Business

In this edition of Permanent Damage, we get a breakdown of the Marvel/DC market share and how Wizard cannot and should not rely on that market share to justify it’s almost exclusive coverage of Marvel/DC to the exclusion of all other publishers. Continue Reading →

Okay not death exactly, but the slow, painfully analog rituals of the newspaper feature syndicate sales market. An interesting story about selling comics to newspapers caught by Dirk Deppey today. Continue Reading →

Starting this week, anxious readers can purchase access to a new desktop picture featuring the artwork to the upcoming fourth chapter of The Circle Weave. The artwork for the new cover features a mysteriously glowing image of Rowan, sword raised in preparation for battle. Behind him can be seen the image of a large, tangled mass emerging from the misty wood.

The new picture is available at http://www.circleweave.com/bricabrac/desktops.shtml, but unlike the other desktop pictures there, this one is not available for free. Series creator Indigo Kelleigh has chosen to make the download for each individual screen resolution available for the cost of a five-cent ‘donation’, made possible thanks to the new micropayment solution called BitPass (http://www.bitpass.com). Continue Reading →

In this essay on the disruptive effect of weblogs on the publishing industry, Clay Shirky doesn’t mention comics or webcomics at all, but to the extent he is right, it’s hard to see how his insights do not apply to comics as a subset of publishing generally. Continue Reading →

Komikwerks, a leader in digital distribution of creator-owned comics, and Circle of Confusion, a management and production company, have announced a strategic alliance to manage, co-produce and develop comic-book properties to film, TV, video games.

Circle of Confusion manages such diverse talent as the Wachowski Bros., the Reign of Fire writers Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterka, and comic-book creator Brian Michael Bendis. Under the terms, Circle of Confusion will represent Komikwerks and its contributors in a management capacity, as well as a producing partner on some selected ventures.

“Circle of Confusion has an impressive roster of clients, and a track record of working with great comic talent; it’s an honor to be working with them,” says Komikwerks co-founder Shannon Denton.

“This arrangement continues to extend our original goal as a publisher, which is to allow independent creators access to resources that are usually only available to the larger publishers. We’re thrilled about this partnership,” added Komikwerks co-founder Patrick Coyle. Continue Reading →

Slashdot provides more musings on micropayments, including Bitpass, the new system used by Scott McCloud for The Right Number webcomic.

UPDATE Almost missed this NY Times article also on micropayments that also mentions the McCloudster. One thing the article mentions that I think has not been previously reported on is that McCloud owns a small part of Bitpass:

When the BitPass founders showed him their plan, he said he liked it and agreed to use BitPass to sell comics on his Web site (www.scottmccloud.com) and to serve as an adviser. He now also owns a small, undisclosed stake in the company. Continue Reading →

I often think of blogs as webcomics’ more verbose, less flashy cousin. There are countless parallels between blogs and webcomics and I often find insights into blogs providing some new way to think about webcomics.

Clay Shirky wrote an article on the inevitable inequality of audience distribution in the “blogosphere” and it does seem to have some relevance to webcomicland as well. Do webcomics follow a power law distribution? Continue Reading →

Jim Zubcavich’s Makeshift Miracle, the equivalent of a 172 page graphic novel, can be purchased via the web for 99 cents using Bitpass, the same system Scott McCloud is using to sell chapters of “The Right Number.” Continue Reading →

Todd Allen has an essay on micropayments entitled Micropayments and Web Comics: Let’s Do the Math. Allen’s article tackles the resurgent issue of the micropayments model for webcomics:

How does the revenue generated from a micropayment compare to the revenue generated from a print comic?

What generates more revenue a web comic book or a web comic strip? Continue Reading →

Good post on making and promoting a new webcomic on the Ledgermain messageboard.

Why do a web comic? You know, I ask myself that every day… Just kidding. We do webcomics because its fun. There really is no other reason. You aren’t going to expect to make money off of it or get famous. Its just fun. ^_^ Continue Reading →