ComicLab

Today's show is brought to you by Wacom — makers of the powerful, professional, portable Wacom One! This week, we're discussing the recent exodus of top talent from corporate comics to Substack, a subscription-based email-newsletter platform.

Questions asked and topics covered...

What is Substack? Substack is an online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers.
Creators are given a payment for their first year — between $3k and about $150k. After that, the creators take the standard deal, which is based on the number of subscribers they've earned, minus fees from Substack, credit-card companies, etc.
What's in this for Substack? Buying users. They currently have around 500,000. Patreon has 6 million.
Will this be a turning point for the creators? We'll know in about 366 days — after the advance runs out and they're left with only their subscribers.
What does this say about Marvel/DC? If things were going well with corporate comics, then a start-up like Substack would never be able to lure top talent away.
Is this good for readers? We'll know in 366 days.
What does this mean for webcomics? Very little. It's a variation on a theme that many of us have been applying for over 20 years.
Is this a good time for Substack creators to abandon social media? No. If anything, this is the time to double down.
What about some other creators that Substack has signed who embrace hateful messages?

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Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the editor of Webcomics.com Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

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