Hi. I'm Nicole and these are my breasts. Go read my comic.
I was in the room while Mr. Bill was watching one of those soft news digest shows, and they were running a piece on a guy who makes art from license plates. The gallery that sells the majority of his work, hasn't taken in a new artist since Warhol, so of course the interviewer asked the owner what made them choose this artist.
There was the usual art gallery spin that you would expect. The part that really made me sit up and take notice, however, was when the gallery owner mentioned how marketable--not the art--but the artist was. "In today's age of media, it's an important element for an artist to also be a personality... It's interesting and important that he is."
The persona of the artist as a marketing tool. Huh. Well, it's something Dali understood that's for sure.
I suspect (and the large quantity of fan art dedicated to the artist supports my theory) that one of the reasons Stuff Sucks is such a popular web comic is that because the creator is very good at presenting herself as a cute, accessible, hip indie girl. And maybe Liz Greenfield is just that (I don't know her personally, so I can't say), but whether she is or isn't, that persona sure helps sell the comic.
Up until this point, Strange Fiction has been the focus of strangefiction.net (imagine that). I have links to stuff about me, my Flickr account and LJ, but I've never really advertised them. I thought of those as sort of bonus material for the few that might be interested.
The question I'm left asking myself is that if I want to take a chance at doing this Web Comic Thing as a career, and I do, am I an idiot for not crafting more of a "Lady A" persona and exploiting myself as part of the presentation for the comic? I'm female, I'm cute, I can be clever and funny, I have a good eye for picking up on what the next "big thing" is going to be (not that this has ever helped me be cool, mind you), I wear funky clothes and go to goth shows*, all of which could help me pimp the comic.
If I were to use "Lady A" to sell SF, would that be smart marketing, using more of the tools I already posses to help me get the comic to the status I want, or would it be selling out to an image obsessed culture and making myself an attention whore for the hope of a few more hits?
* Inadvertent rhymes FTW!
There was the usual art gallery spin that you would expect. The part that really made me sit up and take notice, however, was when the gallery owner mentioned how marketable--not the art--but the artist was. "In today's age of media, it's an important element for an artist to also be a personality... It's interesting and important that he is."
The persona of the artist as a marketing tool. Huh. Well, it's something Dali understood that's for sure.
I suspect (and the large quantity of fan art dedicated to the artist supports my theory) that one of the reasons Stuff Sucks is such a popular web comic is that because the creator is very good at presenting herself as a cute, accessible, hip indie girl. And maybe Liz Greenfield is just that (I don't know her personally, so I can't say), but whether she is or isn't, that persona sure helps sell the comic.
Up until this point, Strange Fiction has been the focus of strangefiction.net (imagine that). I have links to stuff about me, my Flickr account and LJ, but I've never really advertised them. I thought of those as sort of bonus material for the few that might be interested.
The question I'm left asking myself is that if I want to take a chance at doing this Web Comic Thing as a career, and I do, am I an idiot for not crafting more of a "Lady A" persona and exploiting myself as part of the presentation for the comic? I'm female, I'm cute, I can be clever and funny, I have a good eye for picking up on what the next "big thing" is going to be (not that this has ever helped me be cool, mind you), I wear funky clothes and go to goth shows*, all of which could help me pimp the comic.
If I were to use "Lady A" to sell SF, would that be smart marketing, using more of the tools I already posses to help me get the comic to the status I want, or would it be selling out to an image obsessed culture and making myself an attention whore for the hope of a few more hits?
* Inadvertent rhymes FTW!