Comments on: Early ZUDA reactions

By: Foot2Mouth - A Mouth Kicking Comics and Gaming News Source » Blog Archive » DC Comics announces Zuda Comics Online Web Portal

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 02:03:41 +0000

[...] I have actually been debating all week how to properly synthesize this info for you the faithful Foot2mouth reader. I was seriously overwhelmed by the massive amount of negative reaction to this. The Beat did a good job of chronicling the senseless negative reactions here and here and she even excerpts an interview with Paul Levitz here. Essentailly the online community of artists that has been producing comics just fine without DC’s portal for years is suspicious and occasionally downright rude about DC’s new initiative. [...]

By: Foot2Mouth - A Mouth Kicking Comics and Gaming News Source » Blog Archive » DC Comics announces Zuda Comics Online Web Portal

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 02:03:32 +0000

By: Jamie Coville

Jamie Coville — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:14:18 +0000

For good reason, there are a lot of horror stories out there.

By: DJ Coffman

DJ Coffman — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:21:32 +0000

Constant Vigilance? I call it alarmists.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:39:51 +0000

There’s a difference between healthy skepticism and conviction in absentia.

Then again, this is the Internet; it’s not like the latter is anything new…

By: Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » July 10, 2007: The Hogarth of the American middle class

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:25:21 +0000

[...] Seemingly everyone has further commentary on DC Comics’ new IP farm webcomics initiative, Zuda: The best of the lot include Joey Manley, Xaviar Xerxes, Alice Hunt, Brigid Alverson, Tom Spurgeon, Lea Hernandez, Christopher Butcher, Heidi MacDonald and T Campbell. [...]

By: Andre

Andre — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:54:05 +0000

Looks like the DJ Coffman of Zuda Comics is also DJ Coffman :)

Michael, it never hurts to be watchful. Like Heidi says, DC does usually have okay enough contracts, but with a very different buisness plan for the website itself, you have to wonder how that’ll affect the contracts [which are being aimed at new, unpublished, unexperienced creators].

Constant Vigilance!

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 03:41:55 +0000

Objection, your honor. Prosecution assumes facts not in evidence.

Let’s wait until we can actually see the contracts (I can’t imagine them not getting posted by somebody, somewhere) before we talk about how evil they are.

By: Lea

Lea — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 23:06:48 +0000

“giving creators a chance to improve, find an audience, and basically get a chance to hone their craft in the “minor leagues” without having to try to schlup to 20 conventions and pay thousands of $$ for a print run while perhaps even making a little cash then this thing has at least a decent chance of being a success- and one that could even possibly be the next step in comics stepping away from a direct market controlled by capes and a digital distribution system open to all genres of comics and able to reach a mass audience.”

DUDE. Webcomics already does that, already HAS done that, BEEN doing that, WITHOUT creators having to sign away rights, or “win” a contest.

It’s Rising Stars of Manga, DC style.

By: Joe Williams

Joe Williams — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:37:45 +0000

Well, if DC can figure out a way to help get what they want- interesting new content to attract eyeballs to pages with DC/Tim Warner ads and links with a potential first look at any promising properties- without taking away a creator’s rights (it sounds so far like any signing away of rights wouldn’t come unless you get offered at big fat check and that’s only if they agree to sign away those rights by accepting “the prize”) and also giving creators a chance to improve, find an audience, and basically get a chance to hone their craft in the “minor leagues” without having to try to schlup to 20 conventions and pay thousands of $$ for a print run while perhaps even making a little cash then this thing has at least a decent chance of being a success- and one that could even possibly be the next step in comics stepping away from a direct market controlled by capes and a digital distribution system open to all genres of comics and able to reach a mass audience.

It does seem like some of the “controversy” over the nature of these contracts was likely inspired by a rush to announce this before San Diego Comic Con and a lack of real detail at the site. I also wonder if this “controversy” isn’t blinding us to the really huge nature of this announcement and all its possible ramifications- do established web cartoonists jump to the site, do retailers have a fit, does this become nothing more than a way to avoid having “talent searches” at conventions? So far I see a lot of talk on the contractual aspects and not much of the wider implications.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 18:02:04 +0000

Just as a guess, perhaps they didn’t include humor in that list because they figured it was a given. That, and they were trying to up the proportion of those other genres, so the submissions people don’t have to look at 100 terrible Garfield ripoffs every day.

By: Yirmumah » Blog Archive » How about a Blawg Dump?

Yirmumah » Blog Archive » How about a Blawg Dump? — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:27:22 +0000

[...] DC unveils their webcomic plans I wasn’t going to comment on this here, but people have been e-mailing me all morning to ask what I think. ( Well, 5 people. ) I’ve already posted my thoughts elsewhere– but my initial thought is, it sounds like a mix of Drunk Duck + Comic Book Challenge = Zudacomics — they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Well, I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all, but I don’t know what it actually means for “webcomics” in general. I guess it could only be good for the term “webcomics”, but the target audience seems to be more the aspiring comic book creator than an actual webcomic creator like we know of now. The only thing I could think when reading the announcement was, that it sounded familiar. And if Fleen thinks so too, then bygummit, it’s so. — Also Heidi Mac’ asks “One big question remains…who will be the DJ Coffman of Zuda?” — I’d like to answer by saying, there couldn’t possibly be a DJ Coffman of Zuda, unless it was me. Because, quite frankly, I’m the master and there is no hire, suckah MCs call me sire. — [...]