The business of webcomics involves creators earning a living through their
webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be co ...
, often using a variety of
revenue
In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business.
Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...
channels. Those channels may include selling
merchandise
Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more i ...
such as t-shirts, jackets, sweatpants, hats, pins, stickers, and toys, based on their work. Some also choose to sell
print versions or compilations of their webcomics. Many webcomic creators make use of
online advertisement
Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...
s on their
websites
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikipe ...
, and possibly even
product placement
Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...
deals with larger companies.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...
through websites such as
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
and
Patreon
Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a co ...
are also popular choices for sources of potential income.
Webcomics have been used by some cartoonists as a path towards
syndication
Syndication may refer to:
* Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system
* Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips
* Web syndication, ...
in
newspapers
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...
, but few are chosen each year. Since the early 2000s, some webcartoonists have advocated for
micropayments
A micropayment is a financial transaction involving a very small sum of money and usually one that occurs online. A number of micropayment systems were proposed and developed in the mid-to-late 1990s, all of which were ultimately unsuccessful. A s ...
as a source of income, but this system has seen little success.
Some artists start their webcomics without an intention to directly profit from it, instead publishing through the Internet for other reasons, such as getting feedback on their skills. 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."
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.
Early history of webcomics as a business
The strategy of building a business around posting free comics online began in the 1980s, when
Eric Millikin
Eric Millikin is an American artist and activist based in Detroit, Michigan. He is known for his pioneering work in artificial intelligence art, augmented and virtual reality art, conceptual art, Internet art, performance art, poetry, post-In ...
created the first webcomic, ''
Witches and Stitches'' for
CompuServe
CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the world – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the oth ...
in 1985.
Self-publishing on the internet allowed Millikin to avoid censorship and the demographic constraints of mass-market print publishers. Though Millikin's online comics were instantly popular with the early internet audience around the world, the large online audience and influence did not necessarily translate into enough sales to reach economic success at the time. By the 1990s, Millikin had moved to publishing comics on the then-new World Wide Web, but was homeless, living in a car, and working in an anatomy lab as an
embalmer and
dissection
Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause o ...
ist of human cadavers. 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. By 1999, Millikin was one of the few webcomic creators successful enough to make a living as an artist. He now often donates a portion of his profits to charities.
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.
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
''Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends'' was an independently produced puppet and variety show created and produced by Richard Concepcion. The show was broadcast weekly on public-access cable TV in New York City from 1983 to 2017. The show ran on the Ma ...
''; however, economic success was elusive.
Despite running online for over a decade, the comic never achieved its goal of newspaper syndication, and Ekaitis stopped updating in 1998.
Popular business models
Professional webcomic creators use various types of business models in order to profit from their webcomics.
Merchandise
![Raina Telgemeier 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Raina_Telgemeier_2016.jpg)
Many webcomic artists have made a good living selling merchandise, including T-shirts, posters, and toys, in what
John Allison has called the "T-shirt economy".
By 2004, artists like Richard Stevens (''
Diesel Sweeties
''Diesel Sweeties'' is a webcomic and former newspaper comic strip written by Richard Stevens III (R Stevens). The comic began in 2000,Rall, Ted (2006). '' Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists'', New York: Nantier, Beall, Minoustchi ...
'') and Jon Rosenberg (''
Goats
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of Caprinae, goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a membe ...
'') supported themselves via sales of merchandise as well as self-published books.
Kate Beaton
Kathryn Moira Beaton (born 8 September 1983) is a Canadian comics artist best known as the creator of the comic strip ''Hark! A Vagrant'', which ran from 2007 to 2018. Her other major works include the children's books '' The Princess and the Po ...
(''
Hark! A Vagrant
''Hark! A Vagrant'' is a webcomic published by Canadian artist Kate Beaton between 2007 and 2018. It discussed historical and literary topics in a comedic tone and was drawn in black and white.
Recurring themes
''Hark! A Vagrant'' is best k ...
'') has said that 2007 was a good year for her to get into webcomics, as she was able to make a living off of advertising and T-shirts within a year. In Beaton's case, she "got linked up with
Jeff Rowland from
TopatoCo
The Topato Corporation (styled as TopatoCo) is a widely recognized online retailer of webcomics and related merchandise. It was established around 2004 by artist Jeffrey Rowland.
History
The company was started in Oklahoma in "about 2004" by a ...
