What Everybody Ought to Know About Comic Buffers

I should really know better than to respond to anything written by Scott Kurtz.

For those who actually care about what the rest of the webcomic blogs (all four of them) are saying, Kurtz has a diatribe that doesn't really get to the heart of why cartoonists need buffers. Or rather, he talks about it but glosses over the reasons why, boiling them down to "Other people will think less of me".

I'll be the first to admit, having a buffer quickly becomes the best and the worst thing about your comic if you're not careful. It's good to have because it means you can relax and not have to worry about deadlines past a certain point. It's bad because if something about the comic ever gets received poorly, you're at a loss to do anything about it until your buffer runs out (especially if your plot continues on this hated portion for the next few strips)!

My main list of reasons for a buffer?

1. Having a professional comic means I respect deadlines -- because I've already told my readers to come check for the comic then.
2. Maintaining a constantly increasing archive / buffer makes the comic appear more "stable" and healthy.
   
3. Working on the buffer NOW means I'm not working on it during the school year -- or at least not as hard as I would over the summer.
   
4. I worry less about deadlines -- I have a hard enough time remembering what day to update the comic just to do the minor task of uploading it to the site, let alone if I had to work the week before to finish a comic in time!
5. Even if vacations are working vacations, I can relax on the weekends -- which are when I'd have to be working like mad to get the next comic ready for an update if I didn't work at least that far in advance!
   
6. Knowing what happens in future comics (and not just what I think will happen) gives me a sense of security -- because I'm following and reading along with my comic the same as everyone else, with the exception that I'm expected to figure out what happens next based off of these strips.
7. Maintaining a buffer and reducing the stress to pop out a comic rapidly gives me more opportunity to experiment with new ideas -- not just for saleable materials but also for advertising and general growth of the comic.
   

If you're comparing my list to Kurtz's, you'll notice that only the first two are "worrying about what other people think" -- and it's not even thinking about Joe Random, but about the perception of the comic as a whole. The rest are either somewhat selfish (work now to goof off later), or otherwise useful to the growth of the comic. Even if I sacrifice being able to react immediately to problems within the comic, I make up for it by having more time to tinker to be able to respond to those problems properly.

I'm not saying Kurtz's list is "bad" or even ill-informed, but he's working from the perspective of a mature comic -- PvP isn't struggling for acceptance and awareness now, except against those who don't read comics. He doesn't have to work at advertising his comic to say that it's different from other comics, or struggle for legitimacy, or even deal with the fact that his comic appeals to a certain audience like it was somehow a bad thing. He has a whole different set of problems to worry about, not the least of which is that the time he could spend on advertising PvP is having to be spent just advertising webcomics in general because being a big fish in a small pond does you no good if the entire pond exists inside of a water cooler.

Penny Arcade can't afford a large buffer because they're building off of pop culture, but there's no reason they can't build up a few PA-oriented strips that they can intersperse with the gaming-focused comics so at least they have something to throw on the fire when the news is slow or that next idea just isn't coming. If your comic isn't oriented on popular culture at all, there's little reason to NOT build up a buffer. In my case, having an insane buffer makes sense, especially while I'm still in school (I'm currently freaking out right now because I'm still two strips shy of having enough for the semester!), and because I want to be able to produce more pages for the comic -- having a buffer allows me to do that without having to stress over deadlines, at least!

You're going to have your own reasons for keeping a buffer, depending on what kind of comic you're doing, how much effort it takes you, and what length of a buffer you feel comfortable with. Regardless of which path you go, keeping at least "the next update" in your buffer is just good sense; if nothing else, it's insurance.

I'd like to talk about some Damn Useful Books!

I like big books and I cannot lie, you other artists can't deny...

Cheesy misappropriation of Sir Mix-a-Lot aside, if there's is one thing I do huge amounts of, (besides having random spurts of art evolution you folks may have noticed if you try to take the archives in all at once), I read lots of art books.

No. Really.

(And this isn't even all of them -- some of the less useful ones are still packed up with the other college things.)

The point of all this?

1. I read way more books on webcomics, art, character design/development, and other core details than I have any business reading at this stage. Most of these are useful and typically meet some level of minimum competency, though obviously some are better than others.
2. Books are not cheap.
3. Selling books, however, is good business, and if I can make a little back showing you which books are useful enough to be worth your dollar, then by all means!
   

So guess who just decided to become Amazon's puppet in the name of sharing all this lovingly extracted wisdom with you!

