Founded | 2006 |
---|---|
Founders | Nick Bertozzi Nikki Cook Michel Fiffe Dan Goldman Tim Hamilton Dean Haspiel Josh Neufeld Leland Purvis |
Defunct | c. 2016 |
Type | Webcomics collective |
Members | Anne Barnetson Pedro Camargo Mike Cavallaro Kevin Colden Molly Crabapple Darryl Cunningham Mike Dawson Andrew Dimitt Rami Efal Ulises Fariñas Simon Fraser Roger Langridge Jason Little Paul Maybury Warren Pleece Ryan Roman Britt Sabo Nathan Schreiber Paul Peart-Smith Jennifer Tong Dean Trippe Chip Zdarsky |
Website | www |
ACT-I-VATE was an American webcomics collective based on an original idea by Dean Haspiel [1] and founded by Haspiel and seven other cartoonists. [2] It started out on the blogging platform Livejournal, [3] and then moved to its own dedicated website.
The ACT-I-VATE collective featured serialized graphic novels from over twenty-five hand-picked professional cartoonists (each of whom generally added a new episode weekly), and was updated daily. ACT-I-VATE members included Haspiel, Nick Bertozzi, Michel Fiffe, Dan Goldman, Tim Hamilton, Josh Neufeld, Leland Purvis, Mike Cavallaro, Kevin Colden, Molly Crabapple, Darryl Cunningham, Mike Dawson, Ulises Fariñas, Simon Fraser, Tom Hart, Roger Langridge, Jason Little, Paul Maybury, Warren Pleece, Palle Schmidt, Paul Peart-Smith, Dean Trippe, and Chip Zdarsky.
ACT-I-VATE's artists were unpaid, and produced their work without editorial oversight. ACT-I-VATE was also free to view. In addition to the high-quality comics, the site was known for its vocal community of readers and the lengthy discussion threads between artist and reader.
In 2009, IDW Publishing released The Act-i-vate Primer, a Harvey Award-nominated anthology featuring 16 original comics stories by members of the collective.
ACT-I-VATE debuted on February 1, 2006, with eight cartoonists, and added four more members on April 5, 2006. The collective gradually added new hand-picked cartoonists at a regular rate to the point the membership reached in excess of 50 creators.
ACT-I-VATE rose to prominence when many of its artists, including Haspiel, Michel Fiffe, Mike Cavallaro, Dan Goldman, and Nick Bertozzi, began to receive publishing deals. [4] Haspiel and Fiffe's three-issue mini-series, Brawl, a "creature romance double feature" featuring Haspiel's Immortal (starring Billy Dogma) and Fiffe's Panorama, which both originated on ACT-I-VATE, was published by Image Comics in the Fall of 2007. Similarly, Parade (with Fireworks) , by Mike Cavallaro, began on ACT-I-VATE, was first excerpted in New York magazine [5] and was later published by Image. [6]
Act-i-vate members Ulises Fariñas, Michel Fiffe, Dean Haspiel, Tim Hamilton, Dan Goldman, Paul Maybury, and Nikki Cook all had work published in Image Comics' Popgun anthology vol. 2, published in July 2008.
The Act-i-vate Primer, published in October 2009 by IDW, [7] was edited by Dean Haspiel & Scott Dunbier, and featured a foreword by Warren Ellis. The book's 16 original comics were by Roger Langridge, Mike Dawson, Nick Bertozzi, Tim Hamilton, Dean Haspiel, Pedro Camargo, Mike Cavallaro, Molly Crabapple, Jim Dougan, Ulises Fariñas, Michel Fiffe, Maurice Fontenot, Simon Fraser, Jennifer Hayden, Joe Infurnari, John Leavitt, Hyeondo Park, and Leland Purvis. [8]
The Act-i-vate Primer was covered by, among others, The New York Times , [9] Comic Critique, [10] and Comic Book Resources ; [11] [12] and was named to Heeb 's top ten comics for the year. [13] It was nominated for a Harvey Award for Best Anthology. [14]
In 2015 the site had a serious outage. It was restored from backups, but the hosting company was not able to get it working as it had before. The codebase for the site was out of date and filled with bugs, and the original programmers were no longer able to maintain it.