, and he sold shirts and stuff." However, the business of primarily selling T-shirts has since dramatically declined, which
Dorothy Gambrell
Dorothy Gambrell is a cartoonist who writes and draws the online comic strip ''Cat and Girl'' in addition to the blog ''very small array''. Her work has appeared in the literary journal Backwards City Review and the Anton Chekhov anthology The Oth ...
(''Cat and Girl'') has described as the "great T-shirt crash of 2008." By 2011, merchandise distributor TopatoCo responded to the declining T-shirt market by seriously looking to provide other types of merchandise, like toys. Webcomic creator and TopatoCo employee
David Malki
''Wondermark'' is a webcomic created by David Malki which was syndicated to ''Flak Magazine'' and appeared in ''The Onion'' print edition from 2006 to 2008. It features 19th-century illustrations that have been recontextualized to create humorous ...
stated that "part of that was just realizing that people like lots of things, not just T-shirts."
Book publishing
Some creators may get highly lucrative publishing deals in which
comic books
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
are created based on their webcomics. Some may reach a high degree of success, such as the graphic novel version of
Raina Telgemeier
Raina Diane Telgemeier (/'ɹeɪna 'tɛlgə'maɪəɹ/, born May 26, 1977) is an American cartoonist. Her works include the autobiography, autobiographical webcomic ''Smile (comic book), Smile'', which was published as a full-color graphic novel i ...
's webcomic ''
Smile
A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile.
Among humans, a smile expresses ...
'', which became a #1
New York Times bestseller
''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...
and remained on that list for over three years, having sold over 1.4 million copies. Some webcomics creators have had their books published by mainstream comics publishers who are traditionally aimed at the
direct market
The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of:
* four major comic distributors:
** Lunar ...
of American comic books, including
Fred Gallagher's ''
Megatokyo
(also stylized as ''MegaTokyo'') is an English-language webcomic created by Fred Gallagher (cartoonist), Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston. ''Megatokyo'' debuted on August 14, 2000, and has been written and illustrated solely by Gallagher since ...
'' being published by
Dark Horse
A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, or a contestant that on paper should be unlikely to succeed but yet still might.
Origin
Th ...
and
Kazu Kibuishi
Kazuhiro "Kazu" Kibuishi (born April 8, 1978) is a Japanese-born American graphic novel author and illustrator. He is best known for being the creator and editor of the comic anthology ''Flight'' and for creating the webcomic ''Copper''. He is al ...
's ''
Flight
Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). This can be a ...
'' anthology series published by
Image
An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...
. Comics author
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod; June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. He is best known for his non-fiction books about comics: ''Understanding Comics'' (1993), '' Reinventing Comics'' (2000), and ''Making Comics'' (200 ...
noted that "the quality
f the ''Flight'' bookis so high that once it hit paper, it just became impossible to ignore."
Some web comic creators use
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
, which launched in 2009, to raise money to self-publish their books. Digi DG (''
Cucumber Quest
''Cucumber Quest'' is an adventure webcomic written and illustrated by Gigi D.G. since April 3, 2011. The comic features the character Cucumber and his sister Almond traveling across a fictional world in order to defeat the Nightmare Knight, meet ...
'') 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.
Advertisement and product placement
Online advertisement
Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...
has also been a prevalent source of revenue for many webcomic creators. In 2005, the creators of ''
Megatokyo
(also stylized as ''MegaTokyo'') is an English-language webcomic created by Fred Gallagher (cartoonist), Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston. ''Megatokyo'' debuted on August 14, 2000, and has been written and illustrated solely by Gallagher since ...
'', ''
Goats
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of Caprinae, goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a membe ...
'', and ''Sexy Losers'' found that they could charge between $1 and $2
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
per 1,000 pageviews. Advertising prices have risen and fallen with the Web's perceived value. With
Ad blocking software
Ad blocking or ad filtering is a software capability for blocking or altering online advertising in a web browser, an application or a network. This may be done using browser extensions or other methods.
Technologies and native countermeasure ...
becoming more prevalent, advertising revenue may drastically decline.
In 2011,
Christopher Hastings
Christopher Hastings (age ) is an American comic writer and artist. He is known for his webcomic '' The Adventures of Dr. McNinja'' as well as writing for ''Unbelievable Gwenpool'' and the ''Adventure Time'' comics.
