Friday, February 04, 2005

online syndication.

Growing up

Where do you read funny cartoons? Well, before I get to that let me start by saying I grew up reading comics. I don't remember what started me reading comics, but I remember reading the Dandy and the Beano really early on. Then I remember moving on to Asterix and Tintin and finally graduating to 2000ad and from that on to some 'serious' comics or graphic novels such as the work of Alan Moore and Frank Miller.

The far side

Thing is though, they were all either regular weekly magazines, or books in their own right. And while they are certainly related to cartoons they are really a very different animal. As far as cartoons go, well I suppose like everyone else at some point, I was a huge fan of the Far Side - nobody could deny that's a funny cartoon. I have no idea where I came across the far side first, but soon I was coming across it everywhere - newspapers, magazines, cards and Far Side collected books.

Other funny cartoons

I am a fan of some other cartoons too, one time when I was sick, I was given a present of a collection of Red Meat cartoons and it was the funniest thing I had read in a long time. Red Meat would still be right up there in my top five funny cartoons.

Other cartoons I have come to enjoy would be Doonesbury, The Lost Consonants, Callahan and Dilbert - as in, these are funny cartoons I would see regularly and enjoy. There are countless others that have come my way, maybe once or twice, and I have laughed, enjoyed and moved on.

Life imitating art

Just as an aside, I worked in an IT company once where regularly I would come away from management meetings thinking "I have a weird sense of Deja Vu" only to discover that there was a scarily similar Dilbert cartoon...

Get to the point

I guess my point, if I have one, is that the comics I read had a place of their own in my life. I either bought them weekly or regularly bought graphic novels by authors I liked. But cartoons?

Funny cartoons tend to come to you by way of other publications. Yes, there are collections as I have mentioned, but oddly enough I have only ever received them as presents. I have never bought one for myself - though I have bought them as presents for other people. Why?

The role of narrative

Maybe it's because of the lack of narrative - perhaps in a 'book' we expect certain things like narrative and as such don't tend to buy collected cartoons… or because of the transient nature cartoons tend to have in our lives - they pass before our eyes, we laugh and then they are thrown out in last weeks magazines.

After all, the whole point is they're a quick laugh, a couple of panels and a quick gag. They're not really designed for prolonged exposure. However the 'present-giving' phenomenon is understandable too as humour is something people like to share - otherwise why would we laugh out loud?

Syndication of funny cartoons

The usual scenario is syndicated cartoons. You might have a subscription to a publication that prints your favourite funny cartoon, but you most likely don't subscribe to the publication for the cartoon and most likely won't stop buying when they drop it.
Some cartoons become so popular they are syndicated left right and centre, as is the case with several of the cartoons I mention above.

The internet as funny cartoons delivery service

And so I would come across certain cartoons, like Dilbert and Red Meat from time to time in publications but I would also check their website periodically. Because I don't actually subscribe to any magazines the internet is the only way for me to get regular servings of these funny cartoons, which is possibly one of the reasons why the web-comic or cartoon has become so common - it's a natural outlet for this odd artistic expression.

Do it yourself

You can build a site, draw your cartoons and publish, all for a relatively low cost and a fraction of the effort it takes to get printed on paper. Now you have a site with all your funny cartoons on it and people who like your cartoon can drop by and read them whenever they like.

Push technology

You can look at technologies such as RSS feeds and email to send your cartoons out to fans when you create them rather than depending on people to remember to come back regularly.

The best place for 'em

However, I wonder if online syndication isn't the best way to read funny cartoons. The type of cartoons we create here on BifSniff.com are probably best read out of the blue in the midst of something else altogether. Traditionally the humour of a cartoon is often added to by the fact that it is relief from the solemn column inches of your daily paper, and the release of laughter is all the more welcome when it is unexpected.

I could be talking crap here, I freely admit, but even the work of a proven comic genius like Larson is best taken in moderation. One cartoon can be hilarious, but keep reading them in one go and the affect is diminished.

Building an audience

Also, you can build a site, and publish your own cartoons but how do you get people to visit. If your Gary Larson of course people will come piling in to your site, but for an unknown?

One possible route to take is to build traffic in all the usual ways, and then offer your cartoon for display on other people's websites. A lot of people now have their own personal sites and blogs and may be interested in displaying your cartoon. This will help spread the word about your cartoon and get it out to a wider audience. Now you are leveraging on your own traffic and other people's traffic, and also on people's tendency to share their sense of humour.
That's why we now plan to do exactly this, we are offering BifSniff cartoons for display on anybodys website. For free.

Which of course begs another question - how do you make money from your web-comic or cartoons. But that's a question I have no idea how to answer. Yet. ;)