Patrick Sean Farley is a freelance illustrator and Web page designer. Known as a pioneer of

webcomics Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

as a medium, Farley works out of

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

Biography

Patrick Farley is the creator of comics under the anthology "Electric Sheep Comix".

Scott McCloud Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod; June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. His non-fiction books about comics, ''Understanding Comics'' (1993), '' Reinventing Comics'' (2000), and '' Making Comics'' (2006), are made in comic ...

cites him as an early pioneer of the

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

s movement. He is the author of a semi-autobiographical webcomics graphic novel ''The Guy I Almost Was'' and of several other Web-based comics or stories, listed below. In addition to the traditional strip format Farley has presented work in the

infinite canvas The infinite canvas is the feeling of available space for a webcomic on the World Wide Web relative to paper. The term was introduced by Scott McCloud in his 2000 book ''Reinventing Comics'', which supposes a web page can grow as large as needed. ...

mode peculiar to the more innovative web comics, and he has done many stories using 3D tools such as

Poser Poser or Posers may refer to: People *Poseur, a person who inauthentically adopts a certain subculture *Bob Poser (1910–2002), U.S. baseball player *Charles Poser (1923–2010), Belgian-American neurologist *Christian Poser (born 1986), German ...

and Bryce. '' The Webcomics Examiner'' wrote a story about Farley's work in December 2004 titled "Patrick Farley, Apocalyptic Utopian", describing him as "the

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and the most co ...

of webcomics". Farley appeared in ''Adventures Into Digital Comics'', a 2006 documentary on the comics industry.

Electric Sheep Comix

Electric Sheep Comix is a Web-based anthology of Farley's work. The name was taken from the title of Philip K. Dick's novel "''

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' (retrospectively titled ''Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' in some later printings) is a 1968 dystopian science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It is set in a post- ...

''". It was originally hosted at the domain , but the domain registration lapsed, and after being offline for 2 years, the site was restarted in August 2009, at a new domain. One unusual project from this collection is ''Apocamon: The Final Judgement'', a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

, stylized presentation of the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...

in a graphic style similar to the

Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...

trading card game and a writing style similar to the comic book tracts of Jack T. Chick.

''The Spiders''

''The Spiders'' is a webcomic written and illustrated by

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

Patrick S. Farley for his website, Electric Sheep Comix. The comic traces an

alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, where

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

, and ordinary

civilian A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force. It is war crime, illegal under the law of armed conflict to target civilians with military attacks, along with numerous other considerations for civilians during times of war. If a civi ...

s can view the war through web cams carried by roving robotic "spiders" dispersed into

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

by the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

. Unlike most webcomics, the comic is displayed in an "

" format, where each page of the comic has the individual panels lined up in one continuous

strip Strip, Strips or Stripping may refer to: Places * Aouzou Strip, a strip of land following the northern border of Chad that had been claimed and occupied by Libya * Caprivi Strip, narrow strip of land extending from the Okavango Region of Nami ...

, viewable in full by

scrolling In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, video games and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout ...

with the horizontal

scrollbar A scrollbar is an interaction technique or widget (GUI), widget in which continuous text, pictures, or any other content can be Scrolling, scrolled in a predetermined direction (up, down, left, or right) on a computer display, window (computing) ...

of the reader's

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

. Occasionally, the pages of the comic deviate from the format for

storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing narrative, stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatre, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cul ...

effect, usually in the form of a

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

web page A web page (or webpage) is a World Wide Web, Web document that is accessed in a web browser. A website typically consists of many web pages hyperlink, linked together under a common domain name. The term "web page" is therefore a metaphor of pap ...

created for the story.

Mark Frauenfelder Mark Frauenfelder (born November 22, 1960) is an American blogger, illustrator, and journalist. He was editor-in-chief of the magazine '' MAKE'' and is co-owner of the collaborative weblog ''Boing Boing''. Along with his wife, Carla Sinclair, he ...

, writing for ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

'', recommended the comic, praising how it used the multimedia capabilities afforded by the internet to "present comics in an entirely new way."

Electric Sheep Reloaded

In March 2010 Farley started a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

page in order to raise $6,000 to support him in making more comics for his website. On May 1, 2010, the fund raiser was successful. From June 2010 until December 2010 Farley continued ''The Spiders'' with a chapter titled ''Prologue''.

References

External links

Electric Sheep Sh*t - The Official Electric Sheep Sketch Blog
''(Internet Archive link)''
''electricsheep comix''
(new)
''The Spiders''
(old site down)
Patrick Farley's Kickstarter page

''The Spiders: Prologue'' at Electric Sheep Comix
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farley, Patrick American comics titles American webcomic creators Artists from Berkeley, California University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Artists from Portland, Oregon