I'm looking for a website to host a webcomic I've been working on, is there anywhere other than Webtoon or Tapas that has an active user base? I'm just kind nervous because what I want to post isn't very similar to what I typically see getting views/subs on webtoon and tapas. lmk plz im kinda tweaking abt it
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Build an audience and do it on your own website.
I have seen some put up their comics on Neocities.
You can also use Tilde.club, and even combine, such as having your comics on Neocities and your thumbnail archive on Tilde.
Webtoon and tapas are mainly for vertical scrolling stuff, or in rare cases 4 panel gag a day comics. You can upload traditional web comes there, but it might be a lil inconvient.
Othersites include https://comicfury.com/
I think that Webtoon gets more eyes on your comic, although they'll also take away some of your IP rights if your comic become popular enough that they offer to make it a Webtoon Original.
But honestly, Cinemaphile might not be the best place to ask this.
>I think that Webtoon gets more eyes on your comic,
You can draw traffic by registering with
http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/
and
https://topwebcomics.com/
There are more but I cannot remember which
>But honestly, Cinemaphile might not be the best place to ask this.
There are some knowledgable people here.
Sure, it just tends to be a brutal experience.
>Sure, it just tends to be a brutal experience.
You really shouldn't be an artist if negative comments both honest, dishonest, valid or moronic, genuine or trolling upset you in any way. I'm saying that for your own good.
If you can't read 10k negative comments without feeling hurt you just shouldn't even post it online.
This is very true. If you want your art to be good, you can’t live in a hugbox. You need to hear every criticism and learn to separate what’s constructive and what’s not. That’s what the purpose of critique is. To improve.
not taking negative comments personally is honestly far more important than being a good artist, even the best artist ever will be miserable if they give a frick about negativity, I believe most artists just don't have the right personality for this shit
I always wondered if western countries (or even just the US) is harsher to damn bad art (while companies get away with it nowadays somehow) on independent projects?
For example, Touhou's creator ZUN is not a good artist whatsoever, but the charm of his stuff always carries it hard. I feel this is why the indie circles in the US were not as tightly knit as the doujin circles.
>while companies get away with it nowadays somehow
I mean Primos and Wish just got a lot of backlash
But english speaking users have the blessing of having acess to a global fandom and the curse of being judged by people not only from the US that is a harsh country but by everybody else. Meanwhile someone from Japan will only deal with japanese fans until they finally get huge a naturally closed community.
Primos clearly have an obvious spite in its ingredient with the way they "represent" the characters in the show. You can just feel it and its utterly disgusting.
Compare that to Zun, who is clearly not artistically gifted, but is just dripping with love and soul.
>Zun, who is clearly not artistically gifted, but is just dripping with love and soul.
His art might be flawed (I think it wasn't until Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom he drew the characters nude first and THEN drew the clothing on top, rather than doing it backwards) but that man can compose some amazing shit.
The thing about primos is that part of the backlash is because its a mexican american show. It's like people flipping out over the word latinx, when it was made by puerto ricans.
The title of the show bugged people, because it wasn't perfectly grammatically accurate. But its kinda a double standard, because the truth is that a lot of people use slang that isnt good grammar. and Children of immigrants aren't always fluent in their parents languages.
The show isn't even out yet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primos_(TV_series)
It could turn out to be utter garbage, but people aren't complaining about anything relevant.
>when it was made by puerto ricans
Oh no, frick you, don't drag us into that shit word's origins.
>Oh no, frick you, don't drag us into that shit word's origins.
I'm not saying it should be used over latino/latina, but everything points to it being made by them and i've never seen any evidence whatsoever that it was created by white non-hispanics (which is the meme origin that people give for it).
I can tell you in good faith I've never heard the word in Puerto Rico, only online in predominantly english-speaking sites.
>I can tell you in good faith I've never heard the word in Puerto Rico, only online in predominantly english-speaking sites.
Let me be more specific, it was made by puerto rican lgbt activists.
>It could turn out to be utter garbage
with that art style and cheap ass animation it absolutely is garbage
>but people aren't complaining about anything relevant
it's simple, the point of the show is representation, it's a show where every character is uglier than the most extreme parody of any american show about americans even beavis and butthead look normal compared to those kids.
