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If lack of recognition and recompense are major problems in the print industry, so is regulation.  A comic printed on paper and distributed by a publisher is a controlled piece of art; its quality is regulated, but quality in itself is the problem, because in the print business, quality is that it is whatever an editor says it is-usually what turns a profit. Different styles or genres are ignored because they simply are not “quality” as defined by whomever is in charge.  McCloud writes,

In the case of the creator, that failure [in the system] lies in the market’s inability to metabolize any but a fraction of his or her creative vision.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that when money is the driving force of production, creative energy is going to drop like a rock. Many do thrive within the system, either by concentrating on technical proficiency or by finding pockets of editorially sanctioned freedom within which they can express themselves [...] but the high craft impelled by the market machine hides the ever-narrower range of styles, subject matter and themes allowed.[i]

New stories outside of the accepted norm were not even considered for large scale production until about the time when webcomics first appeared, when independent publishers such as Dark Horse Comics and Vertigo began to expand from the superhero genre.[ii] Now “alternative” titles like Pride of Baghdad and The Sandman are seen in such large bookstores as Borders and Barnes and Noble.  There are still so few of these types of comics in print because of the control of the industry by the print giants such as Marvel Comics and DC (Vertigo itself is an off-shoot of DC), but on the internet, there is no restraining hand on content, style, genre, or ability.  There are the worst of the worst and the best of the best, side by side, and quality is determined by readership more than monetary success, and by creator fulfillment more than readership.

Along with this multi-faced freedom, the internet offers instant communication and accessibility. There are few things any artist—visual or verbal—likes better than to connect with those who appreciate his or her work, or even to receive criticism, because even criticism is just another form of attention, and attention leads to fulfillment.  Once again, McCloud’s revolution of digital delivery allows “…a world far more vivid and memorable to the reader than what comics offers now,” and establishes a “…direct, meaningful exchange of ideas and experiences between creator and reader.”[iii] Every single webcomic lists a contact E-mail address in the hopes of receiving letters from readers, either in the form of fan mail, a critique, hate mail, or even just a quick note to say, “On page 13 of chapter 4, you spelled ‘necessary’ wrong in panel 2. PS: I like your comic.” Many comics also feature small, instantaneous chatting areas called shoutboxes or tagboards, where a reader may list contact information and leave a note.  A larger form of the tagboard is the internet forum, where comics with a large enough readership can cultivate an entire community of people that appreciate a creator’s work.

Communication is not the only instantaneous aspect of the internet, accessibility is fairly immediate as well. One does not drive across town or walk up the street to browse through pages on the internet-one sits downs and clicks in the comfort of one’s own home, or perhaps at an internet café or library. There are few homes in America today that do not have a computer and internet access, and there are even fewer people who do not have ability to travel somewhere nearby and connect.  As of September 30, 2007, nearly 20% of the world’s six billion people-over 1 billion-in this world use the internet.  A woman in New Zealand could walk into her home, sit down, and read a comic by a man in Germany.  Accessibility, like the internet itself, is global, and therefore so is webcomic distribution. The number of people that regularly buy and read comic books can hardly be compared.  “No need to dwell on sales,” McCloud jokes in Reinventing Comics after commenting that the only comics one finds in stores are superhero power fantasies.[iv] He does not even touch on global distribution, though it is important to note that imported print comics are far more costly in other countries, and that comic readership is far smaller because of it. For accessibility alone, the potential for an audience on the internet is far, far, greater than the potential for print comics.

A final, rather interesting strength of the internet is its “faceless,” anonymous quality. Due to the nature of how information is shared online, through a screen, on a website, over the internet, the identity of a webcomic creator is often ambiguous, sometimes, intentionally so.  For many webcomickers, the lack of identity-and therefore stereotyping that results from one’s identity-is a strength because one can use this anonymity to gain a larger audience based on merit, not racial or gender classification. Take for example, the plight of woman creators trying to break into the print comics industry, or the “prejudice against female-centered subject matter as inscribed by a woman.  Alisia Chase states in her essay,  “The Necessity of Old-School Feminist Interventions in the World of Comics and Graphic Novels,” on the discussion of the selection of a 15-member, all-male comics panel at the Masters of American Comics exhibition,

It might not be surprising in such an era, then, that as response to the ultimate selection of predominately white, middle-class, male artists who were chosen for the Masters show, some industry bloggers pointed out that there have never been as many women working in comics and graphic novels as there are now. [...] What is too often deduced from such protests is the more insidious falsehood that if women had the talent, desire to succeed, or in this case, the artistic respect of their peers, they’d be breaking right through that glass ceiling or hanging right up on that museum wall too.[v]

The “insidious falsehood” she mentions in the print industry is, unfortunately, often held to be true.  While more women may finally be working in comics, many still face a harder fight than men to find jobs making comics for established publishing houses like DC or Marvel—not due to lack of talent or ambition or even numbers, but because of patriarchal control of the entire industry.  Wolk also mentions the exhibition’s slight to women, blaming it on “antiquated social constructs that are finally starting to go away [...] and because comics take a very long time to draw, and it takes a long time for most cartoonists to hit the peak of their power-there are a lot of men who had a head start.”[vi] I, however, would argue that those same constructs Wolk discusses have not kept women from making comics, but rather have kept them from gaining recognition that should have long-since have been given (especially since the old-school cartoonists on boards that give out such awards are men anyways).  Such prejudice is not only found against women in the comic industry, but also against creators of a different race or sexual orientation. The cause of this prejudice can only be tracked back to the print business itself and its hiring practices, but the ability to freely publish work online, coupled with the faceless quality of the internet, means that anyone, regardless of gender, nationality, religion, etc, can make a webcomic, and that webcomic will succeed or fail based on merit alone.  Many webcomickers will go so far as to use gender-independent handles (internet aliases) so that they do not run the risk of alienating a certain portion of their audience. For example, a female creator may never reveal her true name, or may even use a man’s name, because whether she likes it or not, some men will not read her comic if they discover she is woman, regardless of the “masculinity” of content.  This is an affect of labeling and presumption based on a perceived “face.”  Many of the most popular fantasy webcomics today—Inverloch, Phoenix Requiem, Earthsong, Star Cross’d Destiny, The N00b—are created by women.  It is more than possible—and probable—that other comics are made by women who still rely on a masculine or gender-independent name.  The creators of The Holy Bibble[vii] for instance, recently posted publicly on their site they were women, unlike their handles “Lucas” and “Cannan” suggested. However, this faceless quality of the internet also makes it impossible to know the truth: perhaps Lucas and Cannan are simply plying for attention. Regardless, there is no way for webcomic readers to know the gender of the creator unless they are told, and that is a choice to be made not by a company, business or industry, but by an individual. I myself used the gender non-specific handle of “KEZ” for many years before openly displaying my copyright under the name of Karen “KEZ” Howard. Interestingly enough, many readers still mistake me for a man due to the content of my webcomic, and some readers jump to correct them on the forum or commenting area.

