Post Modern Myths #7 by Eric M Esquivel – Striptococcus

ESQUIVEL: When last we spoke, I believe I was snarkily taking shots at your enthusiasm for webcomics via Twitter.

You insinuated that Modern Print Superhero Comics were inferior to Modern Web Comics, and I quipped something dickish like “they must be doing something right if they can charge $3.99 for a product their ‘net counterparts can’t give away for free”, and we got into a little 140-character-long slapping contest about whose preferred method of information delivery was superior.

Your argument was so compelling, I suggested that we continue our discussion via email.

Like men.

I’ve been at this for a little over a month now, so everyone reading this should know who I am. For those few unenlightened souls unfamiliar with your work, how’s about you give us a rundown of what it is you do, and why you chose to present them in the digital format?

SADASIVAM: Brief run-down:

I teach at the Art Institute of Tampa, in the Media Arts and Animation department. I made a career switch from chip designer to media arts in my late 20′s. I’ve been making comics since I was kid, and have been doing work professionally since 1999. The PC Weenies, my first webcomic, appeared online in 1998 and has run continuously since that time. UNcubed, an auto-bio strip, started in 2007, and focuses on my life and observations as a 1st generation Indian growing up in the US.

I choose to present my work digitally because it allows me to target a very wide audience on the web.

ESQUIVEL: It’s interesting that you say “a very wide audience on the web”. I actually hear that a lot from web-based cartoonists–that webcomics are read by more people than their print equivalents.

I have a hard time believing that to be true.

Sure, people theoretically have more access to them. Ostensibly, they’re just one click away. And they’re (usually) free, for crying out loud!

So why aren’t they more popular? I’m sitting in a Borders right now (stealing wifi), and as I look around me I count two kids in Iron Man apparel, a hip hop head in an Punisher ball cap an older fella thumbing through a Green Lantern trade paperback, and four little girls dressed like manga heroines sprawled out on the floor behind a veritable fort of Shojo Beats and Shonen what-have-you’s. Why isn’t Questionable Content represented in that sampling?

Why haven’t I seen the trailer for an American Elf summer movie?

Is it a question of content, do you think? That maybe because there’s no standard for web comics there’s a lot of trash out there, whereas print comics cost money to put out, so financers more carefully scrutinize what they’re going to support–and that results in a generally better product?

It just seems like if web comics had the audience that their purveyors want us to think they do, there’d be some sort of ripple of that in popular culture.

Why aren’t there Penny Arcade action figures in the toy aisle at Target, Krishna? Why?

Tell me right now.

SADASIVAM: I think it’s two different demographics. Let me clarify a few points:

“Wide audience” doesn’t necessarily mean numbers (although it *could*) – I’m referring to accessibility. Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection could read comics. It’s a global audience.

Several of my readers have confided that they read my comics at work. I wonder how many of these people go out of their way to read traditional comics represented in comic / book stores?

I’m not saying that webcomics supercede traditional comics – they can both exist – and I think while there is a little overlap in demographics, both audiences, for the most part, seem to be mutually exclusive.

At Borders, you can find trades of PvP, Penny Arcade and some of the bigger online comics. Why aren’t all popular titles represented? Great question. Part of it has to do with gaining distribution to appear in those stores. I can’t speak for QC not appearing in Borders – but my guess is many of these authors already enjoy a healthy, supportive audience. They don’t have to worry about a middleman taking their cut (which is what Borders or Amazon
and the like would be). They make the books, price ‘em, and sell ‘em directly.

While there may not be an American Elf movie – I think it’s only a matter of time before a webcomic makes it mainstream to do so.

There is a lot of trash out there in webcomics. 90% of it is garbage, but the flip side is that there are creators who are doing fantastic work, garnering an audience, and making good coin doing so. It’s the law of averages.

Good work will rise to the top, mediocre work won’t. I’d argue that print comics also had their share of trashy comics. The Black and White explosion in the ’80′s was evidence of that. Those books were all printed – and many of them were money grabs.

Penny Arcade made #14 on Times most influential list. Check it out. If that’s not creating a ripple in popular culture, I don’t know what is.

Penny Arcade’s audience doesn’t need to represent as toys in Target to be considered a success.

ESQUIVEL: I guess I’m speaking purely in terms of financial success, as crass as that may sound.

This column is supposed to be a resource for up-and-coming comic creators, and what I’m trying to establish with this discussion is whether or not it would behoove someone who wants to get into the Word And Picture Business as a career to take the route you have, and go strictly digital with it.

As an outsider, it seems like you and your peers are doing a Hell of a lot of work for free and throwing it up on the internet in the hope that somebody, somehow stumbles across it.

I mentioned the Iron Man T-shirts and Batman Pez dispensers and whatever because they’re proof that folks dig on the intellectual properties that the print side of the industry own, and the only way the people I saw sporting them could have familiarized themselves with said properties is if they bought a book, or paid for a movie, or rented a video game.

