Birthday Today!

I'm closer to death than ever! So let's write this real real quick before I get taken out to a meal "unexpectedly." Sorry, I'd make it shorter if I had more time.

Today's big news comes from my longtime friend Joey Manley and my friendly acquaintance Josh Roberts, who are merging almost everything they've ever done for comics into one new gigantic superproject, and getting investment capital for it. Joey has always been very honest about his strengths and weaknesses, and when he says this deal will help focus his strengths and compensate for his weaknesses, I think he knows what he's talking about. How the new "ComicSpace" will operate and integrate all Joey and Josh's old ideas-- and, presumably, lots of new ones-- is still an open question at this point, but I suspect further press releases are on their way.

Todd Allen has some interesting thoughts about the perception of Zuda as a "new talent initiative." Such "initiatives" are usually limited to people who are new to the company performing the initiative, and sometimes to people who are new to an entire market (either the direct market or the comics market). Zuda never quite promised to be such a thing, but the absence of any famous creator names in its early promotion, and the strong emphasis on a submission process, has led many creators to think of it that way, regardless. Now the announcement of Zuda's first wave has dispelled this perception. Some are displeased about this.

I don't think it's necessarily bad news for the people who are new to work for DC. Zuda still has a very open submission process, and it seems like it will be easier to get into than DC's other branches-- sheesh, it'd just about have to be.

The submitter leading this discussion thread seems disappointed that he's going up against work that's really good. Let's ignore the enormous selfishness of this sentiment-- really, did you expect Zuda's comics to suck for your convenience?-- and focus on whether this situation is really bad for amateur work.

It depends on how you define "amateur." If you mean hackwork, or work that betrays a certain inexperience, then yes, absolutely. But if you mean good work that happens not to be by a seasoned "pro," well, I'm not so sure. No one brags too loudly about being the best comic on Comic Genesis. If you're trying to get into Zuda and want it to be good for your long-term career, then you should be hoping that Zuda's stuff is as good as it can possibly be, not that Zuda should be strictly "amateur hour." If you just want money thrown at comics that you don't believe are good enough for prime time, then I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot of sympathy.

Broken Frontier has officially left Platinum. That's probably for the best. Platinum never used Broken Frontier in a ruthless way, and the non-ruthless uses didn't seem to provide Platinum much long-term benefit. Frederik Hautain, the once-and-now-again site owner, may miss his salary but otherwise seems to have adjusted.

Geez, this is never something I can do that quickly.

Favorite of the day: Ryan Estrada (yes, AGAIN) with "The Kind You Don't Take Home To Mother."

Submitted Without Comment

Script by T Campbell, art by Sam Romero.

10/26-10/27: Wikiboos

Favorite of the day: TEMPTATION... Neatly encapsulates the concept of Breakfast of the Gods, essentially League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for breakfast cereals. It's attempting a verrry delicate mix of grimness and goofiness, and it may not be for everyone, but it's sure for me.

Also, the conclusion of Joss Whedon's Sugarshock. A somewhat amateurish but honest gay love story (begins here). And a surprisingly touching metafictional third panel from Sinfest.

It's October, so it must be time to start planning the next Penny Arcade Expo. I'm still interested in getting more details about Ctrl+Alt+Del's con. C'mon, only four or five months to go, that's practically TOMORROW!

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at this article, which implies that inspiring a webcomic T-shirt is somehow more impressive than proving the Big Bang Theory and having Stephen Hawking call your research the most important work of the 20th or any century. Also, the article doesn't mention which webcomic ran the T-shirt, because they're all equally impressive. Talk about blowing webcomics' importance out of proportion.

Actually, let's talk about that some more.

Lively back-and-forth today between me and William G with regard to Wikipedia, fundraising and politics. William's position, as I understand it, is that webcomics' partisans inflate webcomics' importance beyond all reason (in part because it feeds their own sense of importance). I think William would also say that wherever fandom exists, this problem follows: fans of obscure horror movies and architectural trivia likewise demand more representation, turning Wikipedia into a smorgasbord of useful knowledge, useless trivia, outright lies and self-promotion-- in other words, turning it into the rest of the Internet.

On the other hand, we've got Xaviar Xerexes, who's probably been as close to the Wikipedia controversies as anyone, compiling a record of the more egregious webcomics-related Wikipedia edits, and of editors' bad habits.

I've wrestled with this issue for years and still haven't resolved it to my satisfaction. The Wikipedia deletion reviews often read like minutes from an OCD Asperger's council, but... of course most editors are compulsive. Who else would even attempt to do what they do?

What's new here is the notion that bad public relations with webcartoonists and their fans-- presumably mirrored in Wikipedia's relations with other interest groups-- might noticeably affect Wikipedia's bottom line. I've never heard that idea floated before, and it seems to be coming as a surprise to the Wikipedians, too. I'm not sure if the results will be a good thing for Wikipedia in the long run, but at least we can effect a change in policy.

