It's like a belated birthday card, only better!

A rather explosive name change from Starshift Crisis- er... StarSLIP Crisis.

 

I meant to comment on this particular episode from Starslip Crisis awhile ago (i.e. when it actually happened) but internet troubles kept me from really being able to post, and honestly I didn't really want to talk about Starslip Crisis AGAIN after just having posted about it so recently. I mean, come on, what kind of blog would this be if I talked about the same thing twice within like a month's period? Pfffft...

 

However a clever plot twist such as this one deserves recognition not only for its novelty but also for unique aspect of webcomics that it highlights: The ability to seamlessly go back and change already published work. Kristopher Straub needed to change the name of his webcomic. In his own words: "A name change and possible trademark conflict in the future was why this storyline was necessary, and luckily I got to play with the idea within the context of the strip." So he wrote a storyline explaining that transportation throughout the universe instantaneously is accomplished by means of finding an alternate universe version of yourself which already exists at your destination and simply swapping places with it. And this allowed Straub to destroy the StarSHIFT Crisis Fuseli and its crew and replace it with the StarSLIP Crisis Fuseli from an alternate universe, then continue unabated.

 

It you check out the Starslip Crisis website now (I've updated my link on the sidebar), you'll notice by clicking through the archives that everywhere in which the word "starshift" was used, it has been replaced by "starslip". So, by simply buying a new domain name, changing the text in a few images, and changing the wording on a couple of pages, Straub has successfully changed the name of his strip not only for the future, but also in the past. Think you could do that in traditional comics format? Ha! Sure, if Straub had been producing independent comics he probably could have changed the name, and made enough publicity of it that pretty much all of his fans would catch the change. I mean, the difference in names is not HUGE. But he still would have had the backlog of issues under the old name as a lingering memory and something of a stumbling block for new readers looking to get into the comic. Not so on the web. He's simply erased any and all trace of Starshift Crisis from the comic, and I imagine eventually the old domain will vanish as well, leaving Starslip Crisis as the only memory people have.

 

And that, my friends, is the advantage of publishing on the internet.