phrases. - The Official GlobalComix Blog

We're proud to announce an update to our existing immersive reading tools for creators and publishers called PanelFlow™. These new features will make adding frames to your comics simpler and quicker so that you can get back to creating the comics for your readers.

What is Interactive mode?

If you've seen the above warning on your releases, this is referring to interactive mode and frames that you can add to create a panel by panel reading experience.

Here are some notes to consider as we move forward:

• All pages must be interactive in order for panel view to be available to readers. If even one page doesn't have a frame on it, the reading mode will be...

Today we’re proud to announce an improvement to how you can monetize your comics - even when you want to offer free previews. We’ve introduced new functionality that pays out subscription revenue for free page reads, as long as there is a paywall somewhere in the series.

This gives you the flexibility to offer more free pages or even free releases, and still earn money when a GlobalComix Gold member reads your series. Some of you may have already noticed that you have pending income, and this improvement is why.

Everyone can do it, and there are no surprises:

• You don’t sign a contract.
• No minimum page reads or publishing schedule is required to...

Panel-to-panel reading has been a tool in digital comics in many forms and on many platforms. GlobalComix also has this tool, and we've got a step by step here to guide you through it! This feature allows creators and publishers to set up frames so that readers can read panel-to-panel, which is ideal for mobile reading. In the age of digital comics and mobile devices, it can be a real help to your readers to give them this option.

But let's dig into the tool and how to use it! I'll be using my manga Godsbane as a demonstration, as I don't currently have any frames on it. This way, you can see me start from scratch.

If you've seen this warning about...

Whether it's a big sale or maybe you'd like to offer a crowdfunding supporter a free download, we'd love to help you distribute your comics! For today's Creator Tips and Tricks, we're going to look at how to generate promo codes and how to claim them. It's important to be educated on both sides so that nobody gets left without their books. The horror!

With that intro out of the way, lets dig in!

Where do I create Promo Codes anyway?

You'll find them in your Creator Settings under "Promo Codes". You'll notice that if you've made previous codes in the past, as I have here, you'll be able to see all of the information for them...

Did you know you can sell PDF and PDF bundles on GlobalComix as one way to make revenue!? It's a great way to make some extra income as a comic and manga creator and for today's Creator Tips and Tricks, I'll be walking you through that process! I'll be using my own manga, Godsbane, as an example as I'd like to set it up for a PDF download!

First off, I'd like to recommend a few things first.

1. Always make sure your PDF has a nice cover, it makes it more presentable!

2. Make sure that all files are the same size (in pixels for both height and width). Also make sure they are the same resolution in terms of dpi/ppi! That way the file will look its best,...

The magic of a well done two-page spread is undeniable in comics (any type of picture book really) when done well. In Comics it can be really jarring to the reader, and frankly, upsetting as a creator when your pages don't align as you planned them to. Well, we here at GlobalComix understand how important that is, and we have a few different tools to make sure that those spreads you worked hard to design stay together!

How can my comic be read in double-page layout?

Within the reading experience is a little gear icon on the upper right within the reading header. You can click on that icon and it'll open a dialogue box with various options. You can select and change...

Deciding your publishing schedule, and then being able to follow through, is one of the most difficult, yet critical parts of being a comic creator. With the wide number of strategies to this, there is an option out there for everyone, and of course, you can always opt to create something completely different.

Today’s Creator Tips and Tricks is dedicated to offering suggestions to creators wanting to set a schedule and need some advice on the options. GlobalComix offers tools to help you manage your schedule and releases in a way that suits you.
 

With the state of webcomics over the last few years, plus the effects of on-demand and streaming, there is a large...

The deep abyss that is Reddit, have you ever thought about promoting your comics or manga there? Do you know where to start? Beginning to post is a little overwhelming, but we've got you covered!

Welcome everyone to another Creator Tips and Tricks! Today, @mousylou and I (@ArtCrumbs) will attempt to break down the mystery of Reddit. We hope to educate you on the value of this platform and why it’s so useful as a promotion, networking, and community building tool for anyone who makes a comic.

With that, let's dig into it!

How does Reddit work / how is it structured?

In our Self-Promotion and Marketing series, we looked at Reddit as one of our options for...

Welcome back to Creator Tips and Tricks! In our last article for the Self-Promotion and Marketing series, we learned about UTMs, custom links to give us more data about the users who read and visit our comic pages. These links are custom-made and give us data about where readers come from, how many used the link, and how many pages they’ve read.

