I do appreciate your attempts to call attention to my side of the story, even though belated.

In my 12 years of association with the cartooning industry, I have found that cartoonists are often their own worst enemies. That’s unfortunate in the most literal sense of the word.

One of the great strengths of cartooning is that it is very adaptable to multiple media and can thereby likewise adapt to multiple business models, just as there is enough room for different cartoon formats, genres, production tools, and so on.

The art form would be much better served, IMO, if cartoonists would resist picking holes in each other’s coats. In this time of diminishing opportunity, cartoonists and comic lovers should be the first to embrace expansive thinking rather than start shooting at anybody and everybody with a new idea, especially before you’ve even heard what it is.

By Dawn Douglass on 12.03.07 3:43 pm

You need to keep in mind, Dawn, that artists are also some of the most often victimized and exploited people in the business world; art is stolen, people try to get art for free, and any number of scams try to get something for nothing – so you can’t fault us for being suspicious at MyFridj. The theft of intellecutal property,especially on the net, is rampant and hard to stop. We want to protect ourselves, and not get ripped off for our hard work.

That’s why MyFridj initially came off as another “nothing” project, like so many before. There’s no business model for public viewing and to intice creators, and not even an initial draft of a contract. There’s just not much info you’re giving that creators NEED to see, other than that half of the money they earn through MyFridj goes to MyFridj.

You boast that within the first few years, MyFirdj will earn around 92 million dollars. How exactly is that supposed to happen? That’s the kind of info you’ll need to share in order to get people excited about the project.

By Sean C on 12.03.07 4:41 pm

In this time of diminishing opportunity, cartoonists and comic lovers should be the first to embrace expansive thinking rather than start shooting at anybody and everybody who wants to take 50% of their revenue, especially before you’ve even heard what it is.

Fixed.

By j. jacques on 12.03.07 9:55 pm

It should say alot that as soon as Gary started reported on this dumb idea, the site disappeared and the name was being changed and yadayadayada. Reading that ladies blog was painful and it looks like she cries about everything. WAAAAAH! I want Venture Capital!

By Bobtarded on 12.04.07 12:00 am

“In this time of diminishing opportunity, cartoonists and comic lovers should be the first to embrace expansive thinking”

This is a time when cartoonists are able to make a good living from their art independent of syndicates and publishers. They’re going to be suspicious when someone who wants to profit from their work says otherwise.

By Chris Hastings on 12.04.07 10:25 am

Just to add to the chorus, I’m not seeing the diminishing opportunity either.

There might well be diminishing opportunity with “normal” business models, as is happening in certain areas of the Music industry, but that doesn’t mean that the opportunity is gone.

I didn’t even notice the part about taking 50% of the revenue, I was more curious about how it was any different from how webcomics operate anyway.

The barrier to entry to comics online is pretty low (though I suppose if you count having to buy a computer and have the internet it gets quite a bit more that, say, newspapers). Short of running out and stapling a comic to someone’s head there is no reason why someone cannot stick a comic up online somewhere and have it read by thousands of people before the day is out, have it pasted around the internet on blogs and journals, have it printed out and stuck on cubicle walls and pined up on school notice boards. Yes, it is hard to monetise, but it is not impossible as many people who do this for a living will attest.

From a personal standpoint, I’m shooting it down not because I am “viciously independent”, jealous or want someone to fail for equally petty reasons, but because I do not see the problem it’s trying to solve. If there is a unique benefit, then by all means, I’m all ears.

Until then, it appears to be just another way of getting a bit of cash out of cartoonists and, frankly, call it arrogance, but even I’m a little sick of that.

By Lem on 12.04.07 12:06 pm

is that rabbit season / duck season reference?

By Rosscott on 12.04.07 1:56 pm

btw, all our contributors must have their identities verified and upload under their real names so that people can’t steal other artists’ work, and also to combat the juvenile stupidity and cowardly anonymity of all the Bobtardeds in this world.

By Dawn Douglass on 12.06.07 4:39 pm