« The Monday Banter Latte wrapup frappacino | Main | The Banter Latte shuffle. »
Eric: So, having written Saturday's essay, here's a long philosophical essay about the 600 pound webcomics gorilla who's just been sighted coming into town.
(From "Zudacomics.com." I swear, that's what it's called.)
It was inevitable.
In one sense, we can blame the Foglios. If blame is the right term. Other folks had crossed the digital divide both ways. Hell, Scott Kurtz had done okay for himself with his Image comic and his print collections, and DC themselves did the Megatokyo shuffle. But in those cases, it was an example of successful people on the web moving on into the print arena. The big companies understood that. That made sense to them.
And certainly other print creators had gone to the web before the Foglios. Others had decided that they could make a better run of it online, or that it would be a good supplement, or that it would grow their overall readership.All that made sense too.
But then the Foglios gave up comic books for the web. They said "look, printing a regular comic just isn't making us money. If we want to do this, we need a new system." And they put it into place. And it worked.
The Foglios were a known quantity. Phil Foglio had done work for DC in the past. If they could do well by moving to the web, there was something to this.
Seeing that, various folks at DC clearly started (or continued) to research webcomics and webcomics collectives. They researched what was working and what wasn't and they researched ways to monetize successfully. I promise you they've looked long and hard at the full on collectives like Keen or Modern Tales and at the guild-style associations like Dumbrella, Dayfree or Blank Label.
And it's finally happened. The shoe is dropping. DC Comics is launching a webcomics collective.
Not a portal. Not a gateway. A collective. There is a distinction, and it is an important one.
According to their press releases, intellectual property is going to be "shared." What that means, in the end, depends on their contracts. But that's the first thing to bear in mind. This is a professional site. If you become a cartoonist for Zuda (seriously -- Zuda?) you're going to be signing a contract with them. One that will say what rights you have and what rights they have. One that will, among other things, limit you to the "page" they've decided on. (Infinite canvas, scminfinite canvas. You're working on a 4:3 ratio and you'll bet your editor won't want something so large and detailed that it's not print friendly.) Which brings up something else: you will have editors. And those editors will be editing for content and quality. You will be expected to be on time and have a buffer ahead. If you decide to pitch Zuda and strike out on your own, you'd better make sure there's an escape clause in that contract first, and you'd better make certain you understand what your sharing of intellectual property means before you begin.
Does this sound doom and gloomish? Does this sound like I'm warning you off of Zuda or DC?
Well, I'm not.
Seriously.
I don't know what their terms are going to be, and I don't know how well they're going to pay, and I don't know whether or not "shared IP" is code for "work-for-hire but if we keep producing your hit webcomic after we leave we'll pay you a small percentage of ad revenues and put your name on the site under a 'created by' credit" or anything else. But it's entirely possible, from the standpoint of a comic reader, that Zuda could rock. Because it's doing a few things that no one else is right now. Things that should be red flags for creators, but could be boons for readers and fans: standardization and editorial control.
Back when Weds, Howard Tayler, Shaenon Garrity, Rich Burlew and I (with special guest Phil Khan) were at Swarthmore College, Shaenon and I gave a lecture on the importance of editors -- how the lack of an editor gave webcartoonists an almost unparalleled sense of freedom, but that carried with it the dangers of a lack of discipline. Editors are good things. They make you produce, on time and to spec. They tell you when you suck and they make you do bad work over again. They remind you that you're being paid to do this -- if indeed this is how you make your money -- and you god damned better not forget that or they'll stop paying you to do this. Editors provide a lot of good things for any creative endeavor, and a creative endeavor without one can suffer if it's not careful.
Well, Zudacomics.com will have all the disadvantages that strong editors entail. You're not going to be free to do whatever the Hell you want with your comic. You're going to have to produce. It will have to be of a given quality. It will have to conform to their standards. You are not going to radically shift directions in your comic without having a pretty significant discussion with the Zuda team first. And yes, you're going to have all of your comics fit in a 4:3 box. They've already come out and said that.
I'm not sure if animation's going to be acceptable or not. I seriously doubt they'll be Flash friendly. Unless the whole damn site is run in Flash to prevent bandwidth theft.
