Why a web comic now?

 Since2008, all comics sales – single issue and graphic novels – havebeen in steady decline according to ICV2.com. The one brightspot is that for the first half of 2011, graphic novel sales are upwhile single-issue sales continue to fall. (An aside: DC's rebot oftheir universe has given single-issue comics a bump, but there's notelling how long that bump will last and, once it fades, I don'tthink that DC can reboot its universe again.End of aside) The declinein sales of single-issue comics is significant because comicspublishers have traditionally used these as a loss leader for graphicnovels, toys and other merchandise. The Weekly Standard pointed outthis practice in article, "The Crash of 1993":
Thismight sound like an industry marching toward oblivion, yet in 2009,Disney paid $4 billion to acquire Marvel (DC was already owned by Time-Warner).The reason for this gaudy valuation is that the comicbooks themselves are no longer important to the comic- bookindustry. They're loss leaders. Thereal money is in the comic-book properties, which power toy and merchandise sales, theme parks, and above all elsemovie franchises. Since 1997, 26 comic book adaptations have gone on to gross more than $100million at the box office. Twelve of these grossed more than $200 million. More—manymore—are coming soon to a theater near you.
 Italics are mine in that quote, by the way.
Increasingly,publishers are interested only in titles they believe can beexploited across other media, and they are less and less likely totake a chance on unknown properties. Publishingfirst to the web, and gaining a following, seems to be a way tosidestep all of this. Penny Arcade  was among the first web comics to garner enough of a fan base towarrant a print edition (Dark Horse Comics published their booksstarting in 2006 and Del Rey stole them away from Dark Horse in2010), but it's not the only one to see this sort of success.Publishers are also using webcomics in place of the traditionalsingle-issue monthlies to build an audience. Avatar Press had greatsuccess with Warren Ellis's FreakAngels .Even first second, the comics imprint of traditional publisher,Macmillan, launched a webcomic, Mark Siegel's Sailor Twain .
Andif one wants to eschew traditional publishers, webcomics are a way toattract an audience and self-publish. There are many examples ofartists doing just this – Richard Steven's DieselSweeties (which also enjoyed arun as a print comic in several weekly newspapers based on itssuccess online), Steve LeCouilliard's Much the Miller'sSon , and Ben Costa's ShiLong Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk are recent standouts. The lesson here seems to be that an audiencewill follow you from one medium to the next and, more importantly,support you financially if you can gain their loyalty.
Personally,I am leaning toward self-publishing once The LonelySpaceman is completed, and thereare a few different ways to gain funding for such a project. One isto apply for a Xeric Grant. The Xeric Grants were founded in 1992 byKevin Eastman, of Teen-Age Mutant Turtlefame, with the express goal of helping independent creators pay forthe production of their self-published comics. Tens of thousands ofdollars are awarded every quarter.
Anothermeans of funding your comic is to use a crowd-sourcing website likeKickstarter.com. Kickstarter allows artists to post their projects ontheir site and ask complete strangers to pledge money toward theircreation. Artists are only given the money of their projects arefully funded, but Kickstarter has a great track record of helping toproduce comics. According to Publishers Weekly Kickstarter funds roughly as many projects as DC's Vertigo imprint.And it could be considered the third largest publisher of independentgraphic novels in the US, behind only Dark Horse Comics and IDW. Withthe right pitch, a comics project has a decent chance of beingsuccessfully funded.
Thesefactors, tradtional publishers embrace of webcomics and outsidesources of funds for self-publishers, make me confident that a webcomics project could actually be a viable commercial endevour. Allone needs is a solid comics project.
Is The Lonely Spaceman such a project? I guess we're going to find out.