Customer Reviews

How to Make Webcomics

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anyone with a comic and a website to promote it on has a webcomic. But these four artists combine their artistic and marketing strengths (kind of like Captain Planet) to show people how to make a successful webcomic. It's not a how-to-draw book; these guys are assuming you know how to draw already. This is a book talking about font legibility and character design and the difference between web quality and print quality resolution. I think this book should be alongside Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art" on any comic artist's bookshelf.

Not many books manage to give a decent introduction to combining being an artist and a businessman. Guigar, Kellett, Kurtz and Straub do this excellently. I bought this book because I'm writing a Master's thesis on webcomics -- and "How to make webcomics" will definitely be quoted heavily in it -- but reading this book also gave me a renewed interest in making my *own* webcomic.

The best authors for books on how to make webcomics are definitely webcomics creators who love what they do. Guigar, Kellett, Kurtz and Straub show an enthusiasm in this book that rubs off, and in a wonderful mix of creative chapters (writing, creating your characters), practical chapters (scanning your comic, making a website) and business-related chapters (making an income out of your webcomic), it becomes very clear that the authors love what they do, and that anyone who loves webcomics may one day compete with them on the webcomics arena. You learn that you have to love webcomics to make one, as they won't give you much income the first couple of years, but you also learn to not feel guilty for monetizing on your work. This is the perfect combination of a "how-to-be-creative"-book and "how-to-sell-your-art"-book.

If there is one thing I hope will change in the second edition, I wish for a more global perspective. The book is great, but many of the points stated in it aren't really that useful for non-Americans. For instance, when I make a webcomic in Norwegian, I will probably never get ten thousand readers. I could write it in English, but that would create problems with a store, since I'm still physically based in Norway and won't be able to send books and T-shirts to USA or UK without charging a lot for sending them -- probably more than my readers want to pay. And if I need to use print-on-demand, there aren't really anyone over here that can offer that, ... and so on, and so on. I hope that a future "How to make webcomics" will be able to have a chapter answering some of the additional questions that rise when creating a webcomic outside the US.

But that is nitpicking, really. This is the epitome of a five-star book.

As someone who's been creating a webcomic for many years (Pewfell), I found this book to be very well put together, helpful and inspirational. I would definitely cite it as being essential reading for anyone hoping to monetize their own webcomic. Though much of it was stuff I already knew, I still found very many useful insights from these four guys who've actually walked the walk. All the information is put together in a fun, lighthearted, easy-to-read and well-thought-out way with lots of practical examples, great illustrations and comic strips. Great work & thanks for sharing, guys!

I work as a full time artist so some things in this book that might be useful to others, are old news to me because I've heard them said elsewhere a million times over.
This book was helpful to me in that it listed POD book publishers, and the alternative print companies (that are not POD (Print on demand.) I also liked the section on conventions. I found it annoying that there was a step by step section on saving jpgs and gifs for the web, but when it came to the chapter on Web site design; the chapter that you would think would contain some basic web site building tutorials, the authors assume you know "a little HTML and your way around a program like front page or Dreamweaver. I know how to save for web.. that's easy. I coulda used some more website building specifics.

This book definitely has some useful information in some areas, though it is lacking in others. There's a great section on image preparation and decent advice on how to set up your booth for a convention, but not much on actually obtaining said booth (unless you want to attend the con as a guest) or what to do if something goes wrong with your reservation. There's some good (albeit very general) business advice, emphasizing the importance of having multiple income sources and networking with people. The authors also correctly predict the failure of the micropayment model, so they clearly know what they're talking about. However, I have to STRONGLY disagree with the 5 to 10% sales estimate (Anyone with sales experience in ANY industry will tell you that about 1% of people you advertise to will buy your products. Read the book, "The Economics of Webcomics" for some more thorough facts on the business of webcomics.), and I feel like the book will set people's income expectations a little high.

While much of the information is very simplified, you will finish this book feeling motivated to get to work on your comic. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is starting out in comics, as it will bring up issues and challenges that many won't think of at first. Unfortunately, you'll have to learn most of the little details on your own.

There are a handful of making your own comics and scads of books on drawing them, but there's not much on making a living off them, particularly with webcomics. "How to Make Webcomics" spends very little time on the stuff that's been covered elsewhere and does a great job filling the niche that other books have missed.

Again this book focuses not on "10% inspiration" fine art aspect of comics that there are already have shelves worth of books about, but the "90% perspiration" topics that are the difference between a talented artist and a successful talented one. Topics like maintaining a good update schedule, proper site design, self promotion, merchandising, dealing with supporters, working comic conventions, and other aspects of building a fan base that leads to a lucrative webcomics career.

This is also one of the best examples of a multi-author book I've ever seen. Most books written by more than one person have no difference in who's "speaking" or have clunky transitions between authors. In this book, you always know who's talking and each author is established as a unique, experienced voice on the matter and will actually butt it on another person's chapter to offer a different opinion on a subject.

The lessons passed on in "How to Make Webcomics" apply beyond online funny pages and are required reading for any artist looking do more for themselves on the internet.

And if nothing else there's plenty of funny comic strips throughout to keep you entertained.

Scott, Brad, Kris and Dave draw upon everyday household items you might have laying around to create a time machine or a flying car. For good measure they also pass on the secret to eternal youth and the location of the lost Ark.

Well, they might as well have.

Starting from the idea that the reader can already draw enough to make a comic (there is no "How to draw a..." section), they mold the reader into a writer, agent, techie and business person. They pass on all of their secrets in a full confession sharefest that reads like a conversation between the authors (similar to the discussions on their "Webcomics Weekly" Podcast).

The book is full of humor and brilliant ideas. The art comes from each contributor's comics and really adds to the points of the book.

You should buy two books as one will likely fall apart from constant use and you will need the second to give to your children someday. I bought four extra copies and hidden them at the corners of the world, and in my will I have clues to find each copy in an elaborate race to determine who I will leave my entire fortune to.

This book is awesome and helped to get my web comic "Dungeon Hordes" (google it! it's solid proof of what this book can do for you) off the ground. I started it in January 2011 and I'm already on strip #93! If you're interested in starting up your own web comic, and need some advice about the biz, don't pass this book up!

In here isn't the usual "how to draw" book where they tell you where to put the circles and the eyes and such. It's a collection of tips and tricks to make and publish your own webcomic with such details as the differences between a TIFF and a PNG file and when to use which, what good character design entails, how to get around writer's block, what's needed to run a website, how to interact with critics, what your publishing options are, and even what to bring if you're having a booth at a convention, and then some. Generally I think one might know how to do a couple of things in this book already, but the plethora of details in one concise book is quite convenient. Every page is useful.

Their interplay between four authors shows that there's more than one way to run a webcomic, and they'll each show you the pros and cons of the decisions they've made. There are also example critiques of each of their comics. However, all four authors write gag-a-day comedy strips, so comic writers aspiring to be serialized or dramatic will have to fill in blanks themselves. Best pick up a separate book on story writing, and other books that go into much more depth if you feel that a chapter in "How to Make Webcomics" wasn't detailed enough for you.

This is a good read for anyone wanting some help in taking their webcomics a bit further. It's not one of those books that spends half the time telling you that you need to have characters in a comic, or how you use a pen. Here we have all the little things you probably never would have thought about. Information on turning your comics into print. Setting up and interacting at comic conventions. How they use Photoshop. Even how much room a box of 100 T-shirts takes up. This is a very informative, and entertaining, book from four people who are doing it for real and are willing to share their thoughts on how you can try too.