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Red Light Properties

By dan goldman

Welcome to Red Light Properties, a tropical-horror series about a group of Miami-based realty office specializing in placing foreclosure victims into “previously-haunted homes” at prices well-below market value. With his recently-ex-wife Cecilia at the helm as the office's broker, Jude Tobin wanders the streets of Miami with a fanny-pack full of ethnobotanical hallucinogens, entering the spirit world to cleanse homes of any unwanted aetheric occupants.

Created by writer/artist Dan Goldman (creator of Shooting War and 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail,) Red Light Properties is the first graphic novel in a series that follows the agency as they poke and prod the membrane between life and death for the benefit of those left homeless by the mortgage crash.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22

 


We've moved things around here a little, but the comments below are from the first fifteen weeks of the comic. For the actual comic see the links above, and please add your new comments there. Thanks.



 
79 comments
DEAN HASPIEL
1.  DEAN HASPIEL
Tuesday January 05, 2010 10:34am EST
great start, dan. love the click-panel/dialogue delivery effect. snappy, strong writing, too. looking forward to more!
DEAN HASPIEL
2.  George O'Connor
Tuesday January 05, 2010 10:57am EST
Great start, Dan. I echo Dean's sentiments about the click-panel effect-- one of the best delivery systems for web comics I've seen. Also-- where do they get their stuff? ;)
DEAN HASPIEL
3.  ANTON KAWASAKI
Tuesday January 05, 2010 11:57am EST
Great work, Dan! Look forward to more...
will shetterly
4.  willshetterly
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday January 05, 2010 12:08pm EST
The click-panel is cool in concept, but I'm out in the boonies where the DSL connection is slow (1.5 mps in theory, two-thirds that in practice), so it would be nice to be able to just see the pages. I like what I read, but waiting for a reload to get the next word balloon got to be too frustrating.
DEAN HASPIEL
5.  Camila
Tuesday January 05, 2010 12:41pm EST
This is great. Parabéns.
DEAN HASPIEL
6.  Calvin Reid
Tuesday January 05, 2010 01:03pm EST
Dan you the man. Love the story and the click panels. they add a new dimension to the storytelling
DEAN HASPIEL
7.  JZinIND
Tuesday January 05, 2010 02:11pm EST
Awesome start! Really like the atmosphere you're building. Feels sweaty and simmering. Can't wait til next week.
DEAN HASPIEL
8.  Joshua Frankel
Tuesday January 05, 2010 02:51pm EST
Really dug this Dan. Love the vibe can't wait to see more.
DEAN HASPIEL
9.  Sam Humphries
Tuesday January 05, 2010 02:54pm EST
Well done dude. I'll be back for more.
DEAN HASPIEL
10.  Mike Cavallaro
Tuesday January 05, 2010 03:34pm EST
Dan,
This is a great innovation here, in that it utilizes the digital format, while still keeping it comics.
Well done!
DEAN HASPIEL
11.  Anthony Lappe
Tuesday January 05, 2010 03:54pm EST
This is awesome. A next step forward in digital comics (hurry up iSlate). Love the characters and the story dev. Esp. love you as fat Miami slob. Good luck with it.
DEAN HASPIEL
12.  Andrew Dimitt
Tuesday January 05, 2010 04:34pm EST
Sweet, sweet start Dan.
You're a smooth operator:)
DEAN HASPIEL
13.  John Walsh
Tuesday January 05, 2010 05:12pm EST
Pretty sweet Dan!
How often will this update?
William Hassinger
14.  iObject
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday January 05, 2010 05:29pm EST
I like it all except for the font. It's bugging the everloving CRAP out of me. A trip to Blambot might be in order.
DEAN HASPIEL
15.  Joe FPI
Tuesday January 05, 2010 05:38pm EST
Excellent work, mate, been looking forward to this, love the way it unfolds panel by panel and even speech bubble by speech bubble, much more interesting than the usual boring recreation of static paper style page on screen. And I detect some trademark Goldman playing with funky colouring effects in there too!
Ethan Glasser-Camp
16.  glasserc
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday January 05, 2010 05:39pm EST
Quite slick! Reminds me a bit of A Scanner Darkly.

