ACT-I-VATE was an American webcomics collective based on an original idea by Dean Haspiel and founded by Haspiel and seven other cartoonists. It started out on the blogging platform Livejournal, and then moved to its own dedicated website.
ACT-I-VATE panel at the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival. Seated left to right on chairs are Joe Infurnari, Simon Fraser, Tom Hart, Dean Haspiel, Nathan Schreiber, Molly Crabapple, Tim Hamilton, and Jeff Newelt, acting as moderator. On the edge of the stage are Leland Purvis and Rami Efal.
Dean Edmund Haspiel is an American comic book artist, writer, and playwright. He is known for creating Billy Dogma, The Red Hook, and for his collaborations with writer Harvey Pekar on his American Splendor series as well as the graphic novel The Quitter, and for his collaborations with Jonathan Ames on The Alcoholic and HBO's Bored to Death. He has been nominated for numerous Eisner Awards, and won a 2010 Emmy Award for TV design work.
Dean Haspiel at Asbury Park Comicon 3
Haspiel at the 2012 Comic New York symposium at Columbia University. Sitting with Haspiel are (left to right) Danny Fingeroth, Miss Lasko-Gross, Al Jaffee and Tracy White.