Join Webcomics.com
Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 4:57PM Starting today, Webcomics.com will begin charging a $30-per-year subscription fee. That fee is going to be used to help support what this site has become -- and allow it to achieve its full potential.
Webcomics.com has established itself as a tremendous resource of practical information for webcartoonists. By joining today you will have access to:
- Frequent updates of news, advice, tutorials and strategies by webcomics veteran Brad Guigar.
- Monthly contributions by webcomics pioneer Scott Kurtz and Penny Arcade's Business Guy, Robert Khoo.
- Personalized features like a new e-mail-based organizer to help you plan for upcoming conventions.
- Feedback and guidance for your comic and the small business you'll create running it.
- A fully rounded, indexed repository of two year's worth of information that you can use to help improve your work.
- A moderated, passionate, supportive community of webcomics creators.
- Inside information on conventions, vendors and other entities that webcartoonists access to advance their businesses.
- Deals on merchandise.
For a low subscription of $30 per year, you will have access to all of this plus the entire Webcomics.com archives, one of the most helpful and supportive forums for creative people on the Web, and several members-only offers.
Webcomics.com Terms of Service.
FAQ
Most webcomics are based on the free-content model. The "How To Make Webcomics" book is built around it. Why is Webcomics.com becoming a pay site?
Simply put, Webcomics.com isn't entertainment; it's a valuable resource for webcartoonists. It would be difficult to continue offering this site for free in its current state -- and impossible, given the improvements we have planned.
Why not just run ads?
This will be very much a niche site. There will not be as much value for an advertiser as there will be for subscribers.
Why $30 per year?
It's an inexpensive buy-in that almost any webcartoonist can afford. It has an added benefit of keeping out people who may not be as serious about webcomics. It naturally weeds out comments from people who may be passing through, and results in distilling comments to those from people who are committed to improving their comics.
Reader Comments (272)
@ScottyA
That's a pretty out there statement. I'm not sure I understand your contention.
@Robert
Thank you for summing up so well in words, the way that I feel about all this.
@My Stupid Login Name
Nobody's ever called me silent before. I find that very funny.
Frank, you're really just making yourself look foolish and juvenile. Why are you and so many others going into attack mode? I'm sure you're not the type of person this new subscription model is going to weed out - but comments like that make it seem so.
Oh Ted Rall is laughing his ass of on this one. They hypocrisy of the Halfpixel crew is baffling. How many times have they screamed their skepticism on online paid subscription model whether its newspapers or comics. Truly hilarious ;)
Does $30 give me a free webpage to post my comics ;)
Okay, I've had a day to ponder this, to read the reactions and responses and other assorted what-not.
First of all, I do not begrudge Guigar or anyone else the chance to make money on their work, in whatever ways might work best. That said, there are aspects of this that I find troubling.
There's the notion that, if you're unwilling or unable to part with the $30.00 asking price, that somehow you are less deserving of the professional-level information the site provides. I am a hobbyist, having a great deal of fun with my chosen outlet but under no illusions that TRU-Life Adventures will ever have enough of a readership that I can make a living off of them. Which I am perfectly fine with--like I said, it's a hobby. Not one word of which means I'm not interested in improving my craft. So, to be told that I will have little to gain from the site comes off as an insult.
This is now the third time that forum access has been cut off. I was around during the HalfPixel.com days. It was fun, and I especially liked the Webcomics Biopsy forum, even if I read far, far more than I participated. And then it was gone with no warning. I'm quite familiar with technical difficulties--my first host went down for an entire weekend a couple of years back and provided neither explanation nor apology when they came back--and I'm certainly not going to blame Straub for wanting to keep his expenses under control. Then came the first attempt at a forum for webcomics.com, which had more of a focus than HalfPixel ever did (though I was disappointed we never got the Biopsy back). It was taken down, too--technical issues, but big things were coming, just wait. What we finally got, frankly, was a joke of a crippled system that I eventually lost interest in participating in. Something useful and fun got replaced by something useful, and then got replaced again. Was I the only person to notice that each time something new came along it got less traffic than what it replaced? Now it's behind a pay wall.
