What do you guys do for extra content?

[Caro]

My extras for social media are usually strips and random artwork that I think looks good enough to potentially share. I try not to post too much stuff on social media that’s heavily reliant on previous knowledge of the work because social media functions best when people are actively sharing the work— not just liking and commenting. So I don’t like posting anything that needs context or relies on the assumption that all of my followers actively read my work.

For Patreon, I mostly just do early access once a week (varies from 4-6 pages a week vs. the maybe 1-2 posts per month on socials) and then also any drawings or paintings I made that week as well. Most people are there for early access though.

[xstarx07]

Sometimes I make memes/little animatics or trading card-esque illustrations of my characters as extra content. For episodial content, I also do q&a's - had to postpone the 2nd one though - and I have an intermission planned, which is more of a non-canon filler scene (It won't come out until I'm ready to work on my next chapter, since I'm a little too busy irl)

My favorite to do as of right now are the intermissions and animatics, since they're done pretty quickly! :3

[darthmongoose]

I do a variety of extras, and things I've done before include:

Mock in-universe textbooks and similar to explain the magic system in more depth. There are some things that readers don't vitally need to know to follow the comic, but some people do ask about because they're curious, and it'd feel weird to have the characters in the comic whose job is doing magic talk about it, so I stick it in extras. This is one of my faves because it's kind of riffing on a certain well-known brand of UK revision guides made near my home town, as well as my day job being in STEM-related Edutainment, and it was a fun opportunity to have Rekki and Sarin doing typical schoolgirl friend stuff.

Behind the Scenes bits. Mostly tutorials and extra illustrations. People sometimes ask for these, and they're easy extra content. Stuff like this:

Fanart features. I always make sure to include the cover for the artist's comic in these, and from what I've heard, the most recent one did give people a small, but noticeable bump in subscribers. There's nothing I love more than getting fan art and sharing it, and it's a fairly easy extra to make that also helps talented creators get some visibility so basically everyone wins! Also damn, like how could I NOT want to showcase fanart this good!?

I'd quite like to maybe do a Q&A at the end of maybe chapter 5 or 6. I think people often rush into Q&As before the audience knows the characters well enough to ask interesting questions, so I've been holding off.

[Lady_T_Musings]

There are a lot of good ideas in here!

For me, I do short video updates of the progress made after working on my comic weekly on my Patreon page.

I also, on occasion, do short stories based on folks (usually couples) that exist in the world of my comic, but that isn't related to the main story (since I can't just make a side character and leave them in the background lol).

QnA after each chapter of my comic, natch.

I also have a blog where I sometimes talk about experiences with making art and comics, inspo, and processes.

One thing I've been contemplating is sharing snippets of my codex, but I don't think many folks would be interested in that, alone so I would have to pair it with art to make the info into an infographic. I'm mad verbose and my codex is a full binder's worth of notes and info and I have a physical and digital copy of, and that's not including notes on fashion XD.

[sams_cartoon_shack]

When I publish my daily comic strip, the extras I might add during hiatuses would be timelapses and maybe original prints of my earlier material which would be on Patreon first before being posted on social media.

[powerplantanimations]

Neeeeeeeeeat. I've been thinking about taking music classes.

[AlydaB]

These are beautiful and it's super cool that you make music to accompany your story. The art and music together create an amazing sci-fi atmosphere :]

[MeltingCORE]

@powerplantanimations @AlydaB Thank you both! I really appreciate this. I used to get really nervous sharing my music but the anxiety has gotten better over years past. (Also, @powerplantanimations I would say it's definitely worth taking classes! You can even find some online depending on your genres.)

[powerplantanimations]

@MeltingCORE Which did you take?

[MeltingCORE]

I took piano lessons when I was a kid and then got my first DAW (Ableton Live) at 14. I kinda meandered around on YouTube for lessons on Trance music. Then when I was in university, I took music theory and composition courses as an undergraduate! That really helped bring my skills to the next level. ^.^

[powerplantanimations]

Thanks for the advice! I guess I should try out music theory. Is it hard?

[MeltingCORE]

I personally don't find it too hard! I like to describe it as learning to make your own patterns. I see songs as patterns/puzzles and everything just pieces together in my head.

[powerplantanimations]

Seems like my thing. Thanks for the info!

[SynergyEclipse]

I have a lot of extra content and plans for more in between episode updates!

• Blog posts with trivia and lore details.
• Extra drawings and mini-stories adapted from art challenges.
• A web novel spin-off of extra stories that cover events that the main story didn’t, or cover them from another perspective while providing more about the lore. That spin-off is on Tapas, but the others are on my blog or site.
• Future plans for other pages, such as character bio pages, groups, and locations.
• WIP posts. I’ve been writing these lately with snippets of the production process.

Site: https://synergyeclipse30.neocities.org/90s_Resort/index.html
Blog: https://magicalrenegades.wordpress.com/

One of the extra stories as shown on the site.

Another extra story shown on the blog.

The art challenges sparked many extra ideas to draw and write stories around, which expanded on the lore and some characters’ backstories!

Since my latest episode and my next one in progress make extensive use of 3D modeling backgrounds (and figuring out techniques to blend them in with the art style), I’ve been writing more about that part of the production process, and have plans to consolidate the tips I wrote about into articles! I’ve been learning a lot as I make these!

[system]

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