Holy Shit: Goats Mentioned In Washington Post

ahaha, that was him? i so remember that. i forget what his argument was about bloom county, though.

i recall something about garfield only *thinking* and not actually *talking* was part of his argument, but iirc, opus not only spoke, but ran for VP.

Scott Kurtz's [pvponline.com] response to the article is interesting. Apparently, the article was originally supposed to be about Blank Label Comics [blanklabelcomics.com], a swell group of fellows who have found success by breaking with Keenspot and forming their own independent collective, similar in style to what we've been doing for years with Dumbrella [dumbrella.com]. Kurtz seems to view the group as his pet cartoonist conspiracy and is naturally upset that they were written out of the article. He seems to feeel that their successful adoption of a proven business strategy is the real news in the webcomics world, and that they're getting short shrift.

The amusing part is that in the very same rant he rails on the inclusion of Ctrl+Alt+Del [ctrlaltdel-online.com] in an earlier article because they are doing nothing original, just aping the success of Penny Arcade. I'm confused as to whether emulation of successful business models is a good thing or a bad thing, but I'm sure it's certainly one of those.

Personally, I'm just happy that people are getting exposure. Shouldn't this be something to celebrate?

"...mixing animals and humans in a comic strip confuses the readers."

Uhhh...

Peanuts
Garfield
The Far Side
Bloom County
Dilbert
Get Fuzzy

Highly confusing.

FYI: As of this moment right now, a shrunk-down frame of the June 7 strip appears on the front page of washingtonpost.com.

All I have to say about that is it's plain ridiculous. "Hmm we have yet to see how this might work" when how many web artists are making a living entertaining. Geez.

In Response to jon (#28024):

The amusing part about Kurtz's railing of CAD to me is that CAD differs from Penny Arcade because of its habit of continuity. While there are heavily similar aspects with both, the existence of a storyline in most of the CAD strips, as well as the ability to understand them without a news post sets it fairly far apart in my book. He makes them sound like a direct clone.

In Response to themysticalone (#28033):

Oh my god.. Kurtz really needs to act his age.

In Response to themysticalone (#28033):

I'm curious to see if/how PA counterfires on that, since they love PvP.

In Response to jon (#28024):

Wait a sec, Kurtz is bitching about something that isn't really all that bad, in a manner which makes no sense?! STOP THE PRESSES!!!

But, oh man. I noticed the Penny Arcade strip on the front of the bussiness section today, so I brought it with me on the way to work. Honestly, I have to say that I was not at happy with the article. I mean, the fact that you were mentioned in it is neat (it was my father who noticed first. He has an eye for picking out our last name, or something.) But, overall, it just didn't seem to say anything to me. It's like, if it was just an excuse to point out that webcomics exist, then bravo, but if they wanted to talk about making a living off of webcomics, then they should have mentioned other things, like Something Positive, where Randy (I believe that's his name. I should know this, but waking up at six for work screws me up) essentially got his fanbase to pay him a year's salary, or something. They didn't even deal with Kurtz right, as he's not a webcartoonist who simply offers print copies of his strip, but rather, he has a comic book deal with Image, giving him a VERY different dynamic.

Like I said, it was fun to read names of people who I've met at conventions, or had email correspondances with, or interacted with in other ways (even if it was only reading their comics) but, in the end, I have no idea what qualifies that article as "news".

In Response to Evander (#28046):

Just for the record, I'd like to know what percentage of this newspaper (or any other news service you know of) qualifies as news to you.

Let's call this an experiment.

In Response to unFalln (#28047):

How often do you read the Washington Post Business section?

A couple weeks ago, they had a HUGE article about how "pay as you go" cell phone services are picking up steam, and no one has any idea why, only, there was a sentance somewhere in the middle of the article that said something to the effect of "in the past, cell phone companies have always used contracts, and tried to target young professionals, and families with good credit. Now that this market is pretty much saturated, the companies are turning their attentions towards other markets, with the 'pay as you go' phones."

That's right. The ENTIRE article's premise was that they had no idea why this is happening, and yet, they actually summed it up in the middle, only to forget about it by the end.

The Washington Post business section simply doesn't understand the term ANALYSIS. They'll tell you that a market exists, but they will have no idea why, or for how long.