But. All the good sides of editors are going to come with this too. The stuff that comes out will in fact be of a certain level of quality. Possibly very good quality, especially if they pay well. They might in fact get some really good artists who know the form and can produce seriously good comics, because they're a steady paycheck instead of a hand-to-mouth operation. It's going to be far less likely that unexpected hiatuses will happen, because they're probably going to be working way ahead. (And yes, that means that "strips going up the same day that something happens" effect will be limited, which does have its down side.)
In short, Zudacomics might very well come out with a pack of really good webcomics. Webcomics with a lot more potential for print deals. Webcomics that are far more likely to show up at Barnes and Noble than going it alone will do. Webcomics that will have the attention of one of the large companies, which makes the chance to draw a story for Marvel or DC at least slightly less unlikely.
And, if Zudacomics is successful, then the other collectives and guilds are going to be in a weird position: they're going to become the Independent Webcomics Collectives, instead of the Webcomics Collectives. Especially if Zuda makes DC money, because you know Marvel will turn around and do their own, and probably so will some of the others. And they have money for major advertising in other media, designed to bring eyeballs to their web sites.
There's every chance, of course, that they'll do this wrong. Never underestimate the potential of a given company to make bad choices when moving into a new venture. But if they do do this right, they're going to become a major player on the web, and very possibly move into broader territory than any of the existing collectives.
So one thing that existing collectives, guilds and independent comics creators need to start doing is figuring out what it will mean, bottom line, if Zudacomics does well. Some will be fine. Blank Label and Dumbrella are largely made up of webcartoonists who produce day in and day out, building quality, and holding their audience through consistency, quality, and that same discipline I alluded to above. Scott Kurtz is likely going to be fine, for all the same reasons. Achewood is likely to be fine because of its idiosyncratic nature and its quality.
But Zuda can be bad news for Modern Tales, for Graphic Smash, for Girlamatic, and for Keenspot -- all of which have some rock solid comics but also have some random or fly by night ones -- and for the various guilds that don't have a solid core of artists producing with that same regularity. Not to mention various complete independents who go on long term hiatuses with no end in sight, because how hard is it to write and send a god damned script to your cowriter or update your damn static art comic anyway, Eric! We all know that the major collectives have some strips that produce like clockwork and some that just don't. That's going to have to change. Keenspot in particular is going to have to have a lot of internal discussions about this. If Zuda starts growing fast, producing a good number of strips that are considered high quality and a good sense of discipline, Keenspot's traditionally hands-off approach to the Spotted is going to come across as unprofessional, and the sense of 'arrival' that comes with being asked to join Keenspot is going to evaporate. And, of course, if Zuda ends up paying better than Keenspot (or Modern Tales) do, there's going to be a certain number of artists who will take the concept of paychecks and security and run with it, even if it means sharing their intellectual property, locking their stuff into a single publisher, and going back to a model that any number of artists went to the web to get away from.
Back in my acting days, we called that "working for Disney." A lot of what we were doing on the Renaissance Festival circuit was in high demand down at Disney World. Actors who could hold a sense of character, work the street and interact with the public all at the same time fit the Magic Kingdom (and more to the point, Disney/MGM) like a white glove. And a good number of folks took that deal, because it meant becoming an employee instead of an independent contractor. It meant health insurance, and a 401k, and the chance to get a real apartment and develop a normal life.
However, it also meant that you weren't doing the actor's life any more. You weren't moving from one show to the next, one town to the next, shifting gears and shifting lifestyles at the drop of a hat. You were going to work for Disney instead, performing the same role day in and day out, holding to a specific line and quality, following the Disney Handbook in all ways (including -- in the case of a guy hired to be a pirate -- having his beautiful pirate's beard shaven off, because Disney Employees at least at that time had to be clean shaven, only to have a fake one applied to his face every day so he could play his part. Honest to Christ.)
So, even though we were all derisive and dismissive of the Disney option (most of the time Disney World was referred to as "Mauschwicz" on the circuit) everyone was tempted by it and a lot of good actors took it, because a steady paycheck and the chance to build a life without scrabbling for money and that next role every minute was really, really attractive.
And those folks who really, really want to make their webcomic their day job but who aren't good at the merchandising or the rest of the things that make it hard to survive as a professional independent artist may well sign on Zuda's dotted line and go to work for DC. If they pay enough to make it feasible, it will really appeal to some people. Including some really, really talented people.
