T Campbell's Blog

Tycho replies (scroll down). I'm less than thrilled with how this has played out. I think there are legitimate points here, but like Scott's last note, it also contains the kind of petty, unfair ad hominem that's not easy to take back.

Like Scott Kurtz, I feel caught in the middle. I like both parties. I've corresponded with both quite recently. And it bothers me to see such a breach. But I think it's been building.

Something Tycho said really rings true for me.

"I Hope Your Infinite Canvas Comics Double As A Nutritious Meal, because creating a comic that can't be printed out is not pragmatic."

Yeah. See Fans.

Every so often I get asked "when is Fans going into print?" And my answer is usually "Never." Because we did the infinite canvas thing (at my insistence-- Jason HATED it) for most of our first seventeen stories, and those stories laid so many foundations for the series that releasing it without them would be like releasing Babylon Five with only the last three seasons.

I was quite ready to leave print behind, you see. Print had done me few favors, and in 1999 the question wasn't whether the comic-book market would completely die, it was when. I bought into the infinite-canvas future lock, stock and barrel.

I backed off from infinite canvas to placate Jason, who's one of the most Luddite webcartoonists you'll ever meet. But nowadays I regret that my best early work has no place in the revitalized print market. And that makes me sad. But sometimes you have to explore, have to push the boundaries. I will be using IC on at least one upcoming project... though I'll be doing it with an eye toward repurposing the art to finite canvas later.

I have less experience with micropayments, but the basic positions don't seem to have changed:

Scott puts a lot of emphasis on a mode of payment he finds "purer and cleaner" than advertising, print, merchandising and such, with only one disadvantage: it's not makin' nearly a living wage, not even if you live in Spokane. Scott sees this as a long-term investment in a better future, as free of art-corrupting influences as commerce can get.

Tycho finds this intolerable. For him, the phrase "starving artist" is more than just a cute bit of self-deprecation. In an early phase, he had to beg readers for grocery money. I think he overestimates the number of people who will ruin their finances because of what Scott pushes. This isn't 1999 and most people can see the alternatives for themselves. But if there's even one starving micropaymentist, then Tycho's got a point.

Both sides are informed by economic situations and experiences vastly at a remove from the average webcartoonist's. Both have moments that make me want to say "right on" and both have moments that are making me shake my head in sorrow.

At first I called this "drama" as a joke: you know, Internet drama-queening-- but I think it's actually becoming real drama. We're seeing a split between two schools of thought here, and the consequences could be real and long-lasting. They've made peace before-- in 2001-- but they've said some things REALLY hard to take back. We'll see.

We'll see.