Now, no promises on this one -- The comic is already guaranteed to be weekly, but eventually I'll run out of books to talk about, not to mention that not all books are created equal -- The Art of Animal Drawing, for example, is almost all pictures, which almost guarantees that its review will be shorter than anything I could say about Scott McCloud's books.

Disclaimer: A lot of these books have my genre slant in them -- the animal books (for the furry stuff, natch) and the manga books because, well, that's part of my general style. More realistic / "American" style artists might not be interested in some of these. If they don't suit you, they don't suit you, but this is why I may cover certain types of books more than others. I never said I was going to be a one-stop source for these things; these just happen to be the books I think are most useful to me, and hence should at least be of interest to you. Heck, we might even have some MARKETING BOOKS tossed in (Gasp! Shock! Horror!) just because -- guess what? -- they're useful too.

Don't be fooled; just because it doesn't have "Webcomics" on the cover doesn't mean it still can't be a damn useful book. If you aren't already subscribed to the blog, you'll want to be, just to make sure you don't miss these.

If you have a book in the stack shown above you'd like me to get to before the others, be sure to say so in the comments! (oh, and there are a few books not pictured here, so you may as well ask...)

List of Books Reviewed So Far:

• The Economics of Web Comics (2nd Edition)
• The Art of Animal Drawing
  

The One Lesson Every Webcomic Creator Must Learn

First off, a confession: Webcomics make me sick.

Actually, let me rephrase that. I like having a webcomic, drawing a webcomic, starting a fandom for it, bringing my characters to life . . . so in actuality, my webcomic keeps me healthy. It's the way other people treat their webcomics that makes me sick, makes me want to stop reading, makes me furious for ever liking their comic to begin with... and believe it or not, it makes me even MORE upset than the average reader of such a comic, because it makes my job that much more difficult.

So, please, if you have a comic . . . for my sake and everyone else's, learn this:

Respect.
Your.
Readers.

This is not optional. If you want to stand ANY chance of going anywhere in webcomics -- and I don't care if anywhere is becoming DC/Marvel's lapdog, or printing your book, or even just making a little money on the side -- you need to learn this.

Ask any fan of webcomics, and they all have a story about how they were "burned" by less scrupulous artists: either their idols were a little too rude to a fan or three at a convention, online drama erupted that somehow managed to become part of the folklore of the site, they slowed down to the point nobody knew when the story was going to pick up again, or even (God Forbid!) they stopped working on the comic just before the story was about to end.

Yes, creating content about your stories, crafting beautiful panels and imagery, organizing your website for appropriate content . . . this is all important, perhaps even necessary. In spite of this, so many people seem to forget that starting a comic (especially one that contains a story) is supposed to be a general contract between an artist that they will do what they can to tell the story, and in turn readers will reward the artist for this with patronage and profits. Stop the story before it's done (or before you can at least bring it to a satisfying conclusion), you break the contract. Give people what they wanted all along, and you'll be a hero for it.

Difficult? Sure . . . but at the same time, for every person who makes a great-looking comic they can't continue, there's an artist struggling against this stereotype that webcomics are not "serious" ventures -- that they're made to be abandoned as soon as the artist lands a real job / turns sixteen / loses their virginity. I can't tell you how many times people have told me they're so shocked that a once-a-week comic could actually captivate and keep them panting for the next page just like a daily comic . . .

. . . and this is without including the fact my father told me over lunch at MomoCon how impressed he was with what I was doing, since most comics that fail tend to crap out around the hundred-strip point.

Yes, I know I'm only up to 80 pages right now, but it only underscores how ridiculously low the bar is set for webcomics.

(EDIT: As of July 8, 2008, I'm about to reach the hundred-strip point, and I'm starting to see WHY folks crap out. Yeesh.)

It's not my fault that people have these expectations about webcomics and are shocked to find a comic where, somehow, it manages to do simple things like help the reader find all the information they want, updates when it says it does, and god forbid, doesn't insult the reader's intelligence. And as much as I would be justified naming a few especially bad examples of this, even among popular, "successful" webcomics . . . if there's one thing I actually find relevant from reading about people like Judith Butler in class, it's that expectations like this come from only one thing: sedimentation.

(And yes, I'm as shocked as you are that I somehow managed to relate a feminist philosopher to a rant about webcomics. My apologies. I'll try harder in the future not to drag my schoolwork into the blog.)

