Warren Ellis Curates new Webcomic Site

Warren Ellis has announced on his blog that he has finally been talked into curating a mass webcomics site titled "Rocket Pirates." The submission process is completely open via Warren's gmail account and invites anything as long as it isn't too terribly formal. While Rocket Pirates doesn't pay authors for submissions the site is apparently going to allow each author to post their own advertising via "Google Ads, Amazon Associates ads, ads for their own products, rate cards for prostitution services or any other damn thing on their comic's Rocket Pirates page."

Comments

And the goal is ...

[PCM2]

...what?

No, seriously, what's the point of doing this? The comics will be hosted on this site; check. But the arrangement is non-exclusive, which means the creators are still free to host them on their own sites, also -- which presumably they would have done anyway.

Wouldn't it be much easier to create a kind of "Drudge Report" of Web comics, that aggregates links to new episodes as they appear? Seems like just about anybody could do that with some blogging software.

Re:And the goal is ...

[zepher-109]

The point is that your comic is hosted on a website endorced by Warren Ellis, publishing companies will look in there a lot quicker for new talent then on Keenspace or wherever.

Re:And the goal is ...

[tdvaughan]

They might do, at first. But separating the wheat from the chaff is going to be a full-time job, and you'll only do well if your work is good enough in the first place. At which point you've got just as much chance as you do by hosting it yourself.

Re:And the goal is ...

[mark_hill97]

Wouldn't it be much easier to create a kind of "Drudge Report" of Web comics, that aggregates links to new episodes as they appear? Seems like just about anybody could do that with some blogging software.

Actually that already exists on many sites, I wont advertize any of them here but you can google for web comics lists and find dozens.

Re:And the goal is ...

[mike_sucks]

You keep Warren Ellis happy.

You really _don't_ want to see Warren Ellis unhappy. Bad things will happen.

Very bad things.

Re:And the goal is ...

[slashkitty]

uh, yeah, like webcomics.com? They provide updates webcomics and let you create your own "comics page"

I'm worried if they are allowed to put ads all over the place, the could presumably put malicious stuff there too. It's really just a big free webhost, because, if it's so massive, anyone can sign up and post anything?

Great way to break into the business

[QuantumFTL]

This will be great for artists who have the talent, but really need exposure. One of the most powerful things about the WWW has been the collective filtering of content on places like Slashdot, YouTube, and Digg. Hopefully this site will help overcome the SNR of the WWW - I don't read web comics because almost all of those that I've come upon just didn't seem funny, at least not to me. Maybe with the enhanced variety of many sources, this pressing problem can be solved!

Re:Great way to break into the business

[y5]

This will be great for artists who have the talent, but really need exposure.

My wife has been working on her online semi-weekly comic strip for over a year now. Her drawing/photoshop skills have come a long way since she started. Even though her paintings and drawings have been featured in local (Columbus, OH) galleries, it's been a fight to gain an audience for her comic larger than family and friends.

Perhaps this is because RocketFuel follows her real life very closely, down to the clothes she wears and conversations she overhears/has. But I can't help but think her personal stories aren't so uncommon.

Check out RocketFuel if you have a chance. It's refreshing to me, in that it somehow pulls off being child-like, without being childish.

Kudos to Mr. Ellis. He's doing good work.

I suspect that it's about bandwidth.

[khasim]

Bandwidth isn't cheap if you become popular.

Providing a site that is supported via Google ads and such would save those artists from having to come up with the bandwidth cash themselves.

Ads Ads Ads

[posterlogo]

With your own ads for stuff, and presumably his sponsors' ads, won't that make the website very ad-ridden? Still an interesting business model, though...

Who?

[Aladrin]

Sooo... Who is Warren Ellis and why should I bow at his comic-hosting feet?

Seriously, wtf?

Re:Who?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

C'mon - I had no idea who he was either, but just selecting "warren ellis", context clicking and choosing a google search gave me his homepage and his wikipedia entry.

While /. submissions could occasionally use a little more background, its not that hard to find out wtf the article's talking about (usually in less time than a post asking for said info).

He's an influential british comics writer - who's biggest work was transmetropolitan for DC's vertigo comics line.

