Killing the Grizzly #1: A Bold New Era
Written By: Dave Baxter
The world has changed.
There are less theatrical ways to put that, but none simpler in declaring this manifest truth: we’ve progressed. Beyond the printed page, though we’ve yet to leave those bastard scions of trees behind; beyond the water-stained warehouses and corner-crumpled cardboard boxes of overfed distribution systems. We feel far stranger today sitting there with a newspaper in hand, unable to double-click on names within the articles. It has become an existential dilemma to hold a book in our hands and realize we have no way of sharing it with others, beyond writing about it, or scanning it page by page into our computer and then equally as drudgery-slow uploading the images into a cohesive PDF, rather than post a link to download a ready-made digital copy and be done with it, gain a few hundred shared readers within hours of its posting. In a world of instant photo, video, journal, and profile sharing, anything slower than now, and costlier than free, is unacceptable.
Or, to bring the topic right to the topic at hand: comics. Comic conventions have become aimless, more and more, rooms of aimless individuals aimlessly not aiming at anything at all—for while there is a flood of new material present, what is there to do with it? And what precisely is the impetus of meeting face to face, when ten times the numbers of potential readers and even publishers are exposed to any given work if posted online, on any given week, on any given day that new content is uploaded and “published”? Should digital “publishing” get quote marks anymore? Is there a difference?
Well, in a word (or three), yes, there is: digital publishing is viable publishing. It’s growing, not dying. Strengthening, not sickening. This, my friends, is the digital age. And when I say that (though we rarely admit to this), what I really mean is: this the digital entertainment age. Traditional print media is fading fast. Not dead, perhaps, not even in its throes, but it is evolving, and the older variant of 20th century distribution and promotion will, at the core of the 21st century, be as forgotten as tails are to our tailbones. The human race lives on, as will print media, but things change, and—in inimitable modern-era fashion—the changes are swiftly proving profound.
Or let’s put it this way:
20 years ago, two neophyte creators hit the comic book scene with this graphic novel:
It was an instant success, receiving numerous reprints that continue on and sell out to this very day. The book catapulted both creators into stardom and publishing contracts for as long as either should live, and began what was by-and-large a comic book and graphic literature renaissance.
20 years later, this hit the comic book scene:
It was sent out for free to critics, and so critics read it and raved about it. Then it took nearly two years for the book to find a small press publisher to give it the time of day, and this would up, to parallel Violent Cases, being a UK publisher to boot, even though the creator was a North American.
And so this publisher, Markosia, transformed the original book into this:
And now it’s been solicited and it’s been released nationwide for six months and counting, and with six issues released and six to go. And the series is losing money.
It isn’t a hit, commercially. It isn’t profitable for the creator. He isn’t getting publishing contracts or film contracts or offers to snort cocaine off the bodies of naked club girls.
Times. Have. Changed.
I’ve been a reviewer and columnist for the past four years, covering the world of comics, and recently I had the chance to attend a number of conventions and meet a small army of small press creators whose work and books I adored. Books I reviewed and acclaimed critically (as we say), creators whose names were becoming synonymous with SLG, Archaia, Dark Horse, or simply names attached to self-publishing albeit distributed old-school through offset print runs, a few thousand copies per book. One such creator was even a star speaker at one convention, alongside Chris Ware and Jessica Abel. Yet the news was far and wide the same: none of them were selling books. None of them were earning a living on their print comics alone, being distributed via Diamond to traditional comic shops and book stores. Their publishers adored them, but they were living on commissioned work, or, in one notable case, surprise, surprise, on a webcomic venture.
What does this mean? In a world where Marvel and DC now hold over 75% of the entire market share of print comic book media, there’s no profit to be had in comic stores or any other venue that moves through conventional distribution lanes. What’s to be done? As trailblazing author Seth Godin recently wrote as advice to rising authors/publishers: “You’re not in the printing business. The life and death of trees is not your concern. You’re in the business of leveraging the big ideas authors have. There are a hundred ways to do that, yet book publishers obsess about just one or two of them.”
