Comic Artists: Times They Are A Changin’
July 12, 2012 12 Comments
This statement may or may not come as a huge surprise: Comics are part of my DNA.
They have been ground into my fiber since as long as I can remember. That’s no big revelation. Hell, most of my friends have ink running through their blood. As most of you know, I recently retired Pinkerton. It was an excruciating decision for me. One that I continually ponder, doubt, juggle, etc. When I stop and consider my situation, I didn’t end Pinkerton because I had nothing left to say. I didn’t end it because I was bored or because of a lack of passion. The truth of the matter is that I saw the writing on the wall (for me anyway). It was a sprawling message spray-painted in huge dripping letters… Not only for me but for all comic artists and fans.
COMICS INDUSTRY NEEDS HELP!
Right about now you’re saying, “No shit, Sherlock.”
We, comic fans and creators alike, need to find a new business model. Here’s the dilemma… Plain and simple: The Internet.
In the days of yore, readers were consuming their comics in their daily newspaper. The paper cost them money, sure. But realistically, it FELT like they were getting something for free. A bonus. Cripes, most of the comic readers were under the age of 16 so they weren’t dropping a dime on their local news rag. Yet behind the scenes, our favorite artists were getting paid… some very well. That illusion of “free” was great. It was powerful. It was fun. And for a time, it was lucrative for the elite group of syndicated artists who made the cut.
Flash forward a decade or two: Along comes Al Gore’s invention… The interwebs. Suddenly, folks could read comics faster and more conveniently. AND they still had that magical free feeling. They’re not paying a dime. Only this time there’s no editors behind the scenes paying our comic heroes to put out. And on top of that, our hardworking artists suddenly had to be tech-savvy, marketing-savvy and, in most cases, have the time and ability to contribute whimsical blogs to go along with their comics. Three times the work for zilcho pay. Don’t even get me started on Twitter and Facebook.
The other problem with the internet was/is the sheer flood of comic horseshit. The internet is a dumping ground. There’s a lot of shmoes out there who claim to be artists/cartoonists simply because they SAY they are. I don’t mean to offend anyone. I’m simply calling it like I see it. You’re ruining the world.
For years now, editors and syndicates have been literally SCRAMBLING for their livelihood. Clawing for a foothold in an environment that is terrifying and uncertain. I have had the pleasure of speaking with both successful, established ‘toonists as well as new professionals in the development and early-release phases of their careers. And both of those groups share a similar sentiment. They are scared shitless because they can’t see over the horizon.
Maybe the comics strip as we knew it is dying. I’d hate to think that, but maybe it is. Maybe we all need to sacrifice our creativity and artistic talent to the marketing and sales gods. I’m hoping for a better answer than “time to change”, but maybe that writing is on the wall.
About Mike Witmer
I don’t know about anyone else, Wit, but I’d be MORE than willing to pay a subscription to Pinkerton. Just sayin’………..
Ooops…I mean to type this in my last comment. This post wasn’t a pity party. Not by a long shot. It’s just one of the many things that runs through my brain at any given time of the day. Tomorrow I may post about doughnuts… who knows?
Aw thanks, Kim. Much appreciated. If/when I kick back into comics mode, I’ll definitely have more control over my product.
For the past few years, I’ve been the poster boy for the over-tasked, worn-out artist who REALLY wanted to put out a strip/comic/graphic novel, and never succeeded. I did Croaker’s Gorge for years, trying to get it syndicated. When it ultimately failed, I put it online for free. I tried to get an agent for Moon Town for years. When that failed, I put it online for free. Same with Silas & Max, Cubicle Pigs, Ace Tripwire.
But I learned something over time – putting these things out on the net for free tired me out. I was sacrificing time with my family, time taking care of my body, time sleeping, time reading, enjoying life… EVERYTHING… just to do a comic. For free. And I thought, “Man, doing comics is exhausting!”
And then…
Suddenly, I had a revelation. It’s not comics that are exhausting me. It’s doing them for free, for an audience that is largely silent, for an audience that largely – given the chance to purchase the work and support it – do not support it financially.
But for every guy who has learned the lesson that you and I have learned, Wit, there are dozens more just getting into it who are convinced that we just didn’t do it right, that’s all. We didn’t work hard enough, we didn’t have enough passion, we’re selfish, we’re whiners, we just gave up too early. So long as fans believe that, and so long as there are artists out there who want to give their work away for free, it will be hard for the rest of us.
