What in the actual dang world is this? ONE page? Yeah, I’m doing a thing.
I was talking with my buddy Todd Webb a couple weeks ago, and I was whiiiining about how I was putting out Cassidy: Biggest Monster, Smallest Planet in a way that didn’t feel exactly right. I was writing stories that were 8 to 12 pages long and breaking them into 2 to 4 posts, but it didn’t feel a person stumbling on a story in progress would really get much out of it. Also, 3 to 5 pages each week, even with the simple style I’m employing for this comic, is a lot. Really cutting into my pottery and Stardew Valley time, ya know?
I also brought up Alec Longstreth’s amaaaazing comic epic, Isle of Elsi, which is published online weekly in one-page increments (he also has one of the best Patreons out there—so much amazing making-of and behind-the-scenes stuff). I wondered if I could simply post one page each week, or if that would feel even more meh to people stumbling onto the comic somewhere mid-story. Alec’s stories are often over 100 pages long, and there’s nothing meh about seeing one page at a time. How’s he doing it?
Todd was like, “Travis, you stupid freaking idiot.” JAY KAY. Todd would never. Todd proposed that I take a cue from newspaper strips. Make each page pay off with a joke or a discovery or a moment that has a bit of punctuation to it. Readers could jump in mid-story and not feel like they’re interrupting. Maybe they’d be more inspired to jump back to the beginning for more. And all together, hey, there’s your story. Dude. Of course.
After that convo, I looked back at the most recent Isle of Elsi pages, aaand there it is. Each page has a little button. A little moment of pop. I don’t know where I lost this lesson, but I’m grateful to Todd for reteaching me and to Alec (unbeknownst to him) for confirming it.
So I rewrote the next story on my list (originally written on vacation this past summer and inspired by my inability to, like, beach), which is the one starting today, to have little payoffs at the end of each page. Not standalone by any means (though I think it would be fun to do some one-pagers at some point), but enough to hopefully snag a reader mid-stream. And I think it could make the stories better. More packed. Peppier pacing. Sooo… here we go? WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY THINK?
By the way, Todd puts out a really good/sweet/funny/thoughtful daily comic called The Poet on Substack. Excellent comic. Very subscribable. Go. Yep.
By the way of by the way, I made a spoopy sounds noise machine a couple nights ago out of a bunch of junk and some piezoelectric pickup parts. I am now available to score your horror films and arthouse sludge. Holler.
See ya in the funny pages, ya dingos!
Hey Travis. Thank you for sharing this story. I resonated with it. Sometimes it's just taking one step at a time. Growing up, I loved reading my one-page newspaper comic. I am also going to take some learning from it.
Wait wait now I want a soopy noise machine...