[ii] Reinventing Comics, 116.

[iii] Reinventing Comics, 20.

[iv] 111.

[v] Alisia Grace Chase, “‘Draws Like a Girl’: The Necessity of Old-School Feminist Interventions in the World of Comics and Graphic Novels,” 62-63.

[vi] Wolk, 71.

[vii] holybibble.net

Let’s get started! *cracks knuckles*

I’m going to start out by role-playing a new visitor to Dutch’s comic.   I stumble across his link, and BAM! I’m presented with some very important things:

1. This may seem like a “d’uh” thing, but Dutch states that hey, it’s a comic (and furthermore, it’s Australian :D)! You have no idea how many times I’ve had to explain to people who had never read webcomics before that it’s a comic, on the web. I encourage anyone reading this to have SOMETHING to cue total webcomic noobs into what your site is about (a webcomic).  Either state it’s a comic, a webcomic, or have a link stating “new to webcomics” or simply a “new reader” link. It sounds absurd, but it works.  Some people REALLY DON’T KNOW that they can read an entire comic online.
2. He has prominently displayed his update schedule!
3. He’s got an amusing title image (that randomly rotates).  This is a very catchy, welcoming thing! If you can make someone visiting your page for the first time laugh, chuckle, snort, etc, you win. That new reader WILL stick around to view another page.  One of the WORST things you can do is have your title in boring letters, slap a gradient on it, and call it done. It doesn’t work that way.  Your title graphic and/or logo needs to be personalized and stylized and catchy (this links to an article that briefly mentions this, since I haven’t done an all-out article on logos yet) and represent you.
4. So, still role-playing that new visitor, I see the important stuff, nice and bright: archive, cast and contact links (filling in for an about page link at first glance). Each page is organized in an appealing, simple manner,with obvious/simple/good names for those pages.  No mysterious links! So far so good, Dutch!

Okay, Dutch’s site passed the “new reader” test with flying colors, so let’s go more in-depth in my self-titled webcomic website must-have’s:

ARCHIVE PAGE:  Organized by storyline, starting with the FIRST storyline (which is good. I hate it when the most recent storyline is first), the number of comics in that storyline, and a short text synopsis.  I still recommend linking each and every page, but even I will admit with nearly 700 comics, all those links would be slightly absurd, and more likely to scare away new visitors (with the sheer immenseness of it) than please them. High marks on this set up!

CAST PAGE: Ok, the webdesigner in me is screaming about ugly tables. I’m going to address design itself at the end of this review, and stick with just organization and information display for now.  After making as many webcomic sites as I have, I am confused by the order in which the characters are presented. If you’re not going to order them by first appearance (and I don’t think that’s what has been done, since the “first appearance” links jump around a bit), then they should be ordered alphabetically, or by “main cast” and “supporting cast” (and then in each of those sections, ordered by first appearance or alphabetically). The random display of them is confusing if I’m looking for a specific character.  Admittedly, you don’t have so many characters I’m liable to GET lost, but people with a larger cast need to keep the ORDER of their characters on this page in mind.

ABOUT PAGE: the closest thing I can find is the “history” page, which, while aptly-titled considering the content, in my opinion better belongs on an about page, in a “the history of School Spirit” section. The reason I don’t like the “history” title is because when I first saw it, I didn’t know if I was about to be bombarded with an Aussie history lesson! I love how you put history in your comic, I think it adds tons of culture and is a great teaching tool, but as a reader, I don’t want more than that.  One of the many reasons I encourage people to have an about page is for redundancy of information as well (not to mention SEO). We all know internet users….aren’t always the brightest bunch. You have an email link in your menu, and an about page should additionally state how to contact you. It should also redundantly state what your comic is about (ASIDE from a one-line synopsis, something a little more in-depthe), and more about you.  Which….is almost exactly what you already have on this “history” page. If you are very attached to the page title “history”, at the very least include a link alt, “About the history of School Spirit,” or something. Include link alts on all those mapped links there, especially the Strine. Us non-Aussies have no idea what that means, but if you included the link alt, “Australian glossary of terms,” there’s no confusion there.  I know there may be some issues including more about yourself, since you are a teacher and your students read the comic.  I am unsure of the peculularities of such duality, but I AM saying all of this stuff is something someone who is a regular webcomic reader (not your students, or their parents) would want to see.

Still, really great job on the WWM-H’s there. Lots of text for search engines to see as well. Moving on to the should-have pages:

GALLERY PAGE: Again, a lot of text for SEO, great! I’d like to see you linking the people who have sent you guest art (that’s par for the course), especially if those sites are the same rating as your webcomic.  If they are more mature, the people who sent you the art probably don’t expect a link back.

LINKS PAGE: Gah! Only one banner available!?  And not even for your comic? Dutch, make more banners for yourself, man! Do you NOT want to be linked or something?  I think I remember you mentioned something before about not desiring to be linked by more “mature” sites, but if you have a linking policy, you just have to state it! 99% of people will abide by it.  If you don’t provide people banners to use, a lot of times they won’t even bother to link you, or ask you to make one, or even use a text link. They just won’t.

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SITE DESIGN:

This is where I groan. You’ve got everything mostly where it needs to be, all the aspects of a good website, but the webdesign needs some work. Not a lot, because where you have all the information already there, and the style in which you’ve built matches the friendly, out-going nature of your strip.  But some aspects ought

Some things YOU need to keep in mind: Take out every table border you’ve got (technically, set table border=”0″). The cast page is the main culprit.  It just looks….guh. Try cellspacing instead.

