Ok, so it happens. You design a character, and you can see the comedy of the character, but you just
don't have the time, energy, desire, creativity, or drive to turn your character into a webcomic.
You could stick this character awkwardly into another comic, where they wouldn't fit at all, or
you can just do a few random drawings and be done with it.
But wait, there's another way.
You could take that character, and, by making a few templates and guidelines, turn them into a Guest
Comic, relying almost exclusively on comics from other donators. Now there are ways to do this right,
and there are ways to do this wrong. I'm going to focus, as much as possible, on the ways to do this right,
as well as the potential problems that can arise.
First, one of the most important things to remember is that a guest-comic will only survive as long as
people want to contribute. You can encourage people to contribute, but at a certain point, you have to
accept that they may not. This does not mean that your webcomic is dead necessarily. A successful guest
comic does not need to update every hour of every day. It only needs one or two people who want to
contribute to work.
So, how do we make a guest-comic work? There are six parts: The rules, the templates, the website,
the credit, the timing, and the attitude.
Before we get started on those, however, I'd like to take a moment to emphasize one important concept.
Respect
A webcomic will not survive unless you treat the submitters with respect. This means that you cannot:
- Criticize their comics as if you are a reviewer.
- Alter the comics to suit your sense of humor.
- Treat the comics as your property rather than theirs.
- Reject a comic without ever explaining why.
- Use their submissions to gain profit (i.e. do not sell t-shirts of their submissions)
In short, you cannot do anything that would be disrespectful to a fellow artist. You must treat them as
if they were equals, and do to them exactly what you'd like them to do to you.
Here are the six official parts to making a webcomic.
The Rules
By this, I mean, "The Rules of The Comic". And I bring it up to mainly say: You don't need them. Not really. If you can put together your guest comic without using a single rule, then you've created a nearly perfect guest comic. Yes, it means that your comics will wander recklessly about and have no consistency, but people won't care, and will enjoy doing them. If that's your key (enjoyment), then that's as good as it gets.
However, many guest-comics rely on a common theme. For example, Desolate Robot, requires that the robot be used. Magic: The Jeevesing requires that everyone does magic cards. Etc. These are rules, though in the case of DR, they are rules that are only barely enforced (they're really not).
So...If you feel you need to have rules, try to keep them to a minimum, and make sure they're very simple, easy to understand (things like: 1 panel max, no swearing, etc). Don't set up situations where people are having to guess what you (as the Guest-Comic master) mean, because when you boil it right down, you need them more than they need the aggravation. I would recommend that you have no more than 5 rules total, and that those rules are very easy to understand. I also suggest that you don't enforce them very strictly.
The Templates
This is one that came up recently with another guest comic. The creator had a decent idea for a web comic idea, but he presented no templates, no aids, nothing. To submit a comic to his site, a contributor was forced to build his comic from scratch, which is not fun. Well, that's not entirely true. It can be fun, but it can also be a lot of work. The more work a contributor has to do, the more likely it is that they will walk away and leave you hanging. Which is not cool.
To make a guest comic work, you should start the guest comic out with, at least, a drawing of a character. preferably, you should start with enough drawings that someone could sit down and make a comic within minutes of downloading your templates. It should be that easy. Templates should be simple to use, and have plain or transparent backgrounds. You should make it a piece of cake to cut and edit the template, as people will often need to do things you haven't thought of. Give 'em a chance, and your contributors will surprise you.
The Website
Your Website serves a dual purpose. It exists to host the contributions, and also works as a recruiter all by itself. If your comic does well, your website will generate more hits by simply being on top of the "latest update" comic list. This all being said, you need to make sure that your website stays up to date, and that you link to every contributor. This is not only common courtesy, but in itself an encouragement to contribute. By linking back to their site, you're sharing your traffic. People will come to see the guest comic they submitted (or ones their friends submitted), and they will potentially end up going to several of the linked sites. Traffic sharing is a good thing.
The Credit
It's easy to assume that, because your guest-comic is doing well, that you as a person are doing well, but you should remember that, without those contributors, you wouldn't have much more than a pretty website that said "comics, coming soon". Without help, your guest comic is little more than a normal comic, and not even a very interesting one at that.
So, to keep your contributors happy, you should give credit where credit is due. I would suggest that you put a contributor's website as a comment on their comic's page. In addition, You should also provide a link in a "contributors" section, which you should keep alphabetized (just trust me, trying to keep it all together if you haven't sorted is a nightmare.) This way you're showing that you appreciate the comics and are willing to share credit where credit is due. People will feel better about contributing and you'll feel better because you're getting more comics (though less fame).
The Timing
Remember that, despite everything you do, your comic may not do well. Partially this is cause of timing. If you post a webcomic right after someone else does, the chances are you will be sharing contributors. Where those contributors might have made exclusively one or the other, they may now be forced to choose between the two. A situation like that might not end well for you. So be aware, and watchful.
If someone's posting a guest comic, hold off for a week, and see how they are doing. If they're totally dominating the guest comic world, then just wait. Eventually the fire will die down, and people will find a new comic to be a refreshing change. Then, your comic will prosper.
On the same hand, if your comic has been doing well, and it slows down, don't despair. Your comic will continue to catch the eye of new contributors, and, provided you've built a solid foundation, they will happily provide you with new content in return for acknowledgement and credit.
The Attitude
This is the secret key to making a guest comic work. All that other stuff is fluff next to this important rule. In fact, you could probably disregard everything else I said, if you made you took my advice on this. Here it is: A positive attitude is absolutely essential. You cannot run a guest comic if you can't be positive. Partially, this is because positive thinking is contagious. If you get excited, you will be able to get others excited. If you celebrate every single comic, then those submitters will want to submit more comics. Your positive attitude will make people want to submit comics.
If you can't have a positive attitude, you really can't run a webcomic. If you can't get excited about submissions, then your submitters won't get excited about doing them. If you can't stay positive about each and every submission, then your submitters won't want to submit. It's as simple as that.
Be nice. Be polite. Be positive.
Absolutely do not be a jerk, do not demand submissions, and do not try to guilt people. Your comic will only survive while you have people on your side. If you fail to keep people on your side, fail to keep them excited, then you're done. Your webcomic will fail.
So, in conclusion, these are my personal guidelines to running a successful web comic. While I will not make the claim that this is the only way to run one. I will say that I believe in them, and that they have worked.
You can check out my webcomic, Desolate Robot, at http://desolaterobot.smackjeeves.com
You can check out Tanis' webcomic, Magic: The Jeevesing, at http://magic.smackjeeves.com
- Joe
