In which Chris Sims has a new comic and I get onto my high horse about removing barriers between readers and the content they want.
28 Comments | Posted: December 22nd, 2008 | Filed under: Thinking about Comics Marketing | Tags: chris sims, flashback universeDespite the fact that I’ll never tell him to his face, I consider Chris Sims to be one of my better friends, and was glad to hear that he had a new comic coming out through Flashbackuniverse.com. Unfortunately, they seem to have decided to use just the .cbr format for their offerings, which means that there’s too many steps between me and reading the comic.
Let’s say I heard about this Christmas comic Sims has done and want to enjoy it. To do this, I have to visit the Flashback Universe downloads page, where a link to download the comic is at the top of a long list of other comics set in the same world. I’m given the option to preview the story or download the file.
The links explaining what a CBR viewer is, how to display the comics, and explaining the file type are all fine and good, but people want content, not explanations from the internet, especially when it comes to entertainment. Heck, Zuda’s viewer is awkward as all get-out, but it takes just a click to get started with a comic, and when you’re trying to get people engaged with the content that you’re offering them, you want to remove any and all barriers between them and the product, especially if you’re offering it for free.
Here’s three things I would do if I were going to have Chris Sims write a comic story for me that I wanted as many people as possible to read:
- Give the comic its own page on the site that people can link to without saying “Go to the Downloads page, scroll down a bit, then click on the download button.” Make sure to include buttons that allow people to submit and vote for the comic on sites like Digg, and include a form that lets people share the link via email. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to spread the word for you, especially with a time-sensitive piece like a holiday comics story.
- I’d still offer .cbr downloadables as an option for people who are familiar with the format, but to make it easier for the vast majority of readers, I’d put the entire thing online as .jpgs and use either a web gallery (which Chris is doing on Action Age stories) or a content management system to display the pages in an easy-to-follow format.
- Having a more popular product is a problem most publishers I would want, I think, and if I were interested in making a little cash to cover my increased server costs that the former two items would incur, I’d include Google or Project Wonderful ads that are displayed above or below each new page.
I can see why Jim Shelly has chosen the method he’s using now: it’s easier on him to package the comics, but what’s easier on the publisher/producer/etc usually makes it more difficult for the consumer/reader/fan.
Edited To Add: Flashback does offer a serialized webcomic on the site: Mr Crimson, which gets a new page every week. While I prefer the larger-dose-per-installment formula, it’s a way to get people back to the site on a regular basis.
Even more edited to add: There’s now a webcomics/gallery version of Chris Sims’s Christmas story for Flashback, “Saturn Knight Before Christmas” available.
I don’t know, Kevin. In one sense, Flashback is doing precisely what a company in their shoes should be doing – they looked at the real online comics market and decided to offer their product in the format preferred by the market, which is .cbr files.
And let’s be honest: Flashback’s market is existing comics fans, because frankly at this point nobody else is going to read superhero comics that aren’t Marvel or DC on a fit of click-through whim. Existing comics fans are, by and large, knowledgeable about .cbr files; hence the decision makes sense.
I daresay that the box-office success of something like Hancock (which, admittedly, did have a massive built-in audience thanks to Will Smith) and the gaming world’s City of Heroes is on my side here. While it’s unlikely that someone who’s not indoctrinated is going to walk into a comic shop and buy a Flashback title, they may well choose to read a free comic online because it requires no investment of money or energy.
I’d like to see corroborating evidence for that claim. My observations in the marketplace shows the opposite to be true among superhero readers who visit comic book shops and buy the…oh, I see.
There is no reason to use CBRs to promote new works when something like the Freakangels layout has been demonstrated to work quite well.
There’s infinite content online, and plenty of it is viewable painlessly. The more roadblocks anyone puts between their content and the viewer, the less likely anyone will waste time viewing the content.
John gets it in one.
Some really good points here Kevin. I just want to offer up a couple of words in Jim’s behalf, since he’s a pal.