Be consistent in the design between pages. For example, your cast page has orange headings in Comic Sans, white body text in Times New Roman, and a black background. Your history page has headings in just a larger Comic Sans font, with a page background that looks like crinkled paper. Mostly, it seems the cast page is the odd man out. Perhaps you just haven’t gotten around to it yet, but the front page news area has the same issues. It’s not a good idea to use more than 1 font face on a webpage, especially if images have different text. Find a theme you like, and use it on EVERY page.

The order of your site navigation buttons needs changed. Like the cast page, the order should be alphabetical, or by order of importance.  I usually go with the later. No matter what, “Home” should be the first button. I usually then recommend “Archive” followed by “Cast,” [insert other pages here], ending with “Links” and then “About/Contact.”  I’d recommend taking out “Reviews” (and put that in an “about” section) and if at ALL possible, making horizontal nav bar. I’m guessing you don’t want to do that because then  you’d have all that room up there with nothing to do with it, so how about a compromise?  Perhaps a banner or half-banner or square button(s) ad slot up there instead? And the site navigation below that? Also, the text sizes on all the buttons needs to be conistent. It looks very odd with the changing sizes. It wouldn’t bother me nearly as much if all those buttons stayed in the same place, but had fonts all of the same size.

Next, um, the wood paneling background. I’ve never been a fan of that. I don’t think it matches your comic or art at ALL. I get that you’re going for a classroom desk (at least, I think), but just like fonts and such need to be consistent on a site, so does the art. You have your art in the title graphic, an obviously drawn ruler for the comic navigation, and then you’ve got this photograph of wood texture! It just will not mesh. It would be like inserting a photograph in your comic for a background (obviously we’re not talking about your history lesson comics here). You wouldn’t do that, because it would look BAD.  It would look totally different, and I daresay good, if you drew that yourself. Consistency in graphic design/web design is a MUST for a good-looking site, and if you’ve been reading this blog, you’ve heard me say it: webcomics are half comic, half WEB. The quality of your website needs to match the quality of your comic!

Some other random things: Add “storyline archive” or something above your dropdown archive. Let people know what it is.

Do something with your news area (that doesn’t involve table borders). It is floating off into nothingness. Remember! Cohesive design. Make sure the font styles here match the font styles on the rest of the site.

I would suggest less ad space. You’re offering too much space for the prices they are going for, and unsold spaces don’t look good. Now, if you’re just being magnanimous with your space, good for you! But if you want to be making more than a cent per spot, offer 1 or 2 spots MAX.  In this way, rather than 4 people bidding on every spot, 4 people bid on the same spots, and compete with EACH OTHER, rather than just taking the least expensive spot.  I’d recommend getting rid of those 3 boxes all together.

That’s it from me!  I apologize if I was wrong about any of things “I remembered you saying…”. I read so many webcomics, and I’ve been reading yours for quite some time now, I may have gotten some details wrong. <3 Next in line for a website review is Beertycoon’s Maskerman. But first, a webcomic host review of ComicDish.  Finally got my mirror site up there and joined the forums.

Post 1, Post 2, Post 3

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[sic]

…Webcomics may possess such variety and potential, but webcomics also have a reputation both on and off the internet which causes this new art form to devalue itself.  Webcomics are associated with the image of a scrawny, fourteen-year-old, socially-inept boy who scrawls bad gag comics on lined notebook paper in his basement room. This image is only applicable to a minority of webcomic creators, yet has so pervaded the thought behind the word that it is now indelible. Contrary to this stereotype, polls of webcomic creators[i]—or self-titled “webcomickers”—show that majority of them were adults between the ages 18-24, and were either employed or pursuing higher education. Many of the larger, more established webcomics were created by married individuals with one or two children. Only one-tenth of poll participants were in high school. The fact is, most webcomics are created by talented, young adults who treat webcomicking as a beloved hobby, who enjoy their honing artistic and writing skills, and who are constantly testing the limits of a new art form.

Once one can overcome the stereotypical image of the webcomic creator, then comes the pejorative baggage attached to the word “comic,” which is also carried over to the word “webcomic.” As discussed earlier, comics as sequential art have a lineage that predates the written word.  Scott McCloud argues that writing forms such as cuneiform and hieroglyphics evolved from pictures representing the environment, and that the first forms of non-verbal communication occurred as sequential, visual characterization, pre-dating any alphabet.[ii] Wolk laments that comics have such a lack of published, distinguished history that he does not even have the right words with which to write about comics:

“…it’s not a bad idea, exactly, to talk about comics using some of the same language we use to talk about prose and film and non-narrative visual art; sometimes it fits (In fact, we have to, because the language of comics criticism is still young and scrawny-it’s so underdeveloped there’s no good adjective that means ‘comics-ish.’).”[iii]

Unfortunately to many, a “comic” is merely an illustrated joke, found perhaps on the inner leaf of any newspaper doomed to the recycling bin the following day; it is considered a doodle, meaningless but for a second or two of entertainment and often thought to be of little significance. However, as with the best, most influential, literary works, comics as an art form can incorporate ideas and concepts just as meaningful to either an individual or an entire civilization, perhaps in a manner far more easily assimilated by the reader through the use of images, and far more inviting than a thousand-page work of purely literary greatness, such as Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.  The problem as prescribed by McCloud is that comics creators often choose to have subject matter of little cultural significance, believing perhaps that all comics as a form is meant to convey is superhero stories or jokes about the workplace.  This is not to say that mainstream comics have not a large impact on entire generations of youth, simply that there is far more comics can and is exploring, and not all comics are meant for children—as mentioned previously, award-winning comics like Sacco’s Palestine and Spiegelman’s Maus prove that the art form is growing and maturing, even if most people who read comics have never even heard of them.  Ever since comics were recognized as an art form, it has held this stigma that it is worthless, or at best, a corruptor of youth starting in the 1950′s—though it is at least a partial compliment that to be considered a corruptor, comics had to contain new, strange or influential ideas.[iv]

