Interview with Scott Kurtz of PvP

Well, kids, we have something of a treat for all of you. If you like web comics and you don't read PvP, we aren't sure what's wrong with you! It's simply one of the best strips on the Internet and has been for a while. It has a huge following and is finding itself popping up in other media. We decided to contact the creator of PvP, Scott Kurtz and ask for an interview. We were beside ourselves when he accepted! It's taken some time to pull this together, but we had an email exchange and this is the result. We hope all you PvP fans enjoy it.

Jericho: Max and I are big fans of PvP and online cartooning in general. We have both had online strips that have met with varying (low!) degrees of sucess. You draw one of the most successful web comic strips on the Internet. You also have very successful printed PvP comic books, PvP has appeared in several magazines and you have an upcoming collection. Plus, you have a new web comic, Wedlock. With all of your sucess, where do you feel webcomics stand right now? Will online strips replace printed strips? Will the syndicates all crumble to dust? Or, will print always reign supreme?

Scott: The internet is only good for disposable content. It's great for news, jokes, comic strips, and reference material. Comic strips are perfect for the net because you spend about 30 seconds reading a daily comic strip.
I can see online comic strips threatening the newspaper comics page someday, but not comic books. Nothing long form.

(Note: I nearly eliminated this question from the interview, as obviously Mr. Kurtz does not feel I am correctly quoting him. However, the answer he gave is so good I had to publish it. Please forgive me. Read what he wrote here.)

Jericho: You have stated in the past that online comics have to be financially sucessful, have to become a business, in order to have any longevity. Since this statement, have you seen a change in the web comics world? Do you think these changes have been positive?

    Scott: I never said that. I said that the more popular your online comic strip gets, the more money it's going to cost you to have one. At some point, your popularity will grow to a size where it's costing you money to host your online comic and it's going to have to find a way to support itself.
    You can have a comic strip with longevity that nobody reads.
    Nothing has changed. Bandwidth still costs money.

Jericho: In your opinion, what are the best things happening on the Internet right now? Are there any sites that you frequent that you feel are producing excellent content? What web comics do YOU read?

Scott: Moderntales.com is one of the best things happening for cartoonists right now. It's a network of cartoonists where you know the cartoonists are actually getting paid for the work they are producing. It's not a lot of money, but it's something.
It's a good step in the right direction.

Jericho: The argument has raged on for quite some time now: pay or not pay? Internet Advertisement is down, micro-payments seemed to have failed, many feel subscriptions are the way to go. You offer PvP as a free site with ads and Wedlock will be on a subscription site. Which do you feel is better? Do you think all web comics or anyone offering free web content will eventually have to follow the subscription model?

Scott: I think it's as simple as this: if your work is worth it, people will pay for it. Whatever business model you prefer, or have most success with, go for it. I do well selling my sponsorships. Megatokyo.com sells triple the merchandise I do a month. It's different for everyone.
The bigger sites are going to have to figure out a way to pay for their hosting eventually or go away. That's just the reality of the web. But there will always be free content out there.

Jericho: Just how successful is PvP? We don't want to get too nosey - but you have a lot of ads on your site and you get upwards of 30 thousand hits a day on your site. Is pvponline.com paying your bills?

Scott: PvP is doing great. It's a real blessing. The comic book is selling very well and the print audience is growing. Our sponsorship program really worked out well too. My sponsors are always happy with the results and I've built some really great relationships with some fine companies.
We're booked through the end of the year. So (knock on wood) we're doing okay. We're paying the bills.

Jericho: You stated once that you did not feel as if you were part of the web cartoonist community. Do you associate yourself with a community? Do you think the web cartoonist community has changed since you made this statement?

Scott: Well, PvP has reached a level of success and most of the webcomics community is still on that journey. So there is a division of interests. I know what they're going through and the struggle of getting your stuff off the ground. I have to keep moving forward myself.
Most of my critics have their own webcomic.

Jericho: As a former web cartoonist, I often struggled with the form comic stips have taken. The web offers many opportunities to be creative. Have you ever felt trapped by the three or four panel format? Have you ever thought about experimenting?

Scott: Never. I'm a traditionalist. I love the four panel comic strip. I love the timing and the clean black and white art, everything about it. That's what I fell in love with as a kid. The comic book is the most I experiment.

Jericho: How much life do you think PvP has left? Do you feel there might be a point where you will run out of material?

    Scott: I think that PvP has a definite half-life. At some point, all comic strips do. PvP is very dependent on pop-culture to reference so it's limited to that. It's not the most timeless comic strip. I never question my ability to come up with a new idea, but at some point people move on. And eventually my audience will move on. The next audience coming in may not have an interest.
    PvP someday will end, but I'll probably just move on to another idea, comic strip or concept by then.
    One thing though. PvP is four years old and some people are tiring of it. Which is normal. However, the comic book is finding a new audience. So to them, PvP is not even a year old. It'll be interesting to see how many times you can do that with one property.

Jericho: You are now working on your new project, Wedlock, do you have any other projects in the works that you can preview here? Are there any projects you would like to work on?

Scott: Wedlock was more of an experiment and it will end in August. One reason is that I have a new project that's developing and demanding my time and energy. I don't want to talk about it yet, so you have to wait. Probably next year some time this will happen. Stay tuned.

Jericho: You got the chance to interview Burke Breathed last year. You have stated that this was very exciting. As a fan of The Man myself, I'm darned jealous! If you had to list the top ten things that have happened in your life, would this be on that list? Where would it rank? What ranks before it? Have you had any contact with him since? Gone bowling?

    Scott: That was a fantastic event. My friend and I were jumping up and down and screaming after we got off the phone. Berke was a huge influence and he's never been eager to do interviews so it was very kind of him to do that for us.
    I've not talked to him again.
    Since then, I've met so many people that read PvP. It's all been great.

Jericho: You got Mr. Breathed's phone number via a request on your site for gifts for your 30th birthday from your fans. Have any of the rest of those requests been fulfilled?

Scott: Got the hockey jersey. Got the articles about webcomics (kind of). That's about it.

Jericho: What most influences your work? Is it your family and friends? The gaming industry? Society?

Scott: Family and friends. Definitely.

Jericho: Where did PvP come from? Who were your inspirations for the characters? When did you know that you had something good?

Scott: It was a strip about an elementary school teaching staff that I converted over to video games. I didn't know it was good until its second year.

Jericho: PvP wasn't your first web strip. How many others have you done and what happened to them?

Scott: Wedlock was the first strip I did on the web (I revamped it for Moderntales.com). I also did Samwise which was a comic strip about Ulitma Online. They both stopped so I could do the next one. Samwise ended so I could do PvP.

Jericho: What do you think are the best and worst PvP strips?

Scott: Ugh. There are over 1300 strips. I couldn't choose.

We would again like to thank Scott Kurtz for taking time out of his success-makes-you-insane life to talk with us. In case you haven't caught the clue yet, check out PvP and Modern Tales. And, I've wanted a good excuse to say the following for a while:

Pooduck!

I feel better!