The podcasts started strong, but they went from mostly weekly, to a couple of times a month, to once every couple of months, until all we were left with was a link on the main page and the implicit promise of more to come. It wasn't until this very thread that we finally learned that no, in fact there would be no new podcasts pretty much ever again. Communication is a good thing, and it wasn't present here.
I can still recommend "How to Make Webcomics" to people. Same goes for "The Everything Cartooning Book." But I won't be joining the site.
A very telling comment from Dave Kellett "So, even though I'm broadly against pay-walls". This has been indeed been what all four of you guys have been against. I can recall several occasions on your podcasts where you tear down newspapers, cartoonists etc for attempting such a business model. Maybe that is why there is such a passionate reaction to Brad's announcement. Has at least Brad flip-flopped on his opinion on online subscription models?
So, for my $30.00 a year, are you going to "make THE difference" for me if I want to start a graphic novel-type/serial style comic book story?
I'm not interested in humor and Sunday "funnies" and comic strip styles of work. It's being done everywhere.
If I'd rather write the next BONE and not the next Calvin and Hobbes, I want to know that $30 per year gets me more than, "Go check out this other guy's site and register on his forums for help."
Thanks.
Sorry Brad, and I wish you luck on your endeavor, but seeing that my webcomic isn't producing income other than to roll back into PW advertising, I can't justify the $30 ATM. I thank you and the contributors in the past for an informative website. Good Luck!
Seriously? The majority don't think 365 days a year of expert consulting in the form of unique articles from three successful cartoonists, as well as the new productivity services that are being added, is enough to justify thirty dollars? That's just sad. I really wish I could emphasize the actual cost of design school or consulting in comparison to thirty dollars.
If you can't see the current value, then can some of you at least show some respect for Brad Guigar's ambition? He took Webcomics.com waaaaay above and beyond a blog. And he did it with his own time: UNPAID. The money for running the site without ads: BRAD DOLLARS. Now Mr. Guigar is trying to take it to a new level with the help of some cash flow. By doing this he is able to justify the extra time it will take him to make better features and services available AND involve other professionals.
If you still won't spend the money then by all means say that in a manner that doesn't dis-respect Brad's ambition and hard work. Yeah, the site isn't free anymore and you're bummed. Fine, but Webcomics.com was always a gift, I can't tell you how much I learned just about Photoshop brushes in these articles. But it was always Brad's gift to web-cartoonists, Webcomics.com was never your personal God given right to enjoy free of any kind of charge.
John,
I said this in that dailycartoonist thread, but since you seem to be on the warpath, I'll repeat it here for you as well:
I can’t speak for Brad, and certainly we’re talking this out on the webcomics.com site itself (the announcement thread and it’s comments are public).
While I would never EVER put content behind a pay wall, nor would I advise anyone at this point in time to put their content behind a pay wall, this is NOT what Webcomics.com is doing.
We’re essentially offering a paid correspondence course in webcomics. With “lectures” and interaction with myself, Brad Guigar and Robert Khoo.
If that’s worth 30 bucks then you should buy it. If not, you shouldn’t. But this hardly invalidates anything we’ve said before about webcomics.
My comic and art I want to get out there to the masses for free because it can scale and I can earn a profit from it in advertising and merch sales.
My time is not free, however and I tend to charge for it. My time certainly does NOT scale.
You guys are right to charge for this site.
The lessons here are like the modern version of the old Famous Artist's Course.
You get valuable information and one-on-one interaction with the top names in comics for less than the price of most comic books on paper.
You can't get this kind of guidance anywhere else.
Stop griping. Pay for something you can actually use to make more money.
You want to learn how to make comics? You want to learn how to do it from actual pros in the business? Then it's worth the price of a cup of coffee. Beats paying for a college course.
