Business
Making money with webcomics. Seriously!
360ep Signs Danielle Corsetto's Girls With Slingshots
Submitted by Erik Melander on January 25, 2005 - 14:12
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.
Charge for Archives or Keep Them Up For Free?
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 25, 2005 - 11:39
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.
A Look At The Norm's New Business Model
Submitted by Erik Melander on January 24, 2005 - 16:59
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.
Broken Saints Now On DVD
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 28, 2004 - 20:47
Broken Saints is the Sundance Film Festival Award-winning and critically-acclaimed groundbreaking Web epic.
Now the techno-spiritual saga is available on DVD with completely revamped art and effects, a 5.1 Dolby Surround remix of the entire series (including optional VOICE NARRATION from industry pros including William B Davis (THE X FILES), Kirby Morrow (DRAGONBALL Z), David Kaye (BEAST WARS), Michael Dobson (TRANSFORMERS ARMADA), and Emmy Award Winner Janyse Jaud) and over 4 HOURS of additional features including Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes, documentaries, Fan Films, Concept Galleries, and Slideshows.
Webcomics VS Newspaper Syndication: Round Three
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 15, 2004 - 15:46
The storming of the traditional syndication comicstrip kingdom by the webcomic Visigoths storyline that kicked off with Scott "PvP" Kurtz's announcement at San Diego and continued with Keenspot starting up "KeenSyndicate" enters a new, well snarkier, phase.
Kicking off things is Tuesday's installment of Wiley's Non Sequitur, a strip widely enough available that most Americans have probably heard of even if it's not in their newspaper. Although it is a straightforward gag, anyone who has read Wiley's comments regarding Kurtz's efforts to place PvP in newspapers can't help but assume that Wiley also meant today's strip as a dig at Kurtz and webcomics generally. Kurtz himself comments on it today as does Eric Burns.
This is also a good excuse to link to Tom Spurgeon's essay on these issues, posted just this Sunday. Update: I forgot to include this other Websnark entry on this issue which is also quite a good read.
Money Money Money: Need Some, Got Some
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 8, 2004 - 14:50
An update on recent fundraising drives around webcomicland.
Greg Dean is currently raising money to buy new servers for his popular webcomic Real Life.
Joe England of Zebra Girl is about 1/3 of the way to the stated goal of his fundraiser and Michael Jantze of The Norm is more than 1/2 way to his January 1st goal..
Desmond Seah of Bigger Than Cheeses is not actually very close to his stated goal of 50 trillion dollars, but we wish him luck anyway.
And finally, from the success stories file, Jamie Robertson announced that enough fans had signed up for a Clan of the Cats membership that he could continue to devote the time to making the webcomic.
Penny and Aggie Go For Syndication
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 3, 2004 - 14:52
Penny and Aggie, the new strip from Legace and Campbell abruptly ended their Modern Tales run recently to move the work to Comics Sherpa and to more aggressively pursue a newspaper syndicate deal.
In contrast to novel approaches to selling comics in the newspaper space from Scott Kurtz and Keenspot, T Campbell explains why he is interested in the more traditional syndication model for Penny and Aggie.
TokyoPoP Rising Stars Contest Begins
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 1, 2004 - 11:58
The press release from TokyoPoP announces the start of the fifth Rising Stars of Manga competition. Deadline is February 15, 2005. Aspiring artists and writers are encouraged to submit their 15-to-20-page manga-along with completed entry forms-to TOKYOPOP for the chance to join the next generation of nationally published manga-ka. A handful of talented winners will score cash prizes and have their winning entries presented in the next Rising Stars anthology, to be published in Summer 2005.
This year's installment will add a brand-new People's Choice on-line component where the top 20 finalists will have their entire entries posted on the TOKYOPOP website and judged by the fans.
Dog Complex Gets U-Comics Syndication
Submitted by Al Schroeder on November 13, 2004 - 09:51
Dog Complex by Dave Johnson has been signed to a syndication contract by Universal Press' U-Comics page. More details at Johnson's site.
PVP in Kansas City Star?
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 22, 2004 - 23:47
Remember when Scott Kurtz made the announcement that he would be working to get PVP into newspapers?
Well it looks like PVP has taken its first beachhead in the land of newspapers comics. After publishing an article about Scott Kurtz last week, the Kansas City Star appears to have taken on the PVP strip for its PREVIEW entertainment section of the paper.
(Click read more to see a scan of PVP in the KC Star)