Biography
Hastings attended ...
teamed with
Capcom
is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...
for a product placement deal which took the form of a short crossover comic pairing the characters of Hastings' ''
The Adventures of Dr. McNinja
''The Adventures of Dr. McNinja'' is a webcomic written and drawn by Christopher Hastings, and inked formerly by Kent Archer and after 2010 by Hastings himself. Published three times a week on its own website, it features the fictional adventures ...
'' webcomic and the characters of the Capcom video game ''
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective''. Later that same year, Scott Kurtz started a multi-part storyline in his webcomic ''PvP'' featuring ''
Magic the Gathering
''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a Tabletop game, tabletop and Digital collectible card game, digital Collectible card game, collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards ...
''-creators
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for ga ...
, as a form of product placement. Inspired by the paid integration of real brands in the television series ''
Mad Men
''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its fict ...
'', Kurtz reasoned that his
video game webcomic
Many webcomics have been influenced by video games and video game culture.
Background
Webcomics frequently poke fun at video game logic, the video game industry, and stereotypical behavior of gamers. The earliest video game webcomic was '' Poly ...
was already advertising various established brands anyway. Through this deal, Wizards of the Coast became an official
sponsor of the webcomic for that period.
Crowdfunding
Subscriptions
In 2002, online publisher
Joey Manley
Joey Manley (July 1965 – November 7, 2013) was an American LGBT fiction author, web designer, and webcomics publisher. Manley wrote the successful LGBT novel ''The Death of Donna-May Dean'' in 1992. He moved to San Francisco in 2000 in order t ...
launched
Modern Tales
Modern Tales was a webcomics subscription service active from 2002 to 2012. Joey Manley was the website's publisher and original editor. The site featured a roster of approximately 30 professional webcomic artists. Shaenon Garrity, one of the si ...
and
Serializer
Serializer.net was a webcomic subscription service and artist collective published by Joey Manley and edited by Tom Hart and Eric Millikin that existed from 2002 to 2013. Designed to showcase artistic alternative webcomics using the unique natu ...
, 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.
Modern Tales made approximately $6,000 USD per month in 2005. 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. While these subscription sites did solid business, not all of the published artists were able to make a living wage solely through online subscriptions.
In 2013, Patreon launched, allowing creators to run their own subscription content service. Tracy Butler (''
Lackadaisy
''Lackadaisy'' (also known as ''Lackadaisy Cats'') is a webcomic created by American artist Tracy J. Butler. Set in a Prohibition-era 1927 St. Louis with a population of anthropomorphic cats, the plot chronicles the fortunes of the Lackadaisy s ...
)'' was contacted by Patreon when it launched. For about two years, she studied how other artists set up their reward structures, thinking "maybe I could supplement my income a bit." In the first half of 2015, she decided to quit her job and set up her account, and a few months later, she had accumulated 1,300 patrons, contributing over $6,500 USD per month. In an interview with ''
Paste Magazine
''Paste'' is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publication fro ...
'', 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.
Ryan North
Ryan North (born October 20, 1980) is a Canadian writer and computer programmer.
He is the creator and author of ''Dinosaur Comics'', and has written for the comic series of ''Adventure Time'' and Marvel Comics' ''The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl''. ...
(''
Dinosaur Comics
''Dinosaur Comics'' is a constrained webcomic by Canadian writer Ryan North. It is also known as "Qwantz", after the site's domain name, "qwantz.com". The first comic was posted on February 1, 2003, although there were earlier prototypes. ''Dino ...
'') 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
''Subnormality'' is a satirical and often absurdist webcomic by a cartoonist who uses the pseudonym Winston Rowntree. Rowntree is a former resident of Regina, Saskatchewan who now lives in Toronto, Ontario. The strip appears at Rowntree's own webs ...
'') 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.
Donations
In 2004,
R. K. Milholland (''
Something Positive
Randal Keith Milholland (born November 25, 1975), better known as R. K. Milholland, is an American webcomic author. His works include '' Something Positive'', '' New Gold Dreams'', ''Midnight Macabre'', ''Classically Positive'' and ''Super Stupor ...
)'' was working in
Medicaid
Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and pers ...
billing for an
ambulance
An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport.
Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...
company. When readers complained about the infrequency of his updates, Milholland challenged his fans to donate enough money for him to quit his day job and work on ''Something Positive'' full-time. Milholland described it as a "shut-your-mouth post", as he made $24,000
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
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.
