Here’s the scenario: you have a comic you’re working on, right now, on your desk, and you want to make it a webcomic. The only problem is, you have no idea how to put it online. You know nothing about hosts, servers, or registrars. You also have no money to pay for that anyways. You stumble across a listing of free webcomic hosting sites, and you’re deciding between them. But wait! How will you know which one is best? Well, here is my review of one of those free webcomic hosts: Comic Genesis!
First I’m going to say this: of all the free comic hosts I’ve used, CG is the best for advanced webcomic creators. An advanced webcomic creator is one who realizes that WEB is half of the word “webcomic,” and endeavors to create a site that matches the quality of the comic. CG is the WORST site out there for people who have no interest in creating a webcomic, and only want to display their comic online. That is a thin line, but it IS there.
PROS:
Comic Genesis as a host offers many things, the most important of which in my opinion is FTP access. For those of you who do not know what an FTP (“File Transfer Protocol”)is, it’s how people instantly add things to and update a site WITHOUT going through an admin “browse-click” area of the site. On CG I could upload an entire site in seconds, whereas at DrunkDuck I would have to load each file singly through a “browse-click” method. I personally use FireFTP (a FireFox add-on) to connect to my FTP. Anyone who has used an FTP for more than 2 weeks will never go back to any other method.
ComicGenesis also offers you an automatic archiving and news system called AutoKeen. For webcomics, a content managment system is a must-have! You should NEVER EVER EVER be building each archive page by hand. It’s not 1992 anymore! Autokeen is very simple for those new to CSS/HTML coding to use, since all you have to do is move around “tags” in the code. There’s no need to worry about big, bulky code chunks like with ComicPress. Autokeen has a lot of extras built into it too, for most archiving needs like dropdowns, calendars, etc. Yes, you also can schedule updates for the future.
CG gives you near-total control over site design. Since you are able to edit everything about a webpage, your website is what you want it to be, with the exception of the mandatory, above-the-fold leaderboard size ad you MUST display. The reason hosting is free at CG is because you pay for it by displaying ads. For people not well-versed in creating webpages, CG has dedicated an entire wiki and guide to helping you learn, as well as free templates you can install in the meantime.
CG is a moderately active community as well, and everyone who has been making webcomics for more than a couple months understands the importance of having a good community. CG is full of highly experienced comic creators (both print and web) who will help you out, give you advice, and talk with you. The forums all have active moderators, and someone is always taking care of any server/database malfunctions. The place is well taken care of!
My final pro for CG is their cross-advertising systems. The first one is called the “newsbox.” Comics are rotated in based on how often they update, and most people who participate also display the newsbox on their own site. This is free, and really good, advertising. The second system is the CG front page “pog” area. If you submit a pog, it will be put up, and that’s more free advertising.
CONS:
ComicGenesis absolutely sucks for the total webcomic noob. “What’s an FTP?” “What is HTML?” “How do I center things on a webpage?” If these are questions you constantly ask (and have no desire to get the answers to these questions ), CG is NOT the place for you. The learning curve is quite steep if you have no idea how to use HTML, and is VERTICAL if you don’t care to learn. CG is the least “automatic” of all the free comic hosts out there.
The queue! Any member of CG knows and hates the queue! If you are updating your site or your comic, you must WAIT YOUR TURN. The queue is a necessary evil because of how AutoKeen works, and it can be is incredibly annoying. Sometimes the wait can be more than half an hour, because if you are trying to manually update your comic near midnight EST, when everyone else has already set their comic to update automatically, you get to wait for THOUSANDS of sites to update before you. So, you’re screwed if you’re in a hurry, because there is nothing you can do.
No inherent commenting system. CG is the only free webcomic host I know of that does NOT have commenting ability. This is a small con, however, because of free commenting systems like haloscan / js-kit.
No control over what ads are displayed on your site. I’m unsure whether or not to include this one, since NO free webcomic hosts allows this control. You will get ads depending on the rating of your site, and these fluctuate between “Be a Mormon” to “J-list” to “YOU ARE THE 1,000,000th VISITOR, WE’RE NOT KIDDING CLICK ME.”
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All in all, CG gets an 8/10 score from me. Of all the free hosts I’ve used, they’re the best for the advanced user, hands down. Some things could be done better, done faster, or updated, and I’m confident they will be in time.
February 12th, 2009 - 3:43 pm
Nice review! It kind of makes me wish I had started my comic on that site instead of the other free comic host I DID start on. This one sounds like it gives good exposure and support, and the FTP/fully customizable site thing is just fantastic. I would have switched to my own webspace and domain name eventually either way, which is what I did recently. That’s the only way to get 100% full control of everything, which is what I prefer. But this would be a great article for anyone starting out… too bad it wasn’t written a year ago!
