Could you please give your full name (if you so choose) and any other personal information you feel is important like e-mail and screen name?

My FULL name is Brandon Rhodes Sonderegger. No Esquire's or III's or Jr's on it, so I don't get to be pretentious and drive yachts around. DAMN YOU PARENTS! Most people know me by Scrubbo online, or by Enigma if they only know me through my latest comic. (I started it as a lark and wanted to see how it would do compared to my original comic Silly Cone V if nobody knew I was drawing it.) If people REALLY want to e-mail me and call me names (and I know you do!) you can get a hold of me at scrubbo@apexmail.com. Please be inventive on the names! I've been called asshat seventy bazillion times, so ya gotta go for gusto if you want to reduce me to tears!

-What is your site called and briefly describe it

Well, I have two right now. The main one is called 'Filthy Lies' (www.filthylies.net) and it's a VERY incorrect comic. On the one hand you have Damian, an asshole atheist lapsed-Jewish guy, and the other you have Joel, a slightly prissy gay Christian republican. In BOTH hands you have meat. Beefsteak, the reanimated piece of steak that is their... um... kind of mascot/pet/third roommate/thing. I started it for kicks but wound up keeping it when grad school ate up so much time I had to choose between it and Silly Cone V, (www.sillyconev.com) my original comic.

Also, I'm doing a comic called Inside the Box (www.boxcomics.com) for the Keenspot newspaper page. It's a single panel type comic, and so of course it's easiest to call it a "Far Side Rip Off" than try to explain it. At least it's not a Ziggy rip off.

-What do you think of the new name "Toonspace"?

Well, I know when a new name was under discussion and Spotters were asked their opinions a few things wound up coming up.

1) Keenspacers LIKED being called 'Spacers. It'd been years and years since the term was coined and most of us thought it'd be nice if we could keep it for Keenspace.
2) Keen* doesn't really say "COMICS!" so maybe something more comicking would be nice.
3) We probably shouldn't call it theplacewherepeoplecometoreadnewcomicsspace.com

So Toonspace was one of the many suggestions that came up once the "let's try and keep SPACE in the name" and I BELIEVE it won out in the end (I'm not one of the Keenspot Four who make final decisions) because it kept the Space, it at least let you know comics might be involved, and it was fairly inclusive as animation hosting is something that Crosby has said he'd like to see on Keenspace as well, much as KeenToons has shown up on Keenspot.

Some might argue that if you're changing the name you should go whole hog and I can see their point. But I think the name was chosen to try and create as few ripples as possible. Nothing would have satisfied EVERYBODY. It's a little generic and unexciting, but for a hosting site for EVERYBODY generic and unexciting is probably better. Some people would not have liked being hosted on LoveRocketComics.com or some such thing. (I know something like that was suggested!)

-How do you feel about the idea of a name change in general?

Originally I was not too hot on the idea. I didn't think it was necessary and would be taken as a boot in the pants by Keenspacers. I know if I was still on Keenspace I might have seen it that way. But the economic and advertising based reasoning behind it actually makes sense. Keenspot is trying to make more money for itself and its artists, and a professional front image is part of that. So a LOT of the changes in Keenspot over the last 6-8 months have been behind that. The new front page, the archiving of strips that don't update and the re-branding of Keenspace (which is rife with non-updating strips) was all part and parcel of that.

-Some have expressed that there is a bias from some in Keenspot towards Keenspace. As a member of Keenspot do you feel that this is true?

You're asking me to say if there are individuals in Keenspot who look down on Keenspace to some extent or another? With sixty some artists, of course you'll have a few that do so. But there isn't a 'Spot wide disdain for Keenspace at all. Many of us started out on Keenspace. I was there for many years. There was, however, a consensus that we needed to separate the brands for advertising purposes. When advertisers are told "Hey, advertise on our Keenspot site!" and go and look at Keenspace and say "What's with all the dead comics? We don't want to advertise there!" it's a problem. And some advertising people ARE that dumb. It's happened. And if they say "Hey, I bought ads for all of Keenspace! Why isn't it showing up on RPG World?" it's a problem. Advertising has its share of idiots, and also its share of people who don't know anything about webcomics and assume Keenspot/space are the same thing just because their names are so close. So getting rid of the common denominator seemed like the best plan of action.

