WordOwl

Well, it seems that the crisis of faith hasn’t exactly gone, which is why it’s only now, the early hours of Monday that I pick up the strips from Friday onwards. *rasserfrassermumblemumble*

Anyway. I’ve been trying to distract myself over the last 2-3 days to see if that helped. I spent several hours animating a lemming based on a random forum thread. (Specifically it’s one about having two chambers, one with you in and one with a cake in, joined by a thin shaft, with deadly spikes in it. I recoloured the base image to be more in keeping with Lemmings then animated a basher bashing through the wall. See it here.)

I’ve also been playing with another project, but I won’t make that public until I have it more completed. Interesting though, since it’s taught me about the perils of binary across XMLHttpRequest and got me into using jQuery for an interface. And it’s huge. But you’ll see what I mean when it’s done.

So what’s the deal? Well, the last couple of weeks (months, maybe) I’ve just been feeling pretty meh about WordOwl and everything around it, and the last week of virtual abstinence from the project has just reinforced why I need to finish building Thundervolt. I did get the comic area XSS-proofed but haven’t yet sorted the users area.

Then it occurred to me that I really need to have it all done by mid-February,  so I figured the user area can go whistle for a while; I’ll add user permissions manually for the time being. So tomorrow’s plan is to implement one of the new key areas, the data parser. I will try and write it to interface with the strip renderer as far as possible but that will too need a rewrite.

Anyway, it’s 3.41am, I still need to do the washing up, so it’s goodnight from me.

Since my crisis of faith, I’ve seen the light and have been working on Thundervolt with semi-reckless abandon. So much so that I still haven’t done yesterday’s or today’s strips, which is very remiss of me. I will catch up tomorrow morning with tomorrow’s strips (it’s easier to do it all in bulk, after all)

For those wondering why the strip count has dropped by almost 1,000 strips, it’s because of the change-overs happening at inktank.com at the moment, where the site is being retrofitted and as such all the strips transcriptions are pulled until the strips themselves are back up and I have sorted out all the URLs.

Thundervolt - the admin system - is moving quite nicely. The login and underlying permissions system is in place, and the ability to edit core comic data (as you see on the Copyright page) is working nicely. There’s still an awful lot to do but it’s getting together quicker now I’ve solved the hurdle around handling UTF-8 in CodeIgniter (or more accurately, it’s not CI’s fault, it’s how everything else interacted that meant data was being received as ISO-8859-1 instead of UTF-8 which broke accented letters spectacularly.)

I still need to XSS-protect the comic data form, though, as it could still be a route for XSS hacks at the moment.

Tomorrow’s jobs, after doing the strip back archive, are to XSS-protect the data form, and to implement the user editing system, so I can edit users in the system, add/remove permissions, that kind of thing. It won’t be a free-for-all. I’m not accepting random sign-ups. Maybe one day I’ll do that, but for now, the intention is invitation only.

I have a difficult choice ahead. I think we all know (by that I mean the 4 people who actually read this blog) which I’ll take, but I want to make it clear that it is weighing on my mind that heavily.

Option 1. I write Thundervolt (the proposed admin system for WordOwl). Comics then can be added to by their authors or their representatives, and can be updated without my intervention (after a fashion, but that’s another story)

Option 2. I stop WordOwl development entirely once the archives of all strips are up and hand all the data over to Oh No Robot. I will, however, wait until all the data for each comic is up before handing it over to Oh No Robot, and would complete the already agreed comics first.

I’m not going to dwell on the consequences of either of these. Simply instead I’ll post it here and see what happens next.

By the way, I’m not expecting or looking for a pity party, or indeed either an overwhelming vote either way, right now I’m just punting the forks in the road. When I choose one I’ll let you know.

Argh, it’s the early hours of Wednesday morning and the column was meant to be updated on Monday. Weird thing is I already have a draft of about 70% of it. Oh well, I’ll finish it later today (Wednesday) and post it, back-dating it to Monday and I’ll let it run for 2 weeks.

Meantime, things have seemed a little slow because I’ve been concentrating most of the last 2 days or so on the admin system design work. Now, seems a little excessive perhaps, but it’s not.

Let me explain a little more of what’s involved in the admin system and why I’m spending the time on getting the structure right in my head before I even touch a line of code.

The admin system is designed with the express purpose of being able to update and add strips via a web interface. That means, first up, moving the code that I already relocated back to my PC… back to the server.

