesting article that certainly relates to the current thinking in publishing on the web – comics and otherwise.

One interesting quote is that “most industry experts agree, entertainment will be easier to charge for than news.” Because what entertainment offers is unique enough on a case by case basis. Whereas with the news, you have thousands of outlets reporting the same stuff in general terms. Driving this discussion is the fact that the advertising industry has suffered more in recent years than in any other time in history.

The “free content supported by advertising” model on its own doesn’t quite cut it anymore for a lot of media outlets – especially the big ones. There’s plenty of skepticism on whether fees can be pulled off, however. Free content will always be one click away. Can they make their content valuable enough to have people pay? Currently the Wall Street Journal has some success with fees. They are definitely not your run-of-the-mill news outlet.

For those of us in independent comic publishing, advertising has not seemed to be a big source of income. While it seems to be a nice additional stream of revenue for some, it seems that it’s really the sale of books and related merchandise that drives those who find success.

Here at Wishtales we know that independent publishing can succeed with a mix of pay and free content. Marooned made a very modest profit selling only around 50 books using a high cost print-on-demand process. Obviously the book sales were driven by a free comic. But the book offers material that is *not* free or available on the web. Better success lies in bringing our printing costs down and sales up. Only time will tell how that will go.

In the meantime, it will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple years, particularly with sites like Hulu. Will the bigger media outlets successfully charge fees – any kind of fees – for their services? Time will tell, but there apparently some big decisions coming up this year.

Steve and I are happy to announce our first minicomic title. Say hello to Rag the Viking! Rag is about Karl Ragnarsson, a descendant of Norse heroes, who dreams of the drama and excitement of his viking heritage while living the hum drum life of a local city planner.

Rag is a collaborative effort by Steve and I. Steve had the original idea and the original sketch. I took his idea and rewrote it into a minicomic script. Then Steve helped me out with the initial sketches of Rag, and I based the other characters on that style. So the character sketches and script are mostly done. It will be up to me to actually produce the minicomic.

Rag will be 8-12 pages of fun minicomic goodness, at a size of 5.5″ x 4.25″. It will be available for purchase and digital download hopefully by the end of the year. We’ll update you with some teaser panels when they are available!

As if you didn’t get your fill of Tom and Steve’s dulcet tones on the Tall Tale Radio podcast, check out Steve on the latest edition of the Steve Ogden Braincast, where he continues talking about his story process and how too much pre-production can be a delaying tactic.

Also, it’s Tom’s turn in the hotseat over at the Process Diary, in Paul Caggegi’s continuing series “Conversations With”, where Paul interviews working artists.

You’ve got a lot of listening to do – get started!

The excellent Tom Racine, who I think has the Best Radio Voice Not on the Radio, had Tom and me on his latest Tall Tale Radio podcast for a short interview about this here WishTales site.

If you want to hear a bit more about what Tom and I are trying to do, and why, tune in. We’re the last 15 minutes, but don’t skip the first hour, as it’s great stuff with “SuperFogeys” creator Brock Heasley and Wes Molebash of “You’ll Have That”. Good stuff, and we’re thankful that Mr. Racine could make room for us in his ungodly busy schedule.

We’re happy to announce Wishtales will be appearing at our very first show in 2010! Yes, finally you’ll have the opportunity to press the flesh with Tom and Steve. The Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo happens on April 24th and 25th, 2010 in Columbus, Ohio.

Steve and I are very excited about getting outside the dark corners of the internet to see actual living humans. We plan to have some cool stuff on hand, like Moon Town and Marooned books, stickers, buttons, minicomics and more! We’ll keep you posted about the details as the time draws nearer early next year.

The expo is a great place to check out great indie comics. S.P.A.C.E has been running for over a decade and is a very good show. We hope to see you there!

As I roll down to the finish of Moon Town #1, I’ve decided on a format change for the book. When I first began planning it, I went with a typical comic book format, 6×9. However, after having worked on Payload for Tom’s  Marooned collection, which is a 9×9 square format, I got to thinking the square format was better. First, and most importantly, at 9″ wide, the art is much bigger than the 6″ wide version. And second of all, the square format lends itself to a more horizontal aspect ratio, which feels a lot more cinematic. That of course makes me thrilled.

The only bad news is that because of the page breaks in the new format, there are some blank spots in the book (I’ve doped them in with small question marks). The good news is that I’ll be filling them in with some ideas I’d had along the way and originally had to cut for space. Luckily, those ideas are back in.

The other change to the book – originally it was going to be a 22-page story with a 5-page backup story unrelated to Moon Town, just some funny little story. Instead, I’m going to be producing Moon Town #1 as a 36-page story, which feels really nice and chunky to me. That feels worth releasing.

