See, this is the thing that constantly frustrates me about comics like yours. I like them so much and for such good reasons, they are so genuinely good, but people have never heard of them or seen them, and unfortunately, I don't have the kind of readership to make a lot of difference to that.
But I will keep trying. And a good opportunity is coming up wink wink did you get my emails??
I love webcomics. I love how guest comics can BREAK THE FORMAT so hard because almost everybody's layout is just based on a maximum width. Yes, I got your email. REE HEE HEE
Well, it's weird. You look at one of the most popular webcomics, like say Questionable Content. It's got like 250k daily readers.
That's tiny. That's a college-radio-beloved indie band. The webcomics audience is also really fragmented, you get a lot of non-overlapping readerships in different chunks*. Name Removed has about a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty regular readers. Max's Kansas City regulars circa 1966. I like to imagine that my comic partly inspired you to start yours? I don't know if that's at all true but I'd honestly rather THAT happen more often than get more readers myself.
* The closest analogue is actually porn site advertising networks. Last time I looked into it (don't ask) there were about 4 major "loops" of gallery-hosting and ad-trading networks that mutually promoted in their loops with little to no interaction between the loops
( ... )
Yeah, so I wonder about, like, Achewood. Onstad is doing really well for himself and book deals and everything but it's like he's completely cut off from the Scene however you want to cut it. Remember when he was doing and receiving guest comics? Far be it from me - effectively a hobbyist - to call "sell-out" but...
But maybe the answer really is weird small dedicated audiences like clay shirkey says. At least for experimental (?) webcomics, a niche of webcomics, a niche of comics, a niche medium.
But there's something bigger here, something I'm not expressing properly. I need to think about this more.
Well, I mean, one of the big things is that dudes have to know about you to work out if they like you, and your stuff is so unlike most of webcomics (that is good) that it's possible that people who would be staunch adherents are not connected in a way that is conducive to them finding you. Meaning that the format, webcomics, doesn't necessarily have much to do with the content. (I mean obviously it has to do with how often the content appears & the way in which it's viewed, but, you know.) This makes your little cards a good thing, because they're advertising in a medium (albeit to webcomic people) that the work isn't in. Yanno? Also I wish I could find that guest strip I did for you way back when, because I think it's better than all the other ones.
This is good points. I talked to my mom about it? For a while? And I realized that part of it is there's no culture of criticism of webcomics. In the same way it's missing from video games.
You end up with this bizarre distinction between "casual" and "hardcore" games which really means "games anybody would play" and "games people-who-identify-as-people-who-play-video-games play". Webcomics are, other than topical webcomics (like how Math Nerds like Math Nerd comics but read nothing else) a self-contained creative universe.
But a real critical system of review and aesthetics would change that.
Right now, if you were comparing comics to music, Batman is U2, and webcomics are a bunch of dudes in their 40s who play at a local bar once a month and all the regulars at the bar know who they are and no-one else cares at all.
See, this is the thing that constantly frustrates me about comics like yours. I like them so much and for such good reasons, they are so genuinely good, but people have never heard of them or seen them, and unfortunately, I don't have the kind of readership to make a lot of difference to that.
But I will keep trying. And a good opportunity is coming up wink wink did you get my emails??
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Reply
Well, it's weird. You look at one of the most popular webcomics, like say Questionable Content. It's got like 250k daily readers.
That's tiny. That's a college-radio-beloved indie band. The webcomics audience is also really fragmented, you get a lot of non-overlapping readerships in different chunks*. Name Removed has about a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty regular readers. Max's Kansas City regulars circa 1966. I like to imagine that my comic partly inspired you to start yours? I don't know if that's at all true but I'd honestly rather THAT happen more often than get more readers myself.
* The closest analogue is actually porn site advertising networks. Last time I looked into it (don't ask) there were about 4 major "loops" of gallery-hosting and ad-trading networks that mutually promoted in their loops with little to no interaction between the loops ( ... )
Reply
But maybe the answer really is weird small dedicated audiences like clay shirkey says. At least for experimental (?) webcomics, a niche of webcomics, a niche of comics, a niche medium.
But there's something bigger here, something I'm not expressing properly. I need to think about this more.
Reply
Also I wish I could find that guest strip I did for you way back when, because I think it's better than all the other ones.
Reply
You end up with this bizarre distinction between "casual" and "hardcore" games which really means "games anybody would play" and "games people-who-identify-as-people-who-play-video-games play". Webcomics are, other than topical webcomics (like how Math Nerds like Math Nerd comics but read nothing else) a self-contained creative universe.
But a real critical system of review and aesthetics would change that.
Right now, if you were comparing comics to music, Batman is U2, and webcomics are a bunch of dudes in their 40s who play at a local bar once a month and all the regulars at the bar know who they are and no-one else cares at all.
Reply
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