So awhile back, Graphic Smash put a comment function on the comics, which means people can now comment on Digger directly.

And this is cool.

Well, mostly cool.

See, ‘long about page 285, the comic becomes subscription only. We have vast free archives ‘cos we opened ’em up for the Eisners last year, but if you want the next hundred pages and some change, it’s pay only.

It’s always been a subscription strip, people have always grumbled, but instituting the comment function now allows people to tell me exactly what they think when they hit the subscription wall. Generally they are not pleased.

Many of the comments are good natured grumbling, in the “the first hit’s free” and “Wow, tough love,”kind of vein, there’s a little begging here and there, some of them are the usual “Oh, no, I’m a poor college student,” laments. (Really, people, there’s no need to apologize. I don’t get an e-mail notification when somebody reads the archives and stops there. I’m not hurt that you didn’t keep going. I don’t even know about it.) 

Couple of them get a little het up though. I’m mildly amused by the guy that saw fit to list the urls of all his favorite free comics, and by this gem:

“Great comic, but I will burn before I pay for it.”

Ooookay. You…um…have fun with that, okay?

It really doesn’t bother me at all that people don’t subscribe–comics are an overexpensive luxury for some of us, some people want the print collections rather than reading a page at a time on-line, some people just don’t do that sorta thing, some people don’t have the financial infrastructure to set up a subscription, whatever. There are sundry valid reasons, and really, it’s no skin off my teeth either way.

But some of the comments keep me amused, and really, what other good are they?