Anyone who is serious about creating and publishing webcomics probably shares many of the same lists of failed experiments. But the point is to try new ideas. Set those experiments in motion and see what happens. Chances are, it won't break the Internet.

The first webcomic I saw that really inspired me was Steve Conley's Astounding Space Thrills. I was impressed by the professional quality art, the slick formatting and simplicity of the whole effort. His pioneering tooncasting model was all over the Internet by the late 1990's, generating some decent revenue and critical acclaim. The key to his success seemed to be size, format and frequency of publication -- that, and a pretty damned good story.

Right around the time I first saw his strips, I was having difficulty finding a suitable publisher for my graphic novel, High Strangeness. I shelved that book for a year after it was completed, and decided to start a webcomic of my own. That webcomic, The Last Odyssey, began as a black and white newspaper style serial, with a full color double sized Sunday strip. It was a self-education on all fronts, as I was learning how to draw while learning how to write html. The Last Odyssey evolved into a weekly updated, color webcomic, mimicking AST's format. At one point I tried to turn it into a paid subscription-only webcomic. That failed. I then turned it into a daily, but couldn't keep up with the publication schedule. I changed the size from a full size strip, to wide newspaper strip size, to splitting a full size comic page in half, to obscuring the artwork in the graphic in an effort to prompt visitors to purchase a subscription…it was a pretty convoluted experiment, but I learned a lot from it, as a web designer and as a cartoonist. When I later decided to publish High Strangeness online, I had a pretty firm idea of what I wanted to do with it, and I was much happier with the results.

I think that's the best way to approach creating webcomics; don't let yourself get stranded with one format, model or style. In the end, it's about creating comics that are enjoyable to read online, just as they are in print. We have an advantage over print, because we are more accessible, and our work has immediacy to it that a monthly comic book can't convey. There's a closer connection between reader and creator, or at least there should be. But there's other challenges.

For those of us creating serials that don't rely on 3 panels and a punchline, we have our work cut out for us. We have to convince visitors to make that extra investment of their time, to get to know the characters. They have to find out about the characters pasts before they'll care what happens to the characters in the future. That sort of burden isn't a concern for the newspaper serials. It's not that important to know the back-story on the current Phantom strip, for instance, because most people are already familiar enough with the character and his world.

I'll take the analogy further; I have no doubt that if Marvel and DC decided to stop the presses, and begin publishing ONLY online, their sales would skyrocket. It would succeed because of this same fact; most people already know the characters and their worlds. If they can't get their comics anywhere else, they'll pay for them online. And their online reading experience won't be any worse than having to brave their local comic shop every Wednesday.

Now that would be the ultimate webcomic experiment.

Scott Reed

www.websbestcomics.com