About

collective
Pronunciation: \kə-ˈlek-tiv\
Function: noun
Date: 1655
1: a collective body : group
2: a cooperative unit or organization; specifically : collective farm
3: a helicopter control system governing lift (Okay, so this one doesn't apply here.)

Collective, network, alliance, they're all really the same thing - a group of people who work together towards a goal that would be harder to reach alone. In the webcomic world, that goal is to be seen; to gather an audience, sometimes to make money.

Sage Comics is a new such collective. Together, the rising stars that make up Sage Comics hope to burn brighter than they could apart. We hope to form a close-knit family that will develop into a well-known and respected group based on the talents of its members. We support each other with advice, critiques, and friendly faces at cons.

History
There's this guy, see--Rob Hamm--who writes a goofy little webcomic that I won't even bother to name here. Before his comic went into one of its many hiatuses, it was doing pretty well, staying moderately high on the topsites lists, paying for his groceries, etc. Eventually Rob started looking around at some of the topsites lists and realized that a lot of comics that were better than his--MUCH better--weren't getting the webcomic love he felt they deserved.

Sometime in November of 2007, Rob got hold of his friend Roman Wunderlich (creator of the B-Movie Comic) and proposed that they start a collective to help boost comics that they considered better than theirs, but which were less popular. Roman basically said, "'Kay." (But with a German accent, of course.)

After getting advice from a few webcomicers more experienced at the whole collective thing, Rob began emailing webcomic creators and received... an almost completely underwhelming response.

Slowly, though, momentum built as people realized that joining up increased the likelihood of gathering other high-quality comics into the fold, especially since all members have a say in who gets invited. We were a little shocked (pleasantly so) at some of those who chose to join up, and things are going better than we could have possibly planned.