For most musicians, they get next to nothing from album sales, they barely break even or even lose money touring… the place they make their real ducats is at the merch booth. And I don’t see how that has f-all to do with their artistic credibility or lack of same.

There are TONS of ways to succeed in webcomics without doing t-shirts. Howard Tayler makes a good living from his work, most of which comes from book sales (according to his Open Source talk). Phil and Kaia Foglio make the vast majority of their income from books as well. Dave Kellet makes his money from selling original artwork. T-shirts and merchandise are NOT the only path to webcomics success.

The problem is, it takes time, effort and hard work to set up those revenue streams, whichever ones you choose to pursue. But it definitely CAN be done, no matter WHAT your comic is about.

I only speak for myself on this, but perhaps my thoughts will offer you some insight into why this sort of thing bothers a lot of webcartoonists.

Almost all of us grew up reading the work of alternative cartoonists. We looked up to (and still look up to) you guys as the trailblazers. But, when we got to an age where we could attempt to be pros too, most of us didn’t fit in. So, we spent the last ten years working on our craft and building a universe online where we could make a living as comic artists.

Now, we’ve succeeded. The number of professional webcartoonists is growing exponentially, and the quantity, quality, and variety is greater than anything comics have seen for years. Genres that haven’t really existed since the fifties, such as Romance, are back and strong. Genres that were never popular in print, such as Gaming, are some of the biggest comics online. By blazing our own trail, and defying a lot of the naysayers, we’ve been able to hew out a living for ourselves.

Recently, a lot of the veteran cartoonists we’ve looked up to are running into hard times due to the dying newspaper industry and the bad economy in general. Since many of us are still big fans, we’ve reached out to try to help people understand how webcartoonists work – how we feel the future of cartooning in general will work. Although there have been a few people to embrace the web side of things, mostly it seems like we get treated like idiot kids.

It’s like trying to give someone a handshake, and being spit on.

Adding to the bitterness is what a lot of us perceive as hypocrisy. Alt cartoonists used to be the rebels who were making a new model for the comics business. They had to put up with people shitting on them in order to get where they are. Now that a new generation is trying to do the same thing, we’re getting shit from alt cartoonists.

Furthermore, on countless occasions, we hear people (whom we still respect as artists) who claim that there’s no money on the web, even though there are literally hundreds of professional webcartoonists, some of whom are millionaires.

Worst of all, we really think you guys are cool! There isn’t an artist in the webcartoonist community who wouldn’t get wide-eyed at the chance to see Max Cannon’s studio. Most of us are doing fine in terms of income, growth, and popularity, and would relish the opportunity to help some of the pre-web cartoonists make the adjustment. But, instead of coming to us for help (or even accepting our help when offered), we’re often treated like brats and nobodies.

If the last five years are any lesson, the web is the future for comics. Traditional artists who insist on this “us/them” dichotomy based on irrelevant things like particular modes of revenue are going to end up without a job. This is a situation nobody relishes.

Right now, there’s still a lot of good will and respect. But, as many traditional format cartoonists have noted, the print comics business is on its last legs. If any of the folks who do traditional stuff want to make the adjustment before it’s too late, there are plenty of webcartoonists who’d be happy to supply the detailed information on how to go about it, merely in exchange for the opportunity to work with some of our heroes.

They’re certainly welcome to email me.

Yours is the one reaction to my post that I didn’t expect; I am impressed and will tell the world that you’re a stand-up guy. Please hold on to your blood, flesh, and offspring.

No doubt we will continue to have very different perspectives on how webcomics can accomodate various creators (although I do think that both editorial and alt-weekly cartoonists will probably have the toughest transition in front of them). I will continue to point out arguments I both agree and vehemently disagree with, but please believe it’s not personal.

With any luck, the back-and-forth will produce avenues of exploration that will be beneficial to all.