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[Arachno-capitalist]

So is the thing basically an onstad Twitter RSS or what

[MrCB]

He posts longer stuff there than you can with a twitter feed.

Mainly, it seems to consist of random, non-canon, updates, sneak peaks of a single panel of the next strip, postings of panels he didn't use, or protracted commentary on the current arc - for example, we got the more detailed wedding and honey moon.

An example posting, from the wedding, for those who might take interest in such a thing:

"Roast Beef stared into the Eggs Benedict harder than Eggs Benedict have any business being stared into. He had to eat, but tension paralyzed his arms. He wouldn't make it through, or even to, the wedding if he did not eat. He screwed his courage to the sticking point and told himself that if he was strong enough to eat breakfast, he was strong enough to get married. Slowly, he cut away a small wedge of the egg, muffin, ham, and sauce. Ray watched in awe as the bite traveled, on the fork, through the air, slowly, into Roast Beef's mouth. He began to chew. A sensation not unlike morphine began to flow through his veins: nutrition. The fog of his anxiety began to lift."

[Toaster]

Holy shit that is my fuck*ng life.

[wombat]

I think it's interesting to get all these different perspectives - comic strip, first person blogs, third person stories in the subscription updates. There's no other comic artist that does that.

As for whether it's a good idea to make people pay for it... I have not needed one of his tshirts in a long time, so he's getting money from me that he wouldn't otherwise. But I am assuming it will eventually fail because so far these sorts of things always do. I guess that is a bad attitude, and if everyone was like this, civilization would not progress. It's worth a try, right?

[MrCB]

The core of the business is the comic, which is free. Without that what would all of the for-money stuff orbit around?

I do think that Wombat is right though, both about income from the store, and the longevity of a subscription service. I know that I've kicked Ostand a couple of hundred bucks in the three years or so since I've been reading, but what am I going to buy from him now? I'll get the new books that come out, and maybe the occasional T-Shirt, but that's it.

This subscription service, might run for a time, or it might not, but I think it's an interesting idea. It's a bit like getting the movie for free, but paying to get the directors cut.

Now, one thing I would love to see, would be a real premium product line. I'd happily pay quite a lot of money for a collection of all the strips, but in really high quality, hard bound into large books, with all the arcs reformatted to read as one long comic - such as he has done for the Cartilage Head poster. I'm thinking of something along the lines of the Absolute Sandman volumes, which is going for $63 a volume on Amazon, with a list price of $99.

I guess that part of the problem is knowing the demographic of Achewood readers, and working out from there what sort of products and price points could appeal.

Anyone want to try an experiment and work out the demographic of TOUAMB? Post or PM your age, location and occupation and see what we come up with.

I'll start - 27, London, Finance.

[jay-ell]

CB, that's a cool idea, but I think it would be best in a new post, with a poll.