ComicLab Ep 369 — Predictions and goals for 2025

ComicLab Ep 369 — Predictions and goals for 2025

As we begin a new year, cartoonists Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar make their predictions for 2025 and share their...
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Predictions! How I did in 2024 and what I see for 2025

Predictions! How I did in 2024 and what I see for 2025

I made some bold predictions at the beginning of 2024. I nailed a few and failed a few. As we...
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Q&A: Why are beautiful women so danged attracted to me?!

Q&A: Why are beautiful women so danged attracted to me?!

Here's a question from a subscriber who is inundated with beautiful women on Substack! The same problem happens on Bluesky,...
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Ten resolutions for a better 2025

Ten resolutions for a better 2025

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com We all make resolutions this time of year. Sure, most of us forget about...
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ComicLab Ep 368 — 2024 in Review

ComicLab Ep 368 — 2024 in Review

At the beginning of the year, Dave and Brad made a series of predictions and set some personal goals for...
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January To-Do List

January To-Do List

This is the perfect time to get organized for a successful year in webcomics. The content you are trying to...
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Comicraft’s New Year’s Day Sale

Comicraft’s New Year’s Day Sale

If you want to build out your comics-font library, mark this on your calendar. Comicraft traditionally holds a sale on Jan...
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Webcomics Confidential: There’s no such thing as a “failed” Kickstarter

Webcomics Confidential: There’s no such thing as a “failed” Kickstarter

Steven Spielberg was rejected TWICE by the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Walt Disney’s newspaper editor told...
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ComicLab Ep 367 — How can comics reach kids?

ComicLab Ep 367 — How can comics reach kids?

A father is concerned that comics no longer reach kids, suggesting that video games are the better value measured by...
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Planning out the new year

Planning out the new year

This is a time when many of us start daydreaming about the coming year. We have hopes, plans, goals, and...
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Implementing Patreon’s sales-tax controls wisely

When you look at Patreon’s sales-tax implementation, you get the feeling that there’s something very clever going on. Let’s talk about reading the signals and mitigating the effects that sales tax will have on your backers.

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by on May 21, 2020
Posted In: Crowdfunding
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ComicLab Ep 126 — Supportive Life Partners

Today’s show is brought to you by Wacom — makers of the incredible Wacom One! This week, Dave and Brad talk about their most important creative partners — their wives.

Questions asked and topics covered…

  • Let’s talk about life partners
  • Logo design
  • Staying creative when life is tough

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the editor of Webcomics.com
Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

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by on May 21, 2020
Posted In: ComicLab
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Copyright, Fair Use and YouTube

Although the central theme is YouTube, this video has tons of information directly applicable to webcomics. It’s well worth your time. Hat-tip to Cory Casoni for passing it along.

https://twitter.com/CoryCasoni/status/1261099298462171136
by on May 15, 2020
Posted In: Business
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ComicLab Ep 125 — Lore Olympus vs Webtoons

Today’s show is brought to you by Wacom — makers of the incredible Wacom One! Recently Webtoons spoiled a reveal in “Lore Olympus” that the creator, Rachel Smythe, had been building towards for years. With that in mind, Dave and Brad return to the topic they broached at the beginning of the year— “Should you build your audience on Webtoons?” 

Questions asked and topics covered…

  • The problems with building an audience on Webtoons
  • Midtown Comics and DC Comics step up to fill the void left by Diamond Comics Distributors, establishing two new distributors — UCS Comics Distributors and Lunar Distribution, respectively.
  • Comics featuring dentists, lawyers and doctors are shoo-ins for original-art sales
  • Is a three-panel comic inherently better than a four-panel comic?
  • Four-panel storyline strips face an uphill battle in audience-building in today’s social-media-dominated publishing landscape
  • Coverting social-media comments into Patreon backers

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the editor of Webcomics.com
Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

Listen to ComicLab on…

by on May 14, 2020
Posted In: ComicLab
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Canceled Comic Convention? Time to get Creative!

Are you worried about the revenue you may be losing because most of the upcoming convention season is being canceled? Since 2013, I’ve been arguing that comic conventions are losing propositions for most of the creators who were still participating in them. There are other — better — ways for independent creators to make money. Here are five strategies to replace – and hopefully even exceed — the revenue you’re missing from canceled comic conventions.

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by on May 13, 2020
Posted In: Conventions, Crowdfunding, Merchandise
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Court ruling finds that public social-media posts are… well, public

In March 2016, Mashable approached Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Stephanie Sinclair to license one of her photographs for $50. When Sinclair declined, the company downloaded the photo from Sinclair’s Instagram page. A copyright-infringement lawsuit ensued. The case never reached trial. In a summary judgement, the Southern District Court of New York ruled that Sinclair didn’t have standing to bring a copyright lawsuit. Let’s talk about what that means for creators using social media to post their work.

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by on May 11, 2020
Posted In: Business
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Patreon to start charging sales tax in June

Patreon is being required by law to start applying sales tax/VAT/GST to some pledges from patrons in parts of the US and 17 other countries starting July 1st. That sounds pretty stressful. It isn’t. Let’s break it down before the (inevitable) Twitter meltdowns ensue.

The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
by on May 8, 2020
Posted In: Crowdfunding
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ComicLab Ep 124 — The Best Software for Publishing Webcomics

Today’s show is brought to you by Wacom — makers of the incredible Wacom One! This week, Dave and Brad talk about the best Content Management System (CMS) for publishing webcomics. Toocheke is brand new, and Brad’s a big fan.

Questions asked and topics covered…

  • Toocheke is a new CMS Brad endorses for publishing webcomics
  • How to deal with an e-mail barnacle
  • Doing business under a pen name
  • What are the best tools for a beginner?

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the editor of Webcomics.com
Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

by on May 7, 2020
Posted In: ComicLab
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