-Why do you think some feel that this is the case?

Because Keenspace takes a lot of crap from a lot of different directions. There are a LOT of dead comics and a LOT of bad comics on Keenspace. And some people never see past that to note that there are some very, very good comics on Keenspace. They also don't see that Keenspace comics often start off pretty terrible and improve steadily. That's one of the reasons it was easier for me to quit SCV than FL when I had to pick one. The archives were frankly embarrassing.

So when you're used to people crapping on you, it's very easy to see Keenspot saying "We need to separate the Keenspot brand from Keenspace" as "Keenspace blows donkeys and goats simultaneously" and be upset about it. I don't blame people too much about that. I know if I were still on Keenspace and the name change dropped on me, I'd be annoyed at first.

As for why people might think specific Keenspotters might look down on Keenspace, well, I daresay there have been a few spotters past and present who HAVE said derogatory things about Keenspace from time to time. I think maybe sometimes those got blown out of proportion, but in other cases, maybe it is right to think that specific people don't like Keenspace. When I was on Keenspace I got a few "Oh, you're on Keenspace?" snubs. Now I get "Oh, you're on Keenspot?" snubs. Not much has changed.

-What do you think could be done to improve relations between Spacer's and Spoters?

I don't know. I really don't think there's a whole lot of antipathy, really. I don't think most Keenspotters dislike Keenspacers in general, nor do I think there is a reverse dislike. I think there might be individuals on either side that like to occasionally stir up some crap, but as a whole I don't think there is any antipathy.

-What do you feel can be done to improve Space as a whole? Do you feel that this name change hurts that goal?

Keenspace has come a LONG way since when I first started. The servers are much more stable, the sign up process doesn't take months, etc. Keenspace really could use an automated front page that lists comics only if they've been updating recently. That would help Keenspace's image. If you go to the Keenspace front page and click on links, you'll get active comics. And it would help Keenspacers stay motivated. If you want on the front page, you have to update.

Of course, with the massive number of people on Keenspace, it'd have to be alphabetized and smallish text, but you could have the list start at a randomized letter for each load to keep the "A" comics from getting the most coverage, and you could put up a 'ToonSpaceLight' type deal at the top where 6 random updating comics get an icon and blurb put up. Yet more incentive to stay updating, and a 'shiny' front for the comics.

-How about Keenspot as a whole? What would you like to see done?

Well, lots of things are supposedly in the works at Keenspot, and I don't know what they are, really. I'd like to see Keenspot get the animated site a little more firmly grounded, with updating schedules firm for most of the shows. And maybe expand a bit if they can find more animated toons they like.

I'd also like to see the Swag Store done better. It's always been a little cludgey, and it could certainly be better.

Also, they need better quality control. I mean, for god's sake they let ME on to the damn thing! Sheesh! (Actually, they added a bunch of VERY good comics recently. It shames me!)

-Are there any final comments you'd like to make?

Yes. Stick with it! So long as you're enjoying doing it, keep doing it. Learn! Don't be complacent about your art and writing, and learn from what you're doing. You'll get better if you think about what you're writing and try to improve it instead of settling, and your art will improve if you keep trying to draw more audaciously than you have before. Don't be afraid of change. If you're in a rut, change your style. Do a storyline totally out of the ordinary. Or even quit that comic and start a whole new one with a whole new style! Don't expect piles of money. 5 years of comicing online I've probably made a whopping thousand bucks. Take out expenses, time spent, and so forth and I'm definitely in the hole! Don't expect piles of fans. I had 500 readers for SCV when I quit doing it. That's after 4 years of updates. I only broke 50k pageviews in a month one time.

It might not be glamorous and lucrative, but I've made a lot of friends and had a lot of fun doing webcomics. And that's why I keep doing it.

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