In this month’s Self Promo Sunday Recap for September we asked the following questions over in the Underdog Facebook Group and got some great answers. Check out the responses!
And if you want to participate in the monthly event, just join the Facebook group and keep your eyes and ears open during the first weekend of every month, which is when we hold Self Promo Sundays.
The Questions
1: What is/was your most successful promotion technique?
2: If your comic was made into a movie, who would play the main character?
3: Where do you see your comic, or yourself as a creator, in a few years?
1: Most successful promotion technique: so far, Twitter chats (#webcomicchat& #comictalk).
2: Good question. Since it’s autobiographical I guess the main character would be me? For the hell of it, we’ll just have The Rock play me and see how that affects the story. And add some explosions too. (we’ll gloss over the part where he’s a 1ft taller & 100lbs heavier than me)
3: I see my comic being collected into a TPB and being in libraries all over the place. I’ll become a minor celebrity in India, appearing on whatever modern equivalent of ‘Hollywood Squares’ they have at the time.
Hah, I love this month’s questions.
So, the redoutable Emily Singer, the chipper Tori Kinnaman and I create Parmeshen, a tale of outsiders. We’ve gotten a lot of luck promoting it by…well, talking about it! Making lots of other creative comicky friends helps, and Emily gets us followers through her blog Beyond The Trope. I’m fair active on Taptastic and Comicfury, and that’s gotten us some followers.
Parmeshen wouldn’t make a good movie, but Liam Niessen would be great for Arik, and Baxt would have to be done by the indie actress Azra Farish. In fact, we’d never want it to be a movie; too big and serious. We LIKE our project to be fun, flexible enough to change and CREATIVE. In five years we’d like to have more readers and a real conversation going around the themes it involves; social justice and ethnic equality without losing ethnic identity. I’d like my art style to improve. Beyond that, no stressing here!
1: Best promotion has been free artwork for milestones like reaching so many new readers.
2: Main character Zach would be best play by Steven Yeun.
3: Hopefully, in a few year, our main characters will find a home.
1: Most effective promotion in terms of garnering readers has been paid advertisements. TopWebcomics, Project Wonderful, etc. I wrote up a pair of articles about it on my site. http://demonarchives.com/tag/tutorials/
2: I stink at names of actors. Even though Tenzin is Chinese/Tibetan, he probably would be played by some white guy.
3: In a few years, still working on my PhD, still making the comic. Hopefully with more readers, a print run or two and a con or two under my belt.
1. Engaging with the community without spamming, having actual conversations with readers as well as other creators, etc. I haven’t tried actual promotion-promotion much, other than one unsuccessful foray into the world of PW (which I definitely plan on trying again).
2. I have prosopagnosia and SUCK at cross-movie actor recognition. I also don’t watch a lot of live action stuff, sooo… I have no idea! Shame because this topic looks so fun when other creators talk about it and name all these actors.
3. Posting the proper ending of Heart of Keol, I hope.
1: What is/was your most successful promotion technique?
Webcomic underdogs and Deviantart are probably the best.
2: If your comic was made into a movie, who would play the main character?
Stardust would either be Kevin Spacey or Marilyn Manson.
Next comic would be either Jesse Eisenberg or maybe Edward Norton. (These are voices because it would need to be animated in both cases.)
3: Where do you see your comic, or yourself as a creator, in a few years?
Well it depends on a lot of factors. I’m thinking of going back to school so I might be doing that at least part time. I’m hoping people are still interested in the things I create enough for me to continue making them. Honestly it is hard to say for sure.
Had to take a break from my comic this past month because I’m preparing for Long Beach Comic Con as I have a table at Artist Alley. Speaking of the questions:
1: My most successful promotion technique, is actually promoting the comic at conventions by giving out postcards that has the link to my comic. Another one would be using social media to promote.
2: Truth be told, I am not too sure who would play my characters if The Chronicles of SolLuna was made into a movie. Although the closest I could think of is: Nathan would be played by Benedict Cumberbach, and maybe Lunara would be played by probably Fan Bingbing. (I’m just thinking from the top of my head because I truly do not know -_-)
3: In a few years, I see myself becoming more successful as a comic creator and hopefully, start selling printed versions of my comics.
