• by Jennifer Misthal , September 1, 2005

With movies like "Spider-Man," "X-Men," and "Batman" making up some of the most popular and profitable Hollywood franchises these days, it's clear comic books are no longer child's play.

As established characters from traditional comic books expand their audiences, another area of comics is working to find its niche: Webcomics. Although Web-based comic sites are aplenty, finding a profitable one is rare. In fact, few make a living off their webcomics sites, says T. Campbell, editor of GraphicSmash.com, which is part of a network of sites known as ModernTales.com.

Despite the affiliation with ModernTales, GraphicSmash.com does not feature advertisements, says Jazz Age creator Ted Slampyak, whose strip appears on GraphicSmash.

Some webcomics artists are resistant to advertising because they do not want to be influenced by sponsorship, says Campbell. As a result, pay-per-view micropayment has emerged as an alternative way to bring in revenue.

"The site doesn't have any advertising...its revenues are generated totally by subscribers. Though my strip has been going for almost three years now, I only just moved my strip to GraphicSmash in May. Since then, I've had over 40,000 readers to my site, with a couple of hundred subscriber views per day," Slampyak says. "Since subscribers join GraphicSmash as a whole and not solely my strip, I don't have any subscribers just for me."

Webcomics' minimal profits so far makes one wonder if they'll ever be as financially successful as their more tangible counterparts.