You can follow along on my progress at the BOOKS page at the Moon Town website. The first book will chronicle the first 3 chapters in the Moon Town saga, and at this writing, only needs 9 more drawings. Exciting!

We are pleased to announce that in addition to the print version of our first book, Marooned: Out of Orbit will also be available as a digital download:

So you want to get Out of Orbit but you can’t afford it – or you’re not in the U.S. and you fear the shipping will be too much? Never fear! A digital download of the complete book is on its way!

However, there will be a few caveats. Here’s the deal:

• The digital version will only be available after the printed versions are shipped out. People who buy the printed book get preferential treatment
• The price will be roughly half of the printed version. We have not decided on the actual price yet, but we will let you know.
• Most importantly, there will NOT be any digital rights management on the book. It will be a simple, unprotected PDF. This means we’re putting our trust in you to buy it, but not share it with others. We think most people are pretty cool and if you are really a supporter of Marooned and WishTales, then you will not break that trust. You’ll even be able to print out your own copy if you so desire. All we ask is that you do not print copies out for other people.

That’s it. We hope this will allow more people to enjoy the book. We know not everyone was going to be able to buy the printed version and we hope this will be a good compromise for all of us, and will allow more people to support the comic.

So in light of that, when will it be available? Assuming preorder goes to plan and we get the books in something like the second week of December to ship out, then we hope the digital download will be ready the week of Christmas. It would be nice for you to get it so you can read it on your Christmas holiday right?

More information when preorder begins.

There are so many reasons to find your own route rather than stick to the traditional and expected. Every day, I hear about a new book, movie or TV show coming down the pike that makes me scratch my head. Not that the idea is necessarily bad, or that it won’t sell, because as you know these things are not mutually exclusive. But more to the point of leaving me thinking, “They are making a book of that? Really? An entire book?”

Consider: you can buy “I Can Has Cheezburger?”, a book based on the outstandingly popular LOLCats website. Consider: there are currently feature films in development based on board games and toys such as Ouija, Monopoly, Candy Land, Battleship, Magic: The Gathering, and Stretch Armstrong. And this just in, there is a TV show in development based on a Twitter stream – Sh*t My Dad Says. Yup. Not based on a book. Not based on a screenplay or a script. Not based on a website. But based on a Twitter stream, golden nuggets of wisdom served up 140 characters at a time.

Now lest you call me an intellectual snob or some other accurate label, I am first and foremost a pragmatist. I don’t see these things as evidence of the Creatively Bankrupt Hollywood Machine, though I do believe Hollywood need some new, better ideas. Nor do I see these things as the death knell of Literature at the rough hands of the Evil Book Publishing Monolith, although I do wonder if the already limited shelf space occupied by novelty books wouldn’t be better spent on something a little less faddish.

But make no mistake, these decisions are being made by folks who are definitely following the money. Can you make a successful movie based on a toy? Didn’t they just make a boatload of cash with G.I. Joe? Sure they did. Was it a good movie? I’ll leave that to your taste to decide, but for my money, Toy Story – a movie based on a toy that didn’t exist when the movie was made in 1995 – was the better way to go. And that was John Lasseter, taking a chance, finding his own route. Zig, instead of zag. Of course, not every chance taken leads to a Toy Story, and not everyone is John Lasseter. But maybe there are degrees in-between.

The fact is, something like LOLCats has a huge audience. If even a tiny portion of that audience buys the book, it’ll be a success. Same with the other head-scratchingly questionable creative decisions out there, the decisions are always made with an eye toward the market, a calculation as to whether enough people will buy the thing to justify the production costs. It’s gambling. In the case of something with a huge, built-in audience, it gets easier to say YES. In the case of something or someone a little more obscure, or – leave us face it, virtually unknown – it gets easier to turn it down. No sense crying in your spilled Milk of Amnesia, it’s just the facts, baby. Books, movies, and TV shows will be made, development deals will be struck, that leave you wondering about the sanity of the Suits, when really they’re just making safe bets.

Luckily, if you’re independent, you don’t have to play it as safe. As much as it would be great to be part of a big machine, the great thing about NOT being part of one is that you are free to go where you please, and better yet, you are nimble enough to go there quickly. Big ships take a long time to turn. I would encourage anyone with an honest-to-God Idea to go ahead and develop it, and see what you can do with it. It’s your prerogative, it’s your right, and it’s your duty as an Artist. What are you waiting for? Choose your route and go there. Sure, you might crash on the way, but what an adventure!

Anyway, that’s my reaction to books based on websites, movies based on board games and TV shows based on Twitter feeds. It simply makes the argument that maybe it’s OK to stay independent.

Uh-oh… is that an iceberg up ahead!?

The good thing – and perhaps the bad thing – about having a place to put all these stories we’ve got is that new stories continue to arrive. We’re going to have to grab our pens and work double overtime to get all these tales out to you. But what fun!