Bad news. Which, of course, was compounded by this*.
Sigh.
Now, I may read comics, but I'm no aficianado. Well, that's not right. I am an aficianado, but not as much as the husband is. He loves comics and he's really embraced a lot of web comics, such as PVP and Penny Arcade.
These comics are directed at him---a member of that insane gaming
community---and he digs them. While I get the occasional chuckle out of
Penny Arcade, generally it's above my head as I have not been
surgically connected to an X-Box/Playstation 2/Ninetendo/Whatever new
gaming console has come out and I have no idea about. I, on the other
hand, have a stack of Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County
books. So, I'm somewhat of an aficianado. But not really of the
web-based-comic variety. Noting that Jantze was backing out because of
syndication hassles, the husband made a comment that Scott Kurtz of PVP
and Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade had all been at Comic Con earlier
this summer and had some unflattering things to say about Jantze, with
whom they'd participated in a panel about---wait for it---syndication. Well, the husband was wrong.
Partly.
Gabe and Tycho,
being the uber-cool dudes that they are, did have some unflattering
things to say about Jantze, because it appears, to me at least, that
since they reject the arguments for syndication outright they couldn't
be bothered to listen to an opposing point of view. Kurtz, however, had some really interesting things to say about syndication and laid out his plan for funny pages world domination,
and in the meantime wasn't a jerk to Jantze, but instead respected his
opinion while disagreeing with it.
Ultimately, what it comes down to is the bigger battle the internet has
brought to the forefront---the battle over rights and creative control.
It came as somewhat of a shock that cartoonists have as many rights
regarding the copyrights of their work as does Britney Spears, but it
shouldn't have. I don't know why I thought it would be different, but
it's not. And, much like those of us who would rather not choke down
Britney Spears's music with our morning coffee, this is yet another way
content is being dumbed down for the masses. The syndicates publish
those comics they want to publish, and while the situation is akin to
that of the recording industry, the syndicates are in the position of
really being screwed over sometime in the near future when papers
decide not to pay for the privelege of publishing funny pages any
longer. The paradigm is shifting. Kurtz is positioning himself well for
the shift. Whether Jantze will do the same is anyone's guess. One can
only hope that Jantze will realize that he's got a huge opportunity
right now with web-only syndication, his bribery-cum-pledge-drive
notwithstanding. *Good luck, Chris! Keeping the fingers and toes
crossed for you and your family that all turns out well.