Dave Harper of Multiversity Comics posts some of the reactions from a few of the Zuda creators (David Gallaher, Peter Timony, Caanan Grall, Brock Heasley, James Fosdike, Niki Smith) upon hearing the news of Zuda’s demise. (h/t Robot 6) David Gallaher (High Moon, reviewed here) and Brock Heasley (Monsterplex, the non-Zuda SuperFogeys which was reviewed here) have posted on this site in the past, making their accounts of the matters somewhat personal.

Gallaher is more collected, since High Moon has established a bit of a name for itself.

David Gallaher: Zuda lives on – both as an imprint — and as a community of innovation professionals that embrace ‘no fear’. For aspiring professionals and the industry as a whole I think it should be q wake up call to not hold back with your art and storytelling. Be bold, be fearless — find like-minded creators and go forward!

On a personal note, I’ve always wanted to read the entirety of High Moon at some point. Looks like I’ll have to wait to get an iPad.

Brock’s reaction, on the other hand, is rather pained. He’d just won a contract February of this year, and he’s now considering talking to DC to get the rights to Monsterplex back.

Brock Heasley (writer of February 2010′s winner Monsterplex): I felt like I’d been kicked by a mule. I got word via official email (like the rest of the dispatched creators) about a half hour before the rest of the world found out and it was…not what I was hoping for. I mean, I’d be lying if I said that it was completely unexpected. I had my suspicions something was coming after the competitions were shut down in April, but to shut us down so completely before we even got a chance to produce more pages (Monsterplex won the February competition and had been in a holding pattern since then), that’s what really stung at first. I don’t expect the world to be fair, but by any reasonable estimation we got handed a raw deal. That said, we were luckier than most and I recognize that. We did win and that will always be so.

But for a lot of them, there was also an air of inevitability. While the news was surprising, the writing was already on the wall. To quote Mr. Heasley, “this is a sad day for webcomics.”

WHAT? (Care of The Beat)

Apparently, Zuda is no more. It’s being folded into DC Digital, which means Zuda’s webcomic status is revoked. The website has been shut down. (The brand apparently still exists, but … I don’t have high hopes for it existing much longer myself.)

Oh, MAN. I really admired the independent spirit of the Zuda creators, so having it being absorbed into the parent company is an incredible downer for me. Goodbye, Zuda Comics website. You were too beautiful … and Flash reliant … for this world.

Here’s the official announcement on the Zuda blog from Ron Perazza.

Also, the Techland blog reveals the likely fate of Zuda’s existing titles:

Already available through the new platforms are original Zuda launch titles Bayou and High Moon, with John Zito and Tony Trov’s Black Cherry Bombshells, Dan Govar’s Azure, Andy Belanger’s Bottle of Awesome, Sheldon Vella’s Supertron, and Adam Atherton’s Lily of the Valley announced to follow. Meanwhile, BleedingCool.com’s Rich Johnston has a round-up of tweets from other Zuda creators that suggest that their strips will not be continuing in this new format, and the ZudaComics.com URL already redirects to Perazza’s post on the Zuda blog, meaning that archives of any strips, continuing or canceled, are no longer available.

In closing, twas the iPad that killed zudacomics.com. Well, at least it lasted longer than the Microsoft Kin.