Bustercomic.com says goodbye
Posted: 09 Dec 2009, 13:18
I've been going over this decision for the past year & have spoken at length to Matt from Bustercomic.co.uk about this. I've decided to close Bustercomic.com. It has been a REALLY difficult decision but ultimately I have little choice as I can't run the site the way I want it to be run. Allow me to explain.
Back when I started the site I remember quite clearly Lew Stringer telling me on this forum that having a site full of scans is sure to upset a few people. It hasn't REALLY... I was in talk with Egmont's legal advisor about coming to an agreement over the scans. She'd seen the site & didn't have much of a problem with it. The killer was the clamp down on fan art believe it or not.
I abandoned the site back in 2007 after the death of JEO. Jack helped me a LOT behind the scenes, even providing the site with his final ever interview (at least I can't FIND one online that took place after mine... do correct me if I'm wrong.) I lost a lot of motivation after he passed away. At the end of last year I was about to let the domain registration lapse & close it down quietly until Matt reminded me that 2010 was going to be a big year for Buster: 50 years since it started & 10 years since it ended.
We discussed a few ideas & thought it would be a good idea to create a fan art online issue. After 18 months I finally decided it was time to get back into it, until Matt decided to email Egmont about it. Now this isn't Matt's fault, he did the right thing by checking with the rights holders who sadly vetoed the idea instantly. I have no idea why, but that was really the final straw.
Now, can someone tell me why it's OK to have scans on a site but not fan art? I dunno, anyway I really like drawing the characters & if anyone remembers the old bustercomic.4t.com site it was full of my fan art. I even had an online comic in the works that never got completed. The difference was Egmont were not aware of my existance at the time. I'm not going to be bitter about it & dwell on what I think of the situation though. That's in the past now & the decision has been made.
Matt has agreed to take over the bustercomic.com domain, so in early January when it expires it will switch over to him who will redirect it to his site. I'm also burning a CD with all the data used & unused from bustercomic.com. Hopefully he can find some use for it.
I see the site still gets some visits & redirects from this site (not bad for 2 1/2 years of inactivity), so there are still some supporters out there. Thank you all. I'd like to direct specific thanks to a few people:
JEO - Sadly no longer with us, he was a huge help with the site & even complimented me on my Cliffhanger fan art.
Lew Stringer - Who agreed a LONG time to do an interview with me, but I never got around to it. Also a real comic guru, he's always been here helping people on the site myself included. Thanks Lew.
Trevor Metcalfe - It's not everyday you open your Inbox & see an email from one of your favourite comic artists with a scan of his first ever piece of work for Fleetway but it happened to me. Thanks Trevor for allowing me to use the comic strip on the site.
Peter Gray - We haven't been in contact for a while & I never did add any links to my site eventhough you reminded me several times. My apologies. We had some good discussions & arguments though.
Matt Bowen - Very soon the owner of the ONLY Buster comic website. On a side note, it's very hard talking Doctor Who to someone who doesn't like spoilers, cos I'm all over them. We talk very regularly & he's known about this for a long time, but I've been very back & forth about it.
I know there are more of you & I apologise to those who I missed here.
What's next for me? Well I've been indulging my other interest which is retro video games. I've been helping out on Snescentral.com & on a new community site Retrospekt.com.au so some of my work has shown up there if anyone's interested.
I'll still pop by here every now & again, but I rarely post as it is. I've become more of a lurker these days. I'm still a Buster & always will be.
Thanks again to everyone who helped out with the site & keep watching Bustercomic.co.uk which may end up using some of the material from Bustercomic.com.
Back when I started the site I remember quite clearly Lew Stringer telling me on this forum that having a site full of scans is sure to upset a few people. It hasn't REALLY... I was in talk with Egmont's legal advisor about coming to an agreement over the scans. She'd seen the site & didn't have much of a problem with it. The killer was the clamp down on fan art believe it or not.
I abandoned the site back in 2007 after the death of JEO. Jack helped me a LOT behind the scenes, even providing the site with his final ever interview (at least I can't FIND one online that took place after mine... do correct me if I'm wrong.) I lost a lot of motivation after he passed away. At the end of last year I was about to let the domain registration lapse & close it down quietly until Matt reminded me that 2010 was going to be a big year for Buster: 50 years since it started & 10 years since it ended.
We discussed a few ideas & thought it would be a good idea to create a fan art online issue. After 18 months I finally decided it was time to get back into it, until Matt decided to email Egmont about it. Now this isn't Matt's fault, he did the right thing by checking with the rights holders who sadly vetoed the idea instantly. I have no idea why, but that was really the final straw.
Now, can someone tell me why it's OK to have scans on a site but not fan art? I dunno, anyway I really like drawing the characters & if anyone remembers the old bustercomic.4t.com site it was full of my fan art. I even had an online comic in the works that never got completed. The difference was Egmont were not aware of my existance at the time. I'm not going to be bitter about it & dwell on what I think of the situation though. That's in the past now & the decision has been made.
Matt has agreed to take over the bustercomic.com domain, so in early January when it expires it will switch over to him who will redirect it to his site. I'm also burning a CD with all the data used & unused from bustercomic.com. Hopefully he can find some use for it.
I see the site still gets some visits & redirects from this site (not bad for 2 1/2 years of inactivity), so there are still some supporters out there. Thank you all. I'd like to direct specific thanks to a few people:
JEO - Sadly no longer with us, he was a huge help with the site & even complimented me on my Cliffhanger fan art.
Lew Stringer - Who agreed a LONG time to do an interview with me, but I never got around to it. Also a real comic guru, he's always been here helping people on the site myself included. Thanks Lew.
Trevor Metcalfe - It's not everyday you open your Inbox & see an email from one of your favourite comic artists with a scan of his first ever piece of work for Fleetway but it happened to me. Thanks Trevor for allowing me to use the comic strip on the site.
Peter Gray - We haven't been in contact for a while & I never did add any links to my site eventhough you reminded me several times. My apologies. We had some good discussions & arguments though.
Matt Bowen - Very soon the owner of the ONLY Buster comic website. On a side note, it's very hard talking Doctor Who to someone who doesn't like spoilers, cos I'm all over them. We talk very regularly & he's known about this for a long time, but I've been very back & forth about it.
I know there are more of you & I apologise to those who I missed here.
What's next for me? Well I've been indulging my other interest which is retro video games. I've been helping out on Snescentral.com & on a new community site Retrospekt.com.au so some of my work has shown up there if anyone's interested.
I'll still pop by here every now & again, but I rarely post as it is. I've become more of a lurker these days. I'm still a Buster & always will be.
Thanks again to everyone who helped out with the site & keep watching Bustercomic.co.uk which may end up using some of the material from Bustercomic.com.