So, yeah. There's lots to be wary of. And yeah, the whole "contest for a slot" thing has strong echoes of Platinum. (Though I'll tell you, I'd die laughing if D.J. Coffman came up with a strip for this and got it through. And don't pretend he couldn't -- Coffman's got the chops.) And there's going to be lots of "hah hah -- DC's pretending it invented the webcomics collective" and busting on the man.
But if DC does this right, there's going to be some seriously good webcomics out there as a result.
And if that happens, things are going to change.
As a reader and aficionado of comic strips, I'm looking forward to Zuda. I'm looking forward to what might be some really cool comics. As an observer of the industry, I'm interested to see what they're going to bring to the table, pro and anti. But as someone who spent some time (brief, but existent) helming a webcomics collective and who knows a lot of folks for whom webcomics are their bread and butter, I think this is a time to be paying close attention to what's happening, and what it could mean for everyone else.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at July 10, 2007 11:31 AM
Comments
Comment from: gwalla ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.websnark.com/nav-commenters.gif)
posted at July 10, 2007 11:48 AM
What's wrong with the name "Zuda"? Twitter...WikiWikiWeb...Joost...Blog...Web 2.0 is all about the sill-sounding nonsense names.
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at July 10, 2007 12:05 PM
Things will change, and things will not change. This is still the web. Zuda being successful in one model doesn't exclude others, unless you think audiences were reading the current the batch until something better came along.
Seriously. I was one of those people on Keenspot who would just stop updating my comics unannounced, for whatever reason, for months at a time. My audience didn't suddenly decide they would read Sinfest instead. There were plenty of other comics out there that were better drawn (hell, most of them qualify as THAT) and that updated more regularly (hell, most of them quality as that TOO), and my readership *did* dip each time I stopped updating, but not as much as you'd think and it built back up over time.
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at July 10, 2007 12:06 PM
(hell, most of them quality as that TOO)
Heh. Freudian? We'll see.
Comment from: Polychrome posted at July 10, 2007 12:30 PM
I imagine that Zuda's approach is going to be somewhat similar to Japan's "phone book manga". Cheap to produce collection of semi-random stuff, to throw things up against the wall and see what sticks. Anything that seems popular you sell collections of for a real profit. Zuda may not even be intended to directly make money, but rather serve as a farm system for writers and artists.
At least, if I was DC that's what I would be doing.
Comment from: Eric Burns posted at July 10, 2007 12:37 PM
Christopher -- you're right, assuming that Zuda's advertising model (of which we know nothing, right now) doesn't draw a lot of potential advertisers away from things like Keenspot and towards Zuda. That could have real and significant impact on Keen's bottom line, and that is a potential danger.
(Heh. I kind of hope Zuda puts some Project Wonderful ads here and there on their site -- they may have no interest in intracommunity ("hey Eric, I thought there was no damn webcomics community" "Shut up. I can contain multitudes too.") relations, but if they do, that would be a good start. Run a few campaigns on PW, have a few slots for external strips to advertise.
Most likely, though, they'll have something more like Indieclick. We Shall See.
Comment from: alschroeder posted at July 10, 2007 1:17 PM
Personally, I'm all for it. I have an account on Comicgenesis, and an account on Webcomicsnation, doing two different strips, and they have various strengths and weaknesses. If we have DC doing webcomics---even if they are heavily-edited and/or strongly selective---it will lead more and more DC readers to look on the web for content, especially if advertising for Zuda extends to the DC website.
A rising tide raises all boats. Even if I don't submit anything to Zuda (and I very well might) just the fact that more and more readers will be acclimated to search out the web for CONTENT will inevitably draw more readers to other sites, as they wonder what else is out there.
Comment from: Bo Lindbergh posted at July 10, 2007 1:30 PM
So... have the Zuda/Zune jokes started appearing yet?
Comment from: Maritza Campos posted at July 10, 2007 1:45 PM
That is, assuming Zuda knows how webcomics work, and manage to make it work.
Comment from: alschroeder posted at July 10, 2007 1:47 PM
Hey, Eric! Check out the latest Cameocomic at http://cameocomic.comicgenesis.com/d/20070710.html--- it's fitting that Websnark's name be invoked in the biggest webcomics crossover of all--- so far.
Comment from: William S. posted at July 10, 2007 2:21 PM
> A rising tide raises all boats
Except, of course, the ones on land.
Also, WikiWikiWeb isn't Web 2.0. It was created in 1995, for Prime's sake. And it also has a meaning: "wiki" is Hawai'ian for fast.