1: I promote myself by latching onto an established indie studio with growing fanbase and shamelessly harvesting their love for the original creators.
2: Demon Hunters started as a couple of college films, and then a few Youtube shorts, so I’d continue to cast Nathan Rice as Gabriel.
3: In a few years, I’d like to be producing Demon Hunters as a monthly comic and selling pewter fantasy figurines in my own store.
Thanks, guys!
1: My most successful promotion technique has been sharing my comic with as many people as possible and just sharing the characters’ stories with whoever asks.
2: If my comic was made into a movie, the four main characters (Lee, Jonas, Trevor, and Sam) would be played by Ashley Benson, Colin Ford, Hunter Parrish, and Chloe Moretz.
3: In a few years, I hope to be in college for art and animation, but I would love for my comic to be picked up by a publisher or to self-publish for those who are interested in buying.
D&C is the slightly skewed misadventures of a dog and his boy and the misadventures they get caught up into. It’s been running with a couple of hiatus‘ since 2001 now, and relaunched back in December as a weekly webcomic.
As for my answers, here they are:
1: my most successful ” promotion” technique” involved shameless fan art for more established web Comics that I dug. This was a LOT easier back when forums were still prominent.
2: Well, since Dandy Q. Dog is a talking cartoon dog, we’re clearly in animation territory. But rather then some lame, celebrity casting, I’d go with a talented chap by the name of Todd Fisher who has already done the voice once for a promo video.
3. I’d like to see the strip return to a level of success it was at before the multiple, unplanned hiatus’ killed the audience.
Jerry Pitterman
1: So far since none has really worked i would say would be a mixture of 9gag and making a cartoon of it and posting It on Youtube.
2: I would play the main character since It is completely based on me.
3: I’m hoping to support myself with the strips and animated shorts. Though that answer is not based on reality. I hope to bring my webcomic current I’m only 1500 strips behind.
1: Being on panels at conventions seems to be my best promo. I’m usually on queer comics panels, so folks who are looking for comics with queer content gravitate there.
2: Reza Aslan isn’t an actor, but could stand in for the grown-up incarnation of the main character.
3: The comic is written as a complete book with a single story line, so in a couple of years will hopefully exist as a published volume.
1: Appearing at a small convention seemed to give me my biggest boost. If someone is going to a little one- or two-day con at a college campus, chances are they’re there for either legitimate networking or because they’re interested in finding new stuff.
Also I had a huge page view spike in the middle of the month for no reason??? If I ever figure out how that happened I will report back.
2: Excuse the list, but my comic is quite the ensemble piece: Nick – CM Punk; Lilith – Amy Adams; Uche – Idris Elba; Asuka – Rinko Kikuchi; Russell – Channing Tatum (yeah, I know, but he’s the right guy).
3: Not sure. Legitimately not sure. If you’d asked me six months ago I might have said “retired and out of the game entirely” but I’ve gotten a lot of movement on other projects since then and I’ve been kind of reinvigorated by some outside events. So I don’t know. It’s something I’ve struggled with a lot the last few years.
Anyway, please check out EverydayAbnormal and let me know what you think! (And keep in mind it’s got violence, language and nudity at various points — please don’t read it at work, peeps)
1: Project Wonderful and InkOutbreak helped me the most when I started heavily promoting my comic.
2: Probably Veronica Ngo or a new actress looking for a debut role smile emoticon As long as that person has read IL&J and is interested in bringing the character to life.
3: I hope to have gone to a few conventions and have 1-2 books printed. IL&J is on-going, so I don’t see a definite end, but I do have some big story arcs coming.
1: Tvtropes has actually been my biggest source of traffic after the Comicfury forums. Otherwise I’ve mostly posted it around in the art sections of various forums I’m a member of and gotten some fans through that
2: No idea, and I think it would work better as animated anyway.