Ethan
DEAN HASPIEL
17.  James Jajac
Tuesday January 05, 2010 07:36pm EST
I absolutely love this Dan!
DEAN HASPIEL
18.  Lando Calrizzle
Tuesday January 05, 2010 08:08pm EST
Great work Dan!!! Glad to finally see this baby of yours come to light! I remember hearing about this years ago and it seemed like something you were dying to do, congrats Hermano!
I look forward to reading more!
DEAN HASPIEL
19.  Sean Michael Wilson
Tuesday January 05, 2010 09:30pm EST
Nae bad like ye canny lad...
guan yersel big man!
Scottish Sean
DEAN HASPIEL
20.  Ryan Roman
Tuesday January 05, 2010 10:55pm EST
Jesus H. Christ, Dan.

Beautiful work and I love the dialogue in this... clicking and watching each panel pop up with the word balloons showing with the click of a mouse...man I love this.
Tim Hamilton
21.  TimothyHamilton
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday January 06, 2010 09:15am EST
Hi,
I stopped by and said congrats, but see my comment is no longer here?

Well, congrats again.

Tim Hamilton
DEAN HASPIEL
22.  Jaime L.
Wednesday January 06, 2010 10:04am EST
Gorgeous work, Dan. My favorite panel is the bird's eye view alongside the seagull above the marina/highway. Your artistry grows.
DEAN HASPIEL
23.  Rachel Soma
Wednesday January 06, 2010 10:19am EST
Love the effect of clicking through the dialogue and panels.

I've been quite hooked already.
john massey
24.  subwoofer
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday January 06, 2010 10:31am EST
Wow! All I can say is Tres cool!

Woof™.
DEAN HASPIEL
25.  RayFawkes
Wednesday January 06, 2010 10:53am EST
Nice work, Dan!
DEAN HASPIEL
26.  wayne t. beamer
Wednesday January 06, 2010 11:12am EST
Dan,

Great story. I haven't been keen on Web comics until I read yours with the click-through dialogue. Agree with others that the word balloon font you're using doesn't work, but you'll be able to tweak it as you go. Can't wait to read more.

BTW, I'd pay to read this online or to have a digital copy of it. It's that good...

Thanks!
DEAN HASPIEL
27.  Jennifer Hayden
Wednesday January 06, 2010 02:43pm EST
Funky, fun, and new. I really enjoyed!
DEAN HASPIEL
28.  Shawn Kittelsen
Wednesday January 06, 2010 02:54pm EST
This is 100% bad-ass work. It's great to see you pushing, nay, DRIVING digital comics forward yet again.

I agree with Wayne above, I'd pay for this. Can't wait to read it on an iSlate!
DEAN HASPIEL
29.  Inaki Miranda
Wednesday January 06, 2010 05:37pm EST
Awesome, Dan. Love it. The click by click pacing gives a great flow to it! Congrats!
DEAN HASPIEL
30.  Pedro Camargo
Wednesday January 06, 2010 09:51pm EST
FUTURE COMICS?!?!?!?!?!?!
The story's got me hooked, the dialogue is really fun and the system you got set up is great. Flow perfectionnnnnn.
Julian Lighton
31.  jl8e
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday January 07, 2010 03:09am EST
Having to load a new image file not just for every panel, but every word balloon really disrupts the flow of reading.

