It is each creator's preference to decide in what format to shape their work.
It isn't weird most creators are considering the possibility of publishing/self-publishing in the traditional medium, so they can receive some revenue for their hard work.
I personally, read on desktop and according to a big poll on twitter, the majority of readers are STILL doing this on their laptops/desktop versions.
As long as a story is legible, I honestly don't think it matters - it's ether compelling enough to make you want to keep reading or not.

Well, you have to remember that not everyone is producing their comic purely for digital. A lot of creators take it to print or want to print it some day. (I sure as heck don't make money off it online so you better believe I'm printing and selling my comic at conventions)

And to be quite honest, I read "book" type comics just fine on mobile? I've never had a problem reading them on my phone. It's just a matter of creator preference--neither side is better than the other.

Honestly I like the comic book format way better. I feel like they have better flow to them.
The mobile formats tend to become a long stream of heads talking to each other with huge blank space between them. Not say all comics are like this, it's just something I've noticed with some of them and didn't like it. There are a lot of really nicely done mobile format ones.

I thought about doing mobile format for a new comic, (because they seem popular) but I don't feel like I could wrap my head around doing it right. Then as people have said, if I wanted to print the comic, I would have to reformat everything for print and that would take a lot of time.

Ohhh nooo....indi artists not conforming to a publishing standard.... how did this happen? Who could have foreseen this??

I actually haven't had too much trouble reading the page by page comics on the phone, tapas mobile set up actually makes it so that page by pages read VERY nicely on the phone, to the point that I like reading those better than the scrolling ones on the phone. Generally what stops me is the font size/type, and this is an issue for a LOT of 'mobile friendly' comics as well.

As an artist I work on both scrolling and page by page comics and the page by page versions do a LOT better on tapastic than the scrolling ones. So clearly people are still reading and preferring that format when given a choice. If the audience and ad rev would start showing something different in regards to the numbers than maybe more artists would be willing to jump on that.

I mean... technically catering to mobile readers only would be 'alienating' the rest of the audience that reads my comics. It just doesn't seem wise.

A lot of people want physical copies of their comics, whether it's the goal of being published or just printing your own. It's hard to scrape together scrolling format panels to make them look good. The composition of a whole page is a skill in itself. Also, to me, a whole page of art is just nicer than scrolling pages, because you can look at it all at once and it's like a piece of art on its own, so it's something I'd rather produce!

Could be just habit tho. The whole history of comics kind of... pushes towards the page format? It's what I'm used to and what I think of when I picture how a comic should look ('cept for like strips in newspaper). Maybe that'll change in time, who knows.

(also for me at least, Tapas isn't the first and only place I post, so I know this place is mobile optimised, but not everywhere is)

I get it, some comics can be hard to read on mobile, and that is where I read most of my comics as well. I can say I don't care either way whether they are mobile optimized or in page layout. Things that concern me the most are legibility. I hate having to keep zooming in and out to read text and I reaaaaaally have to be invested in something to keep with it!

For my own comic, I have it set up to be printed, but...I also try not to have vertical panels often, and the letters are a bit larger to help with readability.

There is no denying that larger and larger segments of users are accessing the web via phones and tablets. It is important from a creator standpoint to think about the primary medium, and primary audience when creating content. So that means planning ahead and setting up print ready pages or making panels in ways that are optimized for mobile.

ehhhhhhhhmmmmmmmnnnnnnggg i dunno. honestly i dont think print will die. aside from the classique nerd who loves to collect their titles, theres something personally very satisfying about Having the comic. its similar to CDs, which still get shifted almost two decades since the MP3. also, publishing houses have the power to print work, and as comics mature as an art form and begin to be taken more seriously, we'll be less and less limited in publisher choices imo.

similarly, i dont think desktop reading will die. i read all my comics (print and web-) on desktop, and people arent gonna grow out of laptops. laptops are here to stay.

also i feel like theres not as much to do in mobile friendly format? i know you can get very experimental, if youve got the head for it, but i see my work here as practice for uni, and my future career, that could well be very print focused. regardless, uni will be looking at the tried and tested methods of comic artists of the print world. its not in my interest to make my comics scroll-to-reveal style, and its not in my interest either; its boring to me.

that all said, obviously it is a good idea to make your comic palatable on mobile. like you said, it can alienate a large chunk of your audience. but i think for a lot of people, making their comic in the style theyre enthusiastic about, which includes the paneling choices, is a priority over popularity. i think it would be nice if people did more with the scrolling, because its there and can be pretty useful, but if someone wants to print then what can they do?

