No, he hasn't been locked up, pulled over, or buried under a collapsed bookshelf of "Understanding Comics."
Scott McCloud is giving away parts 1 & 2 of his graphic novel "The Right Number" here, and intends to put part 3 alongside them when it's completed.
Web comics are nothing new (in fact, I also have an unfinished graphic novel online-- as I'm assuming do most people who have ever dipped their feet in that pond) and they're especially not new to McCloud, who was one of the earliest comic artists to seize the internet for his own devices (and, because he's Scott McCloud and has always done things with a bigger picture than himself in mind, the devices of the entire comics community).
But what's really interesting to me is that before giving it away, McCloud tried a micropayments distribution system to get it out there. He's one of the few artists (though the number is recently growing) who could probably walk in just about anywhere and be handed a book deal. He didn't really need to figure out a way to get around the system, but he chose to anyway. And when his micropayments processor Bitpass folded, he gave it away instead.
You might argue that he's in a position to do this precisely because he is well known enough to get handed a book deal in the first place. Fair enough. But the primary reason he's gotten this far is his constant practice, and encouragement of it in others, to shift their perspectives and try something new. So if you go and read "The Right Number," don't think of it as just another web comic; it's another step in the process of a continually evolving experiment. And we'll see what format part 3 eventually takes...
More in-depth information at boing boing.
i guess i really applaud mccloud's enthusiasm and frantic comic boo advocacy, but really, I wish he just would make better comics.