The comic strip community likes to debate the many routes a cartoonist can take – print vs. web, running your own site vs. joining a collective or aggregator, etc.  They are passionate debates and good points are made for all views.  But no matter what path you as a cartoonist decide, it’s still about one thing: creating your art and being good to your readers.

Zingerding.com will be an aggregator site.  We want to bring cartoonists and readers together in one place, through a single platform with a common interface.  I believe this is what readers need to adopt comics online at great scale.

By choosing Zingerding, you may be giving up certain things that are important to you.  If  being able to design and control all aspects of your website, or keeping 100% of your income, is a top priority, then you should run your own site and business.

But you may not have the technical skills, the entrepreneurial desire, or the time to run solo (essentially starting a business).  I reject the notion that to be a “professional” cartoonist online, you need to run your own website.  Sure, the collectives out there aren’t much better, but Zingerding will change that.  If you want to focus on your art instead of building a site, and you desire an automated publishing experience with built-in readership-growing features, Zingerding may be a good match.

One path is not better than the other.  Rather, one path is a better fit for some cartoonists than for others.

Zingerding has launched online forums available at http://forums.zingerding.com. They aren’t much to look at yet but we’ve posted some important information for cartoonists.

Cartoonist Terms and Conditions. This is the agreement between Zingerding and cartoonists that will publish on Zingerding.com when the site goes live.

Cartoonist FAQs. While the terms and conditions cover the legal info, they don’t quite cover all the questions cartoonists need answered at this time. If you have a question that’s not covered, please ask in the forum.

We posted this information in the forums so that anyone can easily discuss the topics. We’ll be checking in to be part of the conversation as well.

We’ve introduced Zingerding to you before on the blog, but I want to talk a little bit more in depth about what we’re doing.

Zingerding is a free, open platform for cartoonists to publish their comic strips.  We’re creating slick publishing and comic organization tools.  Each cartoonist will have their own “Publishing Studio” where they can manage their work and connect with fans.  Marketing tools will be built right into Zingerding so cartoonists can find more readers, and reward the ones they already have.

Each comic series will have its own profile page; a home for that comic.  This will be a launching pad for readers to discover more about the comic beyond the individual strips.

Zingerding is a destination for comic strip readers.  We’re building simple, fun features for fans to read, enjoy, share and discuss comic strips.  Each reader will have their own “Zingerhome” where they can build their own custom funny pages with just the strips they like to read.  An easy, unified design across all comics fosters a better experience for readers to stick around and enjoy more comics.

Zingerding is a community around comic strips.  We’ll have public online forums for anyone to talk about the strips they enjoy.  Cartoonists can join in the conversation as well.  Future features on the site will be interactive and outer-connected so that people can rally around their favorite strips.

Zingerding is the future of comic strips.  It’s going to take time as we roll out future features but we will incorporate the latest in web and social technology.  This means mobile comics, integration with other networks and innovation in digital distribution.

Zingerding is a serious business.  We intend to create an economy around comic strips where cartoonists can benefit financially and otherwise.  We’ll make money too but we really, really want to create real career opportunities for cartoonists online.

Zingerding is a revolution!  It’s more than a publishing platform, a community or a business.  It’s an uprising of cartoonists and fans!  It’s the transformation of an industry!  It’s what needs to be done for the art of comic strips to survive!

A few hundred comic strip cartoonists (who knows how many) entered the Comic Strip Superstar Contest sponsored by Amazon.com, Andrews McMeel Publishing and Universal Press Syndicate.  The entries were pared down to 250, then 50, then 10 by a panel of professional cartoonists, before a singular comic strip was chosen by the public.  Only the top 10 were publicly announced.  A strip titled Girl was deemed the winner yesterday.

At the start of the contest, there was a lot of buzz forming within the cartoonist community.  It sounded like a grand new opportunity, a new path toward syndication.

I’ll say though, yesterday’s big announcement seemed quite anticlimactic.  I don’t mean it as a criticism of Girl, rather a criticism of the contest itself.

I previously compared the contest to American Idol, but for cartoonists.  However, the level of hype and excitement behind the popular television show was exactly what the Comic Strip Superstar Contest lacked.

Amazon, Andrews McMeel and Universal Press Syndicate did little to publicize the contest.  There was an air of mystery shrouded around the judging as each level of finalists were announced.  Months passed in near silence from the contest officials and the only clues came from cartoonists themselves.  Nobody got to share the experience of those who were cut or moved ahead (outside of family or Twitter followers).  Amazon published a very rudimentary page to showcase the contest and eventually the 10 finalists.

