No, simmer down, Steve Englehart fans (of whom yours truly is truly one). We’re not reviving the title of “Phantom of Fear City,” for several reasons, mainly because we’re not publishing paper comics any more, and also because the saga came to a definite–and richly satisfying–conclusion in the twelfth and final issue of the original run. (Although since the book’s title does not specifically refer to the ghost protagonist featured in those chapters, maybe we could pull a “Dr. Who” and revive the series with a new Phantom of Fear City in each arc; hmmmm…!)
Well, back to reality here for a moment. The reason I’m making an “Editor’s Corner” announcement about the Phantom’s return is that there have been several back-issue orders for “Phantom of Fear City” which included #12. After and exhaustive (and exhausting) search downstairs where I keep the Claypool back issue stash, I’ve definitely concluded that there are no copies of “Phantom of Fear City” #12 to be had down there. It was more than likely one of the casualties of the Great Flood of Halloween 2011, when all the power in town went off, and my sump pumps stopped working. Although I have a battery-powered third pump (for emergencies such as that), the water seeped in too fast, and many copies of comics were rendered unreadable and unsaleable. Most of the damaged goods have been removed from my basement by now (and taken off to be recycled), but every now and then I find an order that I can’t fill because I seem to have no copies of the requested issue. This is one of those times.

Fortunately, I had the foresight to request that our stalwart former printer, Lebonfon (in Canada), keep and store a certain number of each Claypool “Fear City” issue, including “Phantom of Fear City” #12. I recently received a shipment from Lebonfon containing the issues that I needed for fulfillment of these back-issue orders, and have sent the packages off each on its merry way. For everyone who’s been patient while I searched, my gratitude.

On a related note, sometime in the recent past, someone ordered “Phantom of Fear City” #11 and #12. As I remember it, I did send #11, and swore to him that I would make certain that he got a chance to experience the story in its entirety. I was looking around for that order, and either an E-mail address for the buyer, or a mailing address, which I may have lost in the interim. (I like to blame my disorganization on my cats, because they do push piles of stuff over on a regular basis, but I have to accept my share of the responsibility, as well.) So…I’m requesting that the buyer in question send me an E-mail with the information I need to complete his order, ’cause now I can do that.

Apparently, everyone in the industry–if not on the planet–is now at Comic-Con, so I have some time to get caught up on many things, including these ramblings. There’ll be more soon.

Richard Howell

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.

Well, so far this has been another bad day as far as drawing is concerned, so I figured that I’d communicate with y’all (as Kirby might intone).
As I mentioned in my previous posting, I’m not only frustrated because there are days that I can’t draw, but also because there’s so many exciting things coming up in the DEADBEATS ONLINE narrative that I can hardly wait to share them with y’all. I hope that everybody (by now) has seen that I’ve been saving up Dracula’s reintroduction into the main story flow (long-distance calls with Vladia don’t count), and now that he’s physically on the scene, the stakes (so to speak) will begin to escalate wildly. The addition of Scylladyne Oscar (I can hardly believe that I came up with a name like that, although since my two new kittens are Ryan and Calista, maybe there’s a consistency there), as Dracula’s is-she-isn’t-she vampire queen is bound to throw even more wild cards into the deck. Jo’s kidnapping will have major repercussions for each and every one of her nearest and dearest.

I’m reminded–I’m sure that he wouldn’t mind my recounting this–of whenever I’m starved for ideas, or have written myself into a corner (which happens more times than I’d like to admit), I call Kurt Busiek. Kurt’s one of the most talented writers I know, and also he makes it look so easy that at times it infuriates me. Anyway, sometime around DEADBEATS (the printed version) #41 or #42, I’d set up a mystery of who was sending threatening letters to Kathryn Southland, and–I should blush as I type this–I had no idea who was sending the missives. So I spoke to Kurt, and he had a very sensible “take” on the problem, that being: Who stands to profit from Kathryn being terrorized. The answer: Mayor Southland’s mistress, Boelyn Bove (remember what I typed earlier about my proclivity for odd names?). So Boelyn became the culprit, many months after the story began to unfold. Kurt, you’re to blame for her death, I suppose.

Then, when I’m in need of figuring out the next sweeping story arc, I–again–call Kurt, and his advice, more than once, is “When in doubt, steal from Milton Caniff.” I’ve expanded this to the point at which I also steal from Leonard Starr (and from Thomas Hardy, but that’s another column), but boy, there’s hardly anything this side of THE NEW GODS to get the creative juices flowing than re-re-re-re-reading TERRY AND THE PIRATES. I heartily recommend it. Did anyone notice that when Dracula makes the scene, he introduces himself as “Count Nogard”? That’s a nod to a disguise used by the Dragon Lady back in 1939.