Re:Who?

[berj]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Ellis
http://www.warrenellis.com/

Finding these was less work than posting here.

Re:Who?

[Khuffie]

Ya, but at the same time, it really wouldn't have hurt the submitter to simple state: "Warren Ellis, influential British comic book author, has announced...". Yes, I'm lazy, and I want the work to be done for me damnit! But still, it's just good article writing.

Re:Who?

[Aladrin]

Yes, I realize that. I guess I should have been more transparent about my distaste for them assuming the entire world knew and worshipped him.

Re:Who?

[jrockway]

> its [sic] not that hard to find out wtf the article's talking about

This reminds me of the old saying: Teach a man to research slashdot stories; he's a subscriber for one day. Give the man an answer in the comments, and he's a subscriber for life :)

Re:Who?

[70Bang]

Challenge: Name that tune.

Rewrite the original post, even with the newfound knowledge.

I'm certain someone will mod you some karma in compensation if you provide an excellent example.

Tip: Take the time to write, preview, edit, spell check, grammar & punctuation check[1], edit, etc.

Lots of people write something, scan it for what they think might be embarrassing[1], and submit it. It's not a race to post first.

Invest a few minutes and show us your best.

_____________________________________________
[1] see a message just a couple higher than this one: "who's" as possessive. (versus "whose") If everyone exploded apparent possessive pronoun contractions, "they'd" (they would) see "it's" (it is) not a tough thing to do. Write as well as you would on your resume, even if you don't proofread.

For those attempting to apply the label "Grammar Nazi", that's (that is) usually done by a "Grammar Idiot".

Re:Who?

[Wabbit Wabbit]

That's because CdrTaco hasn't rewritten the comment entry system yet.

Re:Who?

[91degrees]

I suspect he asked partially for the benefit of others. He probably decided not to volunteer the information to chastise the author lightly.

His name is a guarantee of quality

[Hitto]

After him doing "Transmetropolitan", "Authority", and various other great things, I'm inclined to check it out, even though I hate the amateur connotation most webcomics bear.
Good show for helping out indie artists! I love this guy ^^

Comics are for kids

[Anonymous Coward]

Just cos they shows sum titties doesn't mean that they's written fo anyone smarter than kiddies.

Re:Comics are for kids

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, books, poems, art, movies and television. Ha-yuck-uck.

Re:Comics are for kids

[darvs]

Yes, because the medium is so much more important than the content...

Re:Comics are for kids

[darvs]

My comment was about the title ("Comics are for kids") and not about the sex and nudity. What I meant was that it's not because it is a comic that it absolutely has to be for kids.

But to answer what you said, I'd say comics that are not for kids do not absolutely have to contain sex and nudity either. Comics are just a different way to tell a story, any story.

Just as there are kids movies and X-Rated movies, there are lots of movies that do not fall in these extremes. There is no reason comics cannot have the same range and variety.

Re:Comics are for kids

[PCM2]

There's no reason tv cannot have the same range and variety, either.
But it doesn't.
And neither do comics.

But it does. And so do comics.

Re:Comics are for kids

[WilliamSChips]

You, my friend, fail.

Re:Comics are for kids

[WilliamSChips]

Paul Graham: "As usual the popular image is several decades behind reality. Now the misunderstood artist is not a chain-smoking drunk who pours his soul into big, messy canvases that philistines see and say "that's not art" because it isn't a picture of anything. The philistines have now been trained that anything hung on a wall is art. Now the misunderstood artist is a coffee-drinking vegan cartoonist whose work they see and say "that's not art" because it looks like stuff they've seen in the Sunday paper."

A whole lot of comics?

[supersysscvi]

I think it's a neat idea. Hosting a website with a bunch of comics will be might give it a lot of hits. I'm hoping that this comes out good. Especially with funny comics.

Just what we need!

[daeg]

I've all but lost hope for the Internet but now my faith has been renewed! Yes, provide any cartoonist with hosting! I enjoy looking at badly written, unfunny, and largely idiotic cartoons! While you're at it, can you please duplicate LiveJournal? I am seriously lacking in my daily need to read higschool Emo-kid drama. A duplicate of MySpace would protect my prowling habits when MySpace.com goes down. Help me, Warren Ellis, you're my only hope.