There was no drama, no tears, no fanfare.  I think the creators of the contest intended to do for comic strips what American Idol does for singers.  But the mood around Comic Strip Superstar was nothing like it.  Of course, a TV show about music and a web contest about comics will have different atmospheres.

But there’s something to be said about fanfare and creating big anticipation.  It’s important not so much for the sake of showiness, but to rally people around the winners.

Dana Simpson, creator of the winning comic strip, Girl, has won an impressive contest.  On the merit of her talent, she rose to the top.  From what I could find with a moderate search on Google, Twitter, some blogs and forums, nobody is talking about it much outside of the cartoonist community.

When a performer on American Idol triumphs in the end, a nation of fans explode in cheer.  The amazing thing is that this fan base is brand new.  Before the show, practically nobody knew the talent of the winner.

Now who’s celebrating Girl?  Where are the fans?  Where are the people already pining for the book release and the possibility of reading it in their local papers?  Yeah, I’m sure some exist… somewhere.

Do you realize how rare it is for a comic strip to make it in today’s newspaper climate?  It’s one of the most challenging fields to break into because the space on a newspaper page is severely limited and old strips don’t die easily.  A single comic strip now has a chance at joining the ranks of Peanuts, For Better or For Worse and Get Fuzzy.  Few strips earn the opportunity to touch the lives of people on such a scale.  Girl has an opportunity.  If you ask me, she deserves fanfare.

What Amazon should have done was created a marketing engine behind the contest.  There should have been a blog, tweets to follow, a Facebook page, sharing features, etc.  These staples of today’s internet are what creates hype.  These aren’t small companies with minimal resources.  Major corporations ran this contest.  The internet – beyond cartoonists – should be celebrating, signing up on Dana’s email list and buying copies of her past comics.

What we’ve learned is that quiet competition neglects fans, which in turn neglects the cartoonist.  Now Dana will be working hard to push her strip to the level of newspaper syndication (if it’s not already).  By next week, many of us will have let Girl slip to the back of our minds.  Perhaps in a year from now, she’ll be popping up in some papers here and there.  Maybe the public will remember the contest – most will never have heard of it.  The result will be that Girl will be in the same position as any new strip trying to build a readership from scratch in a struggling newspaper industry.

The saving grace might be Dana herself.  If she can build momentum from this point forward and create her own fanfare, she might have a good chance at success instead of just a chance.

Following the contest has been an eye-opening experience for those of us who want to launch the next set of great comic strips.

It’s been a long road for many cartoonists the past two and a half months since submissions opened for the Amazon Comic Strip Superstar Contest.  But today, Andrews McMeel Publishing and Amazon.com announced the winning comic strip, Girl, by Dana Simpson.  We send a big ZING out to Dana!

Girl gets a book publishing deal, a spot on gocomics.com, and a development contract with Universal Press Syndicate for a possible future in the newspapers.  From what I’ve seen of the examples, I think she’s got a great chance to take the strip far!

Not that success couldn’t be found on newsprint but I don’t think syndication is really where cartoonists want to head these days.  See our previous post about the launch of the Comic Strip Superstar contest.

From Germany’s top fifteen bloggers comes a declaration of the future of journalism dubbed “The Internet Manifesto – How journalism works today.”

As Zingerding takes shape, the subject of new media continues to be a driving force in building our platform.  Zingerding is about releasing the art form of comic strips from their ties to newspapers and reinventing not only the business model, but the culture surrounding them for the internet age.  Cartoonists are journalists whose pens don’t stop at the written word, but advance into the realm of the aesthetic.

The Internet Manifesto more or less covers Zingerding’s theories on journalism.  There are cartoonists on all sides of the fence, as are writers in the world of news reporting.  But as the Manifesto points out, it’s not a question of old media vs. new media (newspapers vs. bloggers, web cartoonists, etc.), it’s about journalism’s inevitable adaptation to the new.

Zingerding is that very adaptation, built specifically for the comic strip and its creators.

Amazon.com and Andrews McMeel Publishing just announced a contest to find the next comic strip “superstar”. The winner will receive a publishing contract for the submitted strips, a paid deal to develop more strips and an opportunity for possible newspaper syndication.  Sounds pretty good.  Are you a superstar cartoonist?  Maybe so, but is this contest for you?

First of all, it’s good to see a media giant like Andrews McMeel (which owns Universal Press Syndicate and the well known Uclick.com and GoComics.com) put some innovation into finding new comic strips beyond the usual syndicate means.  Syndicate editors and 4 syndicated cartoonists vote down the submissions to 10 finalists.  Letting the internet audience select from these finalists is zinging great!  But let’s explore the pros and cons of this contest.

