Business of webcomics

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The business of webcomics involves creators earning a living through their

websites, and possibly even product placement deals with larger companies. Crowdfunding through websites such as Kickstarter and Patreon
are also popular choices for sources of potential income.

Webcomics have been used by some cartoonists as a path towards

micropayments
as a source of income, but this system has seen little success.

Some artists start their webcomics without the intention of making money off of them directly; instead, they choose to distribute online for other reasons, like receiving feedback on their abilities. Other artists start creating a webcomic with the intention of becoming a professional, but often don't succeed in part because they "put the business before the art."[1] Meanwhile, many successful webcomic artists are diversifying their income streams in order to not be solely dependent on the webcomic itself. As of 2015, the vast majority of webcomic creators are unable to make a living off their work.[2]

Early history of webcomics as a business

See also: List of early webcomics

The strategy of building a business around posting free comics online began in the 1980s, when

embalmer and dissectionist of human cadavers.[7][8] Since then, Millikin has achieved professional webcomic success, including through turning his webcomics into award-winning print-published work and commissioned public art, and by selling original artwork in gallery exhibitions.[9][10][11] By 1999, Millikin was one of the few webcomic creators successful enough to make a living as an artist.[12] He now often donates a portion of his profits to charities.[13][14]

In the year after the debut of Witches and Stitches, Joe Ekaitis began online publishing of his weekly furry comic strip T.H.E. Fox in 1986.[4] By the mid-1990s, Ekaitis had pursued monetizing the comic through publishing it in independent comic books and through appearances on independent cable television program Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends; however, economic success was elusive.[15][16] Despite running online for over a decade, the comic never achieved its goal of newspaper syndication, and Ekaitis stopped updating in 1998.[15][17]

Popular business models

Professional webcomic creators use various types of business models in order to profit from their webcomics.

Merchandise

Smile
in print form so successfully that it has been on The New York Times bestseller list for over three years.

Many webcomic artists have made a good living selling merchandise, including T-shirts, posters, and toys, in what

David Malki stated that "part of that was just realizing that people like lots of things, not just T-shirts."[3]

Book publishing

Main article:
Webcomics in print

Some creators may get highly lucrative publishing deals in which

Smile, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller and remained on that list for over three years, having sold over 1.4 million copies.[21][22] Some webcomics creators have had their books published by mainstream comics publishers who are traditionally aimed at the direct market of American comic books, including Fred Gallagher's Megatokyo being published by Dark Horse and Kazu Kibuishi's Flight anthology series published by Image. Comics author Scott McCloud noted that "the quality [of the Flight book] is so high that once it hit paper, it just became impossible to ignore."[19] Some web comic creators use Kickstarter, which launched in 2009, to raise money to self-publish their books. Digi DG (Cucumber Quest) set out to raise $10,000 USD for a print release of her webcomic, and her fans raised over $63,000 USD in order to make the concept a reality. Similarly, Jake Parker went on Kickstarter in order to start his comics anthology The Antler Boy, and he went on to receive $85,532 USD in pledges.[18]

Ad blocking software becoming more prevalent, advertising revenue may drastically decline.[3]

In 2011,

sponsor of the webcomic for that period.[24]

Crowdfunding

Subscriptions

In 2002, online publisher

Serializer, primarily subscription-based webcomics collectives featuring a select group of established webcomic creators. Here, viewers were allowed to read a few webcomic pages for free, or pay a monthly subscription fee in order to be able to access the rest.[19][25] Modern Tales made approximately $6,000 USD per month in 2005.[26] This "Modern Tales" family of websites created one of the first profitable subscription models for webcomics and lasted a little over a decade, with the sites closing in April 2013, shortly before Manley's death.[27] While these subscription sites did solid business, not all of the published artists were able to make a living wage solely through online subscriptions.[28]

In 2013, Patreon launched, allowing creators to run their own subscription content service. Tracy Butler (

Paste Magazine, she stated that "Every little thing you do now has a direct impact on the income you make. It's so liberating. It's a great feeling, but at the same time, it's terrifying." David Revoy (Pepper&Carrot) had 300 patrons after of year of using Patreon, contributing a total of $1,100 USD per webcomic episode, allowing him to quit his day job and work on his webcomic full-time.[29]

Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics) has called the Patreon subscription platform the "most disruptive (in a good way)" service that allows webcomic creators to collect money directly from their readers. KC Green (Gunshow) and Winston Rowntree (Subnormality) credit Patreon for allowing them to work on webcomics full-time. According to a spokesperson for Patreon, ten new creators started making money through the service every day in 2015.[30]

Donations

In 2004,

USD per year and didn't believe that his readers could match that. Instead, fans of the webcomic donated $4,000 USD within an hour after his challenge came up.[31] The New York Observer
stated that his story presaged that "micropatronage boom", where the readership of a webcomic donates directly to its creator.

Other models

Newspapers

Main article:
Webcomics in print
Richard Stevens's Diesel Sweeties was more lucrative online than in newspapers.

Webcomics have been used by some artists as a path towards syndication in

Universal Uclick to over 100 newspapers in 2015.[32][33][34]

However, according to Jeph Jacques (Questionable Content), "there's no real money" in syndication for webcomic artists.[31] For instance, after receiving stacks of rejection letters from various syndicates in 1999, Jeffrey Rowland began publishing his comics on the web and found that he could make a living selling merchandise. In 2011, Rowland said that "if a syndicate came to me and offered me a hundred newspapers, I would probably say no. I’d have to answer to an editor [and] I'd probably make less money, with more work." When Richard Stevens' Diesel Sweeties was syndicated by United Media to about 20 newspapers in 2007, Stevens still made 80% of his income through his website. Other webcomic creators, such as R. K. Milholland (Something Positive), wouldn't be able to syndicate their comics to newspapers because they fill a specific niche and wouldn't necessarily appeal to a broader audience.[31]

Micropayments

Cartoonist and comics theorist

print publication and retail[35][36] McCloud became an advisor for micropayment service BitPass in 2002, but this service was shut down in 2007 because of a lack of commercially successful clients and because, according to McCloud himself, "it still wasn't simple enough for a lot of people."[37][38]

Comic Genesis and Webcomics Nation – had not built in any support for micropayment systems, and the concept had not yet gained any momentum.[39] Since then, other micropayment systems have launched, including PayPal Micropayments, Flattr and SatoshiPay, but by 2015 micropayment systems had still seen little success.[40]

Feasibility and economic intent

Jeph Jacques never intended to create his webcomic Questionable Content for a living.

USD a year off their work.[2]

Very few professional webcomic creators set out to earn a living from their work initially. Jeph Jacques, for instance, decided to sell Questionable Content T-shirts for a few weeks in order to "make ends meet" after he was fired from his job, but suddenly found that he made enough money to live from and "never looked back."[31]

Many notable webcomic creators are actively diversifying their income streams in order to not be dependent on one source of income, many even deemphasizing webcomics. Brady Dale of

