August To-Do List
We’re well into the second half of the year, believe it or not. Now’s a great time to start planning the rest of your 2015.
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We’re well into the second half of the year, believe it or not. Now’s a great time to start planning the rest of your 2015.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
It may be one of the most popular newcomer mistakes in implementing a WordPress-powered Web site. You make all sorts of changes to your site — get it just the way you want it — then you wake up the next morning to see than an update wiped out all of your hard work.
Why? Likely because you made your changes to the original theme instead of creating a Child Theme. Then, when the theme’s developers released an update, it wiped out those changes and set you back to Square One.
Luckily, setting up a Child Theme is easy-peasey. Here’s a step-by-step guide.
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Merry Christmas — and Happy New Year!
Set down the sunblock, and step away from the pool. It’s time to start planning for December and January.
I know it’s hard to get into the spirit, but this is the time to start working on merchandise for the holiday shopping season. In recent years, webcartoonists have offered an increasing compliment of holiday goodies that have ranged from specialty T-shirts and mugs to holiday-themed greeting cards. And let’s not forget to add calendars to that list. Those will start appearing in stores by November — at the latest!
So, let’s take a closer look at some of those specialty products, and how we can start working now to be ready to compete when the snow falls.
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The new Webcomics.com Poll asks where the majority of your webcomics-related money comes from. Before you participate, please take a moment and adjust your mental figures to reflect net income — not gross. In other words, if you made $2,000 at a convention, but had $500 in expenses, your net income would be $1,500.
The poll is located in the middle of the right-hand column.
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Every time I come across a “lifehack” post on Facebook, I devour it. There’s always something new to pick up and use in my daily life. Then it occurred to me, that I’d been doing the same thing on this site for years. And it might be cool to assemble a list of the best — and encourage you to add to that list.
Here are 15 of of my favorite “Toonhacks.”
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This is the second (and perhaps final) installation of the Con Flier Hot Seat. I’ve left the sign-up open if anyone wants to participate before we move on.
As always, this works very much like an Art School critique. I’ll start the discussion off with a few thoughts and then turn the conversation over to you.
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Today’s Archive Dive is from 2010 when guest columnist Scott Kurtz wrote a “Webcomics Intervention.” In it, he describes a fascinating human phenomenon called a cargo cult. It’s a thought-provoking concept, and it’s something I always keep in the back of my mind when I’m making decisions on my webcomic: “Am I doing this because it’s right for my business… or am I doing it merely because I see other people doing it.” It’s more complicated than simple peer pressure, of course. It’s trying to succeed my mimicking the actions of successful people instead of understanding the thinking behind those actions. Scott sets up the discussion pretty well:
I was talking to Kris Straub about this and expressing frustration in the response we often get during the Q&A portions of our frequent comicon panels. No matter how long we discuss the importance of putting the work first during the panel, one of the first questions asked is always about some specific form of monetization. “How many T-shirts do I make?”
Kris asked me if I ever heard about cargo cults. And I hadn’t so I looked it up.
Cargo cults sprang up after World War II along islands in the South Pacific. Japanese and American soldiers invaded these islands, set up bases and soon after, all these amazing material goods and technology started falling out of the sky on a regular basis. Goods that the indigenous tribes shared in from time to time. After the war, the soldiers packed up and left and the air drops stopped. So the tribesmen started emulating the soldiers, assuming that if they acted the way they did, the goods would start falling from the sky again.
So you have these military bases made out of straw and wood popping up on these islands, with natives making uniforms and wooden guns and marching in formation looking up and waiting for more stuff to fall out of the sky.
And that’s what’s happening to a group of people in Webcomics. There are a lot of people emulating all the wrong things in the hopes that in doing so, they’ll bring themselves success. And to make matters worse, discouraging these people only seems to make their resolve stronger.
Like I said… fascinating stuff. And definitely worth further discussion. Read the entire piece and continue the conversation there.
As usual, Gary Tyrrell’s Fleen has a peerless round-up of all of the webcomics-related booths and programming at this year’s Comic Con International in San Diego. Among the don’t-miss events is the screening of Stripped, the documentary by Dave Kellett and Fred Schroeder that examines how the evolution of webcomics fits into the overall the history of the comic strip. It’s Friday at 6:10 p.m. in Marriott Hall 2 (Marriott Marquis & Marina).
Here are some more must-see booths while you’re there:
:01 Books | Booth 1323 | |
Alaska Robotics with Marian Call |
Booth 1134 | |
Blank Label | Booth 1330 | |
Blind Ferret | Booth 1231 | |
Cyanide & Happiness | Booth 1234 | |
Dumbrella | Booth 1335 | |
Girl Genius | Booth 1331 | |
Monster Milk | Booth 1232 | |
Penny Arcade | Booth 1334 | |
PvP and Table Titans | Booth 1235 | |
Scallywags International |
Booth 1332 | |
Sheldon and STRIPPED | Booth 1228 | |
The Oatmeal | Booth 1021 | |
TopatoCo | Booth 1229 | |
Two Lumps | Booth 1230 |
Bob the Angry Flower | Table K-16 |
Ben Costa | Table O-07 |
Keith Knight | Table K-15 |
Kel McDonald | Table M-13 |
Wire Heads | Table M-01 |
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Check back at the Fleen site often, as Gary usually updates his coverage throughout the week.
PBS’s NewsHour recently aired a thought-provoking piece that relates closely to what we webcartoonists do. Calling it “The Artisan Economy,” NewsHour delved into people like us who attempt to launch small, niche businesses based on the value of our personal offerings.
What makes them artisan is that they’re not standardized occupations; they involve what he calls “personal flair” in each stage of the job.But this movement is about a lot more than hipsters bucking a traditional career path. Katz believes the artisan economy can help shore up the American middle class by creating new jobs to replace those mass production and middle management jobs lost to outsourcing or new technology.
After watching the video (below), read the sidebar piece on the NewsHour Web site. It argues that the best preparation for a young person coming into this economy is a liberal arts eduction. There’s lots to discuss!
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This is the first in a series of comic-convention flier Hot Seat critiques. The rules are simple: I’ll start off the discussion with some thoughts and then the members are welcome to join the ongoing conversation.
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