Editing Serializer.net

{{short description|Webcomic subscription service}}
{{redirect|Serializer|computer programming mechanism|Serialization}}
{{Infobox website
| name             = Serializer.net
| logo             = Serializer_logo.png
| logo_caption     = 2002 logo
| url              = [https://web.archive.org/web/20030218153343/http://www.serializer.net:80/ Serializer.net] (archived)
| owner            = [[Joey Manley]]
| editor           = [[Tom Hart (cartoonist)|Tom Hart]], [[Eric Millikin]]
| launch_date      = {{Start date|2002|10|01}}
| current_status   = Discontinued
}}
'''Serializer.net''' was a [[webcomic]] [[subscription service]] and [[artist collective]] published by [[Joey Manley]] and edited by [[Tom Hart (cartoonist)|Tom Hart]] and [[Eric Millikin]] that existed from 2002 to 2013. Designed to showcase artistic [[alternative comics|alternative webcomics]] using the unique nature of the medium, the works on Serializer.net were described by critics as "[[high art]]" and "[[avant-garde]]". The project became mostly inactive in 2007 and closed alongside Manley's other websites in 2013.

==Concept==
[[File:TomHart APE2003.jpg|thumb|right|Tom Hart in 2003]]
Just prior to Serializer's launch in 2002, webcomics publisher Joey Manley described the site to [[Wired (magazine)|''Wired'']] as a showcase for [[alternative comics|alternative webcomics]] "designed to provoke thought, to challenge assumptions and exercise the aesthetic sense." Manley stated that he wanted the artists on Serializer to "do everything and anything that the best novelists, the best filmmakers, the best poets and painters are able to do and, because of the unique nature of the form, to do some things that those artists, working in those other forms, can't do." When the site launched, the most recent webcomic pages and strips were free, and the website's archives were available for a subscription fee of $2.95 [[USD]] per month.<ref name=Wired>{{cite web|url=https://www.wired.com/2002/09/book-website-spur-iraq-discourse/|work=[[Wired.com]]|title=Book, Website Spur Iraq Discourse|last=Rose|first=M.J.|date=2002-09-17}}</ref> This subscription model was revolutionary at the time, and was one of the first profitable subscription models for webcomics.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.comicsbeat.com/rip-joey-manley/|title=RIP Joey Manley|last=MacDonald|first=Heidi|author-link=Heidi MacDonald|date=2013-11-08|website=The Beat|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbr.com/modern-tales-founder-joey-manley-passes-away/|title=Modern Tales founder Joey Manley passes away|website=[[Comic Book Resources]]|last=Melrose|first=Kevin|date=2013-11-08}}</ref> A few webcomics on Serializer were also available for direct purchase via the [[BitPass]] [[Micropayment|micropayments]] system.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://comixtalk.com/buy_season_1_trunktown_through_bitpass/|title=Buy Season 1 of Trunktown Through BitPass|website=Comix Talk|date=2003-08-26|last=Xerexes|first=Xaviar|language=en-US}}</ref>

Some of Serializer's comics used award-winning [[infinite canvas]] techniques, using the potentially limitless space available on the web to create comics that would be impossible to fit on standard print comics pages.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/books/comics-escape-a-paper-box-and-electronic-questions-pop-out.html|title=Comics Escape a Paper Box, and Electronic Questions Pop Out|last=Boxer|first=Sarah|date=2005-08-17|work=[[The New York Times]]|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In 2004, Hart noted that Serializer.net excited him specifically as an online venture, and that he was not interested in whether any of the works on it would wind up in print.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/commentary/530/|work=[[Comics Reporter]]|title=Still Working Hard: Catching Up With Cartoonist Tom Hart|last=Spurgeon|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Spurgeon|date=2004-12-19}}</ref>

==History==
Joey Manley and Tom Hart launched Serializer.net on October 1, 2002. It was the first expansion of the [[Modern Tales]] family of webcomic subscription services. In 2003, ''[[The Detroit News]]'' reported Serializer.net was publishing work by 25 independent cartoonists.<ref name=":0">{{cite news|title=Cartoonist creates dizzy adventures for the young|last1=Jiompkowski|first1=Michelle O.|date=2003-03-05|work=[[The Detroit News]]|quote=Strips can be seen on www.serializer.net, a subscription service that showcases work by 25 independent cartoonists. He posts a color strip weekly, and the latest one can be seen for free at the Web site.}}</ref> In 2004, several Serializer artists' comics were included in the "Modern Tales’ 2003 Yearbook, Tallscreen Edition,” a 130-page full-color printed book of comics originally from the Modern Tales family of websites.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://comixtalk.com/modern_tales_releases_first_annual_full_color/|title=Modern Tales Releases First Annual in Full Color|website=Comix Talk|language=en-US|date=2004-03-06|last=Manley|first=Joey|author-link=Joey Manley}}</ref>

