We at Fleen have been writing about How To Make Webcomics since it was announced at SDCC last summer; after multiple readings (and waiting for a time when we knew we needed postings in the bank), we’re ready to tell you how well the book meets its own goals (from the back cover): everything you need to know to make, post and profit from your own online comics.

Answer: pretty damn well.

With four authors on the book, it would be easy for the individual POVs to be lost, but the HalfPixel Crewe have done well — both by dividing the chapters between them, and by feeling free to drop in commentary in chapters written by another. While this leads to a slightly disjointed presentation (they don’t all use the same formatting, and with each chapter primarily overseen by one person, there are more typos than one would like), it does serve to keep the tone of the book as one of a conversation.

The authors are also to be commended for the division of topics along natural boundaries — Dave Kellett’s business past shows when he talks about audience interaction and monetizing comics; Brad Guigar’s many years of convention showing inform his practical tips for conventions (and give the reader a game they can play — find Guigar at a convention, and see if he’s following his own rules … if he’s not, he owes you a donut¹); and Kris Straub’s technical background nicely supplements his chapters on website design and the ugly details inherent in making comics your job (legal niceties, protecting your IP, etc.).

For me, though, the biggest surprise came in Kurtz’s chapters on characters and writing; I’ve been around enough [web]cartoonists for a long enough period of time to know that drawing is a learned, practiced skill, but never thought about the writing of a comic strip in those terms. All of the funny people I’ve known in my life have always seemed to be that way naturally, and the idea that you can learn to write funny — although obvious in retrospect — was somewhat revelatory to me. Along with the chapters listed above, Kurtz’s presentation on character and writing constitute a Strunk & White for the aspiring webcomicker.

But that does leave a few weaknesses to be resolved if there’s ever a second edition, most notably in chapters 3 and 4. And although the chapters are on very different topics (Formatting, and Image Preparation, respectively), the weaknesses all fall neatly into one category: examples, or the lack thereof.

At the start of the Formatting chapter, Straub looks at different layouts used in [web]comics (single panel, horizontal strip, full page), but oddly chose to illustrate each one with a graphic that featured the same aspect ratio. The “single panel” example was essentially a horizontal strip with the interior panel borders missing, and the “full page” was a horizontal strip with more than the usual number of panels. Similarly, a really helpful discussion of word balloon (and balloon tail) placement lacked a visual, and the chapter (which was essentially about artistic/visual decisions) abruptly transitioned to a discussion of schedule in the last two pages. Granted, there may be nothing as important as a committed schedule, and there may not be a better place to discuss it than the Formatting chapter, but … jarring.

Similarly, Guigar’s chapter on Image Preparation (essentially, Photoshop tips ‘n’ tricks) had the requisite mess o’ screencaptures, but the choice of what got displayed was somewhat baffling. A seemingly-terrific discussion about adjusting levels (and I don’t mean to sound snarky here … I don’t know Photoshop at all, so much of this went over my head) featured many shots of the dialog boxes that controlled the levels, and none of sample art showing the outcome of the commands. I’m willing to say that this chapter wasn’t for me, but I have to think that a newbie creator with a computer that runs Photoshop s l o w l y might want to see some visuals indicating what the described techniques would do before committing to sitting down and trying it out.

But I’ll be fair about this — I learned in Guigar’s chapter on “Books” that only certain page counts are practical for a strong binding, and there may not have been room to add space-consuming pictures to satisfy my desire for examples. And honestly, if the worst that I can say about the book is that I wanted it to show me more precisely what it was describing, that’s not a bad problem to have. It hooked me thoroughly and left me wanting more from the lads. In fact, I was so happy with the book overall, I won’t even mention page 149 where Guigar implies that page 10 in your book will be followed by page 10 again, then page 12. Nope, not me.

So let’s summarize — I wanted a bit more detail (or a different focus of detail, if you will) in a pair of early chapters, and the rest left me hungry for more from the HalfPixelites. My only concern with the book now is finding the opportunity to get all the creators to scribble in it, as I’m not going to Emerald City or San Diego this year, but that needn’t stop you. If you see any of the Gang of Four, be sure to say howdy, buy a book, and thank them for sharing so much insight and information — whatever profit they see from the sales of HTMW will certainly not make up for the increased competition they see from new creators who read it and take its lessons to heart.

