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Posted by:

jmanley

Date:

February 19th, 2009 6:14 PM

Header:

ComicSpace T-Shirt Store Beta Go!

Bulletin:

The ComicSpace T-Shirt Store launched in beta today. Check it out.

The artists who are participating in the beta are great & wonderful & patient people: Shaenon Garrity (of Narbonic and Skin Horse), KC Green (of Rumblo), Stephanie McMillan (of Minimum Security), James Kochalka (of American Elf), and Box Brown (of Bellen!). There are two more very well-known webcomics creators whose designs will be appearing in the store very shortly but their shirts weren't quite ready yet. We'll be rolling out even more designs, and even more creators, as the beta matures.

So What are you waiting for?

That's the end of the shameless plug portion of this post! Ha!

Here are some thoughts on this project for those who may have an interest in the business plans in place here at ComicSpace (and I know there are a few of you out there):

T-shirts have been, and will probably continue forever to be, a cornerstone of the webcomics economy, and a lot of other indie/arts economies, too (rock, hip-hop, etc). However, in order to make money from t-shirts, webcomic artists have generally had a small handful of choices, each choice coming with its own advantages and disadvantages:

1. Pay a lot of money up-front for a bunch of screen-printed shirts and hope they are able to sell them.

2. Depend on a POD service like Zazzle or CafePress, where there's no upfront risk, but the quality is lower and the price per shirt is higher.

3. Have a cousin or a good friend who is a screen-printing expert.

4. Create the shirts as work for hire and/or enter a contest that pays money, like at Threadless.

Paying up-front for a bulk order of t-shirts from a screen-printer makes the most sense if you're already sitting on top of a fantastically popular webcomic with significant cashflow. POD makes the most sense if you're not very popular yet, and/or just starting out with t-shirts; it gives you a chance to experiment with different designs and see what might work and what might not. Having a cousin or a good friend who is a screen-printing expert makes the most sense if you have a cousin or a good friend who is a screen-printing expert. And doing work for hire or entering a contest makes the most sense if you just need some quick cash and maybe don't care that the company who paid you for the design will generally end up owning the intellectual property of that design, and maybe the underlying characters, etc., forever.

With the launch of our t-shirt store beta, ComicSpace is trying a new way.

We've entered into individual relationships with a number of artists we know. We've consulted with them about what kinds of designs we think we can sell (generally, designs that appeal to hardcore fans of a particular webcomic but can also catch the eye of somebody who has never heard of that webcomic). We've licensed the right to print a limited number of designs by these creators. We've paid 100% of the manufacture/screen-printing costs. And now we're selling them -- at the ComicSpace store, on the creator's websites, across our ad network (1.1 million potential customers per month and growing), at our convention booths, and sharing the revenues. It's kind of like Threadless' model, except there's not really a contest, and the creators still own their intellectual property at the end of the day, and the individual pay per shirt is better.

We think this will work out well. We know it will! But we may change things up over time, and might even add some of those other business-model options listed above (like bulk printing or POD). We want to see if this model we're trying works, first. Because we'd like very much for it to work. That's why this is called a "beta." So have a look, maybe order a shirt, and let us know what you think! (Ha! I lied when I said the shameless plug part of this post was over! Psyche!)

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