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Anyone have some numbers on web comics? Are they loss leaders into ecommerce? What are the business models here?

• astine 14y ago
  Webcomics cost next to nothing to run, you just need the time and equipment to draw cartoons on a regular schedule. You then put them on a website with some cheap hosting. If the cartoon becomes popular, and that's a big if, you can sell advertising on the site itself, merchandise, and original artwork. You can also transition to commissioned artwork or use the comic as a resume point to get a good job as an artist. Most full-time webcartoonists, attend a lot of comic conventions and use them to network, publicize their work, and sell merchandise to fans. From what I can tell, the biggest source of income for most cartoonists is merchandise and the biggest cost center is conventions (both the cost of travel and of renting a booth.)