And I have a feeling that’s exactly the way they want it.

_______________
¹ Not really.

From the top:

• Round numbers: Diesel Sweeties #2000and five years of Wondermark.
• Speaking of those guys: Rich Stevens (and a mess of other cool people, including webcomickers) is at ROFLCon, at the once-prestigious Harvard University. David Malki ! (and a mess of other cool people, incuding webcomickers) is at the Stumptown Comics Festival, in the once-ignored Portland, Oregon. Both events kick off today and continue tomorrow.
• Again with the Malki !: He’s on the podcast of The Ethicist, via the once-respected New York Times.
• More broadcasting: Webcomickers will be invading the once-sedate world of public radio, as members of the North Carolina Web Comics Coffee Clatch descend on the studios of WUNC for an appearance on The State of Things. Tune in or listen to the stream on May 8th at about 12:40pm eastern time, and be sure to call 1.877.962.9862 with your questions. The show will be rebroadcast later that night, then released as a podcast on the site; members of the NCWCCCCCCCCC are also negotiating to have excerpts animated on their website.
• In the hot seat: By the time you read this, Rick Marshall will have his latest webcomic interview up at ComicMix. Paul Southworth of Ugly Hill answers your questions, and I have to note that Ol’ Rick still needs a name for this series; may I suggest Webcomics With Willenholly?
• Life imitates Dinosaur Comics: Ryan North should totally get a commission from that logo design shop.
• And last but certainly not least: Chris Yates of Reprographics has his first book up for pre-order. Titled SET IT TO AWESOME, it features a foreword by Colleen AF Venable and an afterword by David Malki !, which brings us full circle. Looks like I can tell what my first purchase at MoCCA‘s gonna be.

Weekend now. Enjoy it.

Announcement first — things are going to be a bit busy in the next two weeks; I’ll be running some pre-done book reviews, maybe some “Best of Fleen”, but there won’t be much that’s topical. We at Fleen thank you for your patience, and if the scheduled posting goes a little wonky and you don’t see everything on a regular schedule, please bear with us. I promise to make it up to you when thing calm down again. Honest.

Okay, things that slipped by in the aftermath of NYCC:

• A two-fer from Ursula Vernon, who has advice for the budding artist on her LiveJournal, and reports a glowing Kirkus review of her forthcoming young-readers book.
• Speaking of forthcoming books, the second Shortpacked! book is on pre-order now, as is the sixth Unshelved tome. The former includes drama and the power of corsets, the latter includes Book Club contributions from various [web]comickers, the famed cross-strip Coffee Lid Challenge, and bonus commentary on that last item by some hack pseudo-journalist.
• Hey kids — do you like to enjoy things your own way? Brad Guigar’s been running his flagship strip in color for about a month now, but it was always designed for black & white. I’m digging my chance to taste the rainbow, but some people prefer it as it was. Good news — Evil, Inc. now lets you decide to veiw the color or B&W version of the strip, and remembers your preference, all thanks to a nifty bit of coding from our publisher.
• And finally, here’s Chris Hastings doing the American Beauty thing. You just know he’s naked under there.

Coming Monday, Paul Southworth brings us a new twist on guest strips in the form of Tales From the Ugly [Hill rejected story] Files; let’s hear what he’s got in store:

There exists a text file on my computer that contains every idea I’ve had for Ugly Hill since it started way back in 2005. Every. Single. Idea. It’s pretty darn big. A lot of those ideas get either forgotten or rejected for one reason or another, and since I’m taking next week off, I thought it might be fun to throw a little twist on the boring old “Guest Week” we’re probably all so tired of.
…
The guest artist [writes] a single strip around [a rejected story] concept, showing what they think would happen in that situation.

All of the slots for next week are filled, and anybody that contacts Southworth now will get relegated to Fan Art; after Southworth’s ALM guest strip, I can’t wait to see if this was enough to tempt Rënë Ëngström to cut short her UK vacation (hint: I’m guessing it wäsn’t).

