HEADLINES
- FLEEN is still looking for creators to participate in their statistical analysis project – the deadline is January 31st. This could provide an interesting snapshot of webcomics overall circa end-of-2006 if they can get a statistically significant set of data to work with.
- Sarah Ellerton, creator of Inverloch,took a new system admin job that leaves her less time for to work on the webcomic. She's also comments on her commitment to finishing Inverloch:
I'm going to be up front and honest and say that drawing Inverloch no longer holds the joy for me that it used to. Don't worry, I intend to finish it – I'm so close to the end, after all (which I think is probably part of the problem). I just don't want to hear people bugging me about updates and such. It doesn't help the motivation levels. Anyway, I hope that explains the lack of update regularity lately, as well as my absence from the forums and the dozens of unanswered emails.
IF IT QUACKS LIKE A DUCK?
Dirk Deppey posts the results of his look at the recent "marketing" campaign by Platinum Studios on behalf of its debut title Cowboys & Aliens. So far my reaction would be characterized as "zzzz….".
No disrespect meant there to Journalista! – which should be commended for doing actual solid journalism on this story – but I can't seem to get too worked up about this. In a nutshell, it's fairly clear that Platinum spent money to get C&A into stores and that different stores used that money in different ways (some stores may have used it to give away or deeply discount the books but either allegation doesn't seem to have been confirmed by anyone). This isn't an unheard of practice in other content distribution models, such as books, movies (DVDs), music (CDs), (and even sports (tickets)) where "marketing coops" between publishers and retail outlets are standard practice.
At the end of the day it seems to me that books leaving stores and getting into customers' hands is a sale. (Maybe that's my webcomic perspective speaking though – we start with the idea that getting a reader counts – even if you give the webcomic away for free!) Admittedly it might not be a profitable sale, but still a book getting in front of a reader. And given Platinum's multimedia business strategy that might actually be the primary focus of what Platinum's trying to do. If this offends some idea of "purity" on the sales charts well I'd like to understand what this "purity" meant before Platinum showed up and for starters, I'd like to see some investigation of Marvel and DC to ensure that they're also "pure".
- Gilead also weighs in on the Platinum Studios Cowboys & Aliens best selling comic book-or-not story, although with a webcomic-centric take on things. (Also be sure to update your book marks as Gilead has moved to webcomicker.com)
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
- The Contra Code is a pretty funny send-up of an old Nintendo game and it's legendary "cheat code". It was also recently Joystiq.com's comic of the week.
- Speaking of Platinum Studios, D.J. Coffman's Hero By Night has an 11 page preview up of its forthcoming first comic book issue. The "prequel" webcomic Hero By Night Diaries has been running at Drunk Duck.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Bomb Shelter has a podcast about the recently terminated Webcomics Idol contest.
- FLEEN interviews Ben Stirling, who writes and draws Patrick Grey, Online.
- Gone With The Blastwave goes on hiatus as its creator, Kimmo Lemetti, goes into service for 6-12 months with the Finland Defense Forces. Lemetti also indicates he's ready to put out a book based on the first 32 pages of the webcomic. Let's all hope Lemetti's time in the military is nothing like GWTB.
- Be sure to check out Unityflow's sprite comic on "spriteness".
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