Also, comics are becoming huge in libraries. And librarians are realizing they're not just for kids.
Jayne ,'Serenity'
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Discussion of Buffy and Angel comics, books, and more. Please don't get into spoilery details in the first week of release.
And librarians are realizing they're not just for kids.
"Pow! Wham! Bomp! Comics Grow Up!"
I would imagine a lot of folks who would be inclined to produce indie comics are moving towards making webcomics instead just because it's easier to put up a webpage and try to get people to link to it than it is to print something up and try to 1) get stores to carry it 2) get folks to buy it. I'm sure it's not the only reason for the decline in numbers, but it certainly helps.
I would imagine a lot of folks who would be inclined to produce indie comics are moving towards making webcomics instead just because it's easier to put up a webpage and try to get people to link to it than it is to print something up and try to 1) get stores to carry it 2) get folks to buy it. I'm sure it's not the only reason for the decline in numbers, but it certainly helps.
The big lesson I learned in comics/publishing when I was in it was simply that distribution was the great bottleneck. The internet circumvents that. If you can build up an online following, get some ad revenue and then publish book-store carriable collections then you might be able to make a run at it.
I don't know. Bone might be the last really successful paper-first indie comic.
Also, comics are becoming huge in libraries. And librarians are realizing they're not just for kids.
Heh. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm one of the top comics-checker-outers in my library. Whenever they get a new TPB in that I've been wanting to read, I always thank them.
Just call me Teppy, GirlGeek.
For Teppy, GirlGeek: [link]
It's strange, though, that Girl Genius is the only comic that I'm aware of that started out as hard copy, and then moved online. It isn't really that indie comics are moving online, they're getting displaced by them.
Another thing I'm noticing is that the indie comic aesthetic is having a huge influence on contemporary art. Maybe it's easier to sell prints online than comic books.
Oh, and indie animation is the new indie comic.
It's strange, though, that Girl Genius is the only comic that I'm aware of that started out as hard copy, and then moved online.
A Softer World was in zines before it was online. I'm 90% sure there's another fairly well-known comic that stopped hard copy production and moved online recently but I don't have time to dig around right now.
I think the web comic that's up on girl-wonder.org was print before it was online, and stopped doing print a few months back.
(Which reminds me, I need to write my stupid column, now that I have some free time.)
Well, the great series Finder made the jump from print to online, with the plan for the yearly collections to be released at SDCC. The Finder GNs were what was making money for the creator anyways, not the floppies.
David, there has been some interesting long tail analysis of comic sales, and the basic result was that basically everything after the top 40 or so titles are drastically underordered. Hell, most months Image doesn't even have a title in the top 50...