Comments on: Chapter 1 updated

By: Jason Brubaker

Jason Brubaker — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:55:28 +0000

I'm glad you chimed in. It's interesting to hear more about the Belfry. The guys who run it must be pretty happy with it's success too. I'm not sure how much more traffic the advertising has given me but I'm still getting a pretty solid flow.

I'm also glad you are enjoying the comic too!

By: root

root — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:12:07 +0000

Hey Jason – I am digging your comic and all of the resources and experience you're sharing about your process here!

The dudes that run it are pretty good friends of mine and provide all of my merchandising and prints at extremely reasonable costs, and I think that the roughshod, circa 1998 look of the site is actually one of the things working in its favor. Revar (the administrator) created it sometime in the middle-90s as a tool to make it easy for him to keep up on the webcomics that he liked, and then shared it with his friends, who then shared it with theirs, and so on, and now thanks to its tenure has a huge userbase of people who are interested in comics. So it's sort of a funny paradox – because it wasn't created to act as a promotional tool for creators, it's a fantastic promotional tool for creators.

There is no ego involved, I know he has absolutely no interest at all in the internal politics of the webcomics community (though because of his site's unintentional prominence, and relationship with the furry community, it sometimes splashes on him anyway), he's just a very smart software engineer who saw a problem and took it upon himself to fix it.

I look forward to hearing how your Belfry advertising efforts go! I've been considering doing the same thing myself.

By: Jason Brubaker

Jason Brubaker — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:02:43 +0000

Glad you like ‘em. I added the purple color to the Mom’s bubble but now that I look at it online I think it’s a bit strong. I’ll bring down the saturation a bit and see if that helps next time I do her word balloons.

By: Jason Brubaker

Jason Brubaker — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:01:07 +0000

Yeah it’s pretty awesome. Thanks man!

By: Jason Brubaker

Jason Brubaker — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:00:19 +0000

I put up a half banner reMIND ad on the Belfry yesterday to see if it helps bring in a few more visitors. So far it seems to be working. I can’t tell who came based on the ad though but according to Project Wonderful I already got about 30 clicks. That’s really not bad at all for the price of the ad.

I’m grateful again for you chiming in. I guess I can see how an ad does bring a sense of professionalism to a webcomic. I just need to get a budget together for all this advertising stuff so I can do it more often.

By: Neil Fontaine

Neil Fontaine — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:47:10 +0000

The colored bubbles really fit the style of your comic. I’d stick with them.

That’s awesome about Sam. Maxx is a great looking comic.

By: Snowbody

Snowbody — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:04:46 +0000

I rarely click on ads on the Belfry, but seeing an ad there sort of "legitimizes" a comic to me and makes me more likely to give it a shot when I see it somewhere else (either in a toplist, or a "people who like this comic also like these" list, or the New Comics list). Of course it helps if the ad gives a hint of the flavor of the comic. That may be Aquarium Drinking's problem.

Also who wrote the "Description" of Aquarium Drinking on the belfry? It's kind of bland and generic. How is it different than any of the other "twentysomething drinking buddies" webcomics out there?

By: Jason Brubaker

Jason Brubaker — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:44:45 +0000

Ha, Typos are my middle name. I noticed you were advertising on Belfry too. How has that been going? I was thinking of adding reMIND right next to yours for a few days. It’s great to hear that the Belfry is working out nicely for you too.

Hanna really has some impressive stuff. She is really talented!

By: Aquariumdrinking

Aquariumdrinking — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:40:05 +0000

I just post mine on Belfry last week and couldn’t believe the amount of clicks I got, good ones too, no bounce rate people that would spend a long time on the site etc… I guess the minimalist approach brings out the hardcore webcomic readers.
I too discovered “Hanna” on their and posted a recommendation to read it on my FB group (I posted it last Thursday, I swear I’m not copying you…this time. I guess great minds think a like I immediately loved it because the creative page layouts remind me of… wait for it… Sam Keith. The Maxx is still one of my favorites, I would soil myself if I got a letter of praise from him, good for you.

By: Jason Brubaker

Jason Brubaker — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:00:23 +0000

Yes, I’ve scrapped entire spreads before after finishing color. Especially in Chapter 2. There was one spread that I must have drawn all the way to clean up 3 times. I finally just kept it really simple. I was trying to over complicate it. Another page I had finished, then changed the story so I tried to edit it. Then after a few months of looking at it unhappily, I had to start over. I’m glad I did because it much more dynamic and interesting now.

I also throw in spreads in the middle of the story just to add a little more breathing room. Sometimes I get so caught up in telling the story that it starts feeling squished together. So I have to add some pages in between to slow down the reader a bit. Plus I just like cool spreads with cool art.

I started on this so long ago that I’ve had time to iron out my story problems and look at pages cross eyed for months. Revisiting it all after putting it down for a while. That has really helped. Now that I’m closer to having the pages figured out I can stay on a schedule easier.