[Groop]groo flash cartoon?

[Ruben Arellano]

Call me old-fashioned, but I wouldn't pay for a subscription to an 
on-line archive.  My archive is in my closet.  If people want the 
back-issues, they should go out and buy them (and help keep the comic 
book industry going).  If there was a subscription site with 'exclusive' 
internet material, I *might* sign up, but I'd feel like someone was 
hijacking my loyalty to Groo & Sergio (when you say "Gary would HAVE to 
subscribe", that's what you're doing). 

IMHO, the main problem is two-fold: 1)The cost of comics is being beat 
out by other forms of entertainment, but more so 2)People are inherently 
lazy and other forms of entertainment are more easily accessible and 
easily stimulating than comics.  It is easier for Bobby to veg in front 
of a movie for $5, than for him to read a comic book for $5.   I think 
comics is heading towards being a niche market, rather than a pop market 
like in the 'good old days'.

I think the comics industry has a ways to fall, and the popularity of 
the Internet has a ways to rise, until they meet a flash point where it 
is more viable for Sergio to publish his comics on-line than in print 
form. 

My too sense,
Ruben.

Josh 'Evening O' Jones wrote:

> And I'd be more than willing to host it for free and at groo.com! That
> cuts out about 25 million dollars from the budget right there!
> 
> But what would be really cool is an online archive of all the old groos. 
> I'm sure Sergio (or ME or Tom or Stan) doesn't get much (any?) revenues
> from those anymore, and doesn't Sergio still own the rights to them? They
> could each be little flash "animations" with navigational tools that had
> each page scanned in. I'd bet groopies would be more than willing to do
> the scanning work even..
> 
> Then you either give them all away for free and ask for donations, or sell
> new ones, or you charge a really modest fee for access to the entire old
> collection, or maybe you charge per issue even, like a dime each. I don't
> know, I think it could work. To make successful websites people just have
> to get over the idea that it costs a lot to run them, and they should
> throw a lot of money at it. That's the whole _thing_ about the web, it
> DOESN'T cost much. One person running a site from a $20/month hosting
> account can compete with the 200-person companies burning through a
> million dollars a week (which is exactly why those big sites crumble).
> 
> And if you start charging for content from the beginning, you'll slowly
> but surely build up a PAYING membership, which will support the site
> throughout the process, always keeping it profitable. If you go with the
> free for everybody for everything from the get-go, you'll get a lot more
> users, but you'll lose them all when you eventually go bankrupt anyway!
> 
> Anyway, I think Sergio could make it work, and be modestly profitable. Put
> up the archive of the comics, charge a monthly subscription fee of like
> $3 to access them all unlimited times (payable yearly), and put the new
> issues when they come out in there too. He could esily get 200 subscribers
> off the bat (groopies!) which would be $7200 that should easily cover the
> set up expenses. Then mention it in the groo-grams for four or five months
> (or ALWAYS) and the subscription base will slowly grow. Think about all
> the people who wanted a complete groo collection but couldn't get
> it? Especially people overseas! Heck, to go and find all the back issues
> of groo and buy them all would probably cost at least 10 years worth of
> the subscription. You could sell a lifetime membership for like $200 or
> something too..
> 
> Anyway, if Sergio doesn't want to do it, maybe he'd authorize a bunch of
> independent Groopies to try it and he gets a big cut or something!
> 
> josh!
> 
> On Wed, 14 Feb 2001, Chad Riden wrote:
> 
>>> ME: "Cash in?"  You obviously haven't been looking at the financial
>>> figures for Internet sites, especially those featuring flash
>>> animation. 
>> 
>> No, I pay attention.. I work as a web designer / developer (previously in
>> broadcasting). 
>> 
>>> successful of them all.  It lost 40 million dollars and is now close
>> 
>> across the board, most overstaffed internet sites are downsizing and
>> losing money. i hear about so-and-so laying off hundreds of people... and
>> i wonder, "what were they all DOING??"
>> 
>> i don't mean some huge, bloated site with tons of employees.. i think
>> sergio should have something like you have. more of a showcase.. a
>> promotional thing for his own projects. I was thinking a short GROO
>> animation would be cool. In itself, it wouldn't make you money... but if
>> Groo fans heard that Sergio had a flash movie up, they'd go! And if he had
>> a promo for his latest book up on the front page, maybe he would raise
>> awareness of his work. Maybe the people who've stopped going to comic book
>> shops would see that and think, "wow! Sergio's still doing it! Boy do I
>> miss him. I'll go buy that." I dunno. It just seems to me that the comics
>> industry in general has been poorly promoted & if there's a time to try
>> something new - it's now.
>> 
>>> If there's money to be made doing animation for the web, no one's yet
>>> figured out how to do it.
>> 
>> actually, us programmers are doing pretty well for ourselves.
>> 
>> =====
>> Chad M. Riden
>> ICQ # 9922135, MSN: chadmriden@hotmail.com 
>> HonestToGodThisIsTheBestEmailAddressAliasICouldComeUpWith@chadmriden.com
>> http://www.chadmriden.com/
>> http://www.mangyk9.com/
>> 
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