Digital Distribution is the New Black

Why are comic artists so behind the curve when it comes to taking advantage of digital formats and platforms?

Hey there cool kid,

Even with being unemployed, I’m still finding myself VERY busy. This past week was no exception, as I went up to New Jersey to help my parents with some things around the house, including finally going through all my old art from college (and some high school stuff too).

Oh, the things we make in college...

And while there was a lot of things in there that made me go “what the fuck is this?” there were a few pieces that genuinely surprised me as being…not so god-forsakenly awful. In fact, it turns out I was pretty good at drawing things from observation.

I ended up keeping this drawing that I did of my freshman year dorm. I can’t believe I actually was able to capture the reflection in the TV screen at such an early stage in my art journey. It makes me think I should take more time to just sketch things from life, like I did back when we took our trip to Niagara

Getting Black Ball Ship-Shape for Digital

As an independent comic creator, and as someone who’s worked in digital marketing and websites for a loooooooong time, I should know better than anyone how important it is to optimize my comic for digital distribution online. This includes websites, social media, ebooks, platforms, the works. The most popular way people read their comics now is on their phones, so that means the content should adjust to fit those screen sizes. The most popular format is the vertical scroll comic, as made popular by big platforms like Webtoon and Tapas. I know I should be cutting up my comic pages so that my readers on their devices can more easily read my comics, especially Black Ball, as it did start its life as a webcomic.

And yet, I just…haven’t.

And honestly, part of it is laziness. I’ve tried cutting up my pages in the past when I was more active on Tapas. Since I was still drawing my pages fully traditionally until I did The Alchemist of Aurillia #3 (though with traditional pencils) and Black Ball is still done all by hand, it means it can be tricky to get the pages chopped up in a clean cut way.

Like this page, for example.

Emily ends up forming the panel boarder in panel 3 for panels 4 and 6. Not to mention panels 4 and 5 overlap. So it can be very tricky to take these pages and get them looking correct for digital viewing.

However, I’ve been listing to a lot of Comic Lab lately, and the great

Brad Guigar

is a big proponent of taking your work and adjusting it for vertical scroll for your mobile and digital readers, as well as how you can adapt your comics for posting on Substack. All of this has gotten the gears turning in my head. If I want to reach a wider audience and really get people invested into my work, I have to meet them where they’re at! And that means making sure they can read my comic.

So I’m experimenting on my website to create the mobile version of Black Ball. FINALLY. Which I should have done like 3 years ago.

Here’s the result! It looks really nice on my phone too! My plan is to go through one or two pages at a time and reformat them for vertical scroll for my website, before migrating out to other platforms. I’m considering mirroring the comic here on Substack for your viewing convenience (and it will pair nicely with the novel version when I start serializing that here too.) I’ve also considered reuploading to Global Comix, which has a great creator community and readership looking for a wider variety of genres. And yes, maybe I’ll try Webtoon because why the heck not.

But Why Are Comic Creators So Bad At This?

And it’s not all comic creators. Some are really cornering the market on digital distribution and reaching out to new readers in really great ways. But as a whole, I notice (and am TOTALLY guilty of this too) a resistance to jumping on board and doing the things that we know we ought to do. Or just not wanting to do the thing at all.

From things I’ve seen in general, it seems to be a variety of reasons as to why we we do this to ourselves. A lot of people just don’t like vertical scroll, which is fair. It’s not my favorite format either. I much prefer reading a page layout, such as in the Shonen Jump app or Jump+. And when I make comics, that’s how I think too, even though I know I don’t have to be so rigidly confined to that.

Another page that’s going to be tricky to cut up. See how Chester and Emily form the panel borders and aid in the scene transition? Cool in print, less cool on digital.

As I mentioned before, I can also get lazy about my pages. Once a page is done, it’s done, and I want to move on to the million and a half other things I have to do. It can be difficult to do the extra steps, especially if I’m not sure they will actually pay off. However, I can’t know for sure if I don’t do it. And if it doesn’t, then hey my website still looks hella slick on mobile now.

Weirdly enough, there is a small, vocal minority out there who are insisting that digital isn’t important. I can’t speak too much on these creators, but they will hold on to physical distribution, whether on their own or through comic shops. They insist that this is the only true path, and that if you don’t go this route, then you’re not a real comic creator. I don’t need their help in telling me that, the imposter syndrome does it for me. But I do think that this is a close minded way of thinking.

Especially as independent creators, we need to take advantage of all the channels we can to share our work. We are lucky enough that here in the year of our Lord 2024, there are SO MANY OPTIONS available FOR FREE! We can keep throwing spaghetti at the wall until we find what sticks for us and our work.

I’ve tried one way for years. Now in my skeleton era, I want to branch out and try something new. Because that’s the only way I’m going to be able to change where my comics career is at.

What do you think about digital distribution for comics? Are you like me and have also resisted chopping up your pages because it’s tricky to do? Let me know in the comments below!

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Let me know — would you read Black Ball on Substack? Do you read any other comics on Substack? Are you a creator who struggles with the whole digital thing too?

Until the next time,
Melissa J