Something Positive
Author/Artist: Randy Milholland
Online since: Dec 19th, 2001 (First Comic)
Something Positive is one of the longer running comics on the web. Written by the evil genius of Mr. Milholland, S*P has one of the largest fanbases of the online comic world.
The storyline is an ongoing look at the world of a small group of bitter and evil people who happen to be friends. Since the very first comic, which involved an abortion joke, Milholland has never pulled any punches with his scripts. His humor is often described as tasteless and just plain mean. He insults and mocks everyone, and his most frequent subject of ridicule is himself, represented through the main character of Davan, who is based on his own life.
However, despite the stinging humor and jokes that make you feel guilty for laughing at them, S*P has displayed some of the most poignant and interesting character development seen in any webcomics. There is an ongoing, intense plot that draws you in and makes you feel for the characters. They're written so well that you feel like they are people you know in your own life, and you become emotionally invested in how things go for them.
Milholland's art style is not what anyone could call super high-style. It is a cartoon-ish style he's stuck with since the first strip
all the way to the newest strips. 
Even though the style is basically the same, there have still been subtle changes and he has grown as an artist over the past five years. But again, the appeal of S*P is in it's story, not really it's art.Randy has a very dedicated community of readers. He draws the comic for free, though he does have a donation button, and he does sell adspace on his page. He doesn't seem to like asking his readers for money, though. The most he has ever done was make a challenge to his readers. If they would donate the same amount as a year's salary, he would quit his job for that year and draw the comic full time. That goal of about $22,000 was met within a week, and Milholland kept his promise and quit his job. The power of loyal fans.
Basically, I love S*P for it's story, and I can't describe that to you here. You just have to see it for yourself. So if you have some time on your hands (and you aren't easily offended), head over to the first strip, and put Something Positive in your day.
3 comments:
Was that 22k goal a yearly deal? Or has he just done it once so far? 22k isn't that much money, do you have any idea how much he gets from ads? It's sweet that he was able to quit his job... gives hope to the rest of us!
It wasn't a yearly deal. It was a one time challenge. After the year was up, he went back to a day job. People can still donate money, but he doesn't ask them to. He doesn't make much money from ads, but it does seem to give him a good little extra.
Wow, I didn't know that web comics were going so strong that a person could raise thousands of dollars in a couple of weeks. This is great news to me because my little brother quit college to do his horror comics on line. I'm not in the world of web comics so I wasn't sure if he should have made such a move. This is reassuring.
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