Patreon Hot Seat — Rose
This is the next of a series of Hot Seat critiques in which we’ll be discussing members’ Patreon outreach. Next up…
Rose
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
This is the next of a series of Hot Seat critiques in which we’ll be discussing members’ Patreon outreach. Next up…
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
This is the next of a series of Hot Seat critiques in which we’ll be discussing members’ Patreon outreach. Next up…
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
This is a follow-up to Episode 29, when we talked about decided when to quit webcomics — or, more appropriately, take time for a creative cocoon. We have the response from the person who originally wrote in, plus we’ll talk about a cartoonist who thinks that readers won’t buy indie comics. Correction: They won’t buy crappy indie comics.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
You’ve been doing your webcomic for over ten years now, and you’re just not getting anywhere. Worse yet, you have family obligations and other pressures that make it hard for you to devote time to your craft. It’s time to make the hard decision — not to quit — but to let your creativity cocoon for a more opportune time.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
There seems to be some misinformation going around about whether it’s legal to ship comics using the Media Mail service of the U.S. Postal Service.
Since misunderstanding this could cost you thousands, let’s get it straightened out now.
Here’s the passage on the USPO Web site regarding comics and Media Mail — with the pertinent passage in bold.
Media Mail packages may not contain advertising. Comic books do not meet this standard. Books may contain incidental announcements of other books and sound recordings may contain incidental announcements of other sound recordings. In accordance with standards in the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM), Section 170, Media Mail packages must have a delivery address and the sender’s return address and are subject to inspection by the Postal Service™. Upon such inspection, matter not eligible for the Media Mail rate may be assessed at the proper price and sent to the recipient postage due, or the sender may be contacted for additional postage.
So, if you’re shipping graphic novels that do not contain advertising, you can use Media Mail to do so — as long as those graphic novels don’t contain ads.
If you’re shipping floppies — i.e. monthly comics that contain advertising — then you may not use Media Mail.
If you pay estimated income taxes on a quarterly schedule, your third-quarter payment must be mailed today.
For more on the subject, go here.
Patreon introduced a lay layout feature today, and that’s great news for comics. Here’s what you can do to make the most of it…
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Someone on the Internet got under my skin, and all you got was this lousy episode of Webcomics Confidential! A poorly-thought-out suggestion for a comics anthology posted on Facebook raises my ire, and I turn on the cameras and start venting. Folks, running a group project is a lot more complicated than chirping “Let’s put on a show!” And if you don’t understand what you’re getting into, it could come back and bite you later. Let’s take a not-so-starry-eyed look at the reality behind group projects…
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It’s FREE FRIDAY! Enjoy this post from the archive!
A Webcomics.com member asked me: What’s the standard size for a comic strip?
There’s no such thing as a “standard” comic-strip size — at least, not in the sense that there once was. But — over the years — a sort of accepted norm has developed.
My comic strip format is 13 in x 4 in. I produce the original lineart at 600 dpi. It gets reduced to 300 dpi when it gets colored, and reduced further 72 dpi when it gets reduced to 950 pixels wide for my website.
Those dimensions were all based on newspaper standards — which may or may not be important to you. The newspaper standards were great in that I think artists were really able to fine-tune an attractive aspect ratio over the last hundred years. When you see strips that derivate from that, they tend to look very awkward.
For example, here’s a few thoughts from a Hot Seat I did a few years back…
I think those panels are way too tall. If you were delivering a more detailed illustration, I could understand, but the foregrounds/backgrounds are fairly simple. The result is a visual experience that feels stretched and strained.
Besides, look at how difficult it becomes to compose a scene in which there are more than two characters. Since the scene never seems to shift off of the “puppet show” panel composition (straight-on camera angle, all characters shown from the waist up), this decision to have such tall panels is really painting you into a corner.
Even when the artist tries to introduce some depth (Panel Three), the proportions of the panel force a very flat composition. It’s almost impossible to design attractive panels under these constraints.
I’d also warn against thin gutters. Using the same comic, above, as an example, the image on the right side of Panel Two almost merges seamlessly into the left side of Panel Three. That’s a sure sign that the gutters aren’t big enough to do their job.
I hate to do it, but this is one of those “answer a question by asking a question” moments. And that question is: What’s your most important final presentation? The very nature of webcomics is that out work will be presented in at least two different formats — the Web and a print collection. And, depending on the nature of your comic, you could very well add more. For example, if your comic is designed to be read on a mobile device, you might decide that the best presentation is a vertical stack of panels that the reader scrolls through. If that’s the case, then your best size is based on the width of the screens your readers are most likely to use to read your work. To make the most of these opportunities, you’ll want to stay flexible so you can make the most out of all of them. But there’s going to be only one most important final presentation. Perhaps that’s a book. Maybe it’s your website. Maybe it’s that mobile environment we just discussed. But whatever it is, you need to make your comic work beautifully in that environment — and then retrofit it to work in those other places.
Webcomics Confidential is back! Today, we’re going to discuss one of the most complicated parts of self-publishing a book — getting quotes from printers. We’ll talk about how to prepare for the quote request —and then how to make sense of it once it arrives! Plus, pitfalls and common mistakes to avoid.
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