Oily Comics to Undergo Revision in 2014

Up and coming comics star Charles Forsman announced his plans for his Oily Comics imprint tonight.

The bad news? No more monthly comics in 2014.

The good news? We're getting more Forsman and still getting Oily Comics, just not in the same way.

In a brief post on the Oily Tumblr, Forsman, whose End of the Fucking World was a critical success with Fantagraphics after being serialized via Oily Comics, stated that after a lot of thought, he was giving up the monthly subscription format.

"I’m craving more time to work on my own stuff and I want to give myself room to breathe between Oily releases," he said.

This does not mean the end of Oily, however, as it might in other circumstances. Forsman indicated he is shooting for four sets of releases in 2014, including one with Panel Patter favorite Noah Van Sciver, titled "The Lizard Laughed." He hasn't determined if he'll use a subscription model or just offer them for sale, but thankfully, Oily Comics isn't going anywhere.

While I am sad at not getting new comics monthly (I am a big fan of subscription services for minicomics), I completely understand why Forsman would want more time for himself. He's really moving forward, and it would be wrong to deter that just to hit monthly deadlines. Being honest, the timeline was kinda moving from being every month to every six weeks of late, anyway.

Cutting down on the publishing grind of doing things every month will give Forsman more time to work on his own stuff, but still publish comics from folks who might not get a shot otherwise. It's unclear how this will impact the ongoings, such as Forsman's own "Teen Creeps," but if they get a home, perhaps in a larger group or larger overall page count, I think it will all work out fine.

Forsman promises more details in January, after that batch of Oily Comics comes out. I'm looking forward to seeing the future, and I'm glad Oily, even in a different form, will be a part of it.