Comic Lab

Should you launch a comic studio — or are you really talking about a comics collective, a shared workspace, or simply collaborating on a project? This week, Brad and Dave unpack what the word “studio” actually means and why adding another layer of branding might make your project harder, rather than easier, to promote. They discuss shared creative spaces, financial partnerships, anthology projects, comics collectives, and why most collaborations work better when everybody knows exactly what they’re signing up for.

They also argue that an anthology generally doesn’t need an umbrella “studio” brand at all. Keep the marketing focused on the book, make the financial responsibilities clear, and be wary of creating an organization that one hardworking person winds up carrying by themselves.

Also in this episode:

• Kickstarter late pledges really work. Dave reports continued pledges long after his campaign ended — but Brad and Dave agree emphatically that you should never advertise late pledges while the campaign is still running. Kickstarter depends heavily on urgency and FOMO.
• Why having more free time can make you less productive. Both Brad and Dave have experienced the strange phenomenon of getting less done when their schedules suddenly open up. They discuss rest, motivation, structure, and learning to shift to other useful tasks when the creative work isn’t happening.
• Dave introduces his “Three Sisters” approach to productivity: when one part of your comics career isn’t moving, switch to another complementary task — bookkeeping, website improvements, promotion, admin work, or another creative project — so the overall career keeps moving forward.
• Susan McTaggart returns! ComicLab’s internationally unverified motivational speaker offers another soul-fortifying affirmation.
• And Dr. Reginald Wigglesby explores Lionel Feininger’s 1906 comic strip Wee Willie Winkie — with exactly the level of scholarly rigor longtime listeners have come to expect.

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.

Is there a limit to how many cartoonists can build successful careers—or is the real limiting factor the cartoonists themselves?

Cartoonists Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett examine the surprisingly vast comics ecosystem, where thousands of creators can cultivate separate audiences without ever appearing on one another’s radar. The market may have room for far more working cartoonists than we realize — but success requires more than artistic ability. Creators must also be willing to learn business, communicate consistently with their audiences, and improve when something doesn’t work.

Also: Brad discovers that his brilliant new idea had already been implemented… by Brad.

ON TODAY’S SHOW

• Is there a ceiling on the number of successful comics careers?
• Why artistic talent alone isn’t enough
• The danger of waiting for Marvel, syndication, or a publisher to “make” your career
• Audience-building isn’t “shilling”—it’s part of the job
• Could 10,000 different Brad Guigars all make a living?
• How niche comics find their “true fans”
• Three essentials for a sustainable comics career
• Why repeated promotional messaging matters
• The Council of Brads
• Do Kickstarter creators owe sales tax?
• Kickstarter Pledge Manager vs. BackerKit
• Dr. Wigglesby: Which comic was the first successful daily newspaper strip?

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.

How do you build momentum as a cartoonist — and what happens when you lose it?

Brad and Dave examine momentum across every part of a creative career: generating ideas, maintaining a productive workflow, growing an audience, and building a sustainable business. They discuss why progress can feel imperceptibly slow at first, how consistent work eventually begins producing its own energy, and why returning after a break can feel like starting a stalled train.

Then, a listener asks how cartoonists should transition between scenes, chapters, and storylines in a collected book. Brad and Dave compare their very different approaches, debate whether a completely blank page is ever justified, and explain how multiple purpose-driven read-throughs can reveal problems with pacing, continuity, page turns, and transitions.

Also: Skunk Watch 2026 continues, Dave considers surrendering his backyard, and Professor Dr. Reginald Wigglesby reveals the completely reliable history behind Little Orphan Annie’s pupil-less eyes.

ON THIS WEEK’S SHOW...

