Thread closed.

It’s clear, I’m not NCS material. I think we’ve gone over this now a thousand times. Maybe you guys should just add a section to your charter about it so we make sure everyone knows.

If you guys would like, I can make a tee shirt and wear that to conventions to serve as example to others.

Clearly making tee shirts is all I’m good at anyway.

This unfortunately gives rise to a situation where the outgoing, non-timorous types butt in and hog most conversations, misinterpreting others’ quietness as license to pontificate and self-congratulate. Meawnhile, everyone else leans back and fumes with jealousy.

On the other hand, even the biggest foghorn-mouths, who boasted at every opportunity, never dissed others in public. Not that I ever heard anyway.

I can’t comment on “print” versus “web” cartoons. I was a print cartoonist in a single-city single-paper market, paid reasonably for it, but when I put my work online starting in 1995 I suddenly had up to 10 times more readers (sometimes) than in print, and started selling thousands of books to far-off places. Did that make me a “web” cartoonist? Doesn’t matter. Where the heck is the supposed dividing line? I can’t figure out what anyone here is arguing about.

Nothing personal against Scott or any of the others who’ve dragged this thread on to such lengths, but the original blustering remark that sparked this thread and many of the subsequent comments from a few (but not most – again, the 80/20 rule prevails) of the others here bring back bad memories.

Truly makes me sad. Time to crawl back into my warm little cave. Bye.

1) I think the point a lot of us are trying to make is that our business model is not that much different than traditional models. We’re just going it ourselves. We’re helming it directly in lieu of a syndicate doing it for us. This could mean more work for us, or it means we hire our own vendors and assistants and publishers. It also means we can make a living with a smaller audience since we retain the majority of our profits.

I grant you that there are some who evangelize that the web is the truth path and print is dead. I don’t subscribe to that belief. I am heavily involved in print and invested it.

At this point I’m not looking to convert anyone to how I do things. I’m simply looking for acknowledgment from people I would like to consider my peers that I’m not some fluke, or abboration. I’m not an exception to the rule or a fly in your ointment.

2) I hope this is true, Ted, because I think that would be a more valid reason to refuse my inclusion into the NCS. I would only offer in my defense that the syndicates seem unprepared to offer me an acceptable distribution channel to papers, so I made an attempt on my own, as misguided as it was. Most papers who took my strip refused to take it for free (not that they paid much or kept it in very long). If that’s really a sticking point…one failed attempt against 10 years of hard work that’s in line with the NCS…I wonder about the organization a bit.

3) It was a joke. I was excited. I was being silly. Most people got it. Some people didn’t. Jim got it apparently, so I’m not too worried about it.

More importantly, it was worth crowing about. I prayed at the Altar of Garfield. I just scanned in my first cartoon attempts from 1981 to email to Jim to show him. It’s a big deal to me.

4) I still feel I have a lot to learn from print cartoonists. I still want to attend a Rueben’s weekend, talk about webcomics and meet some of my influences and heroes. I dismissed you that day Ted because you seemed to refuse to be listening to anything we were saying. You were almost to the point of just sticking your fingers in your ears and singing a verse of King Henry the Eight. You derailed things a bit, I feel. Dave was offering you his tax return at one point.

5) Ted, I think you just put me down right before you asked these questions.

“Could it be that he makes money by selling books to people who think they’ll be able to make money selling T-shirts to people who read comics? Hm.”

How am I supposed to take this as anything but an insult? How is this not a total patronization of what I and my colleagues do?

The NCS bylaws were amended some time back to members in arrears. The NCS now asks lapsed members to pay two years dues (the year you lapsed plus the current years dues and reapply with current updated information for the database) It makes more sense financially for former members who wish to return to the fold.

So welcome back Ted!

The specifics of our business model are very traditional. The biggest difference are the direct interface between the creator and final consumer on many different levels. We are simply bypassing newspapers and syndicates (sometimes even traditional publishing houses) and going it on our own.

The book I co-authored with three other Webcartoonists is called How to Make Webcomics. You can find it at Amazon or on sale at comic book shops. We also sell it directly from our sites.

Could it be that he makes money by selling books to people who think they’ll be able to make money selling T-shirts to people who read comics? Hm.

Seriously, Scott, I’d appreciate it if you would answer the following questions.

1. Almost all print cartoonists give away their cartoons online for free. Almost all have archives, for free. Almost all use their websites to sell merchandise, including T-shirts and books. Almost all make public appearances at comics conventions. Almost all make public appearances at book signings. Almost all sell advertising based on their web traffic. Almost all do freelance illustrations and other side projects. Is there anything different about “your” “business model”? If so, what do webcartoonists do that most print cartoonists don’t?

2. Many cartoonists criticize other cartoonists’ work, and that’s perfectly OK. Criticism is good for the profession. Could it be that NCS (I’m not even a member, but that’s because I let my membership lapse years ago and they have a rule that requires you to pay for all the years you missed to get back in) is more annoyed by your scabbing (trying to give away cartoons to print newspapers for free in an attempt to replace paying gigs) than your vaguely snarky attacks on various cartoonists?

3. Why did you feel the need to crow about Jim Davis’ kind words about you…right below said kind words?

4. Why do you claim here that you want to create some sort of summit between print and web cartoonists, even citing the phone call you set up? In fact, I suggested just that during said phone call. You blew me off. No worries; I’m busy drawing comics on dead trees. I just don’t understand why you’re trying to pass yourself off as aggrieved.

5. Who are these people who allegedly put down webcartoonists? Certainly not me; I published an entire book of them to bring them to a wider audience and constantly look to the web as a source of new talent. As a chatty cartoonist who gets around a bit, I’ve never heard anyone diss webcartoonists as less talented, less worthy, or anything. Never. Not once.