Hepcats Returns?
- Posted by Johanna on February 8, 2006 at 9:03 pm
- Category: LinkBlogging
Many of you youngsters won’t even remember Hepcats, but last decade, it was an online darling. I sold my issue #3 for $20, a sum that astounded me for a single modern comic at the time, before the bottom fell out when it became clear that the artist was a total flake.
Here’s the story of how he rooked his reprint publisher, Antarctic, from someone who was there.
Now, Tom Spurgeon points to a TCJ.com message board thread about Wagner promising the end of the story as a free webcomic. You can sign up for news from a Yahoo group, assuming Wagner approves your membership.
I’d love to see the end of the story, even if Wagner’s promised it before — back in 2002, he was talking about posting art on a website. The most important thing to remember, though, is this: don’t give him any money for subscriptions or promises.
February 9, 2006 at 10:36 AM
The only thing Wagner deserves to be sent is a summmons.
February 9, 2006 at 11:12 PM
It’s worth noting that, while many of Wagner’s problems are self-inflicted, the industry blew up in the mid-90s. Many self-publishers lost their shirts when every distributor but Diamond went belly-up.
Of course, his actions with Antartic didn’t help. Had he acted professionally during that time, he’d probably be able to re-present Hepcats to an audience that would appreciate the work. He certainly was quite talented; the Collegiate Hepcats stuff was damn funny, and Snowblind was rather interesting.
But now, he’s an industry pariah, and that’s a shame.
July 12, 2008 at 1:56 PM
[...] minicomic is a prelude to Wagner finishing the series story (a goal first mentioned in February 2006 — Hepcats fans need patience). I hope it all works out the way he plans, because I would love [...]