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| MARCH 13, 2008 |
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Scott: It’s being avoided, but I don’t think it’s being avoided because the idea is bad. I think
it's being avoided as a byproduct of “We’ll make money by selling ourselves”. There’s only a
certain number of ways to make money online. Most of them are advertising or selling
merchandise. The way you get that done is you have people come to your website to see your
ads and see your merchandise. So if your strip is appearing on another website they’re
enjoying the strip, but you’re not giving them an opportunity to monetize the free content you’re
giving them. PVP is free to read every day, you don’t have to click on my ads or look at my ads,
you don’t have to buy any merchandise. But enough people do so that it evens out for the
people that don’t. If your strip appears on a different site or is a part of a conglomerate site
where that’s not happening, you’re not monetizing that strip. So the more people that read it
there as opposed to the people that read it on your site, the less opportunity you have to earn
money from your work. I think that’s why it’s avoided. As far as Marvel and those guys coming
to the Internet, that’s inevitable. All the media is going to come to the Net, but it’s a good thing.
It’s time for those of us that are here already to kind of stop playing around and get real
serious, because the big guys are coming and we’re going to have to be competing with
them soon. We’re not just going to competing with ourselves and the amateurs; now the pros
are coming.
BG: You’ve included your father several times in your strip. He’s a mainstay as far as
comedic influence, obviously he’s got a good wit. The first time you included him in the strip,
was he surprised to see that version of himself online or did he kind of always expect that
you'd end up doing that?
Scott: I’ve always drawn both my parents as I was growing up in different incarnations. I’ve
always made cartoon characters out of the whole family, but it’s not that my dad was
surprised to see himself in the strip. I think my dad was surprised to find out how popular he
was as a character. He REALLY is a popular character of the strip, and I think he gets
shocked at how many people recognize him from it and recognize me. We came out of the
last Star Wars movie and some fans were waiting for me to sign their ticket stubs. My dad ran
up and said “You want my signature too? I’m in the strip!” That stuff really surprised him, but
I don’t think he was surprised he ended up in the strip as a character. No, he’s very used to
that.
BG: Obviously he is supportive of your art and your strip and everything. Has he ever tried to
fly to your defense in light of some of the criticism you’ve received or something that was said
about you?
Scott: No, I think he’s pretty oblivious to all of that stuff anyway, but he did come to my
defense one time when a family member was innocently making fun of it, saying “Oh yeah, all
you have to do is draw pictures all day”. I think Dad thought I was being attacked and he was
like “You don’t understand, Scotty works really hard and he has to worry about it, and he has
a harder job than you do because he has to worry about where the money’s going to come
from, you just go to work and come home and he thinks about it all the time!”. It was a good
feeling, it was good to know that my dad got it, but he’s oblivious to any online criticisms. I
don’t think he even knows what a comment is on a blog. My step-mother, she is very
conscious of it. She is angry, calls me almost nightly about that, but my father’s oblivious to it.
[read more]
it's being avoided as a byproduct of “We’ll make money by selling ourselves”. There’s only a
certain number of ways to make money online. Most of them are advertising or selling
merchandise. The way you get that done is you have people come to your website to see your
ads and see your merchandise. So if your strip is appearing on another website they’re
enjoying the strip, but you’re not giving them an opportunity to monetize the free content you’re
giving them. PVP is free to read every day, you don’t have to click on my ads or look at my ads,
you don’t have to buy any merchandise. But enough people do so that it evens out for the
people that don’t. If your strip appears on a different site or is a part of a conglomerate site
where that’s not happening, you’re not monetizing that strip. So the more people that read it
there as opposed to the people that read it on your site, the less opportunity you have to earn
money from your work. I think that’s why it’s avoided. As far as Marvel and those guys coming
to the Internet, that’s inevitable. All the media is going to come to the Net, but it’s a good thing.
It’s time for those of us that are here already to kind of stop playing around and get real
serious, because the big guys are coming and we’re going to have to be competing with
them soon. We’re not just going to competing with ourselves and the amateurs; now the pros
are coming.
BG: You’ve included your father several times in your strip. He’s a mainstay as far as
comedic influence, obviously he’s got a good wit. The first time you included him in the strip,
was he surprised to see that version of himself online or did he kind of always expect that
you'd end up doing that?
Scott: I’ve always drawn both my parents as I was growing up in different incarnations. I’ve
always made cartoon characters out of the whole family, but it’s not that my dad was
surprised to see himself in the strip. I think my dad was surprised to find out how popular he
was as a character. He REALLY is a popular character of the strip, and I think he gets
shocked at how many people recognize him from it and recognize me. We came out of the
last Star Wars movie and some fans were waiting for me to sign their ticket stubs. My dad ran
up and said “You want my signature too? I’m in the strip!” That stuff really surprised him, but
I don’t think he was surprised he ended up in the strip as a character. No, he’s very used to
that.
BG: Obviously he is supportive of your art and your strip and everything. Has he ever tried to
fly to your defense in light of some of the criticism you’ve received or something that was said
about you?
Scott: No, I think he’s pretty oblivious to all of that stuff anyway, but he did come to my
defense one time when a family member was innocently making fun of it, saying “Oh yeah, all
you have to do is draw pictures all day”. I think Dad thought I was being attacked and he was
like “You don’t understand, Scotty works really hard and he has to worry about it, and he has
a harder job than you do because he has to worry about where the money’s going to come
from, you just go to work and come home and he thinks about it all the time!”. It was a good
feeling, it was good to know that my dad got it, but he’s oblivious to any online criticisms. I
don’t think he even knows what a comment is on a blog. My step-mother, she is very
conscious of it. She is angry, calls me almost nightly about that, but my father’s oblivious to it.
[read more]