Did Go Comics GO?

[Lee Houston, Junior]

I usually read most comic strips online daily through Go Comics dot com.

However since Friday afternoon (November 18) only the following message appears against an otherwise totally blank screen.

"The requested service is temporarily unavailable. It is either overloaded or under maintenance. Please try again later."

Anyone else having similar problem(s) or know what's going on?

Thanks in advance if you reply.

[Richard Willis]

Good timing on your question. I also read newspaper comics online and have been getting the same message,

I did a Google search and found this:

GoComics Down “Due to…Cybersecurity Issues” The Daily Cartoonist

Apparently they are dealing with a security issue and will be back as soon as it is resolved.

[Lee Houston, Junior]

Well apparently it's not just the Go Comics site itself but places that Andrew McMeel supplies content for as well because I've tried alternate sources since I first posted this and haven't had much better luck in regards to some specific strips either.

[Richard Willis]

The link seems to indicate that Andrews McMeel was the site that was compromised and it affected sites related to it.

[Richard Willis]

Go Comics and the separate Dilbert.com are finally back.

[Lee Houston, Junior]

Go Comics is having another problem week.

For whatever reason(s), a lot of strips that should be brand new are stuck doing reruns from December 5-10, 2016 because they fell on the same weekdays as this week in 2022 does.

Whatever is going on also affects other websites carrying the same strips, so better luck next week seeing what should have been presented this week.

[Richard Willis]

I see what you mean. Some of today's strips have today's date and others have 2016 dates. 

I don't think they (Andrews McMeel) explained what happened when they went offline. Were they hacked? Was it ransomware? Maybe whatever they had to do to solve that problem created this problem?

[Richard Willis]

Apparently, the "glitch" also prevented the new comics from getting to the print newspapers, See article.

November Glitch Causes December Reruns at AMS The Daily Cartoonist

[Lee Houston, Junior]

So far everything I've heard backs up your December 6 post Richard. Andrews McMeel Syndicate has never explained (or apologized for the temporary suspension of services caused by) the original tech glitch's origin although this week's "problem" is a consequence of the November situation.

It isn't affecting Sunday strips (yet) since those are on a different deadline schedule but it makes me wonder if any seasonal installments are now going to be later than planned (like celebrating Christmas the first week of January) and what will AMS do the next time this might happen? There's bound to be some unhappy newspapers and readers as it is.

[Richard Willis]

..... what will AMS do the next time this might happen?

If they have any integrity, they have skilled professionals working hard at fixing this and making sure it doesn't reoccur.

I referenced our discussion and the Daily Cartoonist comments on the All-purpose newspaper strips discussion - Captain Comics (ning.com) thread.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Candorville took note of the Go Comics problems today:

[Richard Willis]

And the guys are talking about the first problem.

ClarkKent_DC said:

Candorville took note of the Go Comics problems today:

[Richard Willis]

Darrin Bell went to King Features in the nick of time!