February 12th, 2009 - 8:07 pm
I didn’t do a lot of research before I first picked a host, I started on CG mostly because it was the first one I randomly came across, and the folks on their forum seemed helpful. Back then I was one of those “How do I center things on a webpage?” noobs (literally, I remember having trouble getting things centered). There were definitely some frustrating moments, but I think being on CG forced me to pick up some basic web design skills that became useful later when I decided to move to my own website. I’m still not good at it, but I think if I had started at a more “noob-friendly” host, I probably wouldn’t have bothered to learn even the basics. So maybe the lack of “automation” on CG isn’t all bad, even for noobs.
February 12th, 2009 - 9:50 pm
My comic started on CG also. I loved it, but I did have some basic html skills. I found the wiki and the forums extremely helpful and the community supported.
I did leave for two reasons: One was the total lack of control over the ads. (I didn’t like my family-friendly comic site displaying “Click here for a sexy video!” or whatever.) I put up with it for over a year because I love the versatility and complete control of my little website.
What tipped the scales for me, though, was when there was a major crash. The hosting site went down, but the forums and front page were still up. We went for several days with NO information on what was being done to fix the site. After much begging in the forum, we were finally told they were “working on it.” Now remember, the front page and forum were still up. All they had to do was post that they were aware of the problem and not let more than 8 hours go by without a post of some sort. We understand that the site is run by volunteers, but many of us felt unimportant and abandoned.
I really wanted to move to ComicDish, but.. Do that one next, Kez!
February 12th, 2009 - 11:50 pm
@Samantha: I signed up on ComicDish to give it a try-out before any kind of review. This was one host I had forgotten about, thanks!
I remember that downtime on CG you’re talking about there. It was really weird, and I know they learned from the mistake of NOT notifying people at least via forum. They’re much better about it now.
@Koad: I have seen SO MANY THREADS about centering on forums, and it just blows my mind. :D But I remember when I asked the same question, and like you, CG forced me to learn. I’d be nowhere near able to code if I had started elsewhere.
@Ipsilono: Hahah! Sorry it’s a little late! I wish there had been a couple host reviews when I was just starting out too. What’s that saying? “Be the change you want to see in the world.” hehehe :3
February 12th, 2009 - 11:58 pm
I’m on ComicDish. They are totally free and they do NOT require you to put up any ads. Just to undermine that last point of yours. :D
It’s a pretty decent host, btw. The only thing that’s driving me nuts is the inability to upload my own php scripts, and, uh, really not sure any free hosts allow that. CG didn’t, but the queue and the ads were the main reason I decided not to go with CG. FTP access would have been nice, but oh well. You can’t have it all. *shrug*
February 13th, 2009 - 12:40 am
I liked starting out on CG; I knew a wee bit ‘o HTML, so it wasn’t too hard. But I wouldn’t recommend staying there; ya gotta move outta the trailer park sometime…
And, as a Mormon, even I thought it was funny that my church was advertising there. We’ll get all you webcomickers yet! :)
February 13th, 2009 - 8:32 am
I have to add that you also have seperate queue for manually updating your comic, your comic site and your index pages. This doesn’t become an issue unless you’re like me and love to tweak 10+ pages and images every other week!
All in all, for newbies I’d strongly suggest reading the guide and checking the boards before committing.
February 13th, 2009 - 10:18 am
You know, the queue on CG didn’t bother me at all. Mainly because I knew what it was doing.
Kat, there are so many things I liked about ComicDish. I don’t want to say anything specific about it so Kez can approach it with a “clean brain” for review purposes.
February 14th, 2009 - 8:55 am
“I have to add that you also have seperate queue for manually updating your comic, your comic site and your index pages.”
Huh? That’s news to me. As far as I know, the Queue is just one function. In SiteAdmin a user can specify what type of update they want, but there is only one queue.
“Some things could be done better, done faster, or updated, and I’m confident they will be in time.”
STrRedWolf is working on AutoGenesis as we speak! Sort of…
February 14th, 2009 - 7:20 pm
I too was unaware of this. All the times I have updated my CG mirror, even if I was just updating the index page, I had to sit through the WHOLE queue. I thought those options were only for what parts of the site to update, not for that AND separate queues. Is is a new feature of AutoGenesis?
Yeah, I’m keeping up with this with much excitement. Kisai is so busy though, I don’t know when it will actually be rolled out.
February 16th, 2009 - 6:44 pm
*re-reads self*
Yeah, Neo is spot on. Age creeps on me far too quickly I’m afraid!
The seperate update method is pretty useful though. Also there’s no real need if it’s only site-related graphics etc and I believe that it checks for changes automatically every day (give-take) I assume? All in all time is a small price to pay.
And as an obligatory plug; Neo is certainly the one to check if something has broken, on the forums.
February 20th, 2009 - 2:07 am
[...] going to approach this review in the same way that I approached the review of ComicGenesis. Here’s the same scenario: you have a comic you’re working on, right now, on your desk, [...]
July 26th, 2009 - 6:31 am
I’ve concidered doing a webcomic for years, i read them constantly, now i’ve got one coming together and these reviews are exactly what i needed. Thanks very helpfull and much appreciated.