Deppey Adopts Gizmo News

Over at Journalista, Dirk Deppey shares some thoughts on the finally-available Sony Reader.

"Oh, and look, Tokyopop’s already signed onboard, albeit with just their OEL offerings. (Of course, clicking on the “View More Manga & Graphic Novels New Releases” button in the graphic-novel section just leads to an error message, something else with which early adopters can identify.) Also recognizable to early adopters: a price tag of $350, surprisingly close to the consumer tipping point, but not quite there yet."

To quote Archie Bunker, "Oh Jeez, I can hardly wait."

Philips READUS E-Reader Scroll Prototype - Gizmodo

Courtesy of Gizmodo, the Philips READUS E-Reader Scroll Prototype, a hand-held device with a screen that rolls out like a piece of paper, for that tactile fake paper reading experience. A potential challenger to the ipod and Sony ebook products. Maybe one day we will read Elvis Road by the Elvis Studio on a device like this. Maybe not.

Webcomics Economics

Webcomics creator T. Campbell digests the sad news that most people don't make any money creating webcomics ("especially if they have nothing to do with videogames" is the commonest wisdom I hear). Sure some people have jobs with startups and hyped businesses like Clickwheel, but on the creative side, not alot of black ink. Campbell looks at the idea behind webcomics collective (he is a member of several, it seems) and his verdict is generally negative:

This is bad news for those who, like me, have likened Keenspot and Modern Tales to "the DC and Marvel of webcomics" or "the comic-strip syndicates of webcomics." This was certainly true in intent and for a while it seemed true in execution. And after that, we wanted it to be true, because we were particularly good at being members of collectives or because we just wanted to make and make and make comics without having to complicate our taxes.

Bad news for us, and yet... great news for everyone doing webcomics, because the businesses that are doing best in webcomics are businesses of one. And all you need to be a business of one is the decision to be.

It's still weird the ammount of cheerleading and "team comics"-style hype these webcomics people engage in. Quite a bit of mystical vision-eering about the possibilities of comics on computer screens similar to the "comics can be anything you want them to be" era of print comics cheerleading circa 1980-2000.

PayPal, ECommerce, and Comics

It took me awhile to get on the Paypal bandwagon. I've been using ebay in various capacities since 1997 but it wasn't until a few years ago that I finally broke down and started accepting Paypal payments for auctions. Previously, as someone who didn't have a traditional bricks-and-mortar store and no credit card merchant account, I was stuck relying on money orders and the vagaries of cross-border postal systems. Now that payment is virtually instantaneous and I don't have to truck piles of weird money orders to my bank every week I wonder how I ever got along without Paypal.

On the surface it seems to be the most flexible and reliable online payment technology and my prediction is that Paypal (or whatever it evolves into) will be one of the largest banks in the world in another 10 years.

It's ease of use and popularity (as documented here) are legendary , which makes it all the more puzzling why it hasn't been more widely adopted for other forms of e-commerce.

My own largely postitive experience (I'll get to the negatives in a minute) and general love of Paypal received some food for thought recently when I read the Joey Manley interview in the latest Comics Journal (Issue #277). How is paypal being experienced by the online comics communtiy? Manley, the webcomics guru and founder of several successful webcomics sites and services (Modern Tales, Serializer, and the new AdultWebcomics) was interviewed by the Journal's Dirk Deppey about the future of comics on the web. Many of Manley's sites accept some form of paypal payments, and Manley explains his basic preferences to Deppey, an otherwise uninhibited and tech-savvy webhead, not to mention crac-a-jack journalist and editor:

DEPPEY: I've even got problems with Paypal. I refuse to get a full account with them because I won't give them my bank numbers and whatnot.

MANLEY: Well, that's understandable. We've never attempted to sell anything by micropayment, and there's a reason for that. I don't have a lot of faith in that model for the kinds of things I try to do. I do have a lot of faith in the idea that a certain kind of material will thrive online if it can be supported by its readers directly forking over cash. That can be in the form of print compilations, that people buy, that can be in the form of T-shirt sales, or it can be in the form of subscriptions, or possibly micropayments. I haven't seen a micropayment system that works for me either, and think it's unfortunate in some ways that the failure of Bitpass to really set the world on fire has sort of discredited the underlying idea of micropayments for everybody, always.

Manley has a well-documented history as a participant in the micropayments debate and criticisms of Bitpass. A few years ago, when micropayments advocate and cartoonist Scott Mccloud published an essay on the future of webcomics and micropayments, he started a debate on the viability of his proposed model for comics ecommerce. Manley weighed in with a general dismissal of micropayments, describing them as unviable for less-popular content (he also expressed doubts about advertising). But Manley has kept an open mind, investigating new options as they appear, including Paypal competitors like Clickandbuy. Nowadays, Manley's websites mostly follow a subscription model balanced with lots of free content, and flexibility given to the users of his products.

