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The Process: Part 5a - The Main Page [Jan. 27th, 2010|11:13 am]
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[Current Mood | sleepy]
[Current Music |Big Wreck]

Let's pretend that you show up to a fancy dinner party at someone's house. You're wearing ratty jeans, a faded t-shirt, and old sneakers. People take a look at you and then look away, finding someone else to talk to.

What's the lesson we learn? Well, there are several. One, first impressions are very important. Two, aesthetics count for something. And three, for crying out loud, get a new pair of sneakers.

Okay, you can disregard that last lesson, but the other two carry over into what we'll be talking about today, and that's your webcomic's main page, also known as your home page or your index page.

( Cut for length )

It's a lot of stuff, but as I said before, this is your most important page. You want to provide your product (the comic), easy-to-use navigation (your buttons), a chance to make some money (donation button, ads), and interactivity with your community (social networking links, shoutboxes/comment fields). Put more effort into your main page than you do any other page.
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The Process: Part 5 - The Website Overview [Jan. 20th, 2010|04:18 pm]
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[Current Mood | happy]
[Current Music |Arcade Fire]

We're into the nitty-gritty of webcomic creation, now! You've got your first X-number of strips, you've got a place to host them, and now you need a way to display them. Easy enough, right? Well, it would be if displaying them was the only thing you needed to worry about.

If you take a tour of most webcomic sites, you'll notice quite a few similarities. You've got your main page where the comic is displayed, certainly, but what are all those other pages? Typically, you have an about page, a character page, a store page, and a links page. Ocassionally you'll see someone with an archive page or a gallery page to put up miscellaneous artwork.

That's a bit overwhelming if you're new to the game, but each one is important. For this post I'm just going to briefly go over each one, and then I'll do a series of posts breaking down each page further. So let's start at the first page your potential reader will land on...

1.) Your Home Page. Easily the most important page on the site for obvious reasons. And because it's your most important page, you want to A.) make sure all your important information is on there, and B.) make it look pleasing to the eye. By "important information" I mean that in addition to your comic and a news post, you want to make sure that contact info is provided, social networking links are available, and links to your pages are easily findable. Making it pleasing to look at is a matter of playing with your layout and graphics. There is a typical layout that I'll go into further in the next article, but if you wander about and look at other webcomics, you'll get the general idea.

2.) The About Page. This one tends to get overlooked sometimes, but I personally feel that it is an important page to have. Typically, this is used for giving a brief summary of what the comic is and/or some information about yourself. Sometimes, if an artist gets enough questions to warrant one, you'll see an FAQ up. Don't bother to post one unless people ask the questions, though; if they aren't asking, they don't care.

3.) The Characters Page. Less important if you do a gag-a-day strip or one-off strips, but very important if you do a story-heavy strip. The characters page is a good place for beginning readers to get a feel for what kinds of characters populate your strip. It also helps people remember who's who if they come back after being away for a while. And if you have a lot of characters, it certainly helps a reader keep them all straight.

4.) A Store Page. You wanna make some money off of your comic, don't you? Then a store page is a must. However, that being said, you won't make many sales - if any at all - your first six months to a year doing the comic. So don't be one of those people that opens up a CafePress store in their first couple of months and expects to see a bit of money trickling in. Spend that extra effort on maintaining and improving your comic. Worry about the store later.

5.) A Links Page. Certainly not necessary, and some comics just list a handful of links on their main page. However, lots of us artists are also webcomic readers, and as such we like to share our reads with other people. Not to mention that a links page can also be a place for your links. See, sometimes someone who likes you will want to link you, and providing a small button or banner makes it easy for them.

6.) An Archive Page. Depending on whether or not you use a CMS (content management system) and which CMS you may be using, an archive page may be handy to have. While I don't have much experience with ComicPress (a plugin for WordPress), I believe that it archives pages by way of a small calendar of links. If you are designing your site from scratch, though, it would behoove you to set aside (and update) a page with links to each of your strips, or at least to the beginning a certain storyline, so that people can access your archives in a user-friendly manner.

7.) A Gallery Page. We're artists. We like showing off. So why not create a page to show off some of your artwork, either comic-related or not? It's not necessary in the least, but some readers like to see what else you can do. Plus, it's a good place to put downloads like free wallpapers and avatars.

As you can see, it's a lot of work to put together a webcomics site. What you need to do is determine is what is important to you to have on it and how you want it put together. In the next post, I will give you a typical breakdown of a home page. Stay tuned!
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Ask the Author - Conventions [Jan. 19th, 2010|02:25 pm]
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[Current Mood | busy]

Been a while since I did an Ask the Author post, and this one was asked a while ago, so I apologize for the delay. It's a multipart question by shoutbox regular Cuerva, who asked:

"What was your first Comic-Con? Did you go as a visitor or a seller/panelist/whatever? What is your favourite Comic-Con? Is the San Diego Comic-Con worth spending several hundred dollars in plane fare/gas money? Have you ever had a really profitable Con?"

I'll handle this one in pieces.

"What was your first Comic-Con? Did you go as a visitor or a seller/panelist/whatever?"

My first con experience was actually as an artist, which, looking back on it, was probably a bad idea. I should have attended a few cons as an attendee first to get a feel for them, but I digress. I was an artist at Sacanime, a small 2-times-a-year convention in Sacramento, CA. It was still a pretty good experience for a first-timer like myself, though.

My first experience as an attendee was actually not too long after my first Sacanime experience, and it was at the San Diego Comic Con. I'll expand upon that later.

"What is your favourite Comic-Con?"

Hands down, it would be ConnectiCon in Hartford, CT. I've gone the past two years as an artist, and it's a fantastic experience. It has the energy of San Diego Comic Con without being as huge and overwhelming. It's also one of the few cons that isn't category specific, meaning it's not solely an anime con or a comic con or whatever. It's a pop-culture con, so it has everything. Going to ConnectiCon has become the highlight of my year.

