Cartoonists continue to use newsletters to leverage their audience-building potential, and they struggle with the same question: What should I write in my newsletter? To make this easier, I’ve delineated two basic types of newsletter posts — each with its role in generating new readers for your comic.
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It can be frustrating to “hit the wall” in your creative output, but — speaking from experience — that wall isn’t a wall. And once you realize what’s happening, you’ll feel much better about your journey as an artist.
As creative people, we often feel exhilaration when our brains are storming, our synapses are firing, and our output is exciting. These are the moments we live for!
But it’s not constant. Sometimes, creativity comes much slower. During those times, it feels as if we’re not progressing, and the excitement that comes from finding something new is a long-distant memory.
If you talk to many artists during those times, they’ll tell you their creativity has “hit the wall.”
But speaking from experience and perspective, I can assure you this is not the case. What you’re experiencing is not a wall but a plateau. It feels as if you’ve come to a full stop because you’ve stopped experiencing that exhilarating upward “whoosh” of creativity. But you are now on a horizontal plane.
That’s an important distinction. You can move forward on a horizontal plane. It may not be as thrilling as a vertical “whoosh,” but you must move forward.
After all, this is where you learn about yourself as an artist. This is where you build speed. And muscle memory. This is where you master all the things that became apparent during your last explosion of creative energy.
Moving forward is the only way to get to the next “whoosh” of creativity. Trust me; the burst of artistic energy after a long plateau is a satisfying experience.
Don’t get frustrated about “hitting the wall.” See it for what it is — a preparation for the subsequent big explosion of creativity.
Here are some excellent strategies for getting your brain working again after you feel as if you’ve hit a wall:
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The fall seems to bring a big creative push for many cartoonists, and Halloween is all about creativity. From costumes to storytelling to “haunted” attractions, the entire season seems to be rooted in imagination. It’s the perfect opportunity to jump into the zeitgeist — and do a little promotion at the same time.
Here are a few Spooky Season marketing strategies that don’t require you to create a whole slew of new material.
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Is there a limit to how many cartoonists can build successful careers—or is the real limiting factor the cartoonists themselves?
Cartoonists Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett examine the surprisingly vast comics ecosystem, where thousands of creators can cultivate separate audiences without ever appearing on one another’s radar. The market may have room for far more working cartoonists than we realize — but success requires more than artistic ability. Creators must also be willing to learn business, communicate consistently with their audiences, and improve when something doesn’t work.
Also: Brad discovers that his brilliant new idea had already been implemented… by Brad.
ON TODAY’S SHOW
This is when creativity seems to be at an all-time high everywhere you look. From carved pumpkins to costumes to haunted houses to the really scary stuff like, well…
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It’s pretty easy to see the influence of manga on comics being produced today. Scrolling through Webtoons, it’s obvious that an entire generation of young comic creators cut their teeth on comics originally made in Japan. In general, that’s tremendous! The creativity, the kinetic energy, the jaw-dropping art — it’s all worthy of emulation. But when it comes to word balloons, something’s getting lost in the translation.
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One of the benefits of publishing comics on Substack is its powerful SEO capabilities. Since comics are image-based, they’ve traditionally missed out on such opportunities, and this platform nicely compensates for those deficiencies. The only problem is that most of us are ignoring this step entirely.
Many creators rush through the next step — the Post Settings — after formatting a comic update or a newsletter edition. After all, it’s the same old stuff we hate: Tags, social-media previews and SEO options. But spending a few minutes here can help drive your work to new eyes — and that’s the reason we’re all on the platform in the first place. If you look at the Post Settings, under the scheduling data, you’ll see two important fields: Social preview and SEO options.
You’ll notice that it’s already populated with content from your post. It uses the first image in your newsletter — cropped according to a preset in your settings. The text is pulled from your subhead. If there’s no subhead, Substack defaults to the first sentence in your post. None of these are optimal.
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The ability to create Draft Layers — and apply Draft Layer settings to entire folders — is a huge part of what makes Clip Studio special. Here’s a brief tutorial to get you pointed in the right direction!
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.How do you build momentum as a cartoonist — and what happens when you lose it?
Brad and Dave examine momentum across every part of a creative career: Generating ideas, maintaining a productive workflow, growing an audience, and building a sustainable business. They discuss why progress can feel imperceptibly slow at first, how consistent work eventually begins producing its own energy, and why returning after a break can feel like starting a stalled train.
Then, a listener asks how cartoonists should transition between scenes, chapters, and storylines in a collected book. Brad and Dave compare their very different approaches, debate whether a completely blank page is ever justified, and explain how multiple purpose-driven read-throughs can reveal problems with pacing, continuity, page turns, and transitions.
Also: Skunk Watch 2026 continues, Dave considers surrendering his backyard, and Professor Dr. Reginald Wigglesby reveals the completely reliable history behind Little Orphan Annie’s pupil-less eyes.
Cartoonists using the Tapas platform got some jarring news this week: the parent company Kakao Entertainment plans to shut the whole thing down.
That has a lot of people asking where they should turn for comics hosting.
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