In 2016, the site administrator (at that point cartoonist Simon Fraser, working on a volunteer basis and with little available resources), came to the conclusion that shutting down the site was the only recourse. The archived site remained at its original URL through 2018 and officially went dead on January 28, 2019.
The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a year in 2001 due to the show's cancellation after the September 11 attacks. As of 2014 SPX has been held in either Bethesda, North Bethesda, or Silver Spring, Maryland.
Simon Fraser is a British comics artist and writer best known for his work on Nikolai Dante, a series he created with writer Robbie Morrison in 2000 AD, Tales of the Night Watchman for So What? Press, and Kingsman: The Red Diamond for Image Comics.
AdHouse Books was an independent comic book publisher based in Richmond, Virginia. It was founded in 2002 by graphic designer Chris Pitzer.
Roger Langridge is a New Zealand comics writer, artist and letterer, currently living in Britain.
Vito Delsante is an American comic book writer, known for his work on characters such as Batman, Wolverine and Scooby-Doo.
Dean Edmund Haspiel is an American comic book artist, writer, and playwright. He is known for creating Billy Dogma, The Red Hook, and for his collaborations with writer Harvey Pekar on his American Splendor series as well as the graphic novel The Quitter, and for his collaborations with Jonathan Ames on The Alcoholic and HBO's Bored to Death. He has been nominated for numerous Eisner Awards, and won a 2010 Emmy Award for TV design work.
Mike Dawson is a British-American cartoonist, known for his work on books such as Freddie & Me, Ace-Face and Gabagool!
Nick Bertozzi is an American comic book writer and artist, as well as a commercial illustrator and teacher of cartooning. His series Rubber Necker from Alternative Comics won the 2003 Harvey Awards for best new talent and best new series. His project, The Salon, examines the creation of cubism in 1907 Paris in the context of a fictional murder mystery.
Parade (with Fireworks) is a two-issue comic book mini-series by Brooklyn based writer-artist Mike Cavallaro. It was published by Image Comics in Fall 2007. It was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Limited Series in 2008.
Popgun is a comics anthology series created by Mark Andrew Smith and Joe Keatinge. It was published by American company Image Comics in four volumes, between 2007 and 2010. The driving concept behind Popgun was a mixtape of graphic short stories that cross the borders of all genres. No theme was given to contributors and instead emphasis is placed on diversity of content and the mixing/track order of each volume.
Millennium Publications was an American independent comic book publishing company active in the 1990s.
Negative Burn is a black-and-white anthology comic book published beginning in 1993 by Caliber Press, and subsequently by Image Comics and Desperado Publishing. Edited by Joe Pruett, Negative Burn is noted for its eclectic range of genres, mixture of established comics veterans and new talents, and promotion of creative experimentation.
Occupy Comics: Art & Stories Inspired by Occupy Wall Street is a three-issue comic book anthology series published by Black Mask Studios in 2013. Funded on Kickstarter, the series articulates themes of the Occupy Wall Street movement through comics as well as fund-raises on behalf of the protesters.
Darryl Cunningham is a British author and cartoonist who has written the books Science Tales, Psychiatric Tales, The Age of Selfishness and Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful.
Notable events of 2006 in webcomics.
Ulises Alfonso Fariñas is a Cuban-American comic book writer and artist.
The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Ringo Awards, are prizes given for achievement in comic books. They are named in honor of artist Mike Wieringo and they were founded by the Reisterstown, Maryland-based Cards, Comics, & Collectibles shop alongside the Ringo Awards Committee in 2017, their ceremony meant to succeed the Harvey Awards which left the Baltimore Comic-Con as its venue in 2016.
Mike Cavallaro is an American comic book writer and artist. His most notable work is in the realm of middle grade comics, including collaborations with Jane Yolen and his own graphic novel series Nico Bravo.