Classic book format option along with vertical - creative freedom

I feel the same way, it can be limiting in some ways. But as with anything there are always pros and cons. I actually prefer reading the vertical format comics online, despite its limitations. I'm only new here, but already I'm getting the feeling they seem pretty deadset on promoting vertical over full pages.

At the same time, I'm not going to not have big beautiful double page spreads in my comic. They're my favourite pages. So I just made my own tumblr page that has the option of displaying either single page or double page spreads, depending on how wide the browser window is.

You can see it here21.

I create in both formats and release them on different series. One series is vertical format and the other is the same comic in page format. I don't really feel pressured to go vertical. My comic looks better on the mobile devices in the vertical format and it gives me a chance to create a new and different reading experience. My vertically formatted series is twice as popular as my standard format series, so it definitely seems worthwhile to keep creating vertically, and I find that it's good to have the option to read the comic in page format for the readers that prefer that format.

This! The traditional page format is not without its limitations. And I'm not just talking about the inconvenience for mobile viewing. Take mobile completely out of the equation, and both formats still have their pros and cons.

Having more options is always a plus! But having done a traditional page format for years... and having done the double page spread with my own comic (not the one that's on Tapastic)... I've seen how ugly it can be, too. It's jarring when the comic image suddenly changes dimensions.

Less jarring if the comic is always viewed two pages at once (like an open book), but THEN you have the problem of breaking the flow of the eyes when it's not a splash page: left to right then down, and then back up to view the other half of the image. When you're holding a real book in your hands, this isn't a big problem because most books don't open completely flat; the subtle difference in the angle of the pages tell your eyes that the two pages are two separate things. But on a screen, I've always found it awkward to read comics on sites that show two pages at once.

A double page spread in a physical book imparts an impact that digital comics (whether it's page-format or vertical format) can't quite achieve. I'm not sure what would be the best way to address this. For now, I just accept it as a limitation of my medium of choice, and try to take advantage of the advantages the medium offers.

The first few times I saw this in webtoons, I hated it. But then I've also seen some examples that didn't break the immersion for me, so there seems to be the right way to do it and the wrong way to do it.

I hated the 90º tilted panels when:

• they contained a lot of details on the character(s).
• they're actiony. Action is heavily dependent on gravity (unless it's space fighting action?) so when you turn gravity sideways, it feels VERY off for me.

The ones that I didn't mind were neither actiony nor character-centric. In addition, the tilting added to the storytelling: I had to scroll to view the panel, or at least make my eyes travel more, which takes time, and the panels were "a long moment" kind of a scene in the story.

From a reader standpoint, personally I like appreciating a wide-panel scenario and to pause (to "breathe" and enjoy the moment as you said, OP). I like looking at an entire scene and I'm not a big fan of separated segments/elements just to fit the vertical format. The reading experience is just different, so I get where you're coming from. But really, I'm pretty neutral about it. I'm aware mobile comics is becoming the thing, but I've never felt pressured to reformat my comic (I just keep it the traditional way). The only thing I don't do is double-page spreads. The thing I love about Tapastic, though, is the infinite scroll. I'm just a big fan of it. It's great! Haha.

How interesting would it be to have an infinite canvas in all directions, leaving it up to the creator to create wildly inventive new ways to progress through the story.

Like Scott McCloud's idea for infinite canvas:

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He also has an amazing Ted talk about it:
http://www.ted.com/talks/scott_mccloud_on_comics9

I never understood why a horizontal scroll is not considered? I mean especially on mobile a horizontal scroll would be just as easy as a vertical one, and lends to splash pages etc. It's not hugely beneficial for desktop, cause theres no like sideways scroll wheel, but I'd imagine theres a way to make it so the vertical scroll wheel causes horizontal scrolling? I saw this comic that scrolling like just kind of brought you where it wanted you to go, horizontal, vertical even diagonal.

There's an app called Scrollon which features comics that use a horizontal scrolling format. Cool concept, but limited to the works of the creators of the app, so it isn't the greatest in terms of selection.

My original layouts were all done in 'print' format - the traditional page style, but Tapastic is geared towards mobile users, so you need to format for mobile if you want a higher percentage of readers. If you want to have a 'guided view' style experience, you have to submit to Comixology, but their backlog for independent creators is so ridiculous that you have to wait almost a year to get one issue up on their market.

If there's a way to customize your current pages to work with a tap-to-enlarge panel format, it might work for traditional pages here. But I think the only real solution is for reformatting to mobile - and that's a LOT of work. Case in point - I reformatted my first issue to a more mobile friendly version and it took me almost 6 hours worth of layout time to do it. Multiply that by 12-13 issues and it will take some time...

If we're not ready to invest the time, it's something we'll all have to suffer with.

You can totally make some wider pages. Just put up a preview on Tapastic as a placeholder and leave a link to the real image, which you could easily put on Deviantart. It's not ideal, but it will work and you don't need to worry about Tapastic's limitations. Speaking of Deviantart, you can now arrange the contents of folders from oldest to newest and even open a pop-up with back and forth arrows which is really handy for webcomics.

I like Tapastic a lot, but they push mobile too much. The staff claims the majority of their users read comics on mobile, but personally I don't like their mobile site and I had to delete their app because it was bothering me. Oh, get your daily comic snack! You can't do anything else until you scroll through these comics you don't like, and it's the only thing we will give you notifications for! ...Yeah, that's SO helpful. I don't prefer getting notified for new feedback on my comics or anything.

