Q:  I’m wanting to launch my webcomic this fall and i’d like to incorporate it into my existing art blog rather than having a separate site. I suppose it would be a layout similar to you, Kurtz or maybe Kris Straub with the strip at the top and and blog underneath it. What I’ll be posting in the blog is other work on top of stuff relating to the strip.  So my question is: Would it be wrong to post pages I’ve colored for DC (or anybody else) as well as art I’ve done for other people on the same page (or even site) I host my strip on? Assuming of course im making money off of ads.

This is an excellent question. We all know that a blog adds considerable value to a webcomic, but one of the most perplexing hurdles for a new webcomic is: What do I blog about?

The answer to the above question, in my opinion, is yes. With an asterisk.

See, the reason the blog is so powerful is that it’s one of the strongest tools you have in building your community. In the blog, your choice of topics tells your readers what this site is about, who you are, and most importantly, what this community is about. Your choice of topics will make members of your community feel welcome, intrigue them, and encourage them to become more active on your site.

So, you certainly can post work of your own that is unrelated to the strip itself. After all, it’s your work. And you’re sharing something that helps describe who you are.

However, this cannot replace or stand in the way of the overall community-building effort you’re making in that blog.

So, if the coloring samples are sprinkled in among a liberal sampling of other posts that help to focus your site, then I say go for it.

However, if these posts are part or a jumbled mess of “I don’t know what else to do” posts, then you have to do a lot more thinking about who your readers are — and what do you have to do to make them feel like your site is their home.