Modern Tales

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Modern Tales is a website featuring many free and subscription-based comics created especially for the web. It was launched on March 2, 2002 by Joey Manley, the Modern Tales publisher, and approximately 30 professional cartoonists, such as Dorothy Gambrell, author of the popular webcomic Cat and Girl[1] and James Kochalka, the award-winning creator of Fancy Froglin.[2] Gene Yang's National Book Award finalist American Born Chinese was originally published as a webcomic on Modern Tales.[3] Modern Tales has also published several editions of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor comics on the web,[4] as well as Shaenon Garrity's webcomic Narbonic.[5]

Modern Tales is one of the first stable examples of the subscription model for webcomics and also one of the few profitable webcomic subscription websites. Several spin-off websites have emerged in its wake, including serializer, girlamatic and Graphic Smash, each featuring a different editorial focus. Publishers Weekly calls the Modern Tales family of sites the best known pay comics sites.[6]

Joey Manley originally served as both the site's editor and publisher. Eric Burns of the Websnark blog became the editor of Modern Tales' newly-announced free content in December of 2005. Burns was replaced by Shaenon Garrity in August of 2006.[7]

"We're not Disney, obviously, but we have proven that people will pay for Web comics," Joey Manley said in 2003. "I want [cartoonists] to eventually be able to make their living from Web comics."[8] In June of 2005, Modern Tales had about 2,000 members each paying $3 a month.[9]

[edit] References

  1. ^ O'Brien, Danny (February 26, 2006). "The tooniverse explodes". Sunday Times (London), p. 27.
  2. ^ Frauenfelder, Mark (December 1, 2002). "Living online". Playboy, No. 12, Vol. 49; Pg. 41.
  3. ^ Contino, Jennifer M. (June 3, 2003). "Life, Religion, & Making Comics: Gene Yang's American Born Chinese". The Pulse. Retrieved on 2007-02-17.
  4. ^ Dodson, Sean (January 8, 2004). "Online : Web Watch". The Guardian (London), p. 20.
  5. ^ Boxer, Sarah (August 17, 2005). "Comics Escape a Paper Box, and Electronic Questions Pop Out". The New York Times, p. 1E.
  6. ^ MacDonald, Heidi (December 19, 2005). "Web Comics: Page Clickers to Page Turners; It's like manga five or six years ago: a cult audience that is increasing steadily". Publishers Weekly, p. 24.
  7. ^ Manley, Joey (August 1, 2006). "Meet the new editor of Modern Tales". Talk About Comics. Retrieved on 2007-07-01.
  8. ^ Ho, Patricia Jiayi (July 8, 2003). "Online comic artists don't have to play panel games". Alameda Times-Star (Alameda, CA)
  9. ^ Walker, Leslie (June 16, 2005). "Comics Looking to Spread A Little Laughter on the Web". The Washington Post, p. D1.

[edit] External links