Wednesday, December 10, 2008

A Brief Commentary on Stuff

The Internet community is a pit of dross much like that primordial pool that we all may or may not have come from. We stay as the unchanging creatures in a pot of our filth wallowing and waiting till that day in which we might evolve and leave the pool to be a shining example of greatness in the world. Some people come out as birds and leave that cesspool forever, some come out as monkeys who delight us with their antics and some come out as assholes and act that same but with a more elevated attitude. Frankly on the Internet, the assholes outnumber the monkeys and the monkeys can change into assholes.
Every webcomic has about 1 year from its inception period to easily make it big. When I say inception though, I more so mean that they have a year to get their act in line, set a basic structure and continue going on strong. Frankly with this setup, a majority of people die out. They either don't feel compensated enough or they find that they really didn't give a shit about doing comics. This is just the natural evolution and the people usually just go back and sit by the pool commenting, hopefully in a more positive manner seeing the difficulty to creating some form of entertainment. If they continue after not making it in that year, chances are they are devoted but unskilled. When I say this, I do not mean they can't draw or whatever but for some reason, they have difficulty reaching an audience. Maybe it is more of a fetish cartoon, maybe they just can't write well. The path for them divides into trails of continued obscurity, an unlikely discovery or death. Most of the comics continue in obscurity staying off the lists of most readers but having a devoted following. Usually this is because they aren't humor comics or because they aren't mainstream. Frankly, I feel sorry for these comics the most because they could be high quality but because they don't retort lines from games.
If you do manage to make it in that year though are subjected to the marathon. The long distance run in which if you don't pace yourself or slow down for too long, you get attacked by people who had supported you. If you do an arc that you really wanted to do, you are going to catch hell. If you stop regularly updating and still expect to make money, you are going to catch hell. If you change your art style, you are going to catch hell. If you don't change at all over time, you sure as shit are going to catch hell. You have to pace yourself, plan ahead and either heed or ignore your fans (and that point where you decide which to do can be a lifesaver or a death knell).
I wish I had some formula for making it in a year or at least dedicated comic artists. I wish I could find out a way to easily make every webcomic better. I read about 50 right now and I am prepared to drop about 10. I'd not mind reading more but frankly, the cesspool is growing, we have a bunch of asses and the monkeys seem to be dying off.

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