Reader Spotlight: L. P. Hogan

Today I bring to you an interview with L.P. Hogan, awesome dude and webcomic superfan who runs a variety of webcomic appreciate fan sites, including The Webcomic Crossover & Cameo Archive and Webcomics Offline.

D: Tell me a bit about yourself.

H: I’m a male 30-something being (lots of “something” actually) of traditional Scandinavian stock, resident of the Kingdom of Denmark where I try to juggle the life of work involving ventilation engineering as well as keeping up with the family (numbering 3 kids who collective, at least on the net, are known as “The Horde”).

By day a hardworking Engineer, by night (when not also hardworking Engineer), a dedicated Webcomic Enthusiast!

D: Denmark! One of my good webcomic friends is from Scandanavia as well, Marius Hjelseth. I think he’s from Sweden? I forget 🙂 What’s the best and worst things about living in Denmark?

H: Good things… pretty quiet place, yet diverse and where everything is within a few hours of driving. Also, nobody internationally really expects anything from you since you are so “small” plus you can get a kick out of hearing people coming with a surprised “from where?!” whenever you mention where you come from 🙂

Bad things? In general being so far away from the whole webcomic showbusiness, the conventions, the people and artists you know, places I would really like to visit and meet up with people…I miss the days of the Comic Genesis Cookouts…

… and he is actually from Norway, all good times three 🙂

D: So what does ventilation engineering entail? Do you design, construct or install air conditioning/heating units or something?

H: More or less all of the above except the actual installing. I’m generally supporting the customers, writing up solutions and projects, designing and pricing as well as managing the actual installations.

This is probably one of the reasons I’m working more hours than I generally should and have to neglect my webcomic shenanigans repeatedly :/ Still love my job though… its funny that way.

D: How did you get into webcomics?

L: I’ve always been a great comic fan buying up and collecting almost everything my local (Danish) printers would publish (this was before international orders became common). I was tiredlessly buying and reading the albums of Tintin, Asterix, Valhalla, Calvin & Hobbes and many others, the Superhero comics from Marvel and DC and basically everything I could get my hands on, including my favorite of Beetle Bailey (still ongoing and closing in on its 1000th Scandinavian Issue). At the point where kids entered the household equation I had to cut back as each new addition to the family forced me to pack down a new row of shelves bristling with comics as well as holding back on new additions.

At this point I on the internet, by chance (and at work) ran into the webcomic of Zortic which caught my interest and became the first webcomic I read. After finishing it I browsed the site and, through the links on the site and suddenly found myself in a world of webcomics on the net, free for the taking. I went through Bruno the Bandit next, dabbled a bit through others and then found myself in what would become my undoing… It’s Walky!. This comic went straight to my heart and soul (after almost two days none-stop reading… at work) and prompted me to look deeper into the mechanisms of the webcomic itself, which lead me to entering its forum… and after having joined the community there I never became the same again.

I had found a new fuel for my comic interest, one that not only didn’t take up a lot of shelf-space, but also allowed me to come into contact with, as well befriend and work with, a lot of other Webcomic Enthusiasts around the world as well as the artists and authors behind the comics I was reading.

D: That’s awesome. Tell us about the Dragoneers websites you run.

H: My first and oldest website on the Dragoneers is what it originally started out as, namely Realm of the Dragoneers, my old stomping ground for the various tabletop gaming creations I and a lot of other people came up with back in the time where we had actually time for D&D’ing. I’ve not been much back to that site since I had to leave roleplaying behind a decade ago.  It still has a soft spot in my heart though.

The flagship of Dragoneers however, is the Webcomic Crossover & Cameo Archive, a site I intended to become a resource for keeping up with interactions between webcomics big and small, keeping taps on cameos, references and true crossovers between the various webcomics of the net and keeping them for posterity.

My reasons for undertaking this project (not knowing what I was getting into, really) is hard to understand, even for me. I believe it had something to do with me wanting to keep the, sometimes epic, references and uses of cameos in comics fresh for readers to find, less they would go back into oblivion soon again, meaning later readers of the references comic never got to know about the appearing, and losing out of getting in touch with another webcomic…

The latest addition to the Dragoneers family is Webcomics Offline, a site intended to become a portal through which to browse through the market for webcomics in dead tree editions, allowing people to get a better overview on what’s available and, hopefully, shopping more around and supporting the various artists by buying their works.

… I may be a Webcomic Enthusiast, but I am a firm believer that a good webcomic only get better when you have it in a printed edition you can leaf through at your leisure!