In other news, Meghan Murphy writes:

The first 100 strips of Kawaii Not (the Comic for Cute Gone Bad) are now available in book from F+W Publications at Amazon and hopefully your local bookstore.

My local bookstore is sort of aggressively anti-cute, but I’ll be sure to mention it to ’em, Meghan.

The book also includes a Kawaii Manifesto, a Kawaii Horoscope, a “How Kawaii are You?” quiz… and two pages of stickers! Hooray!

Man, stickers. Definitely gonna mention it to ’em now.

As of this writing, the great print/webcomics meeting of the minds is now up to 80 comments here at Fleen, followed by 175 at TDC, meaning that just keeping up with progress on the issue has exhausted me but man there’s some good stuff there. For anybody wondering “How do I make money online”, let me refer you to the relevant chapters of HTMW, which right now are the closest thing to a Strunk & White on the topic (if only Guigar & Kellett & Kurtz & Straub weren’t so dratted unwieldy!).

Finally, nothing to do with webcomics (at least not yet), but remember Baryshnikov in White Nights, the panic when he realizes his plane is crashing in the USSR after he’d previously escaped? Well, some of us remember, and that’s exactly how I’m going to feel about flying over Indiana from now on.

Okay, so I got this email in my inbox yesterday, from no less a personage than Robert Khoo … it seems that the upcoming New York Comic Con is interested in a webcomics vs. traditional comics panel, with Khoo and Rich Stevens representing webcomics:

NYCC got back to me. We’re all good for a Saturday or Sunday panel with Gary [editor’s note: Yeah, I’m a little shocked they want me, too] moderating. Someone from Tokyopop and another from DC will also be representing I believe. Their suggestion for the name of the panel is, I shit you not:

WEBCOMICS: MENACE OR THREAT?

Guys, I want that to be the title so bad. Anyway, the full NYCC programming schedule will be here in the next few days, and we’ll let you know as soon as time, location, and participants are set.

In other news, ComicMix continues its webcomickers interview series with bizarre man-child Jeff Rowland; it’s about time that Rick Marshall came up with a name for these interviews, since he’s cranking them out every week.

Spotted on the shelves (and at the AV Club): Flight Explorer by the Kazu Kibuishi Crew, and Lars Brown’s North World (been waiting for that ever since Brown introduced himself to me at SDCC last summer). Spotted in my mailbox: Chris Hastings’s Dr McNinja — Surgical Strike. Reviews on all three (and How To Make Webcomics) just as soon as I can plow through ’em.

And better late than never, from Mr T:

This news is a bit old, but I was a bit sick last week. To celebrate the ninth anniversary of Fans on St. Patrick’s Day, we’ve repeated the offer we gave in our very first comic book before going digital: giving readers the opportunity to guest-star in the series. You can see the results in our ninth anniversary installment here.

Spotted at my friendly local comics shop, How To Make Webcomics, which means my pre-ordered copy should be arriving soon. Since the Halfpixelites didn’t have any review copies to toss my way, I had to make do with a quick flip-through yesterday; noted then:

• Immediately interesting thing #1: I noticed that each chapter is written by a different author, but the other three chime in regularly with concurring & contrasting opinions, accompanied by little cartoon heads to let you know who’s kibbitzing. Interesting way to have a primary voice to a topic while still allowing discussion.
• Immediately interesting thing #2: rumors in the latest Webcomics Weekly podcast of a Brad Guigar centerfold (we at Fleen understand that the pre-order artist editions omit the black censor bar). Remember, ladies — he’s taken!

Spotted in my mailbox: Octopus Pie! It would be difficult to offer a comprehensive review of this book without sounding like a total suck-up, so let me point out that it’s full of the same awesome humor and art you see three times a week on the web; that it’s released under a Creative Commons license that allows artistic experimentation; there are more asymmetrical eyes (scientifically proved to be 37% funnier than the regular variety) than you can shake a stick at; and that it’s chock full of moustachy goodness on every page. No? Just my copy? Weird.