Howard Tayler, creator of the webcomic Schlock Mercenary, in a speech given at the Utah Open Source Conference of 2008, stated that making it as an online publisher is “like making Grizzly Bear Soup. Step 1: Kill a grizzly. Step 2: The rest is just soup.” He went on to say: “Now, I know a lot of writers, who want to make a living full time as writers, and they go and get a degree in English. Getting a degree in English in order to become a writer is like studying grizzly bear anatomy in order to kill the grizzly. You know a lot about the shape of the bear, but you’re going to walk into the woods and have a tree fall on your head because what you should have been studying was geography, climatology, and the feeding of baby bears and a zillion other things that make your life more interesting than a degree in English. I can’t show you how to kill a grizzly. I can just show you…how to make the soup.”
Watch the whole inspiring video right here, then we can continue:
Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary talks e-comics as business
Establishing a successful and reputable publishing presence online, as a digital publisher, is the Tayler’s aforesaid grizzly bear. In the field of e-comics and books, of downloadable versions that once could have existed in no acceptable manifestation except on sand-dry vellum or slim-trimmed pulp, there are dozens of roads available, and thousands of combination of these dozens of roads. But let’s be honest. Do people really read e-comics and books? Maybe they’ll download a few, sure, but is the format truly supported? Can it be a viable alternative to traditional publishing? Okay, maybe in the far-flung future—but today? What are the options? What’s out there? How are they used? What are the benefits? Is it sincerely possible to make a living or sustain a business based on print-type media relegated to online marketplaces for electronic products? Is it worth trying to kill a grizzly?
Yes.
With this column, I plan to dive deep into all these questions, and answer them thoroughly. Not in a single paragraph, or pat algebraic proof of how (print readers)² – ?traditional media publishing costs = the low end of online promotional results (however true that may be). But instead, I’m going to break down each and every major opportunity for online promotion and distribution, how creators are using them today for viable (and, in some cases, not so viable) small business solutions, and additionally, cover the noteworthy titles already online and stirring up plenty of buzz.
Look for critical peeks into the biggest e-comic marketplaces and their services, including Wowio, Clickwheel, Lulu, Drive-Thru Comics, ComiXpress, Dimestore Productions, and Literate Machine; as well as interviews with those mavericks at the forefront, reviews of their books, all elements that are forging a place in comic book history as we speak.
Come join us for the chronicling of a bold new era in comic book publishing.
Dave runs the THE GILLIAN’S HEART BLOG (http://www.gilliansheart.com/blog )
And writes for BROKEN FRONTIER (Latest: http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdown/details.php?id=1576 )
http://worstwriterintheworld.blogspot.com
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Comment by Steve Saunders on 4 December 2008:
Oh man, an excellent write-up, Dave! Just excellent. I’m also of the same belief as you. Print isn’t dying yet, but e-based stuff is growing very rapidly. Some publishers are now more like labels, really, and are doing pretty well selling e-comics and the like, and it’s also become a fertile ground for creator owned books. Creator rights seem to increase when there is less overhead, you know? Take Chimaera, for instance (just as one example of many), they seem to be doing well, mostly with comics sold and shown through Wowio and they’re overhead costs are pretty low. Also, creators flourish under them. This sort of business model is growing like maniac weeds, kids. Print comics will eventually become an extreme niche thing, and certainly when portable e-readers become commonplace.
Not that I want to see print comics go the way of the dodo, mind. I love reading them… the touch, the feel– yes, even the smell. But my kids? Probably not so much.
They’ll have their fave e-reader to read ‘em on, after all.
Heck, they might even jack the comics directly into their brain. man, it’s like we’re living in comic books or something.
Okay, bedtime. I needs the sleep (obviously). You keep up the good work, my friend.