I think Jim’s thing with Flashback was to prompt the idea of downloadable comics as being viable. This branched out of the whole movement of people downloading new comics (rather than buying the comic.) The idea was to give original content in this downloadable .cbr format. The goal is to push the format/method of reading comics as much as it is about the content.
The idea of of being downloadable is to take a way the limitation of needing to be online in order to read the comic. It’s probably closer to the iTunes model in the sense that you download the comic, and then go read it anywhere you can carry your laptop, regardless of if you have a wifi connection.
All that said – I think it would be really good idea to offer up the content for both online and offline viewing.
So every comic is an evangelical piece for the format as well as a superhero comic book. I can appreciate that, but I’m very much slanted towards content (as you know.) I think the .cbr format is good for the reasons you mentioned, but I can’t imagine limiting my reader base by making my content exclusively available in it, especially if you’re trying to build up any sort of audience for your downloadable content.
Gosh, I guess all those store owners I know who complain about piracy dropping their floppy sales were just making it up or something?
I’ll grant that there are comics fans who aren’t .cbr-knowledgeable, but the high degree of overlap of those fans with comics fans who aren’t deeply into the internet means that Flashback will have trouble getting fans who don’t know about .cbr files anyway.
Also, comparing Hancock (which had Will Smith and a metric boatload of promotion behind it) or City of Heroes (which is interactive and thus an entirely different kettle of fish, disregarding for the moment the six billion Wolverine clones on every server – remember, copying of established properties is so rampant on City of Heroes that Marvel tried to sue them over it) to Flashback strikes me as being a really bad comparison.
Don’t get me wrong – I agree with your point. You need to get people to consume the content first, then let the user decide on the format they want. Sort of like people buying book collections of online comic strips.
I have nothing against .cbr, but if I had to use it to keep up with DAISY OWL or WAIMEA, I wouldn’t bother following those series.
I feel I should clarify something: I don’t disagree with the suggestion that an online comics vendor should make its content more clickviewable. (I think the format used by Freakangels and Waimea is about as good as anybody’s come up with yet.)
I just think in Flashback’s case the effort is largely wasted because of its content; we already have a good idea of the ceiling for properties like theirs and it’s not a high one.
Frankly, I’m glad someone cottoned to the fact that .cbr files are viewed in CDisplay painlessly and elegantly. I can’t stand the Marvel or Zuda readers, but a .cbr file is easy to manage and scroll through, and is my preferred method of online comicking.
A suite of jpegs like Freakangels works well, too, of course; a use of both options would probably be a better idea, but whatevs.
Point made, but I’ve not seen a rash of store closings blamed on piracy, either. We’ve not seen a music-industry style implosion with comics for a reason. (Instead it’s because a publisher overextended themselves or made other bad business decisions.)
I’m not saying that Flashback could be a massive financial success along those scales, but I am saying that people will read free comics about superheroes, even if they’re not out there paying for comics about superheroes. The sheer number of derivative, sloppy webcomics that get a lot of traffic on sites like Keenspot and WebComicsNation proves that people will look at anything for free, so why not nicely-done superhero comics?
Well, that’s where you run into the wall of cost, isn’t it? Maintaining an actual site like Flashback is more expensive in terms of dollars and hours than it is to set up a shitty comic on Keenspot.
Aside: in fairness to Kevin’s overall thesis, I gave up on Flashback the moment I realized their titles weren’t ready for download in .cbr format at all; they’re .RAR files, for crissake. I’m the sort of reader who doesn’t mind CDisplay for trying out a comic and they actively made it harder for me. That’s just nuts.
But the goals are also bigger when you’re trying to get people to read stories set in your superhero comics universe versus slapping up the latest Let’s All Fuck Goats or whatever Keenspot’s #1 comic is. If someone as slack-jawed as Sims can manage to get the Action Age site up and running and offering content, then someone more technically minded (as Jim appears to be) could certainly do something similar for his readers.
@mightygodking – love your parodies btw – the thing with the .rar files – I have to do that because linking to a cbr file is wonky in some browsers.
