Even while creators like Scott McCloud and publishers like Marvel and CrossGen were looking outward at the potential aesthetic and commercial uses of modern technology, technology has been watching them, too. Print magazines covering the print comics industry date back to the early 1970s, when it first occurred to anyone that comics were an art form that was worth reporting on and writing about. But comics news began getting reported on the Internet almost from the moment websites came into existence, and today, the comics industry is more closely and prolifically covered by Web correspondents than it is by print sources.

If you ask online journalists about how the medium shapes their message, you're apt to get a curious mixture of bravado and modesty, pride and disavowal. The Beat's online columnist Heidi MacDonald boasted to the Journal, "Online journalism has been beating print for the last five years at least." But MacDonald is also quick to point out that The Beat is a column, devoted more to her personal take on the industry than to reporting hard news. Rick Veitch, co-proprietor with Steve Conley of the Comicon.com site that runs The Beat, has been a vocal critic of print and online comics journalism, including The Comics Journal, but he described his own now-dormant Splash news site as "good at breaking news, not covering it in depth," and questioned whether journalism was "the right yardstick" by which to measure Web news sites. Splash has been replaced by The Pulse, which is edited by Jen Contino and is aimed, according to Veitch, at fans who "never think much about things like distribution or creators' rights."

Veitch recently took the time to answer questions from the Journal about how the Web covers the comics industry and why it doesn't aspire to be more than tabloid journalism.

MICHAEL DEAN: When I interviewed you back in 2001, you said you had rejected the idea of going to outside sources for investment funds. Is Comicon.com still free of outside investors?

RICK VEITCH: Yes, Comicon.com is completely owned by Steve Conley and I, with no outside investors. The site is funded by exhibitor fees and advertising. Steve is the webmaster. We both give Jen editorial direction if questions arise on The Pulse. We also host Heidi's Beat.

DEAN: How would you describe your goals for Splash?

VEITCH: The Splash's main goal was to provide an independent voice to the comics news environment, which had become suddenly toothless after the consolidation of the Direct Sales market in the late '90s. The Splash reported on comics business shenanigans that old media was avoiding. It covered (and defined) "toon culture" as global phenomena. It kept an eye on emerging technologies that were likely to impact the future of comics as well.

DEAN: Are your goals for The Pulse the same?

VEITCH: No, they are much different. The Splash was written for pros and the small percentage of fans who are interested in the cultural impact and odd machinations of the comics business. The Pulse is an independent voice too, but it is aimed at fans who like comics as entertainment and never think much about things like distribution or creators' rights. We also factor Heidi MacDonald's Beat into the Comicon.com news equation, too. The Beat provides a savvy and entertaining insider's view of the scene that fits perfectly with Pulse.

DEAN: Doesn't that mean the replacement of Splash with Pulse has left a void with regard to the kind of coverage Splash provided? Do you feel there's no longer a need or a demand for that kind of coverage?

VEITCH: Yes, I think there is a need for something Splash-like that I'd love to see filled either by us or someone else. Rich Johnston comes the closest right now, but he's a pure rumor guy and he doesn't seem that interested in the truth behind the rumors he runs.

DEAN: Do you feel The Pulse is living up to the goals you have for it?

VEITCH: Yep. The Pulse is providing exactly what a large group in the emerging online marketplace wants. Jen has a real grasp on what readers are fascinated by and what's on the shelves this week. She's also covering the independents on an equal footing with Marvel and DC. I think The Pulse does more indie coverage than any other news outlet. And Heidi's Beat has the scene, the business, and the surreal culture of comics covered.

DEAN: What obstacles are there to the realization of your goals for The Pulse?

VEITCH: Mostly that there aren't enough hours in the day, I would suspect.

DEAN: Could you elaborate on this? Because I think the main criticism of Web journalism as a form is that it's faster than it is accurate or thorough. This is not just a consequence of the number of hours in a day, since we're all subject to that limitation, but arguably also stems from the Web-driven impulse to report things as instantaneously as possible and the inability of a Web news site to afford sufficient staff to cover stories both rapidly and thoroughly.

VEITCH: Jen's filing about four stories every weekday and another three or four over the weekend. That's an incredible amount of work. Feeding a daily news site drains people dry (that's why I had to give up The Splash). But even if a site has the resources for a brace of reporters, the nature of the medium is such that long thought-out pieces aren't read like they are when published in print. The Web is emotional, like television news can be. If it's journalism, it's tabloid journalism. It wasn't serendipity that led Steve and I to design The Splash like the New York Post.

DEAN: Can you think of specific stories that you feel were well covered by The Splash?

