Before I get into the heart of my argument, you must first understand that much of what I’m writing is speculative at best.  I don’t personally know the inner workings of the Penny Arcade empire.  I’ve never met any of the creators.  So my view of what makes them successful may be (and probably is) wildly inaccurate.  Nevertheless, I hope that my observations at least make sense.

We should also define terms before we start.  I’ll be talking a lot about success.  Success in the webcomics world means getting enough money from your work to pay rent or mortgage bills, buy groceries, and have a little extra on the side for gas money and possibly clothes.

Forget the Craft

Forget the content, forget the craftsmanship, forget the writing, forget the illustration, forget the web design, forget all the crap that ever other webcomic in the world has.  Yes, you’ve seen better drawn webcomics.  Yes, you’ve probably read better webcomics.  Then why aren’t they hosting their own charities or gaming conventions?

The craft of webcomics is indeed important.  But it’s only the first step.  You can’t build a business on the craft of comics alone.  If you want to get to the point where you can pay your mortgage and grocery bills with your webcomic or any other independent work, you’re going to have to spend some time learning the craft of business.

Don’t Serve Two Masters

There’s an inherent problem when it comes to creative people learning the craft of business.  By and large, creative people don’t want to make business.  They want to make art.  Forcing their creative brains to learn the hard edges of the business craft is against their nature.  Splitting time between art and business prevents the creative person from doing their absolute best work.

It’s here that Penny Arcade is separate from many other successful webcomics.  While many successful comicers must split their time between their comic making and their business making, Penny Arcade has a business manager, Robert Khoo.  Robert allows Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik to concentrate on doing what they do best, making awesome comics, while he concentrates on doing what he does best, building Penny Arcade’s business empire.  The formula has proven to be wildly successful.

Get Your Own Damn Khoo

Jerry and Mike were very fortunate in that one, Robert approached them, and two, they were wise enough to accept his help.  Not all webcomics have a business savvy fan willing to make their favorite comic a wild success.  But in order to do your very best work, you need someone else to take care of the business side.

So when is the right time to seek out a business manager?  How do you go about attracting a business manager to your property?  I would love to hear your ideas to these questions because this is the part of the equation that I have yet to find a satisfactory answer.

It’s Simple Really

If you’re an artist, do you really want to spend your time advertising, cold calling, soliciting, coordinating, planning, accounting, or do you want to make comics?  It all seems so painfully obvious.  Do what you do best.

Yes, there are many examples of webcomic creators making a living doing both the comic and business sides.  But I bet they work more than Jerry, Mike, and Robert do and have much less to show for it.

There are people who love to make art and there are people who love the make business.  Pair them up and you’ve got a powerful, winning combination.

As to how to make this all happen?  I’ll be looking for answers to that very question.