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...Friday, August 11, 2006
Part 4b: Look At All Those Knockers!
How many comics should there be?
Are there too many now? Too few? Just about enough?
Everyone's going to have a different answer to that question. Here's mine:
How many different kinds of people are in the world?
How many different subjects are worth talking about?
Multiply those by each other.
Multiply the result by 3 (a little competition keeps everyone honest).
And that's how many comics there should be.
I don't look upon this new medium as a cartoonist's playground, I look upon the production of work on all topics, for all moods-- solidly crafted work with something to say and a sensawunda and a sensahuma and a sensakewl-- as the comics field's collective duty. This is one time when "you can" does mean "you should." Comics have things to say about retail and Rwanda, psychology and philosophy. Even the strips that seem to be harmless fun have a sort of journalistic role, reflecting the world through the lens of their subject matter and authorial perspective, observing, interpreting, telling us new things.
"The challenge is to grow outward." For my money, this is one of the most important things Scott McCloud's said, much more important than anything about micro-infinite penny canvases. (It's near the beginning of Reinventing Comics, if you're curious. An electronic no-prize to the first person who tells us the page!)
Cartoonists have always recognized this duty, but performing it suddenly makes business sense. But I don't believe "the audience is fragmenting" so much as performing mitosis. Readers and viewers-- at least the ones most likely to support what they like-- are usually not narrow-minded zealots, people who only watch romantic comedies, or only read gamer strips, or only like angry documentaries. Media's most valuable consumers are gourmets, sampling a little from all three and many other things besides. It's a million different people doing the knocking... and they're knocking on more than one door.
(This metaphor is now officially TAPPED. Conservationists have been notified.)
So... companies of one are outperforming companies of many, and they can travel from the far end of the long tail to the upper limits far more easily than they could before. This is still a tough racket-- it probably always will be-- but the small are as upwardly mobile as they have ever been. Does that, then, mean the end for Warner and Marvel and Universal? Are they nothing more than a tasty snack for 1,000,000 pen-wielding piranha? Has the revolution arrived?
Not quite.
Oh, don't look so crushed, webcommies. You knew it wouldn't be that easy.
(Continued after this weekend. Got some other things to focus on 'tween now and then. When we return... The Sleeping Giants Wake.)
Are there too many now? Too few? Just about enough?
Everyone's going to have a different answer to that question. Here's mine:
How many different kinds of people are in the world?
How many different subjects are worth talking about?
Multiply those by each other.
Multiply the result by 3 (a little competition keeps everyone honest).
And that's how many comics there should be.
I don't look upon this new medium as a cartoonist's playground, I look upon the production of work on all topics, for all moods-- solidly crafted work with something to say and a sensawunda and a sensahuma and a sensakewl-- as the comics field's collective duty. This is one time when "you can" does mean "you should." Comics have things to say about retail and Rwanda, psychology and philosophy. Even the strips that seem to be harmless fun have a sort of journalistic role, reflecting the world through the lens of their subject matter and authorial perspective, observing, interpreting, telling us new things.
"The challenge is to grow outward." For my money, this is one of the most important things Scott McCloud's said, much more important than anything about micro-infinite penny canvases. (It's near the beginning of Reinventing Comics, if you're curious. An electronic no-prize to the first person who tells us the page!)
Cartoonists have always recognized this duty, but performing it suddenly makes business sense. But I don't believe "the audience is fragmenting" so much as performing mitosis. Readers and viewers-- at least the ones most likely to support what they like-- are usually not narrow-minded zealots, people who only watch romantic comedies, or only read gamer strips, or only like angry documentaries. Media's most valuable consumers are gourmets, sampling a little from all three and many other things besides. It's a million different people doing the knocking... and they're knocking on more than one door.
(This metaphor is now officially TAPPED. Conservationists have been notified.)
So... companies of one are outperforming companies of many, and they can travel from the far end of the long tail to the upper limits far more easily than they could before. This is still a tough racket-- it probably always will be-- but the small are as upwardly mobile as they have ever been. Does that, then, mean the end for Warner and Marvel and Universal? Are they nothing more than a tasty snack for 1,000,000 pen-wielding piranha? Has the revolution arrived?
Not quite.
Oh, don't look so crushed, webcommies. You knew it wouldn't be that easy.
(Continued after this weekend. Got some other things to focus on 'tween now and then. When we return... The Sleeping Giants Wake.)
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