"Is the San Diego Comic-Con worth spending several hundred dollars in plane fare/gas money?"

I was lucky in that I was only a couple of hours away from San Diego for a while, so factor that into my answer if you will. My answer is a "Yes... but..." answer. Yes, I think it's worth the money to go, but only once.

I went three times. My first time was my first time as a con attendee ever, and it was amazing. I had never been to something that big and overwhelming. There were countless artists and writers, celebrities and emerging talents, events and panels, and without being there all four days I'd never get to see it all (every time I went it was on Saturday only). I walked out of my first Comic-Con experience feeling that way, that I didn't see everything and that I'd need to come back the next year. So I did, and I still had fun, but I realized it was kind of the same thing as the year before, even though I was seeing new stuff. The third year that I went I took Katie because she hadn't gone in previous years, and I realized that after that I was done going. I didn't start to not like it, but it started to not be worth the money to go anymore. Everyone should go at least once to experience it, but beyond that I don't personally see it as something I would need to do every single year.

Now, if I went back as an exhibitor, that'd be different, but I don't see that happening in the near future (or, indeed, ever).

"Have you ever had a really profitable Con?"

No. The closest I came was last year's ConnectiCon, where I pretty much broke even on most of my expenses. But I've never walked away with a surplus of money. And that's okay, because each time I learn a little something more that helps me the next time around. Not to mention that if a con is not profitable in the financial area, but profitable in other areas like networking, meeting new people, and having fun, then I consider it a successful con.

I hope that answers all the questions! Until next time - ask me anything!
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My Thoughts on Webcomics.com [Jan. 5th, 2010|12:36 pm]
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[Current Mood | cynical]

As usually happens once every six months or so in the webcomics community, a rather large storm has gathered and begun to rain onto the community. This time, however, it is from someone from whom it be least expected - Mr. Brad Guigar. Brad has been the sole contributor to Webcomics.com, a repository for information on creating and maintaining a webcomic, as well as a gathering place for creators both aspiring and veteran. Webcomics.com was born from the ashes of the Halfpixel site, which at one time included not only Brad, but Scott Kurtz (who occasionally piped up on Webcomics.com), Kris Straub, and Dave Kellett.

I was a frequent visitor to the Halfpixel forums, and when it shut down I spent some time away from the site. When I finally went back, it redirected me to Webcomics.com, and I began to visit that daily. It was nice to see new information, as well as reinforcing what I already knew. It became a regular read for me, a part of my long list of places to stop during the day.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday, when I visited, I was greeted with a message that said Webcomics.com was now requiring a $30/year subscription to access their content. At first I thought it was a joke, I really did. This was happening in the wake of the Keenspot debacle, something that happened very suddenly and out of the blue, just like this was. It was also happening in the midst of yet another war between web and print artists, and part of the war has always been about the success of pay sites. So I clicked on the "Join Now" button, fully expecting a Guigar-esque punch line of some sort. Imagine my surprise when I was taken to a PayPal site ready to deduct $30 from my account.

Imagine further the firestorm that erupted from the community.

If you're familiar with the philosophy of the Halfpixel guys, I'm sure you can figure out what the first comments were - cries of hypocrisy. The Halfpixel crew have long been arbitors of free content and abhorers of subscribtion-based business models. However, Brad was quick to justify the difference; Webcomics.com wouldn't be providing entertainment, but business advice. To this I could only shrug my shoulders. I don't necessarily agree with the attempt at the justification, as it seems the progression was "Against it, against it, against it, BUT WAIT THIS IS DIFFERENT WE'RE FOR IT NOW", but it's their business and their call. However, my disdain at the switch - and many others agree - is how the whole thing was handled.

First of all, they dropped it on us like a 16-ton weight in a Monty Python sketch. Boom, the fun is over, start paying. There was no warning. Brad made a comment that even if he had given warning, people would have still complained, and that he thought it would be better to do it like ripping a Band-Aid off. Very few people (if any) have agreed on this, and my personal opinion is that the shock to our systems was worse than slowly lowering us into the icy cold water. At least then we could have had time to warm up to the idea, and more to the point, Brad could have sold us on it better. He's a good salesman; I know, I've seen him at work at conventions. I don't understand why he would throw away that chance, since he's essentially throwing away $30 per person that gets pissed and storms off.

Secondly, there is no preview of what will be given* or any terms of service. On the front page is a laundry list of things that we'll see if we give up that $30. And after a recent couple of posts from Brad concerning "promised services" and a lack of terms of services on a site called Zingerding (a post which I cannot link to because it is now behind a subscription wall), this glaring lack of either seems hypocritical at best and a poor business move at worst. What happens if someone isn't happy with the site? Or if the site has to stop updating? Will refunds be given or is it caveat emptor? We don't know, and that's a scary thing at $30 a pop.

Third, the lack of response from Brad is a bit unsettling. He showed up a few times in the beginning, but has not shown up to address any of the problems cited. Scott has piped up a few times, unsurprisingly, but really hasn't done much either (except for one major declaration, which I will get to in a moment). I myself have been waiting for a reply to a fairly important question, and one that has been echoed by a few others. The question is in regards to the value of this investment to those of us who do long form comics, as the Halfpixel crew has long contended that short form comics fare better as money-makers. I think this is an important bit of information for a good number of artists out there.

Today, as I was reading the comments that cropped up yesterday evening and early this morning, I run across a post by Scott that has me scratching my head even harder. From the horse's mouth:

"While I would never EVER put content behind a pay wall, nor would I advise anyone at this point in time to put their content behind a pay wall, this is NOT what Webcomics.com is doing.

We’re essentially offering a paid correspondence course in webcomics. With “lectures” and interaction with myself, Brad Guigar and Robert Khoo."


