« Idiots'Books in Utne Reader | Main | Before the Dawn of Man »

September 04, 2009

Ruffians

Due to the endless wisdom of my employer, which periodically grants 4-day weekends to augment the restful implications of certain holidays, I do not have to work today. Robbi is off running Iggy in the nearby farmlands, and I am home with a few idle hours to spend on a new project, that of writing a Web comic.

Those of you who don't read Web comics may not know that they are a well-established phenomenon. Rather than bothering with newspaper publication, a lot of smart, funny people are posting serial comics to the web, cultivating an audience, and scrapping out a living by selling t-shirts, books, and other schwag to their fans.

Robbi and I want a piece of the action.

We like our books and lots of other people like our books, but relative to Web comics, which are free, books are expensive, which limits the audience to people who like our stuff enough to share their hard-earned money in exchange. We will continue to publish books, but we wonder if there might be people who might be compelled to see what we're up to if the cost of doing so were reduced to "free". It's hard to argue with "free". It's a rather appealing concept.

And so we thought it might be fun to try putting together a Web comic. I like to write things but am pitifully ungifted when it comes to drawing them. Robbi likes to draw.

The obvious question is whether we have something to say.

The answer is that we may not. But will this stop us?

Here's a faltering attempt, which pleases me in spite of its lack of earth-shattering revelation. The plan is that Robbi will take this pitiful husk of an outline and make it nice to look at. (Click on the image to make it bigger.)

Ruffians_HP.jpg

If you find this so painful to look at that you cannot bear to read it, do not feel guilty or despair. Robbi's version will be posted soon. When it is, I'm certain that the earth-shattering implications will be revealed.

Posted by bogenamp at September 4, 2009 11:31 AM