Since I can’t really be objective about this book (after all, Mer did our masthead, and has been involved in my pseudo-journalistic efforts since before I started this gig), let me just point out who did provide objective praise. The back cover features blurbs from names like Larson, Kibuishi, Allison, McCloud (“My favorite new webcomic”) and the New York Daily News. I simply can’t wait to see Mer and tell her in person how much this book was worth the wait.

Which, as it turns out, will be Saturday, as the SPLAT! symposium takes place in New York; the organizers have graciously tossed a press pass my way, and I’ll be giving y’all a rundown next week.

You may have seen the announcement already, but it’s time to take a whirl in the Wayback Machine to the far-off past of … 2000. A young buck named Richard “Rich” Stevens III had just uploaded his very first comical strip, featuring a porn star and the robot she loves (kinda) (sometimes) (not really, because she’s too drunk and too self-absorbed).

Stevens, having now finished 1967 strips, is looking to celebrate his 2000th strip in style. So he’s giving you his archive. For free.

The link won’t go live until tomorrow, but Stevens is giving out the first 200 strips in a PDF, to be followed on subsequent Wednesdays with 200 more until he’s caught up. Given that many of his strips are impossible to print (due to wildly varying sizes and shapes, not to mention the costs of color), but that he wants you to have them in a convenient format, this is an unspeakably generous act. Seriously, I paid $10, or about 10 cents/strip for Pocket Sweeties Volume 1, which means that Mister 3 is potentially giving up $200 worth of book sales from me alone by tossing his children out on the internetty wastes.

Not only that, but the first page of the PDF contains an explicit Creative Commons license, inviting all and sundry to start remixing and up-mashing. If you think this sounds like a good deal, Stevens could use your help seeding some torrents so that all can have a clean & easy download experience; email the dude known as Clango at his site (that would be dieselsweeties, which is a dot-com) if you feel like aiding the cause.

PS: Have you donated to Cloudy’s brush with adventurous death yet?

Many things today. To properly express my amazement at how many things, kindly imagine everything I’m writing is being voiced by the manic (and possibly psychotic) Marlon Fraggle.

SPLAT! A Graphic Novel Symposium, will be happening in New York in about ten days time. Registration‘s a bit steep ($125 standard, $75 for students), but the panels look hella interesting. I’m going to try to attend this one, but haven’t been able to find out if there’s a provision for press or not. If you’re interested in attending, the location isn’t anywhere on the SPLAT! website, so thanks to Dave Roman for letting me know it’s the NY Center for Independent Publishing, 20 West 44th Street.

The Cros is giving out hints of what the new Keenspot will be like:

Keenspot has announced a new system that allows Keenspot creators to retain and control 100% of the advertising revenue they generate for their sites….

“With the rise of highly-effective new ad networks and exchanges, we believe few know better than a comic’s creator about how to maximize their ad sales and target the best-paying ads to their site,” said Chris Crosby, CEO of Keenspot.

How will Keenspot as a business generate ad revenue under the new arrangement? “Keenspot recoups its costs by running in-house advertising in creators’ unsold default impressions,” said Crosby. “This set-up ensures that Keenspot doesn’t make a dime until after the comic creator has.” Keenspot will also continue generating 50% of ad revenue from some sites under the original contract, as certain creators aren’t interested in handling their own ad streams. Thus far, roughly half of Keenspot’s members have switched over to the new agreement.”

Books: Dr McNinja 2 (Electric Boogaloo!), Evil, Inc 3 (Incorporate Harder!), and Achewood VIII (I got nuthin’) all available for your early-ordering pleasure. One should note that the Achewood collection, despite its calendar range, will not feature The Great Outdoor Fight. Instead, that saga will be published in September by Dark Horse, in what one presumes would be a handsome, cofeetable-compatible format. Between GOF, Beards of Our Forefathers, the Penny Arcade books, and Colonel Sweeto, it appears that Dark Horse are carving themselves out a nice little niche in webcomicky goodness.

Latest webcomic memes: “Scientology”, “E. Gary Gygax”, and “lizards hanging on your face”.

Kevin Kelly on artists supporting themselves off of 1000 True Fans; still digesting this one, but it seems solid.

