phrases. - The Official GlobalComix Blog

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 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...

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...

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...

Lineart is one of those things that seems to be something artists love or it’s the bane of their lives. It can be hard to find the right type of lineart for you and gain the steady hand to make it just the way you want it.

Today, I am going to go over some various tips for digital and traditional artists to help get a better quality of lineart. Most of these tips apply to both digital and traditional, but if something is specific to one group, I’ll be sure to point that out.

With that out of the way, let's begin!

Finding the Right Resolution

One of the number one ways to get cruddy lineart is to use a resolution too low. Going too low can create pixelated...

Have you ever thought about doing a crowdfunding campaign?

Launching a campaign is a large commitment and can have a lot of pitfalls. I'm here today with a special guest, Cody Fernandez, Founder of Ironverse Comics. You might recognize him from his primary series Jack Irons: Steel Cowboy, a story about an Immortal Jack who has lived many lifetimes; and Kactus Coyote, a different story set up in the same universe. Ironverse has gone through multiple crowdfunding campaigns, and at the time of writing, Issue #4 is nearing completion.

With that intro out of the way, let's sit down with Cody from Ironverse! The following summarized transcript has been taken from an...

We learned about Camera Angles in our last Tips and Tricks Article, today we are going to be focusing on Camera Position and the 180 Rule. These two topics go hand in hand, and it’s very important that we understand where to put the camera and when.

Camera Position refers to where the camera is placed -around- the subject. The 180 rule is an imaginary line storytellers use to help keep continuity when doing a multi character / multi subject scene. This helps with any back and forth interaction that may be occurring to help keep things clear and easy to understand. Like any rule, it has times it can be broken for great effect, so take this rule with...

Cameras aren’t usually something comic and manga creators think about when we are story boarding, doing layouts or pencils. But why is that? In my personal experience, a lot of those who seek mentorship in this way, especially writers, don’t tend to THINK in this way. We see the story in our own heads, typically as a film or animation. We tend to just replicate what and how we see it and call it a day. But how often do we sit down and critically think about what would be -BEST- for the scene we have versus how we see it in our own minds.

Being able to separate your own personal wants from the work and do what would be best for it, even if what you initially...

What ARE Margins, Bleeds and Trims?

Simply put, the trim is the line where the comic or manga paper will be cut. The Margin is the area inside of the trim line that will remain and the bleed is the area outside of the trim, specifically the area that gets cut off.

Working digitally, do we even need to worry about these margins anymore?

Whether you are printing or not, you should know these areas and it is in your best interest to use them should you ever decide to print your digital comic or manga. Traditional artists can use these as well! A lot of Blue Line Paper made for comics and manga contain these margins by default, so even if you are a traditional artist, this article...

Welcome to our new Community Series: Creator Tips and Tricks!!

ArtCrumbs here! I've got a great new series for you!

In this series we'll provide you with advice on how to grow, level up, and get new skills as a creator. These tips and tricks don't just apply to GlobalComix, these are the nitty gritty, the real work, the meat of what we do. We create and any way that we can improve that process is going to be a game changer!

Think you can't improve? You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great!

In our first installment of the Creator Tips series, we are going to cover the Story feature in Clip Studio. I have spent time...

Frank Forte is an accomplished designer, storyboard artist and comic book artist whose credits include Lovecraft Country, Heavy Metal Magazine, Bob’s Burgers and more. Influenced by classic cartoons and comic books, Frank’s work is an assemblage of inspiration from what he grew up watching on TV and reading in comic books.

Frank is also the publisher of Asylum Press, which produces premium comic books and graphic novels within the horror, science fiction, and action genres. Featuring original, character-driven stories and cinematic artwork by top creators and new talent, Asylum appeals to an audience that might not normally buy traditional comic books.

Over the last...

