Meager Existences
Alan Moore said in an interview widely available on YouTube that if you want to get into comics, do it because you love it, not because you want to make a ton of money. You'll make ENOUGH money he said (enough to get by, pay your mortgage and what not) but you won't be a millionaire. The hope for that seemed to die a horrible death in the 90's with Rob Liefeld and company.
Thinking about what he said made me think of a recent article I read saying that people were able to supplement their income in the recession by posting links for Google. The money they made wasn't extravagant, certainly not the millions that we were promised during the Dot Com Boom for the late 90's and early 00's, but enough to scrounge out a comfortable $50,000 a year salary.
Major corporations are right to be afraid of the internet. What the internet does and how it does it flies directly in the face of everything they represent, and they've been nothing but stubborn in their reaction to it. We try to pussy foot around it, but let's be honest. At this rate the internet will mean the death of mainstream movies, television, music, and yes even comics. Getting on your laptop and posting a movie, a song, or a comic completely bypasses the MPAA, the FCC, Viacom, the RIAA, and Diamond Distribution. And you can smell that fear. Why else do you think they put so much money into anti-piracy ads before movies, or Digital Rights Management into video games? Them trying to tighten their grip on the consumer is their last desperate attempt to hold onto relevancy.
But what they find most terrifying is that the internet offers a humble yet solid income for everybody, and they can't have this. I'm not going to lie when I say I'm fascinated by business. In fact I dare say that if I wasn't an artist (a vocation that chooses you, not the other way around) I would've been a business man, or at least a consultant. The numbers part doesn't really fascinate me, but knowing exactly who you're selling to and what you're selling has always been of interest. I don't think I'd be cut out for hardcore business though, because I don't have the Ferengi-like mentality most CEO's have of compulsive acquisition.
Despite what you may think, the CEO's of most major corporations don't want to make millions to enjoy it. They merely want it because they simply can't let everybody else have it. They compulsively acquire all the millions and billions because they have to be on top. John Cleese once talked about how appalled he was at Donald Trump saying he was proud that he makes a hundred phone calls a day. To any other reasonable person, that's like living in hell! For Donald though it's heaven. Clearly this is not a mentally well man (although with that hair I didn't need to tell you that).
So of course they're scared. Having all the money fairly distributed amongst everybody means they'd have less money to hoarde for themselves. I couldn't tell you what I'd do with a million dollars. But I can tell you what I'd do with $50,000 a year.
Michael Jackson's recent death drove home a recent point to a lot of people: we'd probably never see a superstar like him in our lifetime again. Try as they might, the Jonas Brothers are only selling 1/10th of what Michael would sell. Movies aren't getting the kind of grosses they used to, and TV ratings are awful. Comics uses to sell in the millions, now DC and Marvel's best titles sell in the tens of thousands. All because of the internet. And why not? The internet offers niche markets that appeal directly to those customers, rather than bland usually in-offensive products with overblown budgets that're mass-marketed to appeal to the maximum amount of people and end up appealing to no one.
So bring it on. The internet generation will be well prepared when all these studios and corporations eventually tank from their own greed and hubris. And we'll have the audience. What will they have?
Thinking about what he said made me think of a recent article I read saying that people were able to supplement their income in the recession by posting links for Google. The money they made wasn't extravagant, certainly not the millions that we were promised during the Dot Com Boom for the late 90's and early 00's, but enough to scrounge out a comfortable $50,000 a year salary.
Major corporations are right to be afraid of the internet. What the internet does and how it does it flies directly in the face of everything they represent, and they've been nothing but stubborn in their reaction to it. We try to pussy foot around it, but let's be honest. At this rate the internet will mean the death of mainstream movies, television, music, and yes even comics. Getting on your laptop and posting a movie, a song, or a comic completely bypasses the MPAA, the FCC, Viacom, the RIAA, and Diamond Distribution. And you can smell that fear. Why else do you think they put so much money into anti-piracy ads before movies, or Digital Rights Management into video games? Them trying to tighten their grip on the consumer is their last desperate attempt to hold onto relevancy.
But what they find most terrifying is that the internet offers a humble yet solid income for everybody, and they can't have this. I'm not going to lie when I say I'm fascinated by business. In fact I dare say that if I wasn't an artist (a vocation that chooses you, not the other way around) I would've been a business man, or at least a consultant. The numbers part doesn't really fascinate me, but knowing exactly who you're selling to and what you're selling has always been of interest. I don't think I'd be cut out for hardcore business though, because I don't have the Ferengi-like mentality most CEO's have of compulsive acquisition.
Despite what you may think, the CEO's of most major corporations don't want to make millions to enjoy it. They merely want it because they simply can't let everybody else have it. They compulsively acquire all the millions and billions because they have to be on top. John Cleese once talked about how appalled he was at Donald Trump saying he was proud that he makes a hundred phone calls a day. To any other reasonable person, that's like living in hell! For Donald though it's heaven. Clearly this is not a mentally well man (although with that hair I didn't need to tell you that).
So of course they're scared. Having all the money fairly distributed amongst everybody means they'd have less money to hoarde for themselves. I couldn't tell you what I'd do with a million dollars. But I can tell you what I'd do with $50,000 a year.
Michael Jackson's recent death drove home a recent point to a lot of people: we'd probably never see a superstar like him in our lifetime again. Try as they might, the Jonas Brothers are only selling 1/10th of what Michael would sell. Movies aren't getting the kind of grosses they used to, and TV ratings are awful. Comics uses to sell in the millions, now DC and Marvel's best titles sell in the tens of thousands. All because of the internet. And why not? The internet offers niche markets that appeal directly to those customers, rather than bland usually in-offensive products with overblown budgets that're mass-marketed to appeal to the maximum amount of people and end up appealing to no one.
So bring it on. The internet generation will be well prepared when all these studios and corporations eventually tank from their own greed and hubris. And we'll have the audience. What will they have?