First, I’m going to explain what’s been behind a couple of the glitches that’ve bedeviled the website recently. First, there’s been a brief interruption in the new episodes of DEADBEATS ONLINE, resulting in four consecutive posting dates without any progress in the ongoing intrigue that is DEADBEATS. That was not the way it was intended to happen, but things didn’t work out quite the way I expected. After a full season of trying to pull ahead on the deadlines (rather successfully, too), I fell behind on scripting, then a few roadblocks prevented me from catching up in time (more on those later), by the time it had reached crisis-level status, and I scrambled to deliver the next round of desperately-late dialogue, our wondrous letterer/webmaster Thom Zahler wasn’t available to ride to the rescue, since Thom–who has many other clients and other commitments–was out of town on another assignment. Thus, four episodes of DEADBEATS ONLINE didn’t post on their original schedule. They’re safely accessible now, in the correct order, and with their originally-intended appearance dates attached. In the three-plus years that DEADBEATS ONLINE has been running, this is the first time that a breakdown in the creative process has resulted in new episodes not being posted on time, and I hope that it’s the last. As of now, the artwork’s in hand–inked and everything–up through #512 and the scripting’s done through the historic #500. This morning, I drew episode #537, with #538 on the board for tonight. I expect that things will continue to improve for the foreseeable future.

From time to time, odd glitches occur here on the site (I expect that that’s true of almost every website out there) and we’ll try to address them as we learn of them. Just recently, one of our correspondents informed us that one of our recent episodes (#478) appeared twice, once in its own slot and once edging out that day’s legitimate episode (#475). For the record, the real #478 is a confrontation between Kathryn and Evan Southland. #475 is a conversation between Nikolas the bartender and his boss, Langley Bowman. I’m hoping to get these posted in the correct order and with no deletions or double-postings ASAP. Everyone’s invited to backtrack and read the story in its complete integrity, in flawless order.

Along those same lines, that correspondent informed me that three additioinal episodes weren’t displaying themselves to him. I double-checked and I could access them with no problem, so I’m at a loss to explain this particular glitch. I’ve contacted Thom about it, and we’ll work to solve it.

For anyone else having any problems with any aspect of the site, you’re encouraged to E-mail me (at the “Contact Us” link). Actually, you’re encouraged to E-mail me at the “Contact Us” link at whatever time, for whatever reason. So far, that link has always worked.

Also requiring an explanation: It had come to the attention of Thom and me (separately) that our Message Board had become disabled. Once Thom turned his expertise to the problem, it became clear that the problem was very serious. The Message Board was beyond saving and Thom devoted no small effort to save the previous communications, but that proved impossible. So…we’re taking the only option we have, and that’s to build a whole new Message Board, from the proverbial ground up. We’re still testing its parameters (the first posting on the new Board was a piece of free-floating spam; now deleted), bit it should be operational, for any Claypool fans out there who’d like to comment on the ongoing DEADBEATS ONLINE. I’m not the company’s tech expert (any company that hired me for that position would be in deep, deep trouble), so I don’t have a solid answer for most of the questions you might be asking, but if you’ve been approved for posting on our previous Message Board, there’s a chance that you can still post without having to go through the approval process again. If that doesn’t pan out, simply re-apply and I’ll attend to it immediately. I’m as anxious to get the inter-reader communications going again as the next Writer/Artist/Editor.

For anyone who’d the additional impetus to keep reading, I’d like to announce that I’m very pleased with the current storyline and character arcs. I think, further, that the latest sequence is going to have some major payoffs. Not only will the cast be expanded and deepened, and the story peppered with the usual level of mood and menace, but also there’s some searingly emotional material coming up–very much along the lines of #71’s “No One Here Gets Out Alive!” and the Peyton Shue/Zombie Master story here online–so no DEADBEATS reader will want to miss a single episode.

End of hard sell. Now, on to more personal topics. April–as it’s long been reputed to be–turned out once again to be–the cruelest month. For anyone who knows me–or my work, probably–I don’t think that it’s any secret that I’m a major animal lover, and a cat person in particular. One fateful Thursday (the 9th), my youngest, the little Sam, went “off his feed” and–instead of coming a-running whenever I opened the food drawer, he began to hide in various places around the house. Not only are there many, many places to hide in my house, but Sam is all-black, complicating the situation considerably. I called my local vetrinarian’s office (Cats Exclusive) and described Sam’s symptoms. They advised me not to overreact; maybe Sam ate something that disagreed with him. I should keep on top of the situation and report back if things got worse. Things did get worse, and–wouldn’t you know it?–markedly so, once Cats Exclusive was closed for the weekend. By Sunday morning, not only was Sam refusing to eat, but he was also unable to stand. I wasn’t sure at all that Sam would make it. My friend Monica suggested that there had to be an emergency facility somewhere nearby. I placed Sam in a travel box, and away we went. Sam spent Sunday night in the emergency facility, getting monitored, tested, and hydrated. The next morning, we shuttled him off to Cats Exclusive for a week of being boarded, tested, hydrated, and force-fed. On Wednesday, the little Sam got his first grown-up MRI (He was so scared that he involuntarily walked a few steps.) None of the tests indicated anything in particular, and by Thursday, Sam had begun to rally. When I visited him at Cats Exclusive on Friday, he was eating on his own, wandering around the exam room, and complaining that he wanted to go home. On Saturday, he had his triumphant homecoming and has been perfectly healthy ever since. No verdict on what happened to him, but the leading theory is that he might have eaten a spider. Many days of stress, sleepless nights, and four-thousand-plus dollars later, the crisis has passed.

