A discussion related to Adventures Into Digital Comics.

1) Can you tell us about your background?

  I started self-publishing comic books in 1997, mainly small print runs, and distributed them through various zines and distro magazines. I was truly an independent comic creator by creating and distributing on my own. All of the runs actually saw a profit. In the end of 2001, I strayed from traditional print and moved to the Internet by creating Flash animated serials featuring my character, Dr. Shroud. Friends of mine turned me onto Flash and I became totally addicted. It allowed me to utilize all of my skills: writing, drawing, acting and composing. Since Flash was fairly commonplace, I added an element that allows viewers to vote what happens next to the main character, kind of like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” story meets the old Marvel cartoons. Each month, approximately 10,000 viewers watch Dr. Shroud Adventures, either at www.DrShroud.com or the numerous web portals in which it appears. That’s kind of low, but it is growing, as I think web portals are seeing it as a consistent draw.

2) What do you find in comics that you wouldn’t find in another type of visual exercise?

  I like the fact that I can employ all of my skills at once. It’s like directing a movie but without the budget. I can relay a story in the best way I know how, which is visually.

3) 1993 was the last profitable year for the American industry. The market has been shrinking ever since. What do you think are the causes of the industry’s collapse in the 90’s?

  Low attention span and on-demand satisfaction. I blame a lot on growing technology actually, despite my love for it at the same time. Everything is so quickly paced, you can get the same, if not more, satisfaction in playing a video game or watching something online. There is obviously a direct correlation between technology and low attention span and the 90’s were the start of it.

4) For the past few years, we’ve seen the big companies trying to improve quality: better paper, big names from other industries, etc. Do you think that it had an impact on sales? What could be a key to solve the sales’ problem?

  I am sure that there is a direct impact on sales, otherwise, they wouldn’t continue to do it. That aside, I think that they should be catering to a different reader. The gloss can be made to keep the existing reader, but they have to recruit newer ones. The comic reading age changed in the 90’s to a more “mature” (ha) audience and in order to maintain that, you have to cater to that level. However, I don’t believe that the bigger gloss makes or breaks a new reader, particularly younger ones. If they are introduced to the form properly, it shouldn’t make a difference, however, these kids are being cut off at the pass with video games and quick paced videos, so it is quite a paradox. Take away the video games and cards and you can get the sales back. Otherwise, this is as good as it gets.

5) In the 90’s, publishers began to create alternate covers, and made a lot of -- sometimes unnecessary -- relaunches. Let’s call this commercial experimentation. What do you think of those “gimmicks”?

  Desperate. They wouldn’t relaunch any title if sales had been good. I think most relaunches are poor. If one thing can be said, you can’t re-write history.

6) To make more money and be able to reach different places such as bookstores, the publishers have created the trade paperback. As an example, many people have read Sandman when it was available on paperback, but not before. Do you feel that the comic book format had its days, and could be replaced by the paperback?

  No, because there are collectors and people who only like one or two issues of the book. For me, I like the singles because it is disposable reading. That’s the idea of comics -- you can read them in one shot. Compiling them as a paperback should be solely for “the best of” previous issues. Unless of course, your aim is to capture another audience, such as those “closet readers” that cruise the bookstore graphic novel section in shame. Sandman is a great book, so it found its way to both groups, but I don’t think that should be a substitute one way or the other.

7) The early 90’s saw the first digital lettering and coloring in American comic-books. Do you think that itd a new world of possibilities as far as storytelling is concerned?

  Not really. Production-wise, it is faster, but I think, like some coloring, that it is overused. I don’t think “Clobberin’ Time” spelled out in brick typeface makes a story more appealing. Ha.

8) Between 1993 and 2001, may readers left comic books in the US. Some people in the industry blamed video games and movies, two media now able to offer visual miracles. Do you agree on this point?

  Yes, I do. I am one of them who left print books and am able to reach more people on the internet in less than one week than in a whole month on the shelf. That’s not at all to take away from comic books, it just happens to be that my stuff works better on the internet. For more successful books, that approach wouldn’t make much sense.

9) Also around the same time came the internet. Did you guess at that time that the internet could become a distribution system for independent artists?

  At the time, no. I am a bit of a late bloomer in the sense that I somehow “discover” things after they have been out for a while -- a day late and a dollar short. I saw a lot of limitations with online comics, but technology has fixed that. For instance, dial up speed was a barrier and a lot of complex images were too big for it. Now with high speed internet and various software programs, publishing online is definitely more feasible and apparently more common.

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