Combined with GlobalComix Analytics:

• We can look at the performance of our marketing campaigns to bring in readers.
• We can look at Page Reads over time, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc to look for trends.
• We can look at each pages’ performance to check for the series’ quality and how readers actually engage with your...

Hello and welcome to the latest installment of Creator Tips and Tricks! Today we'll be following up on our last article all about identifying your audience, with a way to track the traffic with the links you send out to your prospective audience via UTM links. But what is a UTM?

UTMs are a small section of code that you can add onto the ends of your links and track the performance. Specifically, UTM stands for Urchin Traffic Monitor, which comes from the software Urchin Tracker. This particular software was designed to work as the base for Google Analytics. It’s the perfect tool for tracking how many people click on the links to your comics and finding out how they...

Welcome back to another Creator Tips and Tricks! We are continuing with our Marketing for Creators series with a dive into ways to start identifying your audience, and then figuring out how to find them on various social media platforms that we covered in Part 1.

Keep in mind that the audience that you have planned for, and the audience that actually ends up reading your content might not be the same group! Audiences can also change over time. The process of identifying those people who read and possibly financially support your work, is liable to change. You’ll want to keep an eye on this this as your comic grows over time.
 

Who is your audience?

It&rsq...

Welcome Creators to our next series of Creator Tips and Tricks, all about Self-Promotion and Marketing your work. In the past, we've covered some tips on marketing, and even made some YouTube Videos to offer suggestions, but we've never gotten down into the nitty-gritty.

In this series, we'll start with tips for managing your social media to look its best. Once we have our accounts looking good and an idea of who/where we can reach an audience, we'll dive into marketing techniques and strategies and how to combine those with your GlobalComix Analytics. Our goal by the end of this series is to give you the tools to start your own marketing campaigns and know how to...

Today's Tips and Tricks is for anyone looking to become a podcaster, or expanding your knowledge on podcasting! Shaun Sunday of Brain Beast Studios and the No Capes! Show has graciously created an article going over everything you need to know about creating and hosting a podcast centered around comics.

From apps to software to equipment and general advice, everything you'll need is here! With that, I'll let Shaun have the floor! Thank you so much Shaun for your time.

So you want to start a Podcast?

Podcasts are fun, entertaining, educational and also a big labor of love.

Comic podcasts especially are great, but can come with their own sets of challenges!...

Welcome to the next installment of the Creators at Convention series. In the last two entries, we gave ideas on how to make the most of attending conventions, whether you have a table/booth or you are roaming and focusing on networking.

In this particular entry, we'll be covering what to do after the convention is over to make the most of your new connections and keep your business rolling efficiently. Be sure to get some rest too, but the wheel never stops turning in comics, the next convention is right around the corner!

Even as a publisher, it's important to network and follow-up as much as possible! Here are some of the awesome folks we met up with at last...

Our last article of the Tips and Tricks series covered advice for creators while at a convention behind the booth or artist alley table. While tabling takes a lot of organization, and sometimes finances, there are lots of options for creators who still want to attend a convention as a creator. There's always more than one way to be productive, and sometimes, using your time for meetings, lunches, visiting tables, panels, and reviews can produce a lot of results.

Networking, networking! I can only imagine we all know that networking is important, but how can we network if we aren’t at a booth? In my personal experience, I find networking far easier when I’m not...

The 2020 and 2021 convention seasons were rough, cons everywhere canceled, and digital attendance just wasn't the same. Now with conventions opening up again, more and more creators are looking at buying a table or booth and trying their luck. But is it luck? Not really. It's good preparation.

There are three reasons one could attend a convention:

• Just for the actual enjoyment of it all, they are fun!
• Tabling to sell products and goods
• Networking, portfolio reviews, and other business work

Each of these is a good reason to attend a convention. In this first entry in a two-part series, we are going to look at the Tabling/Artist Alley...

It's been a while since we last published education content on the business side of comics, so we wanted to get back to releasing blog posts about business-related topics on a regular cadence, to complement the Creator Tips & Tricks series that is more focused on the process of creating comics.

Today we're going to touch on one of the foundations of success as a comics creator: deciding on the kind of market that's the best fit for you and your books.

Who's going to buy my book?

