What is Digg?41 Comments
- DaigojiGai, on 01/30/2009, -0/+20Wow. We've all known print was in trouble, but to see alternative comic strips take this hit is heartbreaking and unfortunate.
- timpig, on 01/30/2009, -0/+19 I dunno...surely these people can save themselves simply for the cost of a scanner and a wordpress/blogger account? look at the success of webcomics like Penny Arcade....
- doublefelix, on 01/30/2009, -0/+13There would have been no Simpson's w/o Life in Hell getting support in the alternative Weekly's.
- Serphyas, on 01/31/2009, -0/+11Holy *****, go back to YouTube
- michaelpinto, on 01/30/2009, -2/+10timpig the majority of folks doing webcomics aren't making a living because there is so much bad stuff out there — in fact the lucky ones use it as a platform to get into print. That's also why donations won't work as a model. Frankly until high traffic sites like Huffington Post and the like are willing to pay for this it's going to hurt the field.
- RedStateRetard, on 01/31/2009, -0/+7Looks like craigslist needs to start an online comics page.
- souldawg, on 01/30/2009, -0/+7Donations seems like a viable model out of the three solutions provided. Although interactivity seems initially pretty cool, it kinda ruins the independent nature of the artist like putting a product placement in a goya or something.
- snowplow527, on 01/31/2009, -0/+7I don't know what alternative comics are, but having a large % of them cease publication sounds pretty bad.
- enantiodromia, on 01/31/2009, -0/+6I hate you Milkman Dan...
but srsly tho, uh, the innerwebs is much easier than getting popular via newspapers people only read while waiting for the bus. - enantiodromia, on 01/31/2009, -1/+6you bring up a good point. i'd like to see some right leaning comic strips:
Panel 1:
Man 1: Hey buddy, I hate foreigners and minorities.
Man 2: Yeah, me too...
Panel 2:
Man 1: Socialists are the enemies of America
Man 2: yep...
Panel 3:
Man 1: Y'all wanna go to church and scare the negroes away?
Man 2: sure... - RobotBuddha, on 01/31/2009, -0/+5It was a lot less saturated when penny arcade came out.
- enantiodromia, on 01/31/2009, -0/+5sure. but Life in Hell would have just been an online strip if he was just starting out today.
- pichinde, on 01/31/2009, -0/+4Panel 4: Penguin in Geordi Laforge glasses executes a facepalm maneuver.
You just described every Tom Tomorrow strip ever. - LucasVB, on 02/01/2009, -0/+3*****. I wish they would cut astrology and gossip sections instead.
- RobotBuddha, on 01/31/2009, -0/+3Political comics tend to be rank among the most dull things I've ever read.
- GelfTheElf, on 01/31/2009, -0/+2I live in NYC. The Village Voice (and others) all exist in cities. Cities have Subways and Buses, and if you've been on one lately, everyone's got their ipod or psp to occupy their brain space time. Once you hop in a cab the tv inside the cab turns on. With news, restaurants, things to do, etc. I think the print market is going out because of a medley of things (not just web).
People bring their laptops to starbucks, coffee shops etc. because everything has wifi. The addition of wifi has kind of removed the need for a paper to occupy you while you have your coffee or wait for someone to show up somewhere.
When I was doing more rock music, I used to look at those papers to find venues. But I can't really remember the last time I looked at one of those now (after all, I can find venue's by googling or looking on other sites). I can also find restaurants using iphone, gps, etc.
I think the function these papers used to provide has been replaced by a bunch of things. - rhedrick, on 01/31/2009, -0/+2www.brightkite.com is an excellent venue for all these alternative comics. You can post a picture along with a comment like twitter. People can follow an artist. Right now its free, but ads can be added to create revenue for the artists.
The artist for Questionable Content, Jeph Jacques, has created twitter accounts for all his comic strip characters. You can follow their tweets. Kinds neat when you think about it. - maximoo2, on 01/31/2009, -0/+2This kind of sad to hear, but at the same time, if they aren't making enough money to get by, than that's just the heart of the situation.
- marmol, on 01/31/2009, -0/+1heartbroken </3
- rhedrick, on 01/31/2009, -0/+1www.questionablecontent.net - sorry Jeph.
- Rivetgeek, on 01/31/2009, -4/+5Have you READ penny arcade lately? Its seriously awful now.
- tsotha, on 01/31/2009, -0/+1The newspapers are going the same way. Hell, the New York Times, which should be successful if *any* paper is successful was set to run out of money in a couple months before they found a white knight. The entire business model is broken.
- MacEnvy, on 01/31/2009, -3/+4Meh. Unfunny alternative print comic strips are just being replaced by unfunny alternative web comics.
- billricardi, on 01/31/2009, -1/+2If enough people stop buying the papers and let them know that it is because of these comics going away, they'll have to put it back in. Supply and demand.
But that won't happen. How many of you honestly read the print version of these comics? Your parents? Siblings? Even if they do, do they care about it enough to change their reading habits?
As to the proposed solutions, donations aren't realistic in this economy. Interactivity is a long shot model. So it's subscriptions. Which is as it should be, once again, supply and demand. If they're good enough, they'll survive. If not, they won't.
I feel back for the indy strips, but there are some bad ones out there that need to be weeded out. The economy will do that. - RobotBuddha, on 01/31/2009, -0/+1I can't think of a single person, even in the 50+ crowd, who still reads papers or magazines.
