Just a handy reminder: If you pay estimated income taxes, your second-quarter payment is due on Monday, June 16.
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If you’re writing a longform comic, you know the challenge all too well. You’re telling a continuous story, but many of your readers are coming in at the middle. Every day, someone is reading your comic for the first time, and that might mean they’re discovering you on Page 12. If you’re going to build an audience successfully, you need to include two things in every update.
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Out of all the social media newcomers, Substack has shown the most promise. It’s an email newsletter delivery system with social media and subscription features. But like every platform, it has its own norms, quirks, and community expectations. So, let’s discuss Substack’s best practices.
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Today’s episode is sponsored by Dreamhost. The first step in owning and controlling your own work is building a website, and Dreamhost is there to make that simple, painless, and inexpensive.
The life of a comic artist is often a solitary one. Brad and Dave discuss ways of maintaining social connections for mental health and creativity. Later, they discuss the dangers of setting an artificially low Kickstarter goal.
ON TODAY’S SHOW
You have enough work to collect into a book. You know how to collect estimates from a printer. You may have even started working on the cover. There’s just one problem. How do you know if you’re ready to launch a Kickstarter?
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A few years ago, a lot of cartoonists moved away from their own websites and started putting all their energy into social media. It seemed like the smart move — after all, that’s where the people were. But now, after watching their posts get buried by algorithms and their audience growth hit a wall, more and more creators are heading back to something they can actually control: their own site.
The good news? Running your own site gives you complete freedom. The bad news? If you want people to find it — especially through Google — you’ve got to think about SEO. And that’s tricky when your content is mostly made of images. Don’t worry, though — there are some solid, doable ways to get search engines to notice your comic without turning it into a blog
There are several strong strategies a webcartoonist can use to significantly improve SEO…
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It’s June. We’re nearly halfway through the year already!
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.Now that comic creators are returning to websites, SEO (search engine optimization) is once again a hot topic. We’ll talk about methods to help search engines index comics. Also, if Brad and Dave were to design a four-year degree for cartoonists, what classes would be on the curriculum?
Today’s show
Summary
In this episode, Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar discuss the importance of SEO for comic creators, particularly in 2025, highlighting best practices for optimizing webcomics. The episode concludes with practical tips for improving website performance and audience engagement through effective content strategies. In the mid-show updates, Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar promote their upcoming ComicLab LIVE stage show at the NCS convention in August, examine the implications of Apple’s recent court loss, and thank superfan Ray Michaels for updating Dave Kellett’s Wikipedia page.
In the second half, they explore what an ideal art degree for cartoonists might look like, emphasizing the balance between craft and business education. They discuss the ideal curriculum for aspiring comic artists, focusing on creative writing, business skills, art techniques, and the importance of real-world experience. They explore various classes that would benefit students, including humor writing, long-form storytelling, digital tools, and color theory. The discussion emphasizes the need for a well-rounded education that combines artistic skills with practical knowledge to prepare students for a successful career in comics.
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I often get asked if art school is a good choice for a young person who wants to be a professional cartoonist. They want to know if the experience will actually prepare them for the world they’re going into, and if so, what classes should they focus on. That first question — “Will this school preppare me for the real world?” — is crucial, and I think you should evaluate any secondary-learning institution very closely in this regard. Furthermore, when I start listing the classes I think would be beneficial, art falls to the bottom of a three-part list.
So, for what it’s worth, this is how I would build a four-year degree for someone who wants to be a full-time comic creator. It assumes a 120-credit hour program, broken down into approximately 40 classes (3 credits each). I’ve grouped them by category and semester.
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A ComicLab listener recently submitted a question for the show: “Some successful artists honestly believe that others aren’t successful because they didn’t ’put in the work.’ They don’t acknowledge the complex machinery of creative industries. What are your views on Survivor Bias in the creative community?“
Buckle up…
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