Today, professional comic creators often call themselves illustrators, artists, or graphic novelists rather than cartoonists, and never, ever, comickers. However, even in the 1800′s, some recognized the vast potential a marriage of words and images provided; McCloud quotes Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as chastising Rudolphe Töpffer’s early comics, “If for the future he would choose a less frivolous subject and restrict himself a little, he would produce things beyond all conception.”[v] McCloud himself states in Reinventing Comics, “We can only guess how many potential masters of the form [comics] never put pen to paper because of the utter absence of official recognition.”[vi] Yet, rarely since then has comics dealt with subjects that, in any literary work, would be deemed of note: some of the more recent examples being Persepolis, a graphic novel about a Persian girl and her family living in post-revolution Iran (recently animated into a movie); and Pride of Baghdad, a single volume, graphic novel featuring a main cast of an escaped pride of lions in war-torn Baghdad after the start of the Iraq War.  One must make the distinction here between content, style, and characters, and how they relate to significance; simply because a style is simplistic does not mean the content is not serious; because characters are animals instead of people, does not mean significance of plot, events or contemporary messages are lost. Wolk makes the distinction between “pretty” mainstream art and “competent” art:

But there are also extraordinary cartoonists who don’t fit either of those categories [storytelling and communication]. Gary Panter, for instance, couldn’t even begin to pull off a Wonder Woman or X-Men story, and I can’t imagine him having any interest in trying; his drawings are vehemently unpretty, barbed and gnarled, and he has no aspirations to realism or hyperrealism or conventional narrative. Even so, Jimbo in Purgatory, his fantasia on structure of Dante’s ‘Purgatory,’ is a knockdown masterpiece of cartooning, so clever and complicated and beautifully executed that it takes ages to sink in fully. Shall we call him ‘technically competent,’ then, since he’s able to realize his own vision? (How can we not?)[vii]

Comic art need not be pretty or sexually appealing; all it must do is match and further the content, as Panter’s work was able to do: give us a universal theme rendered in an astonishingly new way.  Again, comics are joined at the hip when discussing art and narrative, and industry standards for what is “good” can be far different than what is meaningful or significant, and true art—visual and literary—should never be judged by how much money it brings at the market.

[ii] Understanding Comics, 10-15, 131, 142.

[iii] Wolk, 16.

[iv] Scott McCloud, Reinventing Comics, (New York, NY: Perennial, 2000) 87-88; Wolk, Douglas, 39. 

[v] Understanding Comics, 17.

[vi] Reinventing Comics, 93.

[vii] Wolk, 33.

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In order to understand where webcomics are today as an art form, it is important to know from what humble beginnings webcomics came. Before one can discuss that, one must know what comics are and how comics as art are significant. After all, without the comic, there would be no webcomic.

Comics, often more formally defined as “sequential art,” have existed since prehistoric man found he could represent his world with ochre on cave walls.  The term can be applied to the Bayeux tapestry[i]-which depicts the chronological progression of a battle-to the sequential panels of a jumping goat painted on ancient Iranian pottery over 5000 years ago.[ii][iii] Of course, unless one stops and thinks about the very large definition of “comics,” many would not consider such artifacts to be comics, not with the very negative connotation comics carry today. Many believe a comic must contain a punch-line, or is a single panel composition, of little consequence, created to amuse children or, at best, young adults who should be doing something more worthwhile (like reading a book)-and if aimed at adults, the presumption is that they are relatively illiterate and require “pictures” to read and comprehend the story. But, Scott McCloud, in his ground-breaking work Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, succinctly gets to the heart of the matter, taking Will Eisner’s definition of comics as sequential art even further. As he states, comics are “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.”[iv]

It is also important to, with finality and confidence, state that yes, comics are an art form. Comic creators must have a mastery of visual and literary fields, a sense of composition, and an understanding of how time flows throughout that composition. They must have strong grasp of story or idea, and have the ability to convey information in a method that can be understood and perceived by a universal audience. To be an illustrator requires years of devotion to one’s craft and to the study of one’s environment and surroundings; it also requires the ability to reproduce a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional canvas in a fashion both aesthetically pleasing and comprehensible to an audience.  To be an author requires years of dedication to language, grammar, narrative, story-telling, character-building, diction, and craft. To be a comic creator, one must be masters of both the visual and written fields, and if being an author or an illustrator is a not only a respectable calling, but one of merit, it is a shame that being a comic creator is not held in the same esteem. Scott McCloud describes comics as “the ‘bastard child’ of words and pictures,” but goes on to say that this view point is self-perpetuated by comic creators themselves, who have yet to understand the true power that comics as a medium possess.[v] Comic critic Douglas Wolk also states in his book Reading Comics:

One numbingly common mistake in the way culture critics address them [comics] is to invoke “the comic book genre.”  As cartoonist and their longtime admirers are getting a little tired of explaining, comics are not a genre; they’re a medium [...] Prose fiction, sculpture, video: those, like comics, are media-forms of expression that have few or no rules regarding their content other than the very broad ones imposed on them by their form.[vi]

Taking into account the length of time that sequential art has existed, the enormous diversity of material comics cover-from Art Spiegelman’s tale of the Holocaust, Maus[vii] to Joe Sacco’s journey through Palestine,[viii] to Peter Parker’s adventures in Spider-Man-and the mediums through which comics are made-paper, painting, carvings, pixels and more-proves they are not only true, fine art, but also of great cultural and historical significance.  We as a species would not have been making sequential art for thousands of years if it were not an important form of art, significant to us in its representation and content.

[ii] Touted as the “first animation” in news, the four panels depicting a goat jumping are displayed side-by-side on the pottery, falling under Eisner’s definition of comics as sequential art.  Animated images are not juxtaposed, but positioned in the same space.

[iii] “CHTHO’s Cultural Blunder and Documentary, Production on World’s Oldest Animation.” The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies, Mehr News Agency,<http://www.mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=649189> (March 3, 2008).

[iv] Understanding Comics, 9.

[v] Understanding Comics, 47, 18.

[vi] Douglas Wolk, Reading Comic: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, (Da Capo Press, 2007) 11.

[vii] Winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1992

[viii] Winner of an American Book Award in 1996

Oh yes, please keep in mind, I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelors in Biological Sciences, Pre-Med. Enjoy! (and stick it to the Man every chance you get!) I’ll be posting bits and pieces when I’m working on other articles.

