Joey Manley, creator of Modern Tales, online comics trail-blazer, podcaster and author, died last week at 48. Many tributes are being posted to his Facebook page; Kevin Melrose published an obituary at Comic Book Resources.
He "was a true pioneer of webcomics," retailer and convention organizer Chris Butcher wrote last night on Twitter. Cartoonist T Campbell went more in-depth about Manley's contributions on his blog, writing, "There was a brief moment, hard to remember now, when webcomics and the Web in general seemed to be unsustainable through advertising. Ad rates were in freefall, panicking artists who, a few years prior, had thought they were more or less set for life. Joey knew how to talk to people, how to bring talent together, and he was the one willing to address the elephant in the room: maybe we needed to change the business model."
