Attractive thumbnails

[jessiepolfliet]

I don't know about you guys, but for me the reason the read a comic besides looking for them here is to look in the homepage and look at the thumbnails.
Of course for that reason it is very important to have a nice thumbnail that views what your comic is like while attracting new viewers/subscribers.
But not all thumbnails have this down and can be very misleading. What are your thoughts on this?

[Jrej]

Finally a topic on that!
I always feel that my thumbnail doesn't catch the eye enough.
I do believe it is an essential part of the comic's perception from readers!

I also go through the fresh comics and judge the content from the cover!

My only advice would be to choose wisely on that matter.
Get a thumbnail that truly represent your comic, so people are not mislead.
(My thumbnail is B&W even though the content is in color :-S)

[jessiepolfliet]

Well I read your comic( and subscribed) Having a b&w thumbnail is fine, in my experience you always have to utilize the contrast with that. I like your comic btw, I have been the Paris last year, saw a lot of familiar places.

[winglesscomic]

I told this to someone else but use a thumbnail THAT REPRESENTS YOUR SKILL LEVEL/STYLE.

It doesn't have to represent the quality of the comic. Black and white comics can have a coloured thumbnail. My thumb and a lot of thumbs have quality that isn't in their comic, I would never take all that time to do proper shading because it would take forever. But it should represent the way you draw your comic style-wise.

I will never forget the time I was browsing around on SmackJeeves and I saw a beautiful thumb that looked like it was illustrated by a professional, it was gorgeous.
I clicked on it and then I got art that looked like it was constructed by a 10-year-old.

I was beyond disappointed. They stole that art and used it for their banner and then misled me.

[Jrej]

Thanks for the kind words @jessiepolfliet !
I lived in Paris a few years, so I definitely took inspiration from that.
Glad my B&W thumb works for you. It does represent the comic has it shows all characters
But I hope it doesn't scare color-addicts away!

@winglesscomic
That a great advice. Just stick with your style!
We can always update the thumb later if it doesn't feel quite right!

Now some people put their comic title in the thumbnail. But I noticed most of the popular ones would just stick to an image.
Do you think that plays a role in visibility?

[jessiepolfliet]

Maybe that works, but I think the letters should also have the artstyle of the comic. Then again, it is alwasy nicer to see the chracters of your comic than the title.

[winglesscomic]

less people care about the title of a comic than being grabbed first by its artwork. When I first joined I put my title on my thumb but nobody else seemed to do that so I took it off.

It makes more sense to leave more room for a picture of a character or anything else nice to attract readers. Personally it doesn't matter to me whether the title is in the image or not, but if the text obscures the image then I don't think that's good to keep it on.

[Jrej]

I guess it doesn't really matter.
It's all about clarity in the end.
It could even make you stand out if nobody else does it, right?

Maybe there's an ultimate thumbnail out there that would be irresistible to click on.
What about cats driving cars on Mars, drinking milkshakes!

[Jelw]

Thumbnails are definitely important! When comic repeat the same chapter thumnail repeatedly, for instance, it seems lazy to me and can make me contemplate not reading it. It's a dotting is and crossing ts sort of deal

[Zannen00]

Well then,This is going to be my new thumbnail!

I am SO gonna get 1Million Views after this!

[winglesscomic]

that's interesting, why do you think that's lazy?

I use the same thumbnail for all episodes of a chapter so that when people browse the archive, they know visually where a chapter begins and ends without having to read the episodes' names.

[ashriott]

Can't count the number of times I've clicked on attractive thumbnails only to find that the art inside is pretty meh and sloppily done, this happening more so on Smackjeeves rather than Tapastic though. Comic pages tend to be churned out quickly for the sake of quantity over quality(rushed pages/story moves quicker etc). The artist has probably spent a lot more time working on an attractive thumbnail or cover art which truly reflects what they're capable of. It used to bother me when I first discovered the world of webcomics, not because the art is sloppy, but because of how misleading it can be.

[allenthomas]

I use the same thumbnail for all episodes of a chapter so that when people browse the archive, they know visually where a chapter begins and ends without having to read the episodes' names.

I use the same type of approach with my comic. I almost used the same thumbnail that I had for Ch 1 in Ch 2, but I figured that people would find it easier to go through my chapters if they visually saw the difference from just the thumbnail.

[UzukiCheverie]

i remember when COMPLAIN FOREVER was originally called WOWZERS and its first thumbnail was of mike wazowski from monster's inc

i clicked the shit out of that thumbnail and i haven't looked back

[joannekwan]

I suppose I'm picky about how my own thumbnails look because I was a graphic design major. So I strive for something that's clear, attractive, and representative of my series (which reminds me, I need to update the thumb for Demon House at some point).

As for chapter thumbnails, I personally don't mind when the same image is reused. For my series though (the one that has chapters), I like the thumbs to be different, because the episode titles have the chapter in them and I like showcasing bits of my art that I thought I did a good job on.

[Jrej]

I love how Tapastic used the chapter thumbnails to form an illustration!

There's many creative ways to tackle this one!

@Zannen00 If drew this photo I actually think it would be a hit!
Millions... Easy!

[Raven_C]

yeah i've seen a few artists create a continuing illustration through their chapter thumbnails, it's really ingenious. :'D

I don't mind it either when someone uses the same thumbnail for a chapter. Personally, I prefer to have them be different each time.

For now, my series thumbnail is just a cropped version of my header. I definitely agree that your thumbnail should represent your own current art skills.

[hades]

This reminds me of the time I was browsing print comics at the book store and saw a series with BEAUTIFUL cover art and I got extremely excited to look inside but once I did I saw that the inner art was completely terrible and low-leveled. It was such heartbreaking disappointment. :[

[Jrej]

@Marchen, Happened to me a few times already.
I heard published graphic novel do that quite often.
They would hire a different artist to do the cover hoping to sell more of the final product.

At least on Tapastic and self publishing you get to choose what you want.
That's why we should do it wisely!

[aspiderjonny]

I never really thought too hard on my thumbnails. I usually just take a small part of the cover (usually a characters face). Though I've started to put the book # on the thumbnails so that people could quick see what chapter it is. Just thought that'd be helpful.