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The Art of Webcomics

by Karen KEZ Howard, advised by Dr. Alisia Chase

ABSTRACT:

Since the inception of comics as an art, it has unfairly received the scorn of those in both the literary and artistic fields.  For the past fifty years, the growth of the medium of comics has been controlled by established publishers who regulate content, style and genre, and who have forced this art to become no more than a business tailored to suit a single demographic. With the creation of the internet, independent comic creators can now circumvent the control of the medium by self-publishing webcomics, the digital form of comics.  Webcomics are proving what the medium of comics is capable of accomplishing by harnessing the freedom, accessibility and communication abilities of the internet.

Part I: An Explanation of the Art of Comics

The turn of the millennium ushered in a new age of cellular phones, laptops and high definition television sets. It has brought the time of globally-connected, near-instant communication, where the collective knowledge of mankind is at the fingertips of anyone who has access to the internet. The technology to communicate on the global scale has effected not only to a different pace of life, but also to the beginning of a new type of art: digital art.  Created only through pixels and light, this new art has many forms, but one in particular is known as the “webcomic.” Defined most simply, a webcomic is a comic displayed on the World Wide Web.

Having existed for over two decades now, webcomics, often called “online comics,” have both their proponents and their critics. Some believe that the webcomic is a new art that takes advantage of the constantly evolving technology of this age.  The webcomic, along with its medium, is never the same for long. For example, the software to make digital art is continually upgraded, and in a sense reinvented, every year.  In contrast, there are those who see little difference between a traditional comic and a webcomic, and believe that it is only the mode of dissemination-the internet-which makes it what it is (and this is an understandable point of view, as some webcomics are merely print comics shown on a screen). Yet, it is the internet’s potential for surpassing what mediums have come before it-particularly with regard to its ability to globally distribute materials and information; it is the power of instant communication regardless of distance, nationality or culture; and it is the exchange between creator and reader that make the webcomic exactly what it is: novel, inspiring, and liberating. I myself maintain that webcomics have a far greater potential than any printed comic because of the technology harnessed to make and distribute them.  Webcomics can reach larger audiences faster, they are free, immediate and easily accessible, and they satisfy the need that every artist, and for that matter, every reader, has: the need to communicate with the other-the creator to the reader, and the reader to the creator. In no other medium than the internet is this two-way communication possible to such an extreme extent, and in every other medium, it is found to be sorely lacking.

This comparison between these two art forms-the digital and the printed-is important not only because after only twenty years such works already challenge the dominance of the print industry, but because of the freedom that the digital medium represents from the constraints of the print business.  Like the advent of the weblog or webcast, the webcomic most likely arose because someone, somewhere, could not publish their memoirs, or broadcast their home-made radio show, or syndicate their comic.  But their need to share a vision, to receive validation for it through communication, and to retain all creative rights to their work pushed these people to find another way.  When the internet was created, and the need to publish through an established printing business was completely circumvented, these people did publish their works, for free, retaining all rights; they started a movement that focused not only on a product, but on the person or people behind the product-on the painstaking, creative process, full of emotion and the willingness to share a project often without monetary return. This is the inherent idea of the current evolution webcomic: that it is free, that individuals matter, that anyone may publish, and that there is no control of published work other than one’s own. These unique qualities, coupled with accessibility, global distribution, and instant communication are what make webcomics culturally and historically significant.

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I’m going to post the thesis in its entirety online as soon as I have the time. It’s long, with special formatting, and a lot of images. The next article up will be on the benefits of being part of a webcomic collective.

Also, my thesis adviser is awesome.  Writing this was totally the best part of college.

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One of the very first pieces of advice someone new to webcomics will receive from the webcomic community is very simple and 99.9% of the time the right thing to do: always display your webcomic on the front page.

The reasons to do this are numerous: the webcomic is your main “product.”  It is what you are “selling” to your audience, and they shouldn’t have to look for it. It is the driving force to KEEP first time visitors, and you’re supposed to give them what they came to get.  Many visitors will LEAVE if they can’t immediately find your comic.  “It’s the only right way to build a webcomic site.”

I am here to tell you that final, blanket statement is not true, and that my site proves it.   I am not trying to brag here, I assure you, I simply want to make a point. I’m not saying my way is the BEST way either. What I DO want to say is that sometimes there are special circumstances that may push you to move the webcomic off the front page, and that if you do decide to do so, there are wrong and right ways to do it.  The problem is, most people who go about putting the comic off the home page do it wrong. Yes, totally and completely WRONG.

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First, I’m going to speak to real reasons not to display your comic on the home page. Perhaps you have multiple comics updating on your site, and you don’t want to have multiple sites.  You want multiple comics updating on ONE site because you want to pool your audience and MAXIMIZE the exposure of all your comics.  You can’t [or rather, shouldn't] display all those comics on your front page–that’s just confusing! You are therefore left with 2 alternatives: display one comic on your main site, and link the others on their separate sites, or create a “hub” page, and link all comics to their own separate pages. Why go through the trouble of creating separate sites for each comic, and then the additional trouble of setting up a “this is my portfolio [look at all my comics] that no one is going to look at, but I thought I should have anyways?” site? Don’t. Just organize a single, central domain well and you’re set. Get the extra domain names later if you want, when your audience is already pooled. It is ALWAYS best (for pagerank, for Alexa rank, etc) to have everything under ONE name, remember that!

Another reason might be because of stylistic choice of comic. For example, my comic pages change dimension with each update. This is a conscious, experimental choice I have made to take full advantage of the digital format of my comic. I don’t care if it annoys people. My comic is not, and never was meant, to be published as a book. I don’t like squishing every panel, regardless of how large I want it to be, into a set size. I don’t like panels, period.  But I digress, and will stop myself here. If your comics change dimension with each update, it is extremely difficult to place them in a good-looking template without breaking that template. The answer? Either conform (boo!), or don’t put them in that template.

A third reason to have comics off the main page is to save the audience loading time. Perhaps you want extra features available, and on your home page, but you don’t want these extras to load with each archive page. Slimming down webpage clutter is nearly always a good thing.  Also, similarly, perhaps your pages are saved at high quality (and you want them as such, within reason.) Putting new pages in a slimmed down, SEPARATE page (off the homepage) allows you post high resolution comic pages with each update. For example, how much would I LOVE Phoenix Requiem or Xylia’s pages to be displayed at a much larger size. The comics are so detailed, it seems a travesty to display at such a small size.

A final reason, perhaps just as important as the others, perhaps not: increasing total site pageviews. If a visitor continually comes to your home page, and the proceeds to the page that displays a comic, that is two total pageviews for one returning visitor.  Obviously, if the comic is on the front page, a returning visitor gets you only a single pageview. When most ad companies pay by CPM (or as with Project Wonderful, auction prices are often determined foremost by pageviews), doing what you can to increase pageviews can be imporant.

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Some people are going to argue here some very basic things that I was taught FIVE YEARS AGO when I first started webcomics: filesizes should ALWAYS be under 200kb; comics should NEVER have a scroll; comics should NEVER change size or dimension; your webpage should be 90-100% text functional and should not rely on art.

THIS IS BULLSHIT. Five years ago,  60GB harddrives and 500MB RAM were considered state of the art. Many people still used dial-up connections. The most common screen resolution was 800×600 on a CRT monitor.  5 years of technological evolution has changed the rules, and really, the rules are changing all the time. The fact, the very awesome and important fact, is that digital medium (that is, how we are displaying, and in some cases making, our comics) is so vast, has so much potential, that it should be used.  Not everyone makes their comics for print, nor should conform to print requirements. I wrote an 80-page college thesis about this. You may not agree with me, you hard-core, dead-tree formaters, but I do have experience here. You may not believe me, but I do ask that you listen.   Oh, and finally, of COURSE webcomic sites should take full advantage of artistic layouts. It’s a visual art for goodness’ sake!  Having a good looking and functional website is HALF of making a webcomic.

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So, more ranting aside, if you are going to display your comic off the front page, here are the ways to do it wrong, and then do it right:

WRONG 1: Do not ever have a “static” (unchanging) home page. Last Blood is a good example of this.  This page set up has not changed since the day the comic started. If your front page never changes, why would anyone bookmark it?  They won’t. They will instead bookmark the page WITH the comic, defeating the purpose of increasing exposure to all of your comics or other works.

RIGHT 1:  Always have updating, dated news on your hub page. It should change with every update to every comic, and preferably, have an RSS feed (done right for a single project: Phoenix Requiem). What if Bobby Crosby instead had “bobbycrosbycomics.com?” And let’s say this page linked to all the comics he works on, with linked RSS feeds, and updated news/commentary for each time a comic of his updated. This page would be POPULAR, due to the success of his projects. Someone who comes for Last Blood might discover Marry Me, and love it. The overall exposure of all his comics would increase dramatically, as opposed to mere static text links in his lower left sidebars.  I leave the measure of commentary vs. news up to you guys. My rule of thumb: if it’s not interesting (or at least inflamatory, because those are always fun), you probably shouldn’t post it. I personally post short, pertinent news blurbs on the homepage, and leave commentary for beneath the comic itself.

WRONG 2: Having more than 1 click to the most recent comic of all comics/projects you have. Multiple clicks lead to frustration, and frustrated visitors simply leave. For example, on your home page, don’t have a button that says “my comics” and then a “my comics” page with links to each comic.  A more frustrating example: an inane and babbling home page that has unintuitive link names (for example, “my comics” vs “my art projects;” well, what KIND of art projects? Lead them directly to your comics.) that lead to a gallery page with random art pieces than FINALLY leads to your comic archive and then, FOR REAL THIS TIME, to the first/most-recent comic.  By the time visitors get to this point, 90% will have already left. Have the links to each comic’s most recent page on your home page. The common reason I see for this kind of mistake in design is that a person can’t decide what they want their site to be ABOUT: themselves, their portfolio, their comic, their school projects, etc. Decide, and focus, when designing a webpage.

RIGHT 2: Having a dated, titled image and/or text link to the most recent comic page update(s). If you have an image, it should have a new file title each update so it is not cached. I prefer to have both a text link and an image link. This/these link(s) should be given TOP priority on the page design. Reading your news is optional. They came for your comic(s), but hey, they might be interested in what you have to say too. However, since they didn’t come to hear you talk, links to comics should be above/before your news, not at the bottom or after.

WRONG 3: Having more than 1 click to the archive page(s) of your comic(s). Let us return to the first scenario of WRONG 2: mulitple clicks to the comic. Okay, well, what if a new visitor wants to go to the archive page first? A lot of visitors like to see what they’re getting into first (in other words, how long they will be sitting to read your work) before going to the first page or most recent page.  If they have multiple clicks to get to the comic, how will they react with even MORE clicks to get to the archive? Or, what if, an even worse worse-case scenario, you don’t even HAVE an archive page?

RIGHT 3: Prominently displaying the link to your archive in your site menu, which should be nearly at the top of your site. I prefer navigation horizontally below the title, but some people like it on a sidebar. That should always be your LEFT sidebar though, never the right (unless of course, you speak a R->L language like Arabic). Don’t make people search for how to explore your site!

WRONG 4: Not having a direct link to your comic’s FIRST page. Somewhat like the previous scenario, some visitors like to jump to the first page rather than check the archive or go to the most recent comic page.

RIGHT 4: Displaying an image or text link or menu button for your comic’s first page. This image/link should be intuitive and LABELED. Do not rely on the “<<” image that has become commonplace in the webcomic world.  People new to webcomics will not know what that means. Anything you can do to make the reading experience easier, you do, especially since you’re moving (or at least thinking about moving) the comic from the home page.

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It’s obvious here that in some places I have merged wrong things to do and how to fix them. A lot of things will simply boil down to common sense webdesign and knowing what your audience wants (which in nearly all cases, is what YOU would want if you came to such a site.)  My #1 rule is to always make a site as intuitive and as easy to use as possible. Provide all the short-cuts to all the important pages. Don’t make your audience WORK to read your comic or use your site. My home page features the above “rights” and more: I have a text synopsis for each feature of mine, increasing the SEO of my site. The home page has a lot of images, but each has alts and titles. My navigation menu includes (in order of importance) links to the first comic, the archive, the cast page, etc. I have 2 links to get to the most recent comic page: one is an image, one is a text link in the news. My news updates with each comic update. My home page has a bounce rate (visitor see, visitor flee) of 1.34%.  This means only 1/100 visitors come to home page and leave without clicking anything.  What is the bounce rate of sites that display comics on their front page? 60-80%.