I have no idea how can anyone try to defend it, it already started worse than Thunder cat roar.
Other than the frida kahlo reference most of these characters look pretty standard for what id expect from a run of the mill kids show.
anon, those guys make Steven Universe characters look appealing, even Sugar never went that far, and to make things worse they can't eve use the art style excuse since it's so similar to Owl House and others
Probably because CN didn't let them. Remember that unused gem fusion who was a literal 1920's minstrel show blackface with the notes "not very smart, can't read"?
It really says something when fricking CN got more common sense than Disney nowadays
>Probably because CN didn't let them. Remember that unused gem fusion who was a literal 1920's minstrel show blackface with the notes "not very smart, can't read"?
please show me this. this cant be real oh god. lol
>please show me this. this cant be real oh god. lol
It is real, her name is Concrete.
>>I think that Webtoon gets more eyes on your comic,
>You can draw traffic by registering with
>http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/
>and
>https://topwebcomics.com/
>There are more but I cannot remember which
>>But honestly, Cinemaphile might not be the best place to ask this.
>There are some knowledgable people here.
Do those sites actually help get eyes on the comics?
>Do those sites actually help get eyes on the comics?
With a sample point of one (me, that is) the answer is yes. I find new comics mostly using those two sites. I have also found comics in these threads but most webcomic trhreads here tend to cover old series I already know.
as someone with a long running webcomic where i host my own site and then backlog it on webtoons, both have their own advantages but also their own audience. So i personally recommend both, my webtoons readers will pretty much refuse to read on my site even though it gets posted on the site more frequently and my website readers have really no reason at all to read the shrunk down webtoons version.
your own site you can at least plug ads into it and have an archive or character bios, where webtoons youre pushed to a static setup and if you dont update super frequently you will be invisible on there.
ive been on twc since 2018 and have had 3381 clicks from it, so you can work that out and decide, its just another place to get eyes so its good to be on there even if it doesnt always transfer consistently into visits.
id recommend using webcomic advertising sites like comicad.net ive started using that recently and its been pretty helpful, but it only works if you have the money to put into it.
Yeah, the only webtoon Cinemaphile seems to like is The Great Catsby and that's not very well known around here.
>they'll also take away some of your IP rights if your comic become popular enough
wtf?
To be specific, when your Webcomic becomes popular enough Webtoons will knock on your door handing you a contract that you can sign.
Signing it is never a good idea, you will not be making your money back. Instead you will be pushing yourself to meet demands while Webtoons enjoys the fruits of your labor that you don't even own anymore.
It's not worth it and you're better off declining the offer
Is that why I see a bunch of artists doing patreons? Because Webtoon doesn't pay them as well as they should? Or is that more so they can scale up their production?
Sometimes
Some Artists start a Patreon, Subscribestar or Fanbox because there's a small group of people willing to throw money at them. I'm not too sure if other Artists are starting Patreons because Webtoons pays equal to a Chinese Sweatshop though, they may not allow work-arounds
that's so fricked. there has to be a better option
The better option is to make your own site, that option never went away
Making your own website is dumb in the year 2024. Over a decade go when people had rss feeds and people bookmarked pages sure, but today people don't visit random websites. Making your own website is just throwing your money and comic to the void. The only way to get people to even find yourwebsite is to link them on social media but social media sites tend to have algorithms suppress posts that link to outside website as they all want you to say on their website.
Your best bet is to multi post across social media websites and find out which one you can better grow a readership. And if your comic is very niche based possible share it in appropriate reddits or discords with your @ handle on the comic and just hope people make the effort to follow you. tbh the best way to grow is join the discord of a smaller artists and become a member(like actually engage not just spam your art) and then try to network from there.
>Making your own website is dumb in the year 2024. Over a decade go when people had rss feeds and people bookmarked pages sure, but today people don't visit random websites. Making your own website is just throwing your money and comic to the void. The only way to get people to even find yourwebsite is to link them on social media but social media sites tend to have algorithms suppress posts that link to outside website as they all want you to say on their website.