What concerns me is that this is not immediately apparent in the description on the front page of what you'll get for $30. Why would they not make that clear in the first place? It seems as if - and I'm not accusing, just inferring from what I've seen - Scott is merely justifying his position in a moment of defense. The backlash has been strong and he needs to salvage the situation. Again, whether or not that's what's happening, I don't know, but that's the way it looks. And what exactly is Scott's definition of "content"? Aren't articles considered content? If you're putting articles behind a subscription wall, you are putting content behind a subscription wall.

One thing does tempt me and many others to throw in our $30 - Robert Khoo. If you aren't familiar with that name, he is basically the force that made Penny Arcade the money machine that it is today. Khoo is known for his amazing business sense and is very widely respected in the webcomics community, as well as outside of it. However, the "laundry list" states that it will only have monthly posts from Khoo. Do I dare put my faith into him if I'm only getting advice from him every 30 days or so? I honestly don't know, and at that point the $30 becomes less of an investment and more of a gamble. I'm not good at poker, blackjack, or even slots, so why would I gamble on this?

And in case you think I'm just a nobody with an opinion that doesn't matter, allow me to point out that several legitimate figures in the community have already expressed their doubts that this switchover will be successful.

The bottom line is that this is a legitimate venture handled in a poor manner. Regardless of what I say or the scores of scorned Webcomics.com usuals that have walked away in anger, there are already people signing up. These are the people that really feel they need this advice and/or the people who so look up Brad and Scott that they can't tear their gaze away from them. I respect the two (albeit less so after this debacle), but I gave up my fanboy badge a while ago. They aren't gods. I have no doubt that they can help people, because they are two of bigger successes in the community, but they aren't sacred to me because of that.

I sincerely wish them good luck on their venture, and I wish good luck to the people jumping on board with them. Knowing my luck, these are the artists whose businesses will probably surpass my own webcomic business and become bigger successes than me because of this. And good on them. I'm a stubborn son-of-a-gun who needs a kick in the butt now and again. But this whole thing feels wrong to me, and I'll be steering clear of it for now.


*As of today (1/5/10) there is a "stub" for a blog post, showing that we will regularly get a very small taste of what's behind the wall. However, the question remains: will this be enough info to base a $30 decision on?
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Resolutions [Dec. 29th, 2009|11:30 am]
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[Current Mood | determined]
[Current Music |Edenbridge]

Inspired by a post over at Webcomics.com, I thought I'd list some Bardsworth-related New Year's resolutions. I decided to put them here rather than participate at Webcomics.com because, to be honest, I would rather you, my readers, witness these resolutions, since you are the ones being affected. So here we go!

1.) Get back to a Monday/Wednesday/Friday update. This is the most important resolution to me, and the one that I will be trying the hardest to achieve. If you've only just joined the ranks of my readers this past year, you probably don't know this, but Bardsworth was once on a three-day-a-week update schedule. However, last year I had a lot of life changes that took up much of my time (including a daily round-trip commute of almost 2 hours), and so in order to keep the comic going I switched to a two-day schedule. I haven't been able to catch up since then. I made the recent switch to all digital in hopes that it would help me get back on track, but I made the switch right when I got hit with a time-sensitive commission, and then the holidays came and made it further impossible.

So, blah blah blah, fast forward to the new year. 2010 is the year I get back on track. I will work hard and sacrifice what I need to in order to start making Monday/Wednesday/Friday deadlines. I owe to the long-time readers as well as the newer ones, as well as to myself.

2.) No more colorless updates. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with my struggle in getting back to a three-day update schedule. I will be working towards building up a buffer of comics so that I shouldn't have to do colorless updates, or late updates, or skipped updates, or - God forbid - a hiatus. I'm so sick of having to do that to you folks, and I will be trying hard to get to the point where I won't have to. Again, I will make necessary sacrifices to do this.

3.) Increase my readership. This one doesn't really affect you folks so much as it does me. My readership numbers - after a small decline after my forced hiatus this summer - has stagnated, and I really want to draw in new readers. I haven't been very good about advertising, mostly because all of my ads are old and outdated, and I haven't had the time to put new ones together. But one of my goals is to create a batch of new ads and to start promoting myself a lot more.

4.) Finish the second book. This is the long shot in the list. I really want to finish up my file for the second book. Whether or not I'll still have to do the e-Book route when I finish is yet to be determined, but I want the book to be released in some form before the end of the year. If I can accomplish the first three items on this list, then I will work hard at this one.

-----

Can I do all this? Yes. Is it going to be easy? No. But I know you guys will give me support because you're awesome. So here's to the new year!
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The Process: Part 4 - Giving Your Comic a Home [Dec. 9th, 2009|12:49 pm]
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[Current Mood | calm]

It's time to make that comic of yours a "webcomic". How do we do that? Simple - by putting it on the web! Well, okay, it's not so simple if you don't quite know what you're doing. So let's rectify that.

If you've never ventured into web design/coding territory, it can be a little daunting. And I'm not going to go in-depth on any of this stuff, because A.) that's a whole different series of articles, and B.) I don't want to scare you folks away. But I can nudge you in the right direction.

The first thing you need to do is to have a place to put your comic. There are several options available for this, and each has it's pros and cons. The pros and cons I list are my opinion only; you may feel differently, and that's totally understandable. So let's take a look at our options, shall we?

Free Webcomic Hosting Sites
These are the friends to the young and thrifty webcomics just starting out. These fine websites are dedicated to hosting webcomics free of charge. Some of these sites include Comic Genesis, DrunkDuck, Smack Jeeves, and Comic Fury.

PROS: It's free! Beyond that, most of these services come with easy-to-use content management systems (or CMS) for posting and archiving your comics. Not to mention that the networking factor is a big plus; being hosted on one of these sites automatically puts you in the midst of a pre-built community. I also believe, unless I'm mistaken, that some of these sites also provide templates and/or easy-to-use website builders for non-code-monkeys.

