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Tuesday, September 7, 2010
The Rise of the Web Toon
New Business Model or Dumb Luck?
When Scott McCloud laid out his vision of the industry’s future in Reinventing Comics, he put his smart money on webcomics as the way to go. The one stumbling block, he admitted, was he couldn’t figure out the best way to make them profitable. Many have tried and few have succeeded making a living, especially after the dot-crash when slapping a “.com” onto a site meant nothing anymore. It’s not impossible to make a living from one’s art, but there are definite obstacles to overcome. How does one make it in the cut-throat world of webtoons, knowing dedicated nerds like a good laugh as much as anyone else, but also knowing dedicated nerds are a bunch of cheap bastards if they can get away with it?
The concept of pay-per-view, as it were, didn’t work out so well. In order to grab readers’ attentions, readers usually have to watch the strip develop over time. Paying to watch this development unfold voluntarily held little appeal for most readers, who could find comparable quality elsewhere for free. Mostly, the only way charging the readers has really worked has been with subscription services. The recently reviewed Gun Street Girl belongs to Graphic Smash, which charges a small subscription fee for archival access – each latest installment is free until the next pages are up, but for those wanting backstory, there is a price. Then there is Keenspot, probably the most well-known webtoon syndicate that stresses creator-owned rights, but judging from their FAQ, they do get a piece of the merchandising action. Their roster lists a variety of genres for readers to choose from and they offer an ad-free premium subscription service.
Those who offered free readership could either deal with annoying pop-ups on their free geocities webpages, or go for the gold and shoulder bandwidth costs themselves – which almost always turned out to be less readership than was profitable but more server errors than was helpful to the small audience willing to stand the load time. How Penny Arcade, Goats, and the king of nifty, Sluggy Freelance, made it from the late ‘90s to now is a tribute to their skills and their devoted audience. They made their expenses by selling advertising space and “click-through” ads, merchandising, and most likely, donations.
This trinity of payment options has been copied by nearly everyone willing to buy a scanner and some web space. It works for most to break even. Some have managed to make a living off of it, amazingly enough, but most hold down a day job and scribble frantically after hours to get the next installment up. It takes a lot of dedication to keep a webtoon alive, especially since the internet audience may be smaller than the rest of the already tiny overall comics audience. Most toons tend to be slice-o’-nerd life with involved story lines, large cast of characters, and loads of geeky in-jokes, which are fine and funny and all, but a bit too derivative after a while. Interestingly enough, it is mainly the subscription strips and comics that have branched out in more diversity of genres. The rest – well, it’s comparable to superheroes. Everyone likes a good superhero tale, but they shouldn’t choke out all other viable directions.
Nonetheless, there are tales to be told here of two geek strips who took the tried and tested model of income and took it to new heights. They have made recent stirs in the industry, web and otherwise, and what their actions bodes for the future of comics is up for debate.
Scott Kurtz often seems like the golden geek of the web industry. PVP has been nearly regular since 1998 and has supported itself through ads, merchandising, print publication, and fans like you. His star keeps rising, going from self-publisher with Dork Storm Press to creator-owned material with Image comics. He is outspoken, and consistently causes stirs in the industry, good or bad. His “graphamaximo” storyline especially caused waves not only in the webtoon community, but on over to the Comics Journal – with less than complimentary results. Kurtz apparently loved the fallout, and remains unapologetic on his stance to date. His retelling of said storyline in PVP #6 vol. 2 sported a cover by James Kochalka, which seemed to be vindication of his position. So often, the strip merits are overshadowed by the opinions for or against Scott Kurtz himself. He’s hardly of a retiring nature.
Which is why he’s plunged himself full on to a new venture that has creators really divided into pro and anti camps. Not that he set out to get everyone riled up, necessarily, but there’s some serious outcry already. At the San Diego Con, Kurtz made the surprise announcement that he was going to seek newspaper publication. Moreover, he was going to circumvent the syndicates and offer a year’s worth of his strips for free to the editors willing to listen to his spiel. His plan is to reach out to a whole new audience that hasn’t found him online yet, and eventually reap the merchandising rewards of this move.
