is that they can sometimes live hard and die too soon.  The ability of any story teller to put up their stuff as they spin it and countless web hosts to help them means that a lot of stories die half lived…forever frozen in history and the internet archive and destined to frustrate eager readers in perpetuity.  This is a whole heck of a lot different from published comics that generally have a proposed story line and map to completion before presentation to potential readers.  Webcomics are like swimming in comickers head soup–right there inside the ideas that make the stories, ideas that sometimes have no ending in sight.

As far as I can tell, this is exactly what happened with Hanna is Not a Boy’s Name.  I stumbled onto it late, maybe a year or so from its first page and long after a devoted following had erected a facebook page for it.  I bookmarked the site, subscribed to the RSS feed and checked back often as it continually did not get updated…not even a news item from the author.  I wanted more, damn it!  So I checked back again just as I was gathering my best of webcomics list and found out that the site had completely vanished.  It was gone…I could not even scroll through the pages I had already seen, and as I fumbled through Google results I found it for sale!   Oh my luck!  Volume 1!  I had wanted to possess it anyway…I am so giggly.  I am waiting for the mail to arrive.  (UPDATE:  arrived and I am so ecstatic!  Can’t wait for more.)

Ok, but not every stalled and deleted idea has a happy ending; case in point:  Gjerde Sha:  Part Time Zombie.  It is markering genius!  It is beautiful!  It is not updated since June!

And, somehow even sadder, the comics that are killed…by an announcement that they will not continue.  I was just getting all sewn into Will Work for Blood and now it is over.  It was so promising, it was mysterious and bleak, it is over.