Webcomic Tip: No one cares about your stick-figure days

Hey, webcomic artists!

I was tempted to write "Hey, fat kids!" Some of you are not fat. You like drawing fox-people instead, which IS a debilitating handicap, but at least that doesn't give you diabetes, as far as I know.

Anyway, here's 2 tips for having a successful webcomic:

1. Keep posting regular content (no more than 40% fillers).
2. At the end of the year, strip out all the fillers of the last 12 months. Spend December 31 removing anything involving stick figures, pin-up art, scribbles of yourself in bed sick, scribbles your friend did while you were out of town, MS-Paint drawings of you sad with a broken scanner, etc. After that, sure, eggnog it up.

Ask yourself, "In 5 years, will this help someone reading the archives?" If not, take it out.

Artists in other media that carry around a portfolio don't keep everything with them - they pick out 10-20 works that are representative of their current style AND actually the best work they can do at this given moment.

If your archives don't meet that standard, redraw them or axe them. If you hit it big, you'll have to redraw them all anyway. Get started now for the extra practice.