Still though, they probably aren't going to change their dimensions anytime soon to accommodate desktop/laptop screens. If they don't see any benefit to it, then we can't really blame them. Don't allow yourself to be limited by stuff like that. Art isn't meant to be caged.

Theoretically, what Scott McCloud is proposing is awesome. It opens up so many more possibilities in terms of how we tell stories, how we guide readers through an experience and possibly creates a great mechanic for telling stories that diverge into different paths (choose your own adventure). However, I don't think what he's proposing is easy to create both in terms of making a website or making a comic. But I really do hope to read something in that format.

I don't think that's really an ideal way to read a comic. For one, that completely breaks the suspension of disbelief and would take me out of the reading experience.

The same sort of applies when:

Hmm, so... I guess this is where I talk about the philosophy of webcomics and the direction we want to head in. I believe that webcomics is at its core very different from traditional comics. Tapastic was built for webcomics, a lot of the tools, a lot of its structure, its ethos and more are dedicated to this format. Webcomics for me, are comics made specifically to be consumed on the web - it's sort of the opposite of what creators think of when creating. Basically, think about how its going to be read digitally first, then go back and think about reformatting for physical (if and when you do).

I don't think you can replicate the feeling of a double page spread digitally. It's just not the same. There's a visceral feeling about opening a page up and being engulfed. You can't replicate that on a phone - and trying to squish a two page spread on a mobile screen is a really bad experience on the reader side. Yet, we see so many other sites trying to do this.

I honestly don't think there can be an industry for webcomics if we continue on that path.

So the next question is, why do we push mobile so much?

Distribution.

If we're talking about the advantages of webcomics, at it's core, it's all about distribution. We don't want to give anyone an excuse not to read comics. Can't make it the comic shop on Wednesday? No problem. Got a phone and a 5 minute break? Perfect.

We want to make reading comics an everyday habit for the everyday person. We want to help creators get in front of the right audience and exposing creators to first time readers is a delicate art. For one, we need to make sure the creator's comic is easy to read, they should feel natural on a phone or mobile device. Again, don't give the reader an excuse not to read.

Sorry this response is sort of getting away from - I really hope that makes sense (?). Looking forward to seeing more from this conversation.

The guy's at Scrollon are great! I think their app shows a lot of promise - the way they're really pushing weaving every panel together makes for a really unique reading experience. Their app really shows that there's a huge difference between reading horizontally and vertically. Definitely keep your eyes peeled on them as they're going to have some exciting stuff coming out this year.

Oh for sure! A website that could accomplish that kind of platform for webcomic would probably be a piece of web coding masterpiece and definitely way beyond my comprehension of web development. However, I could see that idea as a possible glimpse at what the future of webcomics could be.

Uploading a comic episode would probably feel more like a creative interactive game with designing which direction each page/panel is going. Or perhaps just a flowchart that users drag and drop pages/panels into... Even, though I have no idea how it can be done, I find it fun just trying to imagine how it might be a possibility. haha

I have an existing comic with over 100 pages that I migrated to Tapastic with the Inkblazers closure, and it's been quite an experience to get used to the vertical format here. I've just started reworking the early pages into a proper vertical layout, and it really changes the feel of them.

I only have one double-page spread in the comic, because my working process meant I had to pencil it on A3 paper and I think it took about three weeks to complete the page, which rather put me off doing any more. I do have a lot of horizontal landscapes used to set the scene though, and I'm worried that converting pages into the new format will lessen the impact of them, or that I might have to slice them up into multiple panels to achieve the same pacing as in the print style pages.

I'm not sure Tapastic needs another format option though. There are other comic hosting sites with more flexible layout options and user bases that are more likely to be looking for traditional formatting in the webcomics they read.

I must say that personally, I prefer the traditional page format over the vertical layouts.
It's true that a lot of people is browsing Tapastic on their phones or tablets, but on the other hand, monitors are becoming wider and wider nowadays, so it'd certainly be a shame to start pushing everything towards the vertical format while neglecting the PC users

I do all my comics in a vertical format, even the shorter gag ones, and think this looks best. If anything, it certainly beats having to scroll horizontally (and I feel like a horizontal comic like you're talking about would get too small for my comic, I like drawing big). Vertical scrolling seems more natural. But hey, giving creators and readers more options can only be a good thing, and for those who want it I don't see why not.
Haven't really neeeded to use something like a big scenery reveal, but in that case I could just mess around with the panels/have no panels around that frame to make it stand out. (Messing around with frames in my longer comic is definitely something I should experiment more with in general...)

I feel like I already covered a lot of this with my previous post but I want to get creators away from thinking about comics in the classical sense - we really need to move forward. I don't think that offering two different reading experiences benefits the readers - especially when our focus is delivering content to mobile devices.

Also, just think about how you consume content on the web. Try thinking of all the sites you use on a daily basis whether it's tumblr or facebook or instagram, etc. Notice how they're all formatted so that you digest information by scrolling down? It feels natural. That's what we're trying to get at - the natural consumption of information and making it easier to read comics.

Classical - page style viewing just doesn't make any sense on the web. Refreshing a webpage to read the next page of a comic just isn't the ideal experience and isn't taking advantage of the unique consumption experience that digital has to offer.