ComicLab Ep 362 — Your content is not your community

ComicLab Ep 362 — Your content is not your community

When comic creators try to market their comics, they often confuse what their comic is about with who it's for....
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Remove your first panel

Remove your first panel

If you've been a reader of Webcomics.com for a while, you know how much I loathe "magic number" advice. But...
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Key dates in the upcoming holiday shopping season

Key dates in the upcoming holiday shopping season

From Black Friday to New Year's sales, here's a guide to help you prepare your online store for the holiday...
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Webcomics Confidential: How long should it take to draw a comics page?

Webcomics Confidential: How long should it take to draw a comics page?

A person starting to do comics asked a question in a forum for creators: "How long does it take you...
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Comics Consultations

Comics Consultations

Powered by I will prepare top-down analysis of your comic-based business, including: Art and writing Social media Crowdfunding Marketing/promotion Then...
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ComicLab Ep 361 — Let’s talk about your bits and pieces

ComicLab Ep 361 — Let’s talk about your bits and pieces

When a listener asks about Kickstarter strategy, the ComicLab guys are divided! Dave favors the traditional webcomics approach. Build your...
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Reddit posting strategy

Reddit posting strategy

This is an excellent time to start an account on Reddit — or to dust off a profile you haven't...
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Clip Studio tutorial: Adding highlights to black hair

Clip Studio tutorial: Adding highlights to black hair

Drawing a person with black hair can be tricky. If you're not careful, you can end up with someone who...
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Webcomics Confidential: “Don’t quit your day job!”

Webcomics Confidential: “Don’t quit your day job!”

"Don't quit your day job" is often used to insult artists and imply that they haven't become successful yet. But...
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COmicLab Ep 360 — New ways to make an old mistake

COmicLab Ep 360 — New ways to make an old mistake

After years of listening to Brad and Dave extoll the virtues of self-publishing, a ComicLab listener signed with a corporate...
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ComicLab Ep 306 — Is syndication dead?

The Gannett newspaper chain, which includes USA Today and about 200 other daily newspapers, has selected 34 syndicated comics. Each of its newspapers will be limited to running comics from that list. Any comic that didn’t make the list has been shut out of roughly 20% of the existing market. Not surprisingly, most of the 34 are legacy comics whose original creators are long since deceased. This is the end of syndicated comics.

ON THIS WEEK’S SHOW…

  • The Gannet 34 signals the death of syndicated comics
  • UPDATE: Mastodon Aint it
  • Why no ComicLab website?
  • Relaunch a failed Kickstarter?
by on October 26, 2023
Posted In: ComicLab
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Understanding social media

Social media is among the most frustrating elements of an independent artist’s life. We struggle for engagement, we wage constant battles with “The Algorithm,” we scramble for every last clue to success… and we lose. Time and again, we lose. It’s a little overdue to take a closer look at what’s really happening here.

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by on October 25, 2023
Posted In: Marketing / Social Media
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Webcomics Confidential: How long should it take to draw a comics page?

A person who was starting to do comics asked a question in a forum for creators: “How long does it take you to do one four-panel strip?” They got a wide range of answers — each one of them as unhelpful as the next. They had asked the wrong question, and their creativity would suffer as a result.

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by on October 23, 2023
Posted In: Webcomics Confidential
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Doomslinging Patreon

I was directed to a video essay that claimed the recent Patreon update signified the fall of the crowdfunding giant. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the news of Patreon’s downfall has been greatly exaggerated.

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by on October 17, 2023
Posted In: Crowdfunding
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Webcomics Confidential: Don’t quit your day job!

“Don’t quit your day job” is often used as an insult to artists to imply that they haven’t become successful yet. But I think we need to re-think this advice, because — for today’s artist — a day job is not a sign of an amateur. Rather, it’s an indication that the artist is doing what they need to do in order to succeed. And that’s worth celebrating.

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by on October 16, 2023
Posted In: Webcomics Confidential
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ComicLab Ep 304 — The NCS Reuben Awards Week

Dave and Brad return from the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Awards with stories, anecdotes, and reflections.

ON THIS WEEK’S SHOW…

  • What is the NCS?
  • The Reuben Awards week
  • Phil Foglio wins the award for Best Online Longform Comic
  • Meeting Mike Peters (“Mother Goose & Grim”)
  • Brunch with the NCS — “Ya wanna hear about MY heart attack?”
  • Outgoing NCS president Jason Chatfield
  • NCS is reaching out to younger cartoonists
  • Regional chapters of NCS
  • Jamar Nicholas’ “NCS  Studio Chats” series on YouTube
  • The original art auction
  • Publishing on Amazon / KDP: a phenomenal panel by Colin Shields, Vice President at Simon & Schuster, alongside Brent Bartram, Chief Strategy Officer of Andrews McMeel Syndication
  • Eliminate “online” categories of the Reuben Awards?
by on October 12, 2023
Posted In: ComicLab
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The Patreon Content Exchange

With social media on a steep decline, many of us are scrambling to find ways to replace its benefits. One of those assets was discoverability — i.e., finding new readers. The Patreon Content Exchange is a great way to address that problem — and bring additional value to your existing backers.

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by on October 11, 2023
Posted In: Crowdfunding
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