I just tilt my phone sideways. That pretty much solves it for me.

I actually have been thinking about this a lot.
Personally I would like to move to a mobile format (I don't think I'll ever actually print my comic) but... I know a lot of the readers are use to how it is now. At the moment I just put the Mobile Format on Webtoons and leave it as it is here. Besides, I find Webtoons is more Mobile and Tapas is more desktop >_> Least thats how it is among people I have asked.
This could also have a lot to do with the publication of 1 page per week rather than an 'episode' which is what most mobile comics are in.
Any future comics I do I certainly plan to leave the regular book format for more of a scrolling one. But not sure how I'd want to format it (Future problems lol not important now)

Since every comic that NO-Earth produces is destined for print (our first three are out already), mobile is such a small piece of our market that it would be counterproductive to spend the time and money needed to create a version just for mobile.

Eagle
(and it's confusing enough having to keep up with all of the mirror site formats)

it's truly up to the creators to decide what they want to do. I have originally started with print format because.. well.. it was a school project intended to be printed out and shared to class. After that, I moved to scroll formats, because I personally enjoy reading one smooth scroll. I write my newer webtoons thinking that the screen is a window that lets you see a bit at a time, rather than as a simple "display" for a page.

I happened to come by Scott McCloud's thoughts on using the web as a platform for new comics
http://scottmccloud.com/1-webcomics/icst/icst-4/icst-4.html6

click to enlarge

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Honestly, the main reason Aiiro No Kunoichi isn't in mobile format is because smart phones weren't really a thing when I started it, heh. #oldfogeylife

I considered adapting it for mobile format when I started posting it here, but it has some creative panel layouts that would be completely lost in such a format, so I opted to just leave it as-is.

because mobile format is dumb and boring and overused

nah haha I kid (not really about the overused part tho. a lot of people use it and because a lot of people use it for the sake of using it, a lot of people don't know how to use it right)

I have the same reasons as everyone else as to why I do my comics in print format - because I want to print my work. For my other comics like Sociowrath and Uzuki, yeah, they're built vertically, because they're a lot easier to stack vertically and I don't really plan on printing them (and if I do, they're made in a way that would be easy to format into a book). Time Gate: Reaper though needs its horizontal planes, its panel variety, its double page spreads, and its formatting for print.

It would be foolish to believe laptops and such are gonna disappear anytime soon though, at least within our lifetime. You wanna write a novel on a Samsung Galaxy S5?

I think this depends on the comic. If you have a heavily detailed style or lots of dialogue, I would say your readers shouldn't be reading you on a tiny screen.

Actually maybe you guys can settle an argument. My comic is two panels wide and has an incredibly simplistic style and colour scheme with minimal dialogue. It's ultimately supposed to be for English language learners both as a study tool and as reading practice. I think it's OK as it is now on a smartphone screen but my room mate keeps telling me to make it one panel wide.

He double checks my strips on his mobile. He should wear glasses but doesn't.

What do you guys reckon? Gombik Comics7

Desktop reading a thing of the past? Not in my household, buster!
Those little screens are not ideal...no sir.
I get irked when I see people out in public with their faces glued to their phones, especially when it's a group of friends together. It's a silly sight, real kodak moments. The notion of catering to that habit makes my blood boil a little bit. I refuse. Scrolling format doesn't do it for me anyway. If this limits my audience then so be it.
Old school, baby. I was bummed when theaters went to digital projectors.
Starting to feel old sucks.

I think it is important to note that just recently mobile internet usage surpassed desktop usage, and the trend will only continue. This can be seen from a web developer standpoint in that there is a focus on responsive design, progressive apps, and web apps.