CONS: From what I can tell, you don't have complete control over your site design. That may not matter to some people, but I'm a complete control freak (as I have mentioned before), and I like to have 100% control over where things are on my site. In addition, that "free" hosting is not without it's price; these services will place ads on your sites in order to bring in revenue for them.

If you don't mind the ads and not having 100% control of the design, these are wonderful places to start your webcomics.

Paid Hosting Sites
These are the traditional hosting sites. You're charged for the space you have and whatever other fees may be incurred. A couple of typical hosts that webcomic creators use are 1&1 (the host that I use) and Dreamhost.

PROS: You have complete control over your website. Most hosting companies also provide website builders/templates, free software and scripts, email accounts, and databases (which are required to use things like forum software or WordPress blogs). Most of the time the packages will include a domain name as well (for example, www.yourdomainname.com).

CONS: It's gonna cost you. You can get really cheap hosting, but remember that you usually get what you pay for. Make sure to do a little bit of research on the companies first. Also, since you do have complete control over the site, it makes it almost mandatory to have a very strong knowledge of web coding (and database knowledge helps a lot, too).

Basically it comes down to your pocketbook and preferences. Do you want to pay and have total control, or free space and less control?

Alternative Sites
I've seen other alternatives over the years, too. I've seen people use Blogger or LiveJournal to post comics, as well as deviantART. I guess you could even use something like Flickr to post your comics. All of these sites are free, but keep in mind that none of them were built to specifically support webcomics. Not to mention the control you have over them is very limited, which hurts you when you are trying to brand yourself. I wouldn't suggest these sites, but they are there as alternatives if you need them.

Once you've chosen where to put your stuff, it's time to start designing your site! But that particular article is a biggie, so we'll stop here for now and continue on later.
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Con Report: Steel City Con [Dec. 7th, 2009|03:00 pm]
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[Current Mood | tired]

Sometimes a convention just doesn't work out for you. You can't get depressed or discouraged by it, though; you have to factor in why it didn't work and how you'll avoid that in the future. Steel City Con, which was this past weekend, was one of those cons that just didn't work out.

( On with the details. )

Needless to say, we won't be returning to Steel City Con. I wish them all the best, I really do, but it's the wrong crowd demographic for us. Despite the utter financial failure of being there, though, we had a great time hanging out with the other artists and we came away from it with some new friends, some of whom we'll be at future cons together with.
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The Trees Sigh in Relief [Nov. 23rd, 2009|11:33 am]
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[Current Mood | chipper]
[Current Music |Ulrich Schnauss]

Those of you read my news post today or saw the news on Twitter already know this, but as of today Bardsworth has officially gone digital. That means that all inking and coloring is now being done on the computer.

Why is this a big deal? Because it's a big step forward for me. When I started doing Bardsworth, I was almost completely against doing things the digital way. I wanted to maintain the traditional hand-penciling and hand-inking techniques. Not to mention that I was never quite able to get my line art to look good when I tried digital inking.

Well, necessity forces us to make changes in out lives. My process of drawing Bardsworth includes the following steps - measuring out the panels on the Bristol board, penciling each panel, inking each panel, re-inking the panels to accent outlines and to add detail, then scanning in each panel individually for the coloring process. By going digital, I can get a panel inked with less steps, less mess, and less trouble. And by inking in Illustrator instead of Photoshop, my line art looks much cleaner and smoother.

Another reason I switched to digital is because of my the commute to our studio. Since all my art stuff is there, I could only really work on the comic there. But now I can do it when I have some spare time at home or if I'm watching a movie or something. And the fact that I won't have to spend money on Bristol board anymore is a huge plus.

A much less important reason that I held onto the traditional method was that I had hopes of people being interested in buying the line art as collectibles. Unfortunately, to date, I've only had one person buy line art from me (and I gave one original away during a donation drive). I now have a stack of nearly 500 strips that I can't do anything with but store. I can't imagine doing another 500 strips without selling anything and having to store THOSE as well.

I still plan on doing a lot of things the traditional way. Nothing quite beats the feeling of finishing up an art piece and looking at it on a piece of paper or Bristol board. But for Bardsworth, it's time to join the 21st century.
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The Process: Part 3 - The Buffer [Nov. 18th, 2009|02:36 pm]
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[Current Mood | chipper]

All right, we've got our idea and we've got our notes. Time to get a website now, right? Wrong! Sit down and take a breath, pardner, there's something we need to talk about.

You may have heard whispers of something called a "buffer". This elusive creature is not an easy one to catch, but the reward for its capture is not something you want to pass up. So let the hunt begin!

Cutesy metaphors aside, a buffer is a very important part of being a webcomic creator. Simply put, your buffer is the strips you create ahead of time in order to keep updating on a regular basis.

Huh?

Okay, here's what you do. Before you even think about getting yourself a website or putting anything on the web, think about the type of update schedule that you want to keep - twice a week, three times, every day. Now, start drawing your comics and stick to that update schedule until you have a good number of comics done (the rule of thumb seems to be 30; going higher would certainly be better, but any lower than that is not encouraged). This has a two-fold effect. One is that you build up your buffer before you really have to start working. The second is that you can test the waters and see if the update schedule works for you. If it does, great. If not, adjust it and do a couple more weeks with that schedule.

Now, when you actually start updating, you'll have [number of strips you drew] strips between the one you're updating with and the next one you need to draw. For every update you do, draw another. Draw two if you can. Just try to maintain that number of strips in the buffer.