William notes that Tayler's refused aid to a charity, comparing Wikipedia to Child's Play. But Wikipedia suffers from that comparison. Child's Play has a modest goal and, by all accounts I've read, achieves it spectacularly. Wikipedia's goal is quite ambitious, but the accounts of its achievements are a lot more mixed.

A few years ago, I did some writing for a couple of nonprofits. Demand for funding outstrips supply, so my job was to prove to large donors that these charities were deserving.

Proving that the goals were noble took about three sentences. Help the elderly? Enforce honesty in politics? Inform the world? You go, girl!

Proving the money was being spent wisely? That was 15-35 more pages. That is the challenge facing Wikipedia now. Its honeymoon with the press is long past. Today, it faces a long-entrenched culture of giving, which decides which organizations are "notable" and which aren't. And if it wants to get a "listing," it better learn to play by that culture's rules.

10/25: No, We Will Not Start Liking You Now

Memo to Platinum Studios: Turning your unpopularity into a jokey game may indeed deflect the worst of the criticism away from you for a little while. "Which Platinumite most deserves death?" Journalists and essayists like to be amused as much as anyone, and having Scott Rosenberg actually invite us to kill him in our imaginations does bring a reluctant smile.

But. You knew there was a "but." And here it is.

This PR move is focused on your unpopularity. It will actually spread the word about your unpopularity to the people who haven't paid much attention to it, so far. The ones who say "look what cool thing Platinum is doing now!" The Drunk Duck contributors, Drunk Duck readers, potential business partners, potential investors. And the people who haven't heard much about you yet.

All these people will see a MySpace page where you call yourself "one of the most notorious companies in comics today." I think that's going to come back to bite you.

And those of us who don't like you won't start liking you because you say "you don't like us!" in a funny tone of voice. That's not how it works.

It's not your employees that we want to shoot, Platinum. With the exception of Scott Rosenberg, we barely know who your employees are. (And that's why this contest isn't very interesting, because I can't see anyone but Scott winning it.) We hate things about you, not people. Others have fired upon your contracts, your management philosophy, your ratio of hype to published product. I was close to neutral about all that, until the day I saw you hyping the Entertainment Weekly sales figure that you had earlier admitted was a mistake. And now I can't trust you any more.

When I say "you," I am addressing Platinum Studios, an entity, a thing, a company that went back on its word after one of its employees swore to me it would not. I do not know whether the decision to go back on that word came from Rosenberg, or the person I talked to, or an unchecked marketing department, or someone else who manages these things, or someone who slipped it in while no one was looking to further an agenda of his own. And so I don't know who my least favorite Platinum employee should be. I don't know. And I couldn't care less.

Favorite of the day: (POUND POUND POUND!) "WHAT DOES A GIRL HAVE TO DO TO GET A DRINK AROUND HERE?"

But for sheer cartooning interest, nothing beats the out-of-print Bill Watterson.

I thought about creating a fake headline like this one, but I was worried people would take me seriously: xkcd death toll mounts. :-)

Zuda has announced its first one-year contract winner, Bayou by Jeremy Love.

"Oh, wait, you mean this friction between us and the webcartoonist community might result in their NOT HELPING US RAISE MONEY?"

10/24: Feed Me, Seymour

Been too distracted to finish up that T-shirt stuff, and I'm making no promises about when it'll be done. Today let's talk about RSS feeds. Webcomics need 'em. There, that was easy.

It amazes me that a few top cartoonists have yet to absorb this lesson. Thanks to you readers, I know that it is possible to jerry-rig a feed for my favorite comics using Feed43, but I would much rather read a feed created by the cartoonist.

When I suggest this, some seem to think I mean embedding a strip's artwork in the feed and robbing readers of any incentive to visit the actual site. Not so! At present, some do this, and some don't, and the only difference it makes to me as a feed-eater is a single mouseclick. Some cartoonists embed self-promotional messages in the feed and some don't. I'm not sure who's right. I'm not sure what's savvy and what's overbearing, what's push marketing and what's pull marketing. I would have said it was a good idea to try to track your feed's usage, but then I started reading some information which suggests that feed stats are about as flawed as web stats.

The one thing every pundit seems to be agreed upon, though, is JUST GET AN RSS FEED ALREADY.

Other stuff:

New father Paul Southworth doesn't seem distracted by diapers: his unlikely combo of corporate espionage, comedy and romance is some of the most entertaining stuff he's done. Today, he's my favorite. Second place: the best Penny Arcade in some time. Third place: "I can help."

I doubt this unusual interface is really the future of webcomics, but it sure would be nice to see someone play with the narrative possibilities of the "magnifying glass."

Via Journalista: Japan asks America to help crack down on online fan-dubs. Wouldn't this also affect online scanlations?

Zuda has announced its opening lineup. Strongly weighted toward action-adventure, as expected, despite the bad fit between small weekly installments and that genre in particular.

I've compared Zuda to AdventureStrips before, but the comparison seems more apt now. Some of the titles on that site were impressive, but the only one that seemed to catch and hold an audience was, well, mine, and I think that's because the action was suspenseful, minimizing the problem of those weeks-long gaps between punches and gunshots. Even so, Rip and Teri was quite a challenge to make work.

