The second feature of WWM-H, (whee! Acronymns!) is an archive page. If you have a webcomic, this is a secondary page you must have.  When I say “secondary” page, I mean that the page is not primary; it does not display your comic and it is not your home page.  This is my personal vocabulary.  Just wait until I get to tertiary and quaternary! Oh wait. That’s protein structure, never mind. A little bio-major humor for you.

Of all secondary pages to have, the archive page is the most obvious one, and indeed, about 99% of comics have it. However, the format of the page seems to be beyond some people.  First, I will list what you should not do:

• Do not have your archive be a listing of “calendars.” This is most often seen on Comic Genesis sites.  A calendar contains no information about chapters, page titles, or filler pages you may have. The only thing it’s good for is showing people what your update days are, and/or how often you miss them.
• Do not list your archive by text-link, date only.  This is most often seen on ComicPress sites that have not been personalized.  This is just as bad as the “calendar” feature on Comic Genesis.
• Do not list your archive as shrunken-down “thumbnails” of the original comic files (make real thumbnail images instead).  It’s called a “thumbnail” for good reason: it’s small, and it loads fast! You may think you are being innovative, but you’re really being annoying, taxing your bandwidth, and taking up people’s time.*

When people visit your archive page, they are looking for a couple things. First time readers may want to know how large your archives are. For example, “This comic looks great, but I don’t have the time or energy to read an epic. I will check the archives to see how big/small it is.”  First time readers may also being trying to find a link to your first comic page, and this is often the fastest way.  Loyal readers will browse your archive to pull up a specific page they are looking for, or to re-read a part they liked a lot. This is why you should not have your archive set up by date or calendar. No one can find anything! Remember KEZ’s #1 webcomic website rule: make it as easy for the reader as possible. Not easy for YOU, for the reader.

Now that you have the “do not’s,” how about the “do’s?” When in doubt, go the archives of the most popular comic you read.  I choose you, Phoenix Requiem! See how the information is presented in a chronological AND chaptered way? What about Tales of Pylea?  Date, page number, chapter and page title, though ideally, the formatting of this page would be a little improved.  It can be hard when it’s automated, I know.  What about Xylia Tales?  Chapter cover image, chronological and chaptered order.  Ok, now what about my own archive?  I’ve taken everything I like about the previous examples, and then added my own flair: The War of Winds’ Archive.  I have a thumbnail image, chronological chaptered order, each page text linked, AND a written synopsis.  The written synopsis serves three functions: it is a refresher for long-time readers looking for a specific page, it gives a better idea what the story is about to new readers, and lastly, it provides textual content for context-based advertisers and search engines.

How could I improve my archive? I could add page titles as link titles and alts, as discussed in a previous article of mine.  I have the chapter cover image, the chronological order broken down by chapter, but I don’t have titled pages. If I included link titles, the final piece of information my own archive doesn’t offer, the page title, could be seen whenever you hovered over a page number. Why haven’t I done this? Well, I’ve got 270+ pages. That’s a lot of work. It’s on the list of to-do’s though!

So, to repeat myself in a coherent manner, for your archive page, do the following (only the first two are definitely necessary for 99% of comics out there):

• link every page. This can be done with a collapsible menu if your archive is extremely large, or be broken down into multiple webpages so as not to be overwhelming.  The only comic I know of who can get away with NOT linking every page is Sluggy Freelance, because there are thousands of comics.  Sluggy has an expandable dropdown instead. Be aware that an expandable dropdown does NOT replace an archive page!
• split up the page links by chapter or story arc.
• provide an image to represent each chapter or story arc.
• provide page titles to differentiate between separate comic pages.
• provide chapter synopses.

*ComicPress has an option for “archive by thumbnail.” If formatted correctly, and if your comic files sizes are rather modest, then this may be the option for you–especially if you have a black and white strip comic.  You could even set up the archive by week (well, past 7 strips), if you know how to do it. HOWEVER, you should also have a chronological and chaptered archive as well, especially if you have a large archive.