3: In some years I hope to have drawn much more comics and gotten more fans. Though I’ll hopefully start making games in some years, and then I’m not sure how much time I’ll have left for my comic…
1: Advertising. Mostly latte-money web advertising. Advertising is a thing. Project Wonderful, etc.
2: Mm, Jason Schwartzman maybe? Certainly Hollywood casting, but rumple up his hair and clothes and it would work.
3: Trudging the con circuit solely on the power of caffeine and self-delusion, selling Vol 1 and trying to finish up Vol 2. grin emoticon
1: Who is another creator that inspires you? Miyazaki and Bruce Timm
2: Whether you’re a writer or an artist (or both), roughly how long does it take you to complete a page? About 4 hours, not counting rumination
3: What question would you like to see asked during next month’s Self Promo Sunday? Which graphic novels do you keep forever, which ones do you donate to the library, and which ones do you throw in the trash (and possibly set on fire?)
1: Posting my comic to http://new.belfrycomics.net/
2: Uhhh, I honestly cannot name more than like 5 Hollywood actors? I tried google, I still don’t know. This is the hardest question anyone could ask me…
3: Hopefully my story will be chugging along! I have realized that I may indeed have enough script to last me five years, which is a daunting idea. I’m hoping to release book versions as each section is completed, and after five years that would fill a chunk of bookshelf! Perhaps I would have the opportunity to revisit other comic ideas that have been shelved over the years.
1. Actually, posting the link of Twitter gets instant hits for my web comic. Another awesome way is selling printed copies at Cons. I get to meet readers face to face, and that’s always rewarding.
2. I never thought about my characters being played by real actors. Guess I always considered my comics as potential anime shows. I’m a huge anime fan. Haha! But, for the main character of this comic, Alex would probably be played by Anton Yelchin. While Alex isn’t the physically strong and dashing kind, he’s intelligent, stubborn, and can be very courageous brought on by his stubbornness. I think Anton can totally pull that off, and I’ve seen him in fight scenes. Alex might not be a fighter, but again, that stubbornness of his will put him in situations where he would actually want to get physical.
3. I have several comics in the works. While I’m not the fastest, and I do all the work myself, I do work on my projects everyday. I think I might have accidentally fashioned my life in the all work and no play habit. I’m driven by the thought that I’m always trying to catch up with the business and my own imagination constantly feeding me ideas. I’m hoping sheer work ethic and perseverance will reward me with a book deal and more chances to go to Cons and meet people.
1: I think most successful promotion has been from people here on FB, or from our tables at comic conventions.
2: Max and Jericho pretty much share the spotlight as main characters. I guess Max could be played by Leonardo DiCaprio, I feel like he could pull it off maybe? Jericho could be played by Christian Bale? Hard question.
3: Seeing as our views and the amount of visitors we are getting has been steadily rising I think its not impossible to think we could be able to put into production as an animated series soon. (fingers crossed).
1: Promoting is a big question mark for me. So far interacting with fellow WU is the best.
2: I would love Shailene Woodley playing Any.
3: I really hope to be doing a couple of stories in five years. I’m not sure whether M9 will survive that long. I do know I have lots of ideas for them!
1: I’ve been posting some stuff to Reddit and that has generated a lot of traffic.
2: The main character, Ty, would have Sue the T-Rex play him in the movie.
3: I’d love to be doing this full time in 5 years.
1: Getting involved in Site projects like group pictures and such. Doing random strips to help other people cover also. promotion technique?
2: If your comic was made into a movie it would have to animated.
3: It’s hard to be Walter, a walrus, out on his own for the first time & sharing a room with Butch, a small black dog, who is way out of his league in college. Some days can be as mundane as dealing with laundry and classes. other weeks they could be trying to stop an alien invasion and a time space continuum loop. With their friends’ help they get through their humorous and wild adventures.
1: Not sure… I’ve never promoted it except on here and in one other group. Much more successful here.
2: I’d prefer animation, but if I went live action it’d have to be James Marsters. Khaoc was inspired by Spike.
3: I have no clue. Probably both in a dumpster.