Execution is more important than concept, and maybe the creators of the Zuda strips have thought through these formatting issues as well as or better than I did with R&T... or than I am with my submission-in-progress. I hope so. But I fear otherwise, so I'm not expecting an explosive launch for the service. I think it'll need time to find its feet.

Comixpedia.org appears to have recovered from its server trouble, so I'll be spending part of tomorrow setting up the Cool Cat Studio entry. Unless one of you readers would be a dear?

Comics made on the cell phone? That's a new one on me.

The really important angle to this last story is that I'M GETTING MONEY OH YES YES YES CHA-CHING CHA-CHING.

Okay, I won't give Joey grief he hasn't earned. I have already received what is probably the lion's share of my due earnings for my work with Modern Tales, thanks to a couple of advances. And Joey offered this kind of advance to all the creators who worked with him on his subscription sites. Nevertheless, the accounting issue has haunted Modern Tales, and that ghost seems to be approaching a final rest at last.

Best Wishes...

A happy belated birthday to Ryan North and Maggie Weidner.

Best wishes to all those affected by the California fires. Be safe.

Whoops...

Forgot yesterday's favorite of the day:

"And that's when I truly understood how being a cartoonist is the most rewarding job in the world."

10/23: TV Comics Worth Watching

I was still grumbling about Heroes webcomics when this caught my eye: a report on the unqualified success of Joss Whedon's Buffy Season 8, and how Team Comics plans to follow up on it.

Well, okay, let's qualify that success a little. Buffy is sliding down the long tail here, wringing more money from a smaller audience. Audience numbers that make a smash hit in the direct market are laughable on network television. But whatever your business, a hit is a hit.

Money quote: "I think Joss physically opened up the idea that fan-favorite TV shows can have a renewed life if done the right way by the original creators."

Note the phrase "renewed life." Though the writer shoehorns Heroes into the article, most of the examples concern TV series that are not currently being broadcast. Unlike Heroes comics, these comics are not supplements but continuations to a story that would not continue any other way.

Of course, that works better for some series than for others. Few "original creators" in television have done as well for themselves in comics as Whedon has. But hey, let's dream for a second:

Crusade scripted by J. Michael Stracynski. Or, if he'd rather, another story set in the Babylon Fiveiverse.

Star Trek scripted by Peter David. Not "The Original Series," not any of the other series, just Star Trek, straight up. Give David that whole fictional universe and see what he does.

West Wing Season 9, scripted by Aaron Sorkin. No, I didn't like Studio 60, and it's madness to think Sorkin would swallow his pride and pick up with a new president created by the writers who replaced him. But I'd love to see him try it. And if Ex Machina can make it in this marketplace...

Batman Season 3, scripted by Adam West. Because sometimes readers should SUFFER.

---

PvP gamerpics and themes hit the XBox 360. Savvy. This seems like another step toward the integration of popular gaming strips with gaming software, not too far behind the Penny Arcade/Valve deal earlier this year.

Clickwheel's iPod/iPhone emulation technology is really humming along.

According to my e-mail, the Zuda launch party is scheduled for my birthday next week (October 30) in New York. From 5:30-6:30, the staff will be reviewing pitches "live" at Lansdowne Road, 599 10th Avenue (between 43rd and 44th Streets), New York, NY 10036. Newsarama quotes the e-mail in its entirety, but I can't find any mention of this event on Zuda's own site yet. If only there were some sort of online log where Zuda could put these things!

10/22: Heroes On Holiday?

OH NOES! Heroes the online comic might be threatened by an imminent Screenwriters' Guild strike. But wouldn't that require actual writers to be involved in the comics to begin with? BA-DOOMP KSHHHH!

Others have said this better than me, but the second season of the TV series kind of feels like it's not being written either. Last month, I said that the comics would only become essential reading if the show itself became disjointed and confusing.

The show has not done that. Instead, it's made them even less essential by becoming an exercise in mindless repetition, and weighing down even its best characters with cliched and unbelievable plots. Claire's boyfriend West is like nails on chalkboard, and even Hiro can't entertain us that much if he has absolutely nothing to do. The lean economy of the previous season is a distant memory. And I don't even want to TALK about the decline of the dialogue. I'm trying to remember the last time I've seen a great series get so bad so fast. Star Trek: Voyager, maybe?

Under the circumstances, a strike may be a huge blessing in disguise... if resolved quickly, it could lead a wave of refreshed and re-energized writers back to the staff, and they could move the TV series back on track. It's not too late: there are still great characters lying around from Season 1, and most of the new ones, though a bit stereotypical now, could still become rounded. For instance, the Life and Death twins' desperation and love for each other are easy to identify with. If they actually showed third, fourth and fifth emotions, we'd be getting somewhere. "West" is a problem, but he can always turn out to be evil, so at least it'll feel like I'm supposed to hate him.

("West." Was someone actually trying to evoke memories of Wesley Crusher with that name and dialogue? If so, it worked.)