These are my main sites and projects, but Dragoneers also acts as Hub location for various webcomic projects I’ve been lucky to host or be a part of, like the annual Halloween Cameo Capers as well as Central Hub for the infamous Crossover Wars.

Sorry for the heavy on the eyes html’n frames of the sites btw, I’m a Webcomic Enthusiast, not a coder…

D: So…how many different webcomics do you try to read and keep current on? I top out around 80 before my brain can’t keep track anymore.

H: I have actually no idea, I tried working out a list at one point, but I stopped as there was many comics that have officially been on hiatus for years, and yet I keep checking up on them… living in the hope.

Basically I use the Archive as my personal webcomic bookmark list, and whenever I scroll down I keep finding comics I’ve not read up on for days or weeks, then I visit and read up, then continuing. My best guess is that I keep up with a little over 100, but my daily dose is probably around the 20-30, the most reliable ones I can be sure updates regulary.

D: I think that your Dragoneer’s webcomic sites are doing some good work, but I’ve never heard of them before! Am I just lame, or are you still trying to get the word out?

Thanks, and if anyone’s lame here its me. The Archive is 9 years old now and I’ve never really been much into advertising, been concentrating more on keeping it updated and expanding. I’ve not really felt like, or had the time, going around “blowing my horn”, instead been relying on the word spreading from keyboard to keyboard, or better yet… from link to link when people get to know about the sites.

Webcomics Offline is a newer site, only about a year old, and is better going, probably also because I’ve taken a more direct stand to the advertising, but we are still talking low double-digit number of visitors on a daily basis.

D: I feel like it all was really big part of the webcomics community in the past that maybe has been forgotten/fallen by the wayside with time. Any ideas to bring more attention to it?

H: I don’t think the Archive have ever been a big part of the webcomic community, not if I shall go by numbers of visitors or level of activity over the years. It HAS gathered a number of steady followers who’ve been very supportive and helpful over the years with providing report of cameos and other contribution, as well as spreading the word and providing an entertainment on my behalf through various appearances in their comics, and for that I’m thankful.

It has however become a springboard for first the annual Halloween Capers, and later the Crossover Wars which brought and brings a lot of the webcomic community together, at least for a time, and for that I believe the site have earned its right to continuing existence.

I choose to believe that a lot of people out there, readers and artists alike, know about the Archive and have stopped by at one point, perhaps more. However, I realize it is not a place you visit on a regular basis just to see if something new shows, up and it is not a site people really advertise, even artists who finds out about. Reason being it does not offer a regular update in a specific in the form, like that of a webcomic for example…. this is probably something I would need to provide, and a proper one that is, if I wanted to bring more attention to it?

I had more of a hope for Webcomics Offline as its focus is broader and actually have merits with regard to comic-shopping instead of just being a huge collections of links.

The best way to get both sites know would probably to put more into advertising, buying add space and such, but my time is limit and I reserve most of what I have to keep the sites going and updated.

D: As a webcomic reader and enthusiast, do you have any advice or ideas for webcomic creators on how they can improve/do their best?

H: The best advice I could probably give is… keep doing what you do. Most artists start out on their webcomic because they have a story to tell and enjoy doing it, and thats what should be the driving point until you start making money on the work you do….

Also, if you are stressed by the load of keeping you update schedule, better lower it than taking a break. Its easier to follow up on a promise on less but steady updates that coming back after a break of hiaturs, be it longer or short. We, the fans are understanding, we would rather want fewer updates than having our favorite comic stop and disappear… trust us more in this 🙂

Also, a pet peeve of mine… if there’s people who want to help out and link to your comic, DO provide them with with assorted graphic image for doing so! A banners grabs much more attention than a mere link, so if you have a set of various sizes around on your site for easy downloading and implementing, you are doing both yourself and your fans a favour.

D: Any suggestions for other webcomic readers about how to enjoy and support webcomics and their creators?

H: I’ll say the best way to support webcomic artists is letting them know you are there! Whenever you have the chance, and the site allows for it, do spend a little time more at your daily webcomic sites, dropping off a comment or two showing them there are people behind the daily visitors’ number, people that read their comic and care enough to comment. A comment a day can be enough to keep a webcomic on its way!
If you have a little more time, do join associated forums and take up the chat there, that way you sometimes can be directly involved with the artist herself/himself and definitely a devoted likeminded cast of other readers and enthusiasts!

D: Thanks so much, Hogan, for the interview!  Best of luck in the good work you’re doing.

Everyone, I strongly recommend you check out some of Hogan’s sites.  It’s a very cool project.