Category: Insurgent Creative

One of the most exciting things about this new era of Insurgent Creatives is seeing independent entrepreneurs figure out their own paths to selling creative output online. New business models are popping up every day, and we can learn from all of them.

I find this idea particularly brilliant. Tom Tullis and his company, Fat Dragon Games, have for years been selling printable files for cardstock miniatures and terrain. They’re probably the best in the business in that category, in my opinion.

They’ve decided to take it to the next step, given the home 3D-printing revolution that is only just now beginning. They’re selling ready-for-3D-printing .stl files of 28mm fantasy miniatures:

3D PRINTER MINIATURES ARE HERE! This set features .stl files for five different 28mm scale orc miniatures, all designed to print as-is without additional printing supports and minimal cleanup (each miniature in the photo had less than 1 minute of trimwork done, mainly stringing.) The best part about 3D .stl minis is once you buy the set, you can print massive armies and never run out (average plastic cost per mini is about 5 cents each!)

That’s just a great idea. 5 bucks, and you get 5 professionally-designed files, and you can print as many as you want, for about 5 cents in plastic per figure. I expect that we’re going to see more and more of this as 3D printing becomes more common.

To quote Hamilton, the musical that I’ve been listening to quite a bit recently:

Look around, look around, how lucky we are to be alive right now…

Right?

Get to work. You’ve got stuff to create.

 

 

I know, I know — it’s been ages since I’ve posted. The realities of life as a Creative: Time gets away from you as you get busy, and things need to be prioritized. The ol’ blog here has been largely ignored, as I’ve concentrated on three things: One, getting the famously-delayed FAR WEST finished. Two, working my side-gig as a Game Design teacher at the Kansas City Art Institute. And Three, EVERYTHING ELSE.

But, I saw this earlier today, and it definitely falls into the sort of information that I’ve provided here as part of the Insurgent Creative series, so here we are again.

Over on The Observer, they’ve done a four-part series about the changing business model of Webcomics — from it’s beginnings in the early days of the internet, through it’s early-2000s advertising-monetized boom, through the days of merch and T-shirts, and now, in the post-merch, social-media era. It’s definitely worth your time to read, not just if you’re interested in webcomics, but if you make a living offering any sort of creative output online. Remember: the biggest problems that various media have had in the internet age has been failure to look outside of their own silos, and learn the lessons of what other media have gone through.

So here are the articles (there are also links to all at the end of each article):

PART ONE: The Webcomics Business Is Moving On From Webcomics.

PART TWO: Patreon, Webcomics, & Getting By.

PART THREE: The Changing Internet Through Webcomics.

PART FOUR: Lessons In Creativity From Successful Webcomic Artists.

There ya go. Read. Absorb. Add the info to your arsenal.

Go forth and create.