Celebrity and Authority in Digital Comics
by Stuart Robertson on June 10th, 2005 | Uncategorized
The discussion of the upcomming Adventures Into Digital Comics documentary has been followed on webcomic blogs including Comixpedia, DigitalStrips, and Websnark, with dozens of talented and prominent webcomic artists adding their comments. Most people seem to feel the debate is centered on notions of art vs business, or experimental art vs conservative art. However, after giving this some more though, I think it has more to do with issues of celebrity and authority.
In response to the initial inflammatory comic and article at Penny Arcade, Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics posted a public demand for an apology from Jerry "Tycho" Holkins for doing "real damage to the reputations of real people on false pretenses". The claim that they were purposefully ignored by the film makers appears to be totally inaccurate, and it was in fact the other way around. Scott Kurtz of PvP, Jerry Holkins and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik of Penny Arcade were emailed on several occasions asking them to participate in the film, but they never responded.
An interesting paradox of celebrity is that the more famous you become the more other people want to give their time and attention to you, but in turn you become less able to give time and attention to each of your fans. Celebrities must choose carefully who they acknowledge, and the growing number of people who they unfortunately end up ignoring. For example, Kevin Smith may be a very nice guy but he simply doesn’t have the ability to talk with each and every person who would want to talk with him, or be interviewed for every newspaper, magazine or documentary film he was invited to. He definitely couldn’t reply to every piece of email people wanted to send him. On the other hand, celebrities generally will make time to talk to other celebrities, including media celebrities.
When two relatively unknown webcomic fans emailed several popular webcomic artists asking them to be in their no-budget film, it’s somewhat understandable that their request may have gone unanswered. The artists are essentially celebrities, at least within the microcosm of webcomics, and likely receive more email than they can realistically reply to. They have to choose who gets their time and attention, and who unfortunately does not. It’s also understandable that Kurtz, Holkins and Krahulik would have no recollection of having been asked to participate in the first place. Without any type of celebrity of their own, even media celebrity within the webcomic community, the film makers’ request was ignored.
Even non-celebrities have to deal with this issue from time to time. I know that on occasion people have sent me email about the articles I’ve written over the years, and I haven’t always been able to respond in a timely manner – and for that I apologize. I also know that I don’t receive nearly as much email as Kurtz, Holkins or Krahulik. I imagine there are many such emails those three either ignore, or take a long time in responding to.
What’s unusual is that when these artists heard about the trailer for the completed film and the webcomic community began buzzing about it, they chose to publicly criticize the film and voiced their surprise at not having been invited to participate. Rather than check their unanswered email, or contact the film’s creators, they assumed they were deliberately being excluded. The great irony is that their exclusion from the project was only a result of their ignoring the invitation to participate.
On the surface, the debate is one of celebrity and inclusion, but as things progressed other issues have emerged that further mirror those in larger communities.
In Kurtz’s rebuttal of McCloud’s call for an apology he says that "when you put yourself in front of a camera or you put yourself on the internet and you try to take a position of authority, you place yourself in a position of [potential] ridicule." Holkins response refers to McCloud as the "aging sovereign" of the webcomics community, and in his post he asserts his proven financial success and superior business model for emulation by others. He ridicules the concepts and philosophies from Reinventing Comics, and feels that it’s McCloud who should be apologizing for the charlatan’s advice he gives to comic artists about bad business models that will hurt their potential to make a living with their work.
What might have been resolved as a simple misunderstanding over unanswered email has grown into a debate around issues of charismatic authority and influence in the business niche of comic publishing on the web. At the heart of the new debate are two alternate business models.
McCloud advocates pay-for-content webcomics, where people either buy a subscription, as seen at Modern Tales, or by make use of a micropayment system, such as BitPass. This is the model he outlined in Reinventing Comics and McCloud has been experimenting with micropayments for his own comics. While sales for some online content, such as music downloads, are doing very well, the same can’t be said for webcomics in 2005. I know from personal experience, and having spoken with other people running webcomic subscription sites, there are very few if any artists making even a modest living this way.
The other business model, employed by PvP and Penny Arcade, advocates free online content used as a tool to build a fan base with revenue generated by donations, affiliated merchandise sales, online advertising, and appearances at comic conventions. Kurtz, Holkins and Krahulik claim to be earning a good income with this approach – although I suspect their financial success may be somewhat overstated.
The only other example of success with this form of give-it-away business model that I’m aware of is HomeStarRunner.com. That site has grown into a viable business for Mike and Matt Chapman, but it offers animation and games rather than just comics, and appears to have a much wider viewership than either PvP or Penny Arcade.
While it would seem there is room for both approaches to webcomic publishing, the real issue may be around who has the greater influence over other creators. Jerry Holkin’s has said "Penny Arcade has achieved just about all it’s ever going to". This public confrontation with McCloud over business strategy and credibility may represent a growing area of interest for him. What remains to be seen is if Holkin will choose to offer more advice to other creators, as McCloud has in the past, or if he’s content to simply criticize McCloud’s theories.
It’s an interesting discussion – at least it could be, if it focused on the business models and strategies and avoided personal insult and some of the straw men arguments that seem to be being put forward.
Stuart Robertson
