I used to have something like that *glare* power, but my kids are older and have developed a tolerance to it... :( now I need more

 do they go like this?

Great page guys ^^ Now to sit back and see how long it takes someone to realize Tanaka has swapped helmets. lol just a minor inconsistency there guys.

lol oopsies

As far as the comic supporting both of you, is that really necessary?  I understand that the art is extremely time-intensive, but what about the writing?  I understand that you want to make sure the writing is quality, but even 1 week per page is a little much just for the writing part.  What I'm saying is, what if only Joe had the full-time job?  If Alex was free to draw the comic, it would get a lot faster, and I don't mean to assume, but I would think Joe would be able to keep up with the writing even with a job, especially since he's had a chance to write way ahead.  And since one of you would still have a steady source of income, the two of you could still get by supplemented by the comic, which would increase as the output speed increased.  Also, getting linked by friends with more substantial fanbases wouldn't hurt too.  And don't forget to keep adding merchandise so there's stuff to sell.

Not trying to pressure anybody, I just see too much potential to see it wasted.

 Dat Boshido

First time commenter here, but... this comic is good enough to be making you guys a living. I don't know how big your fan community is (do you?), but you can generally count on getting 1-2% of us to give you $10-$20 a year.

You might want to email Howard Taylor and ask for some advice. He's practically made it his life's work to help web comic authors make it. You might also want to push your store a bit more -- as long as it's not obnoxious, I think we understand where you're coming from.

Relatedly, did you SEE the OOTS kickstarter? That was full of win and awesome.

There's a STORE!?

Soooo if they have, say, 20,000 fans then 1-2% donating $10-$20 a year would be roughly $2,000-$4,000, which in this day and age wouldn't even be enough to cover two months rent.

Fact of the matter is that there is the possibility that they could make a living off their work on this webcomic.  However, it would be stressful (even more so than now), the average pay would be low and sporadic, and they would have to sacrifice their what little free time and sanity they have left in order to work on this webcomic.  These are the primary reasons why you can count the number of webcomics that can support their creator/s on two hands.

So far the method Alex and Jo have worked out seems to work, and frankly as long as they enjoy doing what they're doing then I'm happy.

Agreed, if their community is about 20,000 readers, they don't really have a shot yet. The magic number is probably closer to 200,000 regular readers.

I wish i had that power. *GLARE* and my kids would be thus curbed.
Me: *GLARE*
Kids: *Immune to glare effects from Parental Unit*
Me: *Glare* + *Scowl* +*Beard* + B + A + B + A Select Start
Kids: *Immune to glare, scowl, beard effects + 1 from Parental unit* 

Try glare + smile after throwing the coffee table or family dog through the livingroom window.

Try cutting their heads with a sword. After a few times the remaining kids get the message.

Another way to make your *GLARE* more effective, without ending in prison for murder, is to have laser sight like Superman. Having laser sight like a sniper might also work on some kids, but you'll also need a head-mounted gun.

LOL just epic LOL

I'm sorry, but it had to be done.

So, is Nataku going to try to salvage the ruse, or will he cut Eijiro loose? This comic needs to become super-popular so Alex and Joe can make it full-time and update every day.

No matter how much money it makes, I don't think they could work on the comic 20 hours a day.

 If this were actually our full time job, putting out 3 to 4 pages a week wouldn't be unreasonable.

I know of a few webcomic writers who've made full-time careers out of it -- Howard Tayler (Schlock Mercenary) releasing a new comic 7 days a week, Tatsuya Ushida (Sinfest... although not until Dark Horse picked him up, I think) releasing a new comic 7 days a week, maybe a few others.  I recall Jeff Darlington (General Protection Fault) suggest that he could go full time and "return to" a 5-day-a-week release schedule if enough people subscribed to his "premium accounts" at one point, but when that membership drive failed he had to stick with his current 3 days a week.

One of the big issues, though, is that all of the ones I know about who make webcomics as a full-time job also produce webcomics at least every weekday, and usually on weekends, too.  If you max out a 3 or 4 a week, going full-time probably isn't in the cards.  (But please, don't give up at it!  Just because 5 days a week seems to be what the minimum is doesn't mean it'll always be so.  NNFB is a different format than the examples I know of -- more graphic novel sized page rather than simple 3-4 panel strip sized -- so the standards I know of probably don't hold)

The most successful webcomic I know, Drowtales, releases 6 pages of the main story and several pages of side stories a week. Some of it is premium content (a.k.a. fan service). They also have an interesting way of taking a few weeks of break each year - they organize a contest for fan-created comic strips (although the script for each is written by the original authors), then release them as canon.

 Answer to Conundruum! Win the LOTTO!  A dollar a daydream!

Funny you mention Schlock Mercenary, which I heard about recently in a Writing Excuses podcast.

I think the problem here is that Alex has a full-time job, a high-quality comic, and ambition. He can't give up the full-time job because he has to pay the bills, and he can't give up the ambition because who the hell wants to be a working stiff all your life? So even though I don't want to see the high-quality OR the comic itself go, it may come to that.

UNLESS YOU PAY ALEX ENOUGH TO STICK WITH IT.

So dig in everyone!

Wait, we're in a recession and no one can afford it? Well, damn.

Sadly there are even fewer comics that have been successful enough to support 2 creators. Penny Arcade is the only one that springs to my mind at the moment.

Drowtales. 6 to 7 pages per week, plus additional artwork and about 5 different "sidestories" (those cost to read, though). Oh, and a visual RP and civilization-kind of game (again, costs to read or take part of). And again, it's a full team. And they make most of their money with the "account payments" and comic book selling if I follow correctly. But still, they pull out a LOT of pages and have withstood trough the years (what, 10 years already).

There's also 'Least I Could Do' from Ryan Sohmer (writer) & Lar DeSouza (artist) which updates 7 day's a week and they have an additional web-comic named 'Looking For Group' updating 2 times a week.

RIP Applegeeks and Megatoyko (b/c Rodney Caston left)

don't remind me. :'(

I love Panel 3 oh so much.

 It's so weird that I've actually seen that video.

 No one says "shut up" quite like the Doctor.