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Independent Cartoonists Band Together for Success
Brad Guigar writes "Six cartoonists, previously hosted at Keenspot, are banding together in a new approach to self-publishing.
They have formed Blank Label Comics, a cooperative group of cartoonists who are helping one another succeed as independents. Each is using his proficiency in a particular aspect of the cartooning business to help the others -- who are doing the same in return.
Scott Kurtz, creator of the daily comic strip PVP, applauded the move. 'The forming of Blank Label Comics is a big story in the webcomics community,' he said in a statement on his Web site, insisting that the 'real story ... is that a bunch of really talented guys are taking a chance, putting their necks out and trying to do this on their own.'"
It is encouraging to see any independent label for cartoons come into existance. Like music, film, or any other artistic medium it is better to have more outlets than fewer. I enjoyed, during my early teen and, later, my college years, a variety of "underground" comics (e.g. R. Crumb, Gilbert Shelton) that would have *never* existed at established publishing houses. Some probably shouldn't have existed, but there you are.
The only concern I have with independent labels is their ability to fight off incorporation or extinction. Some independent music and film outlets have consolidated leaving these media under the control of only a few companies. We have all seen the result of that outcome.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Is anyone not an "independant online cartoonist" these days? The only thing there's more of are "internet models" and "blog journalists".
I wonder how Wiley will mock them this time? He sure didn't seem to think much of Scott Kurtz when he offered his strips to newspapers for free.
I regularly report MSN spam to the Hotmail admins.
Sounds like they also created a new team of superheroes... I give you the Blank Comic 6! Cartoonist during the day and upholder of the first amendment on the Internet by night.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
And as a true test of your preperations to strike out alone, we'll slashdot your server(s) and drive you bankrupt from the resulting bandwidth fees. No no, I insist, there is no need to thank us!
DRM = Digitally Restricted Media. This is a viral sig, pass it on.
Going independent is a good move for these people who look like they are looking to turn their cartooning into their primary job. However, for most internet cartoonists, I think Keenspot is still the best option for those who make 1-2 comics a week and don't want to deal with the hassle of having to maintain a server, deal with bandwidth issues, etc. The downside of working with Keenspot is that they take a big chunk of the advertising revenue that a site generates. A few weeks back, Tycho at PA had a comment about someone he knew who left Keenspot and went independent and started making triple what he used to make from advertising. For its flaws though, it seems that Keenspot (Or Keenspace rather for those undiscovered comics) is still the best place for a new cartoonist to start.
I know you're trolling, but for the benefit of anyone who cares...
Image comics has nothing to do with this discussion. It was a group of well-known superhero artists who wanted to get away from Marvel and keep all the royalties to themselves. Of course, they stuff they turned out was more expensive and no better written or drawn than the typical Marvel book, and they tried to maintain a market saturation that couldn't last forever, so they failed and failed big.
Blank is comprised of cartoonists, not superhero comic book writers and artists. It's a pretty big difference that I won't go into, if you don't understand it then you probably don't care. But these guys are like an indie band who's in it because they love what they do and I don't think it could be considered a "failure" if they don't turn a profit... As long as they can generate a fan base that makes it worth doing. After all, what's the cost, the domain name and web space?
And, Image is hardly the only independant comic book publisher. There are quite a few who've been around for a while and do pretty well-- Fantagraphics for one (Eightball by Dan Clowes, or have you not seen Ghost World?), Slave Labor (haven to all the teens who shop at Hot Topic), Drawn and Quarterly... They may not be huge successes or household names, but they have quite a few loyal readers.
As for "getting syndicated"... That's one route, yes. But not a likely one. The funny pages are incredibly hard to break into and editors are notorious for censoring any joke that wouldn't play on "Leave it to Beaver." An occasional Bloom County or Calvin and Hobbes slips through the cracks but that's maybe once every five or six years. And frankly, no one reads them any more anyway. There are a handful of Village Voice/Your-City-Weekly alternative papers for more eclectic strips, but that's also a tough nut to crack. It's a limited and slowly dying market and I don't think many aspiring cartoonists (who do comic strips) are even trying to go these routes any more. It's certainly not the end-all, be-all that you seem to think it is.
The thing is, Keenspot does have its place.
... some of the money that would otherwise rightfully be yours is going to go to the umbrella organization that's sponsoring you. Going independent might make you more money, if you're willing to deal with the financials yourself. (Ideally, you wouldn't care because you'd be doing it for the love of your craft ... but when you become more popular, the bandwidth and hosting costs more money.)
There are a lot of webcomics out there. And I mean a lot. One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that anybody who can find a place to host their files can make a webcomic. There are no other real barriers (though I might argue that not having any discernable talent should be a barrier).
So how do you find a good webcomic? Well, Keenspot is an option. It's a portal that links to a variety of strips. It has certain standards of quality. It's been around for a long time, and it's well known. So if you're looking for something to read, you can always head for Keenspot.
On the flip side, if you're an aspiring webcartoonist and want to get known, getting accepted by Keenspot is a good bet for exactly the same reasons.
From a business perspective, Keenspot is okay. They sell advertising, and some of the money goes to the webcartoonists. Keenspot has done some work to get into newspapers, too, though I admit I don't know many of the details.
And Keenspot also handles the technical side. They provide the servers and all the website code necessary for a webcomic to function (if I recall correctly, that is). In exchange, you, as a webcartoonist, agree to brand your website with a little bit of advertising.
But Keenspot isn't the be-all and end-all of webcomics. Even though there are so many webcomics out there, the webcomic "community" is pretty small. Many of the artists/writers talk to each other. They see each other at conventions. They hang out. And they link to other comics in their rants. If you're looking for a good webcomic, it's almost as if it's a game of follow the links. All you have to do is find one good strip and read it for a while, and if you pay attention, you'll find out what some other good comics are. Word of mouth seems to be the best way to get known in the webcomic community.
And, as I understand it, Keenspot webcartoonists don't get paid as well as they could. Keenspot is a for-profit venture. It's the same as with any label you might sign with
I've got work tomorrow, so I'm going to wrap it up with a couple of webcomics that have my highest recommendation (not that you'd care, given that you don't know anything about my comic preferences). Both webcartoonists are independent.
Something Positive: It's pretty damn mean spirited a lot of the time, and sometimes gets a bit wordy, but it's consistently funny, and the characters come across as being very human. They have hopes and fears. They grow as time goes on. I think they're pretty believable.
Schlock Mercenary: This is a fine piece of science fiction (certainly much more deserving of the label than is Star Wars), and very funny to boot. It also has very good characterization, and wonderfully twisty, entertaining plotlines. This is probably the first comic I check every night, and I read some 30+ webcomics. I think many Slashdotters will appreciate it too. Incidentally, this strip, like the ones mentioned in TFA, recently split from Keenspot.