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The group was also there to premier a 32-minute "promomentary" entitled "The ACT-I-VATE Experience" about their online haven for personal comics projects that had been put together by Seth Kushner (Graphic NYC) and Carlos Molina from Culture Pop Productions and announce a new series of strips by a well-known creator that would be popping up on their site soon.
After introductions, the creators - who had yet to see the film themselves - joined the audience to view the piece.Beginning with a montage of art from ACT-I-VATE, the film is segmented into three parts, each of which is filled with testimonials from more than 20 of the ACT-I-VATE creators. The first chapter acts as an introduction, where the many faces you'll be hearing from introduce themselves and their diverse, signature ACT-I-VATE work. The second part explains the origins of ACT-I-VATE and why the different creators enjoy the format of their collective, while also discussing the benefits that go along with the online medium and its readership. The final part of the video highlights "The ACT-I-VATE Primer," during which Haspiel explains that the primer is a great introduction for comic fans who haven't checked out the site, while containing entirely original content that can't be found online, so folks who have been keeping up with all ACT-I-VATE has to offer can get a new fix in print form.
"I believe 'The ACT-I-VATE Primer' is the ultimate bridge between print and webcomics," Haspiel said in the film.
The film will be airing at Haspiel's spotlight panel at this coming weekend's Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, Brooklyn's King Con on the weekend of November 7 and 8 and at Quimby's Bookstore in Chicago (tentatively scheduled for November 13). The film will then be made available online around Thanksgiving, according to Haspiel. Though the film is admittedly a promotional tool for ACT-I-VATE, the interviews it features are chock-full of thought-provoking sentiments and information that fans of webcomics or comic readers that haven't given webcomics a shot should find interesting. "It's also a place that makes you bring your 'A' game," Leland Purvis ("Vulcan & Vishnu") said in the "promomentary" of ACT-I-VATE's ability to make him strive to better his work. "I've gotta make sure [my ACT-I-VATE work is] really the best I can do. And, you know, in a lot of other areas in our lives, we do enough to get by. [But] with ACT-I-VATE and my peers right alongside me, you really have to do your best." "You can't put ACT-I-VATE under one genre," the film quoted "Sleazy Pizza" creator Ryan Ramon as saying. "You can't say, 'Oh, they're a sci-fi group.' It's just a lot of complicated, crazy stuff." "Webcomics are the future of serialization. It's as simple as that," Colden explained in the film. "Independent creators have no reason to publish [print copies]. It's basically a money-loser. Anyone you talk to who has published their own [printed comic] has lost money. But, with webcomics, you can distribute to an infinite number [of readers] and you don't have to put any money into it up front." "I know there are a lot of success stories in self-publishing, but most of us who've published that way…we don't really make money," Cavallaro said in the film. "So, if you just accept, that the best thing is [I] put some money in this and I know I'm not gonna make it back. As soon as you accept that, then what are you really doing? What you're really doing is, you're trying to communicate and reach people. So, in that case…you might as well choose a model that helps you reach the most people and gets the most exposure for your art."