That also means resetting up a database for WordOwl to use, but this time instead of just having raw data to contend with, it also has to manage user logins, permissions, archival of strip data, and somehow integrate that into Sphinx, as well as cache data to avoid the issues I originally had.

If that wasn’t enough, the other problem is the transcribing interface; since mid February last year, I’ve been using a customised OpenOffice spreadsheet to build XML. It’s functional, it works reasonably well. But now I’m using a web interface, the choice of OOo is no longer a valid one.

So after a long conversation with Sophie, a strong comic transcription format has been established. No, it isn’t Oh No Robot’s format, it’s one that much better suits what WordOwl needs. There’s also a simpler version going to be available too, which is pretty neat.

It’s late, and I’m not sure I’m making one of the biggest points; it’s not an update I’m doing, it’s not a new set of features surgically implemented on top of the existing code. It’s likely to end up being a serious rewrite. As it stands, the entire back-end will be rewritten and integrated into Sphinx that much better, while the front-end will need serious patches to suit the new format.

I am also ditching some things that just aren’t needed.

To go out:

• A distinction between ‘inset’ and ‘caption’ text; the distinction is so subtle it’s not worth worrying out, so it’s going.
• A separate ‘keywords’ option on the search panel.
• The AJAX-like dynamic loader interface to the search page. Not only is it causing code duplication, the fact that it effectively breaks the ‘back button’ and that there isn’t a suitably clean solution to it means it can go. It’ll actually save some bandwidth overall too, but that’s a side issue.

To go in:

• The ability to create, edit and delete strips as listed in the database and have those changes applied very, very quickly.
• The ability for comic authors to designate transcribers for a comic and for them to edit the transcription before going live; any changes must be approved by an appropriate user and a non-admin user will not be able to approve their own changes.
• Ability to search by author as well [NB despite the number of hours on the design documents I currently have, I have not yet specified the details on how this will actually work, nor how it will look in the interface, however it is the intention for it to function as any other search option]

The thing about the admin system is not only the complexity of it, but for the first time I’m actually going to be using a proper MVC framework - CodeIgniter. Note that this won’t be rolled out to the entire site, simply the admin area; the rest of the site can rely on my more custom codebase since speed is more important there than it is on the admin area, as it is being used by many more people.

Having read the manual for CodeIgniter, it should reduce a lot of the grunt work in building what is essentially a straightforward web app. Ultimately we’re talking displaying the contents of DB tables on a form and editing them. Nothing weird there, actually, the only real weirdness is in the logic area in maintaining the state tables, since I’m having multiple tables that cache data in different ways.

I do also need to sit down and design the interface for the admin section; I’m still not even remotely sure how that’s going to look yet, though I am thinking perhaps some kind of dashboard.

Although the AJAX-interface is gone from the search page, the admin area is very likely to use more of it for the interface; it is much more suited to needing it, really.

I have to be honest, I’ve had so many thoughts about how to make this part operate it’s unreal. Being honest? I even thought about buying my own (cheap) SSL certificate for the admin area. Don’t really know why, just seemed like a good idea, though I haven’t done so because as much of a good idea it may be it’s just not practical.

I also promised in my last update a little news on Angst Tech. Well, due to hosting issues, Barry of InkTank is currently migrating all of the InkTank comics over to a new host, with a new codebase. As a result, every URL will move and need to be rewritten, so what will happen once the move is announced is that I will remove every InkTank strip from WordOwl, until I can reintroduce them unilaterally (i.e. I’ll strip out all of InkTank, Sorry We’re Open, Weak-End Warriors and Angst Tech and as I fix the URLs, I’ll re-add them)

Anyway, it’s nearly 3am and I need to go to bed.

For this week’s Comic of the Week article, we’re going to divert from your regularly scheduled comic review and take this opportunity as the first CotW for 2009 to take a proper look back at 2008 as a whole for webcomics.

The big theme for me was revival. Lots of things reviving, although some only temporarily.

What’s back?

John Troutman (Sporkman, Basil Flint) brought out the next generation of his Flintiverse characters, effectively ret-conning a large amount of the historical strips, with “Flat Feet & High Heels,” launching in July, as well as revitalising “Sporkman” for a short period.

Aric McKeown (Ashfield Online, The Mustache Rangers [podcast]) stepped back into the comic fold after a 3 year absence, teaming up with Lemmo Pew (Lethal Doses, Winter) who had also taken something of a break to bring out one of the oddest comics of 2008, “Blank It“.