VEITCH: The Splash was good at breaking news, not covering it in-depth. Our first scoop was the story about the Marvel creditors suing freelancers, suppliers and ex-employees. After that caught everyone's attention, I was approached by sources all across the industry who were pissed off at what was going on behind the scenes and wanted to talk. Within weeks we'd broken the NextPlanetOver story, along with Steve Geppi's secret financial involvement. Stan Lee leaving Marvel and starting Stan Lee Media. We were the first guys to run Sasa [Rakevic]'s daily dispatches from Pancevo during the Serbian bombing campaign. Probably The Splash's finest hour journalistically was provided by Charles Brownstein, who became an unpaid roving correspondent in 2001. He nailed the emerging graphic-novel-market story before anyone else and he did it in depth.

DEAN: Stories where The Splash or The Pulse fell short of what you wanted to achieve?

VEITCH: I'll always regret The Splash didn't exploit our Deep Throat at Fantagraphics and do the gut-wrenching exposé that the industry is dying to read.

DEAN: Is that your only regret? You said earlier that The Splash was better at breaking stories than reporting them in depth. Weren't there stories where you wish you had provided more in-depth coverage? Weren't there stories where you jumped the gun and had to back-pedal? Were there any stories where you were scooped elsewhere on the Net because you held a story for verification? Were there stories where you wish you'd asked tougher questions or where you regret letting somebody get away with responding to a question with a joke instead of a real answer?

VEITCH: I don't have any regrets about The Splash other than I ran out of gas doing it. Sure I made a couple mistakes, but I always happily admitted them. Sure other people beat me out for scoops, but that was half the fun of it. The thing is, I never held The Splash up to the same journalistic yardstick that applies to print organizations. The Splash was a blog, although the concept hadn't been named when we launched it. The Splash was personal, and humorous and sometimes ludicrous. It wasn't meant to flesh stories out as much as to generate discussion about certain subjects in the community. It was part of a larger gestalt that included competing news sites and the interactivity of message boards.

DEAN: How much were you able to follow up on an average story?

VEITCH: I don't know if "follow up" is a valid term for Web news. What I found with Splash was that stories took on a life of their own as they impacted with the comics community. They hit like broadcast bulletins and then sort of grew or evolved like primitive life forms. Good stories would go on for a three- or four-day news cycle with a new development each day. And of course if a story was really important, other news sites would develop it further (and visa versa).

DEAN: You told me you provide editorial direction to Jen Contino when questions arise. What kinds of questions arise?

VEITCH: I make suggestions about the overall reading experience of The Pulse. If there are too many fanboy columns in a row I'll ask Jen to mix it up a bit. If she's doing a piece of hard reporting I'll read it carefully and make editorial suggestions for clarity or call her on the facts if need be. I never edit the features or interviews.

DEAN: Can you think of specific instances of editorial direction that you gave to her?

VEITCH: Just recently we were listed as unsecured creditors in the CrossGen bankruptcy. I wrote a boilerplate sentence that we stick in every story we do on the court proceedings so readers know we are financially connected to the outcome. In all the time Jen has written for The Pulse, I can only think of two times we got something really wrong. One was a story we did on Bulldog Productions that somehow got put up without Steve or I having a chance to edit it. The story led off with some unconfirmed rumors, and we took it down and had Jen rewrite it to lead with the facts -- putting the rumors at the end, clearly labeled as such. The second problem came after a certain comics industry personality was indicted for a federal crime. Jen mistakenly wrote that he had been convicted. A sharp-eyed message-board poster caught it and we corrected it within minutes. Two mistakes over two years is an exceptionally good track record, but we still owe it to our readers to be straight with them when we screw up.

DEAN: How much did The Splash (and now The Pulse) have in the way of paid staff?

VEITCH: Steve and I don't get paid for doing Comicon. On The Splash we were able to scrounge a few hundred dollars of sponsorship every now and then to keep Charles Brownstein in cigarettes and plane tickets. Currently Jen is on staff with The Pulse and pulls in a real paycheck.

DEAN: How would you assess the state of comics journalism on the Web today?

VEITCH: I don't know if "journalism" is the right yardstick by which to measure Web news. The Internet is a Frankenstein sewn together from equal parts of print, television and the interactivity of users. Its immediacy has changed how we all think of news and how newsmakers shape their messages. Clearly it's become indispensable to the lion's share of comics readers. They want to know what's exciting and happening now, not next week or next month. At this moment I see the whole online news scene changing in a positive way. There's lots of good Splash's out there now in the Blogosphere. And advertising is picking up, which will mean more money to pay more reporters and expand coverage on all the sites.

DEAN: Are there specific websites that you would say are doing a good job or not such a good job?

VEITCH: I think each site has its strengths and its weaknesses. But a reader doesn't just go to The Pulse; they also check The Beat, CBR, Newsarama and Rich Johnston. They have their favorite blogs and online comics. They participate in message boards, which are like big, interactive letters pages. They read Previews online. We've arrived at the point where we all custom-create our own magazine about comics and read it every day online for free!

In TCJ #265, the Journal will take a closer look at the track record of online news, and talk to The Pulse's Jen Contino, The Beat's Heidi MacDonald, Newsarama's Matt Brady, Lying in the Gutters' Rich Johnston and other Web-journalists about what kind of yardstick online journalism ought to be measured by.

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