Independent Cartoonists Band Together for Success 194
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.'"
Re:So... (Score:2, Insightful)
Ideally in the "dead and buried" category. Comics should either look good or be funny. Megatokyo [megatokyo.com] looks good. Dilbert [dilbert.com] is funny (or, well, it has its moments, but is funny most of the time). Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com] is both. User Friendly has neither art nor humor going for it, and thus is a waste of time.
Yeah, but are they FUNNY? (Score:3, Insightful)
Unfunny web comics killed my inner child.
"taking a chance, putting their necks out" (Score:3, Insightful)
Umm... does this really take guts, forming a co-op?
Re:So... (Score:2, Insightful)
First, you should link to PA's comic directly [penny-arcade.com], or your commentary on the strip won't make sense in a couple days. Second, black and white is not necessarily bad (Megatokyo is mostly in black and white). The problem with Userfriendly's art is not so much that it's not in color as that it's drawn with all of the skill of a three year old child. If the story was good or the humor funny, it could make up for the bad artwork. Sadly, neither of those are the case.
For the record, I just pulled a couple comics at random. As has already been mentioned, Diesel Sweeties [dieselsweeties.com] is also good, as well as many others (ctrl+alt+del [ctrlaltdel-online.com], Mac Hall [machall.com] when they update, Angst Technology [inktank.com], etc). All of these are better than UF, in story, art, and humor. If UF could pull even one of those out of its rear, it might be worth browsing once a month or so. Until then it's nothing more than a reason to laugh at people that think it's good.
Re:So... (Score:3, Insightful)
Come on, why don't people realize that not everyones taste is the same. Frankly, I don't _want_ everyone liking just the things I like. It'd be boring...
Re:Yeah, but are they FUNNY? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:So... (Score:4, Insightful)
Logical move (Score:3, Insightful)
My big gripe is that a few of the comics that moved off are the ones I read. Now they're not in one area anymore, I probably won't read them regularly. That is of course selfish -- but I imagine other readers don't like the move for the same reason. I'd expect an initial loss of readership for these authors, except for very dedicated fans.
On the other hand, it's a logical move for the cartoonists. Keenspace and Keenspot are great ways to jumpstart a budding talent or hobby and watch it grow. From what I can tell, the Blank Label starters quite liked Keenspot and regretted leaving it -- but now that their work has matured, they'd like to take it in a direction they can't do under Keenspot. So good for them
Re:Dime a dozen. (Score:4, Insightful)
Most of them are trying really hard to be User Friendly, which itself isn't all that bad. I think a lot of people just have the idea that what they do is so unique and remarkable that THE MAN -- *SOME* MAN -- must be HOLDIN' THEM DOWN. After all, their work is brilliant, creative, unique, interesting, hilarious and priceless. Why, the only reason they're not millionaires off their work yet HAS to be because United Artist hates them, personally.
By the way - what do I give a shit about "starving artists"? It's hard to make a living as a lot of fun things. You know what? That's the sacrifice you make. If you're so concerned with popularity and money, go get a REAL job like everyone else. You think everyone LOVES their jobs? Hell no. But they make a living - or better - at it. If it was simply to make a good living playing with clay, crayons, pastels, watercolor or writing books, everyone would be doing it.
If you've made the choice that you want to draw stuff for a living, don't bitch to the rest of the world about how poor you are. Go out and get a job providing a service. Or make "better" art. Of course, you'll probably complain that "but art is subjective! You can't put a value on it!". Well, then stop putting a value on it by whining about how hard it is to make a living. The Starving Artist who complains about making a living is the one who is putting a price on his own work as it is.
Art is great. Variety is great. But don't bitch about how the rest of the world "just doesn't get it" or isn't making it financially feasible for you to continue your "dream job" of playing Jim Davis or Stan Lee.
Re:Dime a dozen. (Score:2, Insightful)
Your exposure to webcomics must be rather minimal. "Most" webcomics are ripping off UF? All the "popular" webcomics riff on tech support? Hardly. While a number of the long-running strips do takes on geek humor, that's understandable. When they started, us nerds were the only ones reading webcomics, and they were geared to their audience.
Take a look at The Bunny [frozenreality.co.uk]. How about Chopping Block [choppingblock.org]? Randy Milholland's Something Positive [somethingpositive.net], Sinfest [sinfest.net], and Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com] wouldn't make it into newspaper syndication without a major change in theme and writing. None of them ever mimicked User Friendly, and there are many more like them than there are copies of Iliad's work.
The sad thing is that this rant is seen as "insightful," when it's really just shallow and mis-informed. These folks aren't complaining that they're not superstars via their work. They went off on their own so that they could create, be rewarded for their creativity, and not have to give up a large chunk of the returns on said creativity to a third party. There's a whole passel of middle-men out there who latch themselves onto artists, and drain them dry, turn them into "product", and reap the lion's share of the rewards. Need evidence? Look at the releases from the major record labels - crap, mostly. Hollywood is busy making a ghetto-version "Honeymooners," re-hashing "Bewitched", and remaking every moderately successful flick from the 60's and 70's - they're out of "product" and unwilling to take risk, so they're recycling the same swill. The comics syndicates have been playing it safe for years, distributing humorless pabulum while bleeding away the intellectual property of the original artists. Many of the old-school comics guys went broke while the syndicates raked in the bucks on their output.
Not every artist is a prima donna. Most of them are just trying to make a living without getting raped in the process. It's something that every independent business person must deal with, but it's worse for creative folks because there's an entire industry solely based on getting as big a cut as possible from their work.