The news that Diamond, the sole distributor for print comics to comics stores, has raised its minimums has prompted some serious examination of the whole comic marketing system, and there’s no doubt that webcomics and other electronic media are suddenly looking better and better. Sean Kleefeld’s post about rethinking your comics habits seems eerily prescient, even though it was only written two weeks ago.

Kleefeld has more to say after the fact, of course, and he points out that Dwight MacPherson has been taking a nuts-and-bolts look at a lot of alternate distribution options, including Wowio and IndyPlanet, a print-on-demand site, webcomics, and a handful of other sites, including e-books and Eagle One Media, which runs an online store where readers can purchase PDFs of comics from a variety of publishers for as little as 99 cents. Along the way, MacPherson asks creators and publishers to rethink what they want.

Kleefeld also links to Brian Clevinger, who explains why the shift to webcomics has been inevitable for some time now: Print comics expensive, webcomics cheap. He’s not the first to make that argument; here’s an older post from a superhero guy making that point and noting that digital also allows more freedom from the constraints of format.

In fact, digital comics are one of the factors making that whole comics culture of Previews and pull lists and dark little stores in out-of-the-way places increasingly irrelevant. Try explaining the Diamond system to a civilian: You have to go to a special store, and you pre-order the comics from a catalogue—yes, you are supposed to pay for the catalogue—and then you get them two months later, but of course they might change from the catalogue description in the meantime, and—hey, where are you going?

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I do my best to keep the webcomics conversations around here as positive as possible, but the folks over at Comics Worth Reading have taken a special interest in Zuda winner, The Black Cherry Bombshells, particularly the (perceived) desire to alienate all women from the Zuda brand.

Taking a look at the promo art for the strip (which CWR also notes is “non-representative of what it’s supposed to be selling”) it’s hard to argue with the over-sexed, scantily-clad images of the women who are admittedly nothing like the cartoony depictions seen in the comic (the actual content style can be seen on a small film strip, surely meant to invoke the recent, overly-indulgent Grind House double feature).

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I kick off the 2009 bloggin’ year (what? It’s still January) with a post about what else? Other people talking about webcomics that I would also like to comment on.

This instance is a very special one, however, as it’s the folks over at CNN.com who are asking the age-old question, “Where do you read your comics?” See, many people still insist on getting their strip fix in the good ol’ fashioned Funnies section of their local paper (primer: A large, printed daily blog with a record of all the local goings-on). Why they feel they must, when the Funnies section typically doesn’t live up to its name, is a concept those who have made the digital transition can’t comprehend.

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…this speech is pretty sweet.

Of course I’m a huge nerd and get a huge kick out of this kind of stuff.

Thanks be unto Scott Johnson for posting this on his site first.

This New York Times article about newspaper comic strips going on the web contains a lot of information of interest to webcomics folks, although it’s mostly about Comics.com and their move from a partial subscription to a totally free model. The article raises a lot of familiar issues such as subscription vs. free models, using ads as a revenue stream, and using the free comics to build a fan base for the paid model (in this case, newspaper syndication rather than print volumes). Uclick and their iPhone applications also get a mention. The article is curiously uncritical about content, though; it would seem that if you’re trying to bring in a younger audience, dropping outmoded strips like Hi and Lois or unfunny comics like Garfield and Marvin might be a good starting point.

Also at the Times: An article about The Original Johnson, a bio-comic about Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion. (Both NYT links are via The Beat.)

Kidjutsu is a new website that aggregates all-ages webcomics in a single site with a nice, simple interface. There are some old favorites there (Inverloch, Elf ‘n’ Troll) as well as a slew of new comics I had never heard of. It’s a nice place to go exploring if you get bored over the holidays. Although all the comics are kid-friendly, they aren’t all juvenile; we just gave Kitty Hawk a nice review here at DS without even thinking of it as a kids’ comic.

Sabrina Fritz has an interview up with Sarah Ellerton (Inverloch, The Phoenix Requiem) at Good Comics for Kids, the other blog I edit.

At Comic Book Resources, Shaun Manning talks to Jamaica Dyer about The Wine Hobo, her new comic at MySpace Dark Horse Presents, as well as her independent webcomic, Weird Fishes. Click for some lovely art!

The revamped Blog@Newsarama is sort of a mixed bag; I have to admit I miss the old gang not only because they were really good writers but also because they covered a broader range of material. But I’ll give Sarah Jaffe credit for trying; she admits she doesn’t know much about webcomics and asks the internet for suggestions. The internet, naturally, responded. A post like this is always a good way to find some new webcomics, so go, check out the comments thread, and maybe pimp your own comic (or your favorite) as well.

Webcomics.com continues to deliver a steady stream of interesting, practical content, including recent tutorials on coloring by Tony Piro, creator of Calamities of Nature, and Ed Ryzowski of Evil, Inc.

Johanna Draper Carlson reviews two print versions of popular webcomics, My Poorly Drawn Life and Templar, Arizona, at Comics Worth Reading, and concludes that both work better as webcomics.