Friday, June 17th,
2005
Crossing Over Once Again
It was my birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday to me!
I have always wondered the validity of celebrating the day that we were
born, I mean I have read about African traditions in which they mourn on
birthdays, and celebrate on the person’s death day! Horrible as it may
sound, the logic is this: this particular African tribe believes that it
is of great misfortune to be born into this world, only to get sick, to
starve and eventually die in the most painful way imaginable. Death,
releases all that, death is seen as the ultimate way to release a person
of all pains of the flesh, in addition, it is like a passport and to a
better world. I have contemplated long and deep about this, and I have
to agree with this at least for now…
The Friday update is worrying me a little, as I am really getting the
hang of this ONE update a week thing! Which is horribly ironic as I am
able to provide TWO updates a week during the school semester, I
actually drew SLOWER during the holidays! This is not good, and I’m a
little worried about the readers’ wrath…
I have reading an awful lot of webcomics these days, from Furry Comics
to Manga Online, and a few I have read are trying all sorts of ways to
get people to donate to them, as drawing webcomics is the only source of
income they have. Some offer wallpapers as donation gifts, I prefer the
word incentive, and some even offer to draw an extra strip or page if
they get $100 worth of donations for that week, I mean, $100 is not a
lot, and it would hardly get you pass two weeks, with all the bills and
tax you gotta pay, but still how many people would donate more than $10
at a go? Or maybe $2 a week? Only on very good days, perhaps.
In every webcomic artist’s heart there lies a hope that some day the
readers will feel obligated enough to wanna give some money in return
for the stuff they have read. That will only happen if one has a HUGE
base of fans, and I can’t understand why these artist just don’t get it
that it is gonna be hard to keep asking for donations or contributions
from innocent readers. A cleverer way I noticed, is for webcomics to
finally CROSS-OVER from the virtual world to the real world and become a
book. Yes, now we’re talking.
I am not saying that people WILL pay for what they can read for free,
(in fact I don’t know anyone who will…) but to have a compilation say
that contains the year’s work, with added extras and goodies, is likely
to create a better impression, and it’s effectiveness is immediately
seen if one is attending some sort of convention. Will SKOOKUM! ever
become a book, for now, the answer is no; at least not until I can
figure out a way to print and ship cheaply. It is costly to print in
B/W, even far more in color… Besides, I am happy with what I have now,
and I am enjoying myself more and more with the unfolding events in
SKOOKUM!
Wataru
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