An online publisher has become the center of some genuinely alarming stories. Brad and Dave break down five hard lessons comic creators can learn when a publisher shows signs of instability, mismanagement, or collapse.

Today’s Show

• Five Lessons from a Publisher in Crisis
• Submitting your work for awards

Summary

Cartoonists Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett explore the importance of owning and controlling one’s career in the comic industry. They discuss the need for business acumen among cartoonists and the risks of signing contracts. The conversation emphasizes the value of learning from mistakes in self-publishing, the power of transparency among creators, and the benefits of submitting work for awards. Ultimately, they stress that the goal is not independence at all costs, but informed consent in business relationships.

Takeaways

• Imposter syndrome should not prevent you from submitting your work.
• There is a percentage of humans who can close their nostrils underwater.
• Cartoonists must be prepared to be business people.
• Your best defense is often not signing a contract.
• Mistakes in self-publishing are manageable and teach valuable lessons.
• Transparency among creators is crucial for success.
• Experience changes the power dynamic in negotiations.
• Submitting for awards can provide valuable insights into your work.
• Reviewing your work helps improve your editorial and aesthetic eye.
• Self-publishing allows for greater control over your career.

Many cartoonists are familiar with Wally Wood’s indelible contribution to comics theory: The 22 Panels That Always Work!

A listener asks: “Should you judge a book by its cover?” Cartoonists Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar say… YES! Next, a cartoonist who is too embarrassed to promote his own work gets some encouragement and words of advice from the veteran comic creators.

TODAY’S SHOW

• Should you judge a book by its cover?
• Too embarrassed to promote

Takeaways

• A book’s cover plays a significant role in its marketability.
• It’s important to design a cover that reflects the content of the comic.
• Promoting comics can be challenging, especially in unexpected social situations.
• Introverts can find it difficult to promote their work in person.
• Having a decoy website can help ease the promotion process.
• It’s okay to feel uncomfortable discussing your work with strangers.
• Using humor can help deflect awkward conversations about your work.
• Online promotion can be more effective than in-person promotion.

A few days ago, I published some thoughts on rethinking comics collectives. Since then, I’ve received an outpouring of questions — mostly about building a strong collective. What are the ingredients? Who should be invited to join and why? How should the responsibilities be divided? Here are some thoughts.

Starting a webcomic in 2026 isn’t about chasing algorithms or copying what’s popular — it’s about building something sustainable, creative, and yours. In this episode, Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett break down what new cartoonists actually need to focus on in their first years: writing first, consistency over hype, owning your work, and building an audience the right way.

You’ll learn why you don’t need Webtoon or Tapas, why monetizing too early can derail your career, how social media really fits into comics growth today, and why a website and mailing list are non-negotiable. This is a marathon mindset episode for creators who want to do comics for the long haul — and do them for love.

Getting off on the Right Foot

• Don’t try to “game” your readership. Write about what YOU like. Readers are drawn to a creator’s passion. It doesn’t work the other way around.
• Building readership takes time and consistency. Creating for love is essential in the early years.
• Focus on writing as the core of comic creation. They’re called comics readers, not comics lookers. It’s all about the writing.
• Focus on creating comics for the love of the craft. The first comics may only be seen by you; embrace the process.
• Mistakes in the early stages are recoverable. Stop fretting over them.
• Common copyright fears and how to approach them
• Own and control your work

Building an audience

• You do NOT need to be on Webtoon/Tapas. Look at the comics on the front pages of those sites? Does your comic look like those? Is your content similar? If not, you’re not going to fare well there. It’s pretty obvious.
• Social media presence is still important for comic creators. Today, we recommend Bluesky and Reddit. ComicLab has Collections that provide solid social-media strategies. They’re free to members and available at a one-time fee for others.
• Be active on social media to build your audience. Follow the Four Cs — Creation, Curation, Commercial, and Kindness
• How many updates? FCS — Frequent / Consistent / Significant — there are no magic numbers.
• Start building your mailing list NOW with a newsletter. This will be increasingly important when you turn to monetization in a few years. You should send every comic out in a newsletter post and you should also post a weekly newsletter of no longer than 500 words per update with BTS content (to the extent you’re comfortable sharing).
• You need a website. This is not old or outdated — it’s incredibly powerful, and you need to start planning for one now… even if it’s a very bare-bones site. This is a non-negotiable.
• Consider The 2-2-1 Rule: Two social media platforms, two newsletters (including a free-membership tier on Patreon), one website. Then, use these together to funnel traffic inward towards the website. Later, when you’ve launched monetization, the funnel will direct towards that.
• Don’t listen to your reader; listen to your readers
• Don’t mistake social media followers for income.

Monetization

• DON’T START MONETIZING IN YOUR FIRST YEAR. Maybe not even the second. Everything you need to know about crowdfunding is in the name. First comes the crowd, THEN comes the funding. In the first few years, you need to focus on building that crowd. The only thing worse than having no Patreon backers is having ONE Patreon backer. Hundreds of new comic creators have become derailed by focusing on monetization too soon.
• Comic Cons: We don’t recommend them. They don’t build audience. They don’t have great sales unless you have a lot of merch that *does well as in-person merch* (there’s a difference!). And it’s very hard to make profit unless you can religiously control costs. If you’re making merch to go to the show, you’re doing this all wrong. Psychologically, a lot of folks like to “play” professional cartoonist by exhitibiting.
• Accepted into show start making stuff to sell.
• Start planning now for print — hi-res (400+ dpi),  bigger than final size, cmyk, maintain layers, etc. Save in the native software.

Marathon thinking

• Persistence is key; it’s a marathon, not a sprint. If you need a schedule to post regularly, set a schedule and stick to it.
• Develop your aesthetic by studying good comics.
• Seek honest feedback to improve your work.
• Reach out to other comics creators who are doing stuff that’s similar to yours and build networks.