One Word or Two?: NYCC 2007's "Web Comics" Panel
How come, asked Gary Tyrell, the organizers of the New York Comic-Con had put together a webcomics panel that, "featured no actual webcomics creators?"
New York 2007's webcomics panel was certainly like no other. Even the grammar in the panel's title-- "Web Comics" rather than "Webcomics"-- gave that away. The usual formula, repeated by many conventions over the last five years, has been to gather a group of writers, artists or writer-artists who speak to an audience of their fans. NYCC attempted, possibly for the first time, to represent a corporate perspective.
The results were hardly earth-shattering. No one had a dramatic change in business model to announce-- that would happen elsewhere at the con, later. (Marvel and Top Cow's initiatives, while still not earth-shattering, deserve pieces of their own and will get them in due course.) But the panel was an interesting look at a culture that has its eye trained on digital distribution, but shares almost nothing else with the independent cartoonists and commentators who often refer to themselves as "the webcomics community." Call it "the web comics community." If you like.
Continued on Broken Frontier.
New York 2007's webcomics panel was certainly like no other. Even the grammar in the panel's title-- "Web Comics" rather than "Webcomics"-- gave that away. The usual formula, repeated by many conventions over the last five years, has been to gather a group of writers, artists or writer-artists who speak to an audience of their fans. NYCC attempted, possibly for the first time, to represent a corporate perspective.
The results were hardly earth-shattering. No one had a dramatic change in business model to announce-- that would happen elsewhere at the con, later. (Marvel and Top Cow's initiatives, while still not earth-shattering, deserve pieces of their own and will get them in due course.) But the panel was an interesting look at a culture that has its eye trained on digital distribution, but shares almost nothing else with the independent cartoonists and commentators who often refer to themselves as "the webcomics community." Call it "the web comics community." If you like.
Continued on Broken Frontier.
Posted at
8:48 PM
4 Comments:
It astonishes me to no end how people are shocked to hear that ad revenue drives webcomics. As if it didn’t already drive TV, radio, comic books, etc. There is an old saying that should be taken to heart. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Coffman here... Just wanted to add, and I know it'll sound like cheerleading, but efh it... something for you to consider, and maybe it's not something that's common knowledge. But the only person on that panel who is PAYING someone to produce a webcomic was Scott Rosenberg. And to the best of my knowledge, Platinum is the first to think this way, and may actually pursue other titles and pay
I think it's pretty common knowledge by now! But it's easy to split hairs with Platinum. Rosenberg is actually listed as the creator of Cowboys and Aliens... but I think everyone's in agreement that there's a big difference between Scott Rosenberg and Your Average Webtoonist, and the former is more likely to fit into a corporate panel.
Similarly, I saw where you said you were invited, but it seems like your connection with Platinum would make that the exception that proves the rule.
Yeah, someone did e-mail me about it, I think back in early December? But travel was the last thing on my mind. Maybe I should get on more of these things and talk for a creators perspective. Most of what I hear is a lot of corporate babble with people with not a lot of experience with online publishing. (this could also be an amazing opportunity for other experienced webcomic guys to maybe help guide these bigger companies as well, and make a living doing so.)
Could you imagine if DC hired Scott McCloud as the online editor?? Hmm...
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