From a user standpoint, laptops aren't going anywhere because it is difficult to do work without a keyboard! But it does seem as though laptops are being relegated more and more to work related functions and less leisure time functions. Even from a commerce perspective, now that web stores are making their sites more mobile compatible users are doing most of their shopping through their mobile.

I think about my own habits, and I only trot out my laptop when I can't accomplish something on my phone or tablet. I even notice this among my parents who only have an iPad and iPhone, and don't even own a laptop. So, whether you like the trend or not the fact is that it is only going to continue to grow.

I think it always important to think about how the end user is consuming your content, and realize with attention spans what they are these days if things are inconvenient to view an audience will go elsewhere. Just something to consider as one tries to balance building a web audience with printing a final product.

Yes I completely agree with you on this. Lately people have been gearing their website more toward a mobile user friendly because mobile usage is in fact becoming bigger and bigger by days. A lot of people I know don't even have a laptop/desktop and do everything they need on their little cellphone. (Some do have laptop, but don't bother to use it because cellphone is just that more convenient) On web design standpoint, we are required to do mobile adaptive and some of our customers don't even care much about the desktop side of thing and focus more on mobile adaptive along with all sort of social media because those are the big thing nowadays.

In the end, it's just a creator's preference to which side of the spectrum they want to gear more toward. Comic isn't as easily mobile adaptive as a website with flexible coding, so sometimes it's a choice of either or, can't be both.

Me personally I find vertical scrolling format has been great for me, and even those readers that seem to only enjoy manga page seem to be okay with mine. (Granted I don't overuse the white space and I still work on my comic page - by - page, each page just has less panel than an average manga page) I think with this method, if I want to print my comic in the future, it shouldn't be too much of a problem (Maybe it will be a tad more page than the average comic, but hey)

Thank you for this I understand you're trying to look at this industry practically, and honestly, I agree with you in many ways. I read manga and webtoons on my phone mostly. Sure I have a physical manga collection (which I love), but I've also spent money on webtoon sites like Lezhin or supported people on patreon. I want to make comics and help the industry grow, and if it means printing my comic is a lower priority then so be it.

No no, not notifications of a series updating. I get those. I'm talking creator-end notifications about new subs/likes/comments on my series and when other creators post something on their wall. I hate having to wait until I get home to check all that.

I designed mine specifically for print because I plan to actually print it and sell at cons, its also drawn mainly traditional so I don't want to make any kind of weird chopping edits to some parts, and I don't feel like going back almost 70 pages already just to reformat it for mobile when I could be working on a new page instead.

There are a few comics that are obviously made JUST for mobile and they are impossible to read even on a tablet. Scrolling for inches just to find a panel is UGH.

Yeah, I think most series post book formatted pages because they intend on print/publishing them. There are a handful of creators though that offer both a mobile version and a page format version. That's a feature I've offered for years with my series, and a lot of reader appreciate the option of both. Some just prefer it one way over the other. :shrug:

However, I do agree with your points that when reading on a mobile device it's more convenient when it's already formatted to be read easily there. And honestly, Tapas shares that feeling as well since there was an announcement a few years back that mobile friendly series get featured and highlighted more than non-mobile friendly series. I'm not sure if this is still the case since that was a while ago, but it's suck with me at least so I continue to offer my series both ways.

As a creator my main goal has always been to create something I enjoy making, so I chose my format to suit my personal taste and not what will get me most readers. I know it's smart to have a mobile friendly comic these days, but I personally find the format to be very limiting. I like the flow of a regular page format and the size gives me more space to work with.

I've been reading online comics for who knows how long (since 2003 maybe?) and I've had an online comic before this one that I hosted on a site of it's own. So, actually for me it was quite a new experience to post my comic on a hosting site. Anyways, I've been a fan of online comics for a long time and I still read on desktop rather than on mobile. I only use mobile for checking comic updates when I'm out of town. I can understand why a lot of people use mobile to read comics, but I don't think it will replace desktop reading completely any time soon. Especially since so many creators still prefer the print format.