I just had a brilliant idea. When my Scary Go Round book collections go out of print, I'll delete all the comics that were in them from the site. That way, buying one of my books will be a ticket to a very exclusive club.... and everyone will want to be a member.
Now, this may sound drastic, but I went to business school*, and I know all about supply and demand. I'm giving it away like the school bike on the last day of summer term and this madness has to stop.
Of course, this will render the Scary Go Round archives very confusing, but I like to think that an "oral tradition" will spring up, where the old stories are retold round campfires. "And lo, the comic did return after Christmas... and all heads were HUGE".
I've had a few more business ideas. I'm going to take all the speech bubbles off the comics the day after they run. To hear the dialogue after that, you'll have to phone a premium rate line and request a live reading from one of our operators. And all you other webcomic artists, don't try to steal this idea, because I have patented it.
The final change I intend making is the insertion of a wealthy patron into the comic. Wallace Paul, a beneficiary of Google's IPO, recently divested himself of a lot of stock and made a considerable donation to me in exchange for a 5-year contract as co-star of Scary Go Round. I think you'll like him! You'll have to, as I'm contractually obliged to draw him in every panel.
Well, thanks for joining me for Mindshare Wednesday!
CHANGE AND ADAPT
- John Allison
* in a dream, once
My comics: Bad Machinery - Scary Go Round - Giant Days :: My Shop :: My Flickr Sketchblog :: My Last.fm
13 comments:
These ideas are a bit surprising. I thought you were a wealthy plutocrat - ?
You know somebody is now going to download all the comics, just in case. (Not me though, I have better things to do)
There's a french cartoonist, Lewis trondheim, who has a comics blog at http://www.lewistrondheim.com/blog/ and the pages gradually disappear, so that you can only see the latest 5 pages or so... If you want to read the archives, you have to buy the books.
But of course it's a blog, not a continuing story.
I have also heard that you shred each comic after you've drawn them because you believe that having two copies of something, be they in identical or differing formats, will lessen their artist effects?
Not to mention those other rumours that say you refuse to use any toilet with Armitage Shanks written on it.
Remember back when I deleted my archives in an attempted reboot?
The webcomics community went crazy! Part of my defense was that if they really wanted to read the comics, the books were on sale. Neither the price reduction nor the reboot boosted resulted in more sales, however. Hardly anyone noticed when the archives came back, either.
Webcomics readers are a stingy, fickle beast to be sure.
i'll give you an oral tradition...
NO, prease :-(
See, I knew this was what people wanted - paradigm shifting webcomics business posts. Controversial money-making schemes formed from freshly harvested sky pie.
If anyone else falls through the credibility ceiling here, I'm closing the comments.
This is weird.
I mean, I tried to buy the Out of Print Scareodeleria book for a long time, with no luck.
Plus I always look for new and creative ways to give my money to Mr. Allison, and I plan to continue to do so.
But hey... removing the archives? I'll have Shelley Winters tracking you down should something like that ever happen! (Grr.. rrowl)
Let's say we all know you are kidding and leave it like that. Much Love. <3
You ate a big bowl of crazy for breakfast, didn't you?
Wallace Paul is my favorite Google executive. I look forward to seeing his shining face in every panel ever!
Oh god, I still tell the story about how we came back and all the heads are huge even though it IS all still up there.
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