At the same period, though, during which I was sending every piece of positive energy I could muster off into the little Sam’s direction, something very sad and unnecessary occurred: My former editorial assistant killed himself. We hadn’t been in very close touch to quite some time, and I don’t think it’s my place to share any details anyway, but the news was a definite shock.

With that one-two punch knocking me off my pins, I’m a bit surprised taht I didn’t fall further behind than I did, but after playing catch-up in May and June, I’m pleased to announce that all the deadline threats seem to be a thing of the past. Not only that, but i think that the DEADBEATS ONLINE strip’s rhythms are finally exactly where I want them, and that great stories lie ahead. Keep reading and see if I’m not right.

Every day here brings more progress in the ongoing storyline in FEAR CITY, and it’s exciting to everyone who’s part of the process. Our irreplacable inker Ricardo Villagran is spending some time in the USA–away from his native Argentina–and is speaking to editors and galleries in the New York City area. We take him at his word that even if the rest of his dance card gets filled up with other, perhaps more glamorous and/or lucrative assignments, he’ll never desert DEADBEATS. Likewise, our webmaster, letterer, and general problem-solver Thom Zahler is making great strides in every phase of his career (not excepting his highly-regarded comics series LOVE AND CAPES, which comes with strong recommendations from this office), but has promised that he’ll keep his commitments to Claypool in general, the website, and DEADBEATS ONLINE. We’re dealing with a crew here whose talents are on a par with their professionalism and loyalty.

It goes without saying (which is why I’m typing it), that there’s no list of positive attributes of Claypool as an ongoing concern that doesn’t include the people at the top: Ed and Sandy Via. This would be a good time to mention that just the weekend before last, Ed flew up (in a plane, of course) from his ancestral gothic mansion–many states away–to my current (since 1982) home state of New Jersey. Our getting together for a business conference was on the docket, but the main attraction was this year’s Dark Shadows Fest, held at the Renaissance Marriott near Newark Airport. As loyal Claypool readers know, without DARK SHADOWS, there would more than likely be no INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, FOREVER NIGHT, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, ANGEL, MOONLIGHT, TWILIGHT, TRUE BLOOD, etc. etc., at least not in the forms that we recognize. Also, there’s a new level of buzz around this particular Fest, partially because there’s another SHADOWS project on the horizon (the more-or-less certainty of the next Tim Burton/Johnny Depp joint effort being a remounting of DARK SHADOWS), but also that the portrayal of the original series’ signature character was scheduled to appear (that’d be the original–still champeen–Barnabas Collins, embodied by Jonathan Frid). It was a fine time, and both Ed and I (and our mutual friend–noted comics historian and occasional Claypool contributor Peter Sanderson) had a great day. We enjoyed meals together; we watched panels with DARK SHADOWS favorites; we spoke with some of those favorites and purchased a few collectible items or two. We even managed to steal a moment here and there to discuss some Claypool business, definitely including DEADBEATS.

(By the way, if there are any DARK SHADOWS completists out there who don’t know the connection between our ongoing vampire epic and theirs, each of the three of the DEADBEATS trade paperbacks feature forewords by talented women who made a mark in modern culture via their early roles in DARK SHADOWS. Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans, Josette duPres) provides the introduction to DEADBEATS trade #1 “New in Town”; Nancy Barrett (Carolyn, Charity/Pansy, Leticia, Millicent, Melanie, et al) lent her talents to the foreword to DEADBEATS trade #2, “Learning the Game,” and Lara Parker (Angelique herself) delivered the goods for the third DEADBEATS trade, “Gothic Towers.” Each of these volumes are available and can be ordered through the website.)

Enough sales pitching for now, but I’ll be back with more news soon. Meanwhile, take to heart my exhortations to write in whenever you feel the urge. Remember, here at Claypool the amount of time that we spend making our comics as good as they can be is…downright scary.

For those of you who’ve been wondering what happened to that deal (of which I made mention quite some time back) of putting the Claypool back issues–sans “Elvira,” of course–on a webcomic format somewhere, and available for download. As you may remember, those of you with lengthy memories, that plan also included an option for restarting the “Soulsearchers and Company” series with new stories. Well, the bottom sort of fell out of those discussions, when the other company involved didn’t maintain their financial model and other creators reported that they were being paid late, and/or on a sporadic basis, and/or that their phone calls went unanswered, their requests unresolved. Those were all bad signs, so currently we’re still in a holding pattern as regards both “Soulsearchers” in particular and back-issue web postings in general.