Serializer.net went down due to a server crash in 2006, but relaunched later that year with a new roster of around twenty artists and with [[Eric Millikin]], one of the website's original artists, as editor.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=http://www.comicsbeat.com/serializernet-returns/|work=[[Comics Beat]]|title=Serializer.net returns|last=MacDonald|first=Heidi|author-link=Heidi MacDonald|date=2006-10-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://comixtalk.com/comixpedia_end_2006_roundtable/|title=The Comixpedia End of 2006 Roundtable|website=Comix Talk|last=Xerexes|first=Xaviar|language=en-US|date=2006-12-16}}</ref> Activity on Serializer mostly died down in 2007, as Manley was merging the Modern Tales family of websites into a new comics-oriented [[social media]] and publishing platform called [[ComicSpace]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tcj.com/nobody-knows-youre-a-dog-1/|work=[[The Comics Journal]]|title=Diving In|last=Garrity|first=Shaenon|author-link=Shaenon Garrity|date=2011-05-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbr.com/unbound-rethinking-girlamatic/|title=Unbound: Rethinking Girlamatic|last=Alverson|first=Brigid|date=2009-06-28|website=[[Comic Book Resources]]}}</ref> The collective Modern Tales family closed down in April 2013, and Manley died of [[pneumonia]] later that year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cbr.com/modern-tales-founder-joey-manley-passes-away/|work=[[Comic Book Resources]]|title=Modern Tales founder Joey Manley passes away|last=Melrose|first=Kevin|date=2013-11-08}}</ref>

==Webcomics==
Serializer.net launched with a webcomic collaboration between Hart and [[Shaenon K. Garrity]] titled ''Trunktown'', as well as ''[[The Salon (comics)|The Salon]]'' by [[Nick Bertozzi]], ''Half Empty'' by [[Derek Kirk]], and the long-running ''Few and Far Between'' by Joda Thayer.<ref name=Wired /> Some other webcomics published by Serializer included:

*[[Matt Bors]]' ''Idiot Box''<ref name=":1" />
*[[Joey Comeau]] and Emily Horne's ''[[A Softer World]]''<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.comicsbeat.com/webcomics-round-up/|title=Webcomics round-up|date=2006-10-17|website=[[Comics Beat|The Beat]]|language=en-US}}</ref>
*[[Matt Feazell|Matt Feazell's]] ''Cynicalman, America's Laid-Off Superhero''<ref name=":0" />
*[[Renée French]]'s ''Micrographica''<ref name=":1" />
*[[Eric Millikin]]'s ''Fetus-X''<ref name=":1" />
*[[Ryan North]]'s ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]''<ref name=":2" />
*[[Jen Sorensen]]'s ''Slowpoke''<ref name=":1" />
*[[Spike Trotman]]'s ''[[Templar, Arizona]]''<ref name=":2" />
*[[Drew Weing]]'s ''Pup''<ref name=":3" />

==Reception==
''[[Sunday Times|The Sunday Times]]'' described Serializer as "high-art,"<ref>{{cite news|work=[[The Sunday Times]]|title=The tooniverse explodes|last=O'Brien|first=Danny|date=2006-02-26|page=27[S]}}</ref> and ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'' considered the webcomics on Serializer to be [[avant-garde]].<ref>{{cite news|work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|title=The rebirth of comics: Comics online|url=https://www.smh.com.au/technology/the-rebirth-of-comics-20030830-gdhaxn.html|last=Sharwood|first=Simon|date=2003-08-30|page=5}}</ref> ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'' called Serializer.net artists such as Brian Sendelbach, [[Glenn Dakin]], Greg Stump, and [[Nick Bertozzi]] as "art comics favorites."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20051219/35322-web-comics-page-clickers-to-page-turners.html|title=Webcomics: Page Clickers to Page Turners|work=[[Publishers Weekly]]|last=MacDonald|first=Heidi|author-link=Heidi MacDonald|date=2005-12-16}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030218153343/http://www.serializer.net:80/ Official website], archived using the [[Wayback Machine]]

{{Joey Manley}}

[[Category:American artist groups and collectives]]
[[Category:Defunct websites]]
[[Category:Webcomic syndicates]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2002]]
[[Category:Internet properties disestablished in 2013]]