Act-i-vate

ACT-I-VATE
ACT-I-VATE panel at the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival. Seated left to right on chairs are Joe Infurnari, Simon Fraser, Tom Hart, Dean Haspiel, Nathan Schreiber, Molly Crabapple, Tim Hamilton, and Jeff Newelt, acting as moderator. On the edge of the stage are Leland Purvis and Rami Efal.
Founded	2006; 18 years ago (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.com

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.

History

Origins

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.

From the web to print

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

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]

Demise

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.

Titles (selected)

Aggro by Simon Fraser
Ass Meat by Simon Fraser
Ayn Rand by Darryl Cunningham^[15]
Backstage by John Leavitt and Molly Crabapple
Barney Banks: Extra Life! by Tom Hart
Beanbots by Kevin Kobasic
The Black Feather Falls by Ellen Lindner
Borb by Jason Little
Cartoon Boy by John Kerschbaum
Come the Dawn by Jim Dougan and Hyeondo Park
Corinthian Diary by Glynnis Fawkes
Cover Art by Leland Purvis
Culture Pop by Seth Kushner
Deja Voodoo by Simon Fraser, Dan Goldman, and Michel Fiffe
Diaspora by Cristian Ortiz
Drockleberry by Andrew Dimitt
Easy Pieces by Neil Dvorak
The End is Here by Thomas Baehr
Everywhere by Chris Miskiewicz and Andrew Wendel
The Falconer by Yana Adamovic (based on a short story by Vladimir Lazovic)
Farseeker by Dirk Manning and Len O'Grady
Fear, My Dear by Dean Haspiel
Fever Dream by Kat Roberts
Fish Everywhere by Palle Schmidt
Fishtown by Kevin Colden — Xeric Award-winner^[16]
The Fist by Darryl Cunningham
Flowing Wells by Andrew Dimitt
Gang of Fools by James Smith
Glam by Pedro Camargo
Ghost Pimp by Maurice Fontenot
Girl Mercury by Ulises Fariñas
Golden Campaign by Cristian Ortiz
The Golem's Voice by David G. Klein
Hairkut by Dan Goldman
Hebi no Hadi by Rami Efal
Hippy Days by Sam Henderson
How I Built My Father by Rob Davis
The Homeric Hymn to Dionysos by Glynnis Fawkes
Immortal by Dean Haspiel
Iphigenia in Taurus by Glynnis Fawkes
Jack & Max by Mike Dawson
Kelly by Dan Goldman
Lilly MacKenzie and the Mines of Charybdis by Simon Fraser
Lilly MacKenzie and the Treasure of Pars by Simon Fraser
Lionel's Lament by Dean Haspiel and Josh Neufeld
Love & Zombies by Ryan Roman
Loviathan by Mike Cavallaro
Machismo Monitor! by Jim Dougan and Roger Langridge
A Mess of Everything by Miss Lasko-Gross
A Mid-Autumn Night's Dream by Robin Ha
Montague Terrace by Warren Pleece
Mosquito Beach by Robin Ha
Motel Art Improvement Service by Jason Little
Motro by Ulises Fariñas
Mugwhump the Great by Roger Langridge
My Family and Other Gypsies by Rob Davis
Never Forget Never Forgive by Rami Efal
A New Elegant Universe by Ulises Fariñas
Nilharity by Shannon Wheeler
Nombril by Leland Purvis
Now It Can Be Told by Scott Shaw!
One Plus One by Paul Peart-Smith
Orifice by Jen Tong
Panorama by Michel Fiffe
Parade (with Fireworks) by Mike Cavallaro
Party Bear by Paul Maybury
Pecan Sandy by Nick Bertozzi
Persimmon Cup by Nick Bertozzi
Pet Sitter by Tim Hamilton
Post-Punk & Pirates by Gideon Kendall
Power Out by Nathan Schreiber
Pregnant Butch by A. K. Summers
The Prince and the Pooper by Dov Torbin
Rest Stop by Jim Dougan and Michel Fiffe
The Revolution Will Be Televised by Dov Torbin
Rudolph! by Lucie Arnoux
Sack of Puppies by Nikki Cook
Sam & Lilah by Jim Dougan and Hyeondo Park
Schmuck by Seth Kushner and Kevin Colden
S'crapbook by Jennifer Hayden
Sex Planet by Dean Haspiel
Shrooms by Gideon Kendall
Sleazy Pizza by Ryan Roman
Space Sucks by Pedro Camargo
The Streets of San Diablo by Darryl Cunningham
The Sultan's Daughter by Glynnis Fawkes
Tales of the Floating Elephant by Tim Hamilton
Texas Kid by Igor Kordej
The Torturer's Garden by Rob Davis
Troop 142 by Mike Dawson
ULTRA-Lad! by Joe Infurnari
Uncle Bob and the Martian Invasion by Darryl Cunningham
Uncle Bob on Skull Island by Darryl Cunningham
Underwire by Jennifer Hayden
Uplift the Postivicals by Tim Hall and Jen Ferguson
The Vagabonds by Josh Neufeld
The Voyage of the James Caird by Nick Bertozzi
Vulcan & Vishnu by Leland Purvis
Wake by Dean Trippe
Whatzit by Gideon Kendall
Zdarsky-verse by Chip Zdarsky^[17]
Zegas by Michel Fiffe