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Comment by Dwight L. MacPherson on 4 December 2008:
Fantastic column, brother!
It’s funny that I blogged about this the other day. Digital media is the future… future… future. *Ahem*
Excellent column, my friend. Can’t wait to see where you take it from here.
-D
Comment by David on 5 December 2008:
Saw Dwight link this on twitter. I’m favoriting this site and look forward to more commentary.
Comment by Dave Baxter on 5 December 2008:
Thank you Steve and Dwight! Glad you guys liked this opening, which believe me, is JUST an the opening. There’s so much more goodness to come.
STEVE: Can’t wait to hear your news, man. And yeah, Chimera is one company I will definitely be covering with this column.
DWIGHT: I’m especially glad you approve of the general topic and my take on it, as you’re neck deep in it as we speak, and should be able to sniff out b.s. if I fall off the reality-path. Plus, you’re a prime example of a creator that never struggled to find a traditional publisher for your work, and yet here you are…
DAVID: Glad you checked this out – Dwight is a man of taste, eh? Hope you come back, buddy!
See y’all soon, folks! –Dave B.
Comment by Will Davies on 5 December 2008:
Holy shit, I think proper journalism just happened.
I’ll be in The Corner of Shame and Inadequacy if anyone needs me.
Comment by tom (brown) on 5 December 2008:
have always seen you as the visionary/creative sort with brains on the brains sir David sir.
(whereas i..have recently been described a shaving one foot on the door, and the other in the grave XD)
Beautifully put as always!
You have my attention certainly.
though i’m pursuing the “high road” (sans the coke and ermm..etc) for the Hopeless, Maine stuffs, i can certainly see this as being a big part of the overall career path.
there are other options to explore also using this delivery form..the marriage of sequential art and..music (something i’ve been playing with for more than five years) ..other forms of multimedia..etc.
I’ll be a constant and avid reader here (at the very least)
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Comment by Dino Caruso on 6 December 2008:
Hey Dave,
Great job.
This is “must read” for small press and self-publishers.
Keep up the great work…
D.
Comment by Shane Chebsey on 6 December 2008:
A well written and interesting article.
I think you were wise to hedge your bets and guess that print is not actually dead or even dying, and I think time will prove it still has lots of legs. Once ebooks become truley portable, well then they’ll just be like print books that hurt your eyes. I’m guessing it will be around another 30 years before we see the true death of print as the dominant medium for reading comics or literature.
However there is no denying that electronic media will play a huge role in developing new comics properties in the future. Sites like http://www.myebook.com promise a possible revenue stream for e- publishers as well as a healthy readership thanks to an intergrated community system.
One thing I think you need to consider though are all the other factors that have resulted in the decline of comics sales other than the digital factor.
For example: The changing face of comics retail, meaning retailers need to think outside of superhores to expand their customer bases. Most comic shops are not a welcoming environment for non fans. Yet if a shop is presented in a clean, light and stylish manor it will atract readers who may never have bought a comic previously.
Something else to consider: Thanks to TV Games and movie tie ins UK comic sales have increased by a massive percentage this past year, outselling video games and such like, proving that kids will read comics if they contain characters they are interested in.
In this tiny island nation comic titles are selling in 6 figure numbers on a regular basis.
Print publishers and distributors just have to realise that things are changing and they must keep up with the trends, or their readership will continue to age, dwindle and eventually die out.
One final intersting point of note: Boy Who Made Silence from Markosia has sold very well in our shop, simply becuase we show it to people and display it prominently… that’s all it takes. Show folks something good, and they will usually buy it.
Hide it in a corner in a badly lit “small press section” and I guarantee it won’t.
I look forward to reading your future articles.
all the best
Shane
http://www.smallzone.co.uk
Comment by Dave Baxter on 7 December 2008:
Wow, thanks for commenting and showing interest in this, folks! Lots to reply to, here we go:
WILL: Ha ha! Thank ya, kindly. Wait’ll you get a load of KtGrizzly #2!!! It should expound upon nearly everything I bring up in this first article only in vague.