Anyway, wholesale creative theft aside, there’s some really great stuff coming up in the coming weeks and months–and no one is more longing to see it than I (but I hope that some of y’all are close in line).

It’s been a long time since my last update on this forum. Some of this has been because of computer problems, and some of it–frankly–is just because I’m not very good at maintaining a website. I can write, I can draw, I can ink, I can letter, and I can color. I can also play two instruments and sing, but there are problems with the website that I haven’t been able to solve. Thom Zahler, despite all of his other assignments and all of his other responsibilities, is the greatest webmaster of all time, and is always helpful whenever I forget my passwords (and sometimes my name), but things haven’t been working out as smoothly as they were for the past two years (and in terms of Claypool in general, the previous thirteen years before that).

So here’s the current problem: There’s going to be an interruption in the DEADBEATS narration. Thom is amazingly efficient, but Ricardo has difficulties shipping artwork out of Argentina on any sort of regular basis, and –sadly–I’ve developed some medical problems which have interfered with my productivity. It’s very sad on many levels, but most evidently in my ability to keep up with the schedule of delivering three episodies of DEADBEATS ONLINE every week. I want to assure each and every one of the faithful DEADBEATS readers that once I get back into the groove again, things will proceed the way they have been, the way that I always intended them to be.
It’s ufortunate that this happening at all, but especially at this time, when I thought that DEADBEATS ONLINE was just beginning to hit its stride. I’m really enjoying the “Firelight” arc, and I’d hope that the readers have been doing so, too. I wanted to keep up the momentum, but I haven’t been able to draw for the last five weeks. I’m under neurological care right now, and I have medication. I am so sorry for disappointing the DEADBEATS readers. I can assure each and every one that as soon as I’m physically capable of raising it, the curtain will go up again. Thanks for your understanding.

Hello to all, sooner than usual since the previous posting. This is Claypool editor Richard Howell to talk about what’s going on here at Claypool central.

For anybody who loves intriguing, enjoyable, literate comics (and that’s every Claypool reader, right?) I strongly recommend getting on the bandwagon to purchase each and every volume in Classic Comics Press’ ongoing reprint series of Leonard Starr’s excellent MARY PERKINS ON STAGE. The strip ran from 1957-1979, in both dailies and Sundays, and is arguably the best story strip ever produced by someone who wasn’t Milton Caniff. Single volumes are a bargain at $24.95 (for roughly 250 pages of terrific reading) and subscriptions are now being offered for four volumes at $100 (U.S. rate).

I can’t recommend these volumes highly enough (and would very much like to see them continued through the strip’s end). Leonard Starr’s mastery of narrative and draftsmanship was a big influence on me as I was developing my own talents, and I learned quite a lot from ON STAGE in terms of story development, pacing, presentation of themes, and delineation of character; I can’t quantify how much impact this strip had on me. (I never absorbed Starr’s gift for brevity, however.) Anyone who enjoys DEADBEATS is practically guaranteed to be mesmerized by the expertise on view in MARY PERKINS ON STAGE. Don’t hesitate! Order your copies now–and if you feel moved to do so, mention that you made your move due to a hard-sell from here.

Incidentally, Classic Comics Press also publishes reprint volumes of other notable comic strips, including THE HEART OF JULIET JONES, BIG BEN BOLT, DONDI, THE CISCO KID, and RUSTY RILEY. Visit their website and get all the information.

http://www.classiccomicspress.com/

End of commercial. Back to chatting about Claypool.

First off, as I mentioned before, I’ll be putting in an appearance at the upcoming New York Comic Con, which occurs in New York, of course, at the Javits Center. I’ll have a table in Artist’s Alley and will be doing commissions andtalking with fans. Claypool publisher Ed Via also plans to be in attendance, as will Claypool’s invaluable webstie maestro (as well as our DEADBEATS ONLINE letterer) Thom Zahler, selling copies of his own pet project LOVE AND CAPES. The show opens on October 8 (Friday) and runs through Sunday the 10th. All of the pertinent information can be found on the convention’s website: http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/

Secondly, although we’re no longer in business with the ongoing ELVIRA enterprise, we have nothing but good feelings towards them, and wanted to mention that there’s a new, syndicated ELVIRA TV show, debuting last week. Since it’s syndicated, you’ll have to scan your local listings to find where it’s being shown in your area. Checking out the Elvira.com website might help, too. I’m hoping that a station in the NY/NJ picks it up…and soon.