References

^ Gustines, George Gene. "Beyond ‘Peanuts’," New York Times (JAN. 30, 2009).
^ Arrant, Chris. "Act-i-vate Activates - Group Cartoons For All," Newsarama (Feb. 26, 2006). Archived at the Wayback Machine.
^ Heater, Brian. "Top 100 Undiscovered Websites," PC Magazine (Sept. 15, 2007). Archived at the Wayback Machine.
^ Elkin, Tobi. "ART: Comic timing," Associated Press (12 March 2007). Archived at the Wayback Machine.
^ "Exclusive Comics Excerpt: ‘Parade (With Fireworks)’,", New York (Oct. 3, 2007).
^ Warmoth, B. (2007). "Launching 'Fireworks' From the Web" Archived 2008-01-04 at the Wayback Machine. Wizard Magazine. Retrieved October 15, 2007.
^ "IDW to publish Act-I-Vate Primer,"^{[permanent dead link]} IDW official website. Accessed Dec. 20, 2019.
^ "ACT-I-VATE CREATORS IN PRINT," ICv2 (August 5, 2009).
^ Gustines, George Gene. "GRAPHIC BOOKS; Picture Books for Grown-Up Readers," New York Times (November 27, 2009).
^ McGovern, Adam. Review: The Act-i-vate Primer,"^{[permanent dead link]} Comic Critique (06 Nov 2009).
^ Nevett, Chad. "Act-i-vate Primer," Comic Book Resources (Nov 05, 2009).
^ Manning, Shaun "ACT-I-VATE Artists on IDW's 'Primer,' Comic Book Resources (Aug. 17, 2009).
^ "The ACT-I-VATE Primer Makes Top 10 HEEB Best of 5770!," Archived December 21, 2019, at the Wayback Machine IDW official website (2010). Accessed Dec. 20, 2019.
^ El Santo. "And Your Winner for the 2009 Harvey Award for Best Online Comics Work…," The Webcomic Overlook (AUG. 30, 2010).
^ Spurgeon, Tom (June 7, 2011). "CR Sunday Interview: Darryl Cunningham". Comics Reporter. Archived from the original on November 21, 2019. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
^ "Comic-book Self-Publishing Grants: 2007," Xeric Foundation. Archived November 15, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved July 24, 2008.
^ Arrant, Chris. "The criminally funny record of 'Sex Criminals' artist Chip Zdarsky," Comic Book Resources (Sept. 19, 2013).