Tuesday, March 8th
2005
When Time Itself Is Not Enough
Hi there folks, yes it had been a freakin’ fortnight, and if you feel
any anger, I must say that it is well justified, for it is utterly
unforgivable to leave the same page on for two whole bloody weeks. Yet,
I think I can come up with an argument for that. You see, last week was
the Crunch Week. In college terms, “crunch week” is the week when all
your projects are due, when all your homework is due, when all the test
happen and when you realise you eight more secondary reading to catch
up. Yes, it is sorta like a nightmare week. Under such circumstances, I
have to say that it had become impossible to finish SKOOKUM! in time for
my dear readers.
w’Note, my good’ol manager who’s in charge of uploading the pages you
are reading right now met an unfortunate case of a computer meltdown.
Yes, considering the amount of precious material he has in his PC, one
can only imagine the pain of losing all that culmination of information.
It was a good thing Nick, my web-hoster was there, and help salvaged
some of the information of the hard disk of his computer, but the bulk
of which is gone, which I believe, is still a source of pain and
annoyance to w’Note. That’s the paradox of technology – it makes things
easier for you, but at the same time causes the worse sort of harm when
it turns around and make you lose some really very important stuff.
Now, however, my Crunch week’s just over and w’Note’s HP computer is
back on track and the resolution of the two events, puts SKOOKUM! back
to where it left off.
Two weeks ago, you’ve (hopefully) read about Lingling and her web-comic
and as well as the angry comments of her readers. Today, I’m gonna
mention a slightly different artist. He is Tauhid Bondia, the artist of
the famous web-comic “Spell and Whistles”, and you can read it
here.
It is one of the more beautifully coloured web-comic of our time (other
than MacHall…), and I used to enjoy the cruel black humour of the
web-comic. However, I went to another web-comic site recently, and the
artist of that site announced that Tauhid had quit his day job so as to
concentrate more fully on “Spells and Whistles”. Sounds good? Well, not
exactly.
One, “Spells and Whistles” used to be one of the Top 10 web-comics of
all time, but starting from last October, its popularity had been
dropping quite a bit, and Tauhid chose this time when his popularity it
wearing thin to quit his job to concentrate on S&D. Second, he makes it
clear to all his readers that he has quit his job and he hopes that his
readers would buy more merchandise and donate more generously to his
site.
I don’t doubt his talent, but he made a huge mistake, A WEB-COMIC IS NOT
A MONEY MAKING MACHINE. Yes, it can bring you wealth, but there are
4,000 web-comics in the world and only 6 web-comics made it big enough
to have conventions of their own. Quitting your day job to concentrate
on the web-comic and asking readers to donate, is a paradox, if you
really need the money, why don’t you keep your job and update S&D at a
less constant cycle? A web-comic is an extension of an individual’s
expression, and it gives one a chance to express what you need to
express to the rest of the world. Whether the readers donate or not, is
really dependent on how convinced are they of your passion. Announcing
that you quit your job and need people to buy more merchandise, to me,
isn’t one of the best way to persuade people of your passion.
See ya next week!
Wataru
Link of the month:
