Why Things Go Wrong
EDITOR’S UPDATE: Another half-year, another time for an update on the oft-neglected “Editor’s Corner.” This time, there’s news, but it’s…well, judge for yourself. It seems, to me at least, that every time I hear from someone about the functionality of the website. or check it myself, something’s always a little “off”–either I can’t access places, or I can, but not through the same paths. I understand that computer technology changes with a frightening regularity, but there should be something consistent about being able to order back issues, keep current with “Deadbeats Online,” and/or read my occasional editorial ramblings. We also get hacked somewhat regularly, again because of constantly-evolving technology, and have to make catch-up adjustments after the fact.
It would be incorrect to lay the blame at any one individual’s keyboard, since there are a lot of people, robots, spambots, and maybe a Chenbot or two who have nothing better to do with their existences than to mess up perfectly functional websites, often to no advantage to themselves, either. I still have disturbing memories of our message board being peppered with meaningfully violent pornography, and we had to shut it down while webmaster Thom made like a Plantagenet (or maybe Gram Parsons) and swept out the whole area with a new broom.
Since I mentioned Thom, by the way, there’s no one better to be correct the waves of damage that keep washing onto the shores of our granulated communication forum. He’s been great at dealing with every backslide that our site experiences, with no attitude, no evident exasperation, and as swift action as could be humanly expected. The fact that only some fraction of the damage is being caused by humans is little comfort.
Anyway, part of the point of this rambling is to inform those of you that wish to comment on the site, Claypool Comics in general, or our ongoing “Deadbeats Online,” we’ve decided to shut down the Message Board for the foreseeable future. It just plain gets hacked into too often, from too many threatening sources. Of course our interest in your comments continues unabated, but anyone who wants to let his or her voice be heard should contact me directly, at RHOWELL@nj.rr.com. I don”t think that the jackbooted hackbots can mess with my own personal E-mail address (he wrote, thus tempting the fates). I’m not sure how long our back-issue option will stay intact either, so if anyone places a PayPal order, he or she is encouraged to E-mail me directly, too, to ensure that the order went through properly.
I know that this sounds like more trouble than it needs to be, but we don’t want to lose touch with our readers and fans, despite the best efforts of cyber-terrorists everywhere. Remember, anyone can contact me via my personal E-mail at any time, and is encouraged to do so.
ON ANOTHER SUBJECT:
The aforementioned “Deadbeats Online” continues its inexorable march towards being one of the longest-running strips featuring both vampires and big words, in equal measure. It’s clear to anyone who’s been following the continuity that we’ve had some posting problems lately (some duplicated strips, some mis-numbered ones, and some obvious lag-time whenever things get messed up), but the duplications and mis-numberings should be corrected by now (try them in sequence and see), and the lag-time problem is being aggressively addressed. We should be on-date very soon. I’m about one day away from drawing episode #700 (yes, you read correctly), and am turning out work of which I’m very proud. Currently, Southie and Brittany have re-entered the storyline in a big way, pledging to use their curse–their vampire powers, in other words–on the side of good. Naturally, being Southie and Brittany, they’re taking this in a skewed direction, in that they’re only killing people who, according to their own judgment, really deserve to be dead. As one might assume, this conflicts substantially with the various moral judgments of others in town (those who have them, that is). Southie, in particular, is no big supporter of compromise, and Brittany has a tendency to support her vampire paramour in whatever he decides. Trouble ensues, hopefully in an entertaining manner, in this new arc “Unlikely Heroes.”
As mentioned before, if anyone wants to comment on “Deadbeats Online” developments, past or current, the E-mail is RHOWELL@nj.rr.com. We’d love to hear from you.