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ACT-I-VATE.COM comics

By day, Michel Fiffe works in a New York City studio constructing costumes for Broadway shows. After work, he indulges his real passion: writing and drawing comics for ACT-I-VATE, an online comics blog fueled by the artistry and imagination of its more than 20 members.

Artists in the year-old, invitation-only collective upload a new comic or installment to their graphic novels each week, making the content on the daily anthology highly diverse. ACT-I-VATE members draw upon a host of influences including Japanese comic book artists, music, film, literature and their own psyches.

The elaborately rendered comics cover a broad swath of genres ranging from horror and post-punk, to cliffhanging romance and extreme adventure. The stories are irreverent and hysterical, a blend of the tragic and pathological. They range from dark (take Nikki Cook's "Sack of Puppies," which is about "pretty nasty evil things and mean little kids") to surrealistic (there's Pedro Camargo's "Glam," which chronicles a "grungy cyberpunk trash universe that's almost like Candyland with little stuffed animals running around.")

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FREE FOR ALL

There's no editor and members are self-regulated: they rely on self-discipline and the drive to outdo themselves and each other by creating fresh story lines each week. The artists also have a growing legion of fans who post daily comments on their favorite comics. All the content on ACT-I-VATE is free.

"I really enjoy doing this because there's no censor and I can be particularly nasty in my work," says Cook, 25, a fine arts-trained comics artist who works as a receptionist.

Michel Fiffe, 27, recently completed the first half of his graphic novel "Panorama" which is about a runaway named Augustus who suffers from an anxiety disorder. The story snowballed from eight-pages to a 48-page project. He's now at work on the second half of the story which covers Augustus's battle to control the disorder and leverage it as a power.

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NOT YOUR MOTHER'S, EITHER

ACT-I-VATE is the brainchild of Dean Haspiel, whose pathos-packed "Immortal" appears in weekly installments on the blog. The story chronicles the misadventures of Billy Dogma and Jane Legit, a pair of star-crossed lovers "who don't know how to love each other right," he says. Haspiel's "Fear, My Dear," the sequel to "Immortal," features Billy discovering the eighth deadly sin. "I do super-psychedelic romance comics with a boozer/dame sensibility." These are not your father's comics.

Haspiel, 39, is best known as an illustrator for Harvey Pekar, the celebrated underground comics writer and author of "American Splendor" and "The Quitter." Haspiel's currently collaborating with writer Jonathan Ames on Ames's first graphic novel "The Alcoholic."

Haspiel's vision for ACT-I-VATE was to create "a space where people can parlay and talk to each other about the comics they're making" in real-time. ACT-I-VATE members include a mix of up-and-coming artists and veterans like Haspiel, Nick Bertozzi, Dan Goldman, Josh Neufeld and Leland Purvis. The members consider themselves auteurs who both write and draw their own comics.

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CALL AND RESPONSE

The collective has become a hive-like laboratory for testing new ideas. "The cool thing is that the blog lifts the veil between the creator and the creative," Haspiel says.

Feedback from fans often influences the direction of an artist's work. "It's much easier to push yourself when you have the feedback online," says Cook, "because it provides the immediacy."

Bertozzi has two graphic novels on the blog: "Persimmon Cup," a comic that was intended for kids until fellow ACT-I-VATORS razzed him about its sexualized symbolism, and "Pecan Sandy," a story about a naughty cookie. "What's so great about the blog is the reaction. For years I've done comics where it's been page after page of toil and you don't get any response," Bertozzi says. "Maybe you show it to your friends and you get a little bit of reaction, but here you have strangers writing to you."

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THE PAYOFF

Nearly three years of isolating and painstaking work is about to pay off, as two of Bertozzi's graphic novels come out in April: "The Salon," a 192-page murder-mystery tinged romp through the history of 20th century art featuring a naked Picasso, a debonaire Braque, Gertrude and Leo Stein and "Houdini: The Handcuff King," an 82-page graphic novel about a day in the life of the magic czar.

Goldman just completed the first installment of "Kelly," a 200-page tale about a horror-filled love triangle. He recently hit pay dirt with "Shooting War," a serialized graphic novel set in 2011 about the future of war, terrorism and journalism that began life on the online personal narrative magazine "Smith." The story's being published this fall by Warner Books.

Goldman's also teaming up with Michael Crowley, a writer for The New Republic, on a graphic novel covering the run up to the 2008 presidential election. "It's going to be behind-the-scenes campaign trail-style journalism in comic form and will also serve as a guide to the election," Goldman explains. The book will be published in September 2008.

Josh Neufeld delivers short takes on the blog that last just one or two weeks and authors "The Vagabonds," a series of stories based on real life experiences rather than superpowers and high-octane nightmares.

Serialized, episodic graphic novels have been around for a while, published by behemoths Marvel and DC Comics, among other imprints. "Love & Rockets," by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, was the indie comics success story of the '80s. Now, Web comics communities like ACT-I-VATE (other similar sites include Chemistry Set; Sugarskull Sugarskull and Lunchbox Lunchbox) have begun to develop cult-like followings.

"There is a culture for online comics, there are thousands upon thousands of online comics," Cook says. So far, she says ACT-I-VATE has nearly 800 stalwarts watching the site and there have been as many as 1,500 people clicking on a single comic each day.

You can find ACT-I-VATE at: http://www.act-i-vate.com

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Tobi Elkin is a writer in New York.

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