Known for his work on Superman Adventures in the mid-1990s and for two books about the comic-book medium, artist-writer Scott McCloud is also an outspoken advocate of publishing comics online. So the creator can benefit as well, McCloud has long pushed for a workable micropayments system that would let readers pay less than a buck to view each comic. Now McCloud–who has done consulting work for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and lectured at MIT–is testing this vision. His latest graphic novel, The Right Number, will be published online as a joint venture of sorts with BitPass, a new micropayments company.
The Right Number (a work about "math, sex, obsession, and phone numbers," as McCloud puts it) will be published in three episodes. When registering with BitPass, readers essentially buy the equivalent of a pre-paid calling card, making their payment with PayPal or by credit card. For each episode they view, 25 cents is deducted from their balance. Readers can access each episode multiple times. Each purchase is good for 180 days. And each new page or panel that the reader clicks on opens up within existing panels. "No side-to-side or up/down scrolling for the reader," he says. "Simply click and read."
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I briefly chatted with McCloud via email about his new venture.
U.S. News: You've been pushing for micropayments for a long time. What about BitPass appeals to you?
McCloud: A good micropayments provider should take the user's coin, hand it to the vendor and "get out of the way". BitPass does exactly that. They're humble in their task, the way that Google is humble in theirs.
U.S. News: What are your expectations as far as sales?
McCloud: Somewhere between 100 and 100,000. Honestly, I haven't a clue. This is uncharted territory.
U.S. News: What about the comic makes it work especially well online as opposed to on paper?
McCloud: Words and pictures in sequence are what the Web is built on. It's hard to imagine a more natural fit. Also, in the case of this particular comic, by the time you [open] panel 40, panel 1 would be larger than the known universe, so, um . . . that would be hard to print!
U.S. News: Why has a widespread, popular micropayments system been long in coming?
McCloud: When the idea was first seriously tried in the mid to late '90s, people were unprepared to pay for content while they still felt like they were paying with their time. Also, the early systems had a variety of problems including unnecessary complexity, counterintuitive business models, poor design, unreasonable fees and such.
As Tetris proved, it doesn't take fancy graphics and complexity to make a video game awfully addicting. Such is the case with Castle, a free online game from XgenStudios, an outfit run by a computer science student at the University of Alberta. The game is pretty simple. The goal is to protect your castle from a burgeoning army of invading stick people. As the game puts it: "To kill enemy units, pick them up with the mouse and fling them through the air. Gravity should take of the rest." When the little people crash back to Earth, they make a lovely "splat" sound and a puddle of blood. At each level of play, the numbers of attackers increase, though players can use accrued points to strengthen their castle or even build a "temple" to convert the invaders to their side. Enjoy.