Comment from: Dave Van Domelen posted at July 10, 2007 3:00 PM
Zuda is Spanish for "well", at least according to a webpage for Castillo de la Zuda I found while Googling. Altavista doesn't want to translate "zuda" however, and my hardcopy dictionaries are at home.
A well of comics does make sense, though.
Comment from: Dave Van Domelen posted at July 10, 2007 3:02 PM
Oh, in case I wasn't clear, "well" in the sense of "hole in the ground from which one draws water" (or treacle).
Comment from: miyaa posted at July 10, 2007 3:02 PM
What do you think of the opinion raised by R. Stevens that unless the creator has sole ownership of his creation, then webcomic writers/artists should not apply to be apart of Zuda?
Comment from: Eric Burns posted at July 10, 2007 3:21 PM
I'm of two minds, Miyaa.
On the one hand, I think he's right. Honestly. Which I think comes out in the above essay.
However, there's a lot of people who would. Among other things, because of the whole "steady paycheck" thing. If they pay enough, lots of people would take it. I can't swear I wouldn't do so myself. If I could make a living wage off of producing the Adventures of Brigadier General John Stark, without the worries of the ad market collapsing or no one buying my Drink Tea or Die mugs or the like -- and without having to work a day job -- I would be very tempted to do so.
"Working for Disney" isn't a bad job. But it is a compromise. And I can totally see why M. Stevens is saying don't compromise! You don't need to! here.
Comment from: Carina posted at July 10, 2007 4:16 PM
Zuda sounds VERY interesting - I've got to keep an eye on it. While I'd never share the copyrights on my baby Traces of Chaos, there are a few ideas for which I'd love to have editors and co. Conclusion?
I'd love to submit something to zuda, but it would be one of the storys which I'm not completly emotionally invested in as I am with Traces of Chaos. That makes professional work relations easier. Hm...
Time to search through the "ideas for later" folder - and polish one of the stories there.
Comment from: kirabug posted at July 10, 2007 4:25 PM
News like this makes me glad (in the weirdest of ways) that webcomics are totally not my day job. There's neither editor nor rent bill keeping me tied to schedule or quality concerns, and Zuda will likely have no effect on my loyal but paltry audience. And so far, I've made $10 on merch.
Of course, I only update twice a week and what I do is quite frequently crap, but it's my crap, and I'm not starving :)
Comment from: The Weasel King posted at July 10, 2007 4:43 PM
Unless the whole damn site is run in Flash to prevent bandwidth theft.
Or, y'know, they could just block hotlinking, which would take 30 seconds to do.
60 seconds if they wanted to goatse everyone who hotlinked their images instead of just blanking them.
Comment from: Honi Soit posted at July 10, 2007 4:44 PM
Is that logo for real, or did Eric sketch it himself to reinforce the 600 pound gorilla line? Why would they purposefully design the representation of their brand to be so menacing and sinister? With those eyes, it's even a little big-brother-ish, which you'd surely think they would want to avoid.
I can't quite decide if it's a luchador or a Sumerian war god, but I'm leaning towards the latter: "There is no webcomics subculture - there is only Zuda!"
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at July 10, 2007 5:13 PM
The face in the logo changes every time the zuda page is refreshed. There are different expressions with each refresh.
Comment from: Remus Shepherd posted at July 10, 2007 6:07 PM
Verrrry interesting. Two things occur to me.
One, part of the corporate comic culture is matchmaking pencillers, inkers, writers, and whatnot. If DC uses Zune for that purpose, they could draw in the best writers and artists on the web with the opportunity to work with pro or semi-pro counterparts to themselves. This might spawn the creation of comics that otherwise would never exist, because the innovators that would do them do not have the ability to do the whole job themselves.
Two, DC will only cause major damage to the webcomic world if their corporate masters adopt internet culture...which isn't likely. The professional comic companies might corner the market for traditional comics, but that will just cause a proliferation in non-traditional forms. DC will never publish anything like Fetus-X or Jack, so those are the kind of profane, 'anything goes' comics that will pop up to compete against DC.
Still...verrrrry interesting.
Comment from: LurkerWithout posted at July 10, 2007 7:10 PM
"You will be expected to be on time "
Do you think the editors who manage that for Zuda could do the same for some of DC's actual print floppies? And maybe Marvel as well...