As for the webcomic, since it comes out weekly, there's a chance the producers might hire some scabs to do it. (Comics writers who don't write for the screen, for instance, and therefore don't qualify for Guild membership.) Scabs'd be more inclined to take crazy chances, especially if they come from well outside the operation. And that webcomic needs some crazy chances taken if it's gonna be even readable.

Of course, I'm an optimist. What's more likely is that the producers will note the ratings have been more than satisfactory and assume this means the show and comic are fine as they are, and encourage less risk-taking, not more. Audiences do punish bad writing on TV, but they generally do so slowly, changing their habits reluctantly. As Surash suspects, the Heroes are indeed dying of a disease that they may not diagnose until it's too late.

---

I'm quoted in this Boston Globe piece about nigh-unstoppable sensation Randall Munroe.

Tomorrow, the University of Virginia features a speech by Hugh MacLeod, cartoonist and marketing guru. From there, he'll proceed to San Francisco. MacLeod's name doesn't get mentioned in the usual sources but he seems to have done pretty well for himself: he's a member of Federated Media, which claims many compulsively readable websites, most notably Digg.

Interviews with Kristofer Straub and Bill Barnes.

Chugworth Academy has returned.

Favorite of the day: "Who does this Rowling woman think she is?"

Close runner-up: "Hastings Kilgore is aroused."

Oh hell, Monday's always an embarrassment of riches: I also smiled at this and this and this. I haven't been that entertained by Megatokyo in about two years, actually.

Richard Stallman Attacked By "Ninjas" In Public Because Of xkcd

Let us hope Randall Munroe does not begin using his powers for evil.

(Via Slashdot.)

10/21: Shaking My Fist At Ryan Estrada

My 24-hour comic was not finished in 24 hours. It was done in 28 hours. You may still get to see it, though. I need to talk to some people, make sure I'm not too close to this to judge it.

Meantime, check out somebody who turns out reams of great comics on deadline as easily as if it were belching: Ryan Estrada, fresh off 24 Hour Comics Day with "Who Killed Your Cat."

10/19-10/20: Twenty-Twenty-Twenty-Four Hours To Go-o-o-o

Sorry this entry took longer than expected-- yesterday was quite the busy day.

Today's all about the 24-hour comic, and I'm totally on board this year. Unfortunately, the nearest official 24-hour event is about six hours from where I live, so I'm gonna be doin' things from my study. Yes, my drawings are terrible, but there comes a time when you gotta bite the bullet.

If the results are successful, I'll show them to you-- though maybe not until the New Year. I have... reasons for that.

Other stuff:

Today's favorite contains some blue language and a keen grasp of human nature.

I'm having a hard time remembering what I liked yesterday, so let's just link this gag from Amy Mebberson, my favorite strip she's done so far.

My ego isn't really big enough to make me think that I have any influence over Tim Buckley, but it's funny to see him at least trying to address the issue I raised two months back. I think that to address it completely, you'd need to have the characters go through permanent change, and that doesn't seem to be on the agenda. But it's kind of bittersweet because of that, like those superhero stories where the writer can make you think about the flaws in Batman's life, but can't fix 'em with any action that editors or other writers won't undo.

Gary Tyrrell has the basics of the O RLY vs. Jeffrey Rowland case covered. I'm more or less with Gary on this, but I got into hot water over a "recontextualization" similar to Rowland's, so I can't say there's no precedent. And even though I think Rowland's in the right, I do agree with Ryan Sohmer that Rowland's indie cred will make up more people's minds than the rights or wrongs of this use.

The time is 7:30 AM. The 24 hours begin... NOW.

10/18: (Quickie)

I'm still gathering what data I can for the T-shirt stuff, and I don't have a lot of free time today, thanks to an old friend dropping by unexpectedly. Good for me, bad for you-- I'll try to make it up to you early next week.

Favorited: Ignatz winner Achewood has a great punchline and so does Girls with Slingshots, but I gotta give today to Basic Instructions' "How to Pick a Restaurant," which is just beautifully constructed through and through.

While I'm throwing out the love, I gotta say that Wire Mothers from Jim Ottoviani and Dylan Meconis was my single favorite discovery at the Small Press Expo. It's about love, science and where the two met in the career of one Harry Harlow. It's not entirely a "discovery" since these two have entertained me many times before, but I hadn't known about the book before the show, so close enough. My only complaint is that the photographic cover shows none of the warmth and humanity (and simianity?) that Dylan brings to the proceedings, which might turn some new readers away. Don't be fooled!

Slow news day. Only tidbit: To the surprise of no one, roving webcomics theme songster MC Frontalot contributes to the development of the Penny Arcade video game.

Tomorrow: "24 hours to go..."

10/17: Researching T-Shirt Options Today

I'm too busy looking into the T-shirt market to make a detailed post today. I'll share what I've learned tomorrow.

Update on Webcomics.com: our designer's family emergency has turned into a family tragedy, which has understandably delayed the final redesign of the website. All apologies for the delay. We should be seeing the new site early next week.

Tim Demeter on retcons, and why his may not be the worst thing to ever happen.

