Comix Talk

What’s the optimal business model for a webcomic?  Is there just one?  Hard to know for sure until someone does more work collecting sales and other revenue numbers (didn’t Gary once threaten to do something like that?) but we can at least talk about different approaches. 

Jim Munroe lays out his approach for his new graphic novel-length comic series, Sword Of My Mouth, which combines printing issue #1 (presumably more for exposure than for profit), digital subscription and pre-orders for the graphic novel:

Sword of My Mouth #1, the first part of the follow-up to my post-Rapture graphic novel Therefore Repent!, is now in stores and this weekend at TCAF. #1 will be the only print edition — issues #2-6 will be digital only, after which the complete story will be collected together and published as a printed graphic novel. So if you’d like to get them as they’re released bi-monthly through this year, you have two options — you can subscribe to the complete series in a digital format for $6 or pre-order the printed graphic novel for $12 and get a free subscription to the digital issues as well as some other goodies.

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I read my "regular" webcomic list through piperka.net but when I feel like trying something new I often look to sites that seem to be a cross between old-fashioned artist collectives and print anthologies.  Zuda, regardless of its contest hook, is a great place to check out lots of new stuff, ACT-I-VATE is also regularly pulling in new comics (as well as updating many existing ones) and Top Shelf 2.0 has some nice stuff as well.  There was a good review of the many great webcomics that have appeared at Smith Magazine’s website, including A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld and the more recent Next Door Neighbor project.  There is also always new stuff at Dark Horse’s MySpace Webcomic anthology, including a two-page Sinfest special this month.

Anyone want to throw out their current favorite spots?

REVIEWS
Cory Doctorow reviews the print collection of Dinosaur Comics.
Delos reviews The Horrible Pirates.
El Santo reviews Glam.

INTERVIEWS
A podcast interview with Kate Beaton and other artists at the recent TCAF in Toronto.

BUSINESS
Sean Kleefeld has a post on the potential fragility of Diamond’s future, given it’s heavy reliance on the business of Marvel and DC.

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Another webcomic from the Whitechapel thread – Nathan Sorry by Rich Barrett is a gripping little tale so far (only 13 pages).  Hard to nitpick really – the opening scene in the Phoenix airport on the day of 9/11 could have been a little tighter in places I guess (but just a little).  Otherwise I like the art, nice dialogue, pacing (with the small nitpick above) is good – Rich Barrett is good with a beat.  Here’s some more from the about page:

A missed flight on the morning of 9/11 leaves Nathan Sorry with $3 million and the chance to be someone else. Two months later a stranger named James Goode shows up in a small town in North Carolina and changes the lives of a handful of residents.

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Mitz’ Plan B is one of the first (the first?) webcomics plugged on Warren Ellis’ webcomics thread at Whitechapel.  It is a great find — fun art with a good twist on superhero stuff.  Veronica is a super-villian with motivations.  So far it’s just good stuff – good pacing, nice dialogue, plausible world-building in it.  I WISH Mitz would set up a proper webcomic-style navigation for this, but that’s my one quibble.

Definitely worth checking out.

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COLLECTIVE ‘LECTIVE
TNPPress launches (it’s a reboot of The Noir) — a webcomic collective and community.  Live long and draw good comics!

INTERVIEWS
Comics Worth Reading interviews Gina Biggs of Red String.
Comics Worth Reading interviews Kevin Church of snarky blogging and the comic about a comic book shop, The Rack.
Chris Irving interviews Joe Infurnari of The Process and Ultralad.

BUSINESS
I read Sean Kleefeld’s description of also-ran comic book distributor Haven and I don’t think anything he points to justifies the optimistic tone he takes.  The one thing that’s very true about comics is how easy it is to set up shop in comics.  It means it’s easy for a couple of people to start a business and get noticed.  It doesn’t really say much about the actual viability of the business plan.