Comment from: gwalla posted at July 10, 2007 7:19 PM
I know wikis have been around for a long time, but they only got particularly popular recently, and they're one of the prime examples of the "Web 2.0 philosophy".
Remus: I dunno if they'd get "the best of the web". People who are already successful will most likely not be that interested, because they don't need the help. At best, they'd get the best of the web amateurs.
Comment from: Doublemint posted at July 10, 2007 8:21 PM
gwalla: They won't get "the best of the web" of today, but Zuda will scoop up new and upcoming webcartoonist who might have otherwise ended up hosting their work on Keenspot or Modern Tales.
Comment from: Tangent posted at July 10, 2007 9:05 PM
Grommit all... *sigh* great. Ah well, I can continue work on the Tangential Worlds concept anyway. I was expecting this to happen though... assuming I'm getting what you're saying right.
Rob H.
Comment from: Merus posted at July 10, 2007 9:36 PM
Is it me, or does their website say that the creator owns the copyright, not DC?
Comment from: Eric Burns posted at July 10, 2007 9:40 PM
Copyright isn't the issue. The issue is "shared Intellectual Property." Unless someone does actual Work-for-Hire or a transfer of Copyright by contract, the copyright will continue to be held by the creator. However, that doesn't mean the creator will retain the publication rights to their work.
Comment from: gray013 posted at July 10, 2007 10:04 PM
Oh and the Disney no beard thing, still true. Our high school marching band marched in a parade through Disney once and all the guys had to be clean shaven.
Comment from: Aerin posted at July 10, 2007 10:27 PM
Wait, "working for Disney" used to mean decent money and a normal life? Damn, times have changed. Now it means working sixty hours a week and still not being able to pay your rent.
I wonder if Zuda will take writers who haven't yet hooked up with an artist? I might have to look into this thing...
Comment from: Howard Tayler posted at July 11, 2007 12:50 AM
So far, it looks like they're doing it right.
A lot will depend on how the community of creators responds. "Community?" Nay, I think "mob" would be a better word here. This is news that reaches way beyond webcomics creators.
Just yesterday a guy I've never met but who name-dropped his way onto my cell-phone pumped me for information about how to start the art for his comic book, and whether the web was worth looking at. The call was a total waste of my time (and probably his, since I doubt I told him anything that he'd actually act on) but it reinforced one thing for me: most of the world still doesn't "get" webcomics.
Zuda has the opportunity to reach those people.
Zuda may be to webcomicdom as RedHat was to Open Source. Or it may be more like Novell.
Needless to say, I WILL be watching carefully. A rising tide may lift all ships (that are actually in the water, yes), but a violent tide will smash those not already at sea, and improperly moored ships may find even a gentle tide disastrous.
Comment from: Plaid Phantom posted at July 11, 2007 1:35 AM
I am constantly amazed when the Zune appears in conversations. And I own one.
As far as IP ownership concerns, even if one doesn't wish to hand over their brainchild, I can imagine some people sending in some other ideas that they're not quite as passionate about just to get a check and/or garner some fans which they can carry over into future solo works. Or just to get experience under an editor. Or any other reason.
My personal pet projects are mine, but I don't mind handing over other things for some quick experience/money/credit hours.
Comment from: Alma Mater posted at July 11, 2007 3:44 AM
I tend to be an optimist, so I think this could be a positive development in the long run. As you said, it could allow different styles of comics as well as a greater range of pathways to success, provided that creators are aware of what a deal with Zuda entails. And, like Howard mentioned, this could increase the "legitimacy" of webcomics among those who categorically dismiss them.
Still, while Zuda might provide some good opportunities, especially for talented unknowns who want to get some experience and recognition and would like to turn a profit without dealing with the hassles of merchandising or advertising, it is not right for all, or most, projects. If this model really takes off, it's possible that Keenspot and the Modern Tales family could shift their focus to comics that are more idiosyncratic or experimental, while Zuda's comics might be a bit more workmanlike (not necessarily a negative quality).
On a personal level, I know that I could never submit my comic to Zuda; not only is the subject matter a little too personal or autobiographical for something that would become "shared intellectual property," but I would get frustrated if I couldn't experiment with the format. If my interests and priorities were a bit different, I could see myself wanting to work with Zuda, but their model isn't really a good fit for what I want as a cartoonist, and Modern Tales has been a good "home" for me thus far.