Yes, it preloads, but the image files are rather large, and I spent most of my time waiting, staring at a loading indicator.
Jim Adcock
32.  dlairman
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday January 07, 2010 10:03pm EST
For those complaining about the page loads, use the "Next Page" links instead of the "next panel" or clicking on the image. It takes you to the next full page.
DEAN HASPIEL
33.  Juan Navarro
Friday January 08, 2010 09:38am EST
Great start, great pace, dug the ending, and yes, the click panels rally do work.
Plus you got a lot of Miami down on this...
DEAN HASPIEL
34.  ken meyer jr
Saturday January 09, 2010 11:30pm EST
Love the delivery method, the story is fun and entertaining and the facial expressions are funny as hell! Great job!
DEAN HASPIEL
35.  J H Williams lll
Sunday January 10, 2010 01:55pm EST
Wonderful stuff as always. Looking forward to more.
DEAN HASPIEL
36.  Lando Calrizzle
Tuesday January 12, 2010 10:43am EST
coming along smoothly, really dig how this is revealing itself! animated captions are dope, keeps it moving really well..
DEAN HASPIEL
37.  Josh N.
Tuesday January 12, 2010 12:11pm EST
The interface stops working when I try to go back to page 1. It just loads and makes my browser drag. (Both Safari and Firefox on a Mac.)

I get this warning:

A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, open the script in the debugger, or let the script continue.

Script: http://www.tor.com/media/system/js/mootools.js:42
DEAN HASPIEL
38.  Steven Goldman
Tuesday January 12, 2010 01:48pm EST
Dan, this is looking fantastic, better each week.
Teresa Jusino
39.  TeresaJusino
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday January 12, 2010 06:47pm EST
Dan, this is great! :) I have trouble with web comics, because I usually hate reading things on a small screen, but your delivery method really helps with that! And yes, clicking on the image, as opposed to the arrows really DOES help. Much faster.

And BTW, I'm loving the concept, and as a Latina, it's awesome to see that some of your main characters are Latinas from Miami Beach. :) Love it.

Can't wait for next week! Thanks!
DEAN HASPIEL
40.  Peter Timony
Tuesday January 12, 2010 11:18pm EST
Awesome, Dan! Glad to be reading some new stuff from you!
DEAN HASPIEL
41.  bonniel
Wednesday January 13, 2010 04:23pm EST
Can't wait for next week, love it
Andrew Jones
42.  Andrew
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday January 14, 2010 04:48pm EST
Love the panel-wise effect, but ideally the next few images should get preloaded while you're viewing one, and an automated slideshow with preferably a user-adjustable interval would be simply awesome so that one doesn't need to keep clicking the next panel link! :)
DEAN HASPIEL
43.  catem
Wednesday January 20, 2010 02:14pm EST
I like the psychology of her turning green...interesting. Point-on about the preloading but I like controlling when the next panel comes up manually. Nice format!
Dan Goldman
44.  dangoldman
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday January 20, 2010 02:48pm EST
Thanks to all of you for your kudos and thoughts; I've been hard at work in the manga-lab sweating over a hot Cintiq for you (no lie)... but I'm going to be here as well answering your questions. You'll find I'm as cuddly as a lamb and easier to talk to than a priest... so by feel free to let 'em rip!
---love--> d!
Hypatia James
45.  hypatiajames
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday January 26, 2010 09:19am EST
Absolutely love page 39! Just had to share.
Dan Goldman
46.  dangoldman
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday January 26, 2010 09:22am EST · amended on Tuesday January 26, 2010 09:24am EST
@hypatiajames Thanks a million; I took a long think to figure out how to visualize that jazz.
DEAN HASPIEL
47.  Hector Casanova
Tuesday January 26, 2010 03:19pm EST
Mafuckingnificent! I love the clicky snappy interface, the dialogue and pacing, the naturalism. And those trippy panels are fantastic! My only criticism would be that the characters seem visually divorced from the background. You might be able to come up with a quick fix for this by adding a noise filter to the art, and a color tone layer to unify it all in PS.

But that's minor. The story and the drawing is great, I can't wait to see what's next.

Mwah.
DEAN HASPIEL
48.  lando calrizzle
Tuesday January 26, 2010 07:25pm EST
man, Ive gone through those pages a few times already, over and over again..I can feel it!...