I seem to inspire more than my share of thinly veiled or obvious satires these days. They always seem to focus on things I was doing early last year. Of course, early last year was kind of the peak of my hubris.

Fave of day: Jeph Jacques gets some FANTASTIC comic mileage out of two conspicuously similar character designs. Runner-up: new memes for the new year. Third place: a German's quest for Sheldon.

Just kinda neat: Guy Kawasaki tells a story of his heritage involving webcartoonists Scott Yoshinaga and Audra Furuichi.

An eagle-eyed tipster tells me that Zuda is still posting its postcards. Nice to see Bill Maus and Jamie Robertson in there. Jamie, my apologies for you-know-what: glad to see it worked out anyway.

10/16: You Can't Go Home Again

This is not even remotely webcomics.

For ten years, there has been no one comic I have wanted to see published more than Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew, Volume 2, Number 1. I've pitched it twice. I worked with Jim Keplinger and Ross Andru on one version of it and with Cat Garza on another. I've co-written two fanfics, wrote a set of essays about it, and considered a book. And I promised myself that if anybody got to revive the Captain instead of me, I wouldn't be petty about it. I'd just enjoy seeing my old friends, brought back to life.

My prayers have finally been answered. And really, I'm not sure my feelings could have been anything but mixed. At one moment I'm lost in nostalgia, Shaw's art and the nice little character bits worked in around the edges, at the next I'm obsessing over problems with tone, continuity errors (I spotted at least five) and odd "choices of moment" (the stuff that Captain Carrot only tells us about in soliloquy seems like it would have been a lot more interesting to see than some of the scenes that we got).

(Are we ALLOWED to complain about continuity errors in DC Comics any more? I know this is Earth-26 and not Earth-C and it's all because Mister Mind ate the Earth-Prime Superboy or something. As far as I can tell, this has thrown DC into a state of quantum uncertainty, where it both does and does not have years of continuity at its disposal, depending on what is most convenient at any particular moment. I'm not asking for the moon here, but when the series' main villain goes from a solar-powered robot slave to his very own ecoterrorist and NO ONE SEEMS TO NOTICE, I get a bit confused.)

What this means is that I am no longer eight years old. I've traded in my ability to enjoy something completely, warthogs and all, for the kind of analysis that makes my own scripts better. Most days I don't regret that trade-off. Today I do, a little.

Geez, I hope I'm not just being jealous.

At least the story is a lot more enjoyable than the Zoo Crew's Johns-Shaw Teen Titans appearance. But it'd almost have to be.

Odds and Ends

Penny and Aggie is on Tokyopop's site now.

Brian Clevinger gives a brief interview about his new direct-market series, Atomic Robo.

Favorite comic of the day: seriously, just start reading Octopus Pie regularly.

10/15: Monkeys Make Everything Better

I've never met Chris Onstad before he accepted his all-but-inevitable Ignatz for "Best Online Comic." He didn't look anything like what I expected.



(Pic via Comixtalk and Joe Zabel.)

Joey Manley has proposed a massive initiative to help Webcomics Nation cartoonists track (and presumably improve) their performance. Joey also continues to drop vague hints, like "a team of developers," that indicate he's got more resources than he did for his last major programming push. This stuff looks better than Google Analytics, seriously.

Happy birthday, Cat Garza!

Condolences to Chris Muir on the loss of his sister, Catherine M. Forsythe, to a cancer-related stroke.

Sayanora, Yirmumah.

But what about centaurs on motorcycles? Via Simulated Comic Product.

Rob Liefeld as T-Rex is, without a doubt, my favorite comic of the day.

Found via Keenspot ads: the producers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 are back... and they're riffing The Matrix, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek, Star Wars and more.

Brian Warmoth: still interviewin' good webcomickers.

Finally, HOLY CROW IT'S BILL WATTERSON. And he LIKES the Schulz book!

Heidi on Bad Comics From All Corners

Not long after I finally posted "Getting Out More," Heidi MacDonald followed up with some interesting thoughts about what might be missing in today's artsier comics. Touches on webcomics only briefly, but it's a cracking good read.

10/12: It's A Big Jungle Out There

If anything does keep me doing in-depth blogging, it's going to be the raw ego-boost of the links thrown my way from a few people who are much better bloggers than me. I've been giving Gary a hard time lately, but he's on that list. So is Dirk Deppey. Yesterday was a massive ego-stroke, because I actually made the title of yesterday's Journalista post, "A Better Breed of Publisher." Deppey's response to my thoughts on the Zuda contracts are worth reproducing in full:

Publishing contracts fascinate me. During my time printside with the Journal, I never missed an opportunity to quiz publishers and creators about business, and while I'm by no means an expert on the subject, I can tell you the following about the sort of contracts offered by the more reputable indy publishing houses:

1. They don't require you to sign away your copyrights or trademarks.
2. They usually offer royalties of somewhere between 12-18% of the cover price, after advances (if any) have been recouped - which is to say, once the printer, distributors and retailers have taken their cuts, the remaining profits are split pretty evenly down the middle between publisher and creator.
3. They don't require exclusivity, nor do they include "non-compete" clauses.
4. The rights to published properties revert back to the creator after a certain, set period of time and/or period of inactivity on the part of the publisher.
5. The creator usually has veto power over ancilliary licensing and promotional uses of the work.

