Webcomics creators Mike Krahulik (Penny Arcade) and Scott Kurtz (Player Vs. Player) have both begun to stream live videos of them creating their cartoons according to NewTeeVee.com.
Mike reports that his first video has been viewed 70,000 times and each “livecast” has about 1,000 visitors. Scott ays that his numbers are about half that for his live shows.
Someone who isn’t a fan of either strip (or isn’t, for that matter, a cartoonist) might not understand the entertainment value of watching a computer monitor get filled in with lines and color But Penny Arcade cartoonist Mike Krahulik thinks he understands the appeal of watching him draw. “I like watching people do things that I can’t do,” he continued. “It’s interesting to watch someone make something out of nothing.”
“Normally drawing the comic is solitary thing, but having people watch while I draw and being able to interact with readers as I do it is cool,” says Krahulik. “As I type the punchline in I can look over and see people LOLing.”
These have been really awesome to watch! I’m doing it on my site now, too. Though to clarify, I tried to start doing this last year but it didn’t work out so I shelved it. Then when Kurtz started up I didn’t copy, it just reminded me to try it out again!
Incidentally, I found out that Scott Johnson over on myextralife.com has been doing this for a couple years now, so it’s not really new, just more popular all of a sudden.
But yeah, breaching the life of solitude that is cartooning via this, is a great idea!
I’ve been doing this as well, taking Scott’s lead. It’s been great to simply interact with my audience as I’m working on new strips. Plus, the extra eyeballs looking at me while I draw keeps the web surfing distractions to a minimum, I’ve found.
Win-win-win. 🙂