I’m not a comic author or publisher, just a young, naive consumer, so take the following opinion with a huge chunk of salt:

If authors and publishers don’t get paid (enough) for their work, they may go extinct. But it may not ever have been realistic to turn an activity with such a high ratio of participants into a full-time job, especially via the traditional high-cost model of publishing.

The truth is, furry comics *are* being published – for free, on the Internet. When it is done as a business, the model relies on selling “extras” (print copies, posters, etc.) to dedicated fans, and increasing their number to the point where it is profitable. What you see as “generosity” is a necessary form of marketing for the real product – the extras.

As always, selling your product relies on attracting the limited attention of those with money. Now, though, you can afford to give away more, as the cost of distribution is essentially zero. This means you *must* do so, else others will acquire the audience, leaving you with nothing.

The mistake is thinking that webcomic artists somehow graduate to “proper” comics. That ship has sailed. The paying audience is online. This is how we access your work. Unfortunately, we can also access everyone else’s work, so unless you provide something nobody else comes close to, you have to match their price and find other ways to earn money.

Some artists turn a profit from this model – but not many. That happened when the printing press arrived, too; a lot of monks went out of business, despite putting out good product, because they couldn’t compete on a price basis. My heart goes out to you, but the market for what you’re selling just isn’t there – and it won’t be, since you’re following a model that isn’t as efficient as the new one.

That I didn’t and Edd did, is probably why there aren’t many furry comics being published. There is a lot of furry art on line, but it depends entirely on the artists being stu… nai… *generous* enough to give their work away.

My congratulations to Taral on being appointed Fan Guest of Honor at this year’s World Science Fiction Convention.

One of the things not anticipated has been the rise of fursuiting, which has gone hand-in-hand with the rise of conventions. This in turn has brought a new set of fans, and a new reason for existing fans to get together. This is another dimension – but it is on the same level as the original. Most fursuiters and fursuit makers are not professionals. They are doing it because it is fun, and – in some cases – because it makes them a bit of money.

And I think that is how it should be. We’re not anime, or sci-fi. We’re not big business. We’re creators, not followers. I just hope this remains true for the next fifteen years.