Webcomic Books

Elegant Gremlin · Post by **Elegant Gremlin** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:21 pm

Simple Question...

Which do you prefer... an archive book that contains the comics already available on the net with some extra stuff, or one filled completely print-exclusive material?

Linkara · Post by **Linkara** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:10 pm

While I voted for archival, I'm of two minds - you should have some reprints of older stuff along with new material to encourage buying.

Siabur · Post by **Siabur** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:23 am

I think there are a lot of people who will glance at a few of the archives not all of them, I am one of those. I would prefer a book with full archives staring at pixels makes my brain hurt after awhile so print is nice. Extras I would include would be original drawings of finished work, sketches of characters, things that I wouldn't waste my time on putting into an online or even scanning. Maybe offer unfinished comics that just weren't good enough.

Ataraxia · Post by **Ataraxia** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:40 am

There's something physically satisfying about a printed version of a comic that the online version can't simulate. Whether you go with original material or a reprint plus extras, the important thing is to make it an exciting "must-have" item, rather than "more of the same but now costing money".

I thought about making my comic "Voles of the Dusk" available in print, along with the following extras:

- d20 gaming stats for adventure in the VOTD universe. Play as a vole (the perfect creature), a hamster (knows no fear), a half-hamster (worst of both worlds), a rabbit (charming and strong, but not too bright), a mole (smells bad), or a gecko (token reptile).

- Alternate future versions of the Vole with No Name. In the "Sanrio" version, NoName and the nuclear war are both written out of the story and the rest of the series follows Lemongrass and his happy two-dimensional friends. In another version, VoTD slowly transforms into a pornographic furry feeder/unbirthing strip. All the characters grow necks and start to look like anime. In the "Dave Sim" version NoName changes from ironic antihero to mouthpiece for the author's increasingly irrational and extreme political views.

- Pin-up poster of NoName holding a shovel and saying "We all dig our own hole".

Oh yeah, that'd be a top seller.

If your comic has an ongoing story, I think a reprint collection with extras would be best. You don't want anything to happen in the story that readers of your webcomic won't know about or understand. On the other hand, if you have a gag a day comic, original material is probably better. Either way I'd like to see some outrageous extras... plus maybe a set of instructions for making your own sock puppet.

Elegant Gremlin · Post by **Elegant Gremlin** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 6:18 am

well, the reason I'm asking this is that last March/April, I created a print-exclusive book because

A) My archive wasn't big enough to justify an archival book.

B) The collective I was part of was going to a con and I wanted something to send to them.

Now its 10 months later and I've just paid to have that books price cut in half.

So I wanted to see what everyone was interested in getting.

Hilarioushenry · Post by **Hilarioushenry** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:36 am

I thought about doing the whole print edition thing for my comic, but then I realized I would need to come up with more comics and I would actually need to get some more readers.

Escutcheon · Post by **Escutcheon** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:54 am

If you have just an archive, then someone can just print out your archive and have your book for free, albeit pirated.
However, if you have extra stuff, then they HAVE to go buy it, as the other stuff will be exclusive. Pirating rates would go down exponentially.

Mo · Post by Mo » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:01 am

Escutcheon wrote:If you have just an archive, then someone can just print out your archive and have your book for free, albeit pirated.

...because who doesn't want to print out a comic at 72dpi?

I am attracted to both kind of books, but because I'm poor I am more likely to buy a book with print-exclusive content. Why pay for something I can enjoy for free? (Although I would buy archive books of comics I love if I had the money.)

Americangothic · Post by **Americangothic** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:46 am

This last copy soft cover graphic novel I just bought had some wonderful art on the cover, as well as on the inside covers, index and title pages, as well as some extras in the back.

They really set the mood before reading and getting into the nitty gritty of the book.

So I say, add the extras...make it exclusive content. Consumers like getting "special edition" or "exclusing material" or "extra" goodies. They are selfish little bastards. Feed thier selfishness.

Siabur · Post by **Siabur** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:41 pm

As for extras a nice little cd rom of the website, games or even printable coloring pages for the little comic readers...

