They didn’t invent the concept of comic books on the internet and they’re not the first subscription based site online, but twelve popular cartoonists are betting that readers will be willing to pay $15 a year to enjoy their work. They have combined their efforts to put their money where their mouths are.
Beginning in January 2004, PV Comics is planning to serve up six complete stories every month, totaling on average 48 pages of new comics for their readers. With twelve diverse and experienced talents making up their roster, these won’t be any cookie-cutter comic books.
PV Comics is a reinvention of Protean Void Comics, the brand name of Logan DeAngelis, creator of fan favorite, KU-2. Following his initial webcomic launch in March of 2001, Logan was joined by friends Efrem Alston and Jay Mcleod under the Protean Void banner. Together they built a small but successful webcomics hub which updated three days a week for years. When other online cartoonists started talking to the Void creators, a common ground was discovered.
“Out of a sizeable group of creators I met during the first couple of years making KU-2, very few of them made a living as full-time cartoonists,” said DeAngelis, who has worked in advertising for years while pursuing his passion for creating comics. “Almost all of them were like me: punching a
time clock Monday through Friday to pay the bills, so they could burn the
midnight oil and tell their stories at night. It’s challenging to keep up
your momentum like that for very long.”
Charging visitors for reading their webcomics seemed the obvious
solution for creators hoping to make a living at their craft, but what was the
best way to achieve that goal? “When a few of us put our heads together we decided that offering complete stories every week for the smallest price possible was the way to go,” explains DeAngelis. “We started with a base price: $1 for the year for each cartoonist involved, and went from there. With 12 contributors and no middlemen, we’re excited that our yearly subscription rate of $15 is a very affordable price. That $15 shakes out to almost 600 pages of new comics over the course of the year; that’s only pennies a page!”
The eleven other creators couldn’t agree more. In addition to Jay Mcleod, whose Migrayn comic has been with Protean Void since 2002, PV Comics is now home to some well known names in the webcomics world, such as Nate Piekos, creator of the popular Blambot Comic Fonts, and DJ Coffman, veteran of numerous print and webcomic features. Flash comic creators Matt Johnson and Steven James Taylor are balanced by the traditional print styles of Dan Larson, Brian Meredith and Tom Stackpole. Upcoming content ranges from the critically acclaimed cartoons of New Zealander Bob Corona, to adaptations of Shakesperean works by Brandon J. Carr and the short stories of Amy Kim Ganter. Since cutting edge websites don’t build themselves, PV Comics’ unsung hero and thirteenth member, Canadian web guru Stuart Robertson, has written custom code to power the back end of the site and make it sing.
Additional subscriber incentives are planned, such as discounts on the upcoming print volumes that PV Comics already has in the works for 2004. These print issues will contain all new stories by the twelve collaborators and feature painted covers by Alfredo Lopez, Jr.
If you’re a comics reader, a price tag of $1 for a 48 page comic is something you won’t see on the news stands again. But Logan DeAngelis and the rest of the PVC collaborators think it’s the best value in webcomics. PV Comics launches on Monday, January 5, 2004.
http://www.pvcomics.com
“Twelve popular cartoonists are betting that readers will be willing to pay $1 a year to enjoy their work.”
From this, many people might assume that the price of PV Comics is $1.00 for a year’s subscription to all 12 cartoonists… certainly an enviable deal, but not what’s being offered. Nor do readers have the option to pay $1 for each individual cartoonist, nor will they pay $12 for 12 cartoonists. Instead, they’ll pay $15 for the year. To my eyes, this looks like bait-and-switch. I’m more reluctant to pay than I would have been if they’d just TOLD me, up front, that a subscription was 15 dollars.
I really admire some of the guys involved with PV Comics, so I hope they can overcome these press glitches and move forward. But this isn’t the best way to get started.
T,
At first I was surprised to read what seemed to be a misinterpretation of the press release – but upon going back and re-reading what was posted, I believe I should instead thank you for a much needed editorial catch.
The first draft of the press release did in fact open with the line “Twelve popular cartoonists are betting that readers will be willing to pay $1 a year to enjoy their work,” but early on it was pointed out that this might confuse some people who may not be inclined to read the entire release, it was re-written and subsequently released with the final wording of “twelve popular cartoonists are betting that readers will be willing to pay $15 a year to enjoy their work.” It also doesn’t help that what was posted above looks like a truncated copy of even the first draft; this important paragraph (which has appeared in all copies of the press release) is missing: “We started with a base price: $1 for the year for each cartoonist involved, and went from there. With 12 contributors and no middlemen, we’re excited that our yearly subscription rate of $15 is a very affordable price. That $15 shakes out to almost 600 pages of new comics over the course of the year; that’s only pennies a page!”
Believe me, every copy of our press release that has been sent out since that first draft reflects these corrections. The last thing we would want to do is try to fool anyone with a false admission price, or pull any sort of bait-and-switch. And of course, it’s very clearly marked in multiple places on the PV Comics site – especially on the Subscription page – exactly how much a 1 year subscription costs.
We’re still just taking our first steps now, so I hope everyone has a bit of patience if we stumble now and then. I’d like to thank you once more for the catch on this – we’ll get it changed here right away
Logan DeAngelis
PV Comics
A gracious reply and a proper correction, Logan. Best of luck!
First off, my apologies for the odd trunciation — there was a glitch in the HTML which resulted in a tag bug, which resulted in much of the text not appearing. This has now been fixed.
In addition, the 1$/15$ thing has been changed to reflect the accurate price.
As EIC, I apologize for the trunciation bit, as it certainly didn’t help with first impressions. I’ll see what I can do to make it up to you, Logan. The Comixpedia is here among other reasons to help people promote their work, not hinder it.
Hey, thanks for the quick assistance, Damonk! I figured it was a copy/paste error or something. Appreciate you setting things right. I know Comixpedia is great about getting the word out to the readers! 🙂
Logan
Thanks, Anonymous Gender-Neutral Fan! (Mind if I just call you “AGNF” for short?) Everyone involved in PV Comics is just incredibly excited right now, and it’s great to hear that folks like the look of things. 🙂
Hey, least I could do, T! Thanks again for the catch and for the wellwishes!
Logan
Heh.
I love that I seem to have spelled ‘truncate’ with an i… twice.
I think I need a good brain reset.
Heh. THREE times, even.
Apparently, my math skills are also suffering today… O_o
Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious what the site costs. And its a hell of a deal for that type of quality. Kudos to you guys and good luck!