There are a limited number of individuals who are doing both a syndicated comic and webcomic at the same time. Corey Pandolph does The Elderberries comic for Universal Press and then two webcomics, Bark Eater Lake and Toby, Robot Satan for the web. Last fall Norm Feuti launched a webcomic Gill in addition to his feature Retail that is distributed through King Features. Tom Mason over at Comics 411 interviews Norm on this history behind Retail and what are the benefits and challenges of working on a two strips published in two mediums.
TOM: What are the creative differences between working for the syndicate and working for yourself?
NORM: With Retail I know there is a line I can’t cross, so there are some places I just won’t bother going with the strip. With Gill, I can write what I think is funny regardless of whether it tests the boundaries of “acceptability.” Mostly it’s the “don’t offend anybody” sensibility of newspapers that represents the biggest creative difference for me. With Gill, I don’t have to worry about offending anyone.
TOM: What’s the hardest part about doing a web comic?
NORM: Staying motivated can be difficult. You go into a web comic knowing the odds are slim of turning it into a financial success. Even if you do accomplish that, it will almost certainly take years of unpaid hard work first. It’s easy to slack when you’re not being paid, but you have to update regularly and consistently to build and maintain an audience.
Corey Pandolph doesn’t really exist. It’s really a multi-national conglomerate that produces the work from a sweat shop in a third world country. Don’t be fooled!
I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that Corey is an artificially intelligent machine with a sense of humor.
There will be blood.
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Corey Pandolph
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Whoa, whoa, whoa. I assume some rules are obvious, but do I have to add no bloodletting to the list of dos and don’ts of the blog? 🙂
ACTING!
What Corey does is pretty amazing, not only in terms of productivity but in maintaining the qualitative standards for that body of work — well done and well met! Whew!
While we’re still on the subject of me and my amazing, I ran the camera while drawing TOBY: http://www.fakerockstar.com/2009/02/09/toby-gets-drawd/
Be sure to turn up the volume for in depth commentary of my techniques, life lessons and important opinions of the comics industry!
I’d just like remind everyone about my workload. 🙂
On the Fastrack: syndicated since 1984
Safe Havens: syndicated since 1988
Kevin & Kell: on the web since 1995