MIT on Comics and Micropayments 57
Snotty Pippen writes "Henry Jenkins, Chair of MIT's Comparative Media Department, has posted 'Comics
and Micropayments: An Interview with Todd Allen.' Todd Allen is a
professor/consultant with a
book on the business
of comics. The two discuss a number of online business models and web
comics, ranging from the print-to-web migrants like
Girl Genius and
Finder to the print-to-web download
of Flying Friar; the long tail as a
driving source for reprints & back-issues; and PayPal's effect on micropayments.
All-in-all, a fairly comprehensive round-up of the industry."
How to Make Money in Online Comics (Score:1, Funny)
2. Get a link from slashdot
3. ???
4. Profit!
The webcomic #3. (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, I've seen some really good comics die online because the author didn't keep a regular update scheculd. VG Cats [vgcats.com] almost went this way, but managed to recover.
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DC and Marvel (Score:5, Interesting)
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1. Buy a lottery ticket
2. Win!
3. Stop buying lottery tickets
KFG
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Then it's a perfectly legitimate risk/reward investment proposition.
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We call that a Certificate of Deposit.
KFG
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Before your IPO, you may wish to consider the fact that the jackpot is split when there are multiple winners. Trust me, the expectation never exceeds the cost of a lottery ticket. In fact, it's usually under 25% of the cost.
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Of course it's a ridiculous claim, posted in response to a clearly not-serious post.
Crikey.
Gambling == Lack of certainty (Score:2)
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Re:DC and Marvel (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm out of the collector "phase", I don't need/want boxes of comics in my basement.
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And on top of that effect, DC has the disadvantage of being a subsidiary of Time Warner -- which means that even if DC thought it was a great idea, they'd have to convince their higher-ups to go for it.
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Net Neutrality.
They're afraid that what they put up on line, any competitor can freely get up there, and undercut them on prices, because reproduction costs are zero.
As soon as Net Neutrality goes, and the content producers align themselves with the distributors in vertically integrated markets, then they'll put this stuff on line. They'll be able to control the marketing message, and competitors' content, and they'll be able to charge whatever people are willing to pay in a l
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The Usar Freindly example, if you've been following the history:
Finder! (Score:5, Informative)
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I prefer Schlock Mercenary [schlockmercenary.com] myself which is family friendly, funny, and (this one is important) actually available in its entirety online.
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I'll concede that Schlock is a fine comic if one enjoys a comedic twist on military SF, which, much to my surprise, I do. As long as we're recommending webcomics, my favourites are Scary Go Round [scarygoround.com] and its precursor Bobbins [bobbins.org], Sinfest [sinfest.net], and dinosaur comics [qwantz.com], though the latter is certainly pushing the
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Another good (albeit, finite) indy series that is now online is Wandering Star [teriwood.com] by Teri S Wood. The first four issues are online (scanned into PDF, it looks like); the rest you can buy on CD.
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Song of Songs the Comic Book (Score:2, Interesting)
It's completely independant, so it will be interesting to see how successful it is outside Toronto and internationally.
http://songofsongsthecomicbook.com/ [songofsong...icbook.com]
(I'm not affiliated with the kid in any way. Just posting AC beca
iTunes Analogy... (Score:3, Informative)
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Sooner or later (Score:1)
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Conclusions (Score:1)
2. Yes, it is possible to make a living selling comics/books/movies/music on the Internet.
3. The Internet is not a dump truck
4. The big giant media companies are not interested in sales, revenue, copyrights or customers. They want control.
5. The only reason more stuff isn't being sold online is because big giant media companies are pricing their product "money grab" instead of "good va
The problem with micropayments (Score:3, Interesting)
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Micropayments again (Score:2)
When I hear the word "micropayments", I reach for my revolver.
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You know... (Score:2, Funny)
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My web comic is doing its part... (Score:3, Funny)
Another comics download service (Score:4, Interesting)
Not surprisingly, it's mostly small-press, but there are at least some names I recognize.
What a silly title. (Score:2)
He's awesome and all, but c'mon. Maybe President Hockfield has a totally different take on webcomic micropayments. Or maybe there was a vote at the last faculty meeting to not conduct this interview.
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Micropayments (Score:4, Insightful)
Really though, most webcomic artists that do it for a living use advertising and merchandise sales, and are very successful at it. I was a bit astounded at the trend toward micropayments that started about 2 years ago. The big question to me is "why?" Why automatically alienate a large portion of your potential audience when the alternative has been proven successful many times?
My only thought is that maybe it's better for those mid-sized comics that don't have enough readers to pull in a lot of money in advertising, but I can't see that micropayments would really be much better, when it would be a significant barrier to the growth of that audience.
Mod parent up! (Score:1)
Hear, Hear!
I love webcomics, but I get hooked by stumbling into them and reading the archive. If there are two webcomics I am interested in, and for one I have to pay 15 cents to get started and the other is free, guess which one I am going to read? If there is some reason I am pushed to try the one with the micropayments ok...but a small flash ad from Keenspot is not going to hook me for even 1 cent.
I have been very tempted by premium subscriptions for extra content or by special x page episodes for a bu