What are good Episode preview images / thumbnails?

[ameoname]

Hello ^^

→ How important are the Episode preview thumbnails for you guys? I mean do you care about the images in a sense that you would actively decide to start reading a page based on its Episode preview pic?
Currently I'm using the previews from a strictly structural point of view. What I mean by that is that I would paste the same preview pic "Chapter 1" for all Episodes belonging to the frist chapter. I like it because I can see at a glance where a chapter starts / ends. But then again I also write the chapter's name + number in the Episode title...
And today I checked out Tapastic on a tablet ("10) and there comics don't display the latest page automatically like in the desktop view. I can only see the Episode pics and since they're not showing any parts from the actual pages I could imagine some readers would feel a little bit lost (which defeats the purpose of my strategy to upload the same pic for all Episodes belonging to a chapter XD).

I don't have a smartphone (I live in the stone ages, sorry XD but soon things might change O_O) and unfortunatelly the Tapastic app won't install on my Tablet (it says "No eligable devices found") so I can't see how things look in the app. I'm guessing only Episode thumbnails as well?

So, what do you think? How important are the Episode preview pics? Do you need / want to see parts of the actual Episode page in the thumbnail?

PS: In case you want to see what I mean here's a link to my comic with the cloned Episode preview pics.

[69Michi]

Personally it's not the episode cover pic that makes me wants to read a comic, it's usually either the synopsis or the series cover pic.With that said, I don't really care about the episode pic and what you have on it, but often than not I rather it's a sneakpeek of the actual episode page rather than a line of same cover pic one after another. I guess it just looks more diverse and interesting for me when you put all the episode preview images in a line? But I understand why a lot of people choose the other method, cleaner and more organized LMAO

[indagold]

I thought about doing a fancy episode pic but I have a comic that's 500+ pages long and it would be crazy just to design an image for each iteration. I just upload a comic page for the image. And I don't think anyone cares much.

[spadesart]

For my comic I crop thumbnails from the actual pages. I'm probably gonna have to start deleting them though because they'll eventually take up a lot of space on my computer :0

[blackopsracing321]

What I mean by that is that I would paste the same preview pic "Chapter 1" for all Episodes belonging to the frist chapter.

I do the same as you. I just use the a smaller version of the chapter cover for episode thumb nails.
Like for instance this is chapter one's cover thumb nail and I just label the episodes (ex. Chapter ONE pg1-3)

While reading the episode thumbnail isn't really a deciding factor for me. If I clicked on the series I'm already committed to read at least some of it.

Although I have seen some people make their episode thumbnails make one bigger image when viewing the episode list, which is pretty cool.

[ameoname]

thanks fo the answer ^^ By synopsis you mean the whole comic's synopsis not the "Episode description" that can optionally be added, right?

[69Michi]

Yes yes the whole comic's synopsis,, like the one you have here:

I would definitely stick around if the sypnosis/summary catchs my interest!

[ameoname]

ah ok! is it possible to just upload an image in the wrong dimensions (like the page it belongs to) and crop it afterwards or do you crop your images beforehand? It's of course more work to do individual thumbnails (>.>)"
@stnmaren dear lord, how many thumbnails do you have O_o You busy bee (do people say that in English? XD)

[ameoname]

aaaah "abducted" O_O we have almost the same titles for our first chapters (highfive) XD
Yes, the bigger image thing is pretty cool, but if it doesn't give me any infos on the content of each episode I don't really need it. My chapters are a bit too long for that too XD

[ameoname]

thank god you mean the comic's synopsis! a description for every episode (page in my case) would've been.... a lot of work.

[indagold]

it does it for you, thank god.

[ameoname]

it does it for you, thank god.

uhm. what exactly? I aksed if images have to be cropped beforehand. But I'll just try uploading the same page as the episode as a thumbnail and see what happens Monday, when I upload my next page ^^

[isaacfriedman]

I honestly don't think mine are very good... how can I improve these?

[indagold]

the site crops it itself.

[spadesart]

I have about 16 right now, 32 if you count the thumbnail I use for the tumblr update links. I kind of like that it adds a little personalization to it though :v

[ameoname]

ooh so you have a tumblr for your comic? or at least a tumblr where you post links to Tapastic. I'm thinking about uploading my story on tumblr too, but I allready have a homepage and Tapastic so I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

[spadesart]

It'll definitely boost viewership at least a little bit if you have a good number of followers. Mine's here: http://spire-comic.tumblr.com/

[ameoname]

ok, so it's notifications only on your tumblr.
You suggest not to upload the pages themselves then O_O

[joannekwan]

I have a separate tumblr for my series Demon House, it has a decent number of followers, but no where near as many as here on Tapastic despite the fact that I first uploaded it there.

[ameoname]

hi Joanne
uhm, is there any special tag one has to use on tumblr? I'm not sure how anyone should ever find the comic on tumblr (tumblr is a mysterious place for me). or are there like some webcomic promo reblogger tumblr?