The article that served as the basis for my comment was pretty down on comics, saying they would never appeal to ‘viewers’ as opposed to ‘readers.’ One could say that some comics are designed to appeal more to viewers – like newspaper style gag strips or even comic books. Graphic novels and manga books might appeal more to readers, perhaps.

I also don’t think people fall neatly into one or the other category. Under different circumstances I do both and I’m sure that’s the same for everyone else.

I can easily imagine someone liking Superman comics but being bored with Copper – and the opposite being true as well. While some comics (many of my favorites) do require a reader’s sensibility to really get the material, I don’t see most comics demanding that and the article I linked makes a blanket statement that comics are (and always will be) just for readers.

Does that help explain my statement a little better?

It’s basically an audience focused progression from where things are now. The more attention paid to comics, the more self editing we’ll have to do to meet an accepted, defacto standard of quality. That may also require (for instance) having a new readers page, topic tagging or oh-no-robot style transcription along with professional courtesy toward fans and fellow artists.

Those that meet it or rise above will be considered pros. Perhaps that status may be offer benefits peculiarly useful to professional artists, who would indeed have specialized needs.

Those that don’t want to meet the standard will not have to, of course, but they’ll be accorded amateur status. There will be room and some respect for hobbyists and dabblers to the degree they meet the standard.

As I see it, there won’t be a velvet rope so much as an audience process for rewarding the entertainment value. Further, I doubt it will be left up to the artists themselves to decide what these requirements might be. If it works out anything like I picture, the audience will do the standard setting. We’ll be scrambling to find ways to work with each other.

Thanks for considering this and helping me clarify.

Thank you for mentioning my piece on limits to webcomics success. The thing is, I do aspire to professional status in webcomics, but I don’t want to be separated from hobbyists or amateurs or whatever they are best called. Well, a few of them can go, as they are merely disruptive, but I would like to see all comics creators aspire to a level of conduct that gains them admission to shared assets that don’t currently exist. There are dedicated amateur comics that I highly enjoy, and I would rather fail as a pro than have a velvet rope between us.

I suspect you feel the same way and maybe your wording is a bit different than your intent. But if you mean to say, there are things that dedicated professionals need that others don’t, then I do agree and I don’t think there is anything snobby about saying so. In fact, some pros may need de-snobbing lessons. (Available free from Ryan North: all you do is watch him and treat people more like he does. Alan Gardner, same thing. Chris Harding also. The host of this blog is good too.)

I’ll enjoy following more of these links later tonight when I have my work done. Thanks for providing them.