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Fascinating Case Study of Webcomics and Comic Books

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How do webcomics make money? Allen examines advertising, subscriptions, downloads, print collections, and merchandising methods, and includes data (where available) to back up his assertions. Cartoonists going into business without reading "The Economics of Web Comics" do so at their own peril! Even though there's only 120 pages here, Allen attempts to discuss both webcomics and the comic book publishing industry. His exhaustive coverage of the current state of the comic book industry and the channel conflict that publishers face when attempting to go digital is priceless. The comic book "direct market" of specialty shops has dwindled from 10,000 stores in the 1990s to about 2,000 stores. At the same time, newsvendor sales have dropped to negligible levels. While Marvel and DC have moved into bookstores with their growing trade paperback collections, Allen estimates that they are missing out on almost $4 million in revenue by ignoring internet sales. (Marvel has since jumped into the digital realm with a subscription-based service--the very same revenue model that Allen predicts as being the least successful.) If there's one fault here, it's that the author often compares comic strips with comic books. As readers can tell you, the audience for a daily "Calvin and Hobbes" or "Peanuts" comic strip is quite different than that for a "Spider-Man" or "X-Men" comic book. Many of the "top web comics" that Allen refers to are modeled after the daily comic strip rather than a continuous 22-page comic. Will webcomics eventually merge these two formats? Or will they both be replaced by something different, such as the 8-page "widescreen" comics found on DC's new Zuda Comics website? I guess we'll have to wait for a third edition...

Worthwhile at Twice the Price

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Of the recent arrivals on web comics, including thick how-to guides, this slender volume is the most important -- and the best value. It's not a fancy book, but who needs that. What we get are clear looks at revenue experiences at some well-known comics, and the different strategies they deploy. There is no magic formula for riches here, but there is straight, sober data that will deter illusory thinking. If you want to create a web comic and the bottom line matters to you, read this book first. The how-to books are fulls of stuff that everyone else figured out in their first three months or so.