After some online discussion on creating WebComics over the past few days on a couple of comic creator forums, I've done a bit of digging around and compiled a brief article for downthetubes about Creating WebComics which is now posted on the main site.
It includes some other links I found along the way which may be of interest to would be or indeed existing webcomic creators.
If you've got any thoughts on the subject yourself, please feel free to leave your comments here.
And talking of webcomics, what better moment than to mention Ian Stacey's arrival on comics-on-mobile service ROK Comics, a much-praised cartoonist we've plugged here before.
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2 comments:
It's not a bad guide – a lot of what is said is pretty sensible, but there are a few misconceptions that seem to re-appear in discussions of this sort.
For example the idea that "A web comic is on a screen ... however, they can reach lots of people, a print comic is an object to treasure, but will only reach a few folks. Neither are likely to make you any money,"
It's such a separatist argument. I know plenty of webcomics that do both, print and screen reinforcing each other in terms of readers and sales. It's a very different business model to the one Shane uses and it is quite subtle, but it does generate some money if done right.
I think the main misconception with webcomics is that they don't make any money... the good ones do, it's just that there are an awful lot of poor ones too...
Daniel Goodbrey's observations also seem a little unfounded. A quick check on his project wonderful advertising account shows that his site has only on one occasion in the last month gained anywhere near the 10000 hit traffic mark, and that's just pageviews, not individual readers. Presumably he has researched other webcomics and their traffic,but from my own experience, a hardcore fan set of a couple of thousand readers is enough to turn a profit (especially when everything else in a webcomic can be done for free). It seems that the bulk of his traffic is transient social network traffic such as stumbleupon. There is a growing consensus that these visits which tend to be brief, single-page views are not exactly quality traffic... it's like measuring how popular a shop is by the number of people who look in the window as opposed to those that enter the shop and as such gives you meaningless figures.
I agree with your closing statements though, that you really should be in it for the love of comics, not necessarily the money... it's sound advice in any endeavour, and will probably lead to more success.
Thanks Adam -- really useful feedback. I agree with you, print and web can be worked as one when it comes to raising awareness of a comic.
Isn't the whole issue with good versus poor webcomics the same in any field of creativity -- i.e.we're seeing Sturgeon's Law in operation?
Sturgeon’s Law is the name given to two different adages derived from quotes by SF author Theodore Sturgeon. The first (which was first stated in the story “The Claustrophile” in a 1956 issue of Galaxy) is “Nothing is always absolutely so”, while the second, and more famous, of these adages is: “Ninety percent of everything is crap”, also known as "Sturgeon's Revelation"
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