The artists that work with Manley, including Guelph's own Jay Stephens, are generally enthusiastic. Achewood's chris onstad is a recent convert to the Manley business plan, moving a selection of his work to Webcomicsnation's subscription-only platform:

"Webcomics Nation is the perfect solution for hosting subscriber material,” said Onstad. “The content management interfaces are extremely well-designed, and the whole product is very well thought out. From uploading art to managing payments, it’s very well integrated. It’s the best system I’ve seen for anyone trying to make a living off of their comics."

As well, Paypal announced last year it would be experimenting with micropayments, adding a new fee scale and making the system more flexible.

Paypal still has many drawbacks. One of which, as Manley recently noted on his blog, is that Paypal doesn't allow payments for adult content, making the roll-out of his latest porn/erotica-comics venture a bit problematic (Paypal is really missing the boat there, refusing to cash in on one of the biggest revenue sources on the web).

Additionally, the system of fees, privacy issues, and (at least for Canadians) problematic exchange rates are still big stumbling blocks, especially for small mom-and-pop type users who accept Paypal payments. Still, at least for now (and Google has announced a competing sertvie, Gbuy), it's the only game in town.

Sony ebook pushed back

The much-hyped Sony Reader portable ebook has had its release date delayed once again, eliciting groans from tech reporters and gadget lovers the world over. Not that anyone is really acting surprised. The new toy has had tons of critics since it was first announced. Many industry watchers continue to be sceptical of the proprietary nature of Sony's copy-protection software.

The ebook is Sony's followup to the Librie, the last launch to meet with a mediocre reception.

Many U.S. publishers, including manga giant Tokyopop, have already signed on as content-providers but it looks like graphic novel fans will have to wait awhile longer for the privelege of not trading electronic comics they purchase from Sony.

Sony's such a tease CNET News.com

THE BEAT on uclick deal

MILE HIGH COMICS presents THE BEAT at COMICON.com: Tokyopop and uclick team

Heidi writes up the second deal for Tokyopop in as many days. All this talk about comics on tiny cell screens makes me yearn for comics on tv! comics on walls! comics on blimps!

Smart Panel Developments

The only thing keeping Marvel from becoming the most boring comics publisher in the world is this little tech gimmick:

The Great Curve: Marvel.com adding blogs?: "Additionally, Marvel will be offering a ton of new Digital Comics that can now be viewed on desktops all over the world. Fans can't get enough of the new comic format and are singing the praises of the never-before-seen Smart Panel comic viewer technology. Keep a lookout for new and improved Digital Comics in the coming months. "

Internet Comics=Boring?

itpblog � Blog Archive � Making Comics Boring, One Click at a Time

So why would I want to download a podcasted comic strip, just to click through it, sequentially, one frame at a time?

T Campbell's history of webcomics

Hiedi MacDonald chats about this new book and refers to its legal problems. A history of webcomics? Already?

MILE HIGH COMICS presents THE BEAT at COMICON.com: T Campbell's history of webcomics

Cartoon Mash-ups

Short article about legal backlash against online mash-ups and parodies of comics, animation:

Journal Gazette | 03/05/2006 | Bloggers, tech savvy spin digital remixes of pop culture

Like disc jockeys pairing the Beatles with Jay-Z or The Strokes with Christina Aguilera, visual mashup artists exploit odd juxtapositions. An old “Superfriends” cartoon is synced with dialogue from the cult slacker movie “Office Space.” Scenes from “The Shining” are cut and overdubbed with feel-good narration to make it look like a trailer for a sappy family movie. And is there anything less likely than Mary Worth reciting the lyrics to “My Humps” over coffee?
“It was just sort of the absurdity of marrying this very serious serial strip with that song, which is so ridiculous,” said creator Sue Trowbridge.
Tools of the craft are software such as Adobe Systems Inc.’s Photoshop and Apple Computer Inc.’s Final Cut Pro instead of paint or clay, but fans say it’s still art.
Joey deVilla, a Toronto-based blogger, calls mashups a form of folk art that follows the age-old creative tradition of borrowing from existing works to create something new.
“It is the digital-media equivalent of collage, except instead of pasting together pieces of other people’s existing work you’re pasting together other people’s films and music, “ Lyall-Wilson said in an e-mail.
Jason Schultz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation contends that there should be legal protection for mashups such as “The Shining.” After all, it’s a non-commercial parody that poses no threat to the movie. (Ironically, the clip can be viewed on iFilm.com, a recent addition to the sprawling Viacom media stable.)
“This is a battle over creativity,” Schultz said. “Do we want a world where the law criminalizes that?”
Legal issues aside, putting the brakes on mashup artists might be a job that not even Superman could handle. They’re just so easy to create and circulate, with scores of sites such as YouTube.com devoted to sharing online video.

