Avalon (webcomic)

Avalon was a webcomic by Josh Phillips set in the fictional city of Avalon, Ontario, Canada. It focused on a group of high school students, and while it was originally gag-a-day, it evolved into a coherent, long-term story with realistic characters. The comic launched on 8 November 1999 and was originally scheduled to end in August 2002.^[2]

After a series of lengthening delays, Phillips eventually placed the comic on indefinite hiatus on 24 August 2004 and posted a text summary of how the story would have played out, including the revelation that one of the presumed to be heterosexual characters would enter a lesbian affair.^[3] Phillips announced that, having recently been married, he had "outgrown" Avalon and cartooning in general, and had no further need to continue the project.

Avalon was a member of Keenspot.

Post-Hiatus

After an extended period of hiatus, Phillips mentioned that he was debating farming out the art and writing to fellow webcartoonist, David Willis, so that his dedicated fan-base could receive resolution of the story-line.

No new Avalon comics were produced until 24 January 2006, when Phillips posted a new strip, and stated his intention to finish the series. Only seven new strips were produced, the last of which was released on 28 February 2006. As of May 2006, no new strips have been released, and no explanation has been given. On 15 February 2007, Phillips revamped the site, linking to the text summary of the storyline's conclusion on the otherwise-blank main page.

The author has since said that he has moved on from the strip and has no intention of continuing the project beyond the written conclusion. He briefly tried his hand at several smaller projects, such as the short-lived webcomic "Two-Eighty", but abandoned them after only a few updates.

Awards

In 2001, Avalon won Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards for Best School-based Comic and Best Dramatic Comic.^[4] In 2002, it was nominated for Best Reality-based Comic and Best Dramatic Comic, and won Best Romantic Comic.^[5] Avalon was nominated for the 2003's Best Romantic Comic as well.

Notes and references

1. ↑
2. ↑ Phillips, Josh. "About Avalon". Archived from the original on 5 May 2006. Retrieved 2006-04-06.  It mentions the original target date for the comic's conclusion.
3. ↑ Phillips, Josh. "Text summary of Avalon's planned conclusion". Retrieved 2006-04-06. 
4. ↑ "2001 Web Cartoonist's Choice Award Results". Archived from the original on 21 April 2010. Retrieved 2006-04-06. 
5. ↑ "2002 Web Cartoonist's Choice Award Results". Archived from the original on 8 December 2009. Retrieved 2006-04-06. 

External links

• http://www.avalonhigh.com/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20050826223636/http://www.twoeighty.ca/