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get demographic is obviously web-savvy.

Hmmm, I think.

Chris and I talk about the pros-and-cons of launching any new business, much less one designed at the get-go to compete, if not exactly head-to head with an established brand, at least playing on the same field for the same dollars from an under-served audience. I start to see so many paral lels with the comics industry that I have to just come out and ask Chris what the one thing is that makes the very concept of the XFL so appealing to him. “It’s the all-access pass you get to see the games,” he says. “All the cam eras on the field, the miked players and refs… there’s a camera crew on the field during plays. It’s like you’re really there. You can see it all.” And what Chris pointed out in his, frankly, quite charming enthusiasm is pretty much the broad appeal of the XFL, it seems to me: you can see it all. As the good guy says, “Magic ain’t nothin’ but a bunny and a hat” and there is an undeniable appeal to seeing behind the curtain and knowing how the tricks are done. This appeal is obviously shared by those web-savvy cats who bought all the XFL season tickets, you can be sure. Folks who use the Internet are early adopters of nascent technology, which is just a fancy new-media way of saying they like to be in on The Secret. To see behind the curtain. To be First On Their Block. But I can’t help but think that the XFL’s in trouble, in the long run, because I’m pretty sure this is what happened to comics. Right around the time the Internet started becoming a way to get instant information, the marketing of comics started to lose its luster. The sources of information on comics news shifted from print sources like The Comics Buyer’s Guide and Amazing Heroes to websites like Comic Book Resources and Digital Webbing. It’s the way we were raised; the way we were marketed to as kids.

Why provide in-depth analysis of an art form, when you can break news about it as fast as you can type html?

But delivering instant gratification will callous your audience, eventually, if not initially. Glen Gordon Caron probably calls this “The Moonlighting Effect” as he mutters around the house in his pajamas.

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