Act-i-vate
ACT-I-VATE panel at the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival. Seated left to right on chairs are Joe Infurnari, Simon Fraser, Tom Hart, Dean Haspiel, Nathan Schreiber, Molly Crabapple, Tim Hamilton, and Jeff Newelt, acting as moderator. On the edge of the stage are Leland Purvis and Rami Efal. | |
| Founded | 2006 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Nick Bertozzi Nikki Cook Michel Fiffe Dan Goldman Tim Hamilton Dean Haspiel Josh Neufeld Leland Purvis |
| Defunct | c. 2016 |
| Type | Webcomics collective |
| Members | Anne Barnetson Pedro Camargo Mike Cavallaro Kevin Colden Molly Crabapple Darryl Cunningham Mike Dawson Andrew Dimitt Rami Efal Ulises Fariñas Simon Fraser Roger Langridge Jason Little Paul Maybury Warren Pleece Ryan Roman Britt Sabo Nathan Schreiber Paul Peart-Smith Jennifer Tong Dean Trippe Chip Zdarsky |
| Website | www |
ACT-I-VATE was an American webcomics collective based on an original idea by Dean Haspiel and founded by Haspiel and seven other cartoonists. It started out on the blogging platform Livejournal, and then moved to its own dedicated website.
The ACT-I-VATE collective featured serialized graphic novels from over twenty-five hand-picked professional cartoonists (each of whom generally added a new episode weekly), and was updated daily. ACT-I-VATE members included Haspiel, Nick Bertozzi, Michel Fiffe, Dan Goldman, Tim Hamilton, Josh Neufeld, Leland Purvis, Mike Cavallaro, Kevin Colden, Molly Crabapple, Darryl Cunningham, Mike Dawson, Ulises Fariñas, Simon Fraser, Tom Hart, Roger Langridge, Jason Little, Paul Maybury, Warren Pleece, Palle Schmidt, Paul Peart-Smith, Dean Trippe, and Chip Zdarsky.
ACT-I-VATE's artists were unpaid, and produced their work without editorial oversight. ACT-I-VATE was also free to view. In addition to the high-quality comics, the site was known for its vocal community of readers and the lengthy discussion threads between artist and reader.
In 2009, IDW Publishing released The Act-i-vate Primer, a Harvey Award-nominated anthology featuring 16 original comics stories by members of the collective.