Cyanide and Happiness went on to create animation in the form of The Cyanide & Happiness Show, and their webcomic is no longer their primary source of income. Dorothy Gambrell (Cat and Girl) explained that "the business of webcomics rolled along smoothly until the great T-shirt crash of 2008," and that the 2010s offers creators more opportunities than the 2000s did. Many creators such as Gambrell, Drew Fairweather (Toothpaste for Dinner), and Zach Weinersmith (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) all do work unrelated to their webcomics.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Davis, Lauren (2014-01-08). "The Biggest Mistakes People Make When They Start A Webcomic". io9.
  2. ^ a b Harper, David (2015-06-16). "SKTCHD Survey: Is Gender a Determinant for How Much a Comic Artist Earns?". SKTCHD.
  3. ^ a b c d e Dale, Brady (2015-11-16). "The Webcomics Business Is Moving on From Webcomics". The New York Observer.
  4. ^ a b Calitz, Talita (29 February 2012). "11 Webcomics worth bookmarking". Yahoo! Celebrity. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  5. ^ Dorchak, Sarah. "Pioneering the page | The Gauntlet". www.archive.thegauntlet.ca. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  6. ^ "Comic relief". The Pioneer. 14 December 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-01-14. Retrieved 2017-03-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  7. ^ "James Joyce Foundation Objects To New Children's Book - ArtLyst". 2014-02-08. Archived from the original on 2014-02-08. Retrieved 2017-03-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. ^ Fingeroth, Danny (2008). The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels. p. 276.
  9. ^ "Winners named in Michigan APME newspaper contest". The Washington Times. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  10. ^ McConnell, Mike (August 13, 2016). "Royal Oak to highlight public art with 6-seat bicycle tours". Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  11. ^ "ENDANGERED: ARTISTS". THE STUDIO DOOR. 2016-07-31. Archived from the original on 2017-11-15. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  12. ^ Brenner, Lynn (2000-02-27). "What People Earn: How Did You Do This Year?". Parade Magazine. p. 9.
  13. ^ "AltBrand 2002 MDA Webcomic Telethon". 2005-05-27. Archived from the original on 2005-05-27. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  14. ^ "The Webcomic Hurricane Relief Telethon". www.webcomictelethon.com. Archived from the original on 2008-11-23. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  15. ^ a b "Meet Joe Ekaitis — T.H.E. FOX". The Commodore 64/128 RoundTable on GEnie. 1994-12-04.
  16. ^ "T.H.E.Fox with Editorial Cartoons by Joe Ekaitis". Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends. No. 301. 1994-07-18.
  17. ^ Kachel, Brendan (2007-09-10). "Better than blogs: Webcomics, the Internet's answer to the funny pages". Crusader news. Archived from the original on 2008-04-28. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  18. ^
    The Huffington Post
    .
  19. ^ a b c Wolk, Douglas (2004-11-01). "Web Comics Send Readers Looking for Books". Publishers Weekly.
  20. ^ Mautner, Chris (2015-11-04). "'I'm a Careful Person': An Interview with Kate Beaton". The Comics Journal.
  21. ^ "Paperback Graphic Books - Best Sellers". The New York Times. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  22. MacDonald, Heidi (2015-05-22). "Congrats to Raina Telgemeier for three straight years on the NYT Bestseller list"
    . The Beat.
  23. ISBN 0-9768043-9-5
    .
  24. ^ Goellner, Calleb (2011-08-12). "Scott Kurtz's 'PvP' Webcomic Earns Money with Product Placement Deal". ComicsAlliance.
  25. ^ Boxer, Sarah (2005-08-17). "Comics Escape a Paper Box, and Electronic Questions Pop Out". The New York Times.
  26. ^ Walker, Leslie (2005-06-16). "Comics Looking to Spread A Little Laughter on the Web". The Washington Post.
  27. ^ Melrose, Kevin (2013-11-08). "Modern Tales founder Joey Manley passes away". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2017-03-08.
  28. Garrity, Shaenon (2013-11-15). "Joey Manley, 1965-2013". The Comics Journal
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  29. Paste Magazine
    .
  30. Observer.com
    .
  31. ^ a b c d Chen, Jialu (2011-09-02). "See you in the funny pages". The Boston Globe.
  32. ^ XOXO Festival (2016-11-30), David Rees, Going Deep/Election Profit Makers - XOXO Festival (2016), retrieved 2018-02-28
  33. ^ Staff report (2015-03-13). "New comic - 'Phoebe and Her Unicorn' - debuts today". News & Record.
  34. ^ "Dana Simpson interview". Basket Case. 2016-10-24. Retrieved 2017-03-08.
  35. ISBN 0-06-095350-0
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  36. ^ McCloud, Scott (2001). "Coins of the Realm". I Can't Stop Thinking.
  37. Comics Beat
    . 2007-01-22.
  38. ^ Zabel, Joe (2006-06-21). "Making Lightning – An Interview with Scott McCloud". The Webcomics Examiner. Archived from the original on 2008-03-24.
  39. The Webcomics Examiner. Archived from the original on 2007-03-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link
    )
  40. ^ Murray, Noel (2015-07-21). "Reading comics on cell phones changes the way the medium works". the A.V. Club.
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