So, over on FA, there's been some discussion about the fact that long-standing anthro comics series Furrlough and Genus are going entirely digital
( Read more... )
Low sales and Diamond raising their minimum order killed a lot of comics.
I commented on the quality issues with Radio a lot, and they fell on deaf ears, and later I found out this was considered, instead of advice, as an attempt to denigrate and sabotage the comics. A lot of people don't understand that I only bother to criticize things I care about enough that I want them to improve.
But when you fill up a comic with crap like "Skunk School" (which is what made me finally give up on Genus, and I used to buy every single title she put out just to show support), even if it helps you maintain a regular schedule, you're too far behind the power curve to ever recover. (I remember David Peyton's "Affurmative Action" where he promised that art quality would not be a barrier to entry. Oddly, only the crap art showed up, and it failed almost instantly.)
Ran into the same issue when I pointed out (during the "heyday" of Furrlough) that its $8/page rate not only wasn't competitive with any other comics, but wasn't even competitive with fan-level commission rates
( ... )
And most of the people saying that "art should be free" aren't actually artists. So, they demand drawings of their characters from people who will never be rewarded if they stay.
Old problem in the furry fandom. I don't know if it's worse than in other fandoms.
Going digital may be a good thing, perhaps they can get some quality people and sell comics based on their works, or the best of.
Really all you can do these days is the online, web comic format and work on it, gathering enough loyal fans to sell physical copies of compilations. Just be sure to stay on schedule, that is the key.
As you're an artist yourself, I did wonder what you thought about the whole "money for art = evil!" bit. I think it's one of the silliest arguments I've ever heard.
Personally, I've been going in the opposite direction; after I decided to start self-publishing my own stories, rather than relying on the (now all-but-defunct) fanzine publishers I used to send them to, one of the first changes I made was to start putting some money on the table for illustration work instead of just the usual "free contributors' issue) practice.
Strangely enough, I've had more trouble getting art out of people now than I did back then! (Though I suspect that's more to do with several of my "usual" artist friends and contacts going through various personal brouhahas than any reluctance on their part to get paid. :D )
your reward for contributing to a Radio Comix magazine was... a free issue
Which there's nothing intrinsically wrong with, if that's the deal you were expecting going in. Fanzines do this all the time. However...
...from what I've heard from several former RC contributors I know, it's worse than that. The real reason many of the quality artists abandoned Furrlough and Genus is that they were supposed to get paid for the stuff that appeared in the books, and didn't. Or at least, not without a lot of constant prodding and insistent reminders and generally being a continuous squeaky wheel until you finally browbeat them into sending you a cheque.
Small wonder that, eventually, the artists got understandably tired of having to jump through all those hoops for a lousy forty bucks for a six-page story, or whatever the going rate was.
Eight bucks a page was the rate at one point. Abysmally low for the industry. Fact is, Radio/AP paid out who they could, when they could, perpetually running on a shoestring, which is also endemic to the gaming industry --- even major gaming properties like Battletech and Shadowrun have dozens of freelancer stories attached to them about contract breaches, non-payment, and cannibalization of material from one project to be inserted into another.
It's all a huge juggling act, and no one likes to have their balls dropped.
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I commented on the quality issues with Radio a lot, and they fell on deaf ears, and later I found out this was considered, instead of advice, as an attempt to denigrate and sabotage the comics. A lot of people don't understand that I only bother to criticize things I care about enough that I want them to improve.
But when you fill up a comic with crap like "Skunk School" (which is what made me finally give up on Genus, and I used to buy every single title she put out just to show support), even if it helps you maintain a regular schedule, you're too far behind the power curve to ever recover. (I remember David Peyton's "Affurmative Action" where he promised that art quality would not be a barrier to entry. Oddly, only the crap art showed up, and it failed almost instantly.)
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Does this mean the back issues are going to be available digitally as well?
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That I don't know.
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Old problem in the furry fandom. I don't know if it's worse than in other fandoms.
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Really all you can do these days is the online, web comic format and work on it, gathering enough loyal fans to sell physical copies of compilations. Just be sure to stay on schedule, that is the key.
Reply
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Strangely enough, I've had more trouble getting art out of people now than I did back then! (Though I suspect that's more to do with several of my "usual" artist friends and contacts going through various personal brouhahas than any reluctance on their part to get paid. :D )
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Which there's nothing intrinsically wrong with, if that's the deal you were expecting going in. Fanzines do this all the time. However...
...from what I've heard from several former RC contributors I know, it's worse than that. The real reason many of the quality artists abandoned Furrlough and Genus is that they were supposed to get paid for the stuff that appeared in the books, and didn't. Or at least, not without a lot of constant prodding and insistent reminders and generally being a continuous squeaky wheel until you finally browbeat them into sending you a cheque.
Small wonder that, eventually, the artists got understandably tired of having to jump through all those hoops for a lousy forty bucks for a six-page story, or whatever the going rate was.
Reply
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It's all a huge juggling act, and no one likes to have their balls dropped.
...take that as you will...>^>
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