Sparky, Meet Cloudy
Follwing up his brokering of the Diesel Sweeties syndication deal, United Feature Syndicate comcis talent scout/right-wing critical darling Ted Rall has brought Steven Cloud’s Boy on a Stick and Slither. UFS’s web arm, comics.com, lists BOASAS as starting on April 25th; Cloud informs us it will be a web-only syndication deal, similar to that accepted by Chris Baldwin‘s Little Dee last year (perhaps significantly, Cloud will start one week before Baldwin’s contract with UFS ends, which he says will result in either syndication or leaving comics.com).
Key features of the deal:
- It’s for a year, after which UFS can either call BOASAS up to the big leagues (print syndication), or the parties can walk away
- The BOASAS site will run strips after a several-days delay
- Cloud gets to keep control of his archives and merchandise
That last point is probably the most important, and the big one that the syndicates seem to have finally recognized is critical — when readers can go through extensive archives, you can build and keep their loyalties more easily. And when creators can control their financial affairs, more of them will be willing to do business with you.
hey thanks for the mention Gary! i’m pretty excited about this opportunity…
i think UM “gets it” and ted rall is the driving force behind this new trend.
btw, there’s a little bit more info on my live journal: http://stevenlcloud.livejournal.com/
By SteVen Cloud on 04.16.07 10:24 am
Congrats to Steven. It’s good stuff.
By DJ Coffman on 04.16.07 12:49 pm
That is awesome. Letting him expose his comic to a larger audience while getting to keep all the merch money is a huge coup for Cloud. Congratulations, Steven!
By Peter on 04.16.07 4:09 pm
[…] Congratulations to Boy on a Stick and Slither creator Steven Cloud, who just signed a deal with United Media for a new version of his strip to appear on Comics.com. Related: Gary Tyrrell comments on the smart way that United deals with online cartoonists. (Above: sequence from the latest installment of Boy on a Stick and Slither, ©2007 Steven L. Cloud; link via Xaviar Xerxes.) […]
By Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » April. 17, 2007: 32 pages to a pauper’s grave on 04.17.07 4:18 am
[…] Sparky, Meet Cloudy […]
By STWALLSKULL » Interesting Links: April 18, 2007 on 04.18.07 9:12 pm
The above comments are owned by whoever posted them. The staff of Fleen are not responsible for them in any way.