Netcomics: First Look

In his comments on this month’s Previews, David Welsh noted that Netcomics is debuting ten titles this month.

Curiosity piqued, I went to the site. Netcomics is a new company that publishes Korean comics in English; their website just launched in January. Most of their titles are webcomics that you can read online for 25 cents a chapter. But when I went to read one, I got a message that only Internet Explorer is supported.

Hello? What century are we living in here?

I use a Mac. IE hasn’t been supported for the Mac for years, so I use Safari most of the time, and Firefox and Opera on occasion.

I realize that most people use PCs, but I think putting your product off limits to Mac users is very unwise. If you’re trying to get traction in the marketplace, you don’t necessarily want to reach most people, you want to reach people who are shapers of opinion and creaters of buzz. I don’t flatter myself that Mangablog has much influence, but many of the smart, creative people I know, artists in particular, use Macs.

So anyway, here I am with my little blog, and I’d love to have something nice to say about the Netcomics line, but there were only two I could read, the two that are offered for free. The first one, Almost Highly Classified, just stank. The drawing was too simple and the plot incoherent. The other one, The Great Catsby, has some nice art but the plot shudders along like a kid learning to drive a stick shift.

I suppose I could rummage around in the bowels of my computer for Explorer, start it up, and then hand over my credit card to complete strangers so I could spend 25 cents on a chapter of Boy Princess or Dokebi Bride.

Or not.

Instead, I’ll offer Netcomics a little free advice. Don’t cut out any part of your market, especially one of the more influential parts.

And if you’re going to hand out free samples, offer your best stuff, not the comics that are too lame to charge for.