Leftovers
As the week draws to a close, I thought I'd wrap my guest blogging stint up with some assorted things I've learned over the years, that didn't quite fit into the other articles. Maybe you'll find them useful, too. Continue Reading
Author: Ben
Spreading the Word
Increasing your readership is a little like trying to find love. You can't force it to happen; the best you can hope for is to improve your odds a bit. And if anyone tells you otherwise, they're probably trying to sell you something.
Putting It Out There
Once you've finished toiling away on your first few comics, and you've produced a work of staggering greatness (or, at least, a couple of pretty good fart jokes), your next step is to create a home for them. Now, there are places that will offer to do all the work for you; Webcomics Nation is one respectable example. But, if you're in it for the long haul, eventually you'll want to set up your own web site. And the first step is selecting a domain name.
Freewriting Re: Writing
There's a well-known (in certain circles …) doodle by Bill Watterson wherein he shares his writing process, which pretty much consists of staring blankly into space, waiting for inspiration. I imagine this holds true for a lot of cartoonists – it does for me, at least. Which makes writing about Writing a bit of a challenge, as I can't give a simple set of directions and send you on your merry way. I think the most I can manage is some random observations, which I'll try to tie together as best I can.
On Art, or Make Bad Comics
Cartoonists (and artists in general, I suppose) love to argue. Or, at least, we have strong opinions on things; spend all your free time cloistered and toiling, you're bound to ruminate. One favored topic is the ol' “Art vs. Writing” debate, which usually seems to degenerate into “I think I'm good at X, and know that I'm terrible at Y, but that's okay, because isn't X more important, anyway?"
Truth is, if your goal is to make quality comics, Art and Writing are equally important. Intertwined. Yin and Yang. If one falls short, the other suffers. Which can be discouraging, because people tend to think that they're gifted with certain talents and not others, and thus it shall ever be. But Art and Writing are skills, not talents, and like all skills, you can improve your proficiency over time.
Guest Blogger Introduction: Ben Gamboa
Hello, ComixTalkers. My name is Ben Gamboa and I'm responsible for the comic “Tweep,” which I've been producing since early 2003. I'm not the greatest webcartoonist, nor the most well-known, but I like to think that I've learned some things about cartooning over the past few years. And, since this is Back-to-School season, I thought I'd use my guest stint to write posts aimed at folks who are thinking about starting a webcomic of their own. As there are plenty of talented folks who frequent this site, hopefully some of you will chime in with some tips of your own.
Watterson On Webcomics
As many of you know, Bill Watterson’s releasing a hardcover collection of all his Calvin And Hobbes strips later this year. As part of the advertising campaign for the books, publisher Andrews McMeel invited fans to send in questions for Mr. Watterson to choose from and answer. I sent in a question of my own, and was fortunate enough to receive a response. Continue Reading
Here It (Mighty Mouse) Comes to Save the (Infinite Canvas) Day!
Apple has today announced that they will be selling a new type of mouse, dubbed “Mighty Mouse.” In addition to having multiple buttons and touch sensitivity, Apple’s new mouse has a feature that infinite-canvas cartoonists have long hoped for: a Scroll Ball that enables users to scroll up, down, left, right, and every place in between.
“Mighty Mouse” is both Mac and PC compatible. Continue Reading
Konfabulator, Yahoo! and Webcomics
Yahoo! has recently announced that they have acquired Konfabulator and plan to make it available to the public as a free download in the near future. For those unfamiliar with this application, there is a very lovely webcomic at the Konfabulator website (with art by none other than Vera Brosgol) that will bring you up to speed; in short, it enables users to place small but useful programs called “widgets” on their desktops.
One such program is a webcomic-ripping widget.
Xerexes: Just a note that Brosgol’s webcomic is very well done. After reading it and enjoying it try to imagine how boring that history of Konfabulator could be if it was just typed out. Continue Reading
Old School Comics
Emily Dickinson… cartoonist? Continue Reading
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