Wither Facebook

Facebook was fun while it lasted. It enabled people to easily do two things they love to do: connect with others and talk about themselves. Then Facebook got greedy. (Or "ambitious" if you prefer.) No longer content to be a digital diversion, Facebook decided to take on Twitter and LinkedIn and all its competitors at once. Now, while attempting to post and share amusing bits of our lives, Facebook assaults us with invitations to join BranchOut and Klout that demand an ever-growing share of our personal bandwidth. And then there's that insidious Timeline, which Facebook unilaterally decided is a better way for us to present our personal information. I've stopped visiting the pages of my Friends who use Timeline because it gives me a migraine. Soon everyone will be forced to switch to Timeline, and whatever minor pleasure I once derived from using Facebook will be gone forever. Remember the days when seemingly everyone was on AOL? Those chat rooms sure were addictive. AOL grew powerful enough to swallow Time Warner! Then, overnight, AOL was uncool. A late-night punch line. Soon it receded from view. All in under a decade. A similar fate awaits Facebook. Soon the next disruptive technology will come along and render Facebook passé. In ten years, Facebook will be a distant memory and a handy touchstone for period films set in 2009. What will replace Facebook's share of hearts, minds, and wallets? Of late, interest seems to be growing in Pinterest, but if you've never been into scrapbooking, I doubt this will change your mind. Tumblr? Foursquare? Who knows? Maybe Twitter will grow restless and grow up. In all likelihood, a service you've never heard of will catch fire and capture the zeitgeist. Just like Facebook did. And MySpace before it. And AOL before that. It's inevitable. It's the way of the digital world.  The only question is: How many people will be sorry they bought Facebook stock?

Emerald City 2012: Day 3

As expected thanks to the shipping snafu, I was nearly out of books by Sunday morning. Luckily I had brought plenty of copies of the convention-exclusive "Jayson Comics #1," which also serves as a promotion for my entire line, so I was able sell that throughout the day and direct buyers to the Ignite! website for the rest of my books. By the way, there are still a few signed copies of "Jayson Comics #1"left in the Prism Comics online store. Hurry before this collector's item is gone forever!
By Sunday afternoon I had so little product left that I finally got to leave the booth and attend Kaboom's "Peanuts" panel. They are producing new "Peanuts" comic books, inspired by (and occasionally reprinting) classic "Peanuts" strips from the 1960s era. The comic's primary writer and artist were the panelists, talking about their reverence for the original work and the responsibility they feel in curating Charles Schulz's legacy. It was also interesting to learn more about the approval process for the stories and art. Creative Associates, which licenses all "Peanuts" products, approves every step of the way, along with the Kaboom editors. They apparently give lots of notes! Everyone feels a responsibility to measure up to the original and avoid tarnishing the brand. This series will stick to the look and feel of the 1960s -- probably Schulz's most creative era and also the least mined -- which means you won't be seeing the characters using cellphones or texting each other anytime soon!

Emerald City 2012: Day 2

Saturday at Seattle's Emerald City Comicon, as expected based on Friday's traffic, was packed. And people were in the mood to buy! It is always rewarding to meet longtime fans -- and I did meet several -- but it is even more heartening to meet attendees who are adventurous enough to try something new. The "ick" factor surrounding gay comics and gays in general is clearly in retreat, especially in a place like Seattle that boasts so many smart and progressive citizens. And there are several hooks for "Jayson" -- it's funny, it looks like "Archie," it's about a 20-something liberal-arts graduate struggling to make it in the big city -- that draw people in. The bigger surprise for me is that my Ralf Konig translations got equal play. In prior years, passersby would point out a title like "The Killer Condom" to their friends, snigger, and move on. This year it was my first title to sell out!
I've become a big fan of some of the newer webcomics out there, like Jeff Schuetze's JefBOT. Jeff introduced me to several other young webcomic publishers at the convention, including Ryan Hudson, whose channelate is just about the funniest thing I've ever read. He's published a year's worth of his strips in a book titled "Don't Take This the Wrong Way" that demonstrates remarkable consistency in milking fresh laughs from familiar themes. Bud and I got to meet up with the webcomic crew on Saturday night for drinks at the Sheraton and got to know them better.