They not only had to go out of their way to experience one of those other mediums, they had to pay good money for it.

And that’s pretty much my perspective on the whole issue: the market indicates that consumers would rather pay $3.99 for a physical book than read a web comic for free.

I don’t know if it’s the format, or the marketing, or what–but people just don’t seem to care enough to make internet comics a viable career choice. With all of the lip service given to Hollywood optioning sequential art, I haven’t heard one whisper about a strip done for the computer being parlayed into a cartoon franchise or movie, or anything of the sort. The money holders of the world would rather gamble on “D List” print properties like Jonah Hex, The Walking Dead…and even Kick-Ass, for crying out loud! The book with the least marketable title of all fucking time!

And that’s not necessarily a comment on the quality of material out there. It’s certainly not a comment on your work (which I think is great, or I wouldn’t be talking to you about this in the first place). It’s just a clear indication that people, by and large, like apples better than oranges.

So, why make a web comic?

It seems to me like most digital creators are people who are in love with the idea of a global audience (whether or not there really is one) and who are in love with the idea of creating a book (but lack the will necessary to produce a print product)–in short: people who want to feel successful without actually being successful. It’s sort of an insular club of mutually congratulatory hobbyists.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. Whatever gets you through the day, y’know?

It just freaks me out, because I’ve been prepping a webcomic with illustrator Dave Baker for the better part of two years now, and I’m terrified that nobody is going to bat an eye once the thing drops.

I’ve pretty much abandoned all hope of monetizing the thing at this point, and am just focusing on it being an easily accessible portfolio for editors to take a gander at. If nothing else, it proves that I’m able to create work, and that I can meet a deadline (which is also the main reason I churn out these columns).

Give me advice, Krishna. You’re the most popular web cartoonist whose email address is in my Rolodex.

Let me be the Luke Skywalker to your Obi-Wan.

SADASIVAM: I think whether a property is web or print is moot point. If a property is good, it will get developed. Like anything, luck and time have a lot to do with it. Penny Arcade has become an actual video game (http://www.rainslick.com/). Nobody would have made a game from the comic if they couldn’t make money from it.

Part of the reason that people are sporting Iron Man and Batman shirts is that there was already a HUGE audience of people who’ve grown up with those comics. They’ve been around for 40+ years. Most folks are already very familiar with Batman due to its presence on TV, movies and the like. D-grade properties will get made, sure. And D-grade properties have also had their share of flops.

Webcartoonists give their content for free, but sell books and merchandise to make coin. They also make money via ad revenue. The successful ones do quite well at conventions, from what I’ve seen and read.

There is a very low cost of entry to a webcomic. It’s free – there’s zero risk. Jumping in at New Avengers #62 is a risk. You can’t read it for free (unless you work at a comic book store, or go out of your way to find comics in your public library.) I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been burned taking a chance on a comic book (even ones that “fans” seem to really enjoy.)

I think the beauty of webcomics is that, yes – you can create a comic for the love of it -and find an audience. Most people who jump into webcomics with the notion of getting rich fast realize that it’s ridiculously hard.

It *is* hard. I wouldn’t recommend anyone commit to making a living on their webcomic. It takes years (if it even happens). That said, I can point you to numerous creators who have succeeded in the webcomics arena. They are making a living full-time as webcartoonists and turning the conventional syndication model on its ear.

So, in short, webcomics are not a viable career for 99% of the cartoonists out there. I won’t argue that. But, are people making money doing webcomics? Yes. And, are people making a living by making webcomics? Yes.

And that’s a good thing, any way you slice it. :)

ESQUIVEL: I really like that “turning the conventional syndication model on its ear” bit a lot. A LOT.

For the purpose of this article, I’ve had to play Devil’s Advocate a little, but it feels like we’re winding down some, so, if you’ll allow me to break character: that’s really where the lion’s share of the fun in doing web comics is, isn’t it? That thrill of “nobody has ever done this before”, surfing a giant wave that you just know is going to swell into a tsunami and completely wash away the way people think about comic book distribution, and comic books themselves.

I think a lot of the reason there’s resistance to digital stuff is because as soon as they gain the popularity everybody pretty much knows they will, the status quo is fucked all to Hell. Brick and mortar stores are going to become obsolete, Diamond’s monopoly over THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY is going to be shattered. It’s going to change everything.

And it’s going to be awesome–and not in the bullshit, valley girl sense of the word, but actually awesome. It’s going to fill people’s hearts with awe (And, because it’s new: FEAR. Load, and loads of fear).

Remember when collected editions first started coming out as “prestige formats”? How much everybody freaked out at first over the price point and the length and all of that? But the publishers took a chance on them anyway, and discovered that the mainstream audience actually prefers to receive information that way (either because they lack the attention span to follow a sequential myth over a series of months, or because they’re more willing to drop cash on a product that looks like a traditional prose novel than a Watchtower Magazine pamphlet, or whatever), and now we’re in Borders and Barnes and Noble and libraries, and all of that.

