What are your thought on Anthology Comics?

[nixxusnibelheim]

I'm asking this because I don't see a lot of webcomic artists diving into this style of storytelling, is it because of a lack of interest from the public and creators?
I do notice a lot more anthology series tho' (Love Death & Robots, Electric Dreams, Black Mirror etc).

I have 5 horror stories outlined (more in my head) that would fit well as short one-shots (they are set within the same universe). It's basically a way for me to put out "pilots" and see what sticks.
I'm a bit on the fence to do it because I don't know if I should develop those stories to be a fully-fledged series (which is what everyone consumes and I also love the idea of pushing those one-shots) or stick to my gun and do something more risqué

[skicoak]

Did someone say ANTHOLOGY?!?

That's what our crew does. We mainly decided to go that way for some logistical reasons but we also dug the freedom of the format.

Growth has been slow but the people who support us seem to dig what we're doing.

The current market doesn't seem as big on anthologies but remember these things always go in cycles. There were multiple times in the American comic scene that they had significant market presence. Considering that webcomics are an emerging art form, it's likely that all the naysayers about their potential are only guessing based on a limited sample size.

If you wanna dance to a different beat, then dance to it. We don't all have to shuffle to the top 40.

[ben]

As far as print comics go, anthologies are usually a means for people to break into the industry in some capacity. They get an opportunity to have some notice by the publishers who put them out and the editors who work on them. Lots of people get offered work out of em!

But as far as webcomics go it seems like the immediate audience tends to be more drawn to long format stories to engross them over long periods of time. But that doesn’t mean this specific niche doesn’t exist! And the more people get turned onto webcomics, the more people looking for that type of content are going to find your work!

I’ve been kind of passively working on a horror anthology myself for a few years! I actually think that the anthology format works stupid well for horror in any medium! And it does give you a lot of space to experiment and decide what you really want to work on in the long run even if the long run is continuing with short stories!

[faeriesandents]

What we've found with doing anthologies ourselves (we literally just announced one today), is that you can see a lot more of what artists have to offer, and give them a bigger chance of being published.

As we've tried to find anthologies to enter ourselves, there's a ton of ways you can go at it: from a single writer thinking up a world setting and letting other artists and writers fill it up for themselves, to just having a simple theme for artists to follow. (Like we are too)
Last way I saw someone do it, was with a writer's short stories being drawn by several different artists into one big book.
All of them are very valid and damn good IMO

Honestly putting together a webcomic anthology series would be AWESOME in my eyes, and give a lot of new viewership to webcomic creators. If you're thinking of starting on this, please do! You'll make a lot of people happy I think.

[vfinnigan]

My first published comicbook work appeared in anthologies. I've got nothing against them.

[nixxusnibelheim]

@skicoak I saw that your team has been at it since 2017, first of congratz! Second, in your experience did you felt the need to adapt one of your story in long format ? Maybe to bring more eyes to the anthology?

@ben That's good to know! That's actually why I'm interested in working more on short stories more than long one, to build some sort of credential in case a publisher is looking at my work
Also since I'm more drawn to create horror stuff, I do feel like the shorter the better. The more time you spend telling a story, the less your audience get impressed by the source of the horror.

@faeriesandents I saw your post and that got me thinking, that's why I made this thread As of right now, I think I'll be doing the anthology all by myself but having a team seems fun as well!

[faeriesandents]

It really depends on what you want to do, too ^^

Our intention is to get other people in on the fun and so we'll only be publishing under our name, but the stories will be all theirs around the theme. Using several stories of your own that would fit in the same world/universe/setting/theme are just fine too!

Go make something epic \o/

[JRHoch]

Someone mentions anthology and you're here like a vampire looking to suck blood.

[borzoiteeth]

That's exactly what my comic, Anamnesis is! I created it out of desperation because I have too many ideas. Most of them were long form and I wanted to get something out, and just... complete it. So I find the main theme of all of these ideas and try to express it in less than 20 pages each. This year I will have 6 stories out instead of none had I tried to keep all these ideas in one large project to be forever edited.

As for why there are so few Anthology works... I'm not sure how much is to blame about a lack of audience. From Shounen Jump, Black Mirror, and so on have quite the fandoms. The trouble I think comes from 1) having the means to pull enough creators together to collab in the first place or 2) most creators (at least, that I've met) tend to only be holding onto one or two stories and they are all long form.

[skicoak]

Second, in your experience did you felt the need to adapt one of your story in long format ? Maybe to bring more eyes to the anthology?

@nixxusnibelheim There's definitely a potential opportunity to adapt one, or more, story arcs/characters to a longer format since their individual mythologies are expanding as we bring back certain characters.

Mainly the issue is logistics. We have some widely varied creative speeds among the creators. We have never reached a point where we can split our resources enough to attempt both.

More eyes on our works would be great...just gotta keep grinding.

Someone mentions anthology and you're here like a vampire looking to suck blood.

@JRHoch Are you sure you're English? You seem more like the French folks I've met.

[JRHoch]

English! Thems fight'n words!

[skicoak]

Thems fight'n words!

I would like to remind you that that your tiny island nation is 0-2 against the States.

One additional note on anthologies...

There's ton of creative freedom in working in the anthology format. You get tired of drawing elves...next story you do robots. Over writing binary speech patterns? Next story arc is in the Victorian age.

Freedom!

[JRHoch]

Ahhh, why the caged bird sings.

[joannekwan]

I mean, Flight was one of the things that inspired me to make comics in the first place. So I appreciate good anthologies.
The only downside is seeing comics/artists/concepts you're not as big on appear multiple times throughout the anthology and your absolute favorites only get a few short pages for their work lol.

[ProfessorParsec]

Flight was what first got me into comics, it showed me all the possibilities. I really like them because it's a wide variety, all bundled up into one book you can sit down and read for hours.

As far as digital goes, I've only seen/participated in ones where it's all one story, just different artists. I ran a comic called "The Inheritance" a few years back with 5 other artists, which meant we all could make a comic, but not feel the pressure of having to make something weekly, because we would spell each other off.

Broken Telephone's a really cool take, where each artist shows a similar situation that evolves as each character is a villain and a hero in each story. They all affect each other: http://www.broken-telephone.com/comic/cover