Trust me, you're going to want that buffer in the future. I'm sure you're all familiar with the dreaded "H" word - hiatus. If you're a Bardsworth reader, you're definitely familiar with it. I haven't had a buffer for a long, long time, so I try to keep people from making that mistake. When you have the buffer, things like hiatuses don't happen. If you have to take a few days off because you're sick, use up a couple comics from the buffer. If you have friends coming in from out of town, you've got the buffer. Heck, if you just need a night off, the buffer is there for you. The buffer works like having sick days or vacation time at a regular job. But don't use it without realizing that you will need to build it back up again.

I know some artists say they don't work with buffers and they do just fine. Some of these artists, however, do not have full-time jobs or school to worry about. Your lifestyle plays a big part of how you update the comic. If you're a busy person, always have a buffer. Unless you like working under pressure.

Didn't realize a webcomic would be so much work, did you? Guess what - we haven't even begun the hard stuff yet.
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Five Oh Oh [Nov. 16th, 2009|11:03 am]
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[Current Mood | cheerful]
[Current Music |Nada Surf]

With today's posting of strip #500, I considered the usual route that a lot of webcomic creators take when they reach a milestone, which is to proudly proclaim on the webcomic blogs and news sites that I did it, I reached #500. But I decided against it for a couple of reasons. One is that after my recent post about being pissed at the non-community nature of the webcomics community, I would feel slightly hypocritical about going into those same venues and saying, "Look at me, look at me, I'm one of you!"

The more important reason is that I don't care. Oh, I care that I hit #500. Trust me, it makes me proud to know that I've stuck to my guns and produced that much work. Not only that, but it makes me proud to see the vast improvement in my art since day 1. But I don't care about others knowing that I did it. I don't need their validation, in the event that they even take notice.

And that's the other thing - no else cares. I've done those postings before - 1 year mark, 200 strips, etc. - and no one ever says congratulations, I get maybe a small handful of people visiting the site if any, and at most I end up wasting my time writing out the stupid announcement. The only people who care are the ones who are the most important, and those people are my readers.

I didn't draw 500 strips for my colleagues in the webcomic industry. I didn't draw them for the "maybe readers". I drew them for myself, yes, but most importantly for those who have been supporting me, either from the beginning of just the last couple of weeks.

These 500 strips are for you.
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The Process: Part 2 - Blueprints [Nov. 11th, 2009|02:50 pm]
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[Current Mood | energetic]
[Current Music |The Crystal Method]

Last week I talked about coming up with your core idea for a webcomic, your foundation. In using the construction metaphor - foundations and walls and all that - I've overstepped an important part: the blueprints. Or rather, your sketches and notes, if you will.

I know, I know, you want to jump right in and start pumping out those comics, don't you? We all felt that way. But, as the Cub Scout motto goes, "Always be prepared."

My roots are more dug in as a writer than as an artist, so as a writer I highly value the importance of reference materials. There's nothing worse than being ten chapters into a story when you realize that you forgot what color one of your character's eyes are and you have to go sifting through nine previous chapters to find a mention of it. Wouldn't it just be easier to open a document or notepad and see it written down - or drawn - for easy looking-up?

This is where the blueprints come into play. Spend some time sketching your characters. Try different things - different head shapes, different hairstyles, different heights and body types. When you hit upon that "right" character design you'll know.*

Now, practice drawing those character designs over and over, in different poses and from different angles. You want to get to the point where you won't NEED the blueprints (but you'll have them just in case). Make sure each one is distinguishable from the other. One way to do this is to draw the characters as silhouettes; if you can't tell the difference between characters in silhouette, you may want to make them more distinguishable.

Another great thing to do is a height chart. Draw all of your characters side-by-side so you can get an idea of how each one of them compares to the other. This is something I didn't do at the beginning of Bardsworth and sorely regret. Over time I gradually changed the heights of my characters, but back then there was really no specific height to each character (except maybe Francis, who then and now towered over everyone).

Now, let's talk about the writing aspect of your blueprints. If you aren't doing a story-based webcomic, this isn't as important, but you might still want to keep some notes based off of what I'm saying. Make sure you have notes about your setting - what is the city they live in like? What is the political atmosphere of the fantasy world you have them traveling through? What kinds of things does the college the characters are at teach, and how does that affect the kinds of people it draws in?

Make sure you have notes on your characters, too. Even if you have the sketches on hand, write down some of the defining characteristics of each character. Keep notes on their personality types, too. I would go so far as to creating a back story for each character, even if it isn't a completely detailed one. If a character is quiet and snarky, why are they like that? If another is chipper and boisterous, are they doing so to hide something or are they genuinely that way? Remember, nobody but you needs to know any of the back story. Each of the characters in Bardsworth has a back story, but I haven't divulged everything (and some if it I may never divulge).

Keep in mind that nothing you put into your blueprints is set in stone. If you make a note about a character, you can go back and rework it (but do so in a logical fashion; if someone changes a personality trait make sure there's a good reason for it). Character designs can change, too (again, within reason). Look what I did with Mike; I gave him long hair for the first couple years of Bardsworth, but I ended up not liking it, so I had him cut it.

The blueprints will serve to solidify your core idea as well as acting as a plan to build your webcomic. It's a lot of work to do before the fun of drawing the comic, and some webcomics might not even need it (one-off comics like a Far Side type comic probably wouldn't need much of a blueprint), but I still urge at least sitting and thinking about all creative aspects of the webcomic before attempting it.


*But don't throw away those sketches you rejected - you may want to use those as a basis for other characters. Case in point, a rejected character in Bardsworth became the initial design for Kris.
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The Process: Part 1 - The Idea [Nov. 5th, 2009|12:02 pm]
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[Current Mood | bouncy]
[Current Music |Nightwish]

This is the start of a new series of installments that I want to call "The Process". It's something I had been thinking about doing, but it was pushed forward by a recent email from a reader wanting to know how I did everything. The process is pretty involved, though, so I thought I'd make a series of posts detailing each part.

