There are more than I thought!

[ShineDog]

I'd say thats a reasonable amount of time, and probably pretty average for any comic which has decent art. Which is a tiny sliver of the comics out there, but the only ones that DONT have artistic and creative problems.

[GeorgeComics]

Each of my comics takes an average of 5 hours to complete. Not that I make one every day, though. Anyway, I make enough money to cover my hosting fees, but...well, my hosting fees are only like eight bucks a month. If a really high-traffic site ever did link to me, it would destroy it.

[Drugsmugglingcartoonist]

In my own opinion, I think that if more people came to the endeavor of creating comics with the expectation and desire to run it as a money-making venture, or even a business (*gasp!* perish the thought!) then there would be more readily available entries into that very very very truncated list of names. I mean, honestly, how many of those "web" cartoonists there happen to be making their living as cartoonists by blundering blindly to a fortunate outcome? As long as cartoonists keep seeing the webcomic as being merely a hobby, and not as a piece to a greater whole in comic publishing and business, we will continue to see a short list comprised primarily of hobbyists who got a lucky break.

Well said! It's like any other playground where a skill is excercised. Many can develop it to something further if they're willing to treat it with more than the value of a temporary hobby. I relate webcomics to sports, music and the like, it's a place to grow, express yourself and develop styles and voices. Out of this some will develop it further...

[Deathbringer]

On another forum i used to visit there'd frighteningly often by posts along the lines of "Hi guys i'm gonna quit my job and make a living off this new thing i've discovered called webcomics!", and all the replies where "good luck!", i really just wanted to barge in and go "you're fucking stupid and you deserve to be living on the street within 6 months"

... but if i did they'd crank out some rubbish about bunnies that play videogames and kill people and probably make millions

[McDuffies]

You don't just need people reading, you need to enthrall them, your comic has to be the best crack around.

That doesn't explain CAD, though.

Sure it does. The merchandizing and the whole Winter-Een-Mas gag enthrall a certain audience. A comic has just as much need to be "the best" in order to keep the creator fed as an organism needs to be the fittest to survive: not at all. All you need is to fill a niche in the market and hope it doesn't close.

You guys turned off your sarcasm detector today?

It's not like you need to spend 4 or five hours a day drawing one page or strip, and if you do then you're either taking it too seriously or have creative or artistic problems.

Well, that's not quite true.

Yeah, agreed, what on Earth is wrong with spending time on the comic? Each of mine take about 6 hours because I want them to look right.

I agree as well, saying on one hand that comics are fun, but that it's pointless to spen 4 hours a day on them?... I can spend four hours a day on doing something I like, provided that I have time - drawing comics or going to movies or walking in the park, it's all the same. And it's as well, the more time you spend on a comic the better it is, and your comic deserves to be the best you can make. Just because we're amateurs, doesn't mean our comics have to be amateurish.

On another forum i used to visit there'd frighteningly often by posts along the lines of "Hi guys i'm gonna quit my job and make a living off this new thing i've discovered called webcomics!", and all the replies where "good luck!", i really just wanted to barge in and go "you're fucking stupid and you deserve to be living on the street within 6 months"

Sometimes I think that I don't have enough self-confidence, but then I realise that it's everyone else who has too much self-confidence.

[Td501]

Got into this knowing I can never make money off my comic. I'd risk a C&D from Lucasfilms in the highly unlikely event I was ever able to rake in the bucks off it. Certainly nothing wrong with a webcomic never being more nor less than a great hobby.

[GeorgeComics]

I would never quit my day job, because it's great, has good benefits, a very good pension plan, and it pays well. If against all odds I managed to rake in $30k a year off my webcomic I still wouldn't quit it. So, what's the difference if I don't make a dime off it? I would love to make some decent supplemental income, but if I don't, whatever...my comic is one of the few things in my life that brings me a large degree of happiness, and that's the only reason I really need to do it.


...A sizable readership certainly wouldn't turn me off, though.

[Bustertheclown]

Got into this knowing I can never make money off my comic. I'd risk a C&D from Lucasfilms in the highly unlikely event I was ever able to rake in the bucks off it. Certainly nothing wrong with a webcomic never being more nor less than a great hobby.

You're right; there isn't anything wrong with approaching it as a hobby. I just think that it's a pretty defeatist attitude for everyone to be jumping on the "it's only a hobby!" wagon, and acting as if making money from a webcomic is impossible. Money is common, but creative talent isn't.

Really, my biggest beef with the webcomics community on the whole is that the majority seems to glom onto the idea that things can only work one way in order to be successful, and those things tend to be really haphazard in nature. There's nothing wrong with planning for and preparing for success as a webcartoonist, even if it's not exactly a typical occurrence.

Just because we're amateurs, doesn't mean our comics have to be amateurish.

