So You Wanna Make a Webcomic by Ron Tucker
So You Wanna Make a Webcomic by Ron Tucker
Thanks to Jolene and Kristen for letting come back and talk a little more about comics!
Webcomics have actually been around a lot longer than many people realize. If you’ve thought about doing a comic book, putting it on the internet as a webcomic is a great way to go before publishing it either traditional or digitally. And it’s actually really easy to get started.
I’m my previous post, “How to Publish a Graphic Novel”, I covered a lot of points that apply to webcomics also. From genre to choose, artist and writers, and even publishing in black and white or color. For today’s topic of webcomics, I’m going to focus on just three areas; page layout, hosting, and updating.
Many webcomics started because the creators got tired of submitting and re-submitting their comic strips to newspaper syndicates, and decided to branch out on their own by putting them up on the web. For that reason, most of the early webcomics were all done in the “comic strip” layout. As time has gone by though, many webcomics have adapted and decided to go the “tradition” comic book page layout. Even newer webcomics have incorporated gifs and animation into their comic.
It really all depends on the type of story you’re aiming to tell. Are you going for a gag-a-day style webcomic? Most likely, a comic strip layout would work perfectly. One of my favorite webcomics, Girls With Slingshots, works from the strip layout, as do webcomic pioneers Penny Arcade and PVP. If your story has more plot or action to it, a comic book page layout might work better, because you’ll have more panels to work with and tell your story. The webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court and Questionable Content, both have used this page layout, most likely because of their story content.
As a side note, there are single panel webcomics out there, and if you want to start a webcomic in that form, for say, a single joke like the traditional newspaper comics Bizarro or Family Circle, that can work too. XKCD and SMBC, while both use strip and comic page layouts, have used single panel layouts in their webcomics.
The subject of your webcomic should be a subject you WANT to write and/or draw about. The genre of webcomics are just as vast as genres are with tradition books, and all of the webcomics above prove anything and everything can be done as a webcomic. You’ll want to pick something you WANT to produce, because you have to update your webcomic, and sometimes that can be taxing.
The difficult thing for some webcomic creators, is picking an update schedule and sticking to it. You’ll want to have a routine of scheduled updates that you can commit to. Unless you already have a fan base, starting and updating a webcomic just once a week, while it may be easier to produce, can be very difficult to get noticed. Maybe that’s okay and you just want to tell a story. That’s great if you do, but if you’re just starting out and want to build a fan base, updating at least twice a week, preferably three times a week, is a must.
The reason being, is that with each post, you’re building your back catalog. If a new reader stumbles upon your site and it catches their attention, they can go back and catch up on the rest of the story or other jokes you’ve made. If you’ve been updating your webcomic once a week for a month, all they’re going to find are four strips, but if you’re updating three times a month, then you’ll have 12 strips or pages for them to catch up on. Three months? 36 strips. You get the picture.
A good recommendation before updating with your first post, is to maybe have a buffer built up of strips or pages. That way if something comes up and you aren’t able to work on your webcomic, you’ll have updates readily available.
The question of where to host your webcomic can be over scrutinized sometimes, as some often think one hosting option is better than another. The truth is they all have their pros and cons. There are websites that actually allow free hosting just for webcomics. Comics Genesis, The Duck Webcomics and Smack Jeeves have all been around for quite some time and provide free hosting of webcomics. Hosting your webcomic yourself is the preferred option for a lot of creators, simply because you have control over the entire way your website looks. If you go that route, WordPress is recommended as it’s usually very easy to install and there is a free webcomic theme called Comicpress that caters to hosting webcomics.
Another option is to host your webcomic on blogging sites such as Blogger. Emi Lenox’s EmiTown hosts her auto-bio webcomic there, as does Faith Erin Hicks Eisner award winning comic Adventures of Superhero Girl. A third option to think about is Tumblr. The micro-blogging platform has a simple webcomic theme you can install and start updating right away. The plus with using Tumblr is, after you’ve updated, others can like and re-blog your comic and you can gain traffic that way. Remember, no matter what type of hosting you use, it’s important to update regularly.
A final note on webcomics, is that some look at putting up a webcomic as giving your product away for free. While technically that’s true, as I’ve already mentioned, I think it’s more about building your brand and an audience. By creating a webcomic and updating regularly, you’re building trust with your audience and showing the world you’re story. Building a fan base through your webcomic means there are now people all over the world who’ve seen you’re work, and will be looking into other things you’ve created in the past and are going to create in the future!
I’m Ron Tucker and I can be best summed up in three words; Writer. Cartoonist. Nerd. I’ve been self-publishing for over 5 years. You can follow me on twitter at @ImRonTucker and at my website www.imrontucker.com.
