2016 MSU Comics Forum This Weekend

by on February 24, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog, News

[dc]O[/dc]ne of my favorite comic events is this weekend: the annual MSU Comics Forum in East Lansing, Michigan. This Saturday marks my third year exhibiting at the MSU Comics Forum. Here’s a recap of my first time, and one of last year.

What is the MSU Comics Forum? From the website:

Held every year on the beautiful campus of Michigan State University, The Michigan State University Comics Forum is an an event that brings together scholars, creators, and fans in order to explore celebrate the medium of comics, graphic storytelling, and sequential art.

msu comics forum aragones

This year’s poster.

The MSU Comics Forum features several events over a few days. (All of these events are free).

Thursday, Feb. 25 – PERSEPOLIS Film Screening and Discussion with Kaveh Askari of Western Washington University (8pm)

A screening of the film Persepolis, based on the graphic novel, followed by a discussion. If you have not seen Persepolis, I recommend checking it out.

Friday, Feb. 26 – Keynote Address with Sergio Aragones (7pm)

If you have ever read MAD Magazine, then you saw some of Sergio Aragones’ art. I love his stuff, and I cannot wait for this keynote.

Saturday, Feb. 27 – Artist Alley and Panel Discussions (11AM – 5PM)

The big day, for me and my fellow artists. Come to the Residential College in the Arts & Humanities LookOut! Gallery, Snyder/Phillips Hall 2nd floor, at Michigan State University to meet a bunch of amazing artists from Michigan, and beyond. Free admission!

Reminder: There are a couple of different rooms for artists, so not everyone is in the LookOut! Gallery.

I think of the MSU Comics Forum as, to borrow a baseball term, spring training for the rest of convention season. The show is a fun way to ease back into the convention routine and to help me figure out what I need to tweak before my next shows.

Come by and see me this Saturday!

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2015 Webcomic SPACE Prize Results: I Won!

by on February 23, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog, News

[dc]G[/dc]reat news came over the weekend, as I found out I won the 2015 SPACE Prize in the Webcomic category. I tied for First Place in the Webcomic category, so congratulations to the crew at Wonder Care: After School as well.

To recap: the SPACE Prize is an award given out by the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE) each year (there are a few different categories too). Here’s my blog post about being a SPACE Prize finalist.

space prize 2015 winners

All of the winners in the Webcomic category.

What does this mean?

  • I split the money prize with the other first place winner.
  • I get a SPACE Prize award plaque.
  • I will be at SPACE in April to accept the award in person, and I will have a table for the weekend.

This will be my third trip to SPACE, and I’m excited to go back. I love going to SPACE, even if the crowd leans more toward books than webcomics. There’s always a lot of amazing stuff for sale and I highly recommend checking the show out if you are in the Columbus, Ohio area and enjoy indie publishing (admission is free this year). Here’s my recap of last year’s show.

I’m working on finishing up my hourly comics from earlier in the month, and I want to sell them as a show exclusive book (meaning, I’m not posting them online). My plan is to have my hourly comics book ready for SPACE.

Anyway, thank you to the SPACE crew and my fellow exhibitors, and congratulations to the rest of the SPACE Prize winners. See you in April!

Plus, it means another fun road trip with comic buddies.

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Reach, and the Share Experiment

by on February 16, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog, News

[dc]G[/dc]etting traffic to a website is a challenge these days. There is way more competition now because of Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, and so on.

For a lot of folks, Facebook is the internet. Or, at least it’s the main way they find out about content, either via a link or something shared.

A Drip, Not a Stream

But, these days you can’t even expect Facebook followers to see everything you post. Why? Facebook throttles how many followers see your posts, aka reach. Facebook wants you, as someone who runs a page, to pay to boost your reach.

I get it. Facebook wants to make money, and the glory days of social media being “free advertising” are pretty much dead.

Don’t believe me? Look at this screen grab from my Clattertron Facebook page.

facebook reach

Boo.

As of this writing, I have 294 Likes for the Clattertron Facebook page. The post shown in the screen grab reached one person out of 294 after 18 hours. One person.

There’s an excellent Sheldon comic which brilliantly sums up this issue, specifically if someone Likes your page, they should see all of your updates because they opted in.

And here’s a video about how Facebook hurts the traffic for many websites. [video link]

In a perfect world, everyone would just go to my website, where I make money off ads, affiliate links, and sales of my art.

When someone looks at the full comic on Facebook, my chances of making any money are pretty much zero. Facebook makes money though, which sucks.

But, that’s the game, isn’t it?

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Drawing Conclusions Artist Reception Recap

by on February 9, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog, News

[dc]S[/dc]tephanie and I made the long haul out to Ludington, Michigan¹ on Friday night for the Drawing Conclusions artist reception. Drawing Conclusions is the art gallery exhibit my comics are a part of at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts, and we both enjoyed ourselves at the reception (cheese and wine, yum).

comic hogan gallery exhibit

My stuff!

I really didn’t know what to expect, as I had never been to the galley before, but it’s a great space. The Ludington Area Center for the Arts is inside an old church, and they did some amazing things to create a delightful gallery space.

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