This is an excellent time to start an account on Reddit — or to dust off a profile you haven’t used in ages. With 52 million active users and passionate communities, Reddit can help bolster the engagement you’re losing at Twitter.
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Drawing a person with black hair can be tricky. If you’re not careful, you can end up with someone who looks like a stack of vinyl records melted on their head! This three-minute Clip Studio Paint tutorial shows my method for adding intricate-looking (but easy-to-do) highlights that will allow color to radiate through, giving your character a textured and nuanced appearance.
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“Don’t quit your day job” is often used to insult artists and imply that they haven’t become successful yet. But we need to rethink this advice because — for today’s artists — a day job is not a sign of an amateur. Rather, it indicates that the artist is doing what they must to succeed, and that’s worth celebrating.
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After years of listening to Brad and Dave extoll the virtues of self-publishing, a ComicLab listener signed with a corporate publisher. Poor sales and paltry marketing left them dissatisfied. So of course, they wrote in with one burning question: Who should I sign with next? Also, should you ever explain a joke?
Topics
Summary
In this episode of Comic Lab, hosts Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett discuss the intricacies of publishing comics, publishers’ expectations, and the benefits of self-publishing. They delve into the importance of audience engagement, the challenges of explaining jokes, and the recent trademark changes in the comic industry. The conversation emphasizes the need for creators to focus on their craft and the passion behind their work rather than getting bogged down by negative feedback or industry norms.
Takeaways
With social media on a steep decline, many of us are scrambling to find ways to replace its benefits. One of those assets was discoverability — i.e., finding new readers. A Content Exchange is a great way to address that problem — and bring additional value to your existing backers.
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Building an audience on the web means adapting to the vertical scroll. But that doesn’t mean giving up innovative page designs! You can still feature horizontal panels and even overlapping panels on the page of your graphic novel. You simply need to plan ahead. Here’s a step-by-step guide on doing precisely that.
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It’s time to get started on (*choke*) the penultimate month of 2024.
If you plan to offer new merchandise for the holiday shopping season, get moving now.
BlueSky is beginning to feel like Twitter did ten years ago! Engagement is up, conversations are genuine, and follower counts are rising — with actual people! Is it too good to be true? Also, encouraging your readers to take a hand in writing your comic may be good community building… but is it good writing?
On today’s show
Summary
In this conversation, Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett explore the emerging social media platform Blue Sky, sharing their experiences and predictions about its potential growth. Next, they tackle the topic of reader input in storytelling, debating its merits and drawbacks in the creative process.
In the second half, Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett discuss the effectiveness of social media versus personal outreach for comic creators, emphasizing the scalability of social media. They explore the historical context of the printing press as a metaphor for reaching larger audiences today through digital platforms. The conversation shifts to comparing Patreon and Substack for monetization, with a consensus that Patreon currently offers more reliable performance. Finally, they provide insights on starting a business as a comic creator, highlighting the importance of understanding legal structures and the practicality of beginning as a sole proprietor.
Takeaways
Social media is among an independent artist’s most frustrating elements. We struggle for engagement, wage constant battles with “The Algorithm,” scramble for every last clue to success… and lose. Time and again, we lose. It’s a little overdue to closely examine what’s happening here.
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