Joey Manley

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Joey Manley
Manley in 2009
BornJoseph Manley
July 1965[1]
Russellville, Alabama
DiedNovember 7, 2013(2013-11-07) (aged 48)
Louisville, Kentucky
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)publisher; writer
Notable works
Modern Tales
The Death of Donna-May Dean
http://www.JoeyManley.com

Joey Manley (July 1965 – November 7, 2013) was an American

subscription model.[2]

Manley was well-regarded within the webcomic community. He had cultivated hundreds of relationships within webcomic circles and successfully brought webcomic creators together following the dot-com bubble. He returned to creative writing again in the early 2010s, serializing his novel Snake-Boy Loves Sky Prince: a Gay Superhero Teen Romance online. Manley died of pneumonia in November 2013 at the age of 48.

Early career

Joey Manley was born in

Webby Award and RealNetworks' Streamers Award.[3]

Work in webcomics

To learn more about webcomics and introduce himself to the American webcomic community, Manley began the

USD per month. Manley had moved to Louisville, Kentucky at this point in order to cut costs.[4]

Manley started multiple subscription-based webcomic anthology sites in the early-2000s, such as

Shaenon Garrity, and Dylan Meconis.[5]

In collaboration with OnlineComics.net-creator Josh Roberts, Manley started developing a comics-oriented social media and publishing platform titled ComicSpace in 2007. ComicSpace received funding from Michael Angst and Alan Gershenfeld, who set up a new early-stage venture capital firm named E-Line Media. Webcomics Nation, Talk About Comics, and OnlineComics.net were all merged into ComicSpace.[6] Manley told Comic Book Resources in 2007 that his editorial subscription services would remain largely unchanged, though that he was doing away with the subscription model as online advertisement and merchandising were becoming more viable.[7] Despite this, the Modern Tales-family of websites went relatively quiet in the second half of the 2000s, and Manley began relaunching his subscription services within ComicSpace in 2009, starting with Girlamatic.[8] Manley moved to New York City in order to work on the project and was known to be very enthusiastic about it, but ComicSpace never fully took off.[3]

While still working on ComicSpace, Manley moved back to Louisville once again and began focusing on personal creative output through an online fiction workshop with a close circle of writers.

work-in-progress. Titled Snake-Boy Loves Sky Prince: a Gay Superhero Teen Romance, the book tells the story of a supervillain's minion falling in love with the son of a superhero.[3][5] All of Manley's remaining webcomic services shut down in April 2013.[5]

Philosophy

Joey Manley in 2011

In a 2006 interview with The Comics Journal, Joey Manley stated that he did not believe that an optimal business model for webcomics exists. Manley stated that he went with subscription models for his early projects because online advertising rates were low and bandwidth was very expensive at the time. Manley felt the need to defend his business model a lot because the subscription model was unpopular among some ideological groups, and he quickly became known as "the subscriptions guy" in his community. However, as advertising revenue increased, Manley began adopting that model more in his services. Manley noted that he would have wanted to get into the print market as well, but was not able to afford it.[9] One year earlier, Manley said: "You'll lose a lot less money publishing on the Web than publishing a printed comic."[10]

In the same interview, Manley spoke about the nature and future of webcomics as a medium. Stating that while people understand that the experience of reading a comic versus reading a webcomic is "sort of analogous," Manley said that people "come to [the two mediums] with different expectations." Elaborating, Manley said that "sequential art on the screen kind of serves a different function; maybe right now it's a little more disposable, in the way that television for many years was more disposable [than film]. ... Webcomics aren't a replacement for what already exists, in the same way that television didn't destroy movies."[9]

Death

On November 7, 2013, Manley died of complications from pneumonia in a hospital in Louisville. Aged 48, he was survived by his spouse Joe Botts.[11]

Legacy

Manley received the title of Kentucky Colonel for his entrepreneurial efforts and his free speech advocacy.[12] He was listed by Comixpedia as one of the most influential people in webcomics from 2004 to 2006.[13][14] Josh Roberts stated that Manley was particularly apt at communicating with people, cultivating hundreds of relationships within the field.[6] Manley's death was commemorated by figures such as Scott McCloud, Lea Hernandez, and Joshua Hale Fialkov.[11] Following his death, retailer and convention organizer Chris Butcher called Manley "a true pioneer of webcomics," and cartoonist T Campbell praised Manley for changing the business model and bringing webcomic creators together when advertisement rates were in freefall.[5]

References

  1. ^ Spurgeon, Tom (2013-11-08). "Joey Manley, RIP". The Comics Reporter. Archived from the original on 2014-03-27.
  2. ^ MacDonald, Heidi (2013-11-08). "RIP Joey Manley". Comics Beat. Archived from the original on 2014-07-06.
  3. ^
    Garrity, Shaenon (2013-11-15). "Joey Manley, 1965-2013". The Comics Journal. Archived
    from the original on 2017-12-14.
  4. Washington Post. Archived
    from the original on 2017-12-14.
  5. ^ a b c d e Melrose, Kevin (2013-11-08). "Modern Tales founder Joey Manley passes away". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on 2018-09-26.
  6. ^ a b Spurgeon, Tom (2007-11-02). "Newsmaker Interview: Joey Manley". The Comics Reporter. Archived from the original on 2018-10-17.
  7. ^ Allen, Todd (2007-11-05). "Scoping Out the Post-Merger Comic Space Network". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on 2019-08-23.
  8. ^ Alverson, Brigid (2009-07-28). "Unbound: Rethinking Girlamatic". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on 2018-10-15.
  9. ^ a b Deppey, Dirk (July 2006). "The Joey Manley Interview". The Comics Journal. Archived from the original on 2018-09-29.
  10. ^ MacDonald, Heidi (2005-12-19). "Web Comics: Page Clickers to Page Turners". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 2018-11-06.
  11. ^ a b Johnston, Rich (2013-11-08). "Joey Manley Passes, Aged 48". Bleeding Cool. Archived from the original on 2013-11-11.
  12. ^ Burns, Eric (2013-11-08). "Requiescat in pace: Joey Manley". Websnark. Archived from the original on 2018-11-20.
  13. ^ "Comixpedia's List of 25 People Of Webcomics for 2005". Comxipedia. December 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-10-30.
  14. ^ Xerexes, Xaviar (2006-12-18). "Comixpedia's People Of Webcomics List For 2006". Comixpedia.
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