Tapas, Smackjeeves, or Webtoon?

[keii4ii]

Tapas is PNG only

Not the case! I post the same files on Tapas and Webtoons. My files are JPGs.

[gh0stcr33p]

the limited requirement is 940 by 4000 pixels

[sandpaperdaisy]

As others have said, I have to recommend using all three. Feel free to mirror away! If you are offered a contract with one of them, you are free to take your comics down from the other site(s). You can notify your readers so they can continue to follow you and keep up with the comic they have grown to love. I've seen comics who moved to one or another for this reason have an announcement page thanking everyone and giving them the new information, so it can be done!!

Everyone's pros and cons above sum up everything pretty perfectly, and I pretty much agree with all of them. I'll just add my personal experiences with mirroring on all three sites.

Smackjeeves: Started on here. (Actually I started on Livejournal, HA!)

Pros
+ Like others, I love the customization.
+ Nostalgia.
Cons
- I have been spoiled by multi-page uploads and I don't like single page anymore.
- Traffic. I know for sure one guy has seen my comic. He seemed like a peach! But...

Tapas: My first serious attempt to upload all my comics in one place.

Pros
+ Forums and contests encouraged me to really dig deep and try a lot of new stuff. Even a novel!
+ Forums, period.
+ After the multi-page uploads I just can't go back.
+ I can have my own ad at the bottom of my comic (ko-fi, patreon, whatever) and I can get tips and ad revenue.
Cons
- Boy do you have to fight tooth and nail for exposure unless you get featured. Wow!
- And heaven help you if you are not romance or slice of life.
- For some reason my friends are left baffled by trying to read anything on this site, comics or novels. I don't get it, but it's really beyond their ken for some reason. I've heard this from multiple people.

Line Webtoon: Just now started.

Pros
+ For some reason I really like the interface. I guess it's more like the "MangaFox" etc sites I'm used to.
+ Seems faster to get into to as a creator.
+ I see more genres featured.
+ I found it pretty easy and quick to convert from Tapas format (bigger) to Webtoons format (smaller). I just chopped up the pages basically.
Cons
- Having a buffer is complicated. There doesn't seem to be an easy way to get to/see your series editing links unless you just plain save them.
- I don't even have a creator profile besides an impersonal "search Sandpaperdaisy" link that shows my comics.
- I don't have any way to track comments, so I have to run through all of my comics manually and respond to any comments.
- I don't have a way to put my own ad at the bottom of the comic. (It does automatically show my patreon though!)

Lastly, I have enjoyed starting each site at different times. It gave me the opportunity to take everything I learned on Tapas and refine it for Webtoons. I'm experimenting with compiling several of my one-shot Tapas comics into compilations for Webtoons, for example. The different platforms' strengths and weaknesses lend themselves to presenting the content in different ways, and I feel like the more you get to experiment with how you offer your comics, the better.

Because ideally, you will eventually find what works. And/or what you like best. But you can't find out if you don't try different stuff!

(And anytime you have the opportunity to get more eyes on your work, for free under a non-exclusive platform, you really should take it in my opinion.)

[nekhcore]

ah, then i must have misunderstood something from another thread.

[BobbyjoeX]

there is another site called GlobalComix

it is quite new (needs more traffic) but it is another good place to mirror your comic

[Cavechan]

People mentioning that you can only upload one page at a time on SmackJeeves... did you just completely miss this or....? You can literally upload a ton at once, though you do have to "Choose File" for each once since there isn't a drag and drop option (actually might be a good suggestion to bring up to the admins).

(I don't know why it says it's "new" though. The option has been around for many years).

The funny thing is, ten years ago SmackJeeves was THE place to be for uploading webcomics. The sad thing is, they fell behind the curve on keeping the site looking and functioning more modernly so it fell behind and people went to Tapas instead. But now that it's been updated again, it's looking MUCH better. Readership has fallen off though, but the site is still pretty awesome. It also integrates with Patreon too so you can release pages ahead of time as a perk to readers (not sure if Webtoons or Tapas has that? I haven't seen it here and I don't use Webtoons).

As someone mentioned, GlobalComix is pretty awesome too. Downside is that it's very new so it does have low readership, but the layout is nice, has some good options, and it has the option for two different ways of reading comics: page by page or panel by panel and setting up the panel by panel reading is super easy and quick to do. They're also going to have the option for comics to be translated in the future so that will be pretty awesome.

I definitely think that mirroring is the way to go, but you have to make sure your comic will work for the site. Like those shudders long scrolling comics wouldn't work well on SmackJeeves and I don't know about GlobalComix.

[Rochrok]

This makes me wonder if only BL creators are targeted on that site. I was also told to change my cover after they removed my comic from the site. I had two men kneeling, half clothed, and covered in blood. I changed it, granted I like my new cover more, but it was odd that when I began searching around the site I saw a naked woman covered in blood on one of the other comics on the site, and she was displaying way more than my characters. Other than that I had no other problems with the site aside from lack of exposure in comparison to Tapas and Webtoons.

[TheHappySpaceman]

So, what I'm getting from this is that it is probably the wisest, when I am first starting out, to post Eight-Layer Inferno on all three sites. I'm okay with that.

Unfortunately, Webtoon still hasn't sent my confirmation email when I signed up today, so we'll see how that works out, but I'll definitely submit on Tapas and SmackJeeves.

[TapasJosh]

Tapas. Obvi.

[andrew17]

I'm not holding much hope for Comics Sherpa returning. Even the rump site they shifted us onto when they separated us from the main GoComics site has stopped letting me connect to it to upload comics. It's been sixteen months of promises that 'it'll be back soon' now, but I see no signs that anything is actually being done. Tapas is now my primary site.

[ericsalinas149]

I would like to make Tapas my main site but I'm not having much luck getting subs here.