Digital comics distribution idea

Omnutia

You may already be familiar with my attempts to launch some kind of amateur comics medium or other and so I wanted to get people's thoughts on the latest incarnation of this project which takes things in a somewhat different direction.

In essence, you create a comic using a 4:3 ratio in either portrait or landscape (for reading on a QVGA smartphone or PC). Then you upload your pages and put them into order on the website. From there, people can browse and download comics from a PC or mobile device and read them.

Over time you would get the usual social networking features you would expect: Recommendations, being able to leave notes on pages for your friends, some way to let you know how much your friends have read so you don't spoil it, etc..

This is designed for the many people out there who can draw pretty well but see the amount of effort that goes into making a webcomic and making it popular overwhelming. Comics would be less the one screen webcomic idea and more along the line of short (or maybe long) self contained stories or episodes in a series.

I'd like peoples ideas on various aspects:
1a) Would you download and read comics on your phone? 1b) Is the screen good enough?
2) How would I go about getting someone to help with the technical side?
3) What about trying to capture the amateur literature market with this as well or a spin-off/sister product?
4a) Would you consider buying digital comics? 4b) What kind of prices and lengths?
5) Could a web comic artist conceivably make a decent living through this or using this for promotion?
and any other thoughts you might have.

kage_rod

1) No, because the screen sucks, and the only way it'd be big enough to do that is if it was rarely big.
2) Iunno...
3) Wut?
4) If I was not a poor little college student, yes - and it would depend on the comic. Colour would equal more monies, as would a full page (versus a 4-panel gag-a-day.)
5) I think so! If there's enough fanbase for it and you do advertisement properly, you can. There are people who do make a living off of it.

foofly

This is a bit of an odd one. Perhaps a comic that was sent to your phone every day via MMS or similar would work in this format. But otherwise I don't see why just targeting the mobile market is any use.

Rym

1a) Would you download and read comics on your phone?
No. It would have to be about kindle-sized for me to even consider it, at which point it ceases to be a functional phone.

1b) Is the screen good enough?
Specifically, there is the paradox of size. I want my portable devices to be small, and as such to have small, high-resolution screens. At the same time, any amount of scrolling will dissuade me from reading anything lengthy. A comic would thus either show me a single panel at a time, a zoomed-in portion of a single page, or a far-too-small-to-appreciate full page. Neural implants or eye overlays would be the only possible route of success... The one-panel-at-a-time method is your best bet, but even then, it definitely limits you.

2) How would I go about getting someone to help with the technical side?
Sadly, it's a matter of either knowing someone or paying someone.

3) What about trying to capture the amateur literature market with this as well or a spin-off/sister product?
Text has a better shot, but even then, no ultraportable device I'll ever own will likely have a large enough screen. You'd have to target laptops and the Kindle.

4a) Would you consider buying digital comics?
I have more legally free media to consume, let alone media I've already paid for and not yet consumed, than I can conceivable consume in the next several years. So, probably, no.

4b) What kind of prices and lengths?
If I were to pay, they would have to be transcendent in quality.

5) Could a web comic artist conceivably make a decent living through this or using this for promotion?
Most of the people who live from their webcomics are the ones who rode the early webcomic wave into comfortable and popular positions. Few new comics make it there, and most webcomics these days seem to exist more to promote the artist or another work than to truly generate income.

I liked the idea of subscribing to all of my webcomics when I read many more of them, but everyone who tried to make such a system either did so illegally or crappily. Now, I read so few webcomics that any subscription scheme or mobile option would be more trouble than it's worth. Of course, I don't think I am exactly your target audience for this idea. ^_~

Omnutia

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to keep thinking about this idea even if it doesn't get very far. This is what I originally got part of the idea from. I might just try an pursue it as something to view on the computer.

@Rym: 1b) I've been reading comics on my DS for a while and while it isn't optimal, it is quite doable. If you include a one touch movement (snapping from point to point) between panels it might work, either that or stick to just using small pages. 4a) I kinda expected that coming from you. Please don't feel ignored.

What do you guys think about similar download comics for the PC? Having spent way too many nights reading GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) on my laptop, it would need some serious work.

Funfetus

What do you guys think about similar download comics for the PC? Having spent way too many nights reading GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) on my laptop, it would need some serious work.

If I were actually going to buy comics to read on my PC, I'd just want a straight .CBR file. The thing is, I really don't like reading comics on the PC. I want to read it on the bus, or kick back on the couch, or take it...other places in the house where reading is often done. Sitting in front of my PC is not how I want to read for pleasure.

Some kind of small, portable device would be nice, but I'm having a hard time seeing comics working that way. The only thing that seems reasonable is doing single panels, but that pretty much limits you to stuff being produced specifically for this format. Trying to force standard comics into that format would absolutely butcher them.

Then, of course, similar to Rym, I've probably got 100 pounds of graphic novels on my bookshelf that I haven't gotten to yet, so...yeah.