Sure, there's patreon but looking at the ad revenue, nobody is watching. Has anyone who's done comic book youtube (without politics) ever succeeded in making a living out of it? I mean, Last Angry Geek is just dead.
Is it possible to be a successful comic book youtuber?
>Last Angry Geek just died
I thought he actually died at first..that would've been sad, I talk to him back in the day nice guy even if he's a bit odd like all Channel Awesome people also yeah you just read stories for lazy people.
Talk about webcomics, no one is reading Marvel or DC trash
>no one is reading Marvel or DC trash
That's a good thing tho, no one wants to read, but a good chunk of people are willing to watch a video.
People are superficially interested in Marvel and DC.
>but a good chunk of people are willing to watch a video
If they were OP wouldn't make this thread
Also imagine shilling that garbage, I know their comics are garbage, you know their comics are garbage, everybody knows, so talk about something worth wasting your life for.
OP here, google "Harley Quinn comics".
Notice how despite all the results, none of them are for her ongoing. This is the fault of DC/Warner not advertising the ongoing. Remember, when people talk about youtube ads, Warner is one of the company buying ads.
In comparison "Harley Quinn movie" and "Harley Quinn Cartoon" bring up the associated movies and cartoon. There is a marketing failure right here.
those are awful numbers
>le marketing maymay
Guess how I know you're from Cinemaphile. Come on, guess.
Because her ongoing has been fricking trash since flashpoint
>Spend 5 mins reading a comic
>Or spend 15 mins watching some homosexual poorly edited a comic frame by frame, probably dubbed with his homosexualry voice too
I don't fricking understand zoomers
>Spend money/go outside
>Put video on in background/side tab you glance at once every 5 min while gaming/being groomed on Discord.
>Two oh fricking two four
>Buy comic
>Buy anything
>Zoomers knowing how to pirate
Look I know we're all out of touch milenials here, but zoomers can't be this stupid.
Gen Z’s 1997-2012, dumbass.
Ok boomer
I'm a '96 kid on either side of a group of 80's cousins and 2000's cousins and none of my 2000's cousins know how to pirate. The 80's ones remember limewire and know how to torrent, and my aunts and uncles all make over six figures so they just sign up for all the slopstream services since the relative cost is nominal for them. All except one uncle who insists physical media is the only true ownership and has several thousand DVDs/CDs and hoards silver.
>moronic amerimutts spamming their forced zoomer meme
>zoomer pretending to be non-american
>americ**t with zero arguments
>zoomer pretending to be non-american losing the argument against zero arguments
kek
Reading is for loser nerds.
You're saying that you read a lot then
>carve out a decent niche with consistent viewership
yes
>review comics and get good view similar to cartoon or video game reviewers
frick no
The audience for comics is so small that if every single comics reader (not collector) watched your videos, it probably still wouldn't be enough for a livable wage.
Have Linkara's numbers increased after Channel Awesome fell apart or are they stagnant/slowly decreasing since it's the same people from before watching him?
christ almighty. I work part time in a nursing home and I make more money than this guy. what the heck?
He doesn't make that much on patreon either. His girlfriend is probably the breadwinner in the family.
It's been suggested that most of the money he crowd sourced for his movie went to buying his house.
Ah, the Great Linkara with his great work ethic, when do you think the movie will be out?
I've heard of this before. And it does sound plausible considering how low effort and cheap the at4w movie looks.
I don't know how accurate Social Blade is since those ranges are huge, but if he does youtube sponsorships and releases consistently, he's probably making okay money. You can just flat out email youtubers and ask about sponsorships and see how much they charge and what they're making off of them. D&D youtube (granted much much MUCH more in demand than any comic youtuber) make disgusting amounts of money off of sponsorships even with small view count channels.
Comic Tropes seems to be doing okay, he’s a breath of fresh air in this landscape of cynical internet reviews, even when he’s being ironic or shitting on things he has this lighthearted corny charm. I hope the lack of updates on that cancer scare means it turned out to be a false alarm or he got it taken care of.
>Comic Tropes seems to be doing okay
He made 30 videos or so last year and almost everything made 20k to 40k views
He's open about the fact that youtube doesn't pay enough on its own. His main job is selling cars.
