Leisurely Geeks

Thrillbent is a digital comic site and the brainchild of writer Mark Waid. The website has only been around for two months but if you are a fan of comics you should keep an eye on this site. As it stands there is one twelve panel comic published every week on Wednesdays called Insufferable which is a comic about a sidekick that grows up to be a total douchebag. The writing, pencils, and ink are all high quality and free to boot (even free of adds).

Reading the sites blog it is easily seen that this is a labor of love for all involved. Waid and company are very transparent about the process of exploring new techniques that take advantage of the digital format. For instance this weeks blog post talks about the layering technique utilized in the comic. The comics feel like they are on the cusp of a new format and by being transparent about the process they are inviting their peers in the comic industry to give it a shot.

The most interesting feature of the site was one that was not originally implemented. Every episode of Insufferable can be downloaded as either a PDF or a CBZ file. The reason for this, as Waid explained in his blog, was that he saw the comic was being shared on torrents within a day and eventually within hours of their posting. Instead of fighting the file sharers he is making it work for him by doing the work of packaging for them and adding a copyright page that points to the site at the end of the comic. He has turned those file sharers into free advertisement for his site. If you are a fan of comics I highly suggest checking out the site. The weekly comic is good and it offers an interesting view into the creative process behind what the creators are trying to accomplish.