So what do we begin with? With what every good webcomic, book, television show, or whatever begins with - the idea.

Seems pretty simple, huh? It is. It's probably the simplest part of the process. Chances are you have the idea in your head, whether or not you even know it. Maybe it was that idea you had for a fantasy comic set in a world dominated by monsters, or maybe it was that slice-of-life comic you wanted to base on you and your friends. Maybe it's just a one-panel, zany-type comic that will display all the crazy thoughts you have in your head.

I find the best way to come up with an interesting idea is to ask, "What if?" I learned this from one of my favorite authors, Terry Brooks, in his book on writing (Sometimes the Magic Works). Try it.

"What if... cats could talk?"

"What if... a college taught battling with mechs?"

"What if... webcomic authors could become millionaires?"

All right, that last one is a bit of a stretch even for someone with an insane imagination, but you get the idea. Start off with the "What if?" and run from there. Mine was, "What if my main character found a door in the back of his closet leading to another world?" That was it, the genesis of Bardsworth. I had no other ideas than that - the school, the characters, the plot all came later on.

Think of it as building a house. Before you can put up the supporting beams or the walls, you need a foundation. The beginning idea is your foundation. From that, you can create your characters and your story, but none of that can work unless you have that core foundation.

Do you think I'm harping this one simple thing a bit too much? Perhaps. But I honestly believe it's that important.
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Long Overdue Con Report: ConnectiCon [Nov. 3rd, 2009|12:08 pm]
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[Current Mood | embarrassed]
[Current Music |Rammstein]

I realized that I'm about four months plus overdue on my con report for ConnectiCon. At this point, much of the con has filtered out of my head, leaving the highlights, so this report may contain minor factual errors. Also, no photos. I went back and looked at the ones I took, and most of them were bad. So... yeah.

( Let us begin, shall we? )

Once again, ConnectiCon turned out to be an awesome experience. My brother and Brendon are already talking about going again next year. If Katie comes with us this time, though, we'll probably be a little more well-behaved. But not by much.
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Ask the Author - Redoing the Archives [Oct. 29th, 2009|10:10 am]
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[Current Mood | exhausted]
[Current Music |Stars]

This week's Ask the Author question is from Edgar, loyal reader, shoutbox regular, and bringer of coffee, and came up in a discussion that took place in the shoutbox: "Seriously, what do u think about going back in general to edit anything that you later decide would better suit YOUR artistic eye? (time permitting)"

There are lots of artists that do this. NJ from Emergency Exit is currently going back and redoing the pages in her archive, as is Otter from A Girl and Her Fed. When an artist's style improves significantly from the beginning of the comic, it's natural to want to go back and redo the earlier stuff.

I, however, disagree with it.

One of the things I love about webcomics is watching them progress over the years. I love to compare the raw look of a lot of artists' early stuff to their newer stuff. It's part of the experience that you don't see much in print comics.

Personally, I want people to see where I started. I want them to see how bad my art was in 2005. I want them to see how I've learned and grown over time. Why? Because it's a part of the history of the comic. And because it shows that anyone can do it. I don't have a formal art training outside of classes I took in high school. I'm entirely self-taught, and I believe in teaching yourself the things that you want to learn. If I can share that philosophy with others, great.

All that being said, though, I can understand why some people like NJ and Otter want to clean up their old work, and I'm down with that. In general, it's a great marketing push. A part of me would love to redo the old strips in order to sell a much nicer looking print version of the comic. But I'm too attached to that older work. Heck, I still have notebooks with bad sketches I did in high school because, even though it's bad, it's a part of my growth as an artist.

Until next time - ask me anything!
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Addendum [Oct. 28th, 2009|10:23 am]
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[Current Mood | calm]
[Current Music |Lamb of God]

Two addendums to yesterday's post.

1.) *sigh* Dave Kellett, why did you have to illustrate my point? I still love you, man, but seriously, bad timing.

2.) My buddy Rob Howard, also known as Tangent tried to post a response that I do believe needs to be mentioned here:

That depends on what you consider the "webcomic community" you realize.

If you're talking about Guigar and his ilk, the "successes" in the field of webcomics, then you probably won't find a very neighborly situation. I suspect that the webcomic reading community might be considered along the lines of a zero-sum game: there's only so many readers and if you open up your borders to the little guy, then you end up losing out. This is very much the relationship that the Big Print Comic Companies ave behaved in the past (especially in their efforts to kill the independent-comic market), and these behavior trends have tainted webcomics as a result.

But if you look at the smaller communities... comics such as Garanos, Bardsworth, Paradigm Shift, Footloose, and similar titles, then you have a friendly and accepting crew that is willing to work together and help out. Heck, when a webcartoonist ends up in need (such as JJ Shippen, who had a toddler-related incident with her tablet, or Karen Ellis whose apartment was lost due to a fire), then you'll see cartoonists working together to help out. They spread the word, they encourage donations, and they draw fan-art and the like to help.

Think of this as akin to a regular town. You have the rich snobs who don't often deem to talk with the "little people," you have the newly-rich who remember their roots and some of who will take time out for their less-fortunate neighbors, and then you have the smaller communities. You don't have an entire town working together, perhaps, but you do have streets where several homes get to know each other, and slowly create networks of friends and neighbors.

This is the true webcomic community. It's not a vast consciousness where every reader is interconnected. It's groups of readers and groups of comics that through the cartoonists often form little cliches that enjoy each other's company.

Which I suppose makes me the local weekly town newspaper. ;)

Rob H.


Rob is right - the term "webcomics community" is indeed subjective, and technically there is more than one community. My original post was directed at the term as it is known in the mainstream, which is supposedly the collective of webcomic creators.

