I too think it’s a little sad that someone would not recognize the basis for these videos, and I tend to think it makes them sound a little ignorant but that’s just my prejudice against non book-lovers. I am definitely going to check out these videos and now I have something to distract me for the rest of finals week!

Looking at this wiki-list of web comics, and reading what Erin wrote, I can see that I am merely an amateur web comic reader, a fringe supporter, a peripheral fan. I don’t read web comics every day, and I don’t follow more than a few, including what people send me in emails. But I still am interested in the phenomena of web comics and how they are reshaping the underground industry of self-published comics, and ultimately bringing more of that underground scene to the surface.

I can relate with Erin’s hopeful remarks about the prospects of self-publishing web comics. We writers can put our skills to use on the internet in a wide range of diverse outlets, which all contribute more to the possibilities of art and entertainment in our world. Even as some web comics fall, the opportunities for self-publishing rise. People are experimenting with new ways to get their ideas to make money on the internet, but in the meantime we all get to read their comics for free.

Web comics are a fascinating model for self-publishing that create content, build a platform, and sell merchandise all from the same original element, and all on one web site. Genius. It will be interesting if today’s little known web comics become tomorrow’s world-renowned name brands. What do you think?

The link to the book collecting habits of several well known writers is interesting, but there’s lots out there on this that I like much better. For example, Overbooked in Arizona is about a book seller hunting for books – the insane, maniac compulsions that propel book sellers – and book collectors. It’s about being anywhere and knowing with absolute certainty that there’s a treasure of firsts just outside your ken, a bit out of reach, just waiting for you to discover. For Gottlieb and his like, the casual perusal of garage sales, estate sales, thrift shops or bin boxes does not exist. It’s a frantic, pressured, insistent dive into an alternate reality where the only thing that matters is the object of desire. It’s an exquiste treatise on collecting, written as fiction, but to any collector of anything, more true than any non-fiction you’ll read.

Here’s an interview with Sam Gottlieb on how he came to write Overbooked in Arizona.