One of the prime franchises in Christmas specialdom is the animation outfit heralded by Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass. Produced in Japan, these animations have lasted through year after year, airing in broadcast, then licensed to cable networks, and are now on DVD and appearing online.

This will be a quick-and-dirty naive analysis of the political leanings of many of Rankin-Bass Christmas specials from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

We start with one of the biggest classics in the Rankin-Bass oeuvre. Based on the Gene Autry song, our theme is “nonconformity saves the day”: Rudolph is shunned by his peers, loved ones, and Santa himself