Are "votes" the best way to finance the Improv?

Discuss Scott McCloud's current online comic project. Be sure to check out <a href="http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/mi/mi.html">the latest improv</a>!

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wansley
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Second banana bake-off

Post by wansley »

I'm chiming in here with another suggestion because I'm full of it... er, I mean them.

Scott has now started the fourth Morning Improv to have a reader chosen title. Before you know it (barring a whole lot more walrus-sized entries) we will have 10 of them. When the tenth title is chosen, I propose that the next list of 10 titles be made up of the second choice titles from the first 10 lists. (Assuming Scott has been keeping track of the final version of the lists; I know I haven't.)

This would give all of us another chance to vote on a set of title suggestions that have been very close in popularity to the winning titles, at least so far.
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Post by Kris Lachowski »

I like that idea alot, but I think we should get a chance to vote on the ten least voted on title suggestions. That would give all those Found a Lucky Fiddles out there one more chance to shine.
wansley
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Post by wansley »

Kris Lachowski wrote:I like that idea alot, but I think we should get a chance to vote on the ten least voted on title suggestions. That would give all those Found a Lucky Fiddles out there one more chance to shine.
I was originally going to propose that, after ten MIs with reader-chosen titles had been done, the next nine lists be made up the second-ranked, then third-ranked and so on down to the tenth-ranked titles. I decided against mentioning my full plan because I thought it was even less likely to be adopted, but what the hey!

The titles in these nine lists would, in effect, be seeded like tennis players, and potentially could give us a better idea of the real popularity of the titles. Or not.
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Post by Scott McCloud »

While it's not quite as democratic as that, I have considered, at some future date, having a round where ten of my *favorite* rejected titles were given a second chance. There have been some where I had a good idea for how I might handle them but they were passed over.

Wouldn't be for a while though.
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Post by Kris Lachowski »

"Intentional Cartoonist" clever title change. :D
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Post by Kris Lachowski »

Scott McCloud wrote:While it's not quite as democratic as that, I have considered, at some future date, having a round where ten of my *favorite* rejected titles were given a second chance. There have been some where I had a good idea for how I might handle them but they were passed over.

Wouldn't be for a while though.
Oh yeah the above sounds cool as well.
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Post by Alexander D. »

Scott McCloud wrote:While it's not quite as democratic as that, I have considered, at some future date, having a round where ten of my *favorite* rejected titles were given a second chance. There have been some where I had a good idea for how I might handle them but they were passed over.
I know it's been asked before, but I don't think you've ever officially answered -- after the vote is done, do the nine "losers" go back in the hat with the other 500 some-odd candidates? Is it possible that we'll see previous titles popping up on new lists?

If I'm mistaken, and this has been answered, then please excuse my repetition.
wansley
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Please let us donate more!

Post by wansley »

Scott,

You really must divorce the duration of the time to vote on a given set of 10 titles from the duration of the Morning Improv itself. You are going from one long MI to another and, while this is great from my perspective as a MI reader, it is not good from my perspective as a MI supporter. I would like to donate more to support the MI, but I cannot while still following your rules under the current scheme.

I suggest that you declare a winner and post a new set of titles at regular intervals (say 14 or 28 days) from the start of a new MI comic, if it runs longer than that interval. Also, leave up a set of titles for at least a week, if you ever do another "micro-MI" (such as "Man-eating Shoes").

As a possibly easier alternative, post new list of titles at set dates, say the 1st and 15th (or just the 1st) of every month.

If you end up with too much of a backlog, just have a runoff of ten of the chosen titles. I think this would encourage people to donate more, as well as allow more candidate titles to be seen, which should please the suggesters, I would think.
William Ansley
wansley
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Re: Please let us donate more!

Post by wansley »

wansley wrote:As a possibly easier alternative, post new list of titles at set dates, say the 1st and 15th (or just the 1st) of every month.
Leaving out "Happy Town" (for which it is impossible to calculate a duration at all) the average length of all the Morning Improvs is 23.4 days. The average duration of all the MIs since the break is 40 days.

So, even a monthly schedule would provide more opportunities to vote than the current scheme for recent Improvs.

On the other hand, you could just provide a non-voting donation link for the MI.

If you don't do something, Scott, I'm going to spend more than 99 cents the next time you have an Improv that lasts more than a month!

(And, yes, I am threatening you! :D )
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Post by Scott McCloud »

Thanks for the suggestions. This week is pretty crazy, but I'll consider some of the ideas here in the coming weeks.

To answer Alexander's question. The rejected titles do currently go back in the pot, but I've been culling them out for now during the random drawings. I tend to prefer the idea of a *favorite* rejects round. We'll see. It's all still evolving.
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Post by William G »

Scott McCloud wrote:I have considered, at some future date, having a round where ten of my *favorite* rejected titles were given a second chance.
Wow, some of mine might have a chance!

Oh, wait.. I thought that said *least favorite*... never mind :wink:
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Post by William G »

I had an idea last night. I'm going off on a flight of fancy, so please hang on for a few minutes...

Why not hand off a couple of the rejected titles to a few up and comers and see what they can do with them? I'm assuming that Scott holds the rights to the titles once they're submitted to him so I dont think there'd be any legal troubles. You could call it "Scott McCLoud's Mighty Morning Improv Challenge" or something better than that...

For example- Mimi's Last Coffee is a rejected title. Scott, or one of his entourage, picks a few dozen artists from the list of applicants, and hands out the title to each of them. They have a month or whatever to submit or show their their finished work (MI or regular strip) for the title "Mimi's Last Coffee"

When successful in producing a work, they would get their comics listed on a page on Scott's site (as well as getting reported on sites like Comixpedia) with a link. And the people who have completed the comics will get a nice banner saying "I met the Scott McCloud Mighty Morning Improv Challenge!" with a picture of Scott giving a thumbs up.

The benefits for everyone would be thus-
1) Exposure for new or underappreciated webcartoonists. And if it has Scott's name on it, that will also gain the attention of some of the industry rags.

2) If done a couple of times a year, it could become a rallying point for webcartoonists. Like our own version of American Idol.

3) Scott solidfies his rep as a webcomics champion, and stops toiling away in obscurity. ;)

Downsides-
1) Someone would have to organize it.

2) Scott's name on it means that he also assumes part of the risks when it turns out that that one of the participants makes Powerpuff Girl porn comics.

There's probably a lot more downsides to it than I can think of... but hey, I'm an idea man. That;s why they pay me the big money.
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Post by Eric F Myers »

"Comic Idol!" HA! :D For some reason I really like that idea.
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Re: Comic Idol

Post by Rip Tanion »

I could just see Scott sitting there like Simon Cowell....

"That comic strip was simply horrid!"

"Your drawing skills are so piss poor that you make Cathy Guisewite look like Milton Caniff."

"I've read Garfield strips that were funnier!"

Hey, Scott, how well can you do an English accent? :wink:
"Park the beers, and grab the smiles. It's flight time." - LtCdr. J. Robert "Bobby" Stone, USN (R.I.P.)
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