In Response to Evander (#28048):

Wait, you mean a major national newspaper has actually published an article that does not contain what any normally educated person would consider "journalism" - involving research, effort and the subsequent communication of those things?

STOP THE PRESSES!!!!

In Response to Evander (#28046):

I feel for you, man. But that's how the mass media works. They need to simplify for the common person. For example, my mom told me she had read the article, and emphasized that she had actually understood it (unlike much of what I tell her about what we do here).

It's good enough that the medium is being noticed by the larger world. Absolutely, Randy should have been mentioned. Same with the Blank Lable guys. I'd love to see everyone crammed in there, but this was a fluff piece, and for now we have to be satisfied with that sort of thing. Until Webcomics are a multibillion dollar industry, you can't expect them to get the same kind of coverage as the movie or game biz.

regarding the recent webcomicd drama...here's a nice summarization of the events.

http://snipurl.com/fnek

I didn't get Thursday's LA Times (only get the weekend edition) but I'll check today's (Friday).

In Response to Dynedain (#28054):

Arrrghhh.... we didn't get our copy at the office today. Sometimes it 'disappears' before we pick it up. I'll check my copy at home though.

In Response to FARINA00 (#28053):

For those of you without cut and paste-ability, here's the link:

Escape! Presents: "Oh, Webcomics!" [escaped.it]

I strongly recommend you read all four pages. Special guest star on page 3.

It's in Todays LA TIMES pg. 38 of the Calender II section

In Response to Lonely Goatherd (#28062):

If you can mail me a few copies, I would trade you a t-shirt. E-mail me, would you?

In Response to zamphir (#28049):

Oh, come on. Compare the Post business section to the New York TImes business section, or, hey, how about the Wall Street journal, since DC IS an area full of economists.

In Response to jon (#28050):

Man, it is the way the mass media works ONLY BECAUSE every time they do it, we just roll our eyes and let it slide, because "that is the way the mass media works."

The fact is, as far as webcomics in the paper go, you are right that simply having a mention is great. That is why I brought up the cell phone article from a couple of weeks ago, to point out that the webcomic article wasn't simply dumbed down for those who are unfamiliar with the genre, but that even something as pervasive as cell phones are, these days, gets dumbed down.

I do not think it is so odd for me to assume that one who is interested in reading the business section might already have at least a rudimentary knowledge of supply and demand, and what a market is, and various other things that serve as the atoms of business.

Even the game biz, which is now surpassing the movie bussiness in revenues, gets ignored by the media. So called "analysists" generally just talk about who is going to sell the most, and it is ALWAYS a choice only between Sony and Microsoft. In how ever many years I've been looking, I've only seen a SINGLE article that points out the fact that Nintendo, while existing on the fringe of the market, is around 20% profit. That puts them better than GE, and basically ensures that, no matter who sells the most, Nintendo isn't going to go broke, and have to sell to Microsoft (as the "analysts" have predicted, in the past.)

So, yeah. multibillions don't get you informed reporting either, and getting complacent about it won't fix things.



Of course, the bottom line is, I wouldn't be making any fuss at all, if it weren't for the fact that I AM excited to see webcomics being reported on, and just wish it was some decent reporting.

In Response to Evander (#28065):

Oh, come on. Compare the Post business section to the New York TImes business section, or, hey, how about the Wall Street journal, since DC IS an area full of economists.

What's your point? That some papers have different focuses than others, and consequently do better jobs of reporting on certain topics?

Or that it is possible for some paper to produce a well written, journalistic article from time to time?

Your reaction to a business article in the Post was not nearly cynical enough. So I called you on it.

Everything published in the Washington Post that is not *directly* about politics is filler.

Likewise, everything in the WSJ that is not directly about money is filler.

Any expectations otherwise are foolish and misinformed - like the guy I knew in college who wanted to work in politics.. and only read the NYT.

In Response to Evander (#28066):

You sound like there's something we can do about it.

After the mention in the Washington Post and whatnot, did visits go up noticeably, or did sales go up?

In Response to zamphir (#28067):

I misinterpreted your sarcasm. What you meant to say that I was "putting it lightly", I took as saying that I was being overcritical.