TOM: Thanks, buddy. You’re equally as visionary on the art-front. For anyone who hasn’t seen Tom (brown)’s art, you need to click on his name above and go to his site right freaking NOW.
DINO: Hey, man! Glad you checked this out, I need to catch up with how all your own comics are coming along!
SHANE: Very nice to meet you, especially as you have a refreshingly across-the-pond view of this topic. I’m not surprised that UK comics are faring better than retail-sold books in America. One depressing trend over here in the states: you’ll notice that all our new and/or innovative work is nearly entirely crafted by creators we’ve outright plucked from the UK area, Asia, Canada, or South America, usually after the creators have already proven they can sell and have a fan base and reputation built-in. We’re woefully reluctant to try new things that don’t already have a dozen testamonials attached to them, and business-wise we won’t touch a new product until the sales are already in place. Which creates quite a problem for new talent to break in and a pretty much stagnant market.
Admittedly, tie-ins to video games and movies/tv shows do sell and sell remarkably well, because the sales and built-in fan base already exist. IDW’s Star Trek, Doctor Who, Silent Hill, Ghost Whisperer books, to name but a few of their licensed properties, all make a profit. But this makes comics a side-product of other media, which…isn’t necessarily ideal. It’s great to have tie-ins as one side of the equation, but not as the only viable source of income, which we’re dangerously close to having here in the states. Even with super-hero books, if there isn’t a movie or tv show or cartoon adaptation somewhere out there, it likely is struggling to make the numbers.
And here’s something I shoud expound upon, to clear up one part of my stance on the so-called “death/dying” of print media: it isn’t the artform or the readership that dying or struggling, but simply the BUSINESS side of things. Print is becoming exponentially more expensive to sustain. I recently signed up for the Publisher’s Weekly e-newsletter (https://www.publishersweekly.com/subscribe.asp?screen=pi10) and disappointingly, 9/10 newsletters conatin nothing but headlines about the restructuring, laying off, buying freezes, and resignations of big-wig editors at all the major publishers. Things are getting heavy out there for print publishers, because the cost of printing and especially of distribution and warehouse costs are growing outside the range of the rest of out economy. Since comic single issues were $1.25 USD, minimum wage (here in the States) has increased from $4.75 to $8.00. That’s a nearly 100% increase in wage, but comic singles are now $2.99-(more often) $3.99 USD, a 300-400% increase. Even worse, while minimum wage has increased because it’s a Federally regulated thing, the wages of higher-income classes have emphatically NOT raised much at all, which means the lower class is appraching closer to the middle class, but the middle and upper-middle classes have hardly budged in their earnings. This makes for a readership that frankly doesn’t have the money to support either
a) The sheer output (oversaturation of product, which I’ll talk about in full in KtGrizzly #2), or
b) The numbers of sales any one product needs to turn a profit.
Readers today still would rather read print than digital – of that there is NO doubt. But we can’t afford too much, and half the books we support disappear for lack of astronomical readership numbers necessary to stay solvent. It’s possible that retail stores are even doing all right, as the tie-ins and major icons or long-time mags like 2000AD will likely hold readership for as long as they care to continue publishing. In that sense, print is fine and healthy. But how does anything new and not a tie-in survive? Is print viable for anyone that can’t etablish a readership of 10-25,000 overnight? And therein lies the true rub-a-dub-dub.
THE BOY WHO MADE SILENCE could possibly sell if displayed properly at retailers, but that would also assume that retailers were buying it at all. I’m unceratin as to the exact order numbers of the book here in the states, but I spoke to the creator (Josh Hagler) at a convention just last month. He’s also a gallery artist and makes his living selling in the fine art community, paintings that sell for thousands. He confirmed at the Con in question that THE BOY WHO MADE SILENCE was, and I quote, “a money pit” for him.