- exspasticcomics, on 02/01/2009, -0/+1last I checked- the company he was going through to do micropayments went under & he was mostly doing talks & such on design (..for collages etc..) besides the comic he did for google chrome.. & putting out re-inventing comics awhile back- I'm not really sure he's doing a whole hell of a lot these days. of course- nobody's really doing a hell of a lot these days.. LOL.. the comic industry took a plunge a couple of years before the record & now the movie industry.. & we're still hurting. online comics have a tendency to turn strips into a bit of a novelty (..between online video, games & everything else.. they kind of end up at the bottom of the dog pile..) & print cost $$$ & once you have the books printed- it doesn't do you any good unless you have a distributor... the distro usually wants (about..) 1/3 of the cover price... printing costs (generally..) just about 1/3 of the cover price (so a if it's a $3 comic.. it cost about $1 to print.. unless you're marvel or something... then you print tons of books & the more books you print in a run.. the more the overall print costs go down..) then you gotta sell 'em at a discount to the retailer so he can make his share. (none of this includes shipping- which the publisher usually has to pay (at least to get them from the printer to the distro...) so- a $3 (normal size..) indy comic book runs about.. $1 to print... $1 to distribute & $1 for the retailer.. (not to mention mailing costs..) & nobody wants to pay $4-5 for a 32 page comic book. graphic novels offer a little better profit/ printing margin's... but than you're offering a &10-$15 dollar book- that's more the customer has to pay out & has a tendency to make the potential customer more jittery to buy. (i.e. -is it really worth it?) print-on-demand is great- but shipping & postage costs are going way up (-so it ends up driving up the price..) & a lot of this stuff gets done online (..which mean pulling out a credit card & buying something..) & you find out that some people really don't like to use their credit cards (or whatever..) online.
it's a tough nut to crack. - darwinwins, on 02/01/2009, -0/+1i agree with everything you've stated. i wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
- Andrewmatt, on 01/31/2009, -0/+1This better not kill Maakies!!!
- ShoggothDreams, on 02/03/2009, -0/+1Oh, this is rather apropriate... Shortpacked has weighed in on this subject. IMHO the writer did so well, but it is rather brutal....
http://www.shortpacked.com/comics/20090203tshirtpe ...
(Hope this means he reads Digg... or Reddit the following day) - ShoggothDreams, on 01/31/2009, -0/+1Or more established comics like Sluggy Freelance. I, too, am mixed on this issue. Yes, it is bad, in that it limits a wider audience from seeing an artist's work, BUT, if as several artists have pointed out, making a living off newspapers is so difficult, that same energy would be better spent going independent. I do not read THAT many webcomics, but among them, Penny Arcade, Sluggy, Order of the Stick, Devil's Panties, and others all make their living off their site and merchandise they themselves sell online or at Cons. I was reading both Sluggy and Devil's Panties when both artists independently announced they could now "quit their day job" thanks to their comic....
- Spoomeister, on 01/31/2009, -0/+1These guys should try to get small books of their strips. If we can have like 38 of those 5" x 9" Garfield books, surely they can crank out a couple in that format.
Or they can call up Scott McCloud and see how that whole micropayment wave of the future is working for him. - moothemagiccow, on 02/01/2009, -0/+1are you serious? There are less than a hundred comics in alternative print, maybe less than fifty.
There are probably a million online. How on earth is it that you think it's easier to get popular online? - moothemagiccow, on 02/01/2009, -0/+1$20 a month for a domain? You're getting screwed, dude.
- saltydadcomics, on 10/01/2009, -0/+1Holy crap that sucks.Looks like everyone is going to go to print on demand.UGH.
- kanojo1969, on 01/31/2009, -3/+3What, 'alternative' creative work is supposed to be protected from the grubby realities of publishing? ***** off. 99% of all comics are terrible, and the 'alternative' ones are no exception. The good ones will thrive, the ***** won't.
Does this guy even realise that the whole world of publishing is going down the ***** at the moment? Anyone in the 'alternative comics' business who hadn't seen this coming from about 10 years ago doesn't deserve to earn a living from it.
Subscriptions? Hilarious, good luck with that. - leesw, on 01/31/2009, -1/+1The end? Really? That's a bit over the top.
- Spacejack, on 01/31/2009, -0/+0"The good ones will thrive, the ***** won't."
Traditionally, that is not true... the 99% figure you gave holds pretty steady for all media regardless of what's selling at any given moment. - pichinde, on 01/31/2009, -0/+0I will no longer be picking up Village Voice publications if this is the case.
This is the death spiral. Decreased advertising revenue -> deteriorating content -> decreased readership -> decreased advertising revenue... - foucaultsvac, on 01/31/2009, -8/+7You mean there will be less of the verbose, left-leaning diatribes with repeat panel art?
Isn't that a good thing? - inactive, on 01/31/2009, -5/+3What? You mean artists will have to pay 20$ a month for their own domain to publish their comics? OMG END OF THE WORLD MA!
PS
I miss Spacemoose. I wish they would make that into an Adult Swim show. - syntaxgs, on 01/31/2009, -14/+2at least XCkd is still running,that comix is so freakin, hilarius =d LMAO i laugh just think about it
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