>Your best bet is to multi post across social media websites and find out which one you can better grow a readership. And if your comic is very niche based possible share it in appropriate reddits or discords with your @ handle on the comic and just hope people make the effort to follow you. tbh the best way to grow is join the discord of a smaller artists and become a member(like actually engage not just spam your art) and then try to network from there.
There are free website hosts like neocities.
But I agree with you mostly. I'd recommend making a neocities and comicfury page in addition to the other stuff.
i cant even think of the last time i went to an artists own website, for any reason.
>Making your own website is dumb
It's not, just make your own website that hosts your Comic instead of risking Webtoons taking full ownership or having to fight for relevancy against Korean Studios
Post your work on Social media alongside all the fanart you do and eventually you'll start gaining traction
>It's not, just make your own website that hosts your Comic instead of risking Webtoons taking full ownership or having to fight for relevancy against Korean Studios
>Post your work on Social media alongside all the fanart you do and eventually you'll start gaining traction
This is good advice mostly. Comicfury and neocities are free hosting sites. (im sure theres others as well, but i dont know about them).
I'll note that Webtoons cant magically take full ownership of your stuff just by you publishing on canvas.. Just be carefull before signing any originals contract if they offer it to you (kinda unlikely) and make sure to read it.
webtoons can't just take ownership of your comic, if you want to build a website for funsies or as pseudo portfolio with your comic on it thats fine but it really is a waste of energy for most people. especially when you are starting and you should be prioritizing all your energy into growing an actual readership/followers.
Webtoons does suggest canvas comics to people, even sometimes on the front page of the site.
So you can get new readers that way, but idk how often it happens
Having your own website is basically having 100% control over your own media product and can even have a place away from the controlled social media dumps for fans to go if you get big enough.
Because an artist with a fanbase will follow their artist and work to their personal website.
And links back to your website where you hose exclusive content on social media platforms is how it's done.
>if you get big enough.
this is the key part. If you become big enough, managing a patreon is more productive than having a website. Regardless, for the average person starting a comic, which is what OP was asking fore, focusing on actually getting followers is more important than wasting any time on a website that no one is gonna visit.
Yeah I don't get why even do your own website when comicfury already allows you to customize your page as you see fit. And afaik comicfury does not frick up content creators or pressure you into signing awful contracts for a chance to be featured like webtoons.
Didn't patreon litterally start fricking over creators for ESG money?
don't know this story but until there is a patreon alternative to get rewards don't see what options there are besides simply not making money. its hard enough to get people to visit your website, they are not gonna start filling out credit card info to donate 5 bucks
Patreon is that extra constant money you get for stability. But yeah if you get HUGE the best way to get money is merchandise and deals with streaming services and other studios for games and series. Because it's very likely that Patreon will try to frick with you at some point, at that point Patreon would be just a side income if sales go back for a month or two.
idk
Twitter?
There aren't any giant social media websites that aren't also being really predatory with user data and content.
The better option is the one that requires more work: make your site and shill yourself on social media. Post lots of art to try and get noticed and get a Patreon/whatever.
If you're a writer and can't draw/are doing something with an artist you're kind of fricked though.[/spoiler
>Writer
Speaking as someone who's a writer for comics, I will agree that you're pretty much fricked nowadays unless your idea picks up an audience quick through sheer luck, the artist you're teamed up with works quick or someone bigger gives you a boost. It's like the ultimate humbling mode of 'there is a REALLY low chance you'll get big but you're doing it cause you want to'.
The only viable option is Comicfury + Twitter
git gud at art and make a shiton of fanart of anything mainstream and/or with a loyal lasting fanbase then post it on twitter where there is a link to your comicfury comic
oh ok Comicfury 200% then, frick webtoons don't even touch that trash as if burying their regular webcomics to shill content farm south korean studios wans't bad enough
Dump your art here and get judged by the hivemind.
webtoons + deviantart, twitter and newgrounds for regular images + storytime here once you have a full chapter to ask people opinion just be ready for harsh criticism and bait never show any reaction to negative comments
try to get fans by drawing fanart of things you like and having really good art
sorry there is no other way, it's just a harsh decade for webcomics use whatever you can find
I would be careful with Webtoon. If I recall correctly they had a controversy where they tried to steal legal ownership of comics on their platform with contract bullshit. Besides Tapas your best bet is to start your own website.
