December 23rd, 2010

The Snowman Strip I Didn’t Submit, Plus Eating Your Orange Online

by Hilary Price

Not every idea is suitable for the comics page…

Eating Your Orange Online

There are lots of ways to consume comics online, and I need a little help with the first one.   Here are all the options, plus a step-by-step guide to helping Rhymes With Orange ACHIEVE WORLD DOMINATION.

1. Read it on your local newspaper site.

I don’t know many people who read the strip while reading their local paper online, but I’d like you to try it.  King Features Syndicate– the business folks  who sell my strip– have created a back-end site that handles the online comics for  lots of local newspapers.  It is called Comics Kingdom.  Here’s what it looks like in the Denver Post.  Do you have something that looks like this in the online edition of your local paper?  Go check yours out.

There’s a little problem with the site presentation–  Can you find Rhymes With Orange there?  No.  You can’t.

You have to find the extremely subtle “choose a comic” button on the purple rectangle right underneath the Comics Kingdom logo, and click on it. 

Here’s what it looks like when you click it:

Otherwise, you’ll never find the strip– ever, ever, ever.  (Sucky design to the max.)  Now, there is a moving banner of the “most popular comics” toward the bottom of the page that’s always there and catches everyone’s eye.  It’s called “Most Popular.” (Suddenly I feel like I’m in junior high.)  The ONLY way to get onto that “most popular” list is for people like you to FIRST find the strip, click on it, and THEN, vote on it.

So how do you vote?  You vote by touching the the stars below the strip, like rating a movie on Netflix.

Is it a five star strip today or only a two?  It’s up to you and I want you to have fun with it.

If you vote every single time (like I said, vote what you think it is worth),  then it can join the coveted and visible popular list.   Then other folks might actually realize it is there.

So check it out and please be sure to VOTE WITH THOSE STARS.  It’s stupid but important for WORLD DOMINATION.

2. Going to the Rhymes With Orange site

Say you don’t have Comics Kingdom in your paper, that’s ok.  I post the latest strip everyday on my website and you can catch up on the blog and send strips you like via Facebook, etc. I’ve made the site a super easy place to order prints and buy merch. It used to be that I didn’t post today’s strip, but then my editor– who is quite media savvy– came to realize that the folks reading it online are generally not the newspaper reading folks, so we’re not stealing paying customers away from newspapers.

Unlike the other options in this e-mail, there’s no income from people viewing the site, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to come. I like sharing news and I know that not everyone has the elusive Comics Kingdom in their online local paper. Besides, in terms of WORLD DOMINATION, you’ll hear about my successful overtaking here first.

3. Have it delivered daily to your inbox, iPhone, iTouch or iPad via DailyInk

I’m really excited by this. For $19.99 a year, you can have my strip as well as the 100 other features and puzzles King Features Syndicate offers come zipping to your e-mail/smart phone every morning. It’s called DailyInk.com. That way you don’t have to pussyfoot around the internet looking for content– it comes running to you.

What the app page looks like:

What it looks like to subscribe and have it go to your inbox:

The Cartoonist Studio

There’s one other comics-related portal coming down the pike, and while it doesn’t deliver daily content,  they have exciting plans up their sleeve.  At The Cartoonist Studio, you can read about cartoonists– both editorial and humor–  from all different syndicates, as well as check out their actual desks, which is mighty cool.  My page there will be up there sometime this week.  You can also post your own strips in your own virtual studio.

Spot The Cartoonist

This new site will let you know when and where your favorite cartoonists are speaking.  You can get a Twitter feed as well.

If the world domination thing comes to pass, I will certainly let the Spot The Cartoonist site know where I will be presiding.

The Final Wacky Hurrah…

King Features did a wacky  electronic blast-from-the-past holiday card this year.  It’s animated– this is just a still shot of it.  Click on it to see the animation!

Have a happy holiday everyone!