This post might come as a surprise for most of my investing blog’s readers. Lately I have been exploring various new areas for me to invest and given I wanted to make the most out of my Fujitsu tablet PC, I searched about the comic world and particular web comics. I have been reading comics for as long as I can remember myself, mainly Disney’s magazines, Asterix and Lucky Luke. Drawing on the other hand was never my biggest talent. However I have recently purchased a lot of Don Rosa’s stories about Scrooge McDuck and decided to find out more about the comics business. It turns out it is not regarded as a get-rich-quick business. Actually it isn’t a get-rich business at all!
I keep reading online that the comics industry is struggling, mainly due to declining demand for printed comics over the last decades. Web comics on the other hand looks more promising but you have to take into account the fact that it is very crowded according to many comics’ designers and artists. In the end, there are so many comics’ drawings circulating over the internet, that almost no one is getting paid via some kind of a contract. Most are publishing their drawings for free and rely on advertising to make some buck, much like the blogging business. Still I think drawing is more difficult than blogging or writing in general, but maybe that’s just me who can’t draw freehand!
Anyway, in case you are interested in drawing and own a tablet PC like me, take a look at Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. It is considered one of the best sketching software to get you started. Of course you can still draw with a desktop PC, but most artists draw using a Wacom pen pad instead of the mouse.
Will I be looking more into the comics’ world? I guess not, as far as investing hard cold cash at least or time! Perhaps drawing can be a hobby of mine that actually doesn’t aim to bring money at home for a change! If I ever give up investing, blogging and gambling all together, I could perhaps think of myself sitting on the balcony trying to draw my first comic. But then again writing a book comes first in my to-do list!
