Brad Guigar
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Brad GuigarKeymaster
I generally advise against re-doing old comics under a very simple philosophy.
I’m always improving — both my art and my writing.
If I were to go back and redo work that I thought I could do better today, I’d never have any time left to do new work.
And as a result my skills would probably stagnate.
Besides, you have to remember that fans look at your work with a different set of eyes than you do.
Bloom County made this clear to me. I love the old Bloom County comic strips — even the ones at the very beginning when Berke Breathed’s style was morphing and maturing. I’d hate to see him re-draw those early strips just because the character design for Opus is so different than it was when the character first appeared. In fact, part of the enjoyment I get out of re-reading those early strips is to appreciate the differences.
Brad GuigarKeymasterIn general, I think starting a webcomic business before you’ve proven an ability to generate steady income with your work is a bad idea. I’m much more comfortable with the “day job” scenario — working on a comic in your spare time and working a day job to pay the bills. Then, when it’s obvious that you can make the transition smoothly, leave the day job and work as a full-time cartoonist.
(And that’s when the real work starts.)
Given your medical situation — and the importance that your access to health care is — I think it would be a doubly bad idea in your particular case.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t post comics on a Web site. And you might even find that you can make a certain amount of money doing this without threatening your benefits — but I would suggest researching that thoroughly.
Brad GuigarKeymasterBrad GuigarKeymasterI’ll be using the campaign money to make the books.
That sounds as if it would be a goal better suited for Kickstarter — not Patreon.
April 8, 2014 at 3:56 pm in reply to: How build anticipation for a project that hasn't launched yet? #7480Brad GuigarKeymasterI’m going to take the opposing viewpoint and say that trying to build anticipation for a project is somewhat useless — for the most part.
For example, I wouldn’t put an awful lot of energy behind something until you have a place to point them to. Otherwise, you’re wasting a lot of potential viewers who now look at you as the “boy who cried wolf.”
It’s tougher and tougher to get someone to click a link. Are you willing to waste it on a link that leads nowhere?
For that reason, I’d keep myself focused on launching the actual project. I know — for me — there’s more than enough there to keep me plenty busy. Any commenting I’d do at this stage would be relegated to “I’m really excited about this upcoming project” tweets and “I can’t wait to show you what I’ve been working on” status updates. That, and maybe a few sketches of work-in-progress.
But I really wouldn’t take it beyond that.
Brad GuigarKeymasterEstimate the time it would take to produce a 22-page comic.
Figure out what your time is worth.
Use that to come up with a price. Tack on a little extra for yourself (and to leave room for negotiation).
Respond politely/enthusiastically and include your price.
If she takes you up on it, you’ve already set the price that you’ve determined that will make it worth your time.
If she doesn’t, you’re not entangled.
Brad GuigarKeymasterYou can do so, but you need to use HTML.
The code is <img src=”URL_HERE”>
You can easily host the image yourself. Or, using the WordPress dashboard that you have access to at Webcomics.com, you could upload your image to the Media Library, get the URL, then plug it in here.
- This reply was modified 10 years ago by Brad Guigar.
Brad GuigarKeymasterOK, let’s start by clearing your browser’s cache.
If that doesn’t do it, you may want to consider deleting your cookies.
After that, everything I’m reading says to turn off all of your plug-ins off and then try to upload an image. The chances are very good that it’s a plug-in conflict.
Beyond that, I’m seeing this solution.
- This reply was modified 10 years ago by Brad Guigar.
Brad GuigarKeymasterCan you give us some information that might help us to help you?
For example, what type of file? What size?
What browser are you using? Which version?
What OS are you using?
Have you tried the tried-and-true restart and try again maneuver?
Brad GuigarKeymasterThose ads are boring and generic, and they’re gonna get lost on your site.
I think a Kickstarter campaign is all about a rally — a cause.
Your biggest word in those ads is Kickstarter. But doing a Kickstarter isn’t what’s special — the project is the hook here.
You want people to support the printing of the second Rival Angels book. And that book project has a number of potentially exciting features that could be unlocked by the project. THAT’S exciting. THAT’S fun.
That should be the message of the ad.
Brad GuigarKeymasterIn this particular case, I was suggesting it because it would address some of the grammatical mistakes I was seeing in the comic — capitalizing the first word in a sentence, proper nouns, etc.
In general, however, my opinion is that it is much more readable.
Beyond that, there are a few reasons that one might favor all-caps lettering.
- If you’re hand-lettering, the set-up is much less complicated.
- If you’re doing humor, you can hide a proper noun in a sentence — in which case, revealing the proper noun is part of the punchline.
That being said, I really don’t have a major problem with upper/lower lettering — as long as it’s done well.
- This reply was modified 10 years ago by Brad Guigar.
- This reply was modified 10 years ago by Brad Guigar.
Brad GuigarKeymasterPlease cast your gaze at the upper left-hand corner of the page. 🙂
- This reply was modified 10 years ago by Brad Guigar.
- This reply was modified 10 years ago by Brad Guigar.
Brad GuigarKeymasterBrad GuigarKeymasterI think the one thing you *have* to offer in a Patreon is a significant history of doing good work. everything else is gravy.
Patreon is social media. If you’ve put the time in — and the effort of building Community — I think Patreon stands to be an excellent way of getting a return on that investment.
Brad GuigarKeymasterWell, that’s the rub, isn’t it. You have to weigh what I wrote on TWH on page 120 (What a Waste of Time) with what I wrote in the same book on Page 80 (Enjoy Obscurity).
Sometimes you get a really frank, pointed comment from someone who’s clearly just out to be a jerk — like on Page 120.
And sometimes you get an equally frank, pointed comment from someone who’s genuinely trying to help you improve — like on Page 80.
And — since each one of us is usually too emotionally invested in the subject (our own creative work) — it’s incredibly difficult to tell one from the other. In fact, I’ll tell you from personal experience that I’ve consistently mistaken a Page 80 person for a Page 120 person… until I’ve had a chance to calm down and reason through the situation.
A significant part of improving myself as a creative person has been to learn how to identify the 80s from the 120s — and process the comments of both accordingly.
- This reply was modified 10 years ago by Brad Guigar.
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