The Fabler

When Zuda, DC’s competitive webcomic imprint, announced it was closing, an almost audible ripple of discontent murmured across the comic-savvy branch of the interwebs.

Since 2007, Zuda had been home to a number of fantastic webcomic titles. It showcased some of the best and brightest comic artists and authors that could be gathered with the right combination of incentives. (ie., DC’s Big Boy clout, a growing social network of comic enthusiasts, and a flash-based viewing platform that, while it wasn’t perfect, still worked as a great ready-made outlet for aspiring webcomickers)

In Maps & Legends, illustrated by Niki Smith and written by Michael Jasper, was one of the more popular Zuda titles of the past year. The winner of the November 2009 Zuda competition, In Maps & Legends tells the story of Kaitlin Grayson, a freelance artist who finds herself obsessed with creating an intricate map of a place she’s never been.

When a bizarre stranger who claims to be from another world seeks to enlist Kait’s help as a true “world artist”, she finds herself on the cusp of an epic, interplanetary adventure.

An adventure that Niki and Michael recently announced they would continue, despite the demise of Zuda as an open webcomic distribution platform.

“I’d had a bad feeling about the state of things at Zuda after they stopped doing the competitions a few months earlier,” says Michael, “which I really missed, because I got to read the pitches for ten really cool comics and then vote and comment on them. With all of the changes happening with the upper management at DC, I could squint and sorta make out the writing on the wall.”

DC officially shut down Zuda on July 1st, just weeks after Michael and Niki had established a weekly update schedule for In Maps & Legends. The reason officially given was that Zuda was to be folded into DC Comics’ “Digital Publishing Initiative” – the goal being greater editorial and digital convergence.

Zuda did not ask Michael and Niki to continue under their banner when they switched to Comixology, so all rights for their comic reverted back to them.

“I definitely wanted to continue the story,” says Michael, “and I’d already scripted the next three issues, up to page 60. After a bunch of emails back and forth, Niki and I decided to publish the comic ourselves, and distribute it everywhere we could.”

No kidding. In Maps & Legends will be available for download on a huge variety of platforms, including Comixology, Robot Comics, Graphic.ly, Kindle, and more.

According to Niki: “If the countless potential readers out there prefer to use a specific device or read a certain format, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain from making ourselves available to them!”

This new approach to digitally publishing In Maps & Legends means a drastic overhaul to the methods which Niki and Michael had previously presented their comic to the public. With Zuda, their update style was the typical webcomic standard of one page at a time. Now, they aim to release a new issue every six weeks or so, starting with issue one being available today, September 1st.

In addition to keeping a website regularly updated as an information hub for the comic, Michael says that they will be making the first 8 pages available for free download wherever possible.

“Those were the 8 pages that won the Zuda competition for us in November,” says Michael, “So I figure we can’t go wrong with giving them away for free!”

Some existing readers might harbor concerns about this new, pay-per-issue distribution format for In Maps & Legends.

To those sceptics, Niki has this to say:

“In Maps & Legends has always been written as 20-page chapters, and I think the story’s pacing suffered being released so slowly. So while readers may not be getting 60 free pages (as they would have had Zuda stayed as it was), now they’ll be getting 10 solid 20+ page issues, and a complete storyline. There’s no more chance of being left with a cliffhanger 60 pages in.”

I’m sure many fans will be excited to see Michael and Niki’s comic continue, regardless of what form it takes. The two have already come a long way from their initial thoughts on a collaboration just over a year ago.

“We started working on the comic pretty much on a whim,” says Michael. “I was following Niki on Twitter, and one day last summer she said she was looking to team up with someone on a pitch for Zuda. So I threw 4-5 ideas at her, including the idea for In Maps & Legends, which started out life as a novel that ground to a halt by page 100.  Niki liked that idea best, started doing character sketches, and when I saw her first drawings of Kait, our protagonist, I knew we had a winner.”

From there, they set about applying their respective talents to make a webcomic that would stand out as a top Zuda contender. Michael had never worked on a comic before, which came with its own learning curve, and they to this day have still never met face to face.

“I think we get along pretty well for never having met!” says Michael, “We’ve collaborated via email almost exclusively, with the occasional instant-message chat here and there. I think it’s a really great give-and-take — neither of us pull punches when it comes to perfecting the story, and I think that comes through in the finished product.  I try to give my amateurish tips on the art, but really it’s just nitpicks and continuity stuff — Niki’s art rocks. And she’s taught me at least two Scott McCloud books’ worth of comic-book knowledge.”

Presently, the duo are aiming to finish a ten issue story arc by late 2011.

“We’d love to have a trade paperback publisher lined up by then,” says Michael, and I foresee many more stories springing from this set of characters and their situations, so I don’t see us stopping after issue 10.”

Neither Michael or Niki are particularly apprehensive about the switch to a multitude of digital platforms, although Niki admits to considering some slight revamps to her style.

“I think my page layouts may gradually change,” she says, “As I see how these first few issues work on panel-by-panel phone views. Diagonal or very thin vertical panels may break the flow.”

As for their thoughts on Zuda, both Niki and Michael look at their time on the DC-owned webcomic venture fondly:

“Zuda gave us an incredible boost,” says Michael. “I’ve made a lot of friends online through the Zuda community, and I’ve gotten to read some amazing comics and get to know their creators and editors. As grueling as the November contest was — even though we led the whole month, we felt like we were gonna lose our lead at any moment! — it made us  network and do lots of marketing to get the word out.  I’m glad for the experience, and it shot us much farther down the road than just a website and a great comic could’ve done.  I was sad to see Zuda end, but I’m quite excited by the prospects for the future and our comic.”

“I’m with Michael,” says Niki, “the Zuda community was a great head start of sorts. I know it’s very hard to get a long, somewhat epic, story-based fantasy comic launched and try to build an audience… especially when you’re on a page-a-week schedule. Zuda gave us a built-in community of readers that we owe a lot to. I hope some of them stick around and check out the issue releases.”

To find out more about where you can find issues of In Maps & Legends, check out the newly launched website.

You can also visit Niki Smith and Michael Jasper on their respective personal web pages, or follow Niki and Mike on Twitter.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming