Comic Lab

Scott Kurtz is on the show to talk about the release of his new book, "Table Titans Club." It's available at Target stores nationwide, along with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookstore!

ON TODAY'S SHOW

• Reimagining the "Table Titans" webcomic as a middle-school graphic novel
• Working with an editor for the first time
• Pivoting from self-publishing to traditional publishing
• Book shows vs comic conventions
• Early accolades for the book
• Personal appearances

NOTE: The Kickstarter for Brad's new Evil Inc graphic novel is in full swing!

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

Kickstarter delivers on Discovery in a big way. So would it be wise to use it to replace our failing social media platforms?

ON TODAY'S SHOW

• Using Kickstarter as social media?
• UPDATE: NCS Reuben Awards 2024
• UPDATE: Dave has "Still Got it!"
• Posting a parody on Webtoon to gain notoriety

NOTE: The Kickstarter campaign for Brad's new Evil Inc book is in full swing!

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

TikTok and Instagram reels are moving to the forefront of social media. Is it time to learn video/animation so you can promote your webcomic?

ON THIS WEEK'S SHOW...

• Using animation to promote
• UPDATE: Short Story Challenge
• UPDATE: Eisner deadline
• UPDATE: AI Art
• A digital-exclusive eComic

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

Every once in a while, someone asks if it's possible actually to make a living in comics. It's a fair question, and it deserves an honest answer.

SPONSORED BY...

ComicLab is brought to you this week by the book "How Comics Were Made, a Visual History from the Drawing Board to the Printed Page." Comics historian and ComicLab fan Glenn Fleishman has spent years researching the history of newspaper comic strip production and reproduction and is bringing his expertise to this printed work full of comics from Yellow Kid through Krazy Kat, Doonesbury, Peanuts, and, yes, Dave's own Drive! It will feature never-before-seen original drawings and printing artifacts, such as "flongs," the hilarious old-fashioned name for printing molds. The book draws from museum collections like the Billy Ireland Library and the Charles M Schulz Library, generous access to artists' own archives, and Glenn's personal collection. Glenn's taking the book to crowdfunding in February, using lessons drawn from this very podcast! You can read more about the book or sign up to get an alert when the campaign launches by going to howcomicsweremade.ink.

ON THIS WEEK'S SHOW...

• Is it possible to make a living in comics?
• how to write a longform comic
• Size and DPI — preparing files for web and print

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

A listener asks if they should write one big, successful comic or several mediocre ones. We have a bigger question: What makes you think you have a choice?! Also, it turns out the whole "Substack nazi" thing was yet another case of Platform Panic.

SPONSORED BY...

ComicLab is brought to you this week by the book "How Comics Were Made, a Visual History from the Drawing Board to the Printed Page." Comics historian and ComicLab fan Glenn Fleishman has spent years researching the history of newspaper comic strip production and reproduction and is bringing his expertise to this printed work full of comics from Yellow Kid through Krazy Kat, Doonesbury, Peanuts, and, yes, Dave's own Drive! It will feature never-before-seen original drawings and printing artifacts, such as "flongs," the hilarious old-fashioned name for printing molds. The book draws from museum collections like the Billy Ireland Library and the Charles M Schulz Library, generous access to artists' own archives, and Glenn's personal collection. Glenn's taking the book to crowdfunding in February, using lessons drawn from this very podcast! You can read more about the book or sign up to get an alert when the campaign launches by going to howcomicsweremade.ink.

ON THIS WEEK'S SHOW...

• Which is better... one big success or multiple mediocre ones?
• UPDATE: Kindle Direct Publishing
• UPDATE: Patreon is fixing free membership
• UPDATE: Substack didn't have such a big Nazi problem after all
• Fighting AI with Nightshade (https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/)

Substack's Platform Panic

For more information on this topic, please check out these posts:

• freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/these-rules-about-platforming-nazis
• freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/how-to-quit-substack

Many of the people who were making the most noise on this issue are switching to Ghost. Check out Ghost's TOS — in which they've even highlighted their clause on refusing to moderate content! And, on top of that, the total number of nazi accounts that were found on Substack was only 5 or 6, none of them monetized, and collectively had fewer than 200 followers-- and most of them wound up being taken down by Substack anyway.

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

BE ADVISED: We'll be discussing issues like death and dying in this episode. Dave turns fifty years old, and it has us talking about cartooning in the second half of one's life. And we're not the only ones asking existential questions. Our first question asker is worried that they're not going to have time to work on all of their ideas in one lifetime! Finally, we break down Wacom's troubling use of AI art in a promotional image!

ON THIS WEEK'S SHOW...

• Dave turns 50 years old
• Too many ideas for one lifetime
• ComicLab 500
• UPDATE: Wacom uses AI art in a promo

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

We often advise that beginners write a few short stories to sharpen their comics-making skills before they tackle that 200-page epic that they're burning to produce! But how do you write a short story? Today's show offers an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide! Use this blueprint to participate in the ComicLab Short Story Challenge! PLUS... if it's a benefit to list your comic on as many eStores as possible, why is it a bad idea to do the same with crowdfunding platforms?

ON THIS WEEK'S SHOW...

• How to Write a Short Story
• The ComicLab Short Story Challenge
• Using pre-readers
• The More the Merrier, part 1 —Multiple eStores?
• The More the Merrier, part 2 — Multiple subscription sites?

THE COMICLAB SHORT STORY CHALLENGE

Write a comic between eight and 16 pages using the Story Circle as a guide. The Story Circle has eight steps: You / Need / Go / Search / Find / Take / Return / Change. There is more information on the Story Circle in the links below. You may spend up to two pages on each step. No more. Each written page must translate directly into a page of comics, so be sure to take that into account when you're writing! Your final comic must tell a complete story — no cliffhangers; no open-ended conclusions! It must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. When you're finished, post it in the #Imadethis channel on the ComicLab Discord server so we can all marvel at your prowess!

• Dan Harmon's Story Circle
• The Story Circle / Batman Begins
• The Butso Method of Writing
• Editing a comic
• Is your idea too similar to someone else's idea?
• Got Writer's Block?

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

As last year came to a close, it was becoming very clear that social media has been failing to deliver what we traditionally relied on it for — reaching our current readers and finding new ones. So this year Brad is trying out a new platform — Subsack. But that comes with a whole new learning curve — and more than a few ethical issues to wrestle with!

SHOW NOTES: Two points of clarification. First, the question is raised whether a user can export an email list from Substack. This is, indeed a feature. Secondly, Dave asked Brad which of his social media platforms has the biggest user base. Brad's answer was Twitter, but upon further review, it's TikTok. That fact puts the ensuing discussion into a slightly different framework.

ON THIS WEEK'S SHOW...

• Substack
• Steamboat Willie in the public domain

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

One of our most often-requested topics is "How do I start a webcomic?" We're going to give you some step-by-step instructions — updated for the new year! Plus... we always stress the importance of doing a good comic. That begs another question: "How do I know if my comic is good?"

ON THIS WEEK'S SHOW...

• How to start a webcomic in 2024
• "How do I know if my comic is good?"
• UPDATE: Kindle Direct Publishing

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

Veteran cartoonists Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar make some predictions and discuss their goals for the new year.

2024 Predictions

• BRAD: Twitter will crash in 2024
• DAVE: Social media will remain distributed over five or six platforms
• BRAD: Web users will begin to pivot away from social media
• DAVE: Patreon will move closer to an IPO
• BRAD: Kickstarter will remain #1 by continuing to avoid mentioning blockchain
• DAVE: SDCC will return to normal after an abnormal '23... and profits will plummet for creators

2024 Goals

• DAVE: Launch "Pickles" Kickstarter in Jan/Feb, launch "Drive 4" Kickstarter in summer
• BRAD: In Q1, Kickstart an Evil Inc book paired with an After Dark edition. Kickstart another book — WebcomicsHandbook, Evil Inc After Dark or collection of single-panel comics — in Q2/Q3
• DAVE: Prepare for a 5-15% sales drop at Comic-Con International
• BRAD: Personal appearances, including SDCC and NCS
• DAVE: ComicLab Across America
• BRAD: Use NON-social-media alternatives to drive Patreon.
• DAVE: Revisit KIndle Direct Publishing
• BRAD: Start prepping website for a post-Patreon future
• DAVE: Build the ComicLab Patreon to 500 members

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.