More Phone Comics

GoComics has released a press release about a new-ish "comics on your cellphone" service featuring several known comics properties:

Symbian OS mobile smartphone operating system - News, articles, wireless developer tools for Symbian Series 60, UIQ and Symbian mobile device Users and wireless developers of VB, C , Java, WAP, and .NET apps

KOMIKWERKS Changes

In a press release last week, Komikwerks, the digital comics publisher, announced some new hirings and new deals, including print collections of online strips and ebooks. No word on the ebook distribution end of things, though.

According to Komikwerks co-founder Patrick Coyle, the new hires will hopefully spruce up the site:

“Fans have already undoubtedly noticed a change over the last month,” said Coyle. “There have been a number of new columns appearing on a regular basis, we have rants and interviews coming out with a greater frequency, and some of the online strips have moved to daily releases.” Coyle explained that content areas are the major focus for Komikwerks. “We’re not a news and review site. There are so many sties out there that do such a good job with that there isn’t really a need for us to concentrate in that area. So rather we’ve formed partnerships with Comics2film, etc. to let them provide us with quality comics news.

A good thing, too: many of the features and columns, including prominent headliners like Stan Lee's Soapbox, are long out-of-date.

As well, the company seems to be all over the place in terms of comics delivery platforms, without any sort of logic. PSP, ebooks, and webcomics all see, to be vying for attention. No new high-profile creators or series seem on the horizon for the publisher, either.

komikwerks

Advertising Insights

Web Comics and Ads

Frequential became interested in the world of web advertising and comics after reading this exchange at The Comics Reporter about ads on the Dilbert webcomic discussed at webpronews.

In an email to Spurgeon, Todd Allen notes:

"Those Google Ads are on the Dilbert blog, not on the main Dilbert site with the strip. They're using standard, image-based banner ads on that site. Contextual Ads like Google Adwords are the de facto standard for blogs, so the fact Scott Adams is using them on a blog is pretty much a sign that the original columnist had run out of material.

Google Ads are served based on the text on a web page and in the text contained in certain tags in the HTML, so unless you have a lot of copy surrounding your online comic, it is questionable how well Google Ads will be able to function, relative to thier business model."

As well, other sites were honestly discussing their own advertising strategies. Jonah Weiland at ComicBookResources talked about the use of google ads at the CBR forums:

"Yes, today I instituted Google's AdSense program on the CBR Forums. I've been experimenting with them on the main site using only unsold inventory I have and have seen some nice results that have generated a little extra revenue.

After reading through Google's various FAQs I came across a suggestion to add Google AdSense ads to communities like the CBR Forums. The truth of the matter with forums is that generally the reader can train his/her eye to avoid any ads on the page. Thus, forums generate little income for the site owners. The click-thru rates for ads that run on the main CBR web site are much better than for the ads that run in forums. That means forums themselves are generally a money looser.

Now, with the ads placed at the bottom of a thread, there's a greater chance people might click on them, which is the key to success for any ad based Web site. (Remember, clicking the ads you see on your favorite Web sites helps keep that site running) Plus, through Google AdSense, we might be able to make the forums generate some revenue, although it's certainly not going to make us millionaires!

Google AdSense also does contextual based advertising, which means it will at least attempt to deliver ads that will be meaningful to the user. It scans the page it's hosted on and tries to feed you ads based on what you're reading. It doesn't always work perfectly, but it's pretty darn good.

It's an experiment that I'll be keeping a close eye on. I don't think it's too intrusive and doesn't harm the browsing experience. If I don't see reasonable results from the number of impressions we feed, then I'll take it off. If it does well, that will mean good things for all of us (i.e. expansion of the forums, the Web sites, resources we offer, etc.)."