Hook me up with Amanda..
(Pero tengo miedo)!
Clifton Royston
49.  CliftonR
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday January 27, 2010 12:50am EST
Oh my, it's been a while.... Kind of like being fired out of a cannon into another dimension.
DEAN HASPIEL
50.  lando calrizzle
Tuesday February 09, 2010 11:48am EST
the paneling progression is awesome! great tension going on..artwork is looking like smooth anime screencaptures, real nice..Adelante!
DEAN HASPIEL
51.  Kevin Kobasic
Wednesday February 10, 2010 09:06pm EST
The story hooked me right in. Your characters are well-developed, your concept is original and timely, your visual language is unique and consistent, and the click-throughs are a great idea. Nice work!
Dan Goldman
52.  dangoldman
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday February 11, 2010 07:48am EST
Thanks @50 and @51: I've been working on this for months and we're nearly to the end of that first day in the story. I'm all about the characters' relationships, and when the new morning dawns, things in the group will be different.
Leslie Annis
53.  Lannis
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday February 16, 2010 09:42am EST
Cool beans! I'm really enjoying this series! Thanks!
DEAN HASPIEL
54.  tcheph
Tuesday February 16, 2010 09:42am EST
hooked on it dan, keep the good stuff coming.
Dan Goldman
55.  dangoldman
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday February 16, 2010 10:19am EST
Thanks for the sugar @Lannis and @tcheph; I'm glad to know you kids are along for the ride.
DEAN HASPIEL
56.  cayetano garza jr.
Tuesday February 16, 2010 10:36am EST
keep em coming, capt. badass!
DEAN HASPIEL
57.  Corky's Deli Aficionado
Sunday February 21, 2010 11:49pm EST
This is a superb piece of work already, but you're hitting some personal nodes of resonance for those of us whose grandparents lived in the properties from I-95 to Aventura along North Miami Gardens Drive. Too many hours walking (and skulking) to Skylake Mall late at night in search of *something.* I can't wait to see those spirits re-emerging.
Dan Goldman
58.  dangoldman
VIEW ALL BY · Monday February 22, 2010 09:41am EST
@Corky's I grew up right off Miami Gardens Drive and taught my little brother to skateboard at the Skylake Mall, and man-o-man are you in for a treat ;) I'm so glad I'm hitting those notes for you; I'm hitting them for myself as well...

Unrelated: we used to eat at Corky's on 163rd (RIP) all the time, until we had a few visits' worth of reaching into the pickle buckets only to find someone had pre-bitten them for us. The love affair ended soon after.
DEAN HASPIEL
59.  Lando Calrizzle
Tuesday February 23, 2010 01:48pm EST
yea, you're hitting those notes with laser guided anvils!
now complete with omnipresent voyeurs! lol..great stuff man..
on a side note..is that the portable vapir model?
Dan Goldman
60.  dangoldman
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday February 23, 2010 01:59pm EST
@Lando Yes, Jude's got a few vaporizers in his kit; that one is the Oxygen Mini (http://tr.im/PuER). We'll see more of his fancy smoke-free toys soon.
DEAN HASPIEL
61.  chris walker
Monday March 01, 2010 11:10pm EST
mate, well done with the courageous move, love the idea and the site.
You use a tablet for digital drawing, got any recommendations for these, I'm getting one for my son and would love to have your ideas
David Reed
62.  fadingworld
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday March 11, 2010 03:24am EST
I really like the click interface on this one. As a web designer it's really nice to see something unique like this! Great job btw, very artistic.
Dan Goldman
63.  dangoldman
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday March 11, 2010 06:31am EST
@chris walker I personally use & can recommend both the Wacom Cintiq 21UX, which has a luxurious amount of screen real estate and programmable quick- keys, and Axiotron's Modbook, which gives you a fully-portable self-contained studio to create finished digital art anywhere (ideal for a traveling freelancer). Best wishes for your son's work; love to hear about what he does with it.
DEAN HASPIEL
64.  maximal
Friday March 12, 2010 06:47am EST
good comic material but the interface doesn't really work, as some people have already noticed!

if you need it to be interactive, why not do it in flash...?