Also, a bit of news that will only really be of interest to fans in my general area of Bergen County, New Jersey: I’m mounting another show of my artwork this next month. As with the previous showing, it’ll be on display at the Leonia Public Library and the title is “The Horror Comics Art of Richard Howell.” As might be assumed, it’ll have a heavy representation of DEADBEATS art, and perhaps some ELVIRA as well. The exhibit begins on October 4th and runs through the end of the month. It’s free, of course.

That’s it for now. Sleep tight–and don’t let the bedbugs bite.

Hello to all, this is Claypool editor Richard Howell stepping out, once again, from behind the “editorial we” to plain-talk about what’s going on here at Claypool central.

Generally speaking, it’s been a good Summertime (I’m writing this on September 14th), with plenty of opportunity to enjoy the weather, the friendships I’ve built up here in town, my network of friends and associates from further away, and generally attempt to do–and be–good.

I’ve got a few things coming up, including a super-secret project that I’m batting around with Kurt Busiek, and an appearance at the NYCC Convention in October (where I’ll be joined–at least part of the time–by Claypool’s publisher Ed Via).

Beyond that, I’m devoting most of my creative attention to DEADBEATS ONLINE, having drawn its 563rd episode today. Comics’ longest-running vampire epic has now been running for (by my count) thirty-six months online, spinning off of fourteen years in its earlier, print form. We may not have as strong a hold on the public imagination as TRUE BLOOD or the swoony cult following of TWILIGHT, but we’ve got them beat for longevity!

Also, remember when I fearlessly predicted that all of our deadline problems were under control? Well, things don’t always work out the way the editor intends, at least not for me. A fast-upcoming episode was taken out of sequence and redrawn (by me, of course), after I decided to revise the design of Dr. Ralston’s father Samuel. That resulted in that particular page being taken down to Argentina by inker Ricardo Villagran, when he returned to his home after an extended visit to the USA earlier this year. Unfortunately, this brought us all back into the logjam of how to send artwork out of Argentina, and–what with the extraordinary measures that entails–Ricardo wasn’t able to return that one episode in time for it to be posted in its rightful slot. So…for the first time, an installment of DEADBEATS ONLINE is being posted directly from the pencils. (I want everyone to know, too, that this photocopy is an early sketching, and not the level of finished pencils I’d like to think that I provide.) This episode will be redone with the complete inked images once they’re available, and I doubt that I’ll leave the pencilled version up online, so copy it when you can, if you want to.

Anyhow, there are many more thrills and surprises coming up in the current storyline, so I hope that you’ve got the lights on, and don’t quail at supernaturals, spooks, silly puns, or quirky family drama, because there’s plenty coming your way.

Hi there. This is Claypool editor Richard Howell stepping out from behind the “editorial we” to get into a new groove in quest of a new level of communication between our loyal fans and me. I’m beginning this composition on the first official day of Summer, 2010, quite a lag from the previous posting. Despite my best intentions, I’ve yet to be able to work the notion of regular updates into my agenda, and this forum has suffered as a result. I’m going to overcompensate here, and rattle on until you Claypool stalwarts will regret the moments at which you’d wished I’d done more postings on this site.

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.

This could be considered a promising development, since I posted an update only a few weeks ago, and now here I am again, attempting to stir up some responses about our ongoing Claypool efforts. Remember, anyone who’s been putting off posting to the message boards and/or E-mailing me directly via the link on the site should know that this is definitely the time to (as the saying goes) “Jump into the ‘Pool.”

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.

Okay, it’s now several months later, and I’m just now getting around to updating all you Claypool enthusiasts as to the goings-on this past season. Once again, I pledge to do better at keeping up the editor’s log. I still don’t know whether or not I’m any good at the tone of these things, but I figure that–at this point–any attempt at keeping current is better than none.

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.

TO ALL OUR WEBSITE USERS AND FANS:
Earlier this week, I checked in on the website message boards, to see if anyone had made a comment or asked a question, and I found dozens of new messages had been posted since the last time I looked. This was intriguing, but a bit odd that there’d been so much action in so short a time. Sure enough, when I clicked onto the Message Board section, I found blog entry after blog entry having nothing to do with Claypool, various advertisements (including many photos of merchandise for sale), and some porn (again, having nothing to do with Claypool). I contacted our webmaster, Thom Zahler, and asked that he do something about it. Thom reported:

“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.