Finally, it’s not too strong a statement that I’m writing this because 25 years ago Wendy and Richard Pini were self-publishing. Fast forward to about a year ago at New York Comic Con, when I was hanging around the Dumbrella booth as Richard Pini came looking for Rich Stevens to pick his brain on how online behaves versus print. Now comes the news that the Pinis are putting their entire back catalog online.

Content starts going up on the 14th, with multiple chapters going online every Friday after; how long before all the old-school self-published graphic novelists follow the Foglio/Speed McNeil/Pini model? Answers on a postcard.

February is making me SO-SAD, and without the benefit of a happy light. Here’s stuff:

• The mad genius behind Sinister Bedfellows, mckenzee, has sent me PDFs of his Cðulhuviða project, and news of a Cðulhuviða book available at Lulu. Still waiting to hear back if he’ll be able to realize his handmade book desires, but let me say this now — if such a book becomes available (I’d have to believe it would be a limited edition), I want one. One should also note that alongside the Cðulhuviða book, there are also available for purchase the NCWCC anthology and the Sinister Bedfellows collection.
• Reminder: Katsucon this weekend, with many webcomickers (Dr. McNinja, Evil inc., Onezumi.com, Applegeeks, and many more), and the Epic Webcomic Win.
• Two years of crappy job stories (that’s stories about crappy jobs, not crappy stories about jobs). On the one hand, I want Michael Moss to find a job that isn’t hellish. On the other hand, his hellish work experiences lead directly to my free amusement. This is a moral dilemma.

So much to talk about these days, what with the WCCA nominations, and How To Make Webcomics up for pre-order (Hey, Brad and Scott? You might want to put the book up in your stores like Kris and Dave have, ’cause I went looking to give one of you guys money yesterday, and I went with the first one who made it possible) and Ryan North‘s Goldmanesque situation. And that’s before yesterday’s trip to the local comics shop resulted in purcahse of volume 1 of Dirk Tiede’s Paradigm Shift and yesterday’s mail included Dave Roman sending me three (count ’em, three!) Nickleodeon magazine all-comics issues, none of which I’ve had a chance to read yet.

That’s because I’ve been reading and re-reading Jellaby. Want the short version? Kean Soo has put together a book that’s equal parts Owly and Amulet. If that’s not not totally awesome-sounding, I’m sorry — we can’t be friends anymore.

The longer version is that Kean Soo manages a number of things here that would make me inclined to like him a great deal, even without the bond of right-hand rule brotherhood that we share. In contrast to the usual comics convention of putting lots of deep, saturated color on the page (or the screen), Soo has elected to go with a subtle, almost ink-wash approach. That low contrast, far from making the pages hard to read, forces your eye towards the details that he wants you to concentrate on.

Case in point, from the online archives: Portia, our heroine, has a set of blinders on like you wouldn’t believe. Soo could spend eleventy-six panels of exposition telling us this, but instead shows it with an incredibly subtle and intuitive look at her emotional world. So heading down the hallway at school after a talking-to from her teacher, Portia’s entire world is washed out and pale, except for the much bolder window immediately around her. Looking at other people, walking past them, they suddenly come into sharp relief, then fade after she walks about two steps onward. And as beautifully as it works on your screen, it does so even better on the page.

The book just oozes that level of craft — Soo never tells us what he can show, and has taken the challenge of working with an extremely limited color palette and turned it into a strength. Everything in Jellaby is dominated by shades of purple, from motion smears (check out the very solemn head nod here) to seriously creepy dreams; that one basic color can convey so many moods was a happy surprise for me. And when a decidely non-purple color show up, the effect is arresting. Those are some mighty good lookin’ carrots there, Jason. Oh, and did I mention that it’s hilarious? And that Soo conveys emotion in facial expressions better than anyone this side of Tom Beland?

Best of all — Jellaby clocks in at nearly 300 pages, making it almost three times as long as the online (and sadly hiatused) version. Tensions build and release in the story, leading up to a cliffhanger that’s got me counting the minutes to the next installment (which I’m told will also be in 2008, but you never know with printing schedules). If Soo’s editors and publishers are smart, they’ll keep him happy and the rest of us well supplied with our favorite purple whatchamacallit.