Like others have said, Webtoon is good to get your name out there but when you feel your comic is big enough you should try making your own site so you own everything
It's the biggest platform, and if your comic is popular, you can make money. Just don't sign any kind of contracts with them.
Some have started unironically on twitter, even new professsional mangaka.
Maybe try doind some small comics to gather an audience before committing to your passion project?
This is good advice. Don’t start with your big comic idea. Work on something that’s 1 page, then 4, then 8, etc. build yourself up. I’m currently doing layouts for a 24ish page punisher comic just to hone my drawing skills and get a bit of practice in. Doing shit is always better than sitting around and just planning . Make stuff now, even if it’s just winging it.
I've seen globalcomix and namicomi mentioned in addition to the others people already brought up. Those might be better options if your comic doesn't really mesh with webtoon or tapas. Figuring out where the kinds of people who would enjoy your work hang out is important if you don't want to be fighting against the wind trying to build an audience base in unfavorable conditions. Just because an audience base is large doesn't mean they'll be receptive.
Also you should take into account the format itself and how willing you are to compromise on stuff like page layout. Webtoon is very much optimized for vertical scroll which comes with trade offs. A conventional comic book page layout will need tinkering to be readable in a vertical scroll format.
Regardless of where you post you should figure out hosting on your own website. Relying too much on any platform can end up fricking you over due to policy changes and other shit so it helps to have a home base outside of these major platforms even if it doesn't draw huge traffic on its own.
I really wish newgrounds had a comics section separate from the generic art in the front page
I could see Newgrounds doing that if someone suggested it. As far as accessible leadership on a site, Newgrounds probably ranks amongst the top.
ignoring webcomics was their biggest mistake
Honestly, yeah. YouTube unfortunately ate their lunch when it comes to animators what with monetization and audience pool (even if youtube's rules are arbitrary and shit), they should focus on webcomics more strongly.
and they have the opportunity now that tapas and webtoons were flooded by non indie comics from korean studios
I wonder if the NG staff take suggestions...
I don’t see why not. May take some convincing, but they’d be way more open to changes than literally any other hosting site:
Honestly, while my knowledge in website coding is very poor, it wouldn't really be that much of a hassle, would it? A new tab/section for "comics" and allow the artists to either upload as PDF or a bunch of image files with a viewer not disimilar to what some hentai sites or archive.org use.
It wouldn’t be difficult at all. The difficult part would be convincing Newgrounds, which isn’t out of the question..
Do they have a contact form? Perhaps even ask /hyw/ anons if they care to participate in the request?
They already integrated comic support, for both page and scroll format
I was surprised with Webtoons in terms of reaching an audience, but maybe I was just lucky. If you can upload on multiple platforms, maybe just do that and see what works best for you
>They already integrated comic support, for both page and scroll format
Word? Duly noted, I need to refine my perspective work before I do a webcomic though, my foreshortening is iffy as all shit.
deviantart is a zombie site at this point as well
imagine a thread 20 years ago about OP making this same question, deviantart would be in the one of the 3 first replies
What advantage would they have over comicfury?
in theory non comic readers that like animation or flash games would at least be aware that their comic exist, every FnF player being aware of your comic is a quite nice spotlight
That could be a good case of where knowing where a receptive audience frequents would be effective. If you had a comic that FnF players would enjoy, such as a fan comic or something stylistically and thematically similar, then they'd be more likely to give it a try. Conversely the same comic could flop elsewhere like on Webtoons because no one is actively looking for that kind of comic despite the general audience size being larger.
to make things worse webcomics are the only art that others can't give a better plataform by simply having better tech
>Steam can play any game
>youtube can load any video faster
>twitter can share images faster
What can webtoons possibly offer that newgrounds can't? And unlike webtoons newgrouns actually promise to not allow big companies to flood their site making their site a better choice for any actual webcomic artist
webtoons can load pages far faster but the weekly updates just negate this advantage, you will only read one page per week who care if it will take 15 seconds to load
I have no idea why newgrounds does not treat webcomics like animation and games and give them their own section, generic drawings are just as different from comics as animation is from games, it's just ridiculous and straight up contradict their goal of giving all kinds of artists a chance.