Detractors point out that this “publish me for free” move is hardly new and usually used by desperate newbies, eager for exposure. As far as webcomics go, they argue, Kurtz has been reasonably successful, so why make this pitiful bid for attention? Ah, but here’s the thing – his success marks him out from the desperate crowd. He doesn’t need the newspaper audience, he just wants one and maybe in the process, stick it to the syndicates. He can afford to take the risk.
What does this mean for all those struggling to make it in the usual way? That is the biggest concern from the print cartoonists. The consensus seems to be that this will tip the scales in the editors’ favor and leave larger hurdles for the unpublished to overcome. If there’s this guy willing to give it to them for free, who may even come with a built-in audience, and has proven his strip reader-friendly for six years, what hope is there for the guy who wants to be paid? What more can that little guy do against that devaluation of his work? For that’s how the critics are seeing it – Kurtz is devaluing his work by giving it away, despite the PR advantages.
They may have a point. It will be interesting to watch Kurtz in action, but what works for Kurtz may not work for the rest of the cartoonists, praying to break even. Kurtz also has that invaluable financial support – the working wife with health benefits – that keeps him free to pursue his artistic dreams. For the neophyte dreaming of print publication, Kurtz may have just pitched another road block by lowering the asking price. Then again, others have suggested instead, this heralds the impending – but needed – death of print comics, and the web revolution is rising. After all, Kurtz is taking this step in light of his personal web success. He can afford to make this move. Does this mean that small geek audience is growing larger and more powerful online? Is print finally starting to face a serious challenge? Even the newspaper syndicates are hopping online, albeit with subscription services.
To webcartooonists, however, Kurtz is garnering much admiration. The other creator worth mentioning here declared “Scott Kurtz owns the biggest balls in comics”, shortly after Kurt’s announcement. But Randy Milholland has some testes too, if those are the measure of cool moves by web cartoonists. His snarky slice of bitter geek goodness, Something Positive, started going through a rough patch in terms of updating several months ago. Unhappy as his adoring fans were that his day job kept him from drawing the strip on a daily basis, Milholland challenged them all with the task of allowing him to quit his 9-5 through donations enough to equal one year of his salary. Some may call this crass begging, but his readers did not disappoint. Milholland now can devote his full day to Something Positive and all the associated problems of running a web-based comic, thanks to the generous souls and pockets emptied to the cause. Some see this development as proof of the solidity in the online toon community. Others see it as hope for the future of comics in general. Neil Gaiman mentioned it twice in his blog, one entry being his transcription of his keynote speech from the Harvey Awards. He found this encouraging enough to mention it then, as it indicated the real love for the entertainment Milholland delivers and the desire to keep the work coming. That type of fanbase is indeed inspiring and a far better model than the dreaded stereotype of stuttering, unwashed, fanboys obsessed with minor points of continuity and loudly criticizing each and every direction comics attempt to strike out for. It means the passion for the medium, no matter its form, is still alive and well.
Can all web cartoonists depend on equal generosity from their fans? Future is unclear on that one, thanks to the magic 8-ball, but Milholland taught them all – it can’t hurt to ask. Which is what Kurtz is doing with his strip to the newspaper editors and apparently even getting a few nibbles. It takes guts to launch your own work. It takes chutzpah to keep it going. Maybe you will luck out and have someone support you through the shaky times. Maybe your loyal fanbase will gladly help you out. Only if you ask for it though. Perhaps what the internet offers is not so much a whole new artistic breakthrough, but a whole new relationship between creator and audience. Perhaps a new business model is emerging, one based entirely on passion for the medium and personal appreciation of each individual creator. It’s one impossible to predict or quantify, but Kurtz and Milholland can definitely testify to its rewards.
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
