Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Death Ray]

Alt weekly papers, the original Internet for cutting edge comics , have struck the same iceberg as the rest of the economy and, in order to save dollars, are shedding comic strips like dandruff.

The situation has inspired articles such as this one in the Chicago Reader, and led to popular indy tooners like Max Cannon to issue a red alert to his readers that fans of indy strips need to be more outspoken.

Consequently, this has inspired a few dicks to come out of the woodwork, notably a guy named Ed Decker, himself an alt weekly freelancer, in an effort to kick sand in the face of struggling cartoonists, as if we were a bunch of Bernie Madofs who suddenly can't get caviar to flow from our kitchen faucets (my own response to Decker here).

The weird thing is, comics are usually one of the major reasons people pick up alt weeklies. If anything, weeklies ought to commit to a permanent comics page and start giving space to comics like Achewood, which are the natural (and prosperous) evolution of the revolution in comic strips that weeklies began with the likes of Life in Hell, Too Much Coffee Man, Derf and others. What does it say when the print medium has room still for obsolete 3-panel eye-sores like Moose and Molly but not sublimely funny comics like Tom the Dancing Bug?

[wombat]

Our local weekly has given up its comics, which used to include Lynda Barry, which was the first thing I turned to when I picked up the paper.

I was angry when they dropped but the comics but have to admit, I still pick up the paper every week. So dropping the comics hasn't done them any harm as far as losing me as a reader. I have sometimes written to this paper about other issues, but didn't even bother to argue when they dropped the comics.

I think that I have finally given up - I just no longer think of newspapers as a place to read comics. I still try to read about three of the comics carried by the Washington Post but it is kind of a chore - they are printed too small and I have to search them out in the three full pages of crap comics that they run.  If I had any sense I'd find a place to read those online as well. I also write to the Post regularly when they are idiots about something else but never write to them about the comics - they are clearly a lost cause.

I am not arguing that this is a good thing, but it is my reality. I would rather live in a world that had good comics in newspapers, but now that we have good comics on the internet, it is not worth my time as a cause.

[Death Ray]

I am not arguing that this is a good thing, but it is my reality. I would rather live in a world that had good comics in newspapers, but now that we have good comics on the internet, it is not worth my time as a cause.

Perhaps this is worthy of its own thread, "what are you willing to do to get your favorite strip?" You may not know this, but it is unlikely that most of your favorite strips are as profitable as Achewood.

I have actually been discussing with some cartoonists a coordinated national "tip your cartoonist week". Anyone want to throw in their two cents on this? What would incentivize you to throw a few bucks once a year at your favorite three or four comic strips?

(by the way, I'm keeping those two cents to cover my health insurance costs)

[littlefallsmets]

The LA Weekly's comics are basically down to incomprehensible masturbatory local political in-jokes and can frankly bite me where I dangle.

Maybe before I moved out here they were better?

[wombat]

I am well aware that most artists, writers, etc have to have day jobs and I already do what I can as far as throwing money at them. I buy books and tshirts from most of the strips I read regularly and subscribe to the Achewood premium thing. I have done enough non-lucrative creative activities in my life and know enough people who do them that I feel a sense of obligation to do this, but we already know I not normal - we have discussed elsewhere the fact that I have a rule against buying used books by living authors, after all. I'm not sure my experience is a useful one to draw conclusions from - it would say that the solution is for everyone to at least have a friend who's a writer or musician, etc. so they understand the economics of the situation in a personal way.

[AugustWest]

Screw 'em.  Tell 'em to get on the internet like everybody else.

[pmcd9]

Newspapers are dying.  They are obsolete.

Why mourn the loss of your alt weekly with one or two comics in it when there is the internet with thousands of comics including the ones your alt weekly used to carry?

[wombat]

See, I don't agree that newspapers are obsolete. I still need something to read with breakfast, and I want it to be something that won't cause economic pain if I spill my cup of tea on it.