EVERYTHING by EVERYONE.
also webcomic artists are more numerous than animators and game developers combined, they are just letting the majority of the content artist community out
coverage coverage coverage
as many sites as you can consistently remember to post it to
comicfury is better than Tapas and Webtoons but got way less traffic, not that it really matters when Manhwa will be the only thing in the front page.
Also I just refuse to give any traffic or view to those two after the Korean company shilling, those sites managed to get worse to small and indie content creators than youtube, plus their site looks ugly as hell, the format is terrible as well who the frick even use those sites nowadays.
I think being a small-time webcomic on Webtoon, Tapas or Comicfury is the ideal scenario since you'll get a dedicated audience to interact with as you see fit (get feedback, get critique, ignore etc) while making your story as your please. With a big-time comic you basically get a billion tourists and funnymen who'll poison most any association with your comic in the eyes of strangers, not to mention companies doing their level best to frick you out of your intellectual rights. Maybe it's hindsight but after seeing the fandom for series like Dungeon Meshi and Chainsawman, creating some demented family-friendly headcanon version of the media through memes and fanart and then pitching a fit when the reality betrays them, not to mention how fandoms can get personal with creators they can contact in the US or Europe, I'm content with not having goobers like that trying to cling onto my comic
>Chainsawman
honestly the weirdest shit. it lays everything out clearly in the first chapter and yet people still treat its themes as hidden trivia.
kinda scares me too since those people don't only exist in the masses and it's entirely possible i could make my series and then the first hundred people who see it are all those kinds of morons, and then it's not even big enough to get the relatively smarter people who tell them to frick off.
>I think being a small-time webcomic on Webtoon, Tapas or Comicfury is the ideal scenario since you'll get a dedicated audience
that's risky because fandoms constantly need a flow of new fans because everybody get tired of something at some point and stop reading it for several years if not forever. You would need a constant flood of at least hundreds of new fans every month which means a fandom in the tens of thousands at the very least
Don't actually go with Webtoon or Tapas or any similar shit unless you want Korean companies to steal your shit the second it gets popular.
qrd?
Webtoons is also dogshit. Even if you post on Canvas they have the ability to take your rights. They recently changed their ToS for it.
>Webtoons is also dogshit. Even if you post on Canvas they have the ability to take your rights. They recently changed their ToS for it.
Wait, what. Could you link to the part of the TOS that mentions this.
That is PRETTY big news if true.
The issue is that a alot of artists dont have that skill, and promotion becomes harder on your own site. Webtoon has an app and gets you mobile readers.
You could probably try something like Manga Plus Creators but I have no idea how good/shitty/useful that is.
>oh ok Comicfury 200% then, frick webtoons don't even touch that trash as if burying their regular webcomics to shill content farm south korean studios wans't bad enough
I'm pretty sure thats just about user submitted comments. It doesn't seem to be talking about the comics themselves there.
Buy a website
Get a social media platform
Put your comics up on the most popular website and link back to your real personal webpage.
Interact with the audience publically and from behind a mask. Listen to them and learn from them and even become fan of your own fans by listening to their ideas about your work.
It hurts and it sucks but it will reward when done well.
No one's mentioned it but theres always reddit
God no, imagine the cancerous fanbase.
There's a reason why Vinny and Joel came to resent and hate their fans after all.
by the way, on webtoons, if it's something that matters to you, you can't change the email that your account uses
>by the way, on webtoons, if it's something that matters to you, you can't change the email that your account uses
That's pretty stupid.
I think its caused problems for people who used to logged in using twitter, now that musk took over.
webtoon and tapas is shooting yourself in the foot in the long run and the hassle they save isn't worth it.
self host it on neocities using rarebit template to start (look it up, it's a neocities site). your viewership won't be big enough to surpass the montly visit limit.
if you ever get to that point, you can probably easily ask for patreon money to keep it up to your decently sized audience.
