Big plug to myself here… If you didn’t get a chance to get a copy of Hero By Night #1, you can now read the entire issue online, starting HERE! - Issue 2 should be on comic stands today, according to the online shipping lists. Go grab it!

A shout out plug to Wiz. Check out his other comic “There’s Always Porn” for more WIZZY action.

You know what’s funny? More and more small comic companies are scrambling to go “digital”, but they seem to be making the same mistakes over and over. Comics online WANT to be free. But how on earth could a DC or Marvel, or any company for that matter, put up free comics online and turn a profit? Well, I know. But I ain’t sayin unless they’re paying me as a consultant. Instead, I plan on leading by example, probably after I wrap up issue four of Hero By Night’s first big story arc.

The web is about READERSHIP. Webcomics have something that big companies currently don’t. MORE READERS. Think about it… more people are reading THIS VERY STRIP ABOUT LLAMA’S WITH GIANT DONGS, than are reading X-men on a regular basis. We have more readers!?!

Tremendous opportunities are cropping up for smart people. I mean, technically, I’m a “webcomics” or “Digital Comics” expert. Right? ( I mean, I’m not world reknowned like T Campbell is/was, WINK) but still…. people out there thinking about the “business” of webcomics, or the future of comics in general, should need look no further than there own lengthy experience in the field as a way to guide the bigger guns in.

Here’s a quick example… Heroic Publishing, a comic company I had never really heard of until today just launched a service called http://www.comicsonscreen.com/ - 9.99 subscription to access all of their titles or whatever. Now, I ask– who the hell did they consult to get that price? Someone is setting them up for suicide run if they’re paying someone to run that site, they’ll likely be the only ones making real money off the deal. Subscription models, especially at that price, are pretty much doomed to fail online. Comics want to be FREE online. DUH. This reminds me of the days of PV Comics and Moderntales and other small pay to subscribe sites. (Although they never charged that much! YIKES!) — Worst of all, there aren’t even any previews on the ComicsOnScreen site at all. Looks like a rushed job to get the site up in motion.

And there are others too in the mix, trying to beat Marvel and DC to the “digital comics” punch. SLave Labor launced EyeMelt, Devil’s Due has Pullbox. Now these are little more interesting. Case in point, I might actually be interested in downloading XOMBIE #1 from Pullbox, but not because it was a comic book, or because of the publisher, but because i remember the creator and the groovy animations he did online.

So, there is something to be said for the cheap download to computer issues. I’m sure there will be a place for that. But the real key has yet to come.

This is all very interesting for webcomics. To me, I notice a trend of publishers finally trying to do things, but doing things that webcomic publishers were doing in 2002. Next, you might see some Einstein at Marvel trying to make Micropayments work… but we all know that’s a lost cause as well.

The real future for comics online is….. FREE. It’s about comics being free and building loyal audiences. It’s also about interaction and being honest with your readers…. oh, and as early and as often as possible. That is the real recipe for success.

I wonder who will listen to this?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 at 3:13 am and is filed under Hero By Night, cartoons, Entertainment, Humor, yirBLOG. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.