In all seriousness, though, it seems like a duplication of existing services with a fancy name attached to it. I would have rather seen him do something for the web comic community by aggregating existing comics and posting reviews and commentaries on them blog-style.

Re:Just what we need!

[maxume]

Hope and faith in the internet? You'll have a better time of it if you place your hope and faith with people; yourself and, judiciously, others.

Re:Just what we need!

[A Brand of Fire]

If I've read it correctly, Warren Ellis is providing hosting services for webcomic writer/artists for free and allowing them to post their own Google AdSense links so they can collect on ad revenue. That's something a lot of 'free' hosts don't allow, as they're the ones that collect on the ad revenue to support your hosting fees. While I don't think the host itself is precluded from its own ad revenue, this should be a boon to potential digital indie comic creators; free hosting, your own ad revenue, and increased visibility within the community.

Considering the fact that my best friend and I are about to bring our own sci-fi action drama comic (not all webcomics are comedic in nature) to fruition, the idea behind this seems like something I ought to look into. We don't have the money for hosting at the moment; though I do run a FreeBSD-based web server off my cable line, 20KiB upstream isn't much to write home about and isn't very practical for a large viewership when one takes into account the bandwidth required for just the comic page (8.5x11@72dpi).

While I'm hopeful, I think it would be best to watch with vested interest, see what happens.

Re:Just what we need!

[Homburg]

As the term "curator" implies, and the article pretty clearly says, this is not going to "provide any cartoonist with hosting." It's going to provide cartoonists who Warren Ellis thinks are worth promoting, with hosting. That a big name in paper comics like Ellis is getting involved in webcomics is, perhaps, somewhat interesting; and Ellis has very good taste and a sharp eye for coming trends (as you can see on his blog), so his webcomic picks will probably be of a fairly high standard.

Edison hate?

[krell]

"Edison hate future shirt that I ordered 3 months ago"

Edison, do you often refer to yourself in the first person and third person within the same sentence? So sorry about the future shirt!

Re:Jesus fuck!

[darvs]

So, what you want is a clear separation between "News for Nerds" and "Stuff that matters", yes?

You're right

[darvs]

You're right, I am a bit of a recluse. I should probably get out more and meet fascinating people such as yourself.

Re:You're right

[Misfit Taz]

>> You're right, I am a bit of a recluse. I should probably get out more and meet fascinating people such as yourself.

But these comix aint gonna read themselves.

Who is this guy?

[Gunfighter]

I think a subscriptionless comic site is a great idea. I hope he gets the content to get it kicked off.

While I understand that some Slashdot nerds like comics, I'm wondering a) who this guy is, and b) how many /. readers actually know who he is. So the question remains... who is Warren Ellis and why does he rate to be on the front page of /.?

Re:Who is this guy?

[kylner]

Warren Ellis is one of the premier writers in today's comic book scene. He's worked for pretty much every major comic book publisher and in the comic book world his name carries a lot of weight.

Re:Who is this guy?

[aiwha]

Warren Ellis wrote Transmetropolitan, which is considered by many to be a postcyberpunk classic. He is on the front of slashdot page for the same reason that you occasionally see the names William Gibson and Neal Stephenson on the front page of slashdot.

It's All About The Content

[Doomedsnowball]

Jargon, Hype, Trends, whatever. It's all about the content. Speculation died with Red Herring. Stop trying to reinflate the internet bubble. It's either consumer-friendly attractive content that will drive advertising, or it won't. The attractiveness (economically) of the internet is that you can ride the marginalia of society and still make a profit. Sometimes it is all about the niche market strategy.

And his website, it's atrocious!

[Ayanami Rei]

In that he must have every blog-related doo-dad invented since 1998 all crammed up in the sidebar. From last.fm, to an incoming links feed, to a myspace link.
This link circle-jerk digirati bullshit has to be stopped. He's fucking farming out his content creation with this RocketPower thing which is borderline ironic.

*sigh*