Other tech wizards spend their time developing tools to make online comics searchable through Google:

Comics For Google Sidebar

By Nathan Weinberg
Comic Junkie has created the first third-party Google Sidebar plugin I've seen, one that displays the first panel of new comic strips for you to read.
(via Brad Hill )

The main webcomics syndicate, Keenspot, has a very sophisticated advertising strategy (and a small $25K annual budget) and specific ideas about making internet ads work for their cartoonists:

KEENSPOT ROLLS OUT GOOGLE ADSENSE, PAYS TO TRANSCRIBE EVERY ARCHIVED COMIC
The option to include Keenspot-supplied Google Adsense text advertisements on their site is now available to our creators. We work with creators to implement the text ads using the most effective methods available. Keenspot plans to join the Premium Adsense service, which supplies a variety of Adsense advantages not available to clients receiving less than 20 million pageviews monthly. Keenspot also plans to pay to have the archives of every Keenspot comic transcribed in text form. This will not only allow each comic to be fully searchable, it will also allow Google Adsense to deliver more effective and targeted advertising on every page they appear.

More articles:

*Comixpedia discusses all forms of blog advertising here.

*A primer for using advertising on webcomics sites here.

*The latest news about unauthorized use of brand keywords in Google ads (lawsuit) here.

Warren Ellis gets Blog Tech Advice

Lots of tech-talk in the comments section for people who use obscure programs to create feeds and post pretty pictures.

Warrenellis.com � Interweb Stuff Is Beyond Me Now

Comic books Explain Tech in Namibia

BBC NEWS | Technology | CDs and comics offer digital aid

So in April, they came up with the paper-based Hai TI comic, which means Listen Up in the local language, Oshiwambo.

"It is printed every Tuesday in the local youth newspaper, so it goes across the country. What is in the comic is also all online," said Ms Haotuikulipi.

The colourful gang of characters explain technology and what it can be used for through stories, just like a conventional comic adventure.

When they talk about e-mail or downloading, for example, information panels near the speech bubbles offer an explanation and web addresses for readers to follow.

The characters are based on actual SchoolNet staff members and the comic has been such a hit that they are becoming minor celebrities. And word is spreading.

How has eBay impacted the market?

The Ebay Effect

Thanks to neilalien:

Collectors Society Message Boards: How has eBay impacted the market?

Manga Uploading Case

Manga Blog tracks the arrest of manga cafe owners who neglected to pay royalties, link courtesy Comics Reporter:

The logic is that you’re actually helping the author, because once a book builds a following it is more likely to be licensed, bringing in extra income for everyone. My own two cents would be that you’re unlikely to deprive the author of income because an untranslated manga is unlikely to sell many copies before it is licensed. On the other hand, I have no problem agreeing that once it’s licensed, scanlating is out of bounds:

when you scanlate licensed manga, you deprive manga-ka of their royalties. So do us all a favor: don’t scanlate licensed manga. And when the published version comes out in your country, support the author by purchasing the book. It’s the very least we can do.

MangaBlog � Blog Archive � Three arrested for posting manga on the net

Cartoonists on iTunes

Over at the Comics Journal board, this little tidbit:

"I was searching through the iTunes music store and happened across the R. Crumb Fresh Air interview.* I had no idea that this audio content was available there. I did a couple more searches. The Master class in cartooning that Chris Ware and Charles Burnes did last year for the New Yorker is there as well. There are a couple of Spiegelman interviews also. If this sort of thing is your cup of tea, head on over."

Cartoonists on iTunes - The Comics Journal Message Board

T Campbell's Blog: How Can I Help?

To kick things off here, a link to a blog post by T. Campbell, one of the behind-the-scenes people at Clickwheel and a comics creator as well. Campbell has some fairly ambitious plans for electronic comics and wants to see more variety in webcomics. One of the points he doesn't dwell on much here is the implications for more traditional, print cartoonists of a potentially popular comics-viewing platform that bypasses print. And what about the need to bring already-existing print to these new platforms (laptops, PDAs, cellphones, PS2, etc)?

More. I want us to be doing more. I want better advances in the genres we web-folk explore regularly (gaming comics, techie fantasy) and the genres we don't (I'm looking at you, instructional comics). I want there to be a good place to find quality children's comics (I'm years past trusting the newspaper for that). I want people to be able to import comics scripts directly into word balloons. I want an excellent webcomic-- at least one-- that accurately portrays the Muslim experience in America (Applegeeks throws me a bone but only every once in a blue moon). I want cartoonists to understand better how to use digital tools to enhance their art. I want cartoonists to have more power. More. Better. More.

T Campbell's Blog: How Can I Help?

Comics on My Ipod

This is the first transmission of Frequential, an infrequent blog about graphic novels, technology, and music.

The aim of Frequential is to provide a clearing house for news and interviews that touch on these issues specifically.

Emerging technologies are embracing visual culture and this means comics. We can now read comics on ipods and other personal electronic devices --Frequential wants to know if this is a good thing.

Link: Clickwheel comics