Fleen: The Awkward Christmas Dinner Of Our Obligation To Existence

It should be no surprise to any regular reader of this here blog that I’m a fantastically huge Ursula Vernon fan, so it should also be no surprise that I’m telling you all to give her a hand while simultaneously obtaining a fabulous piece of art. You really don’t want to know what the tax code for freelance artists looks like, but even with pre-payments every quarter, Vernon’s getting smacked hard come the 15th. So she’s doing a limited edition print in honor of the bill she’s got to pay, and you can pick one up for just 25 smackers plus shipping. Details at Vernon’s DeviantArt page or LiveJournal.

Okay, at this point, you should just be assuming that somewhere around Friday afternoon, Rick Marshall is putting up a new webcomics interview, generally about five minutes after my Friday post goes live. This time: Nick Gurewitch on life after hiatus. Also, it looks like the good Marshall will be joining me in haunting panels at NYCC, so come see us hopefully not act like complete doofuses.

For those keeping track, it’s been at least 37 hours since Ryan Estrada had a flash of major inspiration, so we’re due. Saturday the 12th he’s declared to be 12 Hour Comic Day at the Commune. As he put it, it’s the “quick creative kick in the nuts” that you’ve been needing.

Stephanie McMillan and Ted Rall will be hosting a multimedia extravaganza (that’s Web 2.0 speak for “slide show”) of their latest editorial cartooning work — Bluesotckings Bookstore on the 14th, and Idlewild Books on the 21st (both in New York) are the locations. As an added bonus, Fleen will pay a dollar to the first attendee to get Rall to admit he’s wrong about it being impossible that a webcomicker could ever become a millionaire. C’mon, getting one of the most opinionated people in comics to change his mind? How hard could it be? I’ve got the dollar right heeeeeeere!

Finally, Greg Carter and Gina Biggs did a panel on webcomics and business at the Atlanta Comics Expo back in February, and they’ve now got a recording that you can check out. Why are you still here? Go listen.

Not to start up that whole argument again, but I’m pretty sure all Rall is saying is that it’s impossible for a webcomicker to become a millionaire without doing things other than a comic, such as t-shirts etc. Which I’m pretty sure no one actually disagrees with.

Actually, Miles, I’m not totally sure that’s what Ted’s saying, because if you don’t count merchandising, licensing etc., I think it’s impossible for a print cartoonist to become a millionaire as well. Anyway I don’t want to start the brouhaha up again either.

I donâ€™t want to start the brouhaha up again either.

Me neither!

However, print cartoonists can and do become millionaires solely from cartoons.

P.S. I desperately want to be wrong.

Right now, Ted is closest to claiming the dollar. American cash money people — get it before it completely collapses.

So… what does “solely from cartoons” mean?

Does it include ad revenue on the site where the strips run? Does it include book collections sold as merchandise?

If you define “solely on cartoons” narrowly enough, then what you’re saying is “webcartoonists cannot become millionaires using the syndication model, in which someone else aggregates money from advertisers and subscribers, and pays it to the cartoonist on a per-reader basis.”

Which is fine thing to say, because that’s not the model we’re trying to use. Most of us think that one is broken and or withering.

Brou. Ha. HAH. :-)

Let the argument die, folks. Let time sort things out, and we’ll where we are in 10 years.

Ten years might be too long. By then some new technology could emerge to displace print and the Web. “Dude, read my brain comic!”

But letting it rest for a month or two might be a good idea.

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