Elements of a webcomic mixedThis post is part 2, you can read part 1 here.

So, far we covered the first half of the 6 elements of a successful WebComic. The first three are: You, the Story & Art, and the Stage. For this article we will talk about Propaganda, the Audience, and Revenue.

Before we jump into these elements I wanted to take this opportunity to mention you can check out my webcomic at www.madmanofmagic.com. If you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and those who might also enjoy reading it.

Thanks!

Now back to the last 3 elements of a successful WebComic.

4: Propaganda

This is what brings an audience to your site. It is technically marketing, but I like the idea of not promoting your webcomic, but instead spreading propaganda. In my mind propaganda has more of a viral feel to it (technically it’s supposed to be on more of a political a political nature, but lets ignore that for this article).

Super Comic CreatorWe all have our favorite comic creators (some of mine are Stephan Pastis, Norm Feuti, and Aaron Johnson). We see them and think, how cool would it be to be “insert name”. They have made it and I want to be there.

Comic creators are forged, not born!

You might envy your heroes of comics, but you shouldn’t want to be them. You can’t be them, so lets focus on you (what are we going to do with you?).

All those guys started off creating their first comic strips or comic book pages. They have been where you are right now and struggled with finding their way in making it a career.

What did they need to do?
Categories: General Update Independent Artist Tags:
February 25, 2013 by Jason Love

We are finally on the last leg of the Kickstarter Campaign.  We received the Comic Books from the publisher and they look great.

Comic Books from Printer

Leah and I will be packaging the Rewards this weekend.  Your package will be shipped out by Monday.  If you did not get a survey from Kickstarter asking for your address (for those that need to receive rewards via mail) please contact me through Kickstarter.  I still need several backers’ addresses to ship their rewards.

We want to thank everyone for the wonderful support and your patience in getting the Rewards out.  It has been a wonderful experience and an eye opener to the possibility of making this a full time career for my wife and me.

To support this we have:

  • 2,800 Twitter followers
  • 500 Facebook Fans
  • 430 YouTube Subscriber (with 27,000 views!!!)
  • And the best friends ever (we consider all of you our friends)

The Main CharactersI found Kings of Overgrove through twitter (@KingsOvergrove) while looking for other independent comic book creators.  Kings of Overgrove caught my attention because the creator is giving away half his graphic novel for free.  He also created a motion comic he published on YouTube.

The Website

http://kingsofovergrove.com/

What I love

From the first look at the website, we can tell that Kings of Overgrove is special.  The site has a great design that reflects the story, is easy to navigate, promotes the viewer to share the site, and allows for comments.  You can’t ask for anything more from a website.  It looks great and it does its job!

For those of you who read this blog for my articles on Internet Marketing for Artists or are starting your own online comic book, you can probably learn a lot from this site.  If you’re putting together your online portfolio, promoting your project, or publishing an online series this is a great website to explore before creating your own.

Reading the Comic

Madman of Magic Christmas

For those backers that are suppose to get a .pdf copy of the comic, they were sent out last week. If you are suppose to get one and you didn’t please email me. No new news on the printer and the timeline on distribution, but I will have all that figured out by Monday.

“Thank you” section

For those backers of $5, $10, and $25 or above please check the last update to make sure your name is on the list, is spelled correctly, and is how you want it to appear in the comic book.

I will need any changes and/or corrections by January 1st.

Reviewers are in on the digital comic book (.pdf version) and people are digging the comic.
Here are the reaction I have received from backers so far.

Brainstorm Mind Map image

Now that our Kickstarter campaign has been successful it is time to get into the writing process. When starting the campaign I already had a script for the first comic book, but I am considering doing a rewrite for a variety of reasons.  The main ones being:

1- I am considering not giving away the political elements of the story away in the beginning, but reveal them later.

2- Might want to introduce more secondary characters.

3- Could use more action scenes.

The problem now is that I have to create a script that makes the reader want more, yet feel like a full story in under 24 pages. I am finding the process difficult as I am juggling all the aspects of the main character with his environment and story in my head. I have 30 – 40 pages of notes scattered throughout my notebooks, evernote, and notepad files on my laptop.

Now that I need to get more organized, I have decided to use a technique utilized by several internet marketers; that is mind mapping.

What is a Brainstorm Mind Map?