T Campbell's Blog
Writer of Penny and Aggie, Fans (also called Faans), Rip & Teri, Search Engine Funnies and A History of Webcomics. Experienced webcomics editor, currently seeking full-time work and working on strange and interesting new things...Wednesday, May 24, 2006
"Rip & Teri" Sunsets.
In keeping with the changes slowly overtaking Graphic Smash, Rip & Teri is now free. It's also ended.
It's difficult to say a proper goodbye to this one. I think it contains some of my best work. The art has been fantastic. But the weekly schedule has meant that through most of its existence I've only been aware of it on the back burner, while doing other things. And now it's like the three-year co-worker who's just been hired away by Microsoft. You never know how much you'll miss him till he's gone. And then you rifle through your memories for the times you spent together and find them so much fuzzier than they should be.
Still, this is the moment we've been preparing three years for. It read well as a weekly but was always meant as a full and complete package.
I am more grateful than I can say to John Waltrip (pencils and inks) and David Willis (main colorist). Really, no words do these guys justice. None. Just LOOK at that work. LOOK at it.
Thanks as well to early colorists Abe Melendez and Jamie Noguchi, editors Joey Manley and Chris Mills, helpful reader Megan Ward, inspirations Jim Steranko, Nora Ephron, Terry Moore and Roy Crane, everyone I'm forgetting and you, if you read it.
Start from the beginning. If you're into lit-crit, you may want to check out the Comixpedia.org entry afterwards... but if you're not, then just settle in for a good, solid yarn. I hope it gives you a thrill.
It's difficult to say a proper goodbye to this one. I think it contains some of my best work. The art has been fantastic. But the weekly schedule has meant that through most of its existence I've only been aware of it on the back burner, while doing other things. And now it's like the three-year co-worker who's just been hired away by Microsoft. You never know how much you'll miss him till he's gone. And then you rifle through your memories for the times you spent together and find them so much fuzzier than they should be.
Still, this is the moment we've been preparing three years for. It read well as a weekly but was always meant as a full and complete package.
I am more grateful than I can say to John Waltrip (pencils and inks) and David Willis (main colorist). Really, no words do these guys justice. None. Just LOOK at that work. LOOK at it.
Thanks as well to early colorists Abe Melendez and Jamie Noguchi, editors Joey Manley and Chris Mills, helpful reader Megan Ward, inspirations Jim Steranko, Nora Ephron, Terry Moore and Roy Crane, everyone I'm forgetting and you, if you read it.
Start from the beginning. If you're into lit-crit, you may want to check out the Comixpedia.org entry afterwards... but if you're not, then just settle in for a good, solid yarn. I hope it gives you a thrill.
Comments:
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I look forward to reading Rip and Teri now that it will be freely available.
However, this brings up a problem I had with subscription models for webcomics a few years ago, which is that it seemed foolish to subscribe when I had a strong suspicion- since vindicated- that any series I wanted to read would eventually be made freely available. I'm not talking about downloading them illegally. I mean that the authors themselves would make them free.
And so I waited, and I was right.
Felicity Flint was first. Then Narbonic (for a few weeks that were all I needed to catch up on it, and rumour has it again permanently after it ends). And now Rip and Teri.
Though I clearly benefit by this, I have to admit that it's a problem for the subscription model. The fans who actually were dedicated enough to pay may end up feeling cheated while the ones who didn't get the same benefit, and it harms the chance of any other comic to make credible the notion that paying for the content is required.
Since you've done this twice now (P&A started as subscription, IIRC), do you have any thoughts?
Nicolas
However, this brings up a problem I had with subscription models for webcomics a few years ago, which is that it seemed foolish to subscribe when I had a strong suspicion- since vindicated- that any series I wanted to read would eventually be made freely available. I'm not talking about downloading them illegally. I mean that the authors themselves would make them free.
And so I waited, and I was right.
Felicity Flint was first. Then Narbonic (for a few weeks that were all I needed to catch up on it, and rumour has it again permanently after it ends). And now Rip and Teri.
Though I clearly benefit by this, I have to admit that it's a problem for the subscription model. The fans who actually were dedicated enough to pay may end up feeling cheated while the ones who didn't get the same benefit, and it harms the chance of any other comic to make credible the notion that paying for the content is required.
Since you've done this twice now (P&A started as subscription, IIRC), do you have any thoughts?
Nicolas
If you're the kind of person who is willing to wait for three years to avoid a subscription fee, then I think it's safe to say you weren't the target audience. There are always going to be people who do an end run around any moneymaking model-- people who block their ads either technologically or mentally, people who read in the bookstore, people who borrow a friend's copy. The only problem is when those people are a large enough percentage of the total population to significantly impact revenue.
I think the days when we seriously thought subscriptions would trump advertising for the average webcomic are well behind us. A large part of Graphic Smash's readership seems to be made of people who want to support comics artists, on principle. Great that those guys are out there, but I'm afraid they're not enough to pin a long-term business model on. Feels too much like charity to me.
This is why Graphic Smash is going mostly-free, with just enough subscriber pieces to give the subscriber-types some incentive. Had the business plan worked out differently, R&T would have been subscriber-locked for good.
I think the days when we seriously thought subscriptions would trump advertising for the average webcomic are well behind us. A large part of Graphic Smash's readership seems to be made of people who want to support comics artists, on principle. Great that those guys are out there, but I'm afraid they're not enough to pin a long-term business model on. Feels too much like charity to me.
This is why Graphic Smash is going mostly-free, with just enough subscriber pieces to give the subscriber-types some incentive. Had the business plan worked out differently, R&T would have been subscriber-locked for good.
The point that I was trying to make was not that it is possible to get these subscription comics without a fee. My point was that I think the psychological disincentive to subscribe to *any* subscription webcomic that comes from creators deciding to make their comics freely available after having them be subscription only for a time may be a part of why subscription-only models never caught on. It could make the paying customers feel cheated for having accepted the subscription model and paid for material that it turns out they could have gotten for free, and it rewards the non-paying readers for not paying by providing them with the same material for free.
Nicolas
P.S.: I just want to note that I do financially support webcomic creators whose work I like. T himself got twenty bucks from me at one point. But I have a lot of problems with the subscription model, and this is one of them.
Nicolas
P.S.: I just want to note that I do financially support webcomic creators whose work I like. T himself got twenty bucks from me at one point. But I have a lot of problems with the subscription model, and this is one of them.
Maybe. Thing is, Modern Tales and similar sites represented over a hundred cartoonists putting their work firmly behind the subscription wall for YEARS. We stuck to our guns for a really long time, especially by Web standards, and... not really that much of a difference.
Sure, that's because the culture of the Web expects things for free, but I don't think we're gonna be the ones who'll change that. I hope Net Neutrality isn't what does.
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Sure, that's because the culture of the Web expects things for free, but I don't think we're gonna be the ones who'll change that. I hope Net Neutrality isn't what does.
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