I believe the WPC, was slowly suffocated by the same thing that kills a good portion of the online communities out there; Lack of participation of its members. (And yes I include myself in that). Everyone thinks “Ohhhh, it would be great if we did this!” or “Hey, why don’t we do that!!” but when it comes down to the actual doing, they are no where to be found. Expecting a few people to do all the work involved in running any sort of community is the surest way to kill said community. I am sure there are a few internal reasons for the death of the WPC but I still believe the biggest reason it collapsed is we, it’s members, stood by and let it happen. It’s a shame really because it was a great group of creators, and the sense of community when I first joined was really strong. Maybe that is what killed it, me joining?

This (along with the slowness I have seen in other communities) leaves me wondering if the idea of a Webcomic Collective can survive in these days of Facebook, Twitter, RSS Feeds and the like. Nearly every webcomic in existence has a Facebook fan page, so if I “like” a certain comic I can get updates about it pretty easily. It sort of equates to a one stop shopping experience, why go to 8 different places to see your favorite webcomics when you can just go to Facebook? One thing that can make a collective thrive is dialogue and discourse between it’s members, but a good portion of this is achieved through Twitter nowadays. As a matter of fact a good deal of fan interactions happen via Facebook and Twitter now. (I have no hard facts on this, it’s more of a personal observation) So what exactly can a collective offer than?

• Cross promotion of a group of creators? Again this is done just as effectively through Twitter, say through “Follow Friday” or the more obscure “Webcomic Wednesday”.
• A place to springboard ideas into the real world, such as Collective Anthology, calenders etc. This is one place where collectives could be effective. The trouble being that for all the enthusiasm usually exhibited for participating in this sort of thing, it rarely comes to fruition.

The one thing I think a collective could still do rather effectively is provide a centralized place to see webcomics. (Think Comicspace but on a smaller and more manageable scale). A reader would have one place to have access to all the collective comics and their creators. Imagine this collectives webpage to be similar to the Facebook live feed page, with all the updates of various comics and the tweets from the collectives creators. This to me is where a collective could truly shine…. alas it is a mere pipe dream.

Perhaps the age of the Webcomic Collective is behind us, and we just need to move on and not look back.

Next up was molding the sculpey, I put a few small holes in the head one for a brass wire to support the wild tuft of hair and a few others to create a sort of “key” the theory being that in old time plastering you had a space between the lathe that allowed the plaster to slip through and expand to hold the plaster in place. I was hoping the sculpey would behave similarly.

Next came the nose. The nose gave me some trouble and I’m still not completely happy with it, but at least it stayed on!

The all important accessory came next, all Munnys come with an accessory but this one needed a particular one. He needed a paint brush. To make sure the paint brush stayed straight, I used a toothpick, yes that’s right a toothpick. I rolled the sculpey around the toothpick and got the basic shape. Then placed it in the Munny’s hand and carved the paint brush details into the shape.

The feet needed a bit of something to make them stand out so some folds were added and then the tips of some shoes came next to complete the look.

Now the Munny comes out of the oven! And look its all intact! One thing I might change next time is I might separate the head and arms from the body, they lost most of their movability while baking. Most of the sites say it’s a good idea to do so, I was just lazy I guess.

Let the painting begin!!

Well, there you go those are the steps that went into making Munny Keith. Next up?

I will be attempting this.

Wish me luck!

Step 1: The initial sketch on the doll, I probably could have done this with out using sharpie, maybe next time.

Step 2: All sculpey-fied and fresh out of the oven, I think one the next one I’ll be taking it apart before baking.

Step 3: Let the painting begin!

Step 4: Nearing the end, there are still a few touch-ups left to do and the whole doll needs to be clear coated but it is about 90% done.

The goal being that it look somewhat like this.

Today’s comic is in black and white, not for any great artistic purpose but simply because I ran out of time to color it. As you can see sometimes our hero jumps blindly into the fray, offering to lend a hand before assessing the situation. In this case that may have been a mistake.

Check out the latest sketch for a L.O.S.T. MUNNY doll….

Today I ordered a couple of MUNNIES, which I will be modifying to (hopefully) look like this. The figure should be between 7″-8″ depending on the hair. The goal is for certain pieces to be made out of super-sculpey, while other parts will be carved from the vinyl.   I’m not sure exactly how long this will that, but it should be fun to do. I’ll take photos of the process for all to see.

This is a sketch for the graphic novel idea I have. I’ll probably tell you about it soon, but I want to formulate the idea a bit more in my head before I share it.

Fear not! It shall be just as strange as any of my other ideas!