Customer Reviews

Webcomics 2.0: An Insider's Guide to Writing, Drawing and Promoting Your Own Webcomics

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This book was a thorough disappointment. The title promises an "insider's guide", so I expected that we would get a book written not only by people who know what it's like on the inside, but also what people who wants to get to the inside needs to know. There are no signs of such knowledge in "Webcomics 2.0".

The title also gives the impression that the book will look at webcomics from a Web 2.0 perspective. That's not true. The book has nothing to do with Web 2.0 at all.

The book is very colored by Horton's and Romero's opinions on things, and it is very clearly biased. The example that stuck with me was in a paragraph about webcomic portals where you can upload your own comics -- veterans ComicGenesis and DrunkDuck are picked apart while the one truly recommended place to upload your comics is a MySpace clone which at the time of writing the book wasn't even open yet!

Some of the tips given are in my opinion pretty bad, for instance you're recommended to send out press releases almost every time you update your comic. Wow, what a great way of getting blacklisted by all the credible sources! If you disagree with me on this one: Check out one of the big newssources listed in the book -- [...] Go to the search field, type "Horton" or "Romero", and click "Go". Zero hits. And these guys are supposed to teach *me* how to get my press releases picked up by Fleen?

I know enough about comics to figure out when someone doesn't really know what they're talking about: Two examples from early in the book: Art Spiegelman's "Maus" is labeled as a soap opera (what?). The creator of webcomic XKCD has the name "X" (come one, at least you could have proofread!).

And, as has been mentioned in earlier comments: Much of the actual information given is information that most of us already knows, and a LOT of the book is spent showcasing the creators' own work (32 pages of reprinted comics, all by Romero).

I really regret buying this book. What I thought I was getting when I purchased this book was an in depth guide to how to run the business side of a web comic. Of the book's 236 pages, only 25 pages cover promotion and only 24 pages cover online revenue generation. Of the information presented on these pages, there is almost nothing of value. It is either common sense like posting on forums to advertise your site or information that you can get off the start page of Google AdSense.

So what are you really buying with this book? Well, you get four chapters describing the different genres of web comics. If you're thinking of making a web comic, you probably already know about comic genres, so four chapters are wasted right there.

Also you get 32 pages of reprinted web comics. All of which are uninspiring. When I saw how many pages of this book were wasted on these comics that I had absolutely no interest in, steam was shooting out of my ears. What a waste of page space.

Next you get 20 pages of how to write a comic and 26 pages of how to draw them. This information is very basic. Again, if you're thinking about doing a web comic, most of this stuff you will already know. Every topic covered is breezed over with a few paragraphs. If you're looking for in depth information about how to use the computer itself to create comic art, look elsewhere. It's not in here.

Finally, you get 18 pages about how to find a web host for your web comic. Something that you can do with a quick Google search.

There are a few other sections, but I think you get the picture. I strongly recommend that you avoid this book. You can get the information here for free on the net, and there are other better books on creating web comics. Avoid like the plague.