Cartoonists Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett get a case of déjà vu when a new crowdfunding service reminds them of an old scheme that crashed and burned. Then, a listener writes in to complain “It’s Friday and I’m not famous!”
ON THIS WEEK’S SHOW…
Subless — A new crowdfunding service based on an old idea
“It’s Friday and I’m not famous!”
Weekend Web traffic
Today is a great time to bump up your ComicLab membership to the $10 tier! Patreon backers at that level will get exclusive access to livestream recording sessions — as well as an archive of previous livestreams!
Recently, a comics artist decided to remove the paywall for their Patreon campaign, asking instead that people take a look at the previously exclusive content and support the artist if they liked what they saw. Predictably, it had disastrous results.
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There’s a discussion on Reddit that I want to call your attention to for two reasons. First: It’s packed with some really good tips on writing marketing/promotional text. Second: One writer’s response to that advice is a microcosm of everything that’s wrong with many artists who find themselves trying to build a business.
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If you’re saving your comics in RGB mode, you may be making a potentially expensive mistake.
First, we’ll start with the age-old conundrum of CMYK vs RGB.
CMYK: This mode is used for an image that will be printed at some point. It gets its name from the four inks used in process printing: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (which is designated “K” to avoid confusion with cyan, which is sometimes called “Blue” by some old-timers). Using these four inks, printers can create a spectrum of five-or-six thousand colors on paper.
RGB: Named for the three color of light that monitors use to create images (Red, Green, and Blue), RGB mode is used for images that are intended to be seen on TV or computer monitors. A spectrum of 16.8 million colors is possible using RGB mode — far more than CMYK mode.
I strongly recommend working in CMYK mode for the simple reason that there are some RGB colors that are impossible to achieve in CMYK, whereas the transition from CMYK to RGB is rather smooth.
If printing a book is in your future (and it is, if you’re planning to grow your business), CMYK colors are a must.
This is true despite the fact that POD printers will happily accept RGB files for print. Offset printers (like Transcontinental), however, will insist on CMYK files. And as your business grows, switching to offset printing will become imperative if you’re going to reduce unit costs and maximize profits.
So my advice is to work in CMYK in your first step. It’s much better than being faced with trying to adjust a few hundred RGB files a few years from now.
Why not both?
This presents a potential problem for some colorists who prefer to work in RGB to make use of the Photoshop filters (and other tools that are RGB-only). Luckily, there’s a workaround for that:
In Photoshop, go to View -> Proof Setup and select Working CMYK (it may already be selected by default).
Next, select View -> Proof Colors.
Your image will still be RGB, but you will be seeing it as it will look after it is converted.
BEWARE, however. You will still need to convert that image to CMYK when you’re done — preferably before you trap the colors under the lineart. It is still an RGB image until you have done so!
Cartoonists Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett give advice to a comics artist who realizes that they’d accidentally plagiarized a character from someone else… but they like their character so much they just don’t want to change it! Is there a plagiarism loophole? But FIRST… there’s a lot of news and updates to cover!
Charles Schulz Museum — Brad and Dave will be doing a special LIVE show at the Schulz Museum on Nov. 12 to celebrate what would have been the legendary cartoonist’s 100th birthday.
“I made a plagiarism — but I LIKE it! …Do I HAVE to change it?”
In its early days, Patreon featured milestone rewards prominently on creators’ pages. A milestone reward was a special reward you would offer to the community if/when your Patreon campaign hit a certain milestone. This could be either monetary goal or an expected number of overall patrons. Once that goal had been met, the reward would be released. Over the past several years, milestone rewards have been de-prioritized by Patreon — appearing in progressively harder-to-find places. But are milestone rewards still effective?
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Yesterday I published a post explaining why Subless was a bad business decision for creators. One of the reasons I listed was that it conflicts with a creator’s efforts to build revenue on Patreon. One of the comments I received was that incorporating Subless into their business was good because it added a passive revenue stream. And that means it’s time to take a little time to discuss that topic in greater detail.
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Subless is a new crowdfunding service based on an old idea. Users put money into a Subless account, and every time they visit a creator who also uses Subless, the service enacts a micropayment from the user’s account to the creator. This is a concept that has been tried a few times in the past. (Does anybody remember the 2011 nightmare Kachingle?!) Here’s why I think they’ve all failed…
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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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