Comment from: Alexandra Erin posted at July 11, 2007 8:16 AM
I'm fairly optimistic about this bringing more people out in search of web content... for every person who's at "critical load" of things to check on their trawl, there's 9 people who are desperately looking for something else to pad out their days, and 90 others who aren't even aware yet how much time they COULD be wasting.
Of course, the rising tide may actually be floodwaters that won't so much lift boats as just alter the landscape irrevocably before receding...
Comment from: miyaa posted at July 11, 2007 9:51 AM
See, I keep thinking about Zima when I see "Zuda." And I don't even drink. The other thing is Xuca, that Brazilian kids show with that really hot smoking woman named Xuca as host.
Novell...brr.
Seriously, though, I am surprised that DC hasn't dove into the webcomic world sooner. I'm not sure how much impact will DC, Marvel or any of the other comic book publishers will have on the webcomic world, even with direct involvement. I think Zuda will be less like a rising tide, and more like a hurricane, that may have an initial impact once it hits lands, but fades quickly after it runs out of water, but doing untold damage to everything in its path in the meanwhile.
Comment from: Maritza Campos posted at July 11, 2007 1:26 PM
No, the brazilian woman is Xuxa.
Comment from: RHJunior posted at July 11, 2007 5:05 PM
My feeling, or rather, my first impulsive reactions:
1)For DC to succeed on the web it would have to dramatically change absolutely everything it has done for the past 30 years in the comics industry. Which would basically require virtually everybody in the DC bureaucracy, along with half the artists, to spontaneously drop dead.
2)A vision of the classical caricature of the fat, balding, cigar-smoking CEO who's absolutely confident that "the kids will eat this stuff up!"....
3)"Once they pee in it, they like the flavor better; so they buy it."
4)Yes, they'll bring standards and quality control and regularity. But they'll also bring along mediocrity. They're a corporation, and a massive, long established one at that--- they gained their position by daring and inventiveness but they have sustained it by playing it safe.
5)Johnny-come-latelies rarely prosper. This has potential to be little more than trend chasing by CEOs whose understanding of the cultural zeitgeist is still lingering back in the 90's.
6)Air America for webcomics. They're not coming on board to join the revolution: they're coming on board in hopes of throwing their sheer corporate mass around, to shove the industry back in the direction they had set for it decades ago. The intarweb, I fear, is going to be a bit too massive for them to shift easily.
7)Competition good. Even if they're just industrial coattail chasers, Webcomic indies will start cranking it up to 11 just to prove that they're better than "those corporate snotsucks in Zuda."
8)If you want to get on board with Zuda, expect to see lots of instant memos that say "Can her boobs be bigger?"
Comment from: DocN posted at July 11, 2007 6:45 PM
1) They already are, and have been for years. You don't read many print comics, do you?
2) The CEOs for print comics are today the kids that were reading print comics in the seventies and eighties. They know what the "kids" like because they were kids themselves.
3) I have no idea what this means.
4) I'm sure you mean mediocrity in the terms of "Garfield" and "The Family Circus", but a quick look at DC's print comics blows that idea out of the water. Two different media- the newspaper version of Spiderman is still battling Kraven and Mysterio. The book version is battling baddies that rip his eyeball out and eat it.
You might also keep in mind that "Garfield", while admittedly bland and mediocre, also earns somewhere around a BILLION dollars a year. Just making a comic "edgy" and "radical" doesn't necessarily mean it's marketable or commercially viable.
5) You still have that Tammany Hall caricature of a CEO in mind. Besides which, almost *everything* is trend chasing these days; From the iPhone to the Transformers movie. Even print comics followed trends- in the seventies Luke Cage looked like a disco freak, today he looks like the mean bodyguard to a top-tier rapper.
6)Um, right. Sure thing. Setting up to have some web-only strips and web-only artists in order to push the print comic industry around?
I'd wager the truth is much more mundane- a print comics industry has recognized that there's a market for online comics, and is moving to capitalize on it. We know that online comics can be and are successful (eg: Penny Arcade, Goats, Sluggy Freelance, et al) so if these often-one-man operations can make a living wage, why wouldn't a large company be able to do even better? Comics.com and gocomics.com both seem to do pretty well, just through ad sales.
