Hallå pals!
Jonas here with another issue of Indie Notebook to get some ideas out of my noggin, and to inspire you to do the same.
My greatest obsession right now is my webcomic, Space Deer. Everything about it.
Mostly I’m in the mindset that I will grow my readership very slowly, to keep on posting weekly, to have fun and interact with my readers. But I’m also thinking ahead quite far and trying to think of ways to find more readers.
One of the ideas I had to find more readers was to post a strip on reddit, there’s quite a lively comics subreddit there. So I started thinking about how I’d make the post, looking at what other people do, and I noticed that a lot of comics had a URL to their comic’s site written close to the final panel. Obviously I should do that too. But then a problem occurred to me. 50% of the time, or maybe even more, people are on their phones. At least that’s what I’ve heard. It’s quite rare for people to actually sit down at a computer to visit a website nowadays.
Unfortunately I only had the horizontal versions of my comic strips up on the Space Deer website. Which meant mobile users would have to pinch and zoom quite a lot to read on their phones. I think that would make most readers bounce off it. So I decided I would not post on reddit until I had figured out a solution to this.
I tried to hack the CMS (content management system) I was using for the website, to be able to upload two images of each strip. A desktop one and a mobile one. In theory very simple. In reality not. I asked both my brother (who has so many weird skills) and one of my best friends who is an engineer. The whole thing was just too much to make sense of for anyone of us.
My friend convinced me to swap to a different CMS. So I rebuilt the site using Wordpress and splurged on a webcomic’s plugin called Toocheke for about 80 bucks. It has everything I need out of the box and was quite easy to set up, still took me about a day to customize the site the way I wanted and get the hang of things. But anyway. Now the new site works! It detects if you’re on a computer or a phone and shows the appropriate image, it even swaps image if you resize your browser-window on desktop.
The minute I had it all set up I could feel my mind clear up. I get so caught up on shit like this. There was no rush to post to reddit, and I still haven’t, it just became this gnawing feeling that I couldn’t get rid of.
I think it’s because I’ve come to care so deeply about this comic and for every strip I make I care a little bit more. The strips are my treasure and the website is the chest I keep them in.
I’m not just obsessing about the website though, I also obsess with the writing and improving the drawing. I often go back and tweak strips long after I’ve drawn them, sometimes even after I’ve published them. It all feels meaningful though. Working on this feels purposeful in a different way from most projects I’ve worked on. It’s like I’m building a future for myself.
I’m currently sitting on 27 unpublished strips, there’s something very comforting about maintaining an archive of unpublished stuff. It’s like I’ve got a lot of cards up my sleeve. It’s like an “I’m eating my veggies” equivalent but for an artist.
That’s a bit rambly, but this is where I’m at right now. I’m full of hope and excitement.
Here’s a link to the same strip as I shared above, if you wanna see the mobile version or the new website in action! You could take the time to catch up on the strip too if you haven’t read it yet.
Mini Notes
💬 #DrawATerribleComicDay2024
Found out that there’s a thing called “Draw a terrible comic day.” It’s a liberating idea to draw something shitty so I made this.
🔵 Messing in Unbound
I’m done for now with Unbound but I had a great time experimenting in it and seeing what was possible. These are my favorite pieces I made in it.
It’s a really cool tool but it’s clear sometimes that it’s in early access. There are some bugs and improvements to be made, and it ran very slow on my macbook. But I’m so thankful they sponsored me to try it out and to be an early tester!
🪐 Game - Stranded
This is not from what I feel like the perfect Space Deer game would look like. It’s a cute 3D platformer similar to Super Mario Galaxy. It’s in very early development but it’s a blast to follow the developer on twitter to see how it shapes up!
❓ Question time
Are you obsessed with something right now?
Panel of the week
(from Space Deer)
Thank you for reading Indie Notebook! The best way to support me right now is by sharing this newsletter with a friend.
Take care and have a creative week.
I'm happy for you :) It's cool you're pursuing your crafts and making things!
Your unbound stuff looks awesome too.
> But I’m also thinking ahead quite far and trying to think of ways to find more readers.
Maybe Space Deer could be published in a picture book format once there's a ton of pages of material. The method of consumption might be cozy and convert people who otherwise wouldn't read web comics.
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> Are you obsessed with something right now?
I spent a few weeks porting a game of mine to PC with some enhancements, and I think that it really picked up my momentum for game development. It's coming out in a few weeks on steam; https://store.steampowered.com/app/3029680/You_Want_to_Watch_the_World_Burn/
I've been working a ton of hours on this social MMO "World of Cubes" https://imgur.com/a/rjCRS0A ; Made without an engine.
I think game dev classifies as an obsession because I wish I could also improve my animation and drawing skills, but I have such a perfect time to progress my game projects towards finish right now.
B]
Links no work in email (“bad URL”), works in web version though. 🧐