I created a comic named hello holika on webtoons but recently pulled it and posted it on globalcomix.com . I decided it was a right fit for my comic, I have the freedom of choosing the format I want whether it's vertical scroll or manga. Although the community is small it has advantages to other webcomic sites such as a powerful comic editor to create a focused frame viewing experience for readers and you can monetize your pages at any time without requirements that other platforms push on creators. I can also choose multiple themes and set a 'suitable for: ' age range in my comic. There's also medibang.com that has a decent manga community. While medibang focuses mostly on manga globalcomix accepts all comic formats. Of course the best option is whatever works for you to get your work out there and make money doing it. Vertical scroll has a bigger audience in webcomics because it's easily accessible and most users are on webtoons and tapas. Initially I thought tapas and webtoons were amazing but as I found out everything is vertical scroll and a lot of the comics tend to look the same in terms of anime style. Eventually I noticed the huge space between single panels and characters who appear to be copy and pasted with minor changes as if there was no real purpose to create a story but more to get the comic out there. While this is not all artist there are many comics that do not appeal to me as a reader. In my opinion the biggest flaw in vertical scroll is that it takes me out of the story and makes me feel like I'm being forced to view it as a cartoon "episode" but instead I'm focused on the vertical spacing, single panels, and the art quality. Webtoons aims to have the opposite effect. As a manga reader and an artist it's clearly not for me. One example of a comic that does vertical scrolling well is tapas.io/series/DieWonder As always, good luck to all webcomic creators whether you make vertical scroll comics or traditional format comics.

I miss individual websites tbh

You're definitely ahead of the curve, thanks for sharing.

It's sad that traffic is being driven to all those big sites, when the internet was supposed to make everyone equal. It puts too much power in someone else's hands, leaving creators vulnerable to random changes the site owners make. I would prefer to try to use these big sites as tools to drive traffic to creator owned sites.

Wow. I bought Unnatural Talent some months ago, and I'm happy that you are giving updates about how the game is changing. That's appreciated !

Thanks Jason! Always love hearing your thoughts on things. This will greatly reduce the bumps bruises an pain of my own journey as a creator.

Thanks for making this video and a series! As both a creator and reader, I have felt more like I would like a place to find awesome comics through an app because reading on the phone is really difficult when you go to people's sites. That being said, I find my eyes are a lot happier looking at comics on a computer screen, but the reality is that the phone is where things are going. And I've felt that aggregated sites are starting to become where things are going. So thanks again and I look forward to watching more.

an interesting thought. Still not used to drawing in a moblie format.

I'm very interested in this series. I've been thinking about this stuff and getting started in webcomics and building an audience. I'm really glad you brought up Wordpress and Mailing Lists. I've heard some smart people talk about the importance of using proven, and reliable technology. Being reliant on platforms that can change their policies or shut down is risky. Austin Kleon talks about owning your turf.

Great video Jason, I can't wait to see more in this series. I feel my major hang up on webcomics has been the social media push to get regular serialized content made. Of course its good for creators to keep consistency with their fan base, but my fear is that creators who put in the hard work on their art and stories will see less return for their efforts. My worry is that webcomics could go the way of animation on KZfaq, in which the platform shifts to favor the consistency of the 10min daily vloggers and gaming channels, and animators see less return for the amount work they put it. I wondering if you have any thought on this Jason, Thanks :)

Thanks Jason, you always seem to be tackling exactly the stuff Im curious about. You videos and book are very helpful. I appreciate it

Agree for the most part. Web-comics seem to be hard to find now. Project wonderful really helped me find different sites . My only problem with web-comics is old old the sites looked. They seemed so dated and would be hard to follow. Never heard of web toons thanks i'll check that out.

Damn, this is prescient. I've been thrashing around using the old strategy for the last two years and watching the returns slowly, slowly shrink. Not sure I'll be able to adapt to the new ways, though.

I think this is a brilliant idea. This is the way forward and I was trying to find something similar for my comic. The drip feed process is not something that I have thought of, so thanks for that idea. It is sad that you will not be updating this on a long term basis. A suggestion having yearly updates that people can buy. What do you think?

Very interesting. I still go to some individual websites - Questionable Content, Gunnerkrigg Court, Goblins, XKCD - but I did notice that the alternative webcomic promotions are nonexistent now. I'm guessing that these webcomics - which are fairly entrenched and have very large followings by now - are probably more insulated from the shifting landscape.

