TWCL

[MindChimera]

I had been planning on creating an "Extras" page that could have some freebie goodies on it; wallpapers and such. I've always been terrible at wallpaper designs though, so I decided to look around and see if I could get some other ideas.

And I'm not sure why I hadn't realized it before, but a lot of the bigger webcomics I read don't even have Extras pages. The smaller ones I follow sometimes do, but they usually just have a few wallpapers or "Comic soon!" on them.

So I'm starting to wonder if I should even bother. My time may be better spent coming up with ideas for things to put in a shop. I really like the idea of an Extras page, so I'm a little sad to just toss that aside, but it doesn't look like it's worth doing (especially with limited daylight to burn).

So what do you guys think? Do you have Extras pages? If you don't, have you considered them? And if you do, what do you put on yours?

[mcmasters]

I can't comment on the full range of whatever "extras" are, but wallpapers...not something that draws my attention.

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www.mcmasterscomics.com

[MindChimera]

Yeah, which is why I was hoping to come up with more ideas. I think wallpapers are a good start but it's a bit disappointing if that's all there is.

I've seen some people with big fantasy comics put maps of the world, beastiaries, or explainations of how the magic works in their world. But I'm planning on explaining all the important stuff right in the comic and I don't think I need any of that.

[Metruis]

I was specifically asked by a reader to have a reference page for the magic system, world building, etc. I enjoy having a bit of reading material to reference back to if the comic is longform, in case I forget things, so that's generally what I want on an extras page. Wallpapers don't really lure me in.
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[JohnK]

I never really thought of having an extras page. Good idea though. How about avatars for message boards? Facebook covers? It all obviously has to be visual. What else can we come up with?
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Coffee Time Comics

[MindChimera]

JohnK wrote:

I never really thought of having an extras page. Good idea though. How about avatars for message boards? Facebook covers? It all obviously has to be visual. What else can we come up with?

Ooh, Facebook covers are a good idea.

ttallan wrote:

Huh. My first thought when I saw this topic was, "Geez, an Extras Page would be a lot of work for not a lot of reward." And then I looked at my site again and saw that I already had one.

Haha! Yeah, obviously I'm not expecting much return out of it. I've always just liked freebies so I'd like to be able to give a little more if I can.

Plus, if someone sees their friend using an avatar from my comic, they may ask where it came from.

But yeah, I guess one of my questions is how much value do the readers get out of extras pages.

[hipopotamo]

I do have an Extras page, which is actually a menu for fan art, banners and gifts.

Fan art is pretty self explanatory; banners is my exchange banners collection in case someone ever wants to actually use one, and gifts include all the multimedia, right now I have postcards and extended versions of the characters, but I intend to put FB covers, avatars and the such.

Cheers
Hippo

[smbhax.com]

I wouldn't worry about an Extras page unless you already have some stuff people might want (or just stuff you want to post : P), and nowhere else to put it.

Also, if you're gonna do one make sure it's something you're prepared to update now and then, because obviously neglected and far out of date Extras pages are sad little things.
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[MindChimera]

Hmm, that's a good point. Something like an Extras page would be easy to neglect if I decide to make specific content for it.

Thanks for the input guys, I have a lot to think about now.

[Varethane]

Personally I use my Extras page the same way as Ttallan-- to collect things related to the comic that aren't actually pages. I don't see its upkeep as being extra work for me (aside I guess from the couple of minutes it takes me to add new content to it every couple of weeks), more as having a public page on which to collect all the comic-related stuff I or other people are making anyway. My creative process for the comic tends to result in all sorts of extraneous illustrations and doodles that might be of interest to people reading the comic, and sharing them seems like a natural next step-- but for someone whose creative process doesn't involve the generation of so much extra stuff, I suppose forcing yourself to make that content might not work out so well. In the end, the Extras page isn't a necessary part of the site the way the comic archives and navigation are; you shouldn't feel obligated to put work into it if you don't feel rewarded by the outcome.
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[Justinfh]

Having an "Extras" page is a fun way to promote your Webcomic. I just may put one up myself. For now, I just have a "ramblings" category.

[Lo (Aquapunk)]

They're handy if your comic is a worldbuild-y type. It's gotten to the point where I'm only putting barebones stuff there, though. I've got a lot of supplemental material, but I'm going to be turning those into art books and ebooks.

But yeah, wallpapers never did anything for me.
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[OnlyTheGhosts]

Extras pages are useful for some kinds of webcomics, but most probably can go without them. For TM&TG, there's a huge amount of background material that I created and rely upon to keep it coherent. I won't be putting more than a tiny fraction of that online for readers until the appropriate time because it could ruin the mystery of "What's Going To Happen Next?". I don't want to scare readers with an encyclopaedia about the whole universe either because it would give the impression that it's too complicated.

[Marscaleb]

I love extras pages, and I love wallpapers.

Here's a comic with what may be the best extras section of any comic I read:
http://www.sdamned.com/

A lot of her extra content was made my fans, which is a great place to put that stuff (if you have any.) But I also really love her wallpapers; she's one of the few people who seems to get what makes a good wallpaper, and she makes them often enough.

I don't think you HAVE to update your extras page. Sure, you can do it every now and then, maybe once a year, maybe once every two years. But an extras section is usually only visited by new readers, in my experience. I don't regularly visit extras pages for comic I regularly read. With that in mind, you really only would want to update that page as often as your artwork noticeably changes.

And on the subject of wallpapers, personally, I love them. I have my wallpapers cycled a few times a day, and I love having a nice surprise to see what scenery graces my screen. (Right now I have screenshots from Resonance of Fate. I've never even played that game, I just thought the screenshots looked amazing.) And as someone who likes wallpapers, I love to get them for the comics I read.
And speaking from strictly personal preference, this is what I like to see from such wallpapers:
1) Have more than one available; I'd shoot for at least four, but I always want at least two good designs so I don't have the same image on both screens.
2) Avoid collages. They just look cluttered and tacky. Simple designs look really nice. People are using these on their desktops, and they may need to be able to see their icons. A cluttered image will make their clean desktop look cluttered, or a cluttered desktop will become too hard to see icons.
3) Don't have characters "looking" at the viewer. This is probably the most personal tidbit I can say, but it bugs the crap out of me when my desktop is looking back at me.
4) Have more than just pin-ups. Even if your comic does a lot of pin-up artwork, you could still have readers who don't read for your pin-up content, and don't want pin-ups on their desktop.

And it's really not hard to make a few good desktop patterns. You can take a lot straight from your comic. If you ever have a nice dramatic panel, just grab the full-sized version of it. Or take some images of just a character by his or herself, and add a simple background pattern. Or if you're working on a nice promo image to use for banner ads, make it in desktop resolutions before you crop it and add text.
All three of those ideas require little extra work over what you may already be doing.
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My webcomic: Mischief in Maytia
http://maytiacomic.com/

[MindChimera]

Good, someone else who appreciates wallpapers. I'd have to say I agree with everything you listed, and gave me some good ideas. I hadn't thought of using promo images for wallpapers; I could definitely do that.

I have some ideas for wallpapers that I'd like to make, but the characters in them aren't introduced yet and won't be for a while, so I'm going to have to wait on them.

I like what the Slightly Damned page has done. I'd bet that putting fan content up on the site would encourage others to send their own in, just to see it featured. That would be fun for everyone, since I'd love to see people make stuff about my characters.

And her wallpapers definitely look great. I haven't read Slightly Damned (yet), but I'm going to grab a few of these.
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