Incorporating an oddly shaped panel into a vertical-scroll comic

Incorporating an oddly shaped panel into a vertical-scroll comic

Building an audience on the web means adapting to the vertical scroll. But that doesn't mean giving up innovative page...
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Webcomics Confidential: Draw larger

Webcomics Confidential: Draw larger

I took a question on Twitter recently: "Would it be wrong to draw my comics on A4 paper? I find...
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November To-Do List

November To-Do List

It's time to get started on (*choke*) the penultimate month of 2024.If you plan to offer new merchandise for the...
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ComicLab Ep 359 — Should your readers be your writers?

ComicLab Ep 359 — Should your readers be your writers?

BlueSky is beginning to feel like Twitter did ten years ago! Engagement is up, conversations are genuine, and follower counts...
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Understanding social media

Understanding social media

Social media is among an independent artist's most frustrating elements. We struggle for engagement, wage constant battles with "The Algorithm,"...
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Writing humor

Writing humor

Writing comedy is a challenge that is made even more daunting by the fact that humor itself is completely subjective...
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CMYK vs RGB

CMYK vs RGB

If you're saving your comics in RGB mode, you may be making a potentially expensive mistake. The content you are...
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ComicLab Ep 358 — “Help! I’m not funny anymore!”

ComicLab Ep 358 — “Help! I’m not funny anymore!”

Cartoonists Dave and Brad share some thoughts with a young humor writer trying to find their Funny. Also: Is BlueSky...
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ISBN — a beginner’s guide

ISBN — a beginner’s guide

An ISBN is a 10- or 13-digit number used to identify a book from a specific publisher. Once your book...
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How to write a Halloween joke

How to write a Halloween joke

On Substack, a cartoonist was struggling with writing a Halloween joke. He was experiencing a common problem. He was stuck...
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Webcomics Confidential

As part of the Kickstarter campaign for The Webcomics Handbook, my backers supported the launch of a new podcast series in which I will interview movers and shakers in Webcomics and drill down deep on topics and information that affect us all.

There’s no better off-the-bat topic for this podcast than Kickstarter itself, and no better man to talk about its intricacies. Breadpig.com‘s George Rohac helped me with the Kickstarter for The Webcomics Handbook, and he’s been behind some major Kickstarter fundraisers.

Enjoy!

by on November 1, 2013
Posted In: Member Benefits
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Webcomics Confidential podcast – George Rohac talks about Kickstarter

As part of the Kickstarter campaign for The Webcomics Handbook, my backers supported the launch of a new podcast series in which I will interview movers and shakers in Webcomics and drill down deep on topics and information that affect us all.

There’s no better off-the-bat topic for this podcast than Kickstarter itself, and no better man to talk about its intricacies. Breadpig.com‘s George Rohac helped me with the Kickstarter for The Webcomics Handbook, and he’s been behind some major Kickstarter fundraisers.

My Kickstarter backers got the first release of the podcast and members of Webcomics.com will get access to it next, with a public release scheduled later.

I hope you enjoy it as much as George and I enjoyed recording it.

Webcomics Confidential S01/E01: George Rohac on Kickstarter

by on October 30, 2013
Posted In: Member Benefits, Tech
└ Tags: ,
4 Comments

WordPress 3.7 – Automatic Updates

For years, WordPress has had an Achille’s Heel. Since it was the predominant CMS engine, it was the prime target for hackers. If they could hack WordPress, they could get into a tremendous number of sites.

So every time a hack was uncovered, WordPress would release a software update — but unless the Web-site manager was on the stick and installed the update right away, his or her site was vulnerable to attack.

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by on October 25, 2013
Posted In: Web site
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4 Comments

Longform comics: Web-publishing approach

I’ve been giving a lot of though to longform comics — mostly because I think we’re at a place right now where longform comics could really blossom. But I think it’s going to mean adjusting the traditional approach that I see happening among longform comic creators. Let’s start with the preliminaries — which longtime readers of this site are going to recognize immediately. And then we’ll transition into the part that I think could really make a difference for longform comics.

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by on October 24, 2013
Posted In: Business
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27 Comments

Taking it to the Next Level – 5 Tips

We have a lot of information on this site for first-timers. And we have a lot of information here for people who have been doing comics at the professional level. But I wanted to challenge myself to write a post that strictly addresses the in-betweeners — the people who aren’t exactly new, yet definitely aren’t doing pro-level work yet. What can you do to take your comic to the next level.

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by on October 23, 2013
Posted In: Business
11 Comments

“On The Spot” Hot Seat, Part 1

This is a new Hot Seat critique series that I’m experimenting with. It reinforces the idea that you’re only as good as your latest update. Participants have submitted their URLs knowing that I’m going to view their site on a random day and talk about only that latest update. Of course, as is the case with all Hot Seat critiques, that’s only the beginning of the discussion. Members are encouraged to jump in from there and carry the conversation further.

The content you are trying to access is only available to members.

by on October 22, 2013
Posted In: Community, Hot Seat critiques, Writing
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7 Comments

Existential crisis: Why are we here?

I’ve been working though Google’s Digital Analytics Fundamentals workshop. It’s a free online course that is designed to help you use and understand Web traffic data better, and I highly recommend it.

One of the repeated themes is that you need to know your business objective(s) before you can implement intelligent data tracking. And that’s where I came to a bit of an existential crisis: What is the business objective for my webcomic?

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by on October 21, 2013
Posted In: Business
8 Comments