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.

It’s been a little quiet lately on the Zingerfront.  The holiday season slowed down development, but we’re ramping things back up now that it’s 2010.  Here are some updates:

Home Page We’re about to roll out an update to the teaser site with a little more clarity, a bold link to the comic strip submission page,  and a few other minor changes.

Submissions We’re still looking for cartoonists for the Zingerding Six.  There have been steady signups on our email list but the aforementioned link to the submission page will help.

Forums They are live, though not very pretty.  Development efforts are going into Zingerding.com before we dress up the forum software.  However, they work and you can feel free to comment and ask questions.

Communication This blog and Twitter remain our primary outlets for connecting with the comic-loving community.  Please subscribe and follow.

Development Finally, we’re marching closer to the site’s launch.  I know many cartoonists are waiting patiently for word on timing.  I’m leveling with you here – we cannot make any estimates at this point.  We’re making progress and when we have a better feeling for when we might launch, I’ll let you know.

Revolution Big things don’t happen overnight.  It takes planning and the buildup of small action upon small action, until change starts to grab momentum.  We’re still taking our first small actions.  We invite you to take them with us.

Happy New Year from our team!

I started to set up the Zingerding forums last week, then slipped on a patch of ice and broke my wrist in six places…after a few days of rest (and lots of Percocet…) I’m back at it. :)

We did a fair bit of research to determine what forum software to use. The Forum Matrix website provides a nifty comparison tool that was quite helpful. We settled on Vanilla, in large part because of the level of flexibility they provide.

We’ll be updating the look & feel as my left-handed typing skills improve — visit the Zingerding forums and let us know if there is something you’d like to see.

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.

There’s been some concerns about our lack of publicly posted terms while taking submissions. We’ll be posting them shortly. Stay tuned.

Dec. 11 Update: It’s important that we say exactly what we want when we publish the terms so we’re taking the time to do it right.  Wording matters. I’ve been ill and another of our team had a minor injury today.  Please be patient with us.

Dec. 13 Update: I know we said the terms would be posted a couple days ago, but a slip on ice and a seriously broken wrist delayed us. We apologize for keeping those who have been waiting. They are now posted on our forums.

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!

This is it, cartoonists!  Here is your call to action!  You have the opportunity to ignite the revolution!

I’ve already told you about Zingerding’s lofty goal and the incentives for the Zingerding Six. We’ve now launched a site for you to submit your comic strips for the big chance. Here’s how it works:

– Visit http://zingerding.crowdcampaign.com

– Click ‘Submit your Comic Strip’ to… well… submit your comic strip.  :)

– Upload one to five examples and provide a link to more.

That’s it! It’s set up like a contest where people can vote on the submissions. However, we’re not running it like a traditional “contest”. We have yet to establish closing dates, and we’re planning to leave it open for a while.

The final selection for the Zingerding Six will be based on a panel of professional cartoonists as well as votes on the contest site. Therefore votes matter but they aren’t going to have the final say. Why? This sort of voting can be greatly imbalanced by many factors like a cartoonist’s ability to spread the word, or by the timing of when a strip was submitted compared to others. However, we want the voting to provide feedback to us about what people like. Public opinion still plays a part.

The contest platform is integrated with Twitter, so for you cartoonists with followers, it’s a good opportunity to garner support. And we’ll be tweeting all we can too!

One important note is that we’re going to market the hotcakes out of this contest! (Read my comments about how Amazon/Andrews McMeel failed to create fanfare.) We may not have the following that Amazon has but we’ve got the passion and guts to put your work out there! We run this blog. We’re on Twitter and Facebook. We’ve sparked a cause called Free the Comic Strip! We have our own site, Zingerding.com. We’ve got more plans and we will create the fanfare!

The Zingerding Six are more than just a group of six cartoonists. They will be a league of revolutionaries. You can be one!

It often sounds corny to some people when you proclaim your lofty goals.  People are commonly skeptical, not necessarily because of negativity, but because they just don’t see the vision like you do.

Creating art is like that.  It’s why people often tell artists that they’re amazed by talent.  They themselves don’t have the skills or they cannot see the vision in the first place.

Those are the two ingredients to achieving lofty goals – having the vision and executing it.

Our lofty goal: Zingerding will ignite a revolution in online comic strips.  We’re going to be the ones who do it right and do it big!  There have been a lot of challenges for cartoonists as their art form moves from print to the internet.  Though some have been successful, the best solution has yet to materialize.  Zingerding is stepping up to provide new opportunities to cartoonists where they haven’t existed before.

We’re starting the comic strip revolution and we mean it!  Join the cause.

We’re launching a new initiative to garner momentum for the Comic Strip Revolution.  Join the cause on Facebook to declare your support for comic strips on the internet.  If you’re on Facebook, simply click to become a member of Free the Comic Strip!

You’ll then be able to invite your own friends to spread the word.  This isn’t only about Zingerding.  It’s about showing that you, as a cartoonist or a reader of comic strips, want a better experience online. That’s the larger cause!

Click the image below to view or join the cause.