Mooretoons

I have been creating webcomics for 15 (16? 17? I lose track) years now, but I have never figured out how to make a living at it. I have friends who do: some do very well, while others live as cheaply as possible. At some point all of them have to get a day job for at least a few months to pay bills. Having kids and student loans and debt and stuff, I have two day jobs as a part-time librarian while taking in freelance illustration work as supplemental income. Most of the money I have made through online comics has been through The Nib or Fusion (now Splinter) and other publishers. But if I had to subsist on what I make on webcomics alone, I would be in debtor’s prison.

Which sounds more whiny than I intend. It’s just the way it is. Sometimes I think it’s funny, hence this week’s cartoon. The business of webcomics is like much else in online content creation: you post and hope somehow money will come thru ads or merchandise. As someone who grew up when print was the dominant media, this model is truly strange. Back then, cartoonists made a living through syndicating their work through national syndicates like United Media, or self-syndicated through alternative weeklies, or were hired as staff cartoonists by a local paper. There was also illustration for magazine and advertising. Indeed, cartoonists still make a living this way, but back then the pay rates were pretty great, and there were many more positions available. It was competitive, but the print industry was also healthy. The Internet changed all of that completely almost 20 years ago. The new model feels more like busking on the streets with a hat out for spare change.

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