I would love to convince these guys that giving their work away for free is just cutting their own throats, and ours as well. But no one listens. I think the only thing that will change things is to show people a better way. What will that be? *shrug* I’ve racked my brain, and trying to answer that question is even more exhausting than making comics and putting them out for free.
Oh well. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Well said, sir. The funny thing is that it doesn’t diminish my creativity. It simply kills my drive. I have some ideas for a new model that I’m going to play around with. I know that it has to be something I do for myself. The publishing route was a nice experiment but at the end of the day, it just didn’t play well for me. It should be kinda interesting in the coming months.
Miss me some Pinkerton, but I also understand where you’re coming from and the financial issues of trying to support a creative habit.
Keep on keeping on.
Fellow cartoonist in the same boat as you and Og. I did my webcomic, On The Edge for 8 years, and though I learned a lot, and improved as a writer and artist, in the end I didn’t feel it was worth continuing to do all that work in whatever spare time I had (take note, I had no life for a lot of those years). It was indeed exhausting!
I also found that my audience started to feel entitled to their free dose of comics, giving nothing in return for the most part (an occasional comment), and once I decided to stop there was a sudden flow of messages coming in. Where were all these people when I was updating? Or selling my first book?
I was also somewhat disillusioned by the fact that so many great cartoonists with great ideas don’t succeed online, while some really questionable stuff explodes in popularity. Some great things make it through for sure, but there’s a whole pyramid of terrible comics underneath.
I’m not saying my comic was gold from the start at all, but at one point I knew I had a decent amount of readers, it was pretty much a full time job while I was laid off, but I still couldn’t call it a “success”. I actually found more work at the time doing graphic novels. So maybe that’s where things are going?
I read somewhere (and I’ve found this to be pretty consistent) that only about 5-10% of your readers will actually spend money on your work.
Guess I’m in the 5-10%! If you retool Pinkerton and charge for it, I’m good with that…I enjoyed Pinkerton and understand why you had to walk away though. A friend of mine is a gag writer for some well-established print comics. He has been trying with a friend (who is already syndicated) to sell a strip that they have been working on to various syndicates. They haven’t succeeded & get frustrated. They have hesitated to do the online thing for the same reasons you stated, but they may very well try it just to get some exposure on it.
I’ve read this too somewhere. Pretty frustrating.
It CAN be frustrating unless you take that info and apply it. If this 5-10% statistic is true or even close-to-accurate, then why are so many artists wasting their time, money, effort, etc to put out books? It goes back to something I mentioned in the blog: There are just too many folks out there flooding the market with stuff that just shouldn’t be there.
I hear it all the time: People rush to put a book out because they imagine that their book will feed the illusion that they are a cartoonist. All that time and effort should (in my opinion) be put towards two things: Bettering your craft and building an audience.
The simplest solution I can think of: the “Street-Performer’s Protocol”. You could do something like this:
Decide how much monetary reward would make it worthwhile to publish a single “episode” of a comic, then issue a statement something like: “I have an indeterminate number of your comics and I am holding them hostage inside my head. For every $X ransom that is paid, I will allow one of them to go free (to a maximum of [however many you can put up with] per week).” Implement some mechanism by which people can easily pay into the ransom, and a visible counter showing the current ransom balance (amount paid in minus per-hostage-release cost) so people know when they need to kick in. Feel free to make the rules as complicated as you want; so long as you stick to them I don’t think anyone will care (and some will be positively amused). (“Maximum of one hostage per week, unless the ransom accrues to over $1000, then twice per week. Three times per week at $5000 or more, and every Tuesday when it is a full moon if the accrued ransom is evenly divisble by 3 at the time.” Whatever.)
It seems like you have enough interest already built up that it might work and be worthwhile, though this might not work for a new artist starting out. A collective that had a similar approach might work for that (come up with firm, fair rules for how ransom money is distributed among the participant artists, and every time the ransom hits the appropriate level all of the participants’ release hostage-comics together. Kind of an administrative hassle, but if the distribution rules agreed upon by the artists works right, artists will be able to slack off (and forgo ransom money) or contribute more greatly (and get more), and unknown artists would be able to join up and get a shot at developing a following while they’re still starting out and working on their skills.