>those views
oof, algorithm has not been nice to him
Only Joe and Lindsay were "talented" enough to create a long-lasting internet career outside of Channel Awesome, rest were just leeches hanging on Doug's ass hair for clout.
Spoony was doing alright before he got off the deep end. Well, doing alright by 2011 standards. He easily could have adapted to the modern video essay game review market of today by making one 3 hour video per three months if he had a good editor and he wasn't his own worst enemy.
I always feel bad for Spoony because he was funny and a lot of his videos still stand up.
Spoony's life is a tragedy from start to finish.
Linkara could be successful with some minor changes:
1. Get off Twitter. Stop engaging with trolls and anyone who brings up Channel Awesome drama. The amount of time dedicated to replying to these tweets and re-tweeting literally anyone who asks for e-begging could be spent on actually getting your episodes out on time.
2. Get a new title card artist. After his old artist left, his wife started doing title cards and her skills are objectively shit. The same pseudo-anime styles/faces on every card. It's all so amateurish. She also tends to try Lewis in a very unflattering way, which is odd.
3. Marketing & Scheduling. Stick to a consistent release schedule and tie in your releases to capitalize on major comic-related releases. Example: he released a multi-part retrospective on the Sandman series....like 8 months after the TV show came out. Time your release with the show to capitalize on viewer interest.
4. Drop the lefty politics. I don't need your opinion on "sex workers" in the middle of a critique on The Killing Joke movie. Stop spending time 3D-printing rainbow cybermats and actually work on episodes.
Apologies for the autism-fueled rant; I just want to like this guy's show, but I don't think he's capable of this type of self-reflection/critique.
No one cares about Marvel and DC comics. They’re for no one. Parent companies don’t give a frick either and do their own thing with the IPs.
But the OP doesn't say anything about Marvel or DC...
Doesn’t need to, it’s on topic.
Spawn doesn't have this problem despite people who seem to irrationally him him. Marvel stans for the most part.
>Claims no one cares about Marvel and DC comics
>Keeps enjoying Zdarsky's Batman
What did LopiBats mean by this?
If you want to have a chance to make it work you need to not limit yourself like all those out of touch boomers, which means following the market, which means not being a loyal Marvel shill who sometimes talk about Batman.
Talk about webcomics like homestuck, toddler comics like dog man, trendy image comics like Invincibile etc, talk about whatever is popular, if you want to talk about Marvel or DC always use the recent hype of the popular games and movies.
This would be better if you had cited channels as an example. Furthermore, just doing videos on Batman, Superman, and sometimes Spiderman is profitable but not by much. It helps that those IPs have a vast amount of non-comic assets to recycle.
Manga is the same way with the anime adaptations filling in time.
>Furthermore, just doing videos on Batman, Superman, and sometimes Spiderman is profitable
No it really ins't, 10k views for a video you took 2 weeks to make is an absolute flop, also no one will watch it because no one cares about those comics because there is no fandom. You're trying to sell a product where there is no market to buy, like a madman preaching to an empty street
You either make a channel for every comic or you make a channel about everything Marvel and DC which include games, series, movies and cartoons, otherwise yeah you are simply fricked, most comics can't even sell 100k copies, even 50k is a big deal nowadays
There is an entire subsection of youtube dedicated to people just summarizing comic books (and not doing it as a "review" like Linkara) that probably make decent money off of gaming the algorithm. No one gives a shit about your thoughts on Tom King's batman #69 in video format, but people will turn out for "THE NIGHT BATMAN ALMOST KILLED HIMSELF..." which is what most successful comic youtubers are doing now. It's lame as frick and somehow even lazier than comic youtubers of eld, but at least it's more honest about leeching off of comics
There's a guy that sounds like Cinema Sins and does the same for movies and somehow gets tens of millions of views very easily.
Shit like this is pretty sad, considering how low quality ''content'' has to be for people to watch. I do respect the hustle in a way though. Plus these channels are probably gonna get automated completely and get replaced with ai slop summarizing movies, so I don't know what to think anymore.
