Future watch #1

Welcome to comics of the future, where they don’t suck ass. No more Family Circus, no more Cathy, no more Peanuts. I’ll summarize this guy’s reasoning but I think it’s worth the effort to read his page.

It goes something like this.

System now. I have a comic strip. I sell all rights to that strip (merchandising, movies, etc.) to a syndicate which is basically a comics clearing house. They license comics to newspapers for a fee, as well as licensing merchandise, movies, etc. I continue to draw the comic for an agreed on fee unless at some point they don’t want me to or I die (see Peanuts and The Wizard of Id). Then they get some other artist to do it.

New System: I have a comic strip. I offer my strip to news papers for free. This provides me free advertising. I retain ownership of the strip, and profit of books, merchandising etc.

How does this change things? If the comics are free to newspapers, what interest do they have in placing crap like Beetle Bailey when they can have something 10x funnier for free? The comics page will become a power house of ingenuity. Develop or die.

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