Steve Troop (Melonpool) returned to the comic book scene with an all new comic book series, “Cryptozooey“, and republished the back archive of the Melonpool series in print-on-demand, including two never-before-released books, the long-awaited “Melonpool Chronicles” comic book collection and “Melonpool VI”.

Gisele Lagace (Cool Cat Studio, Penny & Aggie) brought a third strip to life, the extremely popular “Menage a 3“, initially running in tandem with both the continuation of Cool Cat Studio and the on-going Penny & Aggie.

Barry T. Smith (Angst Tech) returned after a 3 year break with “InkTank“. Although suffering from a few teething troubles towards the end of 2008 with computer troubles, family illness and hosting issues, InkTank draws back on Barry’s 5 year legacy with Angst Tech, Weak-End Warrior and Sorry We’re Open and combines it with a semi-biographical slant, as InkTank. (Though, the company he works for in the strip is familiar!)

What’s new?

David Reddick (Paws, Inc. working on Garfield) brought four different webcomics to life in 2008, “The Legend of Bill“, “Rod & Barry“, “Gene’s Journal” and “Reddickulous”

Adam Black (KISS 4K) kick-started “Locus“, a comic that he explains in the forum as an experiment in pushing the boundaries of comics. It does seem to be incredibly fresh and original, and a welcome boost to the webcomic world in 2008.

Indigo Kelleigh introduced two comics, “Ellie Connelly” and “The Circle Weave“. The latter is a strong graphic novel that was originally envisaged as such and later being rewritten for the web, while the former is definitely the more interesting from a novelty standpoint. Unlike most other strips which either place the action in the here-and-now, or simply in another world, Ellie Connelly actually is a period comic set in the later part of the 1800’s, being very definitely aimed at the Sherlock Holmes fans. The latter does appear to have stalled, with the former not being clear from a cursory glance if it has updated recently or not.

What’s ended?

Gisele Lagace ended the continuation of “Cool Cat Studio”, which had restarted in 2007 after a 6 year break; it ended as “Menage a 3″ became strongly popular, but not before the story had been told.

John Troutman’s “Sporkman” not only revitalised after a 3 year break but sadly went on hiatus a few months after that, although John has said he hopes to bring Sporkman back again one day, so it is more of an ‘au revoir’ rather than ‘goodbye’.

After that quick review, it’s clear that the world of webcomics is neither stale nor unaltered; it is a constant state of flux, with comics starting, comics ending, creators coming back to all-new projects… as I said, the big theme is revival.

• InkTank has done it even within itself; a large part of the storyline from October onwards concerns the earlier strip Angst Technology.
• Flat Feet & High Heels references the earlier Flint works (Basil Flint, P.I., Flint Again, Felicity - Agent From H.A.R.M., Andiewear) and even manages to flirt at a crossover with Sporkman at one point.
• Menage a 3 features a cameo of a previous event that happened with characters in sister strip Penny & Aggie.
• Sluggy Freelance seems to be running through a series of stories that go back to the earliest stories and riff from them (pun not intended) - there are clear indications of looking back to the roots.
• Bruno the Bandit has ended 2008 on a story with Bruno going back to his bandit origins.

I have wondered if they’re cyclical in nature, with ebbs and flows going on and on; as comics end, more do rise up to take their place, and although some comics are reasonably mainstream (Reddickulous has been strongly likened to Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” in nature), and what goes around does come around, there are still some fresh ideas out there.

Comics outside of the comics themselves

The world is bigger than just webcomics, of course, but a few things have begun to change in the world outside of the webcomics themselves, and it has been quite an interesting ride watching.

• Scott McCloud, artist behind comics for a number of years, and even a couple of books on the subject, was enlisted by Google to explain and help promote their new browser Google Chrome. We’re seeing acceptance of comic artists for other work, perhaps.
• Although such debates have been around on Wikipedia for longer, 2008 really began to see a movement within “the free encyclopedia” against webcomics; apparently a number of authors have decided that webcomics are not ‘notable’ enough to be considered worthy of inclusion into Wikipedia and pages have been slowly dropping off, despite a die-hard movement consistently re-adding them back in.
• While the collectives (Keenspot, Blank Label, Dumbrella, Dayfree Press etc.) are all going strong, with Keenspot adding several new comics this year, the move is increasingly towards self-hosting. It’s become so much easier in recent times with the likes of ComicPress. It’s weird; ComicPress originally came out in 2005, but it’s not until this year that it started to become prevalent, so much so that existing comic artists are beginning to convert their comic back-archives into WordPress/ComicPress (1977, InkTank, among others)

2008 was a fairly intense ride as comics go, and I have no doubt that 2009 will be just as hectic and rollercoaster-like, but of course we’ll wait and see.