From Scott Kurts:
"My time is not free, however and I tend to charge for it. My time certainly does NOT scale."
So that's why Scott's floating head was popping in here. I first just thought Scott was helping his friend Brad out by explaining why Brad had to change to a pay site. But all is clear now. Scott has a part in collecting your money as well. And he wants this to succeed.
It's funny how Scott had nothing to contribute to this site for the last year or so ( except the podcast ) and as soon as money is involved. Look who pops up.
Amazing! Or should we really be that surprised?
@David S.
Yes, David. I am an evil, hand-wringing monster just looking out for numero uno.
Ask Brad. I won't make a dime off this site before he earns a living wage from it.
Not that it's ANY of your business, sir.
I SAID GOOD DAY!
Ok so first off I am not artistic, there is no way I could or would ever do a webcomic. I come here because the information is presented in a clever and witty manner. So much of it is also applicable to a changing world/web economy, I am an IT consultant(nothing to do with web enterprise) but the lessons here are absolutely worth the $30 a year especially as we will be getting to hear from Robert Khoo. I am sad to hear so many people complaining about this. Brad (and the rest of the Half Pixel crew for that matter) have provided quality advice with humour and grace for years.
I am posting this and then paying my subscription.
Glad that you have decided to put a value on your contributions Brad and Scott and I look forward to learning from all three of you in the year to come.
As I've said in prior posts I don't begrudge Brad the money and I know that all the guys are pros who have insightful and useful info to offer.
A few things; and I think what I'm about to say comes back to a lot of the fears and anger being expressed here.
Obviously some sort of warning would have been preferably. Whatever the damage, whatever the cost I think it would have shown some faith in the community to give some warning and a deadline... assuming you had to go this way but I'll get to that in a second. No warning says that for whatever reason you don't trust us and you are trying to lock the doors before something bad happens. It's all psychological baby.
A pay for subscription, from the Godfathers of the free model is scary. A whole lot of us put our faith in you. When folks who don't understand what we're trying to do snicker at us and say "look at that fool working his butt off to give away his work for free" we point at you guys and others like you and say "they made it work and they told me how to do it. If I work hard I can be like them." When critics sneer at the free model or call us T-Shirt salesmen we quote you and your book. And then we laugh at them for disillusioning and disenfranchising potential customers by demanding subscription fees or charging for content we would give away.
By doing this, no matter how you couch it (and say what you want about this stuff being information and not entertainment but I would counter that while what is coming may be strictly informational and what had come before was informative, the best you could say about the site content before the pay wall was erected was that it was infotainment... the podcasts especially, for me were certainly more entertaining than informative) you shake our faith in the business mantra that you espoused and that we bought into. Regardless of how this works out in the endgame that is scary. It does beg the question, are we giving it away for free when we could be charging? All this time while we felt so right and disregarded our critics; were we in fact the fools?
Additionally, at least when it comes to this site you all have a history of unreliability. The forums, a place I felt a great deal of fondness for have disappeared and reappeared and so on. The information you have given us about what to expect from the site in the past has often not come to fruition. So when you start talking about how all this great new content is coming down the pike; can you really blame us for being a bit skeptical?
Lastly, if all of this was about the time Brad was investing in keeping the site running versus the money he was pulling out of it there is perhaps an option somewhere in between "close the doors" and "charge a fee" that was perhaps overlooked... and perhaps discounted for whatever reason.
When content waned on the site; when Dave, Kris and then even Scott became too busy or disinterested to contribute to the site you turned to us; the community for articles; to drive content and to spur discourse. When it became obvious that the site was too much for Brad alone, why didn't you do that again?
Why didn't you ask us for help? We would have given it to you. Some of us would have donated money for bandwidth, ads would probably help a little. We would have written more articles for sure. Some of us with programming skill would have undoubtedly contributed to the sites upkeep and improvement. We would have moderated the forums the way you would want them moderated. I think a lot of us would have been thrilled; honored to be working with you.
