old becomes new...

i was cruising the internet and i came across this article at CBR. this guy scott kurtz, whom i've never heard of until now, decided to write this how to book for webcomics. the cool thing, it's a not a book on theroies, but actual 10+ years of "lived" hands on experience. now they bring up some real interesting reasons/facts, that got me thinking, and nudged me towards new possibilties. like this one

..."Also looking backward, as well as forward, the cover of “How To Make Webcomics” depicts a crumpled up newspaper comics sections, and the authors believe that the message behind that is very clear. “Newspaper comics are on a very easily charted trend — straight down,” Guigar said. “Webcomics are on the rise. As we say in the book, the days are gone in which one could earn a living through a publisher or a syndicate that held the keys to the mass market. The Internet busted the bottleneck. The entire world is out there waiting to discover your work and they don’t need a newspaper or a bookstore to do it. The only remaining barrier between you and success is yourself.”

Kellett added, “The sad truth of it is, you show me one newspaper subscriber under 35, and I’ll show you 100,000 that haven’t even picked up a newspaper in a year. Sure, the medium is still viable and profitable for cartoonists who started 10+ years ago, but for young cartoonists hoping to start a career, it’s an industry virtually in its death-throes. Even if you were successfully launched by a syndicate tomorrow, it’s a pyrrhic victory: Who will your readers be when Baby Boomers start losing their eyesight, and stop taking a paper? Readership numbers will only continue to trend downward. "

now that's pretty bold, but i've worked hard to break in, and well, i'm still on the outside looking in. ( there are a variety of reasons) but it's not like i can walk into Marvel HQ an fill out an application for artist. now do i think this could be the end all to be all. no. do i think this is the holy grail of web/comics publishing. no. what i think is, by sharing the experience that has brought them some success over the past decade, some one inspired me to rethink and old approach to a dream.

BTW i already pre-ordered the book from amazon.com