• What “momentum” means in a creative career
• Why momentum takes longer to build than most cartoonists expect
• Creative momentum and generating new ideas
• Using an assembly-line workflow to work faster and better
• Repurposing one comic for websites, social media, books, merchandise, and more
• Building business momentum through Patreon, Kickstarter, and audience trust
• Why old business models can survive on momentum—even after they stop making sense
• Recovering after a creative pause
• Transitioning between scenes, chapters, and storylines
• Splash pages, title pages, narration boxes—and the dreaded blank page
• Conducting separate read-throughs for dialogue, art, pacing, continuity, and page turns
• Reviewing a book in print, on desktop, and on a small screen
• Skunk Watch 2026
• Prof. Wigglesby, The Histories of Sequential Art: Little Orphan Annie’s eyes

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.

How much of a successful comics career depends on being temporarily delusional? Brad and Dave suspect it may be more than anyone wants to admit.

Then, a listener asks about creating a style guide for a comic. Brad and Dave discuss the small decisions that help lettering remain clear, consistent, and easy to read — from spelling out numerals and avoiding hyphenated line breaks to shaping word balloons, using all-caps lettering, and deciding whether “livestream” is one word or two.

Finally, they look back at the pivotal “sliding doors” moments that could have sent their careers in entirely different directions. Dave talks about leaving Mattel, choosing webcomics over syndication, and the friendships that helped him become a better cartoonist. Brad remembers the collapsed newspaper job offer that sent him back to comics, the syndicate pitch that deserved to fail, and the leap that finally made cartooning his full-time career.

ON THIS WEEK’S SHOW...

• Why every creative career requires a little temporary delusion
• What belongs in a comic-specific style guide
• Why Brad spells out numbers in Evil Inc
• Punctuation, abbreviations, and the Oxford comma
• Why hyphenating words inside balloons hurts readability
• How line breaks affect the shape and flow of a word balloon
• All caps versus sentence-case lettering
• Using colloquial spellings without making dialogue difficult to read
• The pivotal decisions that changed Brad and Dave’s careers
• Leaving a secure job to become a full-time cartoonist
• Choosing webcomics over newspaper syndication
• How a community of fellow cartoonists can accelerate your growth

ComicLab is made possible through the support of our Patreon members. Join us at Patreon.com/ComicLab for more than 200 hours of bonus episodes, including our exclusive Pro Tips podcast, and access to the ComicLab Discord community.

Share your thoughts on the ComicLab Confab Line: 1-609-379-3520. We may play your message on a future episode!

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.

Dave and Brad return from the 80th Annual National Cartoonists Society Conference and Reuben Awards with stories to tell!

They look back on ComicLab LIVE and a private tour of the newly redesigned Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum!

Then it's on to the Reuben Awards, where Mark Tatulli finally won the Reuben Award after years of nominations.

But some of the best moments happened between the scheduled events. Brad gets the chance to sit down with 95-year-old cartooning legend Mort Gerberg and hear stories about the golden age of magazine cartooning — including an incredible story about a newly arrived Sergio Aragonés taking Manhattan by storm. Jim Davis shares the story behind Garfield's famous suction-cup dolls, along with his surprisingly strict 25-word rule for writing the strip. And the farewell brunch turns into an exchange of sketches, original art, and some wonderful reminders of why cartoonists come back to this event year after year.

Finally, an old collection of America's “best college cartoonists” offers an unexpected lesson about making a career in comics: You don't have to start out at the front of the pack. You just have to keep going.

ON THIS WEEK'S SHOW...

• ComicLab LIVE at the NCS Conference

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.

Once again, Dave and Brad brought their podcast to the stage at the annual National Cartoonists Society Conference and Reuben Awards. They were joined by Dee Fish, Terri Libenson, and Jamar Nicholas — three cartoonists with very different creative paths and a wealth of hard-earned advice to share.

Dee Fish is a cartoonist, illustrator, and writer best known for Finding Dee, her semi-autobiographical webcomic about navigating life after coming out as a transgender woman. Dee was nominated for a Reuben Award in the Best Online Shortform category.

