With the big announcement back in February that United Media was turning over syndication operations to Universal Press Syndicate, it was also followed that all the comics found on comics.com would join up with gocomic.com in June. We’re one week away and Universal has announced how it will all work going forward. Starting on June 1 all traffic to comics.com will redirect to gocomics.com where all the comics will live. Those with comics.com accounts will only need to reset their password. Comics.com members will also receive two free months of Gocomics’ Pro Membership.
After June 1, Gocomics.com will be the largest internet repository for comics. The site has all the comics and editorial cartoons from Universal, United Media, Creators, TMS and Washington Post Writers Group. The only major syndicate not represented on that site is King Features.
Long expected, although I thought it would have gone the other way, since comics.com is the better domain name (although the GoComics design and software are better).
Welcome to the GoComics family, everyone!
Sweet! Once gocomics.com and comics.com combine their readerships, they might even have similar traffic to xkcd.
This sounds like the perfect timing for me to join Sherpa. Hopefully that traffic will pick up as well. I am getting pretty excited about all the opportunities I am finding for us amateurs!
I have to agree with you, David. Having a serious comic on GoComics.com’s “Sherpa” service should help build a larger following thanks to the merging of the 2 site’s combined readership.
I should bring Hoxwinder Hall over there also.
As a frequent commenter on GoComics (where Pab may know me by another name) and a long-time subscriber to Comics.com, I must say that I prefer the GoComics commenting mechanics, though they’ve been a bit quirky of late.
Love this merger for greater exposure. Interested to see what happens to my email subscribers in 2 months when they have to pay to see Dude and Dude…..dude!
Hmm. Not sure how I feel about this. I liked the fact that Comics.com could send all of the comics on my reading list in an email to me as well as put together a single RSS feed with all of them. With GoComics, the RSS feeds are all separate, and you have to have a pro account to get the daily email with all your comics. I doubt GoComics will change its policies in those regards after the merger.
I get two free months of the pro membership, though…
This is great! When I manage to go a whole day without getting anything done, I can now blame gocomics.
I don’t get why XKCD gets more traffic than gocomics any more than I get why Lady Gaga is so popular, with the qualifier being that I actually like XKCD (while only every woman and girl in my life likes Lady Gaga. Sigh.) I’ve heard a lot of explanations, but it’s like listening to different pollsters at election time.
I’m looking forward to this, that way I only have to visit two sites instead of three to read all of my favorite syndicated strips. I hope the added traffic does trickle to Sherpa, it would be great to see more attention on Whiskey Falls from there.
Will my two accounts magically merge, or just be two accounts under one screen name and password? Is that like going back in time and meeting yourself? Or, when the two meet, will there be a comic rapture?
Meanwhile, I’m not sure why the merger would make it easier for a minor strip to be noticed. Isn’t that like going to the San Diego Con rather than a regional one, on the theory that, with so many more people there, you are more likely to be seen? Seen, yeah. Noticed? hm.