Broken Frontier

If you've followed webcomics in the last month, odds are good you already know about the biggest story of last month. It's really no contest.

1. Dave Kelly vs Todd Goliath may not have ever gone to court, but it certainly rocked the court of public opinion, and it's not over yet.

Though, by all rights, it could have been. Todd Goliath, AKA Todd Goldman, millionaire T-shirt designer, could have simply acknowledged the shirt was a blatant copy and accepted responsibility. He eventually did this.

If only he'd stopped there. Goldman's more questionable moves included MySpace vandalism, accusing Kelly of pedophilia, sending pornographic links to defame Kelly to anyone who asked about the case, including minors, blaming the entire matter on "hater artists," and sending out "cease and desist" letters to those who reported on any of the above, without spelling out exactly what they should cease and desist doing. Broken Frontier awaits its summons with bated breath.

Recent updates: The legal maneuvering appears to have failed utterly. According to Technorati, Internet coverage of Goldman has greatly intensified since the legal threats began. Finding other cases of possible Goldman plagiarism seems to have become a new contact sport: Journalista has cheekily declared it a regular feature. The Peabody Gallery of Fine Art has responded to the stir by removing Goldman's paintings, while Google seems to think Goldman's nearly synonymous with the term "art thief."

Goldman could not be reached for comment, so we'll quote what appears to be his final public comment on the matter, a comment posted on a website his lawyer would threaten two days later:

My God, enough already, so I stole a few paintings and raped Mother Teresa, and snorted coke off dead babies asses, for chrissakes! It's not like I'm Hitler or anything?!?

Should I start writing out checks to every one of you talentless, jealous hacks that didn't have the gumption "making art by committee"? Sorry for your struggles and boxes of Ramen noodles, can't wait to see the TV series!

I love you all this much!

Send love into the universe, baby!

Let's move on to happier subjects.

2. Congratulations are due to the digital comics Eisner Award nominees:

• Bee, in Motel Art Improvement Service, by Jason Little
• Girl Genius, by Phil Foglio
• Minus, by Ryan Armand
• Phables, by Brad Guigar
• Sam and Max, by Steve Purcell
• Shooting War, by Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman

The group is far more heterogeneous than in previous years, and rumor has it there was a much larger pool of submissions to draw from. That makes me very happy. If you'd like to hear interviews with some nominees, there are Broken Frontier interviews with Lappe and Goldman here and Guigar here. Interview with the Foglios coming soon!

3. One under-the-radar story that no one seems to have focused on yet is the growing use of webcomics as a promotional tool. It seems to be catching on, and I'd like to know more about what goes into the process and the market research that informs these comics. (Finding out more is on my to-do list.) The Heroes comic is the best ongoing example, but a few others have caught my eye lately. I'm not sure they're destined for success, though:

a) Here's one for the action platform CaveDays (press release). Okay, it's not a particularly good comic, but after years of sprites based on Sega and Nintendo games, I'm intrigued by this upstart approach. Cavedays launched late last year and doesn't seem to have made too big a splash, though.

b) The Smokin' Aces film site features promotional online comics. They're the first comics I've seen that verify the reader's age, or, more accurately, the birthdate of any driver's license that happens to be in the reader's possession. Hardly foolproof, but it's a step above the usual approach, "don't enter this site if you're under 13, or we'll have a sad face."

c) The Glasgow Record and What's On TV report that Doctor Who fans can use official tools to build their own Doctor Who comic (Web 2.0! 2.0! 2.0!)... but I can't tell you how well it works, because the comics-making tool claims that due to "rights restrictions," it only works if you're in the United Kingdom. (Apparently I left Merrie Olde Englande about ten months too early.) I can understand why Smokin' Aces, an R-rated movie, wants to at least pretend to limit its audience by age, even though kids can get around Aces' restriction by knowing Daddy's birthday. But Doctor Who has a loyal international following, who have just been informed that they are second-class Whovians. Could backfire, don't you think?

For a few more odds and ends, check out this page. Do you enjoy this kind of coverage? Got a scoop or a newsworthy story?  Let me know.