OnlineComics.net and WebComicsNation merging
Just in time to suck the air out of the Zudacomics launch, Josh Roberts (owner of ComicSpace and Onlinecomics.net, and administrator of Comixpedia) and Joey Manley (owner of WebComicsNation, TalkAboutComics, Modern Tales, Serializer, Girlamatic, Graphic Smash, and Graphic Novel Review, among others) have announced that they have signed a Letter of Intent to merge our businesses into one corporate entity. The entire magilla will be under the ComicSpace brand.
They will be working with a company called E-Line Ventures, a New Jersey-based "double bottom line" early-stage investment firm (they say they look at both the financial and social impact of their investments) to secure the necessary funding and support for them to effectively merge and run the combined business. They plan to use money raised to facilitate the merger, hire programmers and develop new features for readers and creators, which they anticipate will be rolled out in a couple of months.
Joey’s press release is here. Josh’s is here.
We here at ComicMix wish them the best of luck. We need a healthier ecosystem for online comics, and this looks to be another giant step forward.
Joey and Josh both have their heads screwed on the right way. As a ModernTales.com alumni (and current Comicspacer), I can say from experience that this will definitely be huge. The landscape of webcomics is changing as we speak… in five years time, things will be veeeeery different indeed. (But the core will remain the same… good story and art!)