Unfettered Blather

I know it’s fashionable to bag on web comics these days, but beating them over the head seems rather like singling out one clown in an entire circus for ridicule. Before we are too harsh on web comics lets think of all the user contributed media out there people are “sharing” and wasting untold amounts of bandwidth on. Do a random Youtube search using the words “high school” or “college” the next time you want to talk about how crappy web comic efforts are or look up random crap sites like ebaums.

That being said I am going to make a few comments on some things that I dislike about web comics, not to get tangental, but to point out that it really is the simplest things that makes a web comic entertaining.

I generally don’t read web comics much anymore but I used to have a rather large cadre I would visit on a daily basis. My commentary is strictly from the view of a reader, mainly because it feels like the same formulaic media. The flip side is, just like most traditional media, it is neither clever or funny (I call it “Jimmy Fallon Disease”).

1. Its not just about the comic. Web comics aren’t just about making the reader chuckle. That idea is as outdated as the comics printed in traditional media. Most are visual blogs for the author and if the author doesn’t have something relevant to say then the comic will suffer. I’ve seen some solid comics with no associated blog post. It feels detached. I’m not saying every comic has to have a phone book attached, but seeing the comic relate to something real or personal, even being told the motivation will suffice.

2. Stop selling us your crap. I’m a big free enterprise guy and I believe we should be able to succeed at what we love. That being said, web comics often feel like shallow vessels to sell T-shirts, posters, advertising space and whatever else the author can peddle. A lot of comics build a fan base they usually evolve in to milking for cash. This isn’t always cynical or crass, sometimes they fail to realize it until it’s too late.

This is one of the primary reasons I barely read Penny-Arcade anymore. While I’ve always gone there for Tycho’s post (and still do - I love good writing), the old Penny-Arcade where the two authors bounced conversations off each other and complimented posts are gone. Tycho posts, Gabe shills whatever crap they are going to put on ebay, sell at their expo or print on t-shirts. There is always a balance to your success. If you are popular enough to sell merchandise, then by all means do it, but retain some sense of pride in your work and avoid the Krusty the Clown route of slapping your logo on anything and attaching a price tag. If you are too busy trying to run a business based on a comic to the extent your aren’t maintaining the concept, thats rather a serious dilemma isn’t it?

3. I don’t really care about your problems I read web comics for the same reason I read blogs, to read news, find amusing or interesting information or a new insight. What I do not care about is your daily nonsense where you try to evoke empathy or sympathy from me. Want to angst? Go to live journal or myspace. Few people ever devolve in to the sniveling mess that Tokyo Pop became, but there are plenty of examples of mainstream comics forgetting that the audience has limited patience for sorry excuses.

If you do become a success, spare us the details of why you are too busy to write the comics or have writer’s block, it’s just lame in the extreme. The comics comes first, thats what made you what you are.

4.Cheap, distasteful or bathroom humor I’m no prude, I love black humor and cynicism. I can also appreciate a fart joke if it’s done well enough but a lot of web comics take the easy way out and use human waste or shock value as a means to fill out their line-up. Part of this is to display they are “edgy”, a term best classified as “being rebellious in a completely conformist way”. Every web comic seems to do it at least once to show they aren’t newspaper friendly. The phrase “everybody gets one” comes to mind but after a while if you keep hammering the same theme or simply trying to be offensive in the most trite way possible, it gets tired. The Internet is built on body odor humor and shock value so please don’t think your attempt at it is unique or funny

5. Consistency sells. While I am less consistent because of my random life, Jason has always been a huge proponent of consistency in web efforts ever since we started talking and working on websites together. Websites aren’t graveyards, but active, living entities. It is rare Jason doesn’t post daily here. Most of all, he doesn’t complain how life isn’t fair or he is just out of things to say. A lot of blogs and comics do this and nothing could possibly be more uninteresting..

Sometimes when I post about a webcomic I don’t know if I should put the picture up or just link to it. Since VG Cats seems to do fairly large pictures I’ll just link it this time.

In a way I disagree this one time that Sony keeping supply limited is a bad thing. At the cost they’re incurring Sony needs to control the supply. Nintendo, on the other hand, if they are incurring a loss it is probably not substantial. Nor would it surprise me to find out that Nintendo is actually breaking even, perhaps even making money, on each console. Plus there is the long term issue. Despite all the crap Sony has tried to feed gamers about the PS3, they are not stupid. I’m sure Sony understands that getting the PS3 to sell to non-hardcore gamers after the initial launch will be a challenge. No doubt that is why they have timed the release of their console when they did.

I suspect this is also why Microsoft kept supplies of the 360 fairly tight at the initial launch. With a loss per console they simply cannot make an unlimited supply. Every unit that goes unsold is money they are not recouping. Even though the 360 is being sold at a loss, actual sales of the console means some dollars were regained.

I really don’t know how successful this is going to be as a long-term business model. Is selling the hardware at a loss going to be viable? Granted, consumers are not going to be able to justify paying even a break-even point for the 360 or the PS3. That leaves Microsoft and Sony in something of a lurch. The whole premise is that the games will make money, but that relies on the speculation that video game sales will continue to be strong. The whole thing looks like a big gamble. It’s also hard to ignore that as fewer game studios seem to be willing to take risks, we’re seeing more of the same being released time and again in the name of assured sales. This further waters down the market.

In the long game, can Nintendo simply outwait Microsoft and Sony? I don’t think it’s that simple. Microsoft has the resources and the persistence to stay in the game for a very long time. Short of their corporate philosophy dying, which would take the deaths of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer (Neither of who are all that old I’ll point out), I don’t see Microsoft giving up anytime soon. Sony seems intent on having their hands in all things electronic, so anything short of a major catastrophe and I’d say they’re going to stay in the market for awhile. Some might think that the PS3 could be that catastrophe, but I’d say it’s way too early to call. Sony might just surprise everyone.

While I agree with the VGCats comic in principle, I also wonder if it’s really all that simple.