Five weeks ago, I started back at school, to obtain a new degree. I graduated with a BFA many moons ago, and haven’t really done anything with it that has been rewarding financially. Getting a degree in art is a great accomplishment, but to say it’s a competitive field, is an understatement.
Anyway, I turned in an essay for class that I thought I’d share here. It’s about technology’s effects on the comic strip industry. My only referenced source was from the How to Make Webcomics book written by the guys over at Half Pixel. I hope you guys like.
TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S EFFECTS ON THE COMIC STRIP INDUSTRY
Abstract
The comic strip industry has grown along the same path as technology has over the last few decades. With the decline of traditional print media, comic strips, and their creators have evolved with the times, to turn the negatives that technology has forced upon the industry, and make them positives. Artists are now enjoying creative, and financial liberties that were not possible even a decade or two ago.
Technology and It’s Effects on the Comic Strip Industry
Comic strips, and more broadly, sequential art is not an artistic medium only created in the last hundred years. It, in fact, predates written language as human kinds’ first form of written communication. From paintings in caves and in Egyptian tombs, through the famed Renaissance period, and all the way to our daily newspapers, sequential arts and comics have enjoyed an amazingly luscious past. Over the last few thousand years, technologies such as, the evolution of varied painting processes, the inventions of paper and ink, as well as the printing press, are only a few things many of us think of when we consider how we arrived at modern comics. Today, we are in the middle of one of the most rapidly growing technology boons that has effected how people read and create comics. While creators of newspaper comics, in the last few decades, have enjoyed much success, such as Jim Davis (creator of Garfield) and Bill Waterson (creator of Calvin and Hobbs), technology is what has transformed comic strips from some thing that is, read as part of the “Sunday Funnies,” to an artistic medium that’s available to any motivated artist, no matter their experience or funds.
When it comes to comic strip creators, traditionally, the only realistic path to success is through syndication and traditional print media. A budding creator would have an idea for a comic, and begin the process of designing, writing, and drafting their creation until they felt they had something that was professional in look, and had a broad enough appeal that they could shop it around to syndicates. Depending on their talent, and time, someone that would gain success in this process, needed two through four weeks worth of strips, (or 10-20 daily and 2-4 Sunday style comics). The path to success was a hard, long one, but those that did well, managed to make incomes sometimes exceeding six figures.
The evolution of comic strips from print to online, has paralleled the path of what has happened to news media. It is no secret that newspapers are going the way of the dinosaur, as more and more people are getting their information, faster and for free online. This has been the same fate of the comic strip industry. Creators contracted to syndicates are not benefitting from the same financial success that they enjoyed even ten or twenty years ago. But the news isn’t nearly all bad.
From the reader’s point of view, comics strips on the web are more topical and enjoy creative freedoms, previously unimaginable. There is not nearly as long turn around time from the creation process to getting something in print. Many webcomics enjoy their success, strictly due to this ability to comment directly, or indirectly to what is happening in the world today (http://www.pvponline and http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/ are two prime examples of this). Creators, and the audience they service, also aren’t handcuffed by anyone for the content of their artwork. It is now much easier to find an audience for almost any genre of comic conceivable on the web. Instead of having to water down one’s creation, an artist is now able to self publish exactly what they are passionate about making. They are now the writer, artist, editor, and publishers of their own work.
Another added benefit that technology has granted to the comic strip creator and fan alike, is how the internet has evolved to make the home of every online comic, not just a digital page for viewing the work, but a social hub for everyone involved in the comic’s universe. For the creator, the design of the website is as big of a consideration as the design of their main character. With a little understanding of HTML, a creator can realistically have their artwork up and running in a matter of an hour or two. Never before, has creator and fan enjoyed such a close connection. Many webcomics, have a blog section that creators are able to comment on whatever they wish, as well as a comments section or forums, where a fan can write directly to the creator, and at times, receive an instant response.
The comic strip industry is a rapidly evolving animal, that is much the reflection of the world today. Technology has effected nearly every aspect of much of the globe’s societies, and is only going to get more substantial. The one in a million chance of becoming the next Charles Schultz (creator of Peanuts) may now, be something more of one in a billion due to technology, and its polarizing hold on people’s entertainment. Talented creators were able to make a better living with less competition from the internet, hundreds of television stations, and ever growing movie and videogame industries. Though technology has limited comics in some ways, creators of webcomics are still making a living through, advertising on their websites, selling prints or original artwork, as well as online stores (where they are able to sell t-shirts, books, posters etc.). According to the book, How to Make Webcomics, (Guigar, Kellett, Kurtz, & Straub, 2008):
Webcomics operate under a different business model from newpapers or traditional publishers, and it requires we reorient our thinking to adjust to it. The essential model is to offer free-to-the-consumer, ad-subsidized content, which then trades on audience loyalty by selling books, T-shirts, merchandise and original art(p. 121).
Without being restricted to a syndicate, who usually takes half of the artist’s profits to advertise and pay their staffs, creators are now steering the boat and have full control of their property. A savy creator, now owns every aspect of their business, leaving only themselves on the payroll. Technology has transformed many entertainment industries, especially comics, dramatically over the last ten to twenty years. However, solely because of technology, and its effects on the creation and publication of comic strips, making a career (or simply a hobby) as a comic strip artist, has never been easier, and more satisfying.
References
Guigar, B., Kellett, D., Kurtz, S., & Straub, K. (2008). How to Make Webcomics. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics, Inc..