''
The New York Observer
''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...
'' stated that his story presaged that "micropatronage boom", where the readership of a webcomic donates directly to its creator.
Other models
Newspapers
![Diesel Sweeties 01583 - two panels](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Diesel_Sweeties_01583_-_two_panels.png)
Webcomics have been used by some artists as a path towards syndication in
newspapers
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...
, but attempts have rarely proven lucrative, as out of the thousands of comics submitted to each syndicate every year, only a few are accepted. Among the webcomics artists who have succeeded in print syndication are
David Rees David or Dai Rees may refer to:
Entertainment
* David Rees (author) (1936–1993), British children's author
* Dave Rees (born 1969), American drummer for SNFU and Wheat Chiefs
* David Rees (cartoonist) (born 1972), American cartoonist and televis ...
(''
Get Your War On
''Get Your War On'' is a series of satirical comic strips by David Rees about political topics. Initially, the comic concerned the effects of the September 11 attacks on New York City, but it quickly switched its focus to more recent topics, in ...
'') who was able to make $46,000 from just two of his syndication clients, ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' and ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in 2006, and
Dana Simpson
Dana Claire Simpson is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the comic '' Phoebe and her Unicorn'', as well as the long-running webcomic Ozy and Millie. Other works created by Simpson include the political commentary cartoon ''I D ...
(''
Phoebe and Her Unicorn
''Phoebe and Her Unicorn'' is a daily children's comic strip by American cartoonist Dana Simpson. Originally called ''Heavenly Nostrils'', the strip debuted as a webcomic on April 22, 2012, in Universal Uclick's GoComics website. It was later la ...
)'', who began syndicating her webcomic through
Universal Uclick
Andrews McMeel Syndication (formerly Universal Uclick) is an American content syndicate which provides syndication in print, online and on mobile devices for a number of lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and cartoons and various other c ...
to over 100 newspapers in 2015.
However, according to
Jeph Jacques
Jeffrey Paul "Jeph" Jacques ( ) (born June 17, 1980) is an American cartoonist who writes and draws the webcomics '' Questionable Content'', '' Alice Grove'', and ''DORD'' (and formerly "Indietits").
Personal life
Jacques was born in Rockvil ...
(''
Questionable Content
''Questionable Content'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''QC'') is a slice-of-life webcomic written and illustrated by Jeph Jacques. It was launched in August 2003 and reached its 4,500th comic in April 2021. The plot originally centered on Marten Re ...
''), "there's no real money" in syndication for webcomic artists.
For instance, after receiving stacks of rejection letters from various syndicates in 1999,
Jeffrey Rowland
Jeffrey J. Rowland (born May 22, 1974) is the author and artist responsible for ''#Wigu, Wigu'' and ''#Overcompensating, Overcompensating'', two popular webcomics. Originally from Locust Grove, Oklahoma, Locust Grove, Oklahoma, Rowland now lives ...
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
ndI'd probably make less money, with more work." When Richard Stevens' ''
Diesel Sweeties
''Diesel Sweeties'' is a webcomic and former newspaper comic strip written by Richard Stevens III (R Stevens). The comic began in 2000,Rall, Ted (2006). '' Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists'', New York: Nantier, Beall, Minoustchi ...
'' was syndicated by
United Media
United Media was a large Column (periodical), editorial column and comic strip newspaper print syndication, syndication service based in the United States, owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, that operated from 1978 to 2011. It syndicated 150 comi ...
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
Niche may refer to:
Science
*Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development
*Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species
*Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...
and wouldn't necessarily appeal to a broader audience.
Micropayments
Cartoonist and comics theorist
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod; June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. He is best known for his non-fiction books about comics: ''Understanding Comics'' (1993), '' Reinventing Comics'' (2000), and ''Making Comics'' (200 ...
advocated the potential of
micropayments
A micropayment is a financial transaction involving a very small sum of money and usually one that occurs online. A number of micropayment systems were proposed and developed in the mid-to-late 1990s, all of which were ultimately unsuccessful. A s ...
for webcomics in his 2000 book ''
Reinventing Comics'' and his subsequent webcomic series ''I Can't Stop Thinking''. In his book, McCloud argued that people would be willing to pay for access to high-quality webcomics once
bandwidth
Bandwidth commonly refers to:
* Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range
* Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...
speeds increased and sufficiently reliable and simple payment systems were designed and put in place. In particular, McCloud hypothesized an economy fueled on purchases of only a few
cent
Cent may refer to:
Currency
* Cent (currency), a one-hundredth subdivision of several units of currency
* Penny (Canadian coin), a Canadian coin removed from circulation in 2013
* 1 cent (Dutch coin), a Dutch coin minted between 1941 and 1944
* ...
made through a single mouseclick. As this process would cut out
intermediary parties necessary for
print publication
To publish is to make content available to the general public.[Berne Conve ...](_blank)
and
retail
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...