While you might be an artist, writer, inker - or any of the other critical contributors to a story - you’re likely reading this because you have interest in making money...

Where does creativity come from?

Is it an innate desire to create or express yourself? Is it just a “fun” thing people do? If you do creative work for money, for an income, does it lose some of its “artistic” value?

Creating art, writing, singing, dancing, many will tell you that it’s just something we do, no matter the reason we do it. However, sometimes, the desire to create fades for whatever reason. Creative people have various names for all of these “blockers”, but personally, I have found them all to be slightly different from each other. Identifying the specific issue you are dealing with, and its cause, is one step in the...

Publishing is not an easy field of work. Long nights, tight deadlines, and an air of mystery about how publishing works behind the scenes. Editorial and graphic design work are important aspects to consider when publishing your own series, espeically if you plan to start your own magazine.

So for today's Creator Interview I'm chatting with FriedRice Comics, creator of Way of the Kitchen King. With their years of experience in editorial, this is the perfect opportunity to do a deep-dive on the topic.
 

1. First off FriedRice, can you tell us about yourself and how you got into the publishing industry? Can you tell us also about some of the projects you've...

Hello everyone! Today we've got our Creator Interview for July, everyone welcome @SparkleArts creator of Celestis.  She is sitting down with us today to talk about collaborations that she has organized in the past and future collabs with GlobalComix creators. This is a really fun interview, so let's get started!

1. Tell me about yourself and how you got started in the web/comics community?

I work in the creative arts; I'm an instrumental music teacher by day, specializing in classical strings. I have always loved writing stories, and when the pandemic hit, I had to be extra careful about lockdown as I have a chronic illness. I discovered webcomics to...

When it comes to creating color comics, did you know that the color mode you choose matters? There are two primary color modes that we’ll need to know (excluding monochrome and grayscale) and those are CMYK and RGB.

You’ve probably heard of these before, but which is the purpose of each one?

The CMYK color gamut is a subtractive color method, the color white is going to be the surface of the print medium. Each letter stands as follow: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (black). It is primarily used for printed media of all kinds, direct UV printing, banners and advertising, comics, packaging, and even billboards! The range of color is 0 at white (or absence of color)...

Screen tones, those mysterious grays and colors in comics and manga that give us shading and texture! What are they, and how can you apply it to your own artwork? For today’s Creator Tips and Tricks, I’m going to go over this tool and some different techniques to add them.

With that, let's dig in!

What ARE screen tones?

On its own, in the most basic sense, a screen tone is a technique that allows one to add textures and shading to drawings or images. It’s often used as an alternative to manually drawing textures by hand in order to save time, or to get more exact, especially with repetitive dot-patterns that simulate grayscale or...

Hello and welcome back everyone for another Creator Interview! For June's guest, we are sitting down with Raymond Tyler and Neil Gibson from TPub Comics (@stacitpub), a publisher from the United Kingdom. Recently, TPub released Amputation Capital #1 for free on Globalcomix, and it will also soon be available on Kickstarter to fund a printed Trade edition of all five issues.

Raymond Tyler wrote Amputation Capital working together with Neil Gibson as a mentor. I assisted on this series on the lettering, and I was excited to sit down with the team that wrote this story. I figured this would be a perfect time to get some advice on writing and their experience working together!

So...

Our Creator Interviews series is back for the month of May. Today we're featuring Hexapus Ink, a team of creators responsible for BounD. The series was our #1 on GlobalComix for all of 2021. We are very excited that they've offered to take the time to explain their process and thoughts on starting a comic or manga!

UnBounD – A Brief History and the Process of Making BounD

By Matt Forsyth - Edited by Therese Lewis

When I was asked if we wanted to make a post for GlobalComix, I thought it might be a good time to give people a look behind the curtain. This is an abridged history of BounD and the steps that Therese Lewis and I take to create each...

Welcome back everyone, I've got some more Tips and Tricks for you all regarding lineart. We'll be covering how to make use of textured brushes, custom brushes and how to use color to your advantage when working with lineart!

With that intro out of the way, let's get started!

1. Use appropriate brush for YOUR style!

There is sort of a joke among artists, where viewers or fans will ask “What brush do you use?” This question is met with enthusiasm or dread, but the answer really does matter. What pen DO you use? In the last article I talked about line weight and texture. Going back to that, you want to be sure you use a brush the aligns with the look that...