Much is made over "industry standards" in publishing contracts, but this only reflects the fact that the traditional comics industry has some astonishingly shitty standards. The above is actually less reflective of what you'd get in dealing with companies like Tokyopop and DC Comics, and more reflective of the prose-publishing industry, which actually has standards. It's the difference between doing business with a shark who only sees you as an intellectual-property sharecropper, and someone who actually respects you for the work you create - and it's a big difference.

Moral: If you respect your rights as a creator, don't do business with someone who doesn't likewise respect those rights. The alternative isn't self publishing; it's doing business with a better breed of publisher. Others have successfully held out for better. If your work is good enough, or meaningful enough to you, then you should too.

Okay, let's put it like this. If you are being offered the kind of deal that Deppey describes at the same time that you're being offered a standard comics-industry deal-- and let's assume the advances are equal, too-- then of course you should take the former deal. What are you, stupid?

But let's take a look at my situation. I have two properties I've been shuttling around to bookstore publishers for years, three more I've added to the stack more recently, and one more on the way. I've learned a lot in the last six months, and I think every step we've taken has gotten us closer to a sale. But... no sales yet. I'm making plans to change that in 2008. But I'm not betting the farm on it, just because others have succeeded in doing so.

This "better breed of publisher" isn't better in every respect-- it takes seemingly FOREVER to make up its mind to publish ANYTHING, and it doesn't have much side freelance work to go around.

Meanwhile, doing Divalicious has not only given me a decent advance and my initial entry point into the bookstore market, it's led to a lot more freelance work and allowed me to get started on a public-speaking career.

5% of something is worth more than 15% of nothing. And 5% of three or four somethings...?

I write a lot. I like writing. And when I've got a plan, I'm pretty fast. The idea I have for my Zuda submission is harder to execute than some scripts, so it's taking more time, but it's still moving along pretty quickly now. My standard deal with artists is a 40-60 split or some kind of advance on same. So by my calculations, the Zuda contracts would make me about $800 for a twelve-hour day. Or $5600 for a body of work that will have taken seven or eight working days.

If Zuda doesn't bite, we end up with another creator-owned property, with which we can do whatever we choose. But assume it does.

The trademark will rest with DC. I don't expect the rights to revert back in time to do me much good. And they'll be able to adapt it however they want, up to and including hiring a second creative team onto it if my artist and I prove "difficult." There are royalties offered, but certainly not on a par with the percentages Dirk cites.

On the other hand, this would be my first work for any branch of DC, a profile-raiser for my other work, an interesting experience and a way to build contacts. My Rolodex for the comic-book industry is still pretty thin, and if this is half the ice-breaker that Divalicious was...

So is that $5600 worth it to me?

That'd be a HELL YES.

I can't afford to make everything I do a long-term investment. (Or a short-term investment, either... hence, those pitches for bookstore publishers.)

Dirk makes an eloquent case in his conclusion, but I don't buy it. I don't believe that the prose-publishing industry "respects my rights" any more than the comic-book industry does-- I think that each market's offerings are determined by commerce, not "respect." In time, I think the bookstore market will exert pressure that forces DC, Marvel and Tokyopop to become more like it, but that doesn't mean I should ignore the advantages of working with each group in the meantime.

My work, all my work, means a great deal to me. (My speed's a double-edged sword... I'm proud of it but always wondering if I'm going faster than I should.) But the reason so many artists make bad deals is they let their emotions get the better of them-- the eagerness to find an audience at any cost, or the desperation for validation, or the pride of ownership, even if these things have no practical value. (I did pick an idea that I think would be more profitable in Zuda's hands than in my own.)

Today's marketplace presents clear opportunities for those who can think "art" with one part of their brain and "business" with another. That's never come naturally to me, but I'm trying hard to learn.

10/11: Getting Out More

Congratulations to Jim Massey for his Hollywood fortunes, and Nicholas Gurewitch for his impressive Amazon sales streak. And speaking of webcomics success...

Tom Spurgeon says it's time he started taking "this webcomic thing" a bit more seriously... albeit with more good intentions than enthusiasm, like a new gym member signing up on New Year's Day. Among the reasons for this is that Tom, like Sean T. Collins, finds webcomics boosters annoying when they equate popularity with quality, or financial success with either.

I can't really argue with that.

I've made that mistake myself often enough, proceeding from "if this is popular, there must be a reason, and it'd be interesting at least from a cultural perspective to explore that..." which has resulted in a lot of crap in my Google Reader that I'm only just starting to thin out now.

But... glass houses, you know? It seems to me that many of the Ignatz nominees are likewise guilty of equating other things with quality, things like obscurity and a determined assault on the senses. In some cases, the work's lack of popularity with any general public seems to be proof of its worth. It is rewarded and buoyed up by a niche as self-congratulatory and insidery as the webcomics cults... or the makers and consumers of the worst of superhero comics' "continuity porn."

