Comments on: Everyone’s A Critic: Thoughts on the upcoming Kramers Ergot collection

By: Travel Offers

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By: Cheap Art

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By: Brad

Brad — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:47:19 +0000

Is piracy even a huge issue with KE? People that are interested in it are most likely art supporters. Are the other KE’s widely available online?

I am excited for this. I have the Little Nemo book, and it’s one of my prized possessions.

By: DerikB

DerikB — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:14:30 +0000

Sure it could be done, but it wouldn’t have nearly the same quality or readability. A normal comic page can fit on a normal computer screen so you can maintain the reading experience, so to speak. I just don’t see it “causing” a lot of piracy.

By: Kenny

Kenny — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:56:03 +0000

Derik,

I think, and I could be all wet, that KE7 will be pirated. That CDisplay program (that’s the one to read digital comics with, right?) can handle work at very high resolution. What will happen is only a portion of the page will be able to be read at any time, but it will be a high enough resolution so that it can be read.

I don’t think size will stop piracy because a crafty person can always work around a physical limitation when bringing the work to the digital realm.

And I’m not saying I think it’s justifiable to pirate, I’m just saying I think that’s the inevitable outcome.

By: DerikB

DerikB — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:37:49 +0000

Piracy? Something that big won’t easily reproduce into a digital form.

By: Darnell Brooks

Darnell Brooks — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:24:25 +0000

Once I wanted something I couldn’t afford – so I worked a double shift and bought it.

By: Darnell Brooks

Darnell Brooks — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:21:56 +0000

Because of the size, many of the cartoonists are drawing strips that have a pretty high number of panels per page. So in a lot of the cases, one page of KE 7 is something like 3, 4, or more pages of a regular comic. One contributor recently said, “it’s not really 96 pages, but more like 96 posters.”

By: Kenny

Kenny — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:46:47 +0000

I’m in the same boat as Eric S. I’ve bought MOME and Drawn & Quarterly Showcase, but there’s no way in Hell I’m paying $125 for an anthology of brand new work. I can spend that same money a lot more efficiently in other ways. I think an outlandish price tag is going to cause piracy as much as anything else.

I was in a discussion this week where I championed the idea that “high art” deserves more leeway than “low art.” (i.e. superhero books) I think price fits into that. $125 for a brand new book of Batman stories by the people currently making Batman stories would be insane, whereas $125 for a book put together by someone with a track record of aspiring for worthwhile art is ok.

In other words, Harkham should be able to price his book however high he wants. Will a high price exclude some people who enjoy work on par with the KE series? Yes, but such is life. I can live with not affording a book.

(But I think a high price is going to cause piracy just as much as anything else.)

By: Tom Spurgeon

Tom Spurgeon — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:57:32 +0000

This book sounds so awesome it will expand the audience by giving many of them boners.

By: EricS

EricS — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:49:00 +0000

“If I was seeing people who buy Meathaus or MOME, or Drawn & Quarterly Showcase, griping about the price, then I might be worried.”

I buy Meathaus and some of the related works. I’m a huge Dan Clowes fan, and other varied works by a wide range of independent comic artists, writers and cartoonists. I also dig the superhero stuff, and, well, I just love the medium of comics, and I hate to see it pigeonholed into genres and sub-genres, and comic fans classified as either “indie” or “mainstream”. Anything that’s good for comics is good for comics. Period. Be it a $125 art experiment or Civil War. If publishers wanted to reach a wider range of audience, it would make its product available to a wider range of audience, and that means all publishers. $125 dollar price tags, however, are going to marginalize the audience. I am the greatest potential customer for any collection of Kramer’s Ergot. But at that price, there’s no way in hell I can justify that kind of cost, and it’s a shame.

By: Paul O'Brien

Paul O'Brien — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:00:59 +0000

The series as a whole, sure, arguably might be attracting new readers to the medium. But we were talking specifically about this particular massively expensive issue.

By: Nick Wyche

Nick Wyche — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:50:25 +0000

I think if people equate “expanding the comic audience” with superheroes, they are incredibly unrealistic. The superhero audience will, give or take fluctiations based around movies or other outside media attention, stay pretty much the same. That ship has sailed.
On the other hand, look at what manga has already done for expanding the comic audience. It has done squat for the LCS, but it certainly has gotten more people buying and reading the comic book medium. One of the other directions the comic audience can, has, and continues to expand, is in the literary comics arena. KE plays exactly to that.
If I was seeing people who buy Meathaus or MOME, or Drawn & Quarterly Showcase, griping about the price, then I might be worried. These folks are the target market for this book. Buyers who are anxiously awaiting the Secret Invasion TPB or the Final Crisis collections, are probably not the audience Harkham is aiming for.

By: Chris Mautner

Chris Mautner — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:47:51 +0000

Paul — Understood and I apologize for using your quote, but the comments were down on The Beat when I was writing this and I wanted to pull an example.

I disagree with you though on whether this will expand the audience. I think there’s a good chance it may, just not in the same fashion that Marvel or DC might.

Steve — That’s a good point, though to a large extent whether or not you buy KE is dependent upon your past experience with the series and if you like the list of contributors.

By: Steve Flack

Steve Flack — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:24:43 +0000

I think my problem with this, is that all of those high-priced collections are reprint material. The audience for those are people who are already in love with the material, not people who are cautiously trying new work. This is $125 of new, unknown material.

By: DerikB

DerikB — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:19:35 +0000

Harkham and Kramer’s Ergot, in particular, have enough cachet that I’d spend $80 on this. He knows how to select excellent and varied artists, and I’m excited to see who he picks and how they handle the size.

By: Paul O'Brien

Paul O'Brien — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:19:56 +0000

Just for the sake of clarification: I don’t think Sammy Markham has any obligation to expand the audience for comics or to price his book for a mass market. I was merely disagreeing with Heidi’s claim that this book was somehow going to expand the audience for comics.