That just became my new personal quote.

[Rcmonroe]

You have to generate the numbers though, comics like some the ones posted on the wiki there have viewers in the 100,000s.

Some of the comics on that list don't have anywhere near 100,000 viewers; I know a few have as little as a quarter that many. I'm not sure how much money they make, but I'm assuming that if the creator reports they make their living off them, they're telling the truth.

Also, you can make a nice side profit when you don't have twelve million readers, I have about 6000 to 7000 readers which is very very small potatoes as far as the names you've linked mention, and I get about $300 a month. That's the majority of my rent paid for there.

A webcomic that earns its creator more than it costs them to make it isn't a bad thing to aspire to. There aren't many other fields of creative expression out there where you can reasonably expect to do that. A "hobby" that pays some of the bills is pretty rewarding.

[Blackhole]

You're right; there isn't anything wrong with approaching it as a hobby. I just think that it's a pretty defeatist attitude for everyone to be jumping on the "it's only a hobby!" wagon, and acting as if making money from a webcomic is impossible. Money is common, but creative talent isn't.

Hee hee. I am a defeatist and I have a defeatist attitude about EVERYTHING in life so that kind of explains why I'm always saying stuff like, "why bother?" and "what's the point?" Kind of hard to be ambitious when you're like that.

[Deca]

You have to generate the numbers though, comics like some the ones posted on the wiki there have viewers in the 100,000s.

Some of the comics on that list don't have anywhere near 100,000 viewers; I know a few have as little as a quarter that many. I'm not sure how much money they make, but I'm assuming that if the creator reports they make their living off them, they're telling the truth.

I said some... Hrumph...
*goes back to her corner*

[KWill]

You guys turned off your sarcasm detector today?

Nah, I just see a lot of CAD-critical comments and I've been itching to respond. You should have read my post in the same condescending, yet extremely polite, tone that I used on the Jehova's witnesses that came to my door on Monday, asking whether I could translate their Watchtower pamphlets for them.

[Jaybob81]

It's not like you need to spend 4 or five hours a day drawing one page or strip, and if you do then you're either taking it too seriously or have creative or artistic problems.

Well, that's not quite true.

Yeah, agreed, what on Earth is wrong with spending time on the comic? Each of mine take about 6 hours because I want them to look right.

Also, you can make a nice side profit when you don't have twelve million readers, I have about 6000 to 7000 readers which is very very small potatoes as far as the names you've linked mention, and I get about $300 a month. That's the majority of my rent paid for there.

Now that actually is something worth striving for =)

I need to make some side scratch, it would be way better than flipping burgers as a side job.

[Komiyan]

That's just a case of, once you have the readers, signing up to somewhere like Adsdaq.com to serve your ads. I had to bite the bullet and stick two ads up, which I hate, and if I want like twice the money I'd have to add another, which I'm toying with.

Of course, 'once you get the readers' in such a huge step I totally skipped there. I got lucky by getting onto Spot, which is very much still an option for you guys.

You don't have to be Penny Arcade to be able to pay your hosting and maybe even your grocery bills.

[Legion of Boom]

I'll only leave my day job the same way Scott Adams left his. Years after he was syndicated and making his first millski, his boss tapped him on the shoulder and told him to clean out his cubicle. Nice.

[Bustertheclown]

I'll only leave my day job the same way Scott Adams left his. Years after he was syndicated and making his first millski, his boss tapped him on the shoulder and told him to clean out his cubicle. Nice.

That's awesome.

Of course, I'm not so attached to my own job. It keeps me in shape, but in all other ways it's miserable. I'd much rather be drawing for a living, and just join a gym.

[Drugsmugglingcartoonist]

On another forum i used to visit there'd frighteningly often by posts along the lines of "Hi guys i'm gonna quit my job and make a living off this new thing i've discovered called webcomics!", and all the replies where "good luck!", i really just wanted to barge in and go "you're fucking stupid and you deserve to be living on the street within 6 months"

Why didn't you then?

[McDuffies]

Just because we're amateurs, doesn't mean our comics have to be amateurish.

That just became my new personal quote.

Cool, I'm being quoted!

You guys turned off your sarcasm detector today?

Nah, I just see a lot of CAD-critical comments and I've been itching to respond. You should have read my post in the same condescending, yet extremely polite, tone that I used on the Jehova's witnesses that came to my door on Monday, asking whether I could translate their Watchtower pamphlets for them.

Now only if ever I was a Jehova's witness and stumbled onto your house, I'd know what the hell you're talking about.

[KWill]

Now only if ever I was a Jehova's witness and stumbled onto your house, I'd know what the hell you're talking about.

Funny you mention that, because I actually had to explain what an agnostic was to the two that came by...