Twitter cards

As you're scrolling through your Twitter feed, you may notice that some of the posts have a small link under the tweet: "Show summary." When you click the link, you get a tidy synopsis of the subject of the tweet (provided the tweet links to a Web page).

This is a Twitter card, and you can make sure that people who link to your Web site have cards with their links, too.

Social Media Hot Seat: Tone Deaf, Juniper, Funny Web Comic

For this round of Hot Seat critiques, I wanted to focus on social media. I attribute a huge portion of the success I had with my recent Kickstarter on the effect of social media. It's how information gets passed around, and I think it's worth spending a little time discussing.

So here's the three criteria I focused on:

• How easy was it to ascertain the social-media presence of the comic/creator?
• How easy was it was to share links to the content on social media (outgoing social-media).
• Did the main social-media feed of the creator (incoming social media) feature a good ratio of content to commercial? 

I gave each a score on a five-star scale, with five stars representing the best possible outcome.

As always, this is just the beginning of the discussion. Members are encouraged to take this as a jumping-off point to a deeper discussion of the topic.

Tone Deaf

Juniper

Funny Web Comic

Saturday Deep Dive: Yeah, Yay, Yea and Ya

Todays dive into the deeper archive of Webcomics.com takes us way back to 2009 when I talked about Yeah, Yay, Yea and Ya.

It's time to address a pet peeve that's been bothering me lately. I keep reading comics that misuse "Yeah" and "Yay." Often, I see novice cartoonists writing one when they mean the other.

Yeah (yě'ə) is a slang of yes. "Yeah, I agree that Larry Fine was the Forgotten Stooge." Nine chances out of ten, if you're using a slang for yes, you want to use yeah.

Yay (yā) is an excited exclamation or a cheer. "Yay! Our team won!" If you're cheering, you probably want to use yay.

Yea (yey) is also a slang for yes, but it's not interchangeable with yeah. Because yea rhymes with hay. Unless you're quoting Biblical text about walking through the valley of death, you probably shouldn't be using Yea.

Ya (yah) can be used either as a slang for yes, but again, it's not interchangeable with yeah, and it shouldn't be used unless your character is speaking with a thick German or Swedish accent (in which case, it's actually a slang for Ja): "Ya, I would like more meatballs."

Ya (yah), of course, can be a slang for you, as in "End this column already, would ya?"

Comment at the original post.

Friday Archive Dive: Hand lettering

Today's archive dive is from Aug. 28, 2012, when I talked about my opening steps into hand-lettering.

If you remember this post, you know that my approach to lettering has slowly evolved over the twelve years of my creating a daily strip. I originally did the completely backwards approach of inking the balloon first and fitting the test into the space (Photoshopping when my guess was completely off). Then I started inking full panels, leaving space for word balloons, but adding both the lettering and the balloons digitally after the art was inked.

And, to be honest, I was quite content with that process until I flew to Los Angeles to prep for Comic Con this year. I was staying the night with Dave Kellett and he was trying to get a handful of strips done before leaving for the convention. I was eager to try drawing at his new stand-up drawing board (pictured above), so I offered to do a guest strip.

To make the process as efficient as possible, I decided to hand-letter the strip. Dave's drawing board as a built-in lightbox, and he has created his own handy lettering template (pictured below) to make his process accurate and quick.

As you can see, he has printed a guide to his lettering (his lettering fits neatly inside the black bars, but he mentioned some people who have tried it out like to letter in the white spaces and allow the black bars to guide their lettering). He also has panels measured so he can quickly sketch out a four-, three- or two-panel strip. The horizontal center is marked with a dotted line, to aid composition). The entire thing is printed on a sheet of transparent film and then laminated.

Read the entire post and comment there.

Chicago Comic Con Q&A

After my panel discussion at Chicago Comic Con in which I shared ten tips for improving your webcomic, we opened the floor to questions. This lead to a rousing discussion that covered a broad range of topics -- including Plastic Man.

This video is exclusive to Webcomics.com members. You will need to use the following password:•••••

Here's a guide to the discussion:

00:39 You do you manage an artist in a collaboration?

04:00 Running a successful Kickstarter

09:00 Staying motivated

13:42 Kickstarter vs. IndieGoGo

16:16 What about sites like DeviantArt, Tumblr and SmackJeeves

18:24 Is it worth it to pay for your own hosting?

20:00 Which is better -- doing a comic that exploits the "infinite canvas" or doing a comic with a book in mind?

21:26 Are there any other "infinite canvas" webcomics you like?

22:00 What about comics like "Cyanide & Happiness" and "xkcd?"

23:31 Collaborations: Is it better to work with someone you know or someone you don't know? 

24:27 Really creepy Dirty Old Man laugh

25:25 On days when you can't post an update, is it OK to post "filler" material?

29:19 Where did you get the inspiration to change the layout from "strip" to "graphic novel" when you prepared your work for print?

31:31 Would you recommend adding extra content for books?

33:24  Which is better -- black-and-white or color?

37:16 Who's your favorite superhero?

39:18 Who is better? Plastic Man or Elongated Man?

41:19  Which is better -- digital coloring or hand-coloring? 

43:13 What software do you use?