Looking at Options

When I was growing up, one of the best parts of the day was looking through the daily newspaper and finding the comics page. Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, Peanuts and Cecil C. Addle (a local Seattle comic strip) were just a few of my favorites. Back then, the daily newspaper was around a quarter (or so..) and the Sunday paper was a bit more. In those days we received news, sports and entertainment news, all from the newspaper. Those were also the days when cartoonists could make a living from having their cartoons published in the newspaper. The more newspapers your comic strip was in, the more money you made (syndication!!!). Everyone was buying and reading newspapers (in some of the larger cities there were even two newspapers!). So the newspaper industry was doing well. People were buying newspapers, companies were advertising in those papers and because of that, newspapers were making money…and the comics were king! Those were the days and sadly, these are not. These days, thanks to technology, newspapers are sadly going the way of the Tyrannosaurus. As such, it's even more difficult these days to make a living with your comic strip…especially via the newspaper.

"So what's your point Michael?" 

"Missed Approach" by Michael Hopkins

"Cosmic Fowl" by Michael Hopkins

My point is, although I love sharing my webcomics (Cosmic Fowl and Missed Approach ), via the worldwide webosphere for  likes, peace and love and happiness…unfortunately that kumbaya crap doesn't pay the bills. If I'm going to invest approximately four hours a day (28 hours a week or one day per week) on putting out quality webcomics on a regular basis, I need a return on my investment (i.e., sweat equity...although when one draws cartoons, hopefully they're not sweating).

As such, I'm looking at options to get some revenue from my webcomics. I'm going to try and avoid the subscription type services (Patreon and other sites, where readers would pay a monthly fee to access my webcomics), although that is one of my options. Instead I'm first going to try to increase my readership by increased and consistent production of my webcomics, which will hopefully attract more readers. This will be hard for me ("that's what she said!") because I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to giving my webcomics, I know my past history of lackluster output of my webcomics…any yet I'm going to try it again, cause I'm also Tenacious 

adjective: tenacious

tending to keep a firm hold of something; clinging or adhering closely.

"a tenacious grip"

However, I'd like to give at least one of my webcomics the immortality they deserve (that may be a bit arrogant…but what the hell, I'm very proud of them). 

I'm also looking at other ideas for revenue, maybe selling merch? How about a book compilation?? YouTube?? Shark Tank?? Or hey, how about, "Missed Approach the Movie!" or “Cosmic Fowl: The Missing Years”.

So once again, back to the drawing board…