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As I'm researching digital-download possibilities, I've come across Kindle's Personal Document feature. I'm looking into whether this could potentially be used to deliver comics to a user while bypassing the Kindle store. If I determine that this is a beneficial pathway, I will be posting more. In the meantime, here's a quick primer on using this Kindle feature.

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Today's Archive Dive comes from Jan. 10, 2011, when we discussed a few basics of Web advertising.

Q.: I find humor often works better when something is absent or uncomfortable. For example "Life in Hell" or "Chainsawsuit" often work because of what's not there. The imagination has to fill in the details. Just like when the audience has to connect the dots to get the punchline, the laugh is greater.

On the flip side, drama works better with details and mood. For example most superhero comics are highly illustrated and noir pictures use shadow to create danger.

The main question is, how do you color so as not to kill a joke?

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Q: You mentioned before your opinions on formating comics: that different mediums demand different layouts. I agree, but I spend a lot of time drafting flexible layouts. What has been your experiences with the Evil Inc. books? How do you maintain an efficient process? What pitfalls have you encountered over the years?

A: You're right. In my experience, I have found a tremendous benefit in making the format of my comic fit the delivery method. I believe a comic strip has considerable power on the Web, and I very much want to access that power despite the fact that the writing in my strip often resembles a long-form comic.

So Evil Inc is a daily strip on the Web site and in newspapers, but I reformat it for other modes of presentation. For example, when a weekly newspaper inquired about running the comic, I gave them a continuous narrative based on stringing a week's worth of strips end-to-end. And it was met with very positive feedback.

And, of course, when I prepare an Evil Inc book, I use the individual panels from the daily strip to lay out graphic-novel-style pages (sample PDF).

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Air fares are continuing to rise -- spurred on mostly by rising oil prices.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "U.S. air travel increased by approximately 6 percent in 2011, and that trend is likely to continue into 2012 as Americans schedule more trips and increase their travel budgets."

Prices rose markedly last year in the second quarter. The average domestic fare rose to $370, which was an 8.5% increase from 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The Bureau reports average domestic air fares rose in the third quarter, as well, leaping to $361, up 6.2 percent from the average fare of $340 (Q3 2010).

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As we're heading into another tax-preparation season, I wanted to share some relevant changes in the tax code.

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Today's Archive Dive comes from Dec. 22, 2010, when we discussed book strategy.

If you have a question for the Mailbag, please feel free to use the Question? button at the top of the site.

Q. I'm nearing the end of the second year of my webcomic. I've been thinking about compiling my first book. Unfortunately, Lulu, with whom I hoped to publish, says it costs $13.60 for a (pretty weak) 32 page book in color! 

My question is: How could I ever turn a profit with that? Can you recommend any publishing alternatives (self-publishing or otherwise) that might help me? 

A. You're experiencing the main problem with Print-On-Demand (POD) printing -- color printing is prohibitively expensive. You have several options.

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Webcomics.com has long advocated the use of Project Wonderful -- and, when the time is right, using Project Wonderful as part of an ad chain.

Recently, during a ContextWeb 101 discussion, a member wrote in describing trouble that he had in getting Project Wonderful ads to work as part of a ContextWeb default.

I did a little research, and here's the solution to that problem.

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