gapingvoid 2.0: why I’ll no longer be blogging new cartoons

gapingvoid 2.0: Why I’ll no longer be blogging new cartoons on gapingvoid.com.

[Sign up for “Hugh’s Daily Frickin’ Cartoon” Newsletter, via e-mail or RSS.]

[Below is a copy of the newsletter I sent out Jan. 19th, 2009:]

1. In May, 2001, I blogged my first cartoon on gapingvoid.com. This is my TENTH year doing it.

Back then, it was like the dawn of a new era. The idea that I could doodle at night, and have the entire world see the work the next morning, was amazing and liberating to me. Cheap, Easy, Global Media.

Blogging changed my life. It also allowed me to share my work with people who understood and valued it. For the longest time, I felt as if gapingvoid was almost a “club” of like-minded, passionate, smart people. And wherever I traveled, blogging allowed me to meet lovely, smart, fun people who shared the same worldview. The blogosphere felt like a group who were going to change the world. And you know what? In our own way, we did.

2. But like a lot of the folk who have been blogging for a long time, I’ve started to feel that over the last few years, that the blogosphere has just gotten too big, noisy and anonymous. I’ve started longing for the days when things were ‘smaller’, ‘clubbier’, intimate and, well, human. When the people I met were truly like-minded. This was one of the reasons why I originally started the “CDF” newsletter last year. I wanted that feeling back.

Though I’ve not emailed you guys consistently, we consistently get new sign-ups and I get emails daily that reinforce the idea that we are into the same stuff, whether we’re “artists” or not. We understand that what is gibberish to most people, is actually cool, powerful stuff to us– and somehow fits into the weird, existential angst of work, AND relationships, AND 21st Century life.

3. So, I’ve decided that I really only want to share my new work (cartoons) with ‘us’ i.e. Y’all. The folks that really dig and support what I do. Call it “Getting back to my roots” or whatever. But starting immediately, my new cartoons will be going out first to this email list, which will really be “Hugh’s Daily Cartoon”- a new cartoon emailed first thing out every day, so y’all can start with a bit of a chuckle when you open your Inbox. Simple. Easy.

Also, by making the cartoons available by sign-up, I hope that we can build this group and maybe do more together– Tweetups, conferences, geek dinners, drunken nights out, whatever.

4. These are still early days– there’s still a lot to figure out. But “Phase Two” of gapingvoid is now beginning, and it’s all very, very exciting stuff!

5. Feel free to blog, tweet, forward along these new e-mail cartoons at your leisure, make a friend smile etc.… and yeah, if you find something that inspires you enough to want it hanging on your wall, you can buy the print (Yes, every cartoon will come with a link to the gapingvoid gallery, where you can buy the print version if you wish). Regardless, the same Creative Commons terms still apply.

6. Feel free to opt out and unsubscribe at any time. I think it would be cool if one day there were 100,00 like-minded people who get the cartoons every morning. So again, feel free to share etc.

Wish me luck with gapingvoid 2.0,

Thanks for your support,

Godspeed,

Hugh