Blog

A major issue that my comic and probably most others have encountered early on is the high degree of difficulty in not only gaining and retaining new readers, but fostering a genuine sense of community.  Simply put, most folks who browse webcomics tend to look quickly over the latest update before moving straight on to something else unless what you're offering really stands out and gets them personally invested.

Some of this is outside of my control, but one thing I'm going to try to be more proactive about is being more regular with blog updates, posting status updates here, on Twitter, and at my comic's Facebook fanpage, and continuing to experiment with new ideas that target my story's core demographic.

This past week I posted the second in my new weekly blog series covering old school videogames and industry topics, this one about the ThunderForce "schmup" series that debuted way back on the Sega Genesis.  So far I've noticed a few "Likes" by readers, which apparently means that they've met with at least some positive response.

Recently my Reference section has seen great progress with several new entries over the past couple of weeks alone, and if I can get all of that "filled out" to my satisfaction for the time being, I think it'll open things up for me to begin accelerating the pace of my comic updates (though with a longform comic I have to make certain I can sustain whatever pace I set).  Please note that a few of the Reference entries may contain spoilers of varying degrees as they pertain to characters and topics that are current as of that particular STORYLINE; in other words, the story itself may or may not have reached the point of all the information given on the Reference page, so please consider this as you read.  At any rate, I'll do my level best not to give everything away.

Another member here made the observation that thus far my storyline is decidedly male-centric (being a military-slanted story), and suggested that I get more female characters involved.  Actually this isn't the first time the topic has come up, but rest assured, the ladies are definitely going to be heard from in Tomes of Atlantis over the coming year (in fact one of them will be debuting in tomorrow morning's comic update!).  The storyline was laid out long in advance, but the reality of doing only once-per-week updates is that it can seem like forever (to both you and your readers) that you're in a specific "mode" when in fact only a relative few pages and story events have gone by.  Nevertheless, I very much appreciate the feedback and that someone cared enough about my work to offer suggestions; trust me, I'm working on it!  :)

Till next time...