How are ModernTales and others doing?

[ragtag]

I'm curious to know how sites such as moderntales.com and unboundcomics.com are doing. Is it working and are the artists there making any money? Are people willing to pay for online comics?

That's it I guess.

Ragnar

[Alexander D.]

I actually work for Unbound Comics. I'm just a submissions editor, and don't have access to the financial information, but my understanding is that the company is doing reasonably well. Especially considering that there's been very little promotion so far. There's a bunch of new change planned for the coming year, with some real promotion to follow. I'm not allowed to give any details about the plans, though. It'll be interesting to see how things go once the serious marketing starts.

As for ModernTales -- they've given every indication that it's been a success. And the fact that they're launching new sites is certainly promising.

[Tim Mallos]

Both Modern Tales and Adventure Strips have my money.

I'm enjoying the content, but they are both great resources for layout, color etc. ideas.

I'm working on my own epic adventure-type thing and I'm finding it very motivating to see other people's work - I read a little and then I really feel like I have to work on my own stuff, so I do that for awhile.

T

[japanimationfist]

I suppose that this is really a post for Talk About Comics, but I saw the thread, and decided to sound off.

I wonder how Modern Tales is doing too, because they have my money, but I notice that it's been in a bit of a slump lately. Excluding I Am A Rocket, and Radiopolis, there hasn't been much of an influx of talent in awhile, and a lot of the key players that people subscribed for are now moving off to do work on the MT sister sites. Although I enjoy what I do get there, and intend to subscribe to serializer.net when it debuts, I am getting a little worried about what will become of the original MT site.

Diversification is fine, but I think it's important not to spread yourself so thin that you can't offer what you've advertised.

I imagine that part of the problem is that Joey has been the major force behind things, and he is only one person. I understand there are editors on the new sites to help him, and I would suggest that an editor on the original MT, to help coordinate the influx and outflux of talent would be a good idea as well.

So far MT has been successful beyond what most would have predicted before Joey started the ball rolling. I would like to see it stay that way.

[Alexander D.]

Actually, I suspect that the reduction in creators on the MT site may actually be a conscious decision. Bear in mind the pay structure for the creators -- each creator is payed a percentage of the profit proportional to the percentage of impressions resulting from their comic. I suspect that MT is getting toward a plateau in new subscribers, and they're finding that creators aren't getting paid quite what they'd like. But every time someone leaves without being replaced, everyone else's salaries go up. For this reason, MT has to really balance the number of creators on the site -- too few and they don't have enough draw for readers. Too many, and creators will barely get paid.

This is probably also a big factor in MT's decision to expand by launching new sites, rather than by building out the existing site. By seperating the sites, and having seperate fees for each, they can better balance the fees being paid to creators.

[japanimationfist]

I can understand why, and I'm sure that your reasoning is quite accurate, but I worry that by taking people away from the original site, and thinning the roster, MT may risk alienating some subscribers, and there may be less money to go around come renewal time. I hope that's not the case, but even I have to admit I haven't been reading as regularly as I used to, and I read it every day for the first six months, without fail.

[Alexander D.]

I can understand why, and I'm sure that your reasoning is quite accurate, but I worry that by taking people away from the original site, and thinning the roster, MT may risk alienating some subscribers, and there may be less money to go around come renewal time. I hope that's not the case, but even I have to admit I haven't been reading as regularly as I used to, and I read it every day for the first six months, without fail.

I imagine it really comes down to whether the people who left were among your favorites or not. The ones that keep me coming back (Makeshift Miracle, Near Life Experience, Cuentos de la Frontera, Viscious Souveniers) haven't gone anywhere, so I haven't been as aware of the diminishing numbers. (Although I think Cuentos has been updating less frequently, unless I'm mistaken). I liked Scary Go Round, but it wasn't around long enough for me to get really attached to it, espeicially since I've never read Bobbins. Who else has officially left?

[japanimationfist]

Those that you mentioned are among my favourites too (I also love New Adventures of Death and Teaching Baby Paranoia). As for the others, I don't know that it's so much a question that they have left, as updates have become more and more infrequent.

I believe Cat Garza is working on the new stand-alone MT site, that will be featuring his work, called Whimville, and I think that has taken him away from Cuentos. Too bad in a way.

[Tim Mallos]

Yeah. Update on Cat. He's taking a little break:

http://www.talkaboutcomics.com/viewtopic.php?t=1465

I'm bummed, but I wouldn't want him to keep going if HE's bummed.

