Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Weekly Webcomic Wangdoodle: Goblins Goes Pro

So the guy behind Goblins has decided to "go pro". He's quitting his job and doing the comic full time. It seems like every major webcomic guy does his comic full time these days, and frankly I thought "Thunt" (as he calls himself) already was. But I think sometimes we underestimate the guts it takes to quit your fricking job and have your livelihood depend on a fanbase for your internet comic book.

So, unfortunately, the upshot of this is NOT that we're going to get more updates. On the other hand, Thunt says he's going to be able to keep to his weekly schedule, which he definitely wasn't before. So really that actually is more updates, when you think about it.

But one neat upshot: he now has a live feed of himself drawing. I'm not sure how often he draws, but I've been watching him draw for an hour now, and it's pretty fascinating. There's even a well-populated fan chat along with the feed, and right now the artist is interacting with the chat by speaking into his web cam. (Although now he's getting distracted from drawing by the chat. Which I guess is the downshot here.)

The other feature of Goblins that you may not be aware of is the Tempts Fate side-strip. It's an interactive strip; the Goblin "Tempts Fate" battles enemies and braves dungeons, and how (or if!) he gets out of his situation depends on donations from fans. In the meantimes there are tons of snarky references to pop culture and gaming, including a classic World of Warcraft parody. Check it out.

Tempts Fate may not be a "new" feature, but I imagine that now that Thunt is otherwise unemployed, it will be an ever more important part of the site.

If you haven't checked out Goblins yet, go do it.

No comments: