Monthly Subscription to Comics Planned (UPDATE)

Comments ¹⁹

1. Charles Brubaker

   I just subscribed. Let’s hope this will be a success.

2. Jeff Stanson

   I don’t see this working without serial strips to keep people coming back. And what size is the publication? Are the strips printed in a larger size than the tiny strips I get in my local paper?

3. Ted Slampyak

   I was thinking of that too, Jeff. In fact, I was hoping to push the titles I work on, (Little Orphan) Annie and my own webcomic Jazz Age.

   But then I noticed that the article states that the publication will be monthly, and that “each edition will contain a weekâ??s worth of each feature…” Was that a typo?

   If not, this may pose a problem. Most people who love comic strips enough to subscribe to this, I’d think, would want entire runs of their favorite comics. They’ll want to collect these issues and know that they have the whole collection — not just of the serial story strips, but of all the strips.

   But I still wish ’em well! go Vanfossen!

4. j stevens

   I wish them well, too, but in this era of free comics online, will people really elect to pay for comics? Or, at least enough people to sustain a business like this? I wish them well, too.

5. Danny Burleson

   Interesting idea in concept, but only a *week* of each comic each *month*? I don’t get it. Running a month’s worth a month behind would be a better plan; maybe feasibility is an issue.

   But at least they’re trying to do something different than the status quo, so more power to them.

6. Charles Brubaker

   Well, that depends on how many titles this subscription runs, and how big the pages are.

7. Mark

   Years ago I subscribed to two publications: Strips and its companion Storyline Strips. It was published/distributed twice a month by American Publishing Corp. in McLean, VA. Each ran two weeks’ worth of 31 strips of for a total of 62 different strips. It went belly-up years ago, but it should be interesting to see what comes of this new venture.

8. Garey Mckee

   I’m not sure how the logistics of handling serial strips and strips with extended story lines will play out with an idea like this. However, It’s always nice to see any endeavors that give comic creators more options in getting their work out there.

9. Alex Hallatt

   I can’t subscribe from NZ, otherwise I would support it, despite its shortcomings. Specifically, I would still want ALL the serial comics to be in there (consistency is important for this kind of venture), not 1 in 4 and why not use decent paper stock to better showcase some of the quality art that gets muddied in the newspapers?

10. JeffM

    I was entertaining the idea of doing something similar, but making it a Sunday insert with strips similar to the golden age.

    Comic artist would have the freedom to create full page works of art in glorious color. Bill Watterson inspired the idea over a decade ago.

    I would only sign new artist that love that era of the funny pages. Imagine artist such as Bill Watterson creating wonderful full-page “Calvin and Hobbes”.

    I can barely get through my sunday pages. They are nothing but colorized dailies and it’s a shame. There is nothing worth reading or looking at.

11. Garey Mckee

    It’s funny you bring that up, it’s a disturbing trend I’ve noticed in the sunday pages over the last 10 years or so. There are many of the sunday strips that do not take advantage of the larger space to extend their writing into a more developed idea. Instead, it just seems like many are larger colorized 4 panel strips with ideas that are more suited for weekday dailies. It quite honestly seems a little lazy to me.

12. Garey Mckee

    Excuse the retarded misuse of format tags in my last comment.

13. JeffM

    Very lazy. The Sundays have taken a HUGE step backwards. Another disturbing trend is everything looks like it was created on a computer. My biggest petpeave is computerized lettering. Can’t stand it.

14. Anne

    Whatever you may think of the politics of
    “Edison Lee”, you can’t criticize the Sunday
    Art.

    For folks who like their sunday strips complex and colorful, this strip delivers. The creator’s
    fine art and illustration background really shows. It is also obviously hand drawn and inked. A great example is the debut strip of 11-12-06 which is on the Edison Lee website.

15. Garey Mckee

    Jeff, I have mixed feelings about the whole computer issue. I can understand using the computer for the lettering of a strip because of the deadline demands in producing a daily strip. However, like with most tools and technology, what you gain also makes you loose something as well. Lettering in a strip is just as important as the illustration. It can extend the style of the artwork and help create the form and composition of the strip to create a balanced look over all. I think alot of that is lost when lettering via the computer.

16. JeffM

    I’m not against using computers. I use them myself, but only to color. If someone creates their own font from their handwriting, I can let that slide. Some of the stuff I see looks just plain lazy.

17. Garey Mckee

    I agree. I think what we (and hopefully others) are opposed to is work that looks overtly computer generated.

18. MJ

    What a bummer, guess we’ll have to just enjoy Mort Walker’s Best of Times. Best off It’s Free. This is what probably burst this News Free Comics endeavor bubble. Comic lovers see a project like this that’s free and figure why should I pay for that when there are free versions of similar models.

19. spudart

    Sadly, it looks like this idea never took off.

    A clipping from his website:
    ========================
    I knew a subscription drive was a long shot, but when I made the decision to go that route it seemed like the best option to raise the necessary capital to make it through the first year. I have enough money in my personal savings that I could cashflow the first few years of publishing myself, an option that I had considered, but the subscription drive also served the purpose of guaging fan interest in this idea. Fan interest was very low. Alas.
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