T

[japanimationfist]

Argh.

Thanks Tim. I guess it's better that I knew, but... Argh.

[Guest]

Nobody has been taken from the original site in order to fill up the other sites. Any cartoonists who have left have done so of their own volition, either because they no longer wish to do webcomics, period (cat garza) or because they were having trouble meeting their deadlines (shall remain nameless). If you look at the serializer.net and adventurestrips.com lineups, you'll not see a single name from Modern Tales -- except for a handful of people, like Gary Chaloner and James Kochalka, who are prolific enough to contribute to these new sites and continue their committment to Modern Tales.

In fact, we have just about as many series on Modern Tales as we've ever had. For almost every series that has dropped off, there has been a replacement series. Specifically, some of the new series that have come to Modern Tales recently are:

I Am A Rocket
Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan
Outside the Box
Radiopolis
HappyGoth (limited time, but still)

Also, we've currently got offers out to a number of medium-big names (specifically Donna Barr, Ernie Colon, Dean Haspiel, and Scott Mills) to do brand new series on Modern Tales. All of these cartoonists have verbally agreed, and I'm waiting for the paperwork to be cleared (Donna's and Scott's contracts are supposed to be in the mail, Ernie's actually did arrive, but I haven't signed it and sent it back to him yet, and Dean and I had to talk with his print publisher before we could clear the series, which conversation has yet to bear the fruit of signed documents, but I have every reason to believe that it will).

Finally, after serializer.net's launch is complete, I will be turning my attention to a new subscriber-only feature of Modern Tales proper, called "Modern Tales Longplay," in which every month one to three brand new full-length graphic novels and or book-length short story collections will be posted behind the subscriber wall at Modern Tales. This will up the comics count significantly.

So, Modern Tales isn't shrinking. It's very definitely growing.

Thanks!

Joey
www.moderntales.com

[Surlyben]

I was just looking at serializer.net. It reads like a who's who of comic artist heroes of mine... Carrie Golus, Jason Turner, Derek Kirk, Tom Hart, Drew Weing... Waiting for the 14th...

[japanimationfist]

I totally agree. Serializer has me much more excited than Adventure Strips did. I think it's just a different market, The roster is pretty amazing, and it looks to be a little more experimental.

I am also looking forward to MT Longplay. I think it will add value to what's on MT now (btw, has anyone noticed that there are a bunch of online sketchbooks at MT now - if you log in? Cool!)

[Alexander D.]

I totally agree. Serializer has me much more excited than Adventure Strips did. I think it's just a different market, The roster is pretty amazing, and it looks to be a little more experimental.

I am also looking forward to MT Longplay. I think it will add value to what's on MT now (btw, has anyone noticed that there are a bunch of online sketchbooks at MT now - if you log in? Cool!)

Of all the sites announced by MT, MT Longplay (formerly MT Presents) is definitely the one I've been most excited to see. I haven't subscribed to MT yet, for money reasons, but with MT Longplay going behind the firewall, it looks like I'm going to have to scrape my pennies together after all.

I'm also very excited about Serializer.net. Lots of great people there. Adventurestrips, on the other hand, hasn't really held my interest so much.

[Guest]

I was just looking at serializer.net. It reads like a who's who of comic artist heroes of mine... Carrie Golus, Jason Turner, Derek Kirk, Tom Hart, Drew Weing... Waiting for the 14th...

We had to hold off until the 21st -- apologies. It's coming along nicely, though. I had computer problems, which put me behind on a few bugfixes (these cartoonists, more than some of the others, are really pushing the limits of our design and database structure with very experimental stuff) plus some of the artists are still learning the upload/database system we use on all the MT sites.

The announced group is about 1/2 of the cartoonists who are on board, by the way. Some really big surprises are coming down -- and the comics are amazing. Really, really amazing. It's an humbling honor to be a part of serializer.net. As Tom Hart (the site's editor) says, "THIS is what we came here for!" I forget who has been announced, and who hasn't, but we've got demain.5 for example, and I don't think we ever announced him, and Carrie Golus & Patrick Welch, and Chris Onstad (of Achewood) and Sam Henderson (Magic Whistle), and James Kochalka and Tom Devlin of Highwater Books are collaborating on a strip (pretty sure we haven't announced that one) ...

So, yeah, I'm excited, too! And, again, sorry for the delay, but it'll be worth it ...

Joey
www.moderntales.com

[japanimationfist]

Sounds great. Sign me up. As soon as the site launches you'll be hearing from my paypal.