Growing up, there were two kinds of cartoons regularly on TV- Saturday Morning cartoons, and Syndicated weekday cartoons. The Saturday morning cartoons were usually built around either a line of toys or featured well know Comic book characters and were usually poorly animated and badly written. The weekly cartoons were better in every quality level assessment- they had better writing, better animation and were a lot funnier for the most part than their Saturday morning counterparts.

Why the huge disparity?

Most of the weekly Syndicated cartoons in the ‘70’s & ‘80’s  were produced for theatrical release as far back as the ‘40’s. None of the kids of the day gave it much thought, but the “classic” Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker cartoons were all made when their PARENTS were children. In most cases, that didn’t matter- a fall down the stairs is funny no matter what… but in some cases, there were very specific “of their day” references that simply flew past the minds of the kids watching them.

Take, for example, one of my favorite all time Bugs Bunny cartoons, “Slick Hare.” The basic set-up was that Bugs was running around a restaurant which was, in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s, the haunt of many a famous Hollywood actor. While at the time I recognized only Groucho in the many cameos of “Slick Hare,” when I see that cartoon today I am surprised how clever it was in it’s use of celebrities. When I first saw it, I really didn’t understand why Bugs was willing to be eaten by some “famous” woman, even to the point where he tells the Chef, “…The Customer is Always Right…” Knowing what I know now, having Lauren Bacall as the “Customer” who “is always right,” was really a master stroke…

Today’s lesson in Failure is: The Customer Is Always Right.

I am not even going to sugarcoat this- believing that the “Customer” is always right in Indy Comics is going to lead you to either the insane asylum, the poorhouse or both, and that is a stone cold, 1000% Truth.

That being said, while you need to throw out “The Customer is Always Right,” and move on, I think it’s important to break down WHY this idea is so problematic.

First of all, let’s start from the beginning. Who IS “The Customer?”

Well, that depends on what you are selling, doesn’t it? And yes, you HAVE to sell your comic to even start this discussion, because unless someone is giving you money, you don’t HAVE a “Customer.” That means if you only do a free webcomic, you may have Readers, but you DON’T have Customers. And if you give a print Comic or a mobile Comic away, the person reading THAT is not your Customer either. And while it’s a good thing to care what your readers think, you honestly don’t OWE those people anything. You gave them something for nothing- unless you want to make problems for yourself, it’s your option as to whether or not you listen to what those people think.

Now, I am NOT saying be rude to people, but if a person who gets free Comics from you is mean, demanding or in any way tries saying anything to you that you don’t appreciate or agree with, feel free to ignore them.

Let me give you an example from my own personal experience- If you go on the Android market and look at the comments left by people who got issue 1 of Robot 13 for FREE, you will find that there are far more negative comments than for either issues 2 or 3 (which you have to pay to read). What ARE most of the negative comments? Why- bitching about the fact that issues 2 and 3 cost money, of course! Funny thing is- out of the 175,000+ people that have downloaded all 3 issues of Robot 13, almost all the negative feedback comes from “Customers” who aren’t Customers at all… Paying Customers, on the other hand, have much more positive feedback, and even the few that have criticisms do so in a much more civil and constructive manner.

While that may SOUND like an anomaly, I assure you it is not. If you haven’t learned this yourself yet, self publish for a minute and you will- quite often, the less a person pays for something, the more vocal and negative they are with their opinions. And yes, opinions are like elbows… everyone has them and most don’t know the difference between that and a hole in the ground. So while you should encourage Readership whenever possible, you NEED to encourage Customers to become return Customers. If that means ignoring some who only Read your comics to give your attention to the people who actually BUY your comics, then so be it.

(Cont.)

Popularity: 12% [?]

Pages: 1 2