The name "alt-comix" implies a "mainstream" that is not addressing the public's artistic needs. If your world is the newsstand/direct market, then the need for an "alternative" quickly becomes apparent. But if your world includes the graphic novel market and the webcomics market, then things get murkier, especially since one-time "alternative" creators like Harvey Pekar and James Kochalka are now making more headway in those new markets. And then there's manga.

But this "alt-niche" has evolved under the assumption that the comics market is the newsstand/direct market, and it actually seems more interested in clinging to its feelings of persecution than in coming in from the cold. Sean, I don't think this kind of comics is part of the problem because it has fewer readers than Diesel Sweeties. I think it's part of the problem because so much of it doesn't read like it's the least bit interested in getting more. And you can have wonderful thoughts and fantastic insight, but they don't mean much if you don't share them with the whole class.

As distasteful as bragging about your audience numbers may be, it still seems better to me than writing and drawing specifically for the art-house critics. Dinosaur Comics and xkcd have demonstrated that you can get FREAKIN' HUGE audiences WHILE doing comics that address the great philosophical questions, the many quirks of everyday life and other esoteric topics... AND you don't even have to be a great artist to do so.

(P.S.: No, I don't hate all the Ignatz nominees, and no, I'm not telling you which ones get my goat. I'm more concerned about a general trend here, one that I'm glad to see in decline.)

10./10: Meh

I'm getting a bit discouraged about doing lengthy essays in this blog. Lately it seems like half the time I try it, someone whose opinion I care about totally misses what I'm going for-- and I tend to see that as not a flaw in the readers, but a flaw in me.

In Monday's essay, I did not mean to say that the only choices for your career were "don't do business with anyone stronger than you" and "submit to Zuda." Certainly there are a lot of cartoonists who are doing business with plenty of stronger companies that are nevertheless giving Zuda a miss. My personal response to it is probably pretty clear, but there are a lot of quirky things about my own approach to my career that won't apply to a majority of creators.

I was trying to say that some of the arguments against Zuda seem to be arguments that would apply under any circumstances involving stronger companies. Buying those arguments greatly limits one's options. It means you can't deal with ComicMix, Modern Tales, United Features Syndicate or a dozen other companies that have the potential, at least, to move your career forward.

Further, let's presume, for the sake of argument, that Zuda is a bad deal... if so, then an argument that proceeds from "all contracts are evil" (or "large companies are evil") won't turn Zuda into a good deal. In fact, they give Zuda a disincentive to offer a good deal, because you've told them that you're a lost cause, so they won't even try to engage you.

(And I'm not just going after Gary Tyrrell here-- I think a lot of the response is implying the bias which he states outright. Gary's generally much, much better than that, which says to me he's getting caught up in a wave.)

That's what I meant.

Assuming I haven't screwed it up this time.

Best Wishes To Chris Muir

Hope his unspecified family emergency resolves quickly and happily.

Strong Bad on How To Make Webcomics

He's got you covered. (Video)

xkcd Inspires First "Internet Census" In 25 Years

Unbelievable but true.

10/9: We Haz A Logo

Yesterday's essay took way more time than it should have (I've simply got to get this blog's time consumption under control), so we're going simple with today's.



What do you think?

10/8: Zuda Zero-Sum

The last of the verdicts on the Zuda contracts are rolling in.

Since before I fell ill last week, I've been trying to reach some kind of grand conclusion, some explanation of why I seem so out of step with the rest of the good old "webcomics community" on this issue. (Those who agree with me seem to be outside observers newer to the field, like Tom Spurgeon and Todd W. Allen.)

I don't mean to harp on this, but when a generally sensible observer like Gary Tyrrell asserts and affirms that "all contracts are... about protecting your interests by explicitly denying the interests of the other party," then I feel like I've slipped into some alternate universe.

I have a contract with Gisele Lagace which is most definitely not about that. It's an agreement between equals, or near-equals, spelling out what she and I can each expect from our partnership.* With some other artists, I've contented myself with a verbal agreement, but I could not do business with any artist if we didn't know what we expected from one another. That is the first function of a contract to me.

The second function is insurance. Dave Sim once said, "No corporation will ever pay a creator enough to sue them successfully," and I think a lot of creators would agree with that. It's true that Warner has more lawyers than an individual creator ever will. But these days, the negative publicity caused when a company breaks the letter, not just the spirit, of its contract is a powerful deterrent.

Furthermore, just because a company has more money for lawyers than you does not mean they want to spend it. Creators tend to view a lawsuit as a zero-sum game: either the plaintiff wins or the defendant does. But the legal system bleeds both parties of time and money. And we Americans are a lot more lawsuit-happy than we were in the 1930s. Warner didn't get rich by inviting a million lawsuits, and it doesn't expect to stay rich by doing so, either.