Moonshadow · Post by **Moonshadow** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:47 pm

I've been working on books that are basically the archives. What I've decided to do, though, is to have improved art in them. There are more than a few pages in my archives where I rushed them, and the art naturally suffered for that. So now that I have a little more time to go back and rework parts, I've been doing that, and the new pages look a lot nicer as a result. But because I'm lazy and it would take a lot of work, I have no intention of replacing archive pages, so the tweaked ones will only be in the print copies.

I'm also adding two pages of gag strips to the back of one volume, because it falls exactly between two of the available page count options. Those also won't be in the archives.

I have no idea if any of this is a SMART idea, mind you, because I treat the whole experience as an experiment for myself. But it's what I personally decided to do.

Redtech · Post by **Redtech** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:21 am

If you've got the fanbase it would be cool to have archives and exclusives, (I've always loved backstories and alt endings, that sort of thing).

Wouldn't work for me though, the format I have is too variable to keep consistant page sizes anyway. And nay readers.

Ataraxia · Post by **Ataraxia** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:11 pm

siabur wrote:As for extras a nice little cd rom of the website, games or even printable coloring pages for the little comic readers...

There's an idea. You could do a simple board game involving the characters and situations from your comic. Have some cut-out stand-ups for play pieces. Make sure the instructions for the game are funny and maybe even impossible.

Biev · Post by **Biev** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:26 pm

I don't buy books that I haven't read first. To me there's no point in buying something that will only get used once. I want to know that if I fork out the money for it, I won't mind reading it over and over and over.

Jackhass · Post by **Jackhass** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 12:16 am

I suppose I'd prefer the one where I get the most exclusive material for my buck, thus the one with all exclusive material.

TRI · Post by **TRI** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 12:35 am

Biev wrote:I don't buy books that I haven't read first. To me there's no point in buying something that will only get used once. I want to know that if I fork out the money for it, I won't mind reading it over and over and over.

This is getting creepy.

Personally I haven't bought any webcomic books. I'd have to really really really like a comic to do that, and the only comics I like that much don't have books.

That said, the reason I would by a webcomic book would be so that I could read the story over and over again whenever I wanted. So an all-new-material book would be of very little interest to me. Some new material might be nice of course, but it wouldn't really encourage me to buy the book.

Glambourine · Post by **Glambourine** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:37 am

I've done both an archive-only book and a book with a bunch of extra comics. Weirdly, the archive-only book sold out; I still have copies of the other book lying around. What's extra weird is that the other book had more comics from the archive than the archive-only book (like twice as many), plus a new story about the characters, plus a bunch of other comics besides--yet people didn't want it as much. What the hell?

I don't know what it is--I think it's that the title of my comic was the title of the archive-only book, and it's a better title than the one I gave to the other book ("Glambourine #1").

I can kind of see the point of having a print version of free archived web content: I don't like reading my comic's archives on the web, but I enjoy reading the print version. The resolution is way better, I can see more than one strip on the page at a time, and I can read it in the bathtub, hey. I still wouldn't personally buy a book of content that I can get for free online, but I guess there are people who will out there, perversely.

Dotty · Post by **Dotty** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:40 am

Did your extras book have a higher price tag?

Glambourine · Post by **Glambourine** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:46 am

TdotOdot2k wrote:Did your extras book have a higher price tag?

Yes, but it's a matter of $3 vs. $5, and the number of pages tripled. I figured that the higher price tag had something to do with it, but man--$5!

Biev · Post by **Biev** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:46 pm

The price will discourage me if it's the same as, say, a best-selling novel that just came out. I really wanted to buy the Gunnerkrigg book but when I saw the price I thought, meh, ~30$, I'll spend it on groceries instead.

The only books I've bought so far are the Hell's Corners ones, and I'm so glad I did. It may be the same content that I can find on the website, but the print version just reads so much better. There's a lot of detail in every panel and somehow I find that online, it's harder to understand what's going on, especially in the older, black&white pages. Plus the colors came out incredible, and it was under 5$.

Tri - don't worry, being me is fun most of the time : )

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