Comments on: Michael Jantz launches 100+ page comic art novel

By: Jason Nocera

Jason Nocera — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:51:28 +0000

I’m not sure if he is providing enough price options. Why not a small price just for the comic novel? $25.00 for a 100 pages is a bit steep for something you don’t even physically hold and you’re not interested in the animation/Norm.

That said, I hope it works out for him.

By: Jim Thomas

Jim Thomas — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:39:46 +0000

If someone suggest micropayments I think I will lose all faith in the internet… just sayin

why gocomics doesn’t work: I can read a couple strips then i have to pay to see the rest, so I stopped going. (My current paper doesn’t carry Cul de Sac so I try to keep up with that but would rather have the artists blog and comic in the same location. I have no way to invest time in the ones I don’t know without paying so I have no incentive to test them, which means i will never buy a collection because i never read their strip.)

why paywalls on creative work don’t work: this thing could suck and I don’t know him well enough (I understand others do, but that pool is significantly smaller than the potential audience the internet provides) to shell out money to find out. Again the potential money from subscribers is so much less than the potential of sales from books, prints and other licensing. Things that no one will buy because they won’t pay to see if they like the content.

why micropayments don’t work: ask scott mccloud how well that worked for him.

By: Stacy Curtis

Stacy Curtis — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:38:28 +0000

I paid for “The Norm” when it was paid access only online and I’ll pay for this. Somebody has to help a brother out and it’s gotta start somewhere. Besides, Michael has never let me down with providing content worth paying for.

By: Alan Jones

Alan Jones — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:27:09 +0000

Actually, this is a very interesting development. I would like to follow how this goes. In terms of speculating on possible approach, it could be handled such that there are enticements, maybe story bits or visuals, like trailers, that motivate someone to shell out for more.

There are other things to try as well. This whole area of figuring how to do online comics-for-pay and the experimentation involved with content is pretty fascinating. I’m interested in getting onto the research path myself.

By: Jim Thomas

Jim Thomas — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:52:46 +0000

Paid access on his site…

I will be curious to see how epically that will fail. For people like me that had a mild curiosity, this will never be read online and there will be no incentive to invest in the story, artist, process or finished product along the way or when it is complete and word of mouth promotion will stop with “oh, I have to pay to see it? nah. I will take my chances with the countless other stories going on right now that I can follow along the way free of charge”. and that is a shame. Mild curiosity is what got me reading every web-published comic that I do read and purchase the print collections when released.

with web-published material, people want to be able to invest their time with the work, artist and community and then invest money to show their fandom and promote the artist to keep working.

Just sayin…