Modern Tales, the leading premium subscription-based webcomics publisher, announced today the launch of its free webcomics syndication service for webmasters.
According to Modern Tales publisher Joey Manley, "The Modern Tales syndication service allows webmasters to place a constantly-updating version of their favorite comics from the Modern Tales family of premium subscription-based webcomics anthologies on their own websites, at no fee for themselves, or for their readers. At any given moment, the latest episode of the syndicated comic will appear within the syndicator's own web page. Readers will be drawn back to the syndicator's website to follow the story (which is, of course, the same reason that newspapers and magazines carry comics). Some percentage of those readers will follow the link back to Modern Tales or one of its sister sites, and eventually choose to subscribe, to gain access to the archives (which is, in turn, analogous to buying a Dilbert paperback). So: the syndicator's site gets more repeat visits, and our sites get a stream of new readers who would never have found us before. Everybody wins."
Manley said that he hopes to see the comics featured on websites that are not necessarily comics-focussed. "Tim Broderick's Odd Jobs would be a good draw for a site dedicated to Detective or Mystery fiction fans, for example, who might never think to come to a webcomics site, but who might be drawn in by Tim's gripping plot and noirish art style." The range of genres and styles on Modern Tales is one of the company's points of pride: the site — and the syndication service — offers everything from manga-styled cop drama to sexually perverse anthropomorphic frogs.
More than 100 cartoonists are featured on the Modern Tales family of websites (which includes Modern Tales' flagship ModernTales.com, as well as spinoff sites GraphicSmash.com, girlamatic.com and serializer.net). Not every Modern Tales family comic is available for syndication, however. "In some cases," says Manley, "the format of a particular series might make it technically inappropriate for plopping into the middle of another website. In other cases, the cartoonists themselves have not chosen to put their work on the syndication cart (the artists own all the rights to their work, and have full power to decide what happens to it). In other cases, a comic may be cancelled or completed (rendering syndication meaningless, since there will be no updates for the syndicator's site)."
A complete list of Modern Tales family comics currently available for syndication, as well as a little snippet of code for each comic, is available here: Modern Tales
"All you have to do is copy the code snippet, and then paste it into your own web page's HTML code," says Manley, while offering one caveat: "Note that Modern Tales syndication will not work in environments where Javascript is disallowed."
The service does not require registration or prior approval on the part of syndicators, though Modern Tales does request that new syndicators email the company, "just to let our artists know where and when their comics will appear."