There's tons of channels out there that's just some actor reading scripts probably written by AI.
Summarizing shit isn't profitable. Hell, Comicstorian recently did a video on how he can't keep going due to how little he makes in ad revenue.
Remember when people did this shit as a hobby and didn't even dream of potentially making a cent off it?
Yeah I remember 2006 too.
Honeymoon period is long over. The internet is very corporate now and it was inevitable that everything would get monetized and everything that can't would die off. Remember when people would spend time on more than just the same six sites?
Trick question: Legit excitement leads to profit. People doing what they love got massive views (before youtube fricked the algorithm) and gained huge followings as a result.
>Remember when people did this shit as a hobby
They still do, there are thousands if not millions of people who post monthly videos every month and get less than one thousand views, just like artists on deviantart or hobbyists on twitter
Naturally you will only ever hear about the one who want fans and friends to talk to or to make a living from it.
A lot of people started it as a hobby in their 20s, made inexplicably decent money off of it, stuck with it, and now find themselves in their 30s/40s with the revenue constantly shrinking but with no better prospects because they have a massive empty crater in their resumé.
Yeah, the ad revenue tried up something ugly. Views don't matter and the watch time needed to make any kind of money is insane. You can read a comic in about five minutes. Youtube monetization expects you to do at least ten minutes. Shorts don't mean anything either.
And if you are say, hooked to a patreon, then its just preaching to a choir. Not an actual beat on anything.
They can put on their resume filming, video editing, ”content creation”, scripting and so on
yes it was called the 2000s
I would fricking hate to be a a YouTuber. Every week they roll out some new bullshit. It went from “subscribe to a channel to see their videos in your feed” to “click a stupid fricking bell to let us know you actually want to see videos from channels you subscribed to” to “make sure you selected the correct settings on the bell or we’ll still just decide to not show you videos whenever we don’t feel like it.” And doubtlessly there’ll be some new bullshit coming soon.
also remember that they have to constantly walk on eggshells on which words they're allowed to pronounce or when, lest google demonetizes the video. Hell they do that even if you were a good boy who does every little thing perfectly. I 100% get why youtubers sell their soul to raid or better help or whatever shady company is relevant at the moment with how youtube is run.
This is technically the biggest comicbook youtuber. He can't keep the lights on with ad revenue.
This is why youtube has channel memberships now. Only sustainable way is having a patreon type fanbase.
I like comic pop 🙂
Also Tiff is starting to become a slampig
Hour long videos but no views. Not a lot of variety either.
You need dirt cheap expenses OP. Or some other biz that takes advantage of the exposure. Unfortunatley, the only thing that would make sense is a comic book store which is a terrible idea.
So, this really isn't financially viable. At least in the urban US.
>You need dirt cheap expenses
It really does not matter if you are making 10k views per video like most of those guys are. Remember 1k on youtube is like a dollar, 10k means 10 dollars, even if you upload once per day, even if your videos can be made in 1 hour it's still not worth it. Anything less than 100k is a lost cause.
It does explain why the only people who do comics do low effort content.
perch mostly just does it as a hobby he has a full-day job to my knowledge and is meant to be winding the channel down but he's been doing that for 9 months now
Does Linkara know about this? Also, why would anyone give money for anything Lightbringer related? The off chance that Lewis is gonna be bothered by this is not worth it imo.
If Oneyplays taught me anything, the off-chance that Lewis is gonna be bothered by this is ABSOLUTELY worth it.
Considering how terminally online he is on twitter, he 100% knows and is seething quietly but just doesn't want to give it attention cause people bringing up or finding out about ''THE LIGHTBRINGER'' really twists his knickers.
If he is online, he should know his video do the same as the guy who lazily records videos in his car with zero editing.
This guy is totally grifting on the whole "cultural war" thing so he probably makes more through patreon. I clicked on one of his videos without knowing anything about him and it fricking poisoned my youtube feed for a while.
He doesn't have a patreon. Instead, he made a shit ton of money on Crowdfunding.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jawbreakers-forever-graphic-novel#/
His books about "Super powered G.I.Joes" are particularly popular with his audience.