Could my site be done better? Yes, of course. There’s almost always a way to do things better. Does my site “work” with the comic off the main page? Most definitely. If it works for me, it can work for others. Just do it right!

And now, to finish my longest article ever, a list of popular comics that don’t display their comic on the front page and still make it work:

Copper (Bolt City)

Samurai Pride

VG Cats

Shades of Veil

White Noise/ Welcome Committee of Magic High/ Doom ‘n Stuff

Fantasy Realms

Phoenix Requiem

Antagonist

No Need For Bushido

Strays

The Gods’ Pack

It would be a good exercise for those into webdesign to consider how each example could be modified or done better, and then to apply it to your own site.  Please remember that even with all these features on your “hub” page, some people WILL still bookmark your “most current comic page” instead. Some just refuse that one extra second to click, and that’s alright. There are ways to stop this behavior, but really, it’s not worth the effort half the time, not if you just design correctly. The majority of your readers won’t mind that extra click, so don’t be discouraged.

]]> http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/displaying-the-webcomic-off-the-home-pagecorrectly/feed/ 3 http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/stumble-upon-as-a-webcomic-networking-tool/ http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/stumble-upon-as-a-webcomic-networking-tool/#comments Sat, 24 Jan 2009 01:52:36 +0000 KEZ http://warofwinds.com/winged-wolf-studio/?p=162 A common question I see on TWCL forums is “How well does Stumble Upon work?” After many threads and innumerable responses to the question, here is my take:

Stumble Upon works well if you’ve got connections, but then again, that is how it works at ANY networking site.  If you don’t have anyone to network WITH, no one finds what you want to share (in this case, your site). So the first step of getting SU to work for your webcomic is to “subscribe” to other people. Members on TWCL will want to get in on this thread, but since the thread is old, you may want to shrug off the complaints of others and start your own.  People are far less likely to subscribe to you [even if you subscribe to them first] from old threads.  You will of course, be immediately directed to this pre-existing thread by multiple users complaining about bad forum etiquette, but I will leave the decision of whether or not to create a new thread up to you. I don’t know if any have been started at Comic Genesis, Webcomics.com, or Drunk Duck.

How SU works: Subscribing to others, and having others subscribe to you is incredibly important on Stumble Upon because it increases the automatic popularity of whatever webpage you stumble.  (A “stumble” by the way, is what it’s called when you tell SU that you like a site. It is a good thing! Contrary to the traditional definition).  Whenever you stumble a page (I highly recommend the FireFox add-on Stumble Upon Toolbar), it appears on the “what’s new” page of everyone subscribed to you. If even ONE of those subscribed you does a follow-up stumble, the page then appears on all of the “what’s new” pages of everyone subscribed to THEM, and so on and so forth. It’s a very…viral…process.

Other than subscribing to others and being subscribed to, the more you rate and review sites through SU, the more weight all your ratings get. So, basically, the more you use SU, the more it does for you.

One of the best features SU has for webcomickers is the ability to “send” a page to friends.  For example, if I had a comic page I was really proud of, I would send the page to friends, and ask for a stumble and/or review. This is a feature to use RARELY.  Do not ask for stumbles from your friends at every update. It is highly annoying. Everytime you ask for a stumble, be aware that internet etiquette demands you be willing to RETURN that stumble and review if you are asked.

What to Expect: The viral spread of SU “thumbed up” pages means you can get a lot of visits in a very short time. It can be a major force to increase the pageviews of your site (for example, if you are paid by CPM, this can be a VERY good thing), but the visits you will get will rarely result in new readers.  Webcomickers have to face it that webcomic readers are few and far in-between; they are a small audience, more of a clique than we’d like to admit.  You may get a lot of visitors for a day or three from a single stumble through SU, but you will also have a very low average pageview/visitor number.  The majority of people who go to your site from a stumble will have no idea what a webcomic is, will check out your site for a second, and then leave (this an article I’m getting ready to write: the problem of advertising to “webcomic-ignorant” audience).  Gag-a-day comics definitely have a leg up on story-based comics when networking this way.  If a page in the middle of a story-line is stumbled, no new visitor will know what is going on. A gag-a-day comic might make people explore for more laughs.

Those of you interested in using SU on your own site, check out AddThis and of course, the SU buttons.

EDIT: JGray of Mysteries of Arcana and 2nd Shift also mentioned via Twitter that SU can also be a tool to increase Project Wonderful bids. Some may find it “unethical” since SU traffic is rather…unsubstantial…but hey! It’s out there for you, and he’s right. PW doesn’t differentiate between what kind of visitors you get, just that you’re getting them.

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Another short article today, something veteran SU users might turn their noses up at, but then again, this studio blog is about basics.  ;)

Next up, an article near and dear to my heart: having your comic OFF the main page, and how to do it RIGHT.

Here is the result of my first networking attempt, using Deviant Art as a means of free advertising through their pre-existing network of art-minded folks. I call this “networking” instead of “free advertising” because to get it to work, you really have to network (ie, connect) with people there.  You’ll need to do some legwork and make friends with others first OR have art that is great enough people will try to make friends with YOU.

First, for those of you who have not heard of Deviant Art, have no clue how it works, or how it differs from a gallery on your site, an explanation: DA is like the internet of art galleries. In one member’s gallery, you find links to their favorite pieces, and from them, more and more links. It is a web of links, and sharing who and what you like is what it makes popular (and how the whole things works).  You upload your work, and it’s posted on the front page of Deviant Art itself.  If you have people who “watch” or “follow” you there, they are notified of every update you make. This notification and exposure system it what makes it different from a gallery on your own site–AND how it brings you new visitors.

I have been a member of Deviant Art since August 2008.  By posting my comic pages there, with a link back to my site in the author’s notes, my DA account is my 19th (108 visits to be exact) top referrer this past month. And I’m not very active there! If I posted more art, more sketches, made more contacts there, I could easily increase that number.  But my point is that this type of networking is FREE advertising for you.  For the minimum amount of effort (creating a gallery, posting your comics, putting a link back to your site) you get access to a HUGE pool of prospective readers.