Pros

It’s a big dream for many a cartoonist to land a syndicate contract.  This is a new opportunity with a different path to that goal.  Not only are syndicate execs judging your work, but so are established cartoonists.  This injects the selection process with a fresh breath of air by using talented artists with decades of experience (Trudeau, Johnston) as well as newer entrants in the field (Tatulli, Hilburn).

Hosting the contest on Amazon opens your work up to a new, wide audience.  The contest ends with registered Amazon customers voting for the 10 best series.  Web 2.0 hits the syndication process… finally!  Like I said earlier, bringing the reader into the process is great.  It breaks from the status quo of mysterious syndicate editors in unknown offices judging your work on behalf of readers.  Now readers get their voice heard before a contract is even offered!

Cons

Speaking of contracts.  Read the fine print before you decide if this contest is for you.  The process is set up with an accelerated pace.  Due to the nature of a public contest, if you become one of the 10 finalists, you need to sign 2 “non-negotiable” distribution contracts with Uclick.  If you don’t do so within those three days, you forfeit your position.

Now, let me get this straight, only one winner will be awarded the publication opportunities.  But 10 talented cartoonists have 3 days to decide to sign something or not, even before they are deemed a winner?  With the traditional method of submitting to syndicates, if they are interested in your work, they offer a contract.  Then you (hopefully with a lawyer) counter some of the provisions and find a contract that works best for both parties.  When you come to an agreement, and this probably takes longer than 3 days, you, the lucky cartoonist, get an opportunity in syndication.

To be fair, there are 3 contracts associated with this contest.  The main one, the coveted syndication contract is the one stated as “open for good faith negotiation”.  The other 2 contracts, the publishing contract for the submitted strips and the development contract for further strips, are what’s non-negotiable.  From the contest rules:

“The agreement with Universal Uclick is not negotiable, and Grand Prize Winner must sign “as-is” upon receipt of executable contract.”

Wait, what?  This throws up red flags.  Essentially what you have to agree to is that they can publish your strips, no less than 200 of them, in a book, under their predetermined provisions.  Yes, you get a $5k advance on royalties.  But they get to decide what those royalties (and other terms) are without your consent.

You also need to agree to the development contract.  This means that they will pay you $300 a month for two years as long as you submit 20 strips a month.  They can cancel this contract at any time.

One last con is that the deadline for submission of 12 strips (10 dailies, 2 Sundays) ends September 12th.  It’s not uncommon for the development of a great comic strip to take several months or longer.  This contest really seems to be for cartoonists who already have work put together.  But if this contest inspires you to start from scratch, then you better get drawing!

Conclusion

I was kind of hard on the contractual aspects because, quite frankly, newcomers have a lot less leverage than the established pros.  Newly syndicated cartoonists will most likely give somewhere and when their careers take off, then they get more negotiating power.  The important contract, the syndication one, is open for negotiation as it should be, should you get to that point.

The other two contacts are sort of extras that might help you along the way.  You need to decide whether you’re okay with them or not upon entering the contest.  A $5,000 advance for a book and $300 a month for continual development might fit with your budget to put in the time and creativity.  But it also might not.  Generally speaking, non-negotiable contracts are not a good idea and it’s harmful to the entire cartoonist community when just one cartoonist accepts.

The Comic Strip Superstar Contest is about giving you a new shot at syndication.  But I hope you are asking yourselves these days whether syndication is really the dream you’re chasing.  Newspapers are in a decline that will most likely never recover to what it once was.  100, 50, 20 years ago, comic strip syndication was an exciting dream.  The internet has indeed changed everything.  Uclick is being innovative in the online and mobile spaces (like iPhone apps) but their core business is still rooted in the ever-more-difficult newspaper industry.  They are bound by an outdated business model.

This is still a fantastic opportunity for the right cartoonists.  The Amazon platform will bring a wide range of readers to your comic strip and the selection process promises to be interactive, fun and educational.  The possibilities for a book deal and development contract are exciting.

It’s a fun contest, American Idol for comic strips – star judges, community votes, the big winner.  If you were a talented singer, would you try American Idol or would you go the traditional route of auditioning for Broadway?  The different avenues attract different personalities, regardless of level of talent.

If you are hesitant over the contracts, give it a little more thought.  But time is ticking.  If you think this is your chance at superstardom, go for it!

The concept of webcomics is what we are most passionate about at Zingerding.  What we don’t like is the term, the actual word, “webcomics”.  The quotes are in the headline for a reason.

As media migrates to the internet, there grows a rivalry between the classic method of publishing print comics and the new forms of doing so online.  This battle is going on between newspapers and blogs, television and video sites, telecoms and voip, etc.  It’s not unique to comic strips.