So I’m certain there’s a way every retailer could buy a few copies, display them properly, and the book could do very well. But they aren’t, and so it isn’t. And that where the cold hard reality of this comes into play. The book is beautiful. Everyone who sees it marvels at it. It has support and quote copy from dozens of big industry names. It has everything every would-be creator dreams of to make it big…and it’s a financial disaster.
So the big question is why, and what to do about it! That’s what I hope to explore. Please, defnitely keep giving us a retailer’s view of things, Shane, as my own view will keep more focused on the individual creator side of things and the online sphere of marketing and distribution. I agree that myebook.com (amongst many, many others) is precisely where things are heading. Not for the whole industry, but for small press and indy stuff, nearly without question. Unless the creators want a money pit. Which I suppose is always an option, just to see your stuff on the retail shelf
–Dave B.
Comment by Naniiebim on 8 December 2008:
lol, was just reading killing the grizzly…
and sat back with a sigh, as all the things that dave said about the evolution of comics is true.
thats if you want to go into the on and up and commercial.
but at the same time, step back a little, and look at the money making machine it is. publishing is in this trouble, not because it produces quality, but because it started publishing shite that sells. we’re carried on the wave and edge of electronic e books because commercially you lose less money on it, but- yet again- the consumers are on a losing streak. it’s then about the gadgets used to read the material, and lets just say- there’s not a big mass producing gadget maufacturer in the world thats going to make a product that has a hundred year shelf life and no upgrades these days.
which is probably why a little bit of me had a big wide deranged grin and laughed and said “Bugger that!”
fame, fortune and film rights? not as important as creating a story as it should be.
Comment by Dave Baxter on 8 December 2008:
Ha ha! Too true, Nanii, and good to see you here giving my opinions the two-finger salute
Just wait until article #2. Everyone seems to have the opinion that e-comics and “going digital” are at the expense of seeing your book in print and having full control over its artistic fate as a bound and paper-made thing. Which is so NOT so! E-comics are the GATEWAY to printing and publishing your creator-owned work, made under the creator’s full control…and then having it sell enough copies that the work alone will sustain you.
Eeee hee hee hee hee hee! I’m all giddy for everyone to read the next installment. I think it should be 100x the food for thought of this opening installment. This one was reiterating a reality everyone is aware of, but most are divided upon. KtG #2 will be the “new” (as new as anything gets, anyway) thought/approach to the whole deal. Should go up either this week or next, so soon! –Dave B.
Comment by Howard Tayler on 10 December 2008:
Thanks for the shout-out, Dave. I’ll try to get this blogged on my site this week — I just need to wait until one of the shipping-in-time-for-Christmas deadlines passes, so there’s breathing space!
Comment by Richard Bliss on 10 December 2008:
We learn some very important items from Howard’s presentation about succeeding in online media publishing.
#1 Howard doesn’t make any money from his comic strip.
#2 Howard makes money from the INTEREST people have in his comic strip.
#3 Howard has done a lot of writing to get to this point.
It would appear that the monetary success has to do with the quantity of content. Quantity can often times overcome a lack of quality, due to the process of producing an unending stream of content usually involves feedback, which results in improvements.
Killing the Grizzly is an apt metaphor because it is HARD. Howard has made it look easy but I personally have never seen anyone with his level of unrelenting focus and tenacity to stick to something.
Comment by Donna Barr on 15 December 2008:
First of all, this is a great column. Dave knows the net. Now some comments:
I’ve been in comics and book publishing since 1986. I noticed the trend of the Saturday Slump — no or few sales — at San Diego Comicon starting about four years ago. EVERYBODY got the slump, even the cute porn star girl and SHE had sex-toys.
As for some of the sites Dave’s mentioned:
Wowio still owes me — and a lot of other creators– money; because the publisher (middle-man) I was working with loaded some of my books up, that’s a lot of actual users who aren’t going to work in the process to get me money for those books elsewhere, even though those books are off the site now.
