Strip Search: Non Sequitur
In Strip Search, Jennifer M. Babcock reviews and recommends comic strips available in print and on the web.
It seems that Wiley Miller is stirring the pot again.
The following comic was published this past Monday (4/20/09) and brings up the old print vs. web argument.
Some of you might remember the very heated and passionate debate that Wiley of Non Sequitur had with Scott Kurtz of PvP a few years ago. (I believe it was during the time that Kurtz was attempting to distribute his comic to newspapers for free, an unsuccessful venture.) For those who don’t remember, you can google Wiley and Scott Kurtz together and see traces of the ongoing debate between these two creators.
As you can see, Wiley doesn’t think content should be distributed free of charge. He’s been arguing this for a while now. Note this comic from 2004:
I believe this is the comic that was published soon after the mudslinging between the Wiley and Kurtz camps- on the internet, no less.
People on Kurtz’s side tend to think of Wiley as a creature on the brink of extinction, I believe “dinosaur” is the exact word used. They strongly believe that the newspaper is going the way of the dodo and the internet is the way to go.
Wiley and his camp believe that while the internet may have some redeeming qualities, its overwhelming accessibility allows for utter trash, nonsense, and inevitably, as the second comic illustrates, an unwarranted sense of entitlement. They argue that free content is not going to be as good as content that you pay for- in comics, you get crappy writing, crappy art, and crappy editing. In short, “you get what you pay for.”
Web comics artists and fans all around the net continue to shout “WTF!” After all, there are plenty of web comics that are excellent and sometimes better than what you may see in print. Personally, I’d read a lot of web comics before I read Garfield any day. To this Wiley asks why these artists don’t sell their work then “if it’s so good.”
The answer is simply an issue of supply and demand.
The internet makes content plentiful and easily available. When something becomes easily available, we are less likely to pay more for it. When’s the last time you picked up a newspaper? Speaking for myself, I certainly can’t remember the last time I bothered to pay for a newspaper- why pay for the news when I can get the news for free online?
Why pay for comics in the newspaper when I can get them for free online?
Is Wiley threatened by free content? Wiley may claim that he’s not- that he’s just trying to steer people in the “right” direction- but any way you look at it, it’s clear that this also means more competition for him.
I’m pretty sure that the syndicates felt the heat. Why else would they pump money, advertising, and attention to their online persona? (see GoComics.com and Comics.com) Why else would they recruit budding independent artists (such as myself) onto their web sites? In reality, the syndicates to have to compete with web comics now. Indeed, even they have “reduced” themselves to providing some of their content for free (you can read features daily for free as well as have access to an archive that goes back the two previous weeks- to access the deep archives or to have the comic e-mailed to you, you must pay a monthly fee).
Knowing that then, I refer you back to Monday’s Non Sequitur:
Is this actually stirring up the old debate of print syndicate vs web comic? Or is this Wiley’s Agony in the Garden? “Oh Universal Press Syndicate, why hast thou forsken me?”
Jennifer M. Babcock holds her MA in art history and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Egyptology from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, where she is also known as a comics scholar. A creator herself, she is the artist and writer behind C’est La Vie, which is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate and available at http://www.gocomics.com/cestlavie.
Interesting. But it seems like this debate really isn’t even theirs to fight, but is ultimately going to be decided by the fate of the print newspaper, and of course the syndicates themselves. All this flailing and posturing on both ends seems kind of pointless and fruitless. I’m sure for the syndicates iit’s not even a matter of “competing” with the generalized notion of “web comics” at this point, but “how can we rebuild the model of webcomics, so that they’re profitable.” Once the newspaper publishers figure out how to do it, and do it for real, all this bluster will seem like the distant puff cloud of failed mechanations. Wiley? More like Wile E.