Friday Archive Dive: Calendars

Today's Friday Archive Dive takes us back to Aug. 3, 2009, when we discussed the pros and cons of producing a calendar to offer your readers.

The suggestion gets made by earnest fans regularly: "If you offered a calendar based on your comic, I'd buy it."

I'll deal with that lie in another post, but for now, let's talk about the calendar as a part of your comic's merchandise roster -- and why you'll want to give it careful thought.

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Record-keeping tips from the IRS

As we head into the four quarter of 2010, I thought it might be a good time to go over some information that's going to come in handy by the end of the year. Keeping good records is going to do two things. First, it's going to help you calculate your taxes accurately and avoid any mistakes that might get you flagged for review. Secondly, in the event that you are called in for an audit, having your records in order will help you navigate the process in a much better frame of mind. All of the following links take you off-site to the IRS's official advice on each topic.

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Logo Hot Seat, Part Three: Typography

In the first Logo Hot Seat, we discussed some flaws that fall under the heading of an important element of design: Legibility. In the next Hot Seat, we talked about using Negative Space to improve your logo.

In this next group of logos, I'd like to discuss another important aspect of design: Typography.

Typography is such a powerful tool. It can convey attitude and emotion. It can add amazing flavor. If you're timid with your font choices, you logo could end up bland. And if you're careless, you could wind up with something that tastes horrible. To your readers' eyes.

Too bad fonts can't be used to fix a bad metaphor.

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Failure is an option

This piece was kindly submitted by Patric Lewandowski.

You finally did it.  You thought about it for years, but you finally started your first comic.  And it’s on the web!  There’s no one to stop you from reaching the masses with your comic!  There’s no one to tell you “no!”  And, your craft is strong!  You draw well.  Jokes are funny.  At least, that’s what the few readers you have told you.  But why don’t you have more readers?  You just need to work harder, right?

    Wrong.

    Sometimes, we need to fail.

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Buying a one-year membership in August?!

Since the question has arisen once or twice, I figured I'd better clear up any confusion.

Your Webcomics.com membership is good for twelve months after your starting date. In other words, it will not expire on Dec. 31, 2010. Rather, it will expire one year after you first subscribe.

When you subscribe, you are automatically enrolled to have your subscription renewed after one year. You have every right to cancel that auto-enroll, and it is very easy to do to. However, if you cancel the auto-renewal and forget to update your subscription, your account will be automatically locked.