The community as a whole is definitely like any other social gathering, and does have its cliques (I think that's what you meant, Rob, not "cliches"; correct me if I'm wrong), which is not a bad thing. The cliques are usually formed of people with strong similarities - they do fantasy comics, or love anime, or are stone masons. But what I think gets lost in the upper eschelons of the community is that a clique does not have to be an exclusive club. You can allow other people into it.

I do want to say that I'm in no way badmouthing any of the artists that I'm alluding to. I love a lot of their comics and I do think most of them are really awesome people. They just need to learn that webcomic world is not comprised of them and everybody else; it's everybody, period.

And another point I want to make is that I'm not seeking validation from anyone in any way. I've been doing my comic for almost 4 years, and I'm rapidly approaching strip number 500. I have a loyal following of readers. My artwork has been improving consistently. All of those things are the only validation I need. I am a professional webcomic creator and I don't need acceptance into a community to make it any more real. My beef is with the community's attitude.
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The Defiant Stand [Oct. 27th, 2009|03:47 pm]
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[Current Mood | determined]

I've had several important realizations, epiphanies if you want to go that far, in the past couple of weeks. The culmination of which has led me to an important declaration of intent: I do not want to be a part of the webcomics community.

Now, before you freak out and think that I'm quitting Bardsworth or something, sit tight and hear me out. I'm not waving bye-bye to making my webcomic. I'm not going to stop reading webcomics. I'm not going into hiding from the people who read my comic. But what I am doing is turning my back on the so-called "webcomic community".

When I first started doing Bardsworth, one of my big goals was to be on par with the people who inspired me, to rub elbows with them at conventions, and generally get the same respect from them that I was giving them. What a wide-eyed, naive young thing I was (seriously, it was only four years ago).

I used to be a part of a church youth group back in the day, and when the group met everyone was a friend of everyone else. However, with the exception of some close friends, a good number of those people were completely different outside of the group. They would say hi to me if I greeted them, but always acted aloof or indifferent, as if they were wasting their time in exchanging pleasantries with me. This is close to the same feeling I get from some of the "big shots" at conventions. They'll smile and be nice-nice there on the floor (maybe because I'm another potential buyer of their merchandise), but afterwards it's basically, "Who are you again?"

I understand that they are probably tired of being bombarded by readers and rabid fans. I understand that they can't be friends to everyone. But would it be so hard to treat a colleague with a bit more respect than they would treat a reader? I'm not saying that they have to give out special treatment, but in a professional setting you wouldn't snub a coworker like that (unless you were a complete jerk).

There's no one incident that brought this on. Rather, it's the general feeling I get when I think about the "community". It's not a community. Part of the word community is "unity", and there's no feeling of that. Not unless you're in the club, so-to-speak. If you're another popular - and yes, I hate to use the "p" word, but it's true - webcomic artist, then you get respect. But if you aren't popular, you're nothing. It's a black and white arena with no shades of gray.

Think I'm full of it? Hit up some of the more big-named webcomic blogs or community sites. You'll see the same names over and over and over. Yes, they got there because they're good at what they do (most of them, anyway), but that doesn't mean that those are the only ones who are. And the names that I'm talking about? They'll talk about the other names constantly. It's a wagon circle that keeps everyone else out.

I'm not whining. I'm not complaining. It's the way it is and I accept that. What I'm doing is stating that I do not want to be a part of this community, this farce. I would rather be a part of a network of other webcomic creators who treat me with the respect that I give them, as well as the readers who make my job worth doing. Anything outside of that is a waste of my time and effort.
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Things I Just Don't Get [Oct. 23rd, 2009|10:45 am]
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[Current Mood | confused]

There is something I'd very much like to understand about webcomic readers, and I guess in people in general - why is that there is a such a need to express your hatred for something?

Here's what sparked my curiosity. This past week, Scott Kurtz of PvP did a storyline revolving around a random, non-canon character called LOLBAT, a superhero parody of internet memes. Up until now, Scott has only done one-offs, just random strips here and there involving the character. But he apparently really wanted to do this brief storyline; it was something that excited him. And to be honest, I'm glad he did, because it paid off in a big way today.

All that aside, though, he mentioned in his blog post that LOLBAT has had the effect of polarizing his readership - folks either love the character or despise him. Scott mentioned getting emails about peoples' hate for the character. And it was that mention of emails that got me thinking - why would someone do that?

Seriously, if someone sent me an email telling me how much they hate Francis, I would be less hurt/angry and more puzzled at why they felt they needed to tell me. Sure, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but do they really think that expressing their hatred is a productive venture?

Is it the immediacy of email that leads to this? You see something that you hate and you know that within five minutes you can write up that hatred and send it spinning through the interwebs at the person who is responsible. There, you did it... now what? What comes after that knee-jerk response? Is there an expectation of change? Just because you don't like something, you expect to change the creator's mind so that they'll stop putting that character in the comic? I just really can't wrap my mind around that mentality. It's their comic; they'll do as they please regardless of how you feel (well, most of them will).

In a related story, Least I Could Do recently did a week long one-off story with Rayne leading a TED conference about a number of things. I don't venture into the forums often, but Katie told me that people were getting pissed at Sohmer for writing that arc, basically telling him to get off of his soapbox, get back to the funny, and (my personal favorite) that Rayne wouldn't do that.

First of all, we are brought back to a subject that has circulated through the webcomic world on numerous ocassions - entitlement. You, as a reader, have no reason to feel entitled to anything (and ironically enough, the subject of entitlement came up in the fictional TED conference, though not in relation to webcomic readers). You read a free comic, free comic, and you expect, even demand, things from the creator? Even if you do donate or buy a t-shirt or a book, that does not make you a shareholder. That makes you a supporter, not of one portion of the comic, not the portion that you like, but the whole thing, good and bad. There are no Terms of Service that state that by giving the creator money, you now have some stake in the comic. You have no right to demand anything. None. End of discussion. And to whoever said that Rayne wouldn't do something like that obviously hasn't read the comic for very long. Ridiculous.