If you mistrust contracts completely, then that leaves you with two alternatives. The first is to try to do business with corporations on a handshake basis. This is, of course, ridiculous. Even I don't trust DC to take care of me purely out of the goodness of its heart. I wouldn't vest that trust into any company that had more resources than me.

The second alternative is never to do business with anyone who has more resources than you.

"Do It Yourself."

Ultimately, I'm just less of a pure DIY guy than most of the other people who talk a lot about webcomics. I'll always do some things myself, and I've been doing more than I would've done five years ago, but I decided long ago that I'd need partners to create the visuals I wanted, which makes me a little more comfortable seeking out partners in other areas, I think.

None of the above argues that Zuda contracts are right for you. But don't confuse the recognition of a bad deal with a distrust of all deals. Your career can do better.

Movin' on.

UPDATE: Or not quite. Clarifications here.

*In case you're wondering, Gisele gets 60% of the profit from any work we do together, and 50% of any profit from any work done by third parties... movie royalties, for instance. I earn my 40% share not just by scriptwriting but by taking care of a lot of the odds and ends of the business, including clear and verifiable financial reports. Gisele and I do trust each other, but I want her to be absolutely sure of me as we go forward.

"Hating The Korean Wave"

Hey, Dirk, hope you're gonna link this one. This fascinating study of the online and print comic "Hating The Korean Wave" and it's Web-based marketing seems a bit tentative in its conclusions, but, at the least, it shows a side to webcomics-- and comics-- that boosters like me would prefer to deny.

A Couple Non-Webcomics

I never hear anybody talk about Tank McNamara. I always think I'm gonna quit it, because sports is way down on my list of interests. But I do like comics that take my mind places it wouldn't ordinarily go, and if the strip's going to keep being topical, outrageous and occasionally downright angry, I'll at least stick with it a while longer.

I really wanted to write the ultimate Transformers spoof at one point last year. Wednesday White and I had a long talk about it. Congratulations to Jeffrey Brown, who seems to have beaten me to the punch.

10/5: End-of-Week News Roundup

Back in the game! Let's get some odds and ends out of the way first.

Happy birthday, Mark Mekkes!
Mike Strang, creator of Platinum Studios' Weird Adventures in Unemployment, now written and drawn by Brandon J. Carr, is still not happy about being squeezed out. His account does make interesting reading, but I'm not sure it's as flattering to himself as he believes.

The new ComicMix is here, and its proprietary reader is here too. I'll leave the interface critique to Joey, except to vehemently second him on the matter of RSS feeds... RSS is a must in today's marketplace: more and more hardcore readers like me are relying upon it. The content of ComicMix is too new to call, really, but I think a lot of it will stand or fall on how thoroughly the creators, as well as their publisher, embrace "this Internet thing."

Simulated Comic Product has a program out called Boxen for the making of panel borders (assuming you only want rectangular borders-- but then, few cartoonists are really pushing those boundaries lately, it seems). Requires .Net 2.0, which means that Mac loyalist Gisele is unlikely to try it out and let us know how well it works. What about... you?

I'm mostly linking this so I can find it later when somebody asks "Did anybody ever do a really extreme animated panel in a webcomic?" (Thanks to Xaviar.)

Great news: How to Make Webcomics now has four authors.

One of those authors, Dave Kellett, had a really great week this week with his "Starbucks sequence" (beginning here.) I'm not gonna be able to declare "favorites of the day" this week but Kellett would almost certainly have made it with Monday's or Tuesday's installment.

Hmm, and this might've done it for Wednesday. Ethan is a lot funnier when not actually ruining the lives of his friends, and here he's almost an underdog.

10/4: Crawling Back Up

Almost fully recovered now, though my eyes are still scary bloodshot... but I've got a lo-o-o-ot to catch up on. Blog posting, I'm afraid, will be pretty light until I do.

The Complete Ryan Estrada

Ryan's own input makes me fairly confident that this tally of his guest strips and other accomplishments is now complete. (Although posting one extra strip somewhere in secret, and not telling anyone for years, would be JUST LIKE HIM.)

Still Catching Up: Jason Thompson Interview

My friend Andrew Farago has a lengthy but excellent interview with my friend and one-time collaborator Jason Thompson, author of Del Rey's Manga: The Complete Guide. (I've seen a preview copy, and if you have any manga-loving friends with birthdays coming up? You could do a lot worse.) They also discuss Thompson's insightful mix of horror and rom-com, The Stiff.

The interview's in The Comics Journal, available here.

Reckless Life Calls It Quits

Missed it: Tim Demeter goes out with a smile. Like Cox and Forkum, Tim was getting tired of his project, but you wouldn't know it from Reckless Life's last and best arc, "Murphy's Law." You can start that arc here or the entire series here.

Tim continues to edit Graphic Smash and Clickwheel, and has promised a kinda-sorta sequel to Reckless Life called Bustout Odds, sometime in 2008. Early adopters can go ahead and subscribe to the RSS now.

Cox and Forkum Call It Quits

One of the most popular editorial cartooning teams on the Internet by any measure I can find, John Cox and Allen Forkum, have gi