7) Don't know about that. 95% of the comics online are done for fun, with the artists never intending to try and make any sort of living off of them. If you're not competing for clickthroughs, eyeballs on your banners, or adsense cents, then there's no comnpetition.
Besides the fact that it's not like a person can only read one comic, exclusively. Personally, I read about 160 more or less nightly and I'm always looking for more.
It's only "competition" if the "new guys" can take business away from the "old guys", and that's just not the case here.
Doc.
Comment from: Ununnilium posted at July 12, 2007 12:11 AM
From what I've seen, most people don't get into webcomics expecting to make money. They just do it as a hobby, and they either get successful enough to transition into it becoming their day job... or don't. Either way, they wouldn't be pulled in by someone hiring for "draw/write us a webcomic".
So, I don't think this'll really take in people who would otherwise be doing independent webcomics.
Comment from: Merus posted at July 12, 2007 4:35 AM
I have an idea I've been kicking around for a while I'd like to make either a comic (because it's partly the visual style that attracts me to it) or a novel (because my prose is much, much stronger than my dialogue). I'm honestly tempted by this Zuda thing, but there's a couple of things that hold me back. Particularly, as mentioned earlier, I'm mostly interested in realising the idea and improving my drawing and dialogue, so there's not much point setting myself up for a commercial deal. Secondly, I'm lazy. I'm not sure that's the sort of thing they're after, seeing as I've had the idea for about a year and a half and have got a plot outline and two uncoloured pages to show for it.
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at July 12, 2007 8:14 AM
From what I've seen, most people don't get into webcomics expecting to make money. They just do it as a hobby, and they either get successful enough to transition into it becoming their day job... or don't. Either way, they wouldn't be pulled in by someone hiring for "draw/write us a webcomic".
It really depends. Way back when, a LOT of web cartoonists were people who ultimately wanted to be syndicated, and were using the web to build an audience/get practice. I think if this had come out then a lot of those cartoonists would have gone for it.
They don't need to get most people -- just enough for it to work. I think they might be able to find enough for it to work.
Comment from: William S. posted at July 12, 2007 12:49 PM
Zuda may be to webcomicdom as RedHat was to Open Source. Or it may be more like Novell.Red Hat wouldn't be a good comparison, Keenspot or something similar is closer to Red Hat, as Red Hat was a FOSS company from the start, as opposed to companies such as Google, Sun, and IBM who have found benefit in the open-source development model. A better question to ask: "Will Zuda be like the IBM of webcomics or the Novell?"
Comment from: Jamie posted at July 12, 2007 10:12 PM
IMHO there are only two things we can be sure of at this point concerning DC's Zuda. It's doing a hell of better job at forming a webcomic collective than Marvel, and upcoming comics, whatever they may be, are not likely to be lost by Diamond.
Comment from: Kellhound posted at July 12, 2007 11:21 PM
Well, I don't think Keenspot or any other webcomic is in trouble because of points people have already said. All that readers can read both deal and as long as they enjoy the comic they will read no matter who it's by.
As for Zuda itself, I'm kinda getting the impression that if it succeeds, it will end up like Tokyopop's Rising Star of Manga (only the winners will go online instead of in an anthology). It is a away to get the rights to the webcomics they think will be successful. So DC will most like want to have the creators change stuff to make the webcomic sell more. Which is a draw back, but at the same time having DC behind your name will get knew people to look at your stuff (even if it's outside of Zuda and DC). People who would never look at your stuff before. Also, money is nice.
So my advice to anyone considering it, don't send Zuda the comic you have been thinking up forever. Instead, try to come up with a fairly short idea that you don't like enough to draw, but aren't so attached to the idea that you won't be to upset if Zuda won't let you work on it again.
Comment from: William S. posted at July 12, 2007 11:31 PM
a fairly short idea that you don't like enough to draw
I think you mean "a fairly short idea that you like enough to draw".
Comment from: Kellhound posted at July 13, 2007 6:52 AM
Yeah, sorry about they typo.
Comment from: Kellhound posted at July 13, 2007 6:55 AM
Yeah, sorry about the typo.
Comment from: Kris@WLP posted at July 29, 2007 11:15 AM
I don't have it handy now, but the Zuda announcement I read made it pretty clear that the intellectual property wouldn't be "shared," it'd be owned outright by DC (or, more practically, by Time Warner). For me that price would be too high.
Your points about editors do strike home, though... pardon me while I apply the whip to some recreant artists...
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)