Since when is Pete Abrams a pariah? As far as I know, he's still one of the most respected figures in the webcomics world...
There are other successful online cartoonists who have done a better job of rubbing people the wrong way, but I don't see their press slowing down because of that. Who exactly would a cartoonist have to be a pariah with, anyway? The reporter?
As far as why it wasn't mentioned, maybe Sluggy's just getting to be a little bit of old news... I mean, a year or so ago, Sluggy was THE webcomic whenever we happened to get any press at all. Thank goodness other strips, equally deserving, are finally getting a bit of the spotlight! That doesn't take anything away from Sluggy, but helps our universe to expand.
Now all I have to do is figure out why, in a year where fantasy films are dominating the theaters, I can't generate any decent press for Elf Life, dagnabit!:Op
I have enormous respect for Scott McCloud and his great achievement, Understanding Comics. What works there is his use of comics to preach to the choir... people who read Understanding Comics already love comics, so the boosterism works.
But when the same style is used to try to be persuasive about highly arguable topics, it becomes something far more self-serving. When you make an argument, you have to take into account potential counterarguments, not blithely roll out a series of unsupported opinions. Mr McCloud tends to ignore the basics of debate by representing key points with nothing more than icons.
There are just not enough facts represented in an "article" such as this one to support Mr McCloud's leaps of logic. "...we could have paid twice that 50 cents for our music... every one of us would have done it in a heart-beat." One would like to think so, but where's the proof? Any supporting evidence to that claim? Any attempt at all? The way the topic is presented leaves no room for disagreement or debate.
Similarly, Neal Adams has been making comics to support some incredible theory he's been nurturing. Like McCloud, he leaves little room for opposing views in his panels... panel after panel of one "smart" guy informing a gasping, beginning-to-see-the-light nimrod about how the earth is indeed shrinking even as we speak! And it's true, because the hero of the comic book looks smarter than everybody else, and he's got all the (Neal Adams') facts on his side.
These guys are giants in the field, but this is an abuse of the form... if you set out to make an argument in comics, you really need to be as careful as any prose editorial writer... maybe moreso.
Oh, yeah, and micropayments won't work.:Op
Beyond that, all I can do is regurgitate what's already been said here, in different posts: many readers are not in the US, many do not have credit cards, many will not pay in any case. When ad rates plummeted earier this year, I started accepting donations, and many people were kind enough to help out, but I do not get the impression that that's the kind of thing that would provide me a steady income, regardless of how many readers my strip might generate.
Comic people aren't necessarily technophobic, but... well... you gotta find time to do the actual writing and drawing. Worrying over technical minutia doesn't get the comic strip done.
To this end, Keenspot/space's AutoKeen is brilliant (developed by Nukees' Darren Bleuel)... artists don't have to worry about programming, they just have to insert simple tags in the HTML that do a lot of behind-the-scenes work.
If it was a pressing issue, Darren could probably develop an AutoKeen indexing system. I'm not sure how useful that would be for some comics... indexing my own strip would be like indexing a novel.
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There are other successful online cartoonists who have done a better job of rubbing people the wrong way, but I don't see their press slowing down because of that. Who exactly would a cartoonist have to be a pariah with, anyway? The reporter?
As far as why it wasn't mentioned, maybe Sluggy's just getting to be a little bit of old news... I mean, a year or so ago, Sluggy was THE webcomic whenever we happened to get any press at all. Thank goodness other strips, equally deserving, are finally getting a bit of the spotlight! That doesn't take anything away from Sluggy, but helps our universe to expand.
Now all I have to do is figure out why, in a year where fantasy films are dominating the theaters, I can't generate any decent press for Elf Life, dagnabit! :Op
But when the same style is used to try to be persuasive about highly arguable topics, it becomes something far more self-serving. When you make an argument, you have to take into account potential counterarguments, not blithely roll out a series of unsupported opinions. Mr McCloud tends to ignore the basics of debate by representing key points with nothing more than icons.
There are just not enough facts represented in an "article" such as this one to support Mr McCloud's leaps of logic. "...we could have paid twice that 50 cents for our music... every one of us would have done it in a heart-beat." One would like to think so, but where's the proof? Any supporting evidence to that claim? Any attempt at all? The way the topic is presented leaves no room for disagreement or debate.
Similarly, Neal Adams has been making comics to support some incredible theory he's been nurturing. Like McCloud, he leaves little room for opposing views in his panels... panel after panel of one "smart" guy informing a gasping, beginning-to-see-the-light nimrod about how the earth is indeed shrinking even as we speak! And it's true, because the hero of the comic book looks smarter than everybody else, and he's got all the (Neal Adams') facts on his side.
These guys are giants in the field, but this is an abuse of the form... if you set out to make an argument in comics, you really need to be as careful as any prose editorial writer... maybe moreso.
Oh, yeah, and micropayments won't work. :Op
Beyond that, all I can do is regurgitate what's already been said here, in different posts: many readers are not in the US, many do not have credit cards, many will not pay in any case. When ad rates plummeted earier this year, I started accepting donations, and many people were kind enough to help out, but I do not get the impression that that's the kind of thing that would provide me a steady income, regardless of how many readers my strip might generate.
To this end, Keenspot/space's AutoKeen is brilliant (developed by Nukees' Darren Bleuel)... artists don't have to worry about programming, they just have to insert simple tags in the HTML that do a lot of behind-the-scenes work.
If it was a pressing issue, Darren could probably develop an AutoKeen indexing system. I'm not sure how useful that would be for some comics... indexing my own strip would be like indexing a novel.