Scott Kurtz, Halfpixel on ‘How to Make Webcomics’

How to Make Webcomics goes on sale later this month, but CBR managed to track down the book’s authors, PvP creator Scott Kurtz and cabal of webcomickers known as Halfpixel, for a great discussion of why the book is necessary, who it’s intended for and the state of the comics scene today.

“I’ve toyed with the idea of writing this myself for years but always put it off for fear that people would react poorly to it,” said Scott Kurtz of the impetus of producing an instructional book on webcomics. “Maybe I felt it was too egotistical for me to attempt to write some definitive tome on making webcomics. Then we started the Webcomics Weekly podcast and response to it was so overwhelmingly good and positive that we knew that it was time for a book like this. People are hungry for shop talk about making webcomics.”

According to Kurtz and the Halfpixel crew, which includes Brad Guigar (Greystone Inn, Evil Inc.), Dave Kellett (Sheldon) and Kristofer Straub (Checkerboard Nightmare, Starslip Crisis), the book is aimed at people who already have the basic drawing and scripting skills, but want to learn more about the business end of webcomics.

“Newspaper comics are on a very easily charted trend — straight down,” Guigar said. “Webcomics are on the rise. As we say in the book, the days are gone in which one could earn a living through a publisher or a syndicate that held the keys to the mass market. The Internet busted the bottleneck. The entire world is out there waiting to discover your work and they don’t need a newspaper or a bookstore to do it. The only remaining barrier between you and success is yourself.”

Preach on, brother.

How to Make Webcomics is published by Image Comics and will hit shelves later this month.