Terri Libenson is the cartoonist and author behind the New York Times bestselling Emmie & Friends graphic-novel series. Before moving into graphic novels, she created the syndicated comic strip The Pajama Diaries and worked as a writer and illustrator for greeting cards. Her tenth Emmie & Friends book, Seriously, Celia?, arrives in September 2026.

Jamar Nicholas is an award-winning cartoonist, graphic novelist, and educator whose work includes the Leon series from Scholastic Graphix, beginning with Leon the Extraordinary. He also adapted Geoffrey Canada’s memoir Fist Stick Knife Gun into a graphic novel and has spent much of his career teaching and encouraging young people to tell stories through comics. The third Leon graphic novel, Leon and the Big, Big Problem, is scheduled for January 2027.

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.

Today's show is brought to you by Hogan's Alley, the fantastic magazine devoted to comics history, cartoonists, and the art form we love. Visit HoganMag.com and use the discount code COMICLAB10 for 10% off.

Dave Kellett is back from San Diego Comic-Con 2026, and he brought receipts! After 27 years of exhibiting at the show, Dave just had his best Comic-Con ever — including an absolutely bonkers $6,000 Sunday.

But a big gross number doesn't necessarily mean a big payday. Brad and Dave dig into the actual economics of exhibiting at one of the world's biggest conventions: booth fees, sales tax, travel, merchandise, lost studio time, and the advantages Dave has because he lives within driving distance of San Diego. After roughly $19,600 in gross sales, Dave estimates his actual profit at about $11,000.

Then, they get into the stuff you can actually use at your next convention:

This week's episode is sponsored by Hogan's Alley, the fantastic magazine devoted to comics history, cartoonists, and the art form we love.

Visit HoganMag.com and use the discount code COMICLAB10 for 10% off.

Dave had another 15–20 Comic-Con topics he wanted to cover, so we're continuing the conversation on ComicLab Pro Tips with a deeper dive into conventions, exhibiting, merchandising, and Dave's approach to making a convention financially worthwhile. To hear those episodes, join us at Patreon.com/ComicLab.

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.

Cartoonist Fran Sundblad, creator of Tiff & Eve, joins Brad for a wide-ranging conversation about creating character-driven comics, finding an audience on Reddit, and learning when not to chase the algorithm.

Fran traces Tiff & Eve from its beginnings in her sketchbook to a comic that regularly reaches thousands of readers. She explains how Tiff and Eve represent two very different impulses — Tiff as the superego and Eve as the id — and shares a terrific character-development exercise: Lock your character in a room and ask what they do next. If you don't know the answer, you probably don't know the character well enough yet.

Fran and Brad also talk about finding humor in the characters themselves rather than building every strip around a traditional punchline. That approach has helped Tiff & Eve explore Fran's experiences as a trans woman while remaining first and foremost a funny comic about two friends.

In this episode:

Fran's experience offers an especially useful reminder for cartoonists trying to build an audience online: don't confuse attention with audience growth. A trendy comic might earn tens of thousands of upvotes, but the work that builds a lasting readership is the work that gives people a reason to come back for your characters.

Find Fran Sundblad and Tiff & Eve:

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.

Although we typically focus on the bright side of being independent cartoonists, a listener asks us to address the downside of webcomics. We'll talk about time management, burnout, financial insecurity, and reader interactions. Then we realize that all those drawbacks have one very important thing in common — and it's not what you'd expect!

TODAY’S SHOW

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.

Is your Patreon actually growing—or are new members disguising a retention problem? Brad walks Dave through the process of calculating churn rate and shows how one number can unlock a much clearer understanding of a membership business. They discuss subscriber retention, lifetime value, onboarding, well-timed interventions, and how to determine whether advertising or convention appearances are truly worth the investment. Then, Dave asks whether publishing a children’s book page by page on his existing webcomic could finally help him finish it.

Topics include:

You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon

• $2 — Early access to episodes
• $5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.

If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!

Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. He is available for personal consultations. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive. He is the co-director of the comics documentary, Stripped.