...otherwise just put the images up.
Leslie Annis
65.  Lannis
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday March 16, 2010 08:53am EDT
Yay! An RLP fix! Tuesday's gonna be good! Thanks Dan!
DEAN HASPIEL
66.  isismasoud
Wednesday March 17, 2010 03:38pm EDT
haha "since we come all the way out from kendall"

i love it!
Andrew Blackburn
67.  ajbcool
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday March 25, 2010 01:16pm EDT
Whenever I try and read this from the beginning, I get the Neverending Load Circle. Whenever I just click into it, I get the new content immediately, but I want to start from the beginning.
Dan Goldman
68.  dangoldman
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday March 25, 2010 09:19pm EDT
@ajbcool Try starting via http://redlightproperties.com which takes you to page 1. Then report back on what you think of the story...
DEAN HASPIEL
69.  Matt Haley
Tuesday March 30, 2010 10:23pm EDT
I'm impressed with how your art looks, very stylized but clean and engaging. I'll keep reading... !- mh
Dan Goldman
70.  dangoldman
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday April 06, 2010 09:12am EDT
We've decided to take RLP biweekly for the remainder of the novel, guys; it's a lot of work to knock out every week and the extra time will mean I can release chapters just the way I want them.

There's so much more coming up soon; everybody having fun so far...?
DEAN HASPIEL
71.  Avagara
Thursday April 08, 2010 10:23pm EDT
Just finding out about RLP (thanks to shout out from Ryan Roman). Takes a really, really long time to load from the beginning, but well worth the wait.
DEAN HASPIEL
72.  Schmurgen Jonerhaffs
Saturday April 10, 2010 03:33pm EDT
I didn't like it.
Dan Goldman
73.  dangoldman
VIEW ALL BY · Monday April 19, 2010 08:13am EDT
Hey party peoples: I've also set up a Facebook group for RED LIGHT PROPERTIES for us to keep in touch easier.

I've already posted a bunch of interviews and behind-the-scenes materials there, with more to come as the story progresses.
Jim Adcock
74.  dlairman
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday April 22, 2010 11:06pm EDT
Wow. disappointed that the usual panel transitions weren't a part of the show this week.
DEAN HASPIEL
75.  Gonzila
Saturday April 24, 2010 04:00pm EDT
Christine's Roti Shop!
DEAN HASPIEL
76.  foomf
Friday May 21, 2010 10:30am EDT
I love the click-panel delivery, but it would be cool if there was a checkbox for turning it on or off.

The comic art is really rather gritty and disturbing and perfect for the story. I love it.
DEAN HASPIEL
77.  Omar aka lando calrizzle
Friday May 21, 2010 01:44pm EDT
talking reptiles are never good!

does 2012 homeboy live in the roads area near the gables? He reminds me of many "healers" I have met who need to be healed more than most non healers! its sorta like those psychologists that you can tell really need a good psychologist, they are more of a threat than a blessing..
Either way they fit in with miami and all its hectic energy!

Great read. Keep em coming Luke..
Jennifer Kendzior
78.  irisclara
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday May 27, 2010 01:40pm EDT
Stuck on pg 65. I like the click panels but I've been waiting for almost 15 minutes for page 65 to load. Help!
Dan Goldman
79.  dangoldman
VIEW ALL BY · Friday May 28, 2010 03:48pm EDT
@irisclara Hang in there; I've been working closely with Tor.com's programmers to refine this new comics experience, and I think we've figured out some flaws in the reader's design that we're correcting now.

There's a major improvement coming this Tuesday 6/1 with serious refinements in the weeks following; I do hope you stick around for the fireworks.

---love---> d!
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