Magnificent vids dude, your advice is why I progress!

This is somthing I've been thinking about a lot as I've been slowly working on my own comic. I'm interested to hear your ideas.

Thanks for sharing Jason! This is very intriguing. This is one of those things that you see taking place but can't really put a finger on because of all of the noise with the internet in general. For me, this raises so many questions. Usually, when there's a shift like this, a vacuum is created somewhere. What new opportunities will that create? Also, as an artist in general, I wonder if this is true when it comes to having a stand-alone portfolio site vs being on Artstation, Deviantart, Behance, Instagram and so one. As an artist yet trying to figure out where best to plug in, there's a lot to consider. But I know I need to just do something. One thing​ for sure, I'll stay away from book apps for now ;)

Very interesting! I had been creating all along. Didn't realize it had changed so much! I'm using all the hosting because I saw how my own website failed. Maybe I should get to youtube...

Personally, I don't like the vertical scrolling, and will stick to traditional comic book layouts (also nice if I should one day be lucky enough to get something printed) - really interested to hear more about your thoughts though - looking forward to it! =)

I'm excited to see where this goes!

I just started posting on webtoons! I really enjoy this new format of storytelling. Has a cool cinematic quality to it.

Huh. This is all very interesting! I've always liked the idea of an individual website but I know I need to also consider tapastic, webtoons, and all those other sites... I'm thinking I could put my comic on each site, but I'm not sure if that's a very good idea. It's very hard to choose!

Thank you Jason! We have to adapt. Change!

I'm excited to see what You make for WordPress! I tried it before but couldn't get what I needed and ultimately wasted money on nothing...

I’m excited for your videos to come ^^ Definitely started just posting in Webtoon and it has been rewarding :’)

I feel like at this stage it's almost better to work with a publisher. There's so much noise now.

I left my webcomics a while ago. Mostly because I'm not that good with coding and I was having a weird hard time with hackers attacks. Then I started the youtube thing. But it is still to small and I'm doing it only on my original language (portuguese). But that video showed to me that I did the right thing. In fact, I'm closer to try a kickstarter now that I was when I had my webcomics...

Very informative. Thanks!

Here's my thoughts on the matter, I know it's hard but... We should try to plan our web comics to be more scroll friendly.

GOOD INFO MAN THANKS!

I started my webcomic in 2013 as this stuff was starting to change. I still have an independent site but, yeah, I need to start figuring out ways to migrate into some of these aggregate platforms and tying KZfaq vids into my work. And, also, hi from Idaho, too!

Very insightful video

I found you through Webtoons and I adored Sithrah!

Very cool！ Thank you

Wow! I didn't realize you made sithrah! It's great

There's also motion comics on Webtoon, as well. Brothers Bond is one where it plays out like an animation. Pretty cool!

I feel like the scroll format is better suited to certain kinds of comics. I read Lore Olympus on Webtoons (i was really excited when you showed it in the video!) and though i think it does a really good job of adapting to the scroll format, there are certain scenes that i think would be more effective in a traditional format. I do prefer to go to the comic website because it's cool to see how it's formatted to reflect the story (i really love the Ava's Demon website) and the comic itself can be formatted to however the creator feels is best to tell their story.

I had a webcomic that updated weekly back in the early Oughts ('00-'05). Had my own site and everything. Now everything is Social Media and I feel like I'm pulled in a million directions and weekly isn't remotely enough.

i don't even read comics, so why did i watch and enjoy this video?

This is super interesting for me man, thank you. Having just restarted my channel after years and making my own comic. Just what I wanted to see! cheers. As someone who is super camera shy, can you give any advice on how to break that and talk to the camera like a person? I suck at it. :(

Great video Jason. Maybe it's because I'm a different age group (24) but I love the vertical layout and the traditional layout equally. Each has its advantages and disadvantages in today's age. Actually it kinda feels like knowing more than one language. I can easily switch from web comic vertical to traditional print turn page without a problem. 😁 Adapt and overcome!