1: Befriending other creators is still my best promotional technique so far. Though I do it discretely, appreciating other’s work sometimes helps gets others to recognize your work.
2: Since my comics is about me and my friends, I want me and my friends to be the main cast…
3: Hopefully in a few years I’d finally get a fan base. People who really want to read my comics, talk about my comics, and share my comics to others. I want that in the future…
1: I don’t honestly know, I don’t have time to push promos with what’s going on, especially lately. I paid 25 to advertise on a webcomic site once, that got some views. (don’t recall the name).
2: Wouldn’t want it live action, it’d have to be animated :B voiced by someone with a bit of a tomboy voice.
3: With more characters and fantasy mixed in with the sci-fi.
1: Best Self-Promo for me has been interacting with other artists and readers. Curiosity is a great thing!
2: I have no idea who would play any of the characters, no one seems quite right.
3: No idea where I or the comic will be in the future. It’s on hiatus at the moment so things are at a standstill.
1: Having kind enough readers to vote for me into the top 50 on TWC has got me a lot of traffic! Whether those people stay will have to be seen.
2: I’m terrible at actors. I will say if I had someone play Jakob I’d want Ian Somerhalders level of eye intensity though.
3: I’ll probably still be torturing myself. But just further along the plot line. Hopefully I’ll do backgrounds better.
1: I think doing the sponsorship ad on TWC has been really helpful as well as directed PW ads. I find that those readers binge on the comic a lot which is super cool.
2: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu? I’d probably want an new/unknown, English speaking Asian actress to take on the role and make it her own.
3: In five years? Hopefully continuing on with the 3rd or 4th story for This Mortal Coil, and maybe doing a third independent video game. grin emoticon
Here’s a link to the current page of the comic, I haven’t published a new page in two weeks, because I’m currently animating some of the next page. This is the big climatic chapter, so I wanted to do something big for it.
BTW, I’m also looking for guest fan art. I don’t know how long this hiatus will last, but if you’re interested in doing some high contrast artwork, drawing lolita, or fan art, please ping me. Also, I’d be up for doing art trades too.
1: So far my most successful technique has been TWC voting. I’m going to try facebook soon though.
2: For Fotis (at least in terms of looks) Dylan Sprayberry. For Basil Dylan O Brien.
3: I’m hoping WM will have been completed in a few years! Ha ha ha! And that I’ll be able to move on to the next part of WM.
1: Involvement in the Underdogs community. I love all you guys!
2: It would have to be an animated movie in order to work, and in that case, you can refer to the Webcomic Voice-Casting Thread (http://www.underdogforums.makingcomics.com/…/page-6/)
3: No idea, but I hope I’ll always be drawing and writing, even if it never becomes my livelihood.
1: Reddit has certainly got me the most hits, but I don’t think many of them are likely to return. I’ve had a few goes on Project Wonderful but haven’t done enough to judge how effective it is. Early days…
2: As they’re gag strips I don’t have much in the way of regular characters, although I’ve a few who have appeared in 3 or 4 of them. I’ve not considered who might play them though. Nobody especially famous I think. I imagine Clint Eastwood would be a good person to play the lead role in my “6 Shots or 5?” gag though…
3: In a few years? Hmm… hopefully I’ll have finally released the long story idea I’ve had floating around for 4 or 5 years already. My drawing is slowly getting to a point where I could start to do it justice, or at least I could do a better job than this time last year. I’ve actually been fleshing it out a bit recently so am hopeful that I can start it soon.
1: What is/was your most successful promotion technique? I don’t usually run them, because they didn’t seem worth the effort. Now it’s just turning out quality stuff that seems to get the readership.
2: If your comic was made into a movie, who would play the main character? I’d prefer it to be a couple of unknowns, actually.
3: Where do you see your comic, or yourself as a creator, in a few years? Just plugging along, telling more stories as best I can.
1: Promotions…. I should do that.
2: Leslie Neelson.
3: hmm, hopefully I’ll have enough strips in a few years to figure that out. I’ll definitely make a book. at least for myself.
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