Scott and Brad, you have reached a level of success where your time is worth money. As you said Scott, "your time doesn't scale."
Mine does. As an out of work immigration paralegal who hasn't even managed to get someone to interview him for over a year, time it seems, is often all that I have. And I'm sure I'm not alone. And when we got busy others would have taken our places.
And even if it's just a hobby this is serious business to all of us I'm sure. I'm confident there are few among us who don't dream of the kind of success and adulation that you guys recieve from your fans.
By discounting this option, you have entered a vote of no confidence in us. You have said that although you are willing to teach us you do not consider us equals nor will you ever (the idea that Brad would give Dave a subscription for free is telling as I am sure that there are other, more succesful folks in the community who may recieve just that as thier involvement helps legitimize this endeaver). And I think a lot of us are probably a bit bothered by all the subtext.
I have a hard time believing that if Brad were having trouble making money from his comic that he would, rather than redoubling his efforts to make money from his art and storytelling, consider running an instructional website with a subscription fee to supplement his income. I can't imagine him subscribing to to the idea that those who can't do, teach.
And if that is the case then I believe my emo comments above, apply.
And I'm not ascribing any malevolence here. Just indifference. We aren't just your readers, or subscibers. We are also your followers and in many cases your customers. Scott I hung out with you and bought one of your books at NYCC. Brad I had you draw a sketch in my copy of HTMW when I bought it from you at NYCC. Kris I bought a Jinxlet from you for my neice (she loves it) at Connecticon.
This just feels wrong. And I think a lot of the anger and frustration you guys are hearing from us is because we feel a bit betrayed.
Does buying some books and stuff from you entitle us to a never ending stream of free information? No. Do you have the right to close shop and ask for subscription fees? Sure, it's your website. Are you required to show us deference in the way you go about running the site? No but better communicationwith us; the users would be nice. Are most of us your equals? No but it would have been nice to at least feel like we were colleagues.
Ball all this up and you have the going on 200 comment mess before you. I really like you guys so I hope you recover from this and make the site work. I'd even be inclined to join if down the road I hear good things from others like me. But I'm not a lemming and I'll only follow you off so many cliffs before the falls leave me trepeditious. I don't think it's fair to blame any of us for that.
Um, what with all the drama I am not sure if this is off topic or not, but I have a question/suggestion about the service. I am a huge fan of the works of the half pixel crew and have been interested in anything Khoo might have to say since I found out who he is. That said I am currently living in Korea and have had problems catching any of the streaming video or recordings do to time difference. Since you guys will be doing a one year service will the video and recording be available as a download? Seems that with only a one year membership available it wouldn't be that big of an issue for people "Hoarding" files from the smallest paying membership and then quiting, though I can see the worries about piracy. If not downloadable then even a built in player storing the previous info would be greatly appreciated as that is my only real concern at this time with the paywall (although some shock was there at first.) Can't wait to see where this is heading!
@Robert:
Yeah, your time is worth something. Until someone just starts a website about it... for free...
Friends used to work for Britannica. Not so many people do anymore.
You can look at an article on their site for free when you try the "7 day free trial".
Or you can check out Google or Wikipedia and find whatever you need...
It's coming, dude...
Some of the people here will start their own comics creator's info site, and that'll be the end of that.
I'm all for experimenting. Heck Scott Kurtz tried the paid model last year and it wasn't successful for him.
Having content for free, then expecting payment for it after is a drug dealer technique. I would think the website would be a gateway to the book and vice versa. It could also lead to a sequel to the book, speaking engagements even online classes.
As for the forums, Kevin's Smith's ViewAskew Message board has a $2 fee to keep out the riff raff.
http://viewaskew.com/theboard/register.html
I wish you the best with your endeavor but I think you'll find there are other ways to profit than the the road the site's currently on.
Best O' Luck!
In your own book you note that paywalls do not work in the long-term because without seeing the content, no one can judge whether it is worth paying for. Without some kind of teaser like an active podcast schedule, I suspect this move will ultimately fail.
