A couple of thoughts this morning on Michael Jantze’s break from the syndication model. I had an exchange of emails with his wife Nicole yesterday. Apart I think from a naive enthusiasm that the Jantzes were trying something new in the world of comics (although everything in the world of webcomics is still “newish” Jantze is trying out several revenue strategies already pioneered by others) she seemed to be passionate about working with Michael to support his ability to continue creating The Norm. Without naming a specific figure she did say that Michael desired to match his salary (from syndication revenues I guess. Any takers to try and calculate something like that?) and that as of yesterday they were 10% to that goal.
Scott McCloud weighed in on Tuesday with a supportive comment. T Campbell was also supportive in concept but made the fair point that we can “subscribe” to every comic (he indicated he would be giving his money to Jamie Robertson instead. Robertson, while never syndicated, is in a similar situation to Jantze).
I also noticed that the pitch for money on The Norm subscriber page is pricey by webcomics standards. I will be interested to see how that goes? Is Jantze asking too much? Are other popular webtoonists asking too little? How much cache comes from being a previously syndicated cartoonist?
UPDATE: Saw that Eric had also posted some similar thoughts on these recent developments earlier this week.
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