Archive for the Category »Webcomics «

Webcomics: Making Money

Well it’s November, and coming along with snow, ice, and people who can’t drive on winter roads, Christmas and the consumer money-spending frenzy that follows is just around the corner. People are out there hungry to spend money, and in the spirit of such, there are a lot of webcomic creators who’s wallets are very hungry to capture some of that action.

In the spirit of the season, this month, I’ll be talking about various ways and tips about making money, monetizing, and merchandising your webcomic, and finally what it takes to make a living at your webcomicing dreams. This first article is about what you need to begin making money on your webcomic.

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Making Webcomics: What if I can’t draw?

So, you want to start a webcomic, but there’s a problem. You can’t draw. Well, that fact doesn’t have to be the end of your webcomic dreams, but it does mean you may have to go a slightly different route than those who already can.

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Making Webcomics: Tools & Equipment

While it might seem like you need state of the art equipment in order to make a webcomic, its actually pretty far from the truth. Webcomic creation can be highly simple or complex depending on your level of comfort with technology and budget. Here’s a  rundown on some of the most common tools to create webcomics.

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Webcomics: Building Readership

What is a webcomic without readers? Let’s face it, most of us creator types aren’t putting our hearts and souls into a comic creation that we don’t want any one to read. We put it on the web and out into the world to garner attention and interest, entertaining and communicating with the masses. Without some masses to communicate to, it seems pretty futile. For that reason, its no surprise that every webcomic author is eternally looking to build, rebuild, or expand a current readership. But how do you accomplish this task?

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Writing Webcomics: Where to begin

This article is primarily for the artist who wants to write, but for aspiring comic writers it might be valuable as well.

It has often been argued in webcomic circles, which is more important; writing or art? If a webcomic was a house, the art is really the curb appeal and exterior of the house. Its the decorative touches and facade. It gives the house beauty and character. But the foundation, the heart and soul of a comic is in its story, and thus in the writing. A comic with good writing can gain a following with so-so art, but a beautiful comic with a crappy, incoherent story won’t really limp anywhere for long. Both ultimately are important, but the writing, in long or short format,  is what ultimately keeps readers coming back week after week.

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Webcomics: Playing the Advertising Game

One of the most challenging tasks that lay ahead for both aspiring and established webcomics is getting the word out to your audience (or potential audience) that you exist. In the past, link exchanges, top links, banner exchanges and webrings were enough to bring a steady flow of visitors. These days however, the dynamics of the web have changed, and creators are forced to look into more commercial methods of marketing, namely advertising. But advertising can be expensive pursuit and what if you want to MAKE money with ads? Read on, and find out how to minimize your advertising costs, while maximizing the value of your own site’s ads.

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A post to webcomic readers

This originally appeared in my deviant art journal, but that’s not exactly a great place to post this and I thought it was one of the more poignant pieces I’ve ever written on what Webcomic readers can do to support their favorite comics without spending a dime. A lot of webcomic readers are young, and understandably don’t have a lot of cash, but when it comes to support, lifting your favorite comic up doesn’t have to require a credit card or even a bank account. If you are interested in seriously showing webcomic artists some appreciation, read on.

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Mushing around 1000 fans in webcomics

Okay, if you’ve never heard of this (and I don’t blame you, you’re probably not into this stuff like I am…) but if you are serious about making any kinda coin with your webcomic (or anything else that’s creatively produced indepentantly in the internet, such as music, fiction, blogging, etc.), its a rather interesting theory.

Originally written by Kevin Kelly, the 1000 true fans theory states in a nutshell that if you want to make a living off your creative genious on the internet, you need to cultivate “1000 true fans”. A true fan being defined as someone who is so zealous about your work, they’d buy everything 10 times over, even your belly button lint if it was sold on Ebay. Basically someone who truely is ‘fanatical’ about what you are doing. This post turned out to be a pretty hot topic across many blogs, which even prompted further posts, against, defending, and comparing to similar theories, even some temperance from reality of doing it. Go ahead, read it, come back. You’ll need to know what I’m talking about for the rest of this post.

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Tutorial – Photoshop: Coloring Lineart Part 1

Next part of the tutorial series, first part (cuz youtube is a bitch for long videos…) of laying ‘flats’ or base colors for coloring some manga style lineart. View the full article for the video.

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Tutorial – Photoshop: Preparing Lineart

Video Tutorial Series I’m working on using Adobe Photoshop to produce webcomics. This particular video addresses preparing lineart after scanning it using a nifty channels trick in photoshop. View full article for embedded video.

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