And, of course, WordOwl will be growing and sprouting a lot of newness to support these comics, and hopefully others too!

See ya in the funny papers!

As I write this, I have some plans for 2009. As per my plans for the end of 2008, some, all or none may come to fruition.

However, these are the plans I have for 2009. Let’s see what happens.

Review of 2008 webcomics

This one’s an easy one. Next Monday’s “Comic of the Week” article will actually look at 2008 in general for webcomics, highs and lows of the webcomic industry as I’ve seen it, so it won’t follow the usual structure of a CotW article, but hopefully it’ll be worth the read anyway.

Finish the comics I already have

I have about 650 Melonpool still to do, plus about 600 Angst Tech (it’s on hold for the moment, however for reasons that will become clear). On top of that I also have about 230 or so Cool Cat Studio strips, plus another 4,300 that have been agreed.

I’ll announce them properly once I start work on them officially, but I’m fed up of keeping it a vague surprise. (Some people know it already so, meh.)

As well as finishing Melonpool, Angst Tech, and Cool Cat Studio, it has also been agreed that Penny & Aggie and Superosity can join WordOwl. More news as it happens.

Administration system

One of the goals for 2009 is to implement an administrative system and allows me to add strips from wherever I am, rather than just when I’m at my computer. The eventual plan is also to expand it out to other authorised users to input strips (subject to approval from other authorised users, although I expect initially at least I’ll still review every added strip). The logistics of doing this are complex enough, without worrying about the user interface/management stuff. But that’s one of the plans for 2009.

WordOwl Wiki

This is already off to a start; I started playing with this back in August, but stopped while I concentrated on other things. The Wiki is, however, back on the drawing board and has allowed me to get my thang back with coding. (The holiday season always kinda wipes me out, which is why I’m so far behind with everything. I just don’t get on with it.)

So I’ve been writing up templates and parser extension functions and basically having a super-happy-fun-time with MediaWiki’s theming and template system. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing system, but I get frustrated with some of the things it does sometimes.

One preview of what it looks like has already been released into the forum for the comic that it currently supports, and no doubt more information will follow in due course.

Anyway. That’s all I have for now. I haven’t forgotten where this is all going, but maybe I can start getting back on track properly.

For this week, the last of 2008, we take a look at one of the older webcomics out there: Ashfield, variously known as Ashfield, Ashfield Online, and ? - The Demented Comic Strip.

I’ve always taken the name to be Ashfield Online, for reference.

So, what’s it about?

The strip follows the exploits of one Professor Ashfield, though his experiments and attempts at world domination. Like other comics (such as Cyanide & Happiness and xkcd), Ashfield isn’t predominantly a story comic, but mostly a series of one-shots in the classic gag-a-day format.

One of the running jokes is that Ashfield is in virtually the same pose every day, standing upright with his trademark cigarette.

The caption is usually the punchline, sometimes helped by the art.

What’s the appeal?

Unlike some of the beautiful artwork out there, Ashfield tended towards simplicity; frequently there is no art other than Ashfield himself an a line for the horizon, but mostly Ashfield’s humour tends to the punchline in the caption.

Aric McKeown’s own brand of satire - now visible in Blank It - is what defines Ashfield; it is blunt, to the point and often funny because it evoked a sense of realisation about the true inanity of the world.

McKeown also wasn’t afraid to experiment with the format a little; in the later part of the comic’s life, it had two staples that push the boundaries of the webcomic medium: “Multiple Mondays” and “Animated Fridays”

The latter speaks for itself, being a short animation, usually only a few seconds, that featured Ashfield being - well - Ashfield, while the former is still probably the most unique feature about Ashfield to this day: providing three different punchlines to the same artwork. As far as I know, no other comic has attempted to replicate this, despite it being a very interesting (and no doubt difficult) feat to pull off.

There was something about the Internet media realm in the first part of the 2000s where sound was a fad as part of the entertainment business, but looking back it now seems somehow pre-emptive rather than jumping on the bandwagon.

