By Michael Torrice
MarkMartin.net is a bizarre comic magazine put out by cartoonist
Mark Martin. The front page serves as a table of contents outlining
all of the features. Martin, in keeping with the magazine concept,
sets-up five main departments which are updated weekly on separate
days of the week. Mondays see an update to his comic Crazy Boss. Every
Tuesday a new random comic is uploaded to the Haz-mat page. On Wednesdays,
Martin responds to e-mail from the mailroom. Every Thursday features
the interesting Come Draw With Me section, where web surfers can draw
with Mark by sending in their own drawings which he will add to. This
department is the most unique amongst the rest. Visitors to the site
can see what Mark does to their sketches or they can add to his sketches.
(A personal favorite is Joe's Body Shop where people can dress up
Senator Joseph Lieberman in any manner they choose.) Finally, on Fridays
Mark adds to his Crapshoot section which consists of multimedia based
comics. The site also includes archives of material from past departments.
The content on MarkMartin.net, although at times good for a laugh,
is for the most part random and pointless. Martin's comics sometimes
hit upon humor, as in his more political cartoons like the Sesame
Street Count embracing the Florida vote counters, but often strive
to be bizarre for the sake of being bizarre. But despite this lack
of strong content, the site's format is interesting in respect to
the future of comics on the web. For artists seeking to remove the
middle-men in their distribution, a personal web-site is an ideal
alternative to the current print based means of getting comics to
the readers. It allows for a direct artist to reader connection. Martin's
magazine format is also a promising idea. By separating the format
of his site into five departments that are updated at various times
in the week, he has created a means to build up return business. Someone
who finds MarkMartin.com and enjoys the content he sees will then
have a way to know when new content will be put up on the web. Instead
of sites that say "check back for additions", the scheduled
department updates is equivalent to the "tune in next week, when…"
of television shows. This method of drawing in return viewers is key
if web distribution of comics is going to work. The artists must know
that when they put out their work that viewers will not just randomly
check out their pages, but regularly visit their sites as readers
currently do at the print stands. It would be interesting to see the
success of implementing a subscription fee to MarkMartin.com. If its
successful, MarkMartin.com could serve as a model for future comics
sites.