Shit, Oprah had a “graphic novel” in her book club, not too long ago.

Newspapers have been kicking it for free on the interwebs for a while, now, and, as you alluded to earlier, making back the twenty five cents they would’ve charged for the actual physical product ten times over by running a column of advertisement blurbs on either side of the page.

If you look at DC & Marvel, you can actually see the gears turning in their rusty little dinosaur heads. It’s adorable. They’ve started dicking around with putting digital content up for use with the ipad (first those embarrassingly crappy flash cartoons they’re trying to pass off as “motion comics”, and now seemingly arbitrarily chosen scans of books that came out half a decade ago and don’t tie into any current product. So sad.), but they still don’t understand that science you dropped about “risk”.

And it’s funny, because we all know that comic books essentially function as loss leaders for multi-billion dollar movie franchises, nowadays. DC exists to generate interest in intellectual property for Warner Brothers, and Marvel does the same for Disney. So why not eliminate the cost of printing, toss stuff up on the web for free, and sit back and collect ad revenue?

I guess it’s because they know that the majority of their audience are old dudes who grew up with print, and pretty much just read comics out of habit. Maybe the guy who has read the same comic every month for 40 years isn’t the dude to ask to change his routine.

Whatever.

How does it feel be at the ground zero of what Warren Ellis would call a genuine “outbreak of the future”? What are you doing to prepare yourself for the day when your strip(s) blow up? What are you doing to usher that in?

You’ve convinced us that web comics are where it’s at, now tell us how to get there.

SADASIVAM: Let’s break down your last comment one chunk at a time:

“that’s really where the lion’s share of the fun in doing web comics is, isn’t it? That thrill of of “nobody has ever done this before”, surfing a giant wave that you just know is going to swell into a tsunami and completely wash away the way people think about comic book distribution, and comic books themselves.”

Yep, exactly. The fact that we can chart new waters is an exciting prospect.

And it’s going to be awesome–and not in the bullshit, valley girl sense of the word, but actually awesome. It’s going to fill people’s hearts with awe (And, because it’s new: FEAR. Load, and loads of fear).

I agree. Through history, we’ve seen this always happens. I believe we’re heading into new uncharted territories, and I’m pretty darn excited to see how things unfold.

I guess it’s because they know that the majority of their audience are old dudes who grew up with print, and pretty much just read comics out of habit. Maybe the guy who has read the same comic every month for 40 years isn’t the dude to ask to change his routine.

Exactly. The audience base is getting older – new blood isn’t coming in to keep the empire afloat. And that’s what’s scaring companies like Marvel and DC. Why do you think that books like Spider-man and Captain America have reverted back to their original numbering?

How does it feel be at the ground zero of a genuine outbreak of the future? What are you doing to prepare yourself for the day when your strip(s) blow up? What are you doing to usher that in?

I really can’t tell you how I feel, because I’ve never really stopped to think of it that way. I’m learning as I go – trying to keep up with everything that’s going around me. It’s exciting and maddening at the same time. There are some days where I feel overfilled with information overload.

Last year, my first book (“The PC Weenies: Rebootus Maximus”) came out. It’s sold very well so far, proving that there is an audience for my work.

I’ve recently expanded the site to include regular tech reviews. I’ve also garnered ad sponsors from the tech market, who are now backing the strip. Recently I added a “New Readers” page to make it easier for new readers to get on board. I’m planning to take the show on the road, as it were, and do a few targeted cons (“UP! Fair”, “Intervention”, and “Kids Read Comics”) dedicated to indie books and creators.

The next level I hope to secure is getting speaking opportunities at various tech shows. I’m always on the lookout for finding new ways to connect with my audience. Having a profile on Twitter, responding to comments on my posts, etc. are all ways I try to keep it real with my readers.

It’s awesome, in this day and age, that we can do that.

You’ve convinced us that web comics are where it’s at, now tell us how to get there.

How do we get there? There is no easy way. Anyone who tells you otherwise is just blowing smoke. I make webcomics because I enjoy making them, first and foremost. I’ve learned so much from consistently updating my comics for the past 12 years that I have no regrets whatsoever. To quote Jim Morrison: “The future is uncertain and the end is always near.”

Eric M. Esquivel is the author of the critically acclaimed graphic novel “Horrible Little People”, the critically tolerated “Adventures of Bikini Automatic”, and the critically despised “Childish Delusions of Grandeur and Superiority”. He also wrote a whole bunch of mini comics that the critics know nothing about , and can be found at www.ModernMythologyPress.com .

His upcoming works include “Calabrese!” for Spookshow Records, “Pop! Science” for Modern Mythology Press, and “Statuesque” for whomever will give him money for it.

He did square journalism stuff for The Tucson Citizen & Heroes and Villains Online.

He is not John Siuntres’ son*

*or is he?†

† He isn’t.

Direct all loathe letters to:

www.twitter.com/ericMesquivel

ericMesquivel@gmail.com