JUSTIFY YOUR OWN HYPE
Warren Ellis invites webcomic creators to pitch their work to his vast hordes of readers.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Blake Chen’s The Twiight Lady looks interesting — about a year’s worth of archives right now.  Self-described as "Twilight Lady is about an immortal soul trapped in the prison of the body." It’s got poseur-style artwork going on – a little stiff at times but overall I didn’t find it too problematic.  At a point where it seems like Chen is catching a good groove with the work and worth checking out.

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Slapdashing the news since 2003!

REVIEWS
Comicmix reviews the table-top geekery of Full Frontal Nerdity.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Lea Ada Franco’s Rumble Girls opens today.  Subscribe and read it here.

FACEBOOK FANDANGO
Help Brian McFadden (Big Fat Whale) win the Facebook Fans editorial cartoonists race.

PODCASTANETS
This Week in Webcomics has a comic that goes along with the podcast.  Nice idea, but I’m not sure it added a whole lot.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
Brigid Alverson has a round-up of publishers’ digital comics efforts.

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At this weekend’s Toronto Comicsapoolza, the Doug Wright awards were presented:

• Best Emerging Talent Award: Kate Beaton, Hark! A Vagrant
• Best Book Award: Jillian & Mariko Tamaki, Skim
• Pigskin Peters Award: Matthew Forsythe, Ojingogo

(h/t to The Comics Reporter)

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Hey have a great weekend everyone!  If you want to keep up with even smaller-sized updates from me subscribe to my twitter feed.

THEORY
Scott McCloud posted a short bit about the "default" shape of comics – in response to the single-sheet-of-paper-like dimensions of the new Kindle DX.  Interesting 50+ comment thread ensues.  Grab a cup of coffee first…

PUBLISHING
I’m not sure this is THAT interesting — a publisher called PictureBox put out a press release that they’ll be giving a deluxe package to people who pre-order their two new graphic novels.  It’s not clear that PictureBox is relying on the pre-orders in order to raise the funds to print the books, but it seems likely from the way the press release is phrased.  This seems like a fairly common strategy for indy web-oriented creators these days, especially as a means to gauge actual fan support for print versions of webcomics.

MARKETING
Daryl Cagle writes about his decision to add support for embedding into his political cartoon syndication site.  Let me just suggest given the very nature of the Internet that everything is embeddable (legality aside for a sec) and everyone really needs to ask themselves how to deal with it.  A long time ago, I (and a lot of other practicing cartoonists), probably fell on the side of keeping the comics on the website created for them, but nowadays I think I would want my work to appear wherever it could.

CONVENTIONS
I really wish I was going to the Toronto comics convention this weekend (TCAF) — it has a fantastic lineup of artists.  Journalista! links to a bunch of ’em: Ross Campbell, Diana Tamblyn, Chip Zdarsky, Jason Thompson, Ramon Perez, Valerie Sury, Eric Wight, Frank Cammuso, Zen Rankin, Michael J. Hind, Dustin Harbin, Joe Bluhm, Jason Turner, Jim Zubkavich, Rina Piccolo…

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
Nerd Girl does not like Tim Buckley or his webcomic Ctrl-Alt-Del.  Don’t get her started!

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Happy Birthday Box Brown!

INTERVIEWS
Faith Erin Hicks of Ice and The War At Ellsmere!
Gina Biggs of Red String!
Art Spiegelman of Maus!

TOOLS
Both Brigid Alverson and Brian Alvey have posts about the new larger size (but still no support for color) Kindle DX.

Dead Trees
Jon Rosenberg’s book, Goats: Infinite Typewriters, is available for pre-order.  It come out June 23rd.

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Just got a review copy of the Side B Anthology in the mail.  This looks very good – can’t wait to start reading.  I’ll have a proper review up soon.  Here’s the blurb from the Publisher’s website:

Music touches our lives every day. It is an influential and defining part of all generations and cultures. We have compiled an anthology full of stories about the influence that music can have on life – be it the life of the artist as and individual or on the creative process.

Over 200 pages of lost lovers, rocking out, spirit guides, ghosts, and dinosaurs – it’s like an action adventure comic for the music lover in all of us. (Edited by Rachel Dukes, published by Poseur Ink.)

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