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Webcomics Weekly is archived at libsyn.com
Monday, September 13, 2010 at 5:00AM Sending out a monthly e-newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with readers -- and an awesome way to get the word out on new information about your webcomic. It takes a little time to prep, but it's a well-targeted message to an interested audience is incredibly valuable as you build your community. Here are some thoughts.
Friday, September 10, 2010 at 5:00AM Today's Archive Dive comes from Aug. 26, 2009, when a guest writer discussed spec work and how it relates to webcomics and comics contests in general.
This post was kindly submitted by graphic designer Christopher Williams, who is currently working on The Variants.
Greetings webcartoonists! I come to you from the neighboring land of Web design. We've been neighbors for a long time. We've probably seen each other on occasion. I look at what you're up to with your little drawings and your game references, and you use my code and designs for your site. Just like neighbors!
And as a good neighbor, I want to warn you about some folks who've been approaching you about work. It might be work-for-hire, or for a new comic book, but whatever these folks are asking for is speculative work.
Let me explain. In Web design, we have clients. We also have agencies that seek clients on our behalf, but ultimately it's the clients we work with. Clients and artists usually work together to on a project and hopefully, if all goes well, a relationship is formed. Relationships are good. They lead to more work, and referrals.
Clients who ask for speculative work don't operate in this manner. Clients who ask for designs first are asking for speculative work. Contests are an example of speculative work. They may have all the right intentions, and are in some cases totally legit, but it isn't ethical.
Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 9:01AM A number of members have communicated that they'd like to have more abilities to receive critiques.
To that end, I've created a new area on the site, Critiques, that people can post requests to have certain aspects of their webcomics critiqued by other members.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 5:00AM Mary Cagle posted some awesome drawing/coloring tutorials in the Private Forum, but I wanted to make sure to showcase it out here in case anyone missed it.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 5:00AM From Mashable, here are five Gmail productivity tips that I found really useful.
With the launch of Priority Inbox, a radical new way to sort mail, Google has hugely changed the way you can process and manage email. As Gmail Product Director Keith Coleman says, “Once you go priority, you never go back.”
The set-it-and-forget-it solution has actually existed in various states of completion for years, dating all the way back to pre-release versions of Gmail. The feature was picked up again 18 months ago, and today we can finally experience it for ourselves.
At its core, Priority Inbox is an algorithmic solution to email overload. Gmail attempts to automatically process your email by factoring in variable such as who the email was sent by, how many people it was sent to and the keywords included in the subject and body of the message.
You can use Priority Inbox with its out-of-the-box default settings, or you can tweak it to your liking by using the plus and minus symbols atop the inbox to “teach” Gmail which emails are important.
We’ve also identified a few more complex tips for those of you looking to maximize productivity and use some of the less obvious features of Priority Inbox.
Read the entire piece here.