@Kevin – I agree with you actually. One of the reasons I started financing Mister Crimson as a webcomic on my site was to see how it would do (quite well actually). The cbr is what the people on my email subscriber list like, so I serve them first. But I’m actually working on setting up a web comic version of the Saturn Knight comic as you read this.
Personally, I actually do like the .cbr format for reading comics on the PC, especially since Jim’s FBU stuff–unlike the average .cbr–is formatted for the monitor rather than the page. The lettering’s nice and big, and when the viewer’s set to fit height, there’s no need to scroll around to see the whole page, which is one of my biggest nags with stuff like the Zuda viewer.
For my Action Age stuff, a .cbr is too unwieldy for short bits like Exterminape, but when Impossible!’s finished, the plan is to offer the whole thing as a .cbr in addition to having it web-viewable for convenience. The guys who make El Gorgo! have the right idea, I think: You can read their comic in a .jpg gallery, download a .cbr or .pdf, or pay for a hard copy.
That said, I do think that the link on the front page that says “download this comic” should actually go directly to the file rather than the download page. I imagine that the idea there is to get people interested in the other stories, but it seems like a needless extra step.
But all this is getting away from the REAL issue here, which is that you all need to go read my story, because it’s awesome.
remember, copying of established properties is so rampant on City of Heroes that Marvel tried to sue them over it
False. While there is some copying going on, it is not “rampant” — the suit was a standard “we have to do this to maintain this copyright” gesture, a la Disney and the day care center.
Not really sure what this has to do with anything, though. .CBRs are a necessity of torrenting, but I can’t imagine anyone believing they’re a valid presentation for new product MEANT to be read digitally.
Once I figured out that Zuda stuff was mean to to be seen “Full Screen,” I understood what they were doing a bit more. (I still wish it were viewable at the “right size” on-page, though.)
Man, I didn’t even know you could view Zuda books fullscreen.
I’m a returning comics geek from the days before everyone had PCs. I’m still on stone-age dialup, which I plan to change soon but haven’t yet. I’m not that knowledgeable about computers and new wizard technology and format files. This is something I learn as I go along.
I love Chris Sims. Now I must download a .cbr reader on my slow machine before I can read his comic. I’ll do it, but comics shouldn’t just be for the existing inside fan group that already knows about these new extensions for reading illustrated writing online.
I’m willing, though frustrated, to wait for minutes to have the graphics of a comic I enjoy, such as The Rack, to fully download and appear on my monitor. I do the same for Action Age and as we speak, The Miracles of St. Nicholas. It sucks but I do it. I’ll download the .cbr reader but it will probably be hours now, instead of minutes, before I can read Chris’ new comic. Though when I do I’ll be a step closer to the self-contained comics world mightygodking speaks of, rather than the “outside” audience comics want? to reach.
How’s this?
http://www.flashbackuniverse.com/wcskxmas/
I love Chris Sims. Now I must download a .cbr reader on my slow machine before I can read his comic. I’ll do it, but comics shouldn’t just be for the existing inside fan group that already knows about these new extensions for reading illustrated writing online.
Jim’s put it up as a webcomic-style gallery, too! It’s a Christmas Miracle!
Jim bless us every one!
Btw, all you have to do to make a .rar file a .cbr file is rename the file.
comicbook.rar or comicbook.zip becomes comicbook.cbr! Ta Da! If they used a logical naming convention to put the files in order then you’re good to go.
Renaming a file is something you should have to do before enjoying a comic, of course.
Just another update – the comic is also available for the iPod Touch and iPhone via ComicZeal! This makes Chris Sims and Pierre Villeneuve the first creators to ever have a comic debut in these 3 digital formats: Web Comic, CBR and Digital Comic for iPhone. Congratulations Chris and Pierre!
Rename? All I’ve ever had to do to view an .rar or .zip file on a cbr viewer (CDisplay, Cdisplay EX) is double-click on it. It’s not that hard.