COMICS CULTURE SHRAPNEL from CBEM 322
It's been weird this past week, with things that normally stay in their own separate worlds for me colliding and arguing. Where the realms of the print comics industry and the online comics world have started squabbling like my parents when it's time to pay the bills. I am speaking, of course, of the fight between Scott McCloud and Tycho Brahe.
There hasn't exactly been the sound of gunfire, but it's been enough of a fuss to get sabers rattling and a good deal of people stirred up and upset. If you don't know the deal, this was it. Scott posted a new edition of "I Can't Stop Thinking" that once again broached the subject of micropayments. It's the usual speculation from him, and I admit nothing particularly new. But reading Scott's stuff is always a delight, if not for content but for style.
At Penny Arcade they created a rather good send-up (http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2001-06-22) of Scott's column, basically portraying him as deluded and incoherent. It was funny, and even Scott admits such. But Tycho (which is but an alias, I know) accompanied the strip with a rant that I admit is, well, less than friendly. The gist was that Scott was full of it, and Tycho was really sick of hearing his "sermons from the mount." And I suppose Tycho had good cause to complain. Scott McCloud had a career before the Internet, he'd have a career without it. He made his presence known on the web because he believes this is the future, a way to put power back into the hands of the creator. And more money. But for Tycho and Gabe, and all the other artists out there who are doing their best to eke something out of the Internet, this is their shot. Their career. And I I don't think they'd appreciate being lectured to.
Especially by someone who has chosen to ignore most of the online comics community. Not because he thinks they have less artistic merit, but because comics strips "don't face the same challenges" as traditional comics would in being translated to the web. And that's a shame he's chosen to do so, because a lot of good work is being produced, work that breaks down the walls of traditional comic strip storytelling. Scott faced backlash from the head of Keenspot on this topic. Most of the strips I read online are *not* gag-a-day strips. They strive for real storytelling, which a consistency that puts many print companies to shame. Elflife is currently in the middle of an extended flashback sequence, meant to flesh out the history of the main character. It comes out four-five times a week. That's 16 pages a month. Megatokyo finally finished their character development, now headed into their main storyline. They come out three times a week. That's twelve pages a month. Twelve pages of art, humor, character development, romance, adventure...in a serial format. They've managed to succeed despite the so-called limitations of the strip format, mostly because they altered it to suit their needs. I think that certainly marks them as worthy of praise.
As for the subject of micropayments... I think it's stupid. Chris Crosby was right that is would be preferable to make reader pay a lump subscription fee. My problem is that I read way too many comics, and micropayments would just whittle away my bank account bit by bit. I'd go to the bank only to discover that a large chunk of money is missing. Plus, I don't see how it could work on the road...sometimes I read webcomics on the school system or at my cousin's house. Wherever I can get them. Especially places with high-speed connections.
There's also the Amazon Honor System, which most of the aforementioned have adopted. Including Scott McCloud. He mentions it is not the micropayment system he advocates. Tycho mentions that it doesn't really work. (Then why have it?) But everyone else seems satisfied. Not thrilled, but satisfied. Goats (who also had their own hand in this debate) promises a color Sunday strip for every thousand they make from readers. I know I would be thrilled to make that amount for a comic strip I started doing as a hobby. And I know I promised I was going to try to do one. Things are...moving along.
Everything seems to be settling, though. There's no solution to the payment solution yet (though I will continue to advocate a low subscription fee). Scott wrote a response to Tycho (http://www.scottmccloud.com/home/xtra/backlash.html), and Tycho relented...kinda. Scott shouldn't take it so personally, because Tycho is an ass. The Keenspot debate rattled down to nothingness. Jon Rosenberg even wrote a fair, evenhanded letter to Scott. There seems to be some sort of dialogue going on between everyone, let's hope it continues. Because one man cannot find a solution alone, especially for something that matters to so many people. We speak of the online comics community, I think this debate has finally revealed some sort of cohesiveness to it all. Let's hope everyone can play nice.