Brad Guigar
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Brad GuigarKeymaster
I hear stories all the time of people who post to social media constantly and get unfollowed as a result.
I wouldn’t lose sleep over this — it’s definitely not the norm.
It’s much more probable that anyone who unfollows you simply doesn’t like the content you’re posting.
Brad GuigarKeymasterI’m not aware of either Sandlot or Kiki’s Delivery service, so it would be unwise of me to comment.
But — just glancing at Kiki’s — I’d argue that the narrative has nothing to do with “slice of life” writing. (At least no life I’m familiar with!) There’s a narrative there. A story.
However, I’ve long held the belief that storyline-driven comic strips — like For Better or For Worse — could only survive in a newspaper-driven publishing landscape. That’s because, under that system, if your newspaper ran FWOFW, then you were exposed to it every day — whether you wanted it or not. And, eventually, if you jumped into the story, you were able to follow every update because — as long as you were subscribing to the paper, you never missed an update. (And if you did, it was very easy to jump back in.)
Today’s comics are driven by social media. That’s where your readers are consuming nearly 100% of their content. The rules are much different, and they definitely don’t favor a story that’s told only four panels at a time — and in which individual updates are easily missed.
Brad GuigarKeymasterAbsolutely! I’ve had a very good experience doing so.
Evil Inc is my main comic, which is hosted at evil-inc.com, and I post its NSFW counterpart, Evil Inc After Dark, at eiad.evil-inc.com — which is only accessible with a Patreon log-in at the appropriate level.
Brad GuigarKeymasterI think the key to writing a good slice of life comic is to not write a slice of life comic.
Let me tell you what I mean.
Life is boring. That’s why we read comics. (And watch TV, scroll social media, etc.)
If the slices of my life were so freaking interesting, I wouldn’t need entertainment!
Therefore…
Stop looking for slices of your life that are interesting enough to make into a comic. And start writing. For example:
• Create a situation, and put your characters into that situation and ask what they’d do to make it worse before it gets better!
• Give a character a goal and then put an obstacle between them and their goal.
• Look at a common scene and change one thing to make it bizarre.
Getting into a “slice of life” mindset will almost always cause you to set your sites too low — and hamstring your writing.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Brad Guigar.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Brad Guigar.
Brad GuigarKeymasterReach out to Philip Hofer, the creator of Comic Easel. He’ll get you squared away immediately.
Brad GuigarKeymasterI would give those comics separate subdomains of the same site.
Brad GuigarKeymasterAgain… this is a decision with very little consequences. It’s a marathon; not a sprint. Do whichever makes you happier. 🙂
Brad GuigarKeymasterI would’t “dump” them at all. Social media tends to reward regularity, so post them daily.
Brad GuigarKeymasterYour best bet is to install Comic Easel. There’s a ton on resources on the site for Comic Easel. If you have any questions, you can reach out to the developer, Philip Hofer on Twitter or through his site.
- This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by Brad Guigar.
Brad GuigarKeymasterThis post is a much more detailed answer to your question — https://www.webcomics.com/articles/social-media/where-to-host-for-the-very-first-time/
Brad GuigarKeymasterIt doesn’t appeal to me, but you need to make the choice that’s best for you.
Brad GuigarKeymasterI think a website is a necessity — and WordPress is still your best option.
If you feel as if that’s not do-able for you, I would recommend you think of you social media as your primary publishing tool. As you move forward — and as the comic gains traction — that website is going to be a necessity, however
As for Webtoons, I recommend mirroring, but I caution against using it as a primary publishing tool. I deleted my Tapastic account in 2017 (and suffered no noticeable decline). Smack Jeeves recently restructured, and many of its users are unhappy with the new set-up. And many of the others seem to suffer from reputation issues, in my opinion. Several of them have become synonymous with amateurish webcomics, and I’d be concerned about that reputation being applied to my webcomic if I hosted there.
- This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Brad Guigar.
Brad GuigarKeymasterI think your best option is to host your comic yourself using a WordPress install and — for now — Comic Easel. Hosting is inexpensive. I’m a big fan of DreamHost*, and there are several others.
WordPress is flexible, safe, and constantly updated. When you find yourself in need of functionality for your site, you can bet that someone has already designed a plug-in for you to install. In my opinion, it’s unbeatable.
Like I said… Comic Easel is — for now — your best CMS (Content Management System) option. The problem is that it simply doesn’t offer an easily implemented responsive option for panel-by-panel viewing on smaller screens (smartphones). There *is* a way… but the implementation is long and complicated. And it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. In other words, you can either present the comic as a single image — which works best for desktop users — or as a panel-by-panel vertical scroll optimized for small screens. But a better system would offer either, depending on the end-user’s device. That isn’t happening. And that makes Comic Easel a poor choice moving forward.
I am currently working with a developer to build a CMS that does exactly that. It should be available later this year. I will keep you posted on the developments.
As for sites like Tapas and Webtoons, I’m comfortable mirroring my comic on those sites, but building your audience there has serious drawbacks — as I explained in this post and on this podcast.
*Affiliate link
Brad GuigarKeymasterTo those of you who still listen to these old shows: I’d love to use clips of old Webcomics Weekly episodes as jumping-off points for ComicLab discussions. For example, moments in which we express an opinion on something that may have changed over the years… or topics that could lead to further conversation based on outside variables that have changed. Just drop me a line (or hit the comments) with the episode and minute-mark of the section you think would make a good discussion point!
Brad GuigarKeymasterIt’s different enough. Get to work.
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Here’s the thing. First of all, you’re right. We all grapple with these issues, and we all want to make sure that we’re not unintentionally walking all over someone else’s creative territory. And that’s noble. But you’re right. There are no “new” ideas. So, how do you avoid it?
Pour yourself into the work
To make this comic good — to make it really great — you’re going to write, and re-write, and re-write before you start drawing. And in that process you’re going to identify concepts and push them. Dive deeper. Intensify the things that make the story progress.
In doing this, you’re going to have to reach deeper and deeper into your own psyche as a writer. And that means that this work is going to be more and more uniquely YOU as you craft this storyline. Sure, if you just progress through these story beats without examining them and re-writing them, you might end up doing something that’s somewhat derivative.
But if you’re putting plenty of YOU into the worldbuilding/plot/arcs, you’re going to end up with a unique work that will stand on its own.
In short: Are you worried your story sounds derivative? Write another draft that takes those individual story beats and makes them more intense.
Be aware, but don’t obsess
It’s good to have an awareness of the existing works that share creative space with your own. And, by all means, use that knowledge to avoid sharing too many similarities with those works. But once you’ve done your due diligence (creatively speaking), it’s time to focus on your story — and your story alone. If you keep looking around at other people’s work — even with these noble intentions — you’re not spending enough time paying attention to your own work.
Bottom line: Clear out a little creative space by making sure your work doesn’t share too many aspects with this existing property. And after that, focus on your work. Again, if you’re really hyper-focused on your own creative work, it would be almost impossible to make a significantly identical work to someone else’s comic.
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