The Web Comic Project: Day 18

"nateomedia @scottsaavedra is running an experiment to see if he can support his family making web comics. Follow his progress here: http://bit.ly/Lyd7l" - Recent Twitter post

"What's the difference between a comic book writer and a pizza?" "A pizza feeds a family of four." - Bah-boom! I apologize if I'm misquoting this joke by Mark Evanier but I think I've got it mainly right.

I believe that people who create -- who make things (comics, music, whatever) -- have value and should be valued but I have no illusions that life is always fair. I'm very skeptical about the likelihood of my being able to make a significant living from web cartooning so, no, I don't expect to entirely support my family on web cartooning. I am simply curious -- and very motivated -- to see what is possible and to try to find a way to make web cartooning as viable as possible for me. And I'm willing to share my mistakes and stumbles and general discoveries along the way because I think it's interesting and I think that others might find it interesting too. As always conversation on this topic (or any topic related to web comics) is welcome.

Related link (from earlier this year): Phil Foglio shares some web comic numbers.

The Web Comic Project: Day 17

Today has seen some nice improvements in page loads both here at "Now, What?" and at Java Town. Once again, I placed some Project Wonderful ads without much of a plan (a bad thing) but it seemed to work out in the end. I was running two different ads. One, seen on Day 16's post, that asks, "Can you make money making web comics?" and the other, very similar ad, that asks, "Will I make money making web comics?" Old school ad response thinking suggests that the word "you" is effective because it pulls the viewer in (self-interest trumps everything else I guess) and the numbers so far bare this out. The "Will I" ad running at Goats didn't do as well as the "Can You" ad over at the Belfry WebComics Index. The "Can You" ad running at Wapsi Square hasn't been active for long yet but is on a busy page and maybe getting lost in the clutter (I count 14 ads on one page). Here are the numbers as of about 5 p.m. PST:



I also ran this at Drawn! for several hours:


It was a dud (and a relatively expensive one at that). It's an attractive ad, it just has all the wrong components and doesn't prompt a response. A side note: when I asked my son, who was sitting at his laptop, to bring up the Drawn! page so he could see my ad on a mutually enjoyed blog I discovered the kid runs AdBlocker (et tu, boy?).

The upshot of all the ad activity is that someone, seeing one of the ads or otherwise stumbling onto this blog, twittered his find and my page views and unique visitor hits really spiked (the numbers weren't spectacular but the increase was very dramatic). I'll have the hard numbers up on the data page as soon as I can.

News for Web Cartoonists: I got this info today (from Mr. Dan V.) and I'm passing it on:

Here’s a special announcement from the Cartoon Art Museum for those of
you who write or draw webcomics:

Thanks for your interest in the Cartoon Art Museum’s upcoming Monsters
of Webcomics exhibition. As you may have heard, the exhibition
features the artwork of ten notable webcartoonists, and their art will
be displayed in our traditional “frames-on-walls” format.

In addition to the framed artwork, I’m including a “Virtual Gallery,”
which is a fancy way of saying that we’ll have a computer monitor in
the gallery for showcasing webcomics in their native on-screen
environment.

For your work to be considered for this gallery (and also for possible
inclusion in future webcomics exhibitions at the Cartoon Art Museum),
here’s what I’ll need from you:

1. Please send me three (3) samples/pages/strips of your comic in jpg
format at 72-300dpi. The comic should be viewable on a standard
computer monitor without any scrolling, since we’ll be displaying the
comics in a “slideshow” format. If you work in full, comic-sized
pages, you may need to reduce the size of your comic slightly or
divide your page into two or three sections.

2. Please include your name, the name of your comic, and your website
(URL) with your comic. We will need this information when we format
your art for our slideshow.

3. Content of the comics that you submit should be “PG-13” or tamer.
The more graphic the content, the less likely we’ll be able to include
it in the exhibition.

4. Send your submissions to andrewfarago@gmail.com by July 31. Feel
free to pass this information along to any friends who might be
interested.

5. “Monsters of Webcomics” is in need of a logo. If you’re
interested in submitting a design, you can send those to me at
gallery@cartoonart.org I was thinking of something in the “Monsters
of Rock”/heavy metal vein, but I’m open to other ideas.

6. If everything goes according to schedule, I’ll be able to notify
all of the artists chosen for the Virtual Gallery around August 2. At
that point, we’ll start our pre-opening media blitz, and ask the
participating artists to tell all of their friends, fans, family and
anyone who will listen to visit the Cartoon Art Museum in San
Francisco to see the exhibition in person. We’ll also make
banners/buttons available so that you can link directly to the Cartoon
Art Museum’s website from your own.

Thanks again! Again, please send your comic art to
andrewfarago@gmail.com; logo submissions and questions about the
exhibition can be directed to me at gallery@cartoonart.org

Best,

Andrew Farago
--
Curator/Gallery Manager
Cartoon Art Museum
655 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

The Web Comic Project: Day 16

It's not a recent post but it seems a pretty good one: a nice "how-to" for making web comics written by Unityflow at ComixTalk. Solid advice, nicely organized.

Spent Project time today and yesterday drawing and thinking a lot about flash versus non-flash presentation. I'm leaning toward completely retooling how I present Java Town. As much as I really like the flash-based method it finally occurred to me that going against the flow right now is probably a waste of time and energy. It's only a matter of time before e-readers of some type will be ready to present comics and I think preparing for that future instead of working against current web-based standards (such as they are) is probably not a bad thing to do.



Update: What a bunch of weasels. (via TPM)