Well, maybe not Patreon but some side grift for which the youtube channel is just the store window.
It's funny 'cause those comics are constantly as shit if not worse than any mainstream comics, but their followers claim them to be good just for political reasons, which is exactly what they criticize about mainstream comics.
Everything's fricked.
>Youtube as a grift to sell comics
That was literally Linkara's pyramid scheme. That's why he started his channel i.e. to see Lightbringer.
>Political Reasons
That's a much bigger conversation and off-topic for this thread.
>That was literally Linkara's pyramid scheme. That's why he started his channel i.e. to see Lightbringer.
And Revolution of the Mask, his Watchmen ripoff.
IIRC if that's the one written by Iron Liz then yes, Linkara knows about that and was not thrilled to put it lightly
It is the one. How did he react?
Thanks for the links.
I feel like if you made really interesting anime videos every once and while it might entice viewers to check out your marvel/dc stuff
Low effort clickbait does much much better.
>Anime
DC tried that with their "anime" Superman show that nobody watches.
Why would you go that far only to shill Marvel and DC, it's so crazy to me how some people insist on those comics, I'm sure you agree they have been nothing but trash in the last decades.
Look if Disney and WB don't care about making good or at least fun or at the very least marketable comics you are joining a doomed crusade.
Pretty sure Linkara just doesn't care for most manga/anime and non-Marvel/DC comics. I think he even said so.
I swear comics are the only form of media where you can call yourself an "expert" while saying you only read 2 mainstream franchises(Marvel and DC).
Imagine a guy who only play sonic and mario all day claiming to be a "real gamer", or a person who read only Harry Potter and Goosebumps claiming to be a book lover.
>Imagine a guy who only play sonic and mario all day claiming to be a "real gamer"
many such cases
>Imagine a guy who only play sonic and mario all day claiming to be a "real gamer"
Add Zelda and you have most Smashgays.
It's more like calling yourself an expert while only knowing Nintendo and Capcom stuff.
Which is a surprising amount of video game reviewers.
What does that even mean in comics? Nobody can read EVERY COMIC and be an "expert". Is there a Marvel Lore Master anywhere? How bout a DC Lore Master? I'd say "comicstorian" but that word has been ruined by a youtuber who is clearly not a historian on anything.
Uh, you know that Nintendo and Capcom got a lot of games right? Like more games that you could ever play nevermind finish every difficulty, get every ending, use every weapon and power, find every easter egg and research on it's production.
To be fair there is a clear dinstinction between Nintendrones and "gamers", meanwhile Marvelosers can get away quite often by being one franchise cultists while claiming to know about comics as a while, I guess it's because everybody play games while very few read comics.
Only if you go full idpol these days, left or right.
You don't necessarily need to make enough money to live on. Podcasting and the like can be done as a side hustle, and as long as you can keep your operating costs low enough to consistently make a tiny profit, you can claim a variety business tax write-offs. A lot of youtubers are probably just trying to fund their hobby while also working a real job.
Linky recently had a meltdown because someone gently suggested he lighten up a bit
https://atopfourthwall.tumblr.com/post/731167336506277888/geez-louise-that-was-an-aggressive-response-i
half of those nerds already are at their breaking point and will eventually just accidentaly vomit drama at some random unfortunate fan, spotlight is a b***h specially when you not are being properly paid for it, remember how many hollywood artists go crazy or turn into addicts, well at least those actors are rich and frick models, e-celebs get the worst of both worlds
Has Linko heard of the concept of not feeding the trolls? Reactions like this is exactly what they're aiming for. lel
Ecelebs end up with humiliation fetishes/a need for attention. Even if that attention is from trolls.
See, they hope it will turn into more views for themselves.
See Boogie2988 having that documentary made about him and going on those lolcow podcasts. It's a bit of a grift to being a lolcow.
I'm pretty sure he's trying to humanize himself by showing that he's aware he's the great Linkara aka the Lightbringer who did the famous Power Ranger rant, he's aware he spilled his spaghetti and turned into a funny meme but he's not a wacky 2 dimensional character like Chris Chan who feels like an alien to most people and literally lives in a different reality, he's fully aware and understand what people are doing and it hurts him. So more moderate and casual trolls will leave him alone.
