Robot 6
Quote of the Day | ‘There’s room for all of us out there’
Mark Waid
“One of the greatest things about working in digital is the sheer disconnect between comic book professionals and webcomic professionals — this gargantuan gulf I had no idea existed. Because the myth among us comic book folk is that webcomics guys, ah, yeah there’s a couple of them making a little bit of money, but by and large they’re all losing their shirts. You know: little kids doing their little thing on the side, that’s the myth. And the reality of it is, no, actually a lot of guys are making a decent living doing this, a lot of guys. And it doesn’t mean everybody can, but it means that there’s a lot more to that, there’s a lot more money in that ecosphere than you dreamed, and some guys are making really good money doing that stuff. And while making really good money is for me not the goal, it’s just to make enough money to keep doing it, the idea that it can be done is great. And what’s also great about the webcomic community is that I have yet to encounter any sense of selfishness, any sense of proprietary ownership, any sense of trade secrets and people being very hush hush with what they’re doing, because that’s stupid. Comic books tend to do that because we’re selling to an audience of 90,000 people, but among the webcomics guys they seem to get the fact that the potential audience is 6 billion people. There’s room for all of us out there. We’re not worried about competition yet among each other.”
– Mark Waid, discussing the financial aspects of digital comics, in a wide-ranging interview with Toucan that addresses his 25-year career, his approach to Daredevil and the Hulk, collaboration and more
13 Comments
Rob
December 27, 2012 at 1:17 pm
Mr. Waid is a class act.
Marc
December 27, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Mr. Waid is a class act (2)
This guy could be in charge of DC Comics.
Matt
December 27, 2012 at 1:52 pm
If Mark Waid ran DC Comics, all would be right in the world.
jim24
December 27, 2012 at 2:06 pm
I’d settle for him being in charge of the Superman line. Like the Indians winning the world series, I hope this happens in my life time.
Task Tanner
December 27, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Incorruptible was the worst comic I ever read.
Rommel
December 27, 2012 at 5:23 pm
task tanner is Mark Waid hater from the beginning. Mr. Waid’s superb writing made the Captain America comic a cool and enjoyable read. i cherish those issues and still have them with me.
Atomic Nelson
December 27, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Oh Task Tanner, you silly rabbit…
algeya
December 27, 2012 at 8:22 pm
Well said,
R. J. Whyte
December 27, 2012 at 11:59 pm
Remember that whole Tokyopop thing where they let in a bunch of low-quality newbies on the (and this is key) limited shelf-space?
And it almost ruined the western manga scene?
This shouldn’t be a problem as publishers & Diamond do their quality checks properly, but it did happen once, and history can repeat.
It’s dirty pool, witholding information from the inexperienced (I am a said inexperienced!) but I can see at least this reason to do it. :/
This reason will fade once retailers are removed from the process with the increase in digital distribution popularity. The new problem will then be saturation (not as potentially ruining).
matt jeske
December 28, 2012 at 1:14 am
R.J.
Your comment uses a poor example. Tokyopop published Brandon Graham and Becky Cloonan. those guys are low quality? I don’t think so.
Metron
December 28, 2012 at 7:30 am
@Matt: If Mark Waid ran DC Comics, all would be right in the world.
Instead we have hacks like DiDio, Harras and Johns.
It’s hard to be a DC fan in the 21th century.
Aaron B.
December 28, 2012 at 8:58 am
I’ll give Waid credit for admitting to his ignorance of the “gargantuan gulf” he perceives… but I’m hesitant to heap praise on an epitome birth from such a long held ignorance. Is he and other comic book professionals so preoccupied with their slice of the pie that they ignore the potential impact of an branch of visual storytelling on a neighbor medium? Do no comic book writers read online comics? At all? That’s terrible. How in the world does that bias come to exist in the first place, specifically for such a high-profile contributor?
Dominic
December 28, 2012 at 5:32 pm
Nice interview.