There’s good news for fans of Jamie Smart‘s web office-woe-oriented comic, Whubble, this week with news that he’s secured US company WorkCompass as a sponsor for the strip.
Pity poor Pete Whubble, the reluctant hero of Jamie’s strip, which he started published in late 2009 (the first strip is here). The indignity of having a menial job would be bad enough, but to make things worse he is surrounded by incompetents. Chances are Pete single-handedly keeps his department afloat. Were he to be absent for just a couple of days, the business would crash, the office would burn down and somehow nuclear war would have begun. But his work goes unrecognised, and so he is reduced to endless filing and correcting other people’s spelling mistakes. Single, yearns for excitement, likes tuna.
The strip has had intermittent publication since it began – Jamie does after all, have a day job and bills to pay and has been busy on many projects – so the fact that he’s now getting sponsored to draw the strip, now to be published every Wednesday on the WorkCompass web site, is good news for Whubble fans – and of course his sponsor gain a Unique Selling Point for their site, devoted to promoting their online performance reviews and performance management software.
“WorkCompass are funding me to keep drawing new Whubbles, once a week,” Jamie explains. “Regular Whubble! The dream has come true!
“Basically, you get regular Whubble, I get to draw regular Whubble, WorkCompass get to show regular Whubbles… Everyone wins!”
Every web comic creator knows how hard they have to work to make their comic pay. It takes a long time to build an audience, and then start to monetize all that hard work (if that’s what you want to do) once you’ve got enough fans, through merchandising and collections. Getting a web comic sponsored is a great deal for any creator, and testament to Jamie’s talents.
WorkCompass will have a one week window exclusive on any new Whubble strips on their blog before Jamie posts them on the official Whubble site, so head there now and always be one Whubble ahead of everyone else.
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Comic Creator Spotlight, Creating Comics, Digital Comics, downthetubes Comics News, Featured News
Thanks for the mention John.
I have long been a fan of Jamies ever since I picked up the first Bear comic (cough) years ago.
When I started working with WorkCompass I realized it was a great fit for the company and a way for me personally to get to read more Whubble 🙂