A quick note about the Bad Machinery archive
The Bad Machinery archive (2009-2017) has lived on GoComics for several years now, and I know a lot of you have enjoyed re-reading it there. Recently, a few readers have been in touch about the archive being placed behind a paywall. This is something GoComics has done across their platform as they (like many others) navigate the decline in web advertising.
My long-term plan is to bring the archive back to my own site where it can be read for free again. But it’s going to take some time – I’ll need to re-output every page from the original high-res files. GoComics used the updated versions from the Oni Press books, which include lots of edits and bonus pages. Those are the versions I’d like to restore, but I’m currently missing the first half of the series in a suitable web format. Unfortunately, the copies on GoComics are heavily compressed, and not really usable as-is. With over a thousand pages to prepare, it’s a fiddly task, and time is always tight.
If you’re keen to revisit the series sooner rather than later, the collections are still available. A few people have also asked if I could release Bad Machinery digitally on Gumroad, like I did with Scary Go Round, but unfortunately Oni Press holds the digital rights, so that’s not an option right now.
Thank you for taking an interest in these old comics. Rest assured, they’re on my to-do list.
High res Bad Machinery is returning to the internet!
The question is: will the missing page from Space is the Place with Jack, Sonny, Linton, and Mildred be re-included? Don’t tell me, I like the suspense!
(It’s fine if you decide to leave it out btw, it’s not that kind of suspense)
There’s also supposedly a handful of strips where Mildred trashes the onesie that her friends gifted her
I found them! I probably saw these at some point, but I forgot all about them.
I’m just going to restore what was on GoComics, as-is, I’m not sure what happened to some of these supplemental pages.
You’re a good man and we are lucky to have seen so much of your excellent comic work for free. Publication & rights business makes my head spin enough as an author, but just keeping track of the comics stuff sounds like a full time job. My sympathies!
My one request for this new archive is that the Big Hiatus storyline (and its Desmond Fishman epilogue) are also included.
It would also be neat if the Scary Go Round archived was restored one day, though I assume that has some complications of its own.
I’m not certain of all the technical wackiness involved, but I have cbr / png copies of pretty much everything from the Bad Machinery era including one-shots & spin-offs that I’ll be glad to send to you if it’ll help. Too huge to email, but I could send it directly to you on a thumb drive.
“But it’s going to take some time – I’ll need to re-output every page from the original high-res files.”
The free and open source ImageMagick (https://imagemagick.org) tends to be excellent at things like this; you can tell it what set of things you want to do to each file, how to name them, etc., and then just let it run over all the high res images.
If that sounds intimidating, I’m happy to help, reach out on gmail where I’m eggsyntax.