Drawing with a “dead” line

The quality of your line can add intensity and energy to your art. Let’s talk about drawing with a “dead” line… and why there might be a better choice for you!

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Never listen to a reader; always listen to your readers

“I’d buy that on a T-shirt” is the oldest lie in webcomics. As soon as you release the shirt, the reader who suggested it disappears faster than a Dracula in front of a crucifix. And yet, many of us allow […] ↓ Read the rest of this article...

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ComicLab Ep 333 — Building traffic vs. building audience

Is it possible to build traffic for your comic without building an audience? Also, an anonymous post on Reddit accuses Webtoons of using a predatory contract.  ON TODAY’S SHOW

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May To-Do List

Get out your calendar and start circling dates. It’s time to do a little webcomic planning.

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Webcomics Confidential: Infinite Reader Theory

If you’ve ever stressed out about losing readers — or not growing fast enough — you need to understand this concept!

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Extra! Extra! Write all about it!

Here’s a great exercise to generate story ideas — and keep you on track with the world you’re building.

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ComicLab Ep 332 — Special guest Dave Blazek

This week, we’re talking to Dave Blazek, creator of “Loose Parts,” a single-panel comic syndicated to more than 120 newspapers worldwide. Blazek is a three-time NCS Silver Reuben award winner and a danged delight. We’ll discuss how he became an […] ↓ Read the rest of this article...

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Negotiating a price – the Variables Method

It’s something we, as professional artists, are often called upon to do: Name a price for our work. And, for many of us, it’s one of the most daunting challenges we face.

When I was teaching my weekly class at Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia, I asked my class, “What’s the worst thing you can hear from a prospective client after you’ve quoted them a price?”

“‘That’s too high,'” offered one student.

Incorrect, I countered. That’s actually a very good response. So what’s the worst thing you can hear?

“Yes.”

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by on February 26, 2014
Posted In: Business
└ Tags: , ,
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Klout scheduler

Longtime readers may remember my endorsing a Web app called 14Blocks for scheduling social-media messages to hit when its data predicted the greatest probability of the largest number recipients. Unfortunately, they updated their offering, and, in so doing, disabled most of the features I liked best about the software.

Now Klout (which we first discussed in Oct. 2011) is expanding its social-media analytics functionality to pick up where 14Blocks dropped the ball.

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by on February 25, 2014
Posted In: Marketing / Social Media
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Archive Dive: Word Balloon Aesthetics

Today’s Archive Dive comes from Feb. 16, 2010, when we discussed the aesthetics of word balloons.

Word balloons are so common — so freely accepted as a part of a cartoonist’s visual syntax — that many of us haven’t given the subject a whole lot of thought. Looking back at my own work, I know I didn’t for the first several years. Choosing last Friday’s Archive Dive made me remember a post I’ve been wanting to do for a long time: Word Ballon Aesthetic. If you haven’t read the Archive Dive, take a second and look it over. It provides some good structure for today’s discussion.

And, as is the case with any discussion of aesthetics, these are not meant to be taken as written-in-stone dictates. But the philosophy behind the aesthetics should help inform your own process in developing your own personal style.

It’s time to look at word balloons again for the first time.

Read the entire post and comment there.

by on February 21, 2014
Posted In: Uncategorized

Facebook advertising – harmful?

Passed along by Howard Tayler, this insightful Veritasium video describes — in an entertaining and easy-to-understand manner — how buying ads (and paying to promote links) on Facebook actually might harm the outreach potential of your Facebook fan page.

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by on February 20, 2014
Posted In: Advertising, Marketing / Social Media
└ Tags: , , ,
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Covers designed to upsell

This post was kindly submitted by John Bogenschutz.

Way back when, Brad Guigar bragged about Dave Kellett’s books and how great they looked sitting on the shelf because they all had a stripe at the same height and size running across the top of the books. Since I didn’t have any books out yet I thought about how I could maximize that effect. So four years ago on my first book I put a T at the bottom of my book spine.

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by on February 19, 2014
Posted In: Merchandise, Print publishing
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Sales tax guide

Sales tax is a state-mandated tax on physical goods and products. Sales-tax guidelines vary from state to state, and, therefore, it’s really difficult to keep track of for webcartoonists who (a) sell merchandize on the Web and/or (b) travel to other states to do business at comic conventions.
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by on February 18, 2014
Posted In: Business, Conventions
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Introducing Webcomics.com

Webcomics.com has established itself as a tremendous resource of practical information for webcartoonists. By joining today you will have access to:

  • Frequent updates of news, advice, tutorials and strategies by webcomics veteran Brad Guigar.
  • Feedback and guidance for your comic and the small business you’ll create running it.
  • A fully rounded, indexed repository of two year’s worth of information that you can use to help improve your work.
  • A moderated, passionate, supportive community of webcomics creators.
  • Inside information on conventions, vendors and other entities that webcartoonists access to advance their businesses.
  • Deals on merchandise.

For a low subscription of $30 per year, you will have access to all of this plus the entire Webcomics.com archives, one of the most helpful and supportive forums for creative people on the Web, and several members-only offers.

Your subscription lasts for twelve months after your sign-up day — not the calendar year.

A Webcomics.com membership sets up a recurring payment of $30 per year. So as long as you’re an active member, your PayPal account is billed $30 annually.

Of course, you’re not locked into anything… you can easily cancel that recurring payment at any time.

by on February 17, 2014
Posted In: Site News
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