Insomnia (insomnia) wrote,

Free is better... and a validator that probably doesn't matter to you.

Scott Mc Cloud of "Reinventing Comics" fame seems awfully excited about promoting, a new service run by former director Joey Manley. What I don't get, however, is *why?*

Admittedly, the artists are good, but there is a finite limit to the number of services that anyone is willing to pay $36 a year for. Personally, as a consumer, I am sick of paying small, automatic payments to an ever-increasing flurry of small businesses, even if they do have worthwhile products. Frankly, it's a pain in the ass, and it makes it harder to balance your books. And can you imagine micropayments?!? "Honey, do you know anything about this XYZ incorporated from Haiti that keeps charging 20 cents each month to our bank account?!" No thanks...

In this economy, comics aren't a priority for many. Millions and millions of people like comics and respect them as the artform that they are... but the evidence shows that only about a half a million actively buy them.

It may not be what some people would like to hear, but when it comes to the Internet, free content always wins out. These artists would both make more money and have a bigger audience if they just made their work free, but rattled the tin cup at the end of each one of their strips. I'll even give them the cup for free...

... and besides, as the wise Yogurt once said:
"Merchandising! Merchandising! Where the real money is made! Spaceballs the T-shirt. Spaceballs the lunchbox. Spaceballs the coloring book. Spaceballs... the flamethrower! Kids love it!"

In other news, there's now a shining new RSS validator!
Yes, you can now validate your RSS!
... to make sure your RSS is valid.
It's a good thing to have, really.
None of you are that excited.
Yeah, it's a bit geeky, but...
Um... help me out here.
I feel so utterly alone.
Just me and my PC.
It's getting dark.
I'm all alone...
so dark...

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