We got some heat in the comments for our post yesterday on ComicSpace and their unscientific demographics. Now before you get all riled, that was our way of pointing out what we call the “5-to1” ratio. Back in the day when comics were in the shitter, we often observed that if everyone trying desperately to break IN to comics would just sign up five of their friends to READ comics, we’d have enough readers for a healthy business, and their odds of getting work would increase dramatically.
Even to this day, comics seem to be one of the most participatory mediums out there. Everyone wants to join in the fun, glamour and excitement of being a COMICS CREATOR, and not just be content to stay at home and be a comics READER. That’s okay. Whatever the comics medium has going for it, this passionate need to be included is probably one of the best parts. Folks are always telling us how welcoming the comics field is — for instance, we remember Douglas Rushkoff saying how friendly and inviting he found it compared to other fields he’d been in.
Of course, we still need to keep the bar set a little high, but that’s a whole other post.
And for the record, we think ComicSpace is nifty, even if we were poking a bit of fun. It is still rolling out, and in all honesty, we have no time to devote much time to yet another website, but surely when we have a moment one of these days we’ll getting around to responding to some of the very kind comments folks have been leaving for us there, and hooking up with some old friends.
Will you be my friend!? http://comicspace.com/djcoffman
Hahhaha…. I’m wondering if we’ll have some sort of NERD explosion if all comic creators, writers and enthusiasts are on one social network?
Actually, Heidi, what Comicspace has shown me personally is how MANY talented female artists are out there that I have NEVER even heard of, mainly because they haven’t “broken” or be pushed out of the little niches on the Intrawubs.
Like, there’s the gal Gail McColl, who’s 19 and shows some of the rawest talent I have seen in years. 19! I wish I had more time to peruse some of the others there, but for me, that was the real eye-opener.
I’ve also found some WONDERFUL work by people I’ve never heard of. Elanor Cooper’s BETWEEN TWO WORLDS was so utterly lovely that I had to send her a donation.
http://www.comicspace.com/elnjj/
I thought I had a decent pulse on the comic scene, boy was I wrong. SO much stuff out there it boggles the mind. I really like what I’m seeing out there. It will be very interesting when the features kick in.
However, I had an email today from someone today (who I also considered comic book savvy) and she asked, “What’s ComicSpace?”
I went to a comic shop Christmas party last night and was talking up comicspace to everyone and yes, no one had heard of it…. yet. It’s a new baby and damn has it grown already in a short time. I look forward to seeing what it is like in a few months.
Eh, I was honest with mine. I only listed 4 things. I am an artist, I design t-shirts every day and have drawn comics before. I am a sculptor by hobby and would be by trade if I got a lucky break. As for the collector and customizer tags, I like redoing action figurs into things I want to make (short cut sculpting I call it) and I collect many things.
Yeah I think it leaves the door open for people to tag stuff that probably isn’t true. But that’s the story of the internet. If anybody wants to link up to me, here’s my address:
http://www.comicspace.com/j_man