It's the opposite of Chris Chan where the longer it goes the more autistic people realise he is. I think most people didn't realised Chris is pretty much handicapped and can't even clean his own ass and is less like a cringy manchild with a shitty job who still watch pokemon anime and more like those guys.
Giving him way too much credit.
He HATES lightbringer references. Just like he hates jokes about Power Rangers rant, his shit film, his fat black wife, his voice, his dumbass review plot, m&ms, etc.
The problem is he thinks he can just yell it all aware. That if he rages enough hell eventually make it stop. Hes moronic.
He called that advice "stupid and victim blaming"
As if it were some moral judgement to make and not the basics of the basic social interaction
>Dont respond, youll just egg them on
>BUT THEY SHOULDNT BE MEAN TO ME
>Ok but they still will be ya dork
Is he still mad for light bringer?
He mentions it in the long tirade a few times, so apparently he still is.
It's hard to make money off youtube altogether, let alone with a niche thing like comics. The only way is to run a patreon and make the actual money over there and take whatever crumbs youtube gives you as gravy on top.
>gay, dead, muppet, gangbang
To be fair those were all separate images. But yeah Linkara's literotica favorites are something else and included hit classics such as ''Momma's wiener chapter 8'', that one 'wonder woman rape fic he wrote and a wow story about a forsaken cucking an orc by fricking his draenai slave among other things.
https://www.youtube.com/@mattwith4ts
This guy has being doing actually well-researched and well-produced videos on comic book history, and the videos are doing really well.
>I have come to steal your oats
Casually Comics seems to do okay. Not sure if she has a real job, she also has some kids so maybe she's a stay at home mother anyways
The rest all seem to have real jobs besides making videos (comic tropes guy is a car salesman)
does Uncanny Omar have a real job?
I'd think being a YouTuber would be fun if you had a real job, but doing it full time seems like a terrible idea.
>have a 40 hour a week job
>start YouTube channel
>write off all your comic book purchases as business expense
not a bad idea really
Not really, see
The social blades for a LOT of these channels show just how little there is to be made in Ad revenue.
I think its a good idea to have a real job and do YouTube as a hobby /side gig
Basically, yeah. Even Matttt's stuff counts as documentary, having little to do with current comics.
Yeah, and those are some estimates that take in account you are a member of Youtube's creator thing, and that you don't get your videos demonetized for any bullshit reasons.
Youtube is only good if you have an actual product to advertise, or if you gather enough fans to have a sustainable Patreon/crowfunding thing.
I think it's even more dangerous when they manage to be sucessful because many of those guys are stupid and think they will be popular on youtube forever, then they buy an one million dollars car rather than investing that money on bonds or ETFs or stocks or whatever to reach FIRE and the ones who invest many times invest on stupid shit like crypto. They not only waste their chance to achieve financial independence and retire early but they get their ass full of debt
I think Rob Explains Comics is rather profitable. But he does daily summeries of comic books.
He's been getting demonetized for five years now.
Lives on Patreon money.
Wonder how much time it actually eats up to make a 10-15 minute YouTube comic book video. Unless you do a ton of editing it seems pretty easy to do with just your smart phone
just record flipping through a book and talk over it
The scores are kind of interesting to see because keep in mind, Cinemassacre and Channel Awesome both have "B" scores, but according to SocialBlade, Cinemassacre's estimated yearly earnings is $25.6K - $409.5K while Channel Awesome's estimated yearly earnings is $20.6K - $329.5K. Both are a complete world of difference from everyone else's stats in this thread, even though some have a B grade. Part of it might be because both James and Doug had a massive fanbase during the 00s
James and Doug were huge so that inertia has carried on, even if they've been doing the same thing for 15 years (20 years in James's case).
That's true and I also forgot about what
said and something else
Both James and Doug started at a time when it was possible to profit off of Youtube massively, but also for a while their videos were also hosted outside of Youtube
yes, just talk about comic books and by comicbooks I MEAN COMICBOOKS
Imagine being a fan of a nasty wienerbawd like Cuckara.