CBR: Moore on "Rachel Rising," "Echo, "Digital Comics" and More

[CBR News]

Terry Moore spoke with CBR News about the conclusion of "Echo," the premiere of "Rachel Rising," his "How to Draw Women" book and "Fables" before offering a critique on the status of digital comics.


Full article here.

[Steve Broome]

"One of the problems is -- I've been meeting a ton of people over the last two years, and everybody the age of 26 and over think the internet should be a free market. Everything's free. These are the people that watch their TV show and everything on the internet. But when I'm meeting college kids, the 22- and under set, they're more materialistic. They're buying the vinyl, they're buying the comic books -- there's a different mentality coming right up in the working set. They're not in the working set yet, but when they come up, they're going to balance out the 30-somethings that think that everything is fair game."

People hate to hear it, but copyright enforcement and things like ICE taking down illegal streaming sites are the only way this will really happen at significant levels. Netflix has shown that people are willing to pay to stream large collections, so how about a similar option in comics?

[lasraik]

Sweeping generalizations are fun, bunching everyone over the age of 26 and calling them freeloaders.

If he thinks people under the age of 26 (why 26?) have a totally different mentality he's way off base. Just like music artists battled digital music in the late 90's, the same thing is happening now with some people in comics. It's going to happen, adapt to the change.

Of course illegal copyright infringement is a problem, but services like Netflix and Hulu have proven you can provide these services online for low prices people will pay for. Hell, Hulu is only like 7 bucks a month and it's awesome.

[ColonelLee]

So far, nobody's really been able to come up with a business model that replaces print income. So, that's what we're working for. Where is the income? We have the tools and we have the toys, but nobody can make a house payment with it yet. I'll know it's arrived when I look at an article about Neil Gaiman bashing some huge number out of the park with his digital version. When Neil Gaiman sets the bar, then we'll all be able to do it. He's the canary in the mine, so to speak. The answer's not going to come from Artist Alley, it's going to have to come from some icon that sets the way for us. I'm keeping my eye on those guys. I'm keeping my eye on Neil and Frank Miller and what they do. Everyone else is just trying to come up with a stupid iPod app and trying to figure out a way to sell it for 99 cents and hoping that iTunes will carry it and hoping that with the global market, the numbers will add up. So far, that has not worked. That's been around for a long time, guys. So far, the only people that have made any money off the internet is the porn industry.

Terry Moore summed it up real well .. so far there's no money for the creators of comics in digital ..

Loved Echo .. looking forward to Rachel Rising ..