One thing stacks on top of everything else and continues ad infinitum until it becomes accepted. Every Dead Piro Day, every Guest Comic, every Filler update, every "I swear I'll update in a few weeks!" post . . . it all adds up to this expectation that webcomics are unreliable, and damn it, sooner or later everyone decides this is just how webcomics work.

The only way to fix it is to start becoming reliable, and realizing that if you expect to survive off the generosity of others, you damn well better give them something for it. Maybe not necessarily what they want (though it helps), but at least what you say you'll give 'em. Of course, there's more than reliability involved, but it's far and away the most obvious show of respect. The next trick, of course, is how to make it clear to new readers that you have their best interests at heart too.

If you're willing to do what you can to help, I don't have all the answers up yet (though here are some steps in the right direction), but that's easily fixed with a little bit of time... and a subscription to the RSS feed, if you're not already on it.

You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your readers. You don't have to put them before your own health or anything crazy; but you do have to remember that they're here for you because you offer them something special.

Don't blow it.

Ready for MomoCon!

Things are finally falling into place. I've done what I can to get ready - prints are printed, sharpies are purchased, and I'll be getting my badge in not too long.

Just as a reminder to those who'll be seeing me in Artist's Alley, convention sales also count towards bonus updates -- so those of you telling me to update more? Here's how you can speed stuff up while getting some good art in the process.

See you there!

The ONE Resolution Every Webcomic Creator Needs to Keep in 2008

Resolutions are tough. We know it. We all swear we're gonna lose the weight or clean up the workspace or tell that pesky guy off, but there is ONE resolution that anyone who makes webcomics needs to go ahead and keep.

1. Get Involved in the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards! Nominations are open now, Voting is open just a few weeks later. The only way to participate is to make a comic, so even if you're doing jack squat in terms of publicity, you can still make an impact.

That's it. Seriously. It couldn't be much simpler:

1. Register. Tell them enough about your webcomic so they know you qualify. Just a URL and something to prove that you're active is enough.
2. Nominate. Nominations are open now (as of January 4) and close January 23. Nominate as few or as many (up to 3 per category) comics as you like.
   
3. Vote. Once nominations close and the top nominees are announced, start voting from February 8 to February 22. Winners will be announced March 8.

If you're looking for exposure and don't mind doing a little more drawing than normal, consider drawing a category for the online ceremony. There's plenty to go around, and a well-placed category presentation or win could do wonders for your comic.

And for those wondering: Yes, Last Resort qualifies for the "Outstanding Newcomer" category. If you know what I mean.

Gaming Project Wonderful: Fewer Ads, Bidding Nothing Makes You More Money

When Project Wonderful first came out and approached the webcomic communities, people thought the new "Infinite Auction" model would revolutionize advertising as we know it. Finally, everyone thought, people would get paid what they were worth! Of course, nobody realized what "they were worth" actually meant.

Make no mistake, Project Wonderful is a clever system, and it's certainly more entertaining (and easier) to become an advertiser on there than ever before. The problem is that (like most advertising media), Project Wonderful is working in the Advertiser's favor, so it's up to the publishers to do everything they can to make sure their properties make as much as they can. Fortunately, it's easy to be both, and there's only a few things that need to be done to get the best results possible, to beat Project Wonderful:

1. Comb the Freebies. Sometimes bids go for $0.00 (as in absolutely free), and believe it or not, these things will allow you to use completely free advertising. By bidding on these, you force paying customers to pony up (which does at least a little good for the people offering the space, as even 1 cent of profit is better than making absolutely nothing), and/or you get some free airtime, which drives new traffic to the site and improves your own statistics (see below). Remember, you can only make a zero bid for two days at a time, and even if someone else already had a $0 bid on the slot, that just means that you can either force them to pay, or you'll get the spot once their two days runs out.
   
   The best way to do this is to use Firefox to access PW, search for a specific size ad, and target the ads with a $0.00 current bid and no minimum; then open up a huge number of tabs to bid on those zero-spaces once you've pulled out a good number to bid on. At least 25% of those will likely result in immediate high bids. Even if they're on lousy sites, it's exposure nontheless, and it's also an easy way to test out similar ads against each other (which allows you to E.A.T. on your ads prior to actually laying out some cash!)
   
   
2. Don't Be Picky. Waiting for a publisher to accept your ad is a drag, and likewise, you're missing out on money from each and every ad you do accept, because you get credited every 30 minutes! Even if you like one ad over another, keep in mind that everyone else's bids drive up the price of the one getting the top slot right now, so being picky is in nobody's best interest.
   