The more I think about it, the more I think a 'donate what you can' button would have worked better...for example, after visiting the DrawingBoard for a couple of years and learning a ton of stuff and making contacts, they asked for financial support to keep the site running (that was 2 years ago), I sent in $100 because that was the value I though I got out of the site over that period.The reason I'm not sure I want to give you $30 now is that everything is going to be behind a wall, with a limited number of people participating/ sharing informations...I did learned a lot while your site was up for free, and to support your effort, bought your book. Now I don't know...
I'll wait and see what kind of new and 'exciting' things you offer before I join the 'club'...
The most useful part of this site for me was the forum. The best info I got was a question about 11x17 scanners and I found some brands I've never heard of so now I have a good idea of what to buy.
The articles written about practical things like the best way to do mass mail outs and useful tax tips might be helpful... except I'm Canadian so none of it applied.
The art tutorials were somewhat interesting but I'm a trained animator and professional comic artist and anything I didn't learn at school I figured out on my own when I moved into comics. I also don't favor the strip format and a lot of the tips and writing tricks slanted that way.
I mainly came here for fun, to chat with other people trying out this webcomic endeavor, for anecdotes and convention stories. I understand your reasons for changing the structure of this site, but it is a little disappointing. There are other webcomic forums out there that are still free...
I might be interested in whatever business/salesman tips Khoo has but I can't see paying $30 ($32 for me?) site unseen.
Thank you for providing this site up till now, I do really appreciate your time.
@Scott Kurtz: A webcomics correspondence course actually sounds interesting. If you are seriously looking into moving in this direction, I hope you will post a detailed syllabus, with a list of what attendees can expect to have gained by the end of it.
For the most part, I am in the "well, thanks for everything, best of luck in the future" camp. I enjoyed spending time here, but although the articles were good reads, what I really found useful was the discussion that the articles and various third-party forum topics inspired. With so many people leaving I don't think I'm going to get the same value out of the community here, but perhaps this will change in the future.
"If I'd rather write the next BONE and not the next Calvin and Hobbes, I want to know that $30 per year gets me more than, "Go check out this other guy's site and register on his forums for help."
I'd like to know this too, actually. One of the reasons I'm wondering if the site is worth a subscription is because I have always gotten a feeling that it is a comic strip site, and people who do long-form comics aren't really taken seriously and/or need to adapt the information centered around strip-format to fit their own model without any real help on how to do that. I do long-form comics, and while I realize the web isn't the ideal way to read a long-form comic, it is also much more preferable than not having it read at all. However, the few times long-form comics were discussed in the forums, I felt a general "They don't work that well on the web" total disregard for the form.
So if I joined webcomics.com, would I still get that feeling? Or would I find a place that's a little friendlier to all forms of web-based cartooning, rather than just strip-style comics?
Let me echo Roz's and KoryBing's comments, as they are asking the same question that I asked on page 6 (reposted below):
"My personal opinions on the switch aside, I feel an important question needs to be answered for myself and those like me. In the past, you guys have... well, not exactly been AGAINST long form comics per se, but rather doubtful of their ability to do as well as short form comics. That being the case, most of the articles have been geared more towards the short form, gag-a-day strips, though a number can be applied across the board. And that was fine when the information was free. But now that we'll be paying for the information, the question is: As someone who does a long form comic, is my $30 investment going to be well-spent?
I honestly hope the answer is "yes", because the advice that I've been able to take from webcomics.com and apply to my comic has been great. But if I'm paying $30 for a majority of advice that I can't use, it's $30 I could have used for something more pertinent to my comic/site, you know?"
Despite paying to work with and write for a fantastic artist, dedicated hosting, advertising as well as printing and making my own merch and paying for stuff I can't make myself I am not actually "serious about webcomics."
Food for thought obviously.
No problems, I wish you the very best of luck and I support your decision. I just don't agree with it.