Best of May, 2014
If you’re not a member of Webcomics.com, here are some of the topics you missed out on last month. If you’re curious about joining, we’ve just made it easier than ever with a $5 trial membership. You’ll get full access to the site for thirty days so you can see what you’ve been missing. At the end of the trial, you can choose to re-subscribe ($30 for 12 months of access) or walk away with no strings attached. You will not be re-billed unless you choose to subscribe.
The links will lead you to content that is “subscription-only” content, but I like to link to it for the people that see something intriguing, join, and then want to delve into what they missed.
Best of the site
Critiques: The Webcomics.com critiques are a great way to discuss the craft of cartooning in real-life terms and situations. This month, we offered our popular Hitch It / Ditch It critique. I reviewed the comics/sites of participants and identified one thing that I thought was exemplary about their work as well as one thing that I thought could stand improvement. Then the members joined in for a fuller discussion.
Square expanded the features of its popular credit-card-processing app with the ability to process transactions offline.
Mailbag Q&A: Is it too soon to run ads on my site?
Disqus: A bug was reported that caused text ads to appear — even though users had opted out of that part of the Disqus service. We discussed the bug, and asked a more important question: If the text ads are unobtrusive, you it make sense to opt in to such a service?
WordPress Pro-Tip: Auto Embed. We discussed how to use WordPress’ auto-embed feature to make quick work of posting blogs with extra media features, and we provided a comprehensive list of sites enabled for this feature.
Syndicate content to Tumblr: We identified a quick-and easy way to automatically post your site’s content to Tumblr.
PageRank Status: This tutorial showed how to keep your site’s PageRank status in full view.
eBay hacked: When eBay announced that their site had been hacked, we were out with an alert and instructions on how to protect yourself.
Photoshop Pro-Top: Rotate Canvas.
#YesAllWomen: Could reading the #YesAllWomen hashtag feed make you a better writer?
Photoshop ProTip: Tool Presets. (Step-by-step tutorial)
ComicsPress and Comic Easel beta testing: Our members were given the opportunity to help test out the new versions of these popular webcomics stand-bys.
Best of the Forum
Should I re-draw old comics before publishing a book?
Scanning line art into Manga Studio
How to format desktop wallpaper
Setting a minimum bid on a Project Wonderful ad space
To Do List app
Webcomics.com poll: Making money
This week’s Webcomics.com Poll asks about some of the more popular revenue streams available to webcartoonists. To participate, scroll down the right-hand column and click on as many responses as apply to you. There are sure to be a large number of answers that do not appear on the pool. Feel free to discuss them in the the Comments section of this post.
Last Week’s Poll
Last week, the Webcomics.com Poll asked how many times per week you updated.
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Beta-test the new versions of ComicsPress and Easel WordPress themes
Philip M. “Frumph” Hofer is preparing to release new versions of the ComicsPress and Easel themes.
If you would like to be among the vanguard of webcartoonists using his ubiquitous CMSs, here’s how.
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Friday Archive Dive: Don’t Look into the Camera
Today’s dive into the Webcomics.com Archive comes from last year, when we discussed the overused approach of drawing a character looking directly at the reader.
Upon delivering a line, either the speaker or the character being spoken to looks directly out of the panel, into the eyes of the person reading the comic.
In film and TV, this is generally avoided. And I’m careful to say “generally” because I know full well that some TV series (most notably BBC’s “The Office”) use it to tremendous effect.
And there are times when I can justify using it as a cartoonist.
Once in a blue moon.
Read the entire piece and comment there.
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Hitch It / Ditch It: RocTer
This is the latest installment of the current round of Hitch It / Ditch it HotSeat critiques. The rules are simple. I go to your site and list one thing I think you’re doing very well, and then I talk about one thing you might be able to do better. As always, this serves merely as the starting-off point for a larger discussion among the members.
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Photoshop Tip: Tool Preset
I’ve been a solid Photoshop user since 1991, but I’ve never used Tool Presets.
Then I started using the amazing Frenden Brushes, and those are accessed through the Tool Preset window.
Quick sidebar: Frenden Brushes are phenomenal, and if you’re doing digital art in Photoshop, you should definitely give them a look. And if you’re a MangaStudio user, the Frenden Brush set for that application is nothing short of astounding. And although I haven’t personally tried them, I think highly enough of longtime webcartoonist Krishna Sadasivam (PC Weenies) to point you to his (free) MangaStudio brushes.
Photoshop Tool Presets are a great way to streamline your workflow. If you’re an InDesign user, you can thing of them as “Style Sheets.” Clicking on a Tool Preset will change all of the settings of that tool to a desired combination of variables.
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Webcomics.com poll: How many updates?
This week’s Webcomics.com poll asks: How many times per week do you typically update?
You can participate in the poll by scrolling down the right-hand sidebar.
The results of last week’s poll were startling to me.
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#YesAllWomen
So Twitter exploded this weekend.
It was touched off by news of UCSB shooter Elliot Rodger’s manifesto in which he frames his killing spree as a “Day of Retribution” — retaliating against, in part, women who spurned his affections. In answer to the comments that “Not All Men” are this twisted and hateful towards women, a twitter user launched a hashtag response: #YesAllWomen.
The theme is quite simple. Although “Not All Men” are abusive towards women, All Women live in daily fear of men’s abuse, inappropriate behavior, unequal treatment, etc. — every day.
It exploded onto Twitter a couple days ago, and it has been going strong ever since.
So what does that have to do with Webcomics.com?
Well, if you’re one of the many cartoonists who happens to be a guy, it’s bound to be eye-opening reading. I guarantee that a few minutes reading that thread will make you stop and think. And thinking is good.
But here’s another reason to spend a little time on this topic. If you’re writing female characters — and if you’re not a woman — I think reading this thread will help inform your creative process for a long time to come. This is what real women deal with every day of their lives. This is definitive. Writing your women without understanding this topic better means risking writing women who don’t ring true.
So, guys, take some time and read it. Let it sink in. It’s not there to shame you or to make you feel bad about being a man — especially if you’re one of the many men who feels as if they treat women well. It’s not about you. It’s about them — and trying to understand what they deal with a little better. You’ll see some familiar avatars over there — fellow cartoonists who are bravely sharing some pretty horrific experiences. Read those, too, and you’ll appreciate their achievements all the more.
It’s going to inform your writing in all kinds of ways.
And if it informs your life… so much the better.
Graphic.ly closes
Passing along a notification I received today:
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