I’ve put up a teaser at Clickwheel to link to lulu.com/desertpeach. I’m leery about putting books up completely at any site because of my Wowio experience.
Why link to a PRINT site? Because Lulu is also a download site. And Lulu has never failed to automatically load the money into my Paypal site every single month. No checks or accounts or any meat-puppets as go-betweens. I don’t understand why sites keep working with humans in the accounting system.*
The same books run at http://www.webcomicsnation.com/dbarr/afterdead/series.php using http://www.projectwonderful.com I make a few pennies on that — not a lot, but it dribbles in.
*An aside concerning humans vs. built computer data base: I’ve been working with IndieBound.net (a marketing arm of the American Booksellers Association), and discovered that one of their data bases is being hand-entered by ONE GUY at Bookweb. That’s the ENTIRE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY re-entering ISBN’s and loading cover art through one guy. Barnes and Noble online does the same thing. I KNOW this is a site about getting the pages off the tree-pulp, but please, one of our mistakes is keeping the PAYMENTS on the tree-pulp.
Note: Paypal payments that are tiny aren’t charged a fee. If you use Paypal to feed the payments, figure out how to do it in bits.
I’ll go back to the foetal position now…
Comment by Joshua Hagler on 31 December 2008:
Hi Dave,
Thanks for sending me this link! Aside from the obvious selfish reasons, I found your article to be thoughtful and researched. I will now set about the task of reading the rest of your columns. Perhaps I’ll comment again if I feel so inclined.
I also think quite a bit about how the internet is changing publishing. In particular I try to think about how I can use it to my advantage. Currently, the first issue of TBWMS is on myebook.com for free. It is also apparently going to be downloadable on Chinese cell phones. How weird is that?
I think it’s good to change with the times. Adapt or die. But so far, I’ve yet to find something that I think works really well for my book. Myebook has a great layout, and as far as reading a comic online goes, I’m glad it can be found there. But by no means do I think it can substitute for the physical book. Perhaps this is just cultural bias, having grown up with books rather than with the internet. As far as it being on a cell phone translated into Chinese languages, that is completely confusing to me. Why would anyone want to read TBWMS on a cell phone? I would think the language translation would be hard enough. Add to that cutting it up into panels and presenting it on a tiny LCD, I have no idea what is appealing about that.
Whenever I’m at a convention, I inevitably end up asking myself what I’m doing there. I’m too slow, too uninformed on the industry, too annoyed by all the junk. Just as I haven’t done a good job of adapting to online media, I haven’t adapted to a general way of comporting oneself in the comics sub-culture.
All of that said, I don’t think it’s just a failure to adapt to a changing market and changing media that has made TBWMS a commercial failure. There are a lot of old-fashioned reasons for this too.
What you say about not having received industry offers/contracts, is actually far from true. There have been a number of offers to work on comic properties with movie tie-ins. That actually hasn’t or has been the trouble, depending on how you look at it. The book did a fair job of getting attention from decision-making people. But rather than take an interest in what I had to offer as a storyteller, they become more interested in my talents as a service-provider, giving a horror property, for instance, that special BWMS look. The problem for me, is that nagging question, “why?” Why spend all my time away from telling stories and trade it in for adding more garbage to the genre machine? Even if I wanted to completely sell out for money, the money that’s offered is never enough to justify selling out. I still do better as a gallery artist. So it’s not much of a moral dilemma.
Now it could be that the reason TBWMS has been a commercial failure is because it sucks. I mean, one has to accept that as a possibility. I’ve been told from people(or spied on them online) who don’t like it that it “doesn’t make any sense.” So if it doesn’t make sense to people, why would they buy it?
Let me ask you this: Have you ever read The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner? I consider this to be one of the most difficult things I’ve ever read. In many places, I couldn’t follow along, and had to re-read to try to put it together. It’s also one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. But to many people, the struggle to understand it would send them away looking for something more “entertaining” to read. I even admit, I was one of these. I had to take several breaks to read comics.