What I like most about Ashfield is that where it is reasonably minimal and relies on the punchline, it’s very quick to digest and doesn’t require studying the artwork - great for a “quick first comic hit of the day” pick-me-up.

What about its history, and its future?

Ashfield started at the end of January 1999, when the webcomic industry such as it is today did not really exist; Melonpool and Sluggy Freelance (among others) already existed, however Keenspot had not formed at that point (indeed, it even predates Superosity by Keenspot’s founder Chris Crosby) so whatever web-only comics were out there at that point were very limited and were all independent creations.

After an almost solid 3 years at a 5/week schedule, the occasional gaps in 2002 hinted that the comic might be slowing down; in spring 2003 it went on hiatus, resurfacing for about a month in 2005 before lapsing back into hiatus again.

Aric has gone on to other unique and individual projects, most notably the Mustache Rangers podcast, although other projects such as Make Me Watch TV were floating around too, and more recently working on Blank It with Lemmo Pew.

Closing thoughts?

Ashfield was one of those strips I discovered in college, not too long (less than a year) after Keenspot formed, leaving it with strong memories in the mind; indeed I was able to follow strips as they came out, which was rather nice.

It is also one of the strongest cases I’ve seen of “less is more” and demonstrates what can be done with good writing, rather than detailed artwork.

Great! Where next?

• Website: www.ashfieldonline.com
• Updates: on hiatus since 2005
• Created by: Aric McKeown
• My favourite line: Why mess around with voodoo when you can just stick needles in people you hate?

WordOwl is pleased to announce - earlier than originally intended, no less - that the next comic to join is none other than Cool Cat Studio, the first strip created by Gisele Lagace (artist for Menage a 3 and Penny & Aggie)

Set in the graphic design shop of the same name, Cool Cat Studio follows the antics of the owners Belinda and Jeremy, their cat Camus (after which the studio is named) and its staff, Sophia, Michael and most infamously, the enigmatic Liz Adams.

Cool Cat Studio ended its initial run in 2001, but had a follow-on run from June 2007 until September 2008.

I said to myself - I promised myself I wouldn’t add any other comics until both Melonpool and Angst Tech were done.

Unfortunately due to needing a break from the in-transcription storylines in both strips, I needed a break, so I’ve actually added the first batch of the next comic to be joining WordOwl. I’ll make a proper announcement in a bit though.

Part of me feels glad since it was getting to the point where I was feeling like busting a gut over these two strips, and now I’ve relaxed the rule (twice!) I feel happier about doing a little more.

I’m just annoyed at myself for not having sufficient discipline to do it properly, that’s all.

First up, I’d like to wish any readers here (and this includes those who follow this on LiveJournal feed from here) a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I have a ton of things going on that will filter into 2009 so watch this space for comic goodness.

I’m going to keep this quick since I’m trying to finish up on Melonpool at least before the end of the year (next week!) and still have over 700 to do.

I got a parcel this morning. I was expecting it, but it didn’t change the fact that it was appreciated. I briefly mentioned in the Melonpool review for Comic of the Week that a new book was due out, but that at the time it was a surprise. Well, I’m extremely pleased that my copy turned up in today’s post! What I didn’t explain in the article was that Melonpool had a history even before being a webcomic; four comic books - The Melonpool Chronicles - were created way back in 1996 before it became a webcomic. Steve has arranged with ComixPress to issue the books in a single bound volume entitled “The Melonpool Chronicles Revisited”, and I gots me one!

I must be careful with it though, since it is very cool since Steve has done the 10 recipients of the pre-release edition (it’s out on general release in January) proud; not only are they numbered and signed, but there’s a sketch on the inside cover too, and there were some 1995-edition bookmarks in with it too! To me this is a real piece of comic history and is one of the corner-stones of my comic collection - Melonpool was the first webcomic I ever read and this is a look back at the prequel, if you will. Except unlike Star Wars Episode I, this is a real prequel worth reading.

So, yeah, I’m a happy chappy today and to have it here in time for Christmas is just the icing on the cake really. And I know the title for the sixth book, which also makes me happy, since it’s something I’ve been wondering for the last three years.

Now if I can only get up to my former rate of 100/day getting this done shouldn’t be a problem. But I think I’ve said that before. Perhaps I should take a leaf out of Mayberry and Ralphie’s book…

“To the time machine!”