Max Riffner

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Longform Webcomics Success?

Finished today plowing through my copy of How To Make Webcomics by Brad Guigar, Dave Kellett, Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub. There is some really, really valuable stuff in there. I specifically think the Con chapter is an excellent resource, and the Branding and Building chapter is worth taking some time to read, also. I think that is one of the harder things I deal with is my own personal “brand,” and though working at Bozell has helped me grow in leaps and bounds in that arena, not many other aspiring cartoonists work at a full-service ad agency and can get that education.

My only two quibbles are minor (very minor actually). The section on typography made me cringe. I can’t take them to task on this since it is a “big picture” book and doesn’t have time to get into the minutiae of type. Since I know type, this is my own deal to get over — for the audience this book is geared towards, it’s fine. The other minor issue is their review of Textpattern as a solution for comic archiving and site display. Not that the other solutions they propose are bad or wrong (WordPress with ComicPress theme, Drupal, etc.), just that I think Textpattern doesn’t get a fair shake because it actually is more flexible than WordPress for different sorts of content, in my opinion (and PvP actually used to run on it, but Kurtz switched to ComicPress in recent months).

As such, one of my goals in the coming months (basically after I get done teaching this college course since it doesn’t leave much time for anything else) is to work up a couple Textpattern themes that someone can download for their webcomics for free, just as another option. The more the merrier.

The biggest internal disappointment I had after reading this book was that it focuses on successful strategies for webcomic strips. Again, no fault of the authors; they are all very successful webcomic strip cartoonists, these methods are proven for them, and they say up front — look, we’re strip people and this works for us — which I appreciate (both their candor and their actual webcomics). But to this day, there is really no clear tried-and-true path for longform, graphic novel narrative webcomic success, which is what I feel like I’ve been battling for years. It seems like we’re getting closer to an answer with webcomics like Templar, AZ garnering a great deal of fans and acclaim (rightly so). However, that’s one hit out of many that no one sees. That sort of work isn’t the type you hit over morning coffee; it isn’t a self-contained gag-a-day that is part of a larger work. Each update moves the story along, but isn’t necessarily strong enough to stand on its own. Which doesn’t make people want to come back everyday, per se. Which means you don’t garner a good return audience (because they forget). Which mean… ah, you get the point. Even myself, with Templar, AZ, Spike updates every weekday, but I only check and get caught up every couple of months.

Is it worth doing a longform update once a month of say five to ten pages and then e-mail your audience to hell and back when it updates? Don’t know… but I’m thinking about trying it out. And maybe the biggest differentiator is one that Kurtz speaks to in the book and Spike has (assumedly) adopted: decide this is what you want to do, make it your job and do it every day. Success will follow.

It’s a question that I’ve had in my mind since “day one” of me thinking about doing work online, and truthfully I’ve been scared to make the decision. I know I’m good (I have a very lovely award sitting on my bar to remind me not too get down on myself), but I’m not a success by any stretch. Maybe it’s time to decide…

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