This isn’t to say that TBWMS is on the same level as anything Faulkner ever did. I wish. But to pretend for a second that my comic book series doesn’t suck, and we look for other reasons why it doesn’t sell, and why other books like it won’t sell, I think it has less to do with changing media than with more timeless and prevailing market expectation.
When McKean and Gaiman made Violent Cases, painting comics was a pretty new idea. Since that time, it’s become more accepted and mainstream. I noticed a painted issue of Fantastic Four not long ago. But because it has been appropriated largely by the horror genre, there’s a kind of expectation about what kind of a story should be painted. When it turns out that TBWMS is not a horror book, many people are probably disappointed.
As for people looking for something outside of the popular genres, they don’t even look at single issues. And I think most will agree that single issue comics are generally a bad idea for indy creators.
Over the long term, I foolishly believe The Boy Who Made Silence will find a fair amount of commercial success. Once we collect the trades and give them time to make their rounds, I think new doors will be open. I doubt very much that the books themselves will make bags of cash in the short term. But everybody is looking for ansilliary means of creating revenue, and Markosia is certainly included.
Which leads to my last point: I think that both Markosia and I might have confused each other a little bit. I would guess that they wanted TBWMS to be a kind of competitor with IDW-style books. But I’m a poor competitor on those terms, since that’s not actually what I’m making. There doesn’t seem to exist, at this time, an American market for painted non-genre books. Those seem to mostly come from Europe.
Some people want something new, some people want the familiar, with maybe a smidgen of newness. I think people are fascinated with digital media because it’s relatively new, and, as you point out, is getting pretty easy to manage, it’s quick, cheap, etc. But there is still room to do something new in print. If people were to ever get bored with print media, it seems to me that it would have happened by now. Long before the internet, we’ve had lots of other inventions come along: the radio, moving pictures, television, etc. You could say that television made people read fewer printed books, but I’m not sure that’s true. Are there any statistics on this? Television is much easier than reading a book, but it would have been sad to see authors all migrate to writing for television because it was the new thing. Just as you write differently for television, you create differently for the internet, or so you should I think. Maybe that’s what makes the experience feel so clumsy to me–most of what I’ve read online works the same as a book, but is just a little more clunky and annoying to read.
What I like about the internet is that its wild and free. By its nature, people are encouraged to create community, trade information, and generally cultivate and broaden consciousness through reciprocation. That makes it a great place to talk about and learn about comics, for instance. But I’m still waiting for the person who can use online media to push a story of substance forward in ways that it couldn’t do better in print.
For now, I’m still more comfortable acquiring meaningful reads through print than through the internet. And while I’ll still look to the internet in the hopes of changing my mind someday soon, I’ll also be looking to print for something new as well. I can only hope that TWBMS does something new enough in print that will help it gain some traction when it’s collected this summer.
Thanks again for the fantastic column, Dave, and for letting me blab away. Sorry everybody.
Oh yeah, and thanks for using The Boy as an example. I’m honored to have been thought of.
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[...] KILLING THE GRIZZLY articles #1 (“A Bold New Era”) and #2 (“The Long Tail and The True Fan”), we took an in-depth look at the state of the [...]
Pingback by Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources - Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment » Talking Comics with Tim: Donna Barr on 23 March 2009:
[...] Dave Baxter of is working with me on a new webcomics project, featuring the entire first issues of the Desert [...]
Comment by polo shirt on 13 May 2009:
awesome.I like it very much.
polo shirt
Comment by quyet on 10 July 2009:
still more comfortable acquiring meaningful reads through print than through the internet. And while I’ll still look to the internet in the hopes of changing my mind someday soon, I’ll also be looking to print for something new as well. I can only hope that TWBMS does something new enough in print that will help it gain some traction when it’s collected this summer.