Business

Dave Alvarez recently announced that he has signed a syndication deal for his comic Yenny with Ucomics.com. Continue Reading →

Between Tycho’s and Howard Tayler’s Friday news posts, it appears that (1) Schlock Mercenary is doing much better keeping 100% of the revenues and paying the costs versus its deal at Keenspot (split revenues 50/50 and Keenspot pays costs); and (2) Google Ads have done well for Tayler so far.

Google ads has been inconsistent for Comixpedia. One thing we’ve tried recently is Blog Ads, which it’s too early to tell if it’s a fit with us. It was initially designed for blogs (hence the name) but it certainly seems to me at least it could be a good fit for webcomics (particularly webcomics with a well-defined audience) Continue Reading →

I happen to like Jason Kottke’s blog for the same reason I like Boing Boing and MetaFilter – it’s a gathering point on the web for interesting links I wouldn’t find on my own (for the most part). Kottke recently decided to make a go of blogging full-time and held a fund drive to raise a portion of the day job salary he was abandoning. He has a sort of funny, sort of illuminating post up on the results. Continue Reading →

Yirmumah is working a new corner, as today it launches what could be an all new model for webcomic creators. Sure other webcomics have had litte clubs before, but NOT like this one. READ FULL STORY- Continue Reading →

Penny Arcade’s Tycho posts about a blogger who took the bold step of adopting the “beg for change so I can do this fulltime” business plan. In this case, Tycho nails the self-importance of the blogosphere pretty well as webcomic creators are for the most part further along in business experimentation then other micro-publishing fields (this may have a lot to do with the lack of opportunity in “macro-publishing” in the comics field, but I digress…).

Also in regards to T Campbell’s last “History of Webcomics” installment, I believe Tycho (and Gabe had mentioned it to me earlier) is right in that although Something Positive gets a lot of credit for doing one of the first successful pledge drives, Penny Arcade did it first. Continue Reading →

Rich Burlew, creator of The Order of the Stick, has announced that he is quitting his dayjob to do OOTS fulltime. This as a result of getting more than 2000 preorders for the OOTS compilation.

News found through Websnark. Continue Reading →

T Campbell reports that he’s getting evicted in a couple months and it led him to muse on where to live.

This puts me in a strange situation– I have no day job, and the business classes I’m taking can be taken online. I’ve discovered– unfortunately– that I am no longer content taking jobs that are just “writing-related” or “editing-related” instead of being “comics-related,” so the Washington, D.C. area doesn’t hold quite as much attraction for me as it used to…. What this means is, I could pretty much live anywhere.

I’d like it to be somewhere comics-fertile, not too expensive, yet with enough things to do and see that you just have to get out in it, you know?

Also recently, Tycho commented about how the affordability of Spokane played a key role in the success of Penny Arcade.

So what’s the best place for a webtoonist to live and why? Continue Reading →

The Beat reports that Bill Jemas’ 360ep, a marketing and licensing management company, has signed Danielle Corsetto’s Girls with slingshots. 360ep will represent Corsetto’s webcomic for licensing and publishing opportunities and the webcomic will also join 360ep’s Herorealm.com lineup. Continue Reading →

Newspapers are struggling with how to make a go of it in an increasingly web-only world. Many employ a strategy of giving aways the news but charging for their archives. Coincidently that’s the strategy employed by the Modern Tales family of subscription websites.

A couple of plugged-in commentators (Dan Gillmor and Cory Doctorow) argue that for newspapers, both financial incentives and an appreciation of what it means to be a paper of record in the digital age mean that newspapers should give away their archives for free forever. Continue Reading →

The Pulse takes a look at the new business model of Michael Jantze’s The Norm.

Nicole Jantze told the Pulse “a lot” of subscribers signed on at more than the base $25 — and the final result was close enough to move ahead. “Michael decided to take a leap of faith and see what could happen.” They are still getting subscribers and expect more in the days and weeks to come.

Jantze succinctly sums up her husband’s ability to continue with new strips for pay as a huge victory. “It shows that with no marketing, a syndicated cartoonist can leave papers and still make a living,” she told the Pulse. Continue Reading →