   Why? Because EVERY BID BUILDS ON THE OTHERS. Here's a quick demonstration of a typical bidding scenario on a single ad space:
   
   
   • Bidder A is willing to pay $1 on the space, but nobody else wants it. Even though A could pay, it is an unconstested bid, so A gets the slot for free, and the publisher gets no money even though A is willing to pay $1.
     
   • Bidder B comes along with a $0.00 bid, since he's looking for free advertising. Suddenly there are more bidders than spaces available, so bidding begins to come into play. Even though B is freeloading, it's still an active bid, and so A is finally forced to pay (it's only a cent, sure, but that's better than nothing!).
     
   • Bidder C comes along and bids $0.05. Now A has to pay $0.06 in order to keep C from claiming the space.
     
     
   In other words, the only way you get A to actually pay $1 is if someone bids up to $0.90 on the same slot at the same time. This is great for advertisers because it ensures they never pay more than they want to, but the only way publishers (i.e. you) get to see these huge returns is if a bidding war actually starts. Also, it means you shouldn't discourage smaller bidders, because their presence forces bidding wars and gets higher-paying advertisers to shell out more money. Bidders will often pull out when they realize they're being outbid, which is a pain in the ass in and of itself when you're counting on certain bidders to keep your prices high, so don't help the process along unless there's something REALLY wrong with a higher-rated ad than you're comfortable with.
   
   The best way to encourage bidding wars is to keep the number of ads available at any given time down to begin with, and that means showing the largest ads you can for a given space. Larger ads pay better (Note how the Skyscraper ad on the blog tends to outperform the banner ads on Last Resort's front page, even though the blog receives only a fraction of the traffic), and the more spaces you have, the more people you need to even be interested in advertising there to make a single cent (once again, the ads only start paying off when you have more bidders than available slots!).
   
   
3. Expect Logarithmic Returns on Traffic. Put bluntly, there are a lot of sites with very little traffic, and very few sites that get a lot of traffic. As you accrue more traffic, you should receive exponentially higher bids for that traffic because you are now competing with fewer and fewer sites that have the same level of traffic.
   
   This gets back to the initial problem again of furthering your exposure, but it also means that when you start to see an improvement in ads, it also means you're getting more/better traffic as well.

Keep in mind that Project Wonderful should not be your only source of income; while more consistent than donations, it can be incredibly hard to see worthwhile returns when starting out. The good news is that Project Wonderful can run alongside Google Adsense (Google's restrictions apply only to content-based ads; Project Wonderful doesn't care about content!) , and it can provide a new set of statistics for you to keep track of, giving you a better sense of where to put your ads (and also how to further improve your advertising gain!)

And when you realize how easy that can be, it's just wonderful.

Project Wonderful, Google Analytics, and Experimenting with the Website

Been busy on a lot of things (not the least of which is end-of-semester prep) along with trying to figure out what else is good to do for the website. Consider this a random-dump post versus anything else.

• Google Analytics is still in the "Well it's interesting, bot how useful is it?" category. It's one thing to know you have X% of a bounce rate, but another to understand how much any given change can reduce that rate. And while Funneling and Goals are nice, on a non-defined page that isn't really selling anything (except perhaps either donations and/or Project Wonderful ads), it's only so useful.
  
• Speaking of Project Wonderful, I'm trying out some new ads by these folk, in order to take a little pressure off of the donation meter. I receive (almost) as big a percentage off of these as I do from donations, even though the current amount is still just pocket change.
• Cast Images are coming soon (while comic pages are still needing to be done, cast images are surprisingly quick to do) ; I intend on posting them in packs of 4 at a time, due to the large number of characters we have so far (there's at least 20 'main' characters right off the bat . . . Not as many of them are visible at any given point, but that's still a huge amount of people compared to most other webcomics). In the meantime, for those looking to get a sneak preview, already-completed images are showing up at DeviantArt before they end up here. They're just the images through; the text to go with these images will arrive when they show up on the website.

Until next time, folks!

Page 26: Cypress is one Crafty Croc.

Not that any of the characters really have room to be stupid when they're about to let a dozen criminals or so loose on their new holovision escapade, but Cypress doesn't look like she's about to let the apple fall too far from the tree; either Cypress is a better judge of Jigsaw's character than she has any business being, or she knows something about Jigsaw that even Damien and Nate could only dream of.

Those of you with good eyes will notice something a little off about Daisy as well; of course, those who've been clicking on her to donate won't be as shocked. Call it one of those little details that runs up there with Jigsaw's violin case.