So, to summarize, webcomic networking via Deviant Art works with even minimal effort.

I will write articles on them later, but Twitter and Stumble Upon also work well with minimal effort. Most webcomic forums I visit have threads expressly for networking via sites like these. I encourage you to try these places out, one at a time, if you haven’t already. I say “one at a time” because if you are trying these out for the first time, don’t overdo it.  Results can be slow if you do not already have a base of people with which to network, and you may feel disappointed. But, you can take it from me, it DOES work, but how successful it will be will depend on VOLUME: how many people are linked to you as friends/watchers/etc, and how often you update.  Not to mention, of course, the quality of your content.

That’s it for today, just something simple! Next up, a review of the ad company Adtegrity.

Toplists are a popularity contest. Unpopular/unknown comics won’t ever BEAT the popular ones, but these are places to get your comic’s name out. It’s not about winning (getting in the top 10, or even top 100) so much as increasing overall exposure, and places like TopWebComics and Buzzcomix get a LOT of traffic. Even in the 200′s or 300′s, you will definitely get new readers. To get into the top 300′s, all you need is YOU voting for yourself daily, and one or 2 other people helping you out occasionally.  To get into the top 200′s, you need you voting for yourself, and 4 or 5 committed fans voting almost daily.  Getting into the top 100 requires, at least for me, 100 votes a week.  With an audience of around 1.5k, it update my incentive once a week to maintain a standing in 90′s.  BEING there gets me 80 visits a week, the equivalent of a really good link exchange! It’s a good deal, and worth the effort.

How often should I update my incentive? Depend on your audience size and your ambitions. If you’re a small comic, and you want to get on the front page of a toplist, you should update your incentive multiple times a week. I recommend updating the incentive at LEAST as often as you update your comic, preferably on the same day.  Don’t expect people to come back afterwards to see a new incentive AFTER reading your comic.  Remember to make it as easy as possible for people to vote for you! I don’t recommend updating your incentive daily. That’s unneccessary. 3 days a week is good place to start if you have small audience with high ambitions. I am a medium comic with low ambitions, so I update the incentive once a week and I’m happy where I am.

Should I display the toplist button or make my own? It is definitely better to make your own button that is a thumbnail of your incentive. It is even better to include the thumbnail AND provide a written description of what you have up. As a slight tangent, I advocate including this thumbnail in your news area AND another link elsewhere on your site.  For example, you have a permanent vote link, perhaps, in your navigation menu, AND have a thumbnail in the news area (for example, Xylia). Duplicating the link in this subtle fashion means a higher chance of visitors seeing the link.   Don’t be pushy about getting people to vote! Only 1/10 visitors MAX will ever vote for you! So don’t have links EVERYWHERE. That’s just annoying, and no one votes for annoying sites.

Be sure to let people know that voting on toplists isn’t like voting for president! People can vote multiple times a day, but only once each day per comic! We, as webcomic creators, take this piece of knowledge for granted. A LOT of visitors don’t know this! The first time I posted about it, my votes doubled. 0.0

What should I post for an incentive? Art is the favorite.   Ask Dr. Eldritch posts extra comic panels, often continuing the joke or story of the current comic.  Fey Winds often has concept pictures of World of Warcraft characters.  I sometimes post sketches of the following week’s comic page, or sometimes a “the making of” page.  If you’re the author and not the artist, or simply an over-worked artist, consider posting snippets of the following comic’s script (obviously as an image, since you can’t really post a lot of text).

There are so many toplists! Which and how many should I choose? I recommend focusing on one toplist. In the long run, it will be far less effort with far greater reward for a mid-sized comic (large/popular comics like Phoenix Requiem and Cat Legend can easily be high-ranking members of two.  They have a highly active fan base. If you don’t, try ONE list first, and make sure you can stick with it!) It means less updating of incentives, especially if you try to update each list with a different incentive.  Most people won’t vote twice either, just once (if you’re lucky!)  If you’re trying to decide between TopWebComics and Buzzcomix, I recommend TWC. It’s far more reliable. BCX is down too often for my taste. You might also have a lot of luck with smaller lists if you’re not getting anywhere with the larger lists.  For less readers, you can get more exposure there.

Next up! Deviant Art as a webcomic network tool…does it work?

Something I’ve always loved to see is the process by which other comickers create their work. Usually, a great deal of steps are congruous.  The above image (click to enlarge) in my personal process.

I first start with a sketch. Since my comic is now created 100% digitally, I open up a blank document in Photoshop and just start drawing the first panel that comes to mind, according to the script, of course.  Generally, I like two view points: over the shoulder, or coming out AT you.

The second step is inking. Whether or not it’s correct to call it inking in Photoshop, I am unsure, but the word is close enough.  I resize the sketch from 100dpi to 300dpi, and ink with a 4px, 100% hardness and 0% spacing.

The third step is coloring. I start with flats, filling in the foreground and background in separate layers.  For this nighttime scene, I shade with a very dark, saturated blue on a layer ABOVE the flats, at 60% opacity. I start first with a hard brush doing cel-shading, and then I go back over with a soft brush, since I’ve never been too big a fan of cel-shading.  After shading, I add highlights, steaming light (in this case, moonlight), and glowing light (around the bugs in panel 2).

The fourth step involves lettering and special effects.   I will flatten the image after the third step, resize it back to 100dpi, and then save it as a new file.  I find this easier to work with when lettering, and the smaller file size spares my old laptop overheating during a save.  The main special effects on this page were text balloons and the “night” effect, the latter accomplished with a dark gray-blue layer at 40% set to the “color” filter above the image.

A lot of times with my comic, the third and fourth steps are kind of intermixed. Sometimes you need the high-res version to do the right effects, but I always letter at a lower resolution simply because I know what size text I want to use for web viewing. I don’t have any aspirations to print-publish my work, otherwise I would letter at the high resolution size also.

Short tutorial complete! For a longer, though older, tutorial, you can find it here. It’s five or so pages long, so be sure to find the navigation buttons at the bottom.

Making Banners: Advanced to be continued on Monday evening.