If computers had been invented before paper, paper would seem like a really cool idea. Cheap, portable, doesn't require electricity, lightweight, never crashes, can be read in the bathroom, disposable. Cool!

Until they figure out something electronic that really serves the same purpose, there will still be a place for newspapers. Unfortunately they are all so convinced that they're dying that they're all making decisions that hasten the process by making themselves more useless.

[jay-ell]

See, I don't agree that newspapers are obsolete. I still need something to read with breakfast, and I want it to be something that won't cause economic pain if I spill my cup of tea on it.

If computers had been invented before paper, paper would seem like a really cool idea. Cheap, portable, doesn't require electricity, lightweight, never crashes, can be read in the bathroom, disposable. Cool!

Until they figure out something electronic that really serves the same purpose, there will still be a place for newspapers. Unfortunately they are all so convinced that they're dying that they're all making decisions that hasten the process by making themselves more useless.

Something like...electronic paper? 

[wombat]

Dunno, but "Electronic paper" still sounds like something that can't stand up to an unfortunate encounter with an errant beverage.

[Death Ray]

Dunno, but "Electronic paper" still sounds like something that can't stand up to an unfortunate encounter with an errant beverage.

"Errant Beverage" is now the new name of my fantasy punk band. Here's your Dr. Pepper.

If I may steer this back to how web cartoonists might get stingy netizens to surrender some Dorothy's from their wallets, here's my brainwave for the day: If your favorite strip (say, Achewood) was part of a well promoted national tip effort once a year, what would put you over the top to get you to PayPal the artist $2.00, something you might part with several times a month at iTunes? If Onstad offered a collection of his work for a $5.00 donation, would that motivate you? How about an anthology of original comics from popular web cartoonists for the same price (some Achewood, some PVP, some Girls With Slingshots). Interested yet? Or not?

[pmcd9]

Don't know if this is what JL was linking to, (link was broken), and I don't know if this is the ultimate solution, but this is a huge step in the right direction I think.

[littlefallsmets]

I'll tell you what DOESN'T motivate me to give more bread to internet and/or alt-weekly cartoonists:

Creating premium-only sections and then radically cutting back on your "free" content, causing me lose interest in the entire product by providing me with a lot less of said product.

I mean, I've bought a few of your comics over the years, Mr. Death... I've bought Achewood stuff, I've bought Red Meat books... Derf, someone else you mentioned, his traditionally printed comic about his childhood association with Jeffery Dahmer was one of the best things I've ever read in ANY format, I'd buy that five more times if I could... I have no problem at all supporting artists by purchasing merchandise or collections or sideprojects.

But for some reason, when you change the rules of your publishing model mid-stream in a way that makes the whole thing suffer overall, it just pisses me off.

I certainly have three dollars a month to throw down the inter-hole and I love Achewood when it is at its best but I simply refuse, ideologically, to buy the fuck*ng "premium content" because its existence has fucked up the rest of the output. I will probably buy more than thirty-six dollars in Achewood stuff this year, I have a friend who is way into it as well and usually if I get him a birthday or Christmas gift, it's from Onstad's store but...

I just can't get my head around putting those thirty-six bucks toward something that's actively leeching off the regular stuff.

So... you know.

Something other than that.

[pmcd9]

Why is the alt weekly free?  Because it's paid for by advertising.

Hey internet comic creators, solve your cash flow problem with advertising. 

[jay-ell]

I would tend to pay for content that is substantially different in form or function from what is offered for free.  In the past, I have purchased the following to support various comic artists:

T-shirts
books:
 - dead-tree versions of comics
 - related books, such as the Achewood recipe books
music CDs
video games

I have also just straight-up made donations to people whose work I like and want to support. 

I'm with LFM when he says that a marked decrease in the availability of free content diminishes my interest in paying for additional. 

And I do think that it makes very little sense to have a web site with thousands of unique visitors per day and not sell ad space.  You can always sell a "premium," ad-free subscription to those who would prefer not to see ads.  I think Penny Arcade does this?