The value of a forum

Penny Arcade is a juggernaut in web comics. I was at their forum and there are hundreds viewing at any given time. Forums are great for building and gathering a loyal fanbase who is great at spreading the word about your projects. Even though the creators rarely frequent the forum and let the community thrive there is an untold value of having a dedicated forum. Some creators get this. Others don't. Why would you not want a loyal army of fans? Some creators don't. They don't respect or appreciate their forum and view it as a liability and treat them like garbage. I just don't get it.

Desperate times

You see your house of cards collapsing in on you. All the hard work for the past several years for naught. Your readership continues to decline and you don't know if you can ever return to your glory days. What's one to do? Go to the biggest dog in the yard and ask them to throw you a bone. Give you a shout out. Anything to try to stop the bleeding. Will it work? One hopes it will because if it doesn't it's going to be a long year.

I made a wrong turn

So you wake up one day and your 37. 40 is right around the corner. And you realize all you've done with your life for the past 10 years is draw an online strip. Then you realize in 10 years you'll be 47. What webcomics bring you? A way to avoid going to college and entering corporate America but you give up the paid vacations, the yearly raises, the benefits, health insurance, 401k, retirement funds and building your resume. You tell yourself that you are happy with your life but you begin to suffer burn out. It becomes harder and harder to draw your strip. The excitement has long gone and now the drudge of the daily routine has set in. And you realize, unlike the corporate world where you can move around in a company, your life has not changed in the past 10 years. You draw a strip today, you'll draw a strip tomorrow, next year, three years, etc. You have a great idea, draw a epic win and realize that in a week that will be forgotten and you will have to keep creating. And 40 is right around the corner. Hello, I'm 40 and I have the skillset of a 6 year old. I draw. And I have no plan B. No backup. And the despair begins to set in. That's what I mean when I refer to you as the sad rocker.

Dress up a pig. . .

A trick some webcartoonists use is trying to convince the reader their stuff is great even when it's suffering it's lowest page views in years. Many ways to pull this stunt. Some will come on and boast about "how they can't believe traffic has increased" or "I'm getting a ton of emails from readers saying they love this week's story" or print fanmail like "I've never laughed harder in my life than I have at today's strip." In the past tricks like this worked but now we can find what your pageviews are and it's insulting to the reader. You can proclaim your strip is the best thing since Apple and you may boast about how thosands love your work and your inbox is flooded but you are not fooling anyone and, at best, anger fans who feel like you are duping them.

The Wrestler

The Wrestler was a great movie. Even if you don't enjoy wrestling you'll appreciate this movie. Mickey Rourke does a fantastic job as Randy the Ram, a washed up wrestler who still thinks he's got that one big match left in him. You watch someone who has to slowly come to terms with the best part of his life is over with. At one time he had thousands of fans now he's just a mere shell of his former self. He can't let go of the past and can't accept that his career is slowly dying. Some webcomic artists suffer the same fate. They are past their prime. At one time they were juggernauts and now they watch as their fan base slowly deteriorates. But instead of accepting reality that they are past their prime they continue to hold onto their past success somehow convincing themselves it's all going to be alright. How'd it turn out for Randy the Ram?
One of the best scenes from the movie was when Randy was at the autograph signing pawning his stuff. This reminded me of some artists who are in their twilight hawking their marques and shirts with that 'one last sale' 'limited number' or 'half price clearance sale never to be printed again.' There is just something sad about that. Desperate. Like they know it's almost over but they hang on by their fingernails trying to get that last nickle.

Why would you do it?

Okay, you have a solid fan base and a forum willing to go to battle for you. And what do you do? In typical webcomic drama fashion you kill the forum without so much a reach around then get upset when the community squalls? You have an entourage and you basically tell them to get lost. Wow. Was this a smart move? Only time will tell. Just keep watching those stats. You treat fans like garbage and karma will eventually come back and make you pay.