Steven Grant's latest column discusses his visit to the Comdex convention and includes this quote:
And this quote:In theory, comic books can now be produced more cheaply than ever before, if the technology is embraced, but traditionally new technology is accepted grudgingly by comics and usually only when it's on the verge of being replaced by a new technology. Marvel, for instance, is just now shifting to electronic vouchering for freelancers, though the technology's been available for years. And they're pretty much the only company doing that, and that's just financial technology and nothing to do with the art. Imagine the look of a comic that made use of current computer image generation technology. For all the great artists working in the field today, comics still look pretty much the same as they did twenty years ago.
It's nice to see some of what Scott's been talking about for a while start to be echoed from other sources who haven't historically been his strongest supporters.One dot-com with a Comdex presence is also the sole representative of the comics industry there, the upstart Wowcomics. Sporting a variety of material and styles, with plans for expansion soon, Wowcomics intends to market online comics (done, as near as I can tell, in the traditional page style and not as the stop action Flash cartoons so many try to push as "comics" on the web) with instant translation and fast streaming, in an attempt to capitalize on the worldwide love of the comics form. They also sport an Image-like backend payment scheme for freelancers and a decent (again, as near as I can tell) creator-rights agenda.