It's a bad thing with good attributes, imo. The good is that it's efficient and convenient. The bad is that it depersonalizes the experience, erodes individuality, and establishes a system of monopolies and oligopolies that have no real competition. For example, even if a social media website came out that did everything facebook does better, and was less harmful to it's users, it still wouldn't be able to compete, because size is part of what these services offer. The best you can compete is doing something different, something that the existing giants don't do, or don't do well enough for people to care about using them for that thing, but that isn't really competition anyway.

thanks for another great vid, I am creating a webcomic but it is a fanfiction any ideas on where I can post it without running into trouble as it is non profit fan art...

This is to me..I find it a bit sad that people don't go to individual sites anymore:(

Jason! You're the best, man! Total agree with you on all points. Death to the future, long live the future!

Depressing yet educational. But you really can see the shift.

Idk how to turn off the auto pay thing since i accidentally clicked it, and no matter how i look at settings there isnt any options to stop it

Wow! You left your job at DreamWorks bro ,I admire your determination and drive bro.

I still find it hard to commit to building on rented property, ie a site that I don't own. Having that much power concentrated in the hands of a few alarms me, frankly. It's that old school (yikes, that means I'm old O.o) mentality on digital sharecropping. But I definitely see the issues, especially with mobile consumption (I've had complaints about my webcomic and its readability on mobile). I'm very curious about your WordPress theme (partially because I'm building one myself, though mainly for aesthetic reasons). Perhaps I can help you as a beta tester. Are you going to delve into your traffic at all? I'm curious if your traffic dropped despite blogging or if you fell off blogging because of declining traffic & interaction? Now I do have a thing against giant aggregated websites, mainly because I just don't feel it's right that size & money dominate the market. I'm not denying reality as much a stating my opposition to it - and thus figuring how to work with it. What I'm considering is 1) posting a one-color version of the comic on Webtoon; 2) posting a full color version comic that posts 1w earlier on my site in a private fan club area.

I've been studying webcomics and learning about responsive websites ( website that change layout for mobile or pc). I loath the dichotomy of laying out PC or mobile. What are your thoughts on responsive webcomics like thenib.com?

Ohhh do I sense another book coming?

What is the name of the comic in the thumbnail?

Did you mean H O M E S T U C K?

Is that an Eryka Badu poster in your studio?

I hate the idea of big collections you have less secrurity. What if the website goes down.

Maybe LBRY is the best place for comics now?

Folks like Sarah Burrini still have their own sites.

I don't have an issue with webcomic collevtive sites, but Webtoons doesn't have RSS feeds.

Topas? What the hell is Topas? Do you mean a topaz the mineral?

It concerns me slightly that you called mobile devices in general "Iphones"

I highly don't recommend discord communities, just from personal experience. Maybe back when society was less ... absolutely fucknuts like it is now with Tankies controlling public discourse. But being a webcomic artist is hard enough on its own since Ink Blazers closed its doors, I don't want my comic career dependent on whether I'm in the good graces of an elite that determine who gets published and who doesn't on their website. That is not why I got into web novels, and now not web comics. So no crowd-publishers for me.

Too many web comics are in the manga style.

First... learn a little HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Maybe even a back-end scripting language if you want to go the distance. Second... learn responsive design. It's key to creating Web 2.0 (modern) websites, particularly those that would also look good on mobile devices. Third... you can make responsive design easier by using a CSS framework. There's plenty of them out there, like Bootstrap, Foundation, Skeleton, etc. that can make things easier, but you should understand the basics of how they do what they do under the hood. Fourth... ditch Wordpress. Wordpress websites look unprofessional. It looks like you're using a template. Because you are. One of the worst things I've experienced when trying to find good webcomics, is the navigation. Some webcomic creators don't know anything about the web, they just use plugins and things that someone else built. The one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work. Your webcomic isn't just pictures on a website. Your website IS your webcomic. If I've got to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to click a next button, then you're doing it wrong.

I actually _did not_ know anything about webtoons.com. But now that I've seen it.... I believe it needs to die in a fire. Bad format. Lot's of bad comics. And the few that aren't bad (maybe there's more than a few, but I'm not seeing many -- not come across your stuff yet, fi, in umpteen pages sorted by popularity) are being lowered adapting to their format.

I publish my webcomic on my own site and mirror on Tapas with just (760 subs). I've always heard good things about Webtoons but I don't think my webcomic would fit well there. Also the low quality pulls me a lil back too. Interested in this series since I also started to change my website after PW closing.

Huh....... this bums me out... Super informative though, this information may save me a lot of grief when I make my own comic. Thanks!