Mini Story within Our Comic: Where to post?

Kamikaze 2015-08-19 05:50:00 UTC #1

Got a bit of a delimma coming up.
We have a single series called Kamikaze. It's a long narrative format story. We're in the last week of preperations for a mini comic series set in the same world, but done by guest artists and writers. It's a 9 page one shot comic, but it's not really in the same timeline or even art style as the current comic. The idea is that it'll be the first of a series of tiny short stories that showcase the adventures of our lead character in less plot oriented stuff, so you can see her in action. However...it feels like posting it in the comic as we have it would feel like a huge non-sequitur.

So should the team:
A. Make a new series for the short comics, which won't have any subs, but will keep them contained in an organized and easy to find manner.
B. Post the short comics in the same run as our main comic, which has our full audience, but has the potential to off put our readers (guest art, guest story - not the usual fare).
C. Combine both? Post the short comic within the original series, but then once completed, move those pages into their own 'new' series for the short comics only?

The only problem I forsee with option C is that once we moved/deleted those pages any comments will be deleted and share/links will be broken. Option A? Option B? Option C? Are there other options I'm missing? Help me Tapastic, you're my only hope!

Dranif 2015-08-19 05:55:54 UTC #2

I'd say option A.
Some creators I follow have an additional series off to the side that is related to their main ones, so I don't see why not.

Monstrosaur 2015-08-19 06:36:18 UTC #3

I think B if you put in between two chapters so it acts as a kind of "filler", but if not, then do A. You wouldn't want to slap it right in the middle of the chapter, for reasons that should be obvious, but i have seen many creators have guest comics in-between chapters to keep the readers entertained.

abbastudios 2015-08-19 10:50:26 UTC #4

Tell your readers what you are doing and then they won't be put off.

mg78 2015-08-19 10:52:01 UTC #5

u could insert it in the end of one of the official chapter, like a "special"

UzukiCheverie 2015-08-19 12:41:12 UTC #6

Agreed ^^ I can almost guarantee you're not gonna lose one subscriber over something like a guest strip. People do them all the time, and readers love it the same reason you do; you get to see your comic done in a different style than your own, with different ideas that are fun for the audience to imagine.

I've put guest strips into Time Gate and as far as I know, my readers have never had a problem with it.

Making a new series, TBH, should probably only be done if you really have a lot of guest strips and are planning on releasing new guest strips in the future when they become available (and really not even then TBH because new "series" should be used when you're creating a new series. Not just a set of alternate episodes for what's essentially a series that's already available). Other than that, I'd put them in with your current comic, let people know what's up, and they'll understand. Don't assume your readers will leave you at the drop of a hat

You'll be fine putting it into the main series as specials, either as separate episodes or at the end of current ones, whichever you choose. Also remember that you won't carry all your current subscribers over with you to the guest comic series if you choose to do that, and chances are the guest strip series will never be on par with the main series in terms of subscribers/dedicated readers, so in that case, it's probably not even worth it to divide your fanbase up like that y'know?