On The Road To Comic-Con: Interview With Peter Bagge, Creator Of Reset
This is another article in a series of interviews recently conducted for Technorati's Road To Comic-Con coverage. From July 12th to the 15th, nearly 150,000 people will crowd into the San Diego Convention Center to experience the largest pop culture event in North America. All eyes will be on Comic-Con International.
In this article, we're talking with Peter Bagge, the acclaimed comic book creator. Bagge is best known for his series focusing on The Bradley Family and his DC series Sweat Shop. He recently created a series being published by Dark Horse Comics called Reset. He has some interesting thoughts on digital indie comics and the thing that should no longer be called Comic-Con.
We jumped right into the topic of digital comics. "I've already 'embraced' it since I've been doing work commissioned by websites since 1999," he indicated. "I assume that all work will be digital eventually, with print medium being an option for any consumer who wants it."
He seemed far more confident with this transition than a lot of other creators we spoke with. A lot of concerns were focused on individual rights and pricing. Bagge seemed intrigued by the creative opportunities. "Creatively it has little negative or positive effect, other than it seeming to benefit shorter pieces rather than long stories. That might change, though."
The ability to earn a living was still an issue. "People expect their entertainment to be for free now," he said. "Musicians compensate for it by performing live more often, but the only equivalent to that for cartoonists is more comic conventions. Artists seem to make more money at cons these days, but it sucks to have to do cons just to make a living."
There still seems to be a universal concern about the state of the direct market though he identifies a specific problem. "It seems to be almost totally for fans of action genre fiction now," he said, referencing the Avengers, Spider-man and Batman properties. "This always has been the case, with artists like myself fighting against it to broaden their customer base and sell a more diverse array of work. But with the dawn of graphic novels, and services like Amazon, that no longer is worth pursuing."
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