It’s not a novelty anymore to find anything online.  There need be no distinction between a comic strip in a newspaper and a comic strip on a website.  The term, webcomic, exaggerates that distinction.  The craft and talent of a cartoonist and the final product are the same.  The difference is the publication method.  However, “webcomic” is a noun that defines the product, not the form of distribution.  One can argue that the word implies the publication and not the art form, but let’s look at how it’s used.  People read webcomics.  They email webcomics.  They post webcomics on Facebook.  They laugh at webcomics.  You can see how the term implies the product itself.

Wikipedia defines webcomics as comics that are published online (my abbreviation).  Their definition rightly focuses on the publication but as explained, it’s not how the term is used.

So this leaves us with an inappropriate word that’s catching on.  Traditional news media often likes to talk about webcomics as if it’s still a novelty that a comic strip is on the internet.  They are pushing the distinction.  Cartoonists have also taken to the term, partially from a time when it was a novlety, and are only pushing the distinction to their detriment.

Here’s why “webcomic” is harmful.

Readers know that what they see in the newspapers are ‘professional’ comic strips.  They also know that it’s easy for anyone to post anything online and that the quality of content can be much lower on the web.  When there is a focus on the distinction between the two, it will remain harder for mainstream readers to see beyond the “web” in webcomics, regardless of the quality of the strip.

It creates mental barrier to acceptance.  For the highly talented cartoonist whose work is on par or beyond what we currently deem professional, the term is harmful.  For the majority of cartoonists whose work is somewhere in the middle, who want a chance to share their passion through their art, improve their craft and build a readership, the term is also harmful.  In context, webcomics are ‘lesser’.

The problem with “comics” in general.

Like “comics”, the word “webcomics”, is broad and creates confusion.  It can mean comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, single-panel comics, etc.  These are different art forms the same way that music and writing have sub-genres.  Streaming music isn’t called “webmusic” and everything from blogs to online books to Twitter posts aren’t grouped under “webwriting”.   They’re all referred to as their respective form.  So just because a comic of any type is published on the internet, it gets unfairly grouped in to the greater category of webcomics.  Let’s stop generalizing.

How Zingerding addresses “webcomics”.

We don’t.  We won’t use the term.  In our view, a comic strip is a comic strip, regardless of where it’s published.  All cartoonists, from the seasoned newspaper artist to the newbie on their blog deserve to have their work defined for what it is.  Comic strips are an art form we greatly respect and our aim is to elevate their perception.  Zingerding will not make unnecessary distinctions with a word that doesn’t fit.  So yeah, we don’t like “webcomics”.

Now tell us, what do you think of the term?

This is the second of three reviews where we discuss and demonstrate comic strip generator websites.  The first was about StripGenerator.com.

Pixton.com

Pixton recently generated some buzz at the South-By-Southwest interactive festival in Austin last month.

What makes Pixton really interesting is the amazing control you have over the characters.  Using the expression editor, for example, you can make your character smile, show fear, or express other emotions.  For people like me who can’t draw, this functionality is liberating.  I have made many stick figures in my life but have always fallen short of truly showing angst, hatred, or bliss.  With Pixton, I can do much more and all I have to do is select the words of the expression.  It’s very neat.

Similarly, there are editors for colors, clothing style, skin tone, girth, posture, and many more.  With Pixton, I don’t have to move lines or have any of the technical skills to make my character look fat.  I just do a few clicks and voila, my character is fat.

Although possibilities are limitless it comes at a significant cost of usability: there are so many controls, it was often hard to figure out how to use it.   The learning curve is much steeper than StripGenerator.com. Plan to spend some time with the interface to get used to it.

Another drawback to Pixton is that you are confined to create strips within their design parameters.  In other words, while you can make lots of changes to your characters and your strips, you cannot import your own designs.  Not only does it give all Pixton strips a very similar look and feel, it limits artists that want to push the envelope on the look and feel of their strips.

From a community perspective, however, Pixton excels. You can comment, vote, and share each strip.  This functionality seems pretty robust and up to par with other community systems (read: YouTube).

Overall, Pixton, is a great way for beginners to explore the comic strip creation world.  True artists might hit a wall with their creativity but for the rest of the stick figure drawing world, it gives us new levels of power and control.

Next Up: Toon Doo!

You know something has gone mainstream when it is featured on NPR!

Penny Arcade, the geeked out comic strip, was featured in a story earlier this week.

They comment on how it represents a resurgence in comic strips.  We at ZIngerding think so too.

Let us know what you think.