>muh views/subs
>muh active userbase
terminal xitter brainrot
just use comicfury/wordpress like a sane person, your webcomic will be more yours there than webtoons/tapas would ever allow you
big and popular != "I will benefit"
besides all the many arguments in this thread on why you should never used webtoons and tapas is the fact their format is awful to read on regular computers and only works well on phones so you will be stuck with an awful style, just go comicfury, twitter, deviantart, newgrounds and youtube, just animate some crap if you can to get extra spotlight
>YouTube
>webcomics
You picked just about the worst format possible outside of Facebook and Tenor
>just animate some crap if you can to get extra spotlight
If you are able to animate then animate a bit, unfortunately artists no longer have the luxury to limit themselves, if only 1k people subscribe to your youtube channel per year and you link it to twitter and comicfury you already have A MASSIVE edge over the other webcomic creators. Hell a 10k sub channel on youtube will already make sure you will never have zero fans for the rest of your life, a 80k channel would make you a big shot, nevermind how youtube can possibly make you far bigger than any webcomic author.
plus starting a webcomic on 2020s without youtube animation is nearly 100% chance of total obscurity, no one is forcing you to animate but expecting a fandom in the 4 digits and that will not completely shrink and die out to zero fans in a decade is nearly delusional. All big webcomics nowadays are a decade old.
fanart on twitter is the other way to be known and have thousands to millions of fans but other than that you are praying for someone to find a completely hidden comic in an infinite internet, nearly impossible , webtoons and tapas will never feature your comic over manhua and if they do they will steal your shit, comicfury got nearly no traffic on it's own, deviantart is dead and newgrounds got no webcomics section.
you could sell your soul and make a tiktok
Dont forget Deviantart. Perhaps the most based comic platform.
I think the vertical scroll format is terrible on phones too. Mangadex on mobile works fine because everything is still fitted to the screen with the only real exception being spreads. But most webcomics aren't doing spreads. Vertical is just TikTok/infinite scroll logic applied to comics and it's as shitty there as it is everywhere else.
does it bring in more money to host your comics on a place that's viewable for free, or to sell a completed volume of it on an ebook platform?
having it for free, having a patreon and selling merchandise
on Cinemaphile, you can pay for ads. has anyone here ever tried advertising their webcomics via Cinemaphile paid ad?
I would say it's expensive but half of the ads in this site are shitposts and scams so it can't be that expensive
Realistically, how many anons see ads? What with using adblockers or Clover.
Webtoon and Tapas are shit for anyone not making a anime styled Korean isakai about a marriage falling apart in a European fantasy setting.
Kindle Digital Publishing has massive problems when it comes to discovery and format but print on demand is the future of self publishing
>noooo don't use Webtoon noooo the Koreans will take all my airspace aaaiiieeee my precious ad revenue and Patreonbux
Whatever happened to just making a comic because you wanted to tell a story, attention be damned
>Whatever happened to just making a comic because you wanted to tell a story, attention be damned
>It's not, just make your own website that hosts your Comic instead of risking Webtoons taking full ownership or having to fight for relevancy against Korean Studios
>Post your work on Social media alongside all the fanart you do and eventually you'll start gaining traction
The thing is that if you become an originals and sign the contract, webtoons will want to have some editorial control over your comic. Theres some authors who said webtoons meddled a lot in the story And sometimes they will cancel your story before its done, and you wont be able to finish it till the exclusivity period expires.
That's not the case for canvas, but theres still limits there. They do expect you to censor nudity or gore.
>The thing is that if you become an originals and sign the contract,
I would simply not do that to begin with because I learned my lesson after hearing about the Tokyopop debacle
>You are baiting
Everyone in this thread going 'but the oogie-boogie scary Koreans' has their priorities mixed up and I'm not ashamed to take the piss
>but the oogie-boogie scary Koreans
Eh, it's just a fact the site is only featuring works from a content farm company from korea at this point, the entire frontpage is like that and every single comic use the exact same cgi objects and backgrounds, it has been like that for several years now. It's similar to youtube same problem with other countries bot channels however youtube made sure to reduce it a little, meanwhile webtoons just bury everything else now.
You are baiting but just in case anyone thinks you are being honest or worse yet right.
If you want to make a comic for yourself just draw it on your notebook and put it on the shelf, no reason to give traffic to a site that will intentionally bury your work to make room for those cheap background cgi comics from a farm content studio.