Maybe Penny Arcade isn't far off the mark with their equation: Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience (in this case, the webcomic creator who has made his/her contact info available) = Total Fuckwad.
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Ask the Author: Dancing the Night Away [Oct. 21st, 2009|10:35 am]
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[Current Mood | chipper]

This week's Ask the Author question comes from shoutbox regular Cuerva and is directly related to the current storyline: "Do you know how to do any formal dancing, e.g. not just wave your arms around and scuff your feet?"

Outside of the typical slow dance that Katie and I do at weddings, I do not actually know any formal dancing. Katie and I have talked about taking ballroom dancing lessons for years, but have not had the time and the money simultaneously available to do it. We're hoping this winter to be able to do it finally.

However, this past year at ConDor (the sci-fi/fantasy convention in San Diego), there was a workshop on regency dancing that we took and had a lot of fun doing. I would love to take some more lessons on this, and it seems to be gaining steam in the underground dance circles.

Outside of all that, I do know how to skank. For those of you who aren't "rude boys" or into ska, skanking is a dance rather like jogging in place, but synchronized with ska beats. It can be done solo or in a "skank pit" or "circle pit". If you've never done it, it's a heck of a lot of fun. I made our DJ play a couple ska songs at our wedding, and myself and some friends formed a circle pit, and even Katie joined in, wedding dress and all.

Now you know a little bit more about me. Until next time - ask me anything!
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Ask the Author: Mmm, Cookies [Oct. 14th, 2009|09:13 am]
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[Current Mood | happy]

Reader and shoutbox regular Daigerus had this to ask of me: "Do cookies play an important role in terms in the current story of Bardsworth? It's been mentioned in the taglines, and has appeared numerous times in the comic. [snip] Also, are the cookies always the chocolate chip variety or is Mike open to other kinds?" (edited for brevity's sake)

Many things that you see in Bardsworth are actually clues into the depth of the story. If you go through the archives, there are ocassionally things in the background that are placed there for a reason (some of which haven't been divulged yet). But not all things.

In short, the cookies are just cookies.

The presence of the cookie in Bardsworth started off as a mere running joke. In my high school and college days (and, to some extent, even now) I had an obsession with pie. In fact, my automatic response to a question I didn't know or an awkward situation was, "I like pie." So when I was shaping up Mike's personality, I considered transferring that obsession to him. But I backed off, not wanting to fall into the trap of making Mike too much like me (although many aspects of him are). So I changed the pie to cookies.

Later on, as I began to market the comic, I was trying to come up with ideas that would appeal to both readers of the comic and people who had never heard of it. When I realized that cookies could bridge that gap, I decided to take it from a running gag to a full-on marketing campaign. To this day, people still chuckle at the title of the Bardsworth book "If You Give Me Cookies I'll Believe Anything", and when I was selling t-shirts with that phrase it always got peoples' attentions. In fact, within the past year we started selling plush cookies, and they've been a pretty big hit.

As for the kinds of cookies, I usually just draw chocolate chip because it's easy to draw and it's the most recognizable kind. And yes, they are Mike's favorite (the crunchy kind, though, not the chewy kind), but he will eat any kind of cookie. As for me, I'll eat any kind except snickerdoodles or ginger snaps. Bleh.

Until next time - ask me anything!
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Ask the Author: The Website Questions [Oct. 7th, 2009|11:48 am]
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[Current Mood | chipper]

Today's Ask the Author question is the second part of an email from forum-goer Mad Scientist (the first past was answered last week), and the question was also asked in a recent email from new reader Amanda. In Mad Scientist's words: "Where/how did you make your site? I am looking at buying one (aka, leaving my host). And did you learn the html/css for it or did you pay someone to do it for you? Last, (if you hired someone), how much was it and who did you ask?"

When I was first putting Bardsworth together I considered doing the free webcomic hosting thing with Comic Genesis (although it may still have been Keenspace back then) or one of the other free hosts. But my problem is and always has been the need to control everything I can regarding my projects. I couldn't do that with the free hosting; I'd have to be subject to their ads and certain aspects of the layout. So I decided I would shell out for my own hosting and chose 1&1 hosting at the recommendation of a friend.

So the next issue to tackle was putting the site together. I had had minor experience with HTML back in 1996 when I put together my first website (which is still out there haunting the interweb; no, I won't tell you where it is), but I needed to reteach myself and familiarize myself with more advanced coding. I did everything hard-coded on Notepad and uploaded it to the server via an FTP program. How much more hardcore can you get, huh?

I didn't learn CSS until about two years ago when I did my major website overhaul. I had learned enough at that point to get by, but the site is in definite need of ANOTHER overhaul one of these days. And CSS has become so much more powerful in regards to making a good, dynamic site. But I digress.

Long story short, I am entirely self-taught with the HTML and CSS. I am a prime example that if you are stubborn enough, you can teach yourself anything. Except maybe not to be so stubborn.

Nowadays I use Dreamweaver for all my web updates and changes. If you can afford it, Dreamweaver is an invaluable tool. I would still suggest learning the hard-coding so that you have a foundation to work from, though.

From time to time I've thought about hiring someone to take care of the website for me. It is just one more thing on top of my pile of things to do that takes up time. But again, I can't give up control of any aspect of my projects. Besides, I genuinely like playing around with the website.

My advice, if you choose this route, is to learn the following: HTML/XHTML, CSS, PHP (you don't need to be a guru, just learn enough to be familiar with scripts), using databases like MySQL, and graphic programs like Photoshop or GIMP (you gotta make those website images somehow). Things that will help, but that I don't feel are completely necessary, is knowledge of XML (or at least RSS feeds), Javascript, and more advanced familiarity with PHP.

I hope that helps! Until next time - ask me anything!
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