McCloud became an advisor for micropayment service
BitPass
BitPass was an American company from 2002-2007 that developed an online payment system for digital content and services including micropayments. One of its best-known projects was the Mperia online music store catering to unsigned artists.
Backg ...
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."
Joe Zabel
Joe Zabel (born July 7, 1953)[Zabel entry](_blank)
Who's Who of Amer ...
said in 2006 that micropayments were necessary for webcomics that couldn't be appreciated on advertisement-saturated websites, which he described as "introverted" webcomics. However, the popular webcomic hosting services of its time –
Comic Genesis and
Webcomics Nation
Webcomics Nation was a webcomic hosting and automation service launched on July 29, 2005 by Joey Manley. Unlike Manley's previous webcomic sites, Webcomics Nation was based on user-generated content and relied on online advertisement revenue, wh ...
– had not built in any support for micropayment systems, and the concept had not yet gained any momentum. Since then, other micropayment systems have launched, including
PayPal Micropayments,
Flattr
Flattr is a Swedish-based microdonation subscription service, where subscribers opt-in to pay a monthly patronage to help fund their favourite websites and creators.
Flattr subscribers install an open-source browser extension that records whi ...
and
SatoshiPay, but by 2015 micropayment systems had still seen little success.
Feasibility and economic intent
Spike Trotman
Charlie Spike Trotman, also known as C. Spike Trotman, (born November 18, 1978) is an American cartoonist and publisher known for creating the long-running web comic '' Templar, Arizona'', and for publishing the ''Smut Peddler'' anthologies of w ...
(''
Templar, Arizona
''Templar Arizona'' is a webcomic written and drawn by Spike Trotman, Charlie Spike Trotman. It was hosted on Webcomics Nation. Trotman describes ''Templar, Arizona'' as "a story about a town, and the people who live there", specifically referring ...
'') has said that while many people start a webcomic with the expectation of being able to make a living through it within a year, this is almost never the case. Competition on the World Wide Web is enormous, and most professional webcomic creators were growing their fanbase for years before they became able to become self-sustaining. Jeff Moss, director of
Blind Ferret Entertainment
''Least I Could Do'' (''LICD'') is a humor webcomic by Ryan Sohmer and Lar deSouza (also the creators of the fantasy webcomic ''Looking for Group''). The strip debuted on February 10, 2003. Past artists for the strip include John Horsley from ...
, has said that many young artist fall in the trap of "expecting too much too soon." Some webcomic creators try to sell merchandise of their webcomic after only a few months, sometimes "
utting
Utting am Ammersee (until 1953 just Utting) is a municipality in the district of Landsberg in Bavaria in Germany.
History
During World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world ...
the business before the art" and neglecting the webcomic itself. Jeff Schuetze (''Jeffbot'') said that he knows many people who were trying to sell a large amount of merchandise before having even started their webcomic.
According to a 2015 survey by David Harper, over 80 percent of webcomic creators he questioned are unable to make a living off their work, as the majority of his respondents made less than $12,000
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
a year off their work.
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."
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 ''
The New York Observer
''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...
'' noticed while calling out to professional webcomic artists that though almost all of his respondents believed that their webcomic created a "base of notoriety" for them, they also all believed that the "less
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
relied on
heoriginal source for financial support, the better off they would all be over time." For instance, the creators 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
Dorothy Gambrell is a cartoonist who writes and draws the online comic strip ''Cat and Girl'' in addition to the blog ''very small array''. Her work has appeared in the literary journal Backwards City Review and the Anton Chekhov anthology The Oth ...
(''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
''Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal'' (''SMBC'') is a webcomic by Zach Weinersmith. The gag-a-day comic features few recurring characters or storylines, and has no set format; some strips may be a single panel, while others may go on for ten pa ...
'') all do work unrelated to their webcomics.
References
*
{{Independent production
Webcomics
Self-publishing