In the meantime, though, I can attest that the “Deadbeats Online” creative team and I are working as hard as we ever have on making the sole surviving “Fear City” series as exciting and fulfilling as ever. Ricardo Villagran continues to deliver high-quality embellishment on a regular basis, Thom Zahler is our own company miracle worker, both in terms of solving problem after problem with the website, and also in handling the copious copy that is such a vital component of each and every “Deadbeats” episode. Speaking for myself, I’m constantly challenging myself to make the strip more involving, more satisfying, and more exciting. Even now, seventeen years after beginning the “Deadbeats” feature, I approach every sequence with as much commitment to my craft–and to my audience–as I ever have mustered.

I’m liking the current storylines quite a bit, too. For the first, hugely Kirby-centric year of the Online strip, it was necessary to center every event around the presence of Mystic Grove’s stalwart young hero. Consequently, Kirby Collier was front and center during the clashes with the band of vampire mutates that once were the Deadbeats, the Zombie Master, and the tag-team of Silverbelle and Deyfus. Once Kirby was transported to the dimensional venue once known as the “World of Vampires” and discovered his old comrades still quite un-destroyed, the focus of the narrative broadened out somewhat to include those “fallen heroes.” Then, another chapter to address the loss of Brittany (and reversing it in the process), and finally…well, Fear City feels fully like Fear City again, with all the layers of character interaction and intrigue. I’m really digging working the cast again, with surprise connections popping up out of what seems like nowhere (although some of them were set up years ago) and giving “Deadbeats” fans what they’ve come to expect with this feature.
Once the Brittany/Bentley arc concludes (very soon), a new epic story cycle debuts, as the aura of the chronal realignment reaches Dracula, and involves him in the plight of the Deadbeats. Also, a familiar face re-enters the town limits, with an offer for Dakota Kane and the rest of the Mystic Grove’s crusaders, Manny Martinez gets some good news, and Christine decides that Fear CIty’s endless summer deserves some serious classroom time. It’s going to be serious…serious fun, that is, so keep reading.

Thom and I are working (well…mainly him) on making some improvements to the website, including installing some place-holders at the beginnings of each story arc, so readers won’t have to progress through the episodes one by one. We’ll have a fuller description of this next time. Also, for those of you who’ve written in about the “missing” episode #299, Thom’s investigated the matter and found that the installment in question was accidentally mis-formatted, so some operating systems couldn’t see it. He’s corrected the problem now, so anyone who wants to experience the entire story sequence can do so. Thanks to everyone who contacted us about the problem.

For anyone who might be interested, the show of my artwork that was on view during April at the Leonia Library went swimmingly, with much interest and a good deal of increased foot traffic in the main reading room. There’s talk of mounting a sequel, and if it materializes, you’ll read about it here.

That’s it for now, but I’ll be back with more news soon, I promise. Meanwhile, keep reading, and write in whenever you feel the urge. Remember, here at Claypool the amount of time that we spend making our comics as good as they can be is…downright scary.

“You’re not the only one getting spammed. According to the message board help forums, it’s happening to a lot of people. Some people are attributing it to an upgrade (which we haven’t done). It sounds like someone has created a robot that is able to automatically register. So, it’s nothing that we’ve done differently, just someone building a better mousetrap-avoider.

“I’ve deleted the big spammer and blocked him/it from the forums altogether. I’ve also changed the settings so that people who register will generate an e-mail for you to approve. If an automated program tries to register an account, so that it can post, you’ll see it and can deny it.

“I’m trying to upgrade to the latest stable version, but that seems to have disabled the message board altogether. I’m working to fix that now. We have a backup, and I’m trying to restore from that.”

So this is where we are right now, unable to maintain our own Message Board, due to some vile Spambot somewhere. We’ll solve this problem, and be able to communicate with each other on the site, but it may take a while. In the meantime, if anyone has any direct questions or comments for me, for Ed, for Claypool, please go to the CONTACT US link and E-mail directly.

Many apologies for the problem. We’re working to solve it.

Well, thanks to our talented (and patient) webmaster, Thom Zahler, I–Richard–have once again rediscovered the process through which I can post chatter, ramblings, and information to my own Editor’s Corner. So, without further ado…here’s an
ELVIRA UPDATE!
For all of you out there who’re missing our regular monthly ELVIRA comic book series (that grouping definitely includes me, Frank Strom, Ronn Sutton, Tod Smith, etc.) there’s a new ELVIRA TV series debuting at the end of this very week. It’s called “The Search for the New Elvira,” and should be a lot of fun. It’s being carried by the Fox Reality Channel, first showing at midnight on Saturday 10/12 and is based on the concept that Elvira and some of her cohorts will be involved in choosing the next Mistress of the Dark.
(I remember suggesting a gambit along these lines to Elvira’s then-manager Mark Pierson; the gist being based on the matriarchal magic triad and that eventually Elvira would be “promoted” from Mistress of the Dark to Queen of the Night and there’d be a need for a new Mistress of the Dark, whom Elvira would train. I expect that the new TV series is much less academic and more fun, with the patented ELVIRA “spin.”)
Anyway, the patented ELVIRA “spin” will–as it always is–very much on view in any effort featuring Elvira herself. Every fan of hers–and of her much-missed Claypool comic–is encouraged to tune in.

Those are the basics. If there are any questions, this is the place to ask them.