Halloween brings with it a slew of supernatural stories of suspense, terror and horror. For over two decades, Joe Harris has been bringing monstrosities to life with his work on films like Darkness Falls for Sony Pictures, Suneater for Heavy Metal with Dylan Sprouse, and X-Files for IDW. Now he’s teaming up with the German heavy metal band Helloween for “Seekers of the Seven Keys” — a new comic from Incendium that promises to deliver plenty of thrills of its own. 
 
GLOBALCOMIX: Judging by the cover art, Helloween’s “Seekers of the Seven Keys” feels like an outrageous celebration of fantasy, humor, and mad science. How did you end up...

After last year's fully virtual event, New York Comic Con is returning to in-person programming and a full roster of outstanding creative talents. Headed to the show this year? Here are 10 Creators You Must See At NYCC 2021! 

Jamal Igle

One of the exceptionally talented creators behind Resilience, Jamal’s detailed pencils have graced books as varied as The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas, the all ages action miniseries "Race Against Time" as well as mainstream hits such as G.I.Joe, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Green Lantern. Jamal has served as the series artist for Firestorm the Nuclear Man, Nightwing and...

The only thing we love more than reading comics is watching YouTube videos about reading comics! But with literally hundreds of channels on the platform to choose from on the subject, how do you know where to start? 

Here are ten of our favorite comic book-themed YouTube channels, perfect for both the comics aficionado or newbie!

ComicTropes

 

Whether he’s talking about the comic book origins of current Marvel TV series or taking a deep dive into the history of obscure-but-influential Golden Age auteurs, ComicTropes host Chris Piers offers something for everyone. Done in an entertaining and well-researched style, each episode of the channel is...

There may be a few times in your life when you can’t read GlobalComix. We get that. You might be out driving, training for a marathon, swimming at the beach or enjoying the company of friends and family. For all of those times you can’t read GlobalComix in an appropriate venue, we’re here to offer you the next greatest alternative: PODCASTS!

At GlobalComix, we listen to a lot of comics-related podcasts. We love hearing passionate fans talking about the things that really, truly invigorate them. While there are oodles and oodles of comics related podcasts out there, here are five of our absolute favorites:

Super Serious 616

Sup...

Cover art from Year Zero, AWA Studios

Over the past 18 months or so, we’ve interfaced with many of the industry’s best and up-and-coming creators and publishers. In doing so, we have learned the most common reservations and misconceptions about digital publishing in general, as well as specific to GlobalComix. And we know more broadly that the digital world can feel like a puzzle within western comics.

With all of that in mind, we’ve compiled an informal FAQ-style breakdown here for anyone thinking about publishing with GlobalComix, but who still need a more information.

1. What if I don't have the time?

Cover art from Aeonian,...

Last week, we analyzed the Cloudscape anthology Welcome to Mina’s to build a story synopsis, define an ideal reader and identify the competition for the comic. 

This week, I’ll suggest some tactics for how a book like Mina’s can find the right audience and build a strong following without spending a lot of marketing dollars. 

Keywords: Any words used to classify or organize digital content or to facilitate an online search for information are referred to as keywords. Because people gravitate towards groups and communities online that reflect their interests, you can use keywords to find the specific group you are trying to reach. And because every comic...

Earlier this year, GlobalComix had a chance to sit down with Rylend Grant to discuss crowdfunding. Rylend invites you behind the curtains of his upcoming campaign for THE JUMP 1-2. He walks you through and show you how he built his campaign, and explain in depth why he made the variety of choices that went into it. He follows up the demo with an extended Q&A.

Marketing comics is not a one size fits all process. Because each comic tells a unique story, and that story has a unique audience, then the relationship between the publisher and the reader needs to be tailored to give the book the best chance of success in the marketplace. Unique stories require unique marketing.

This case study is designed to walk you through the marketing analysis and execution for a single comic. Hopefully, you can take some of the insights and ideas presented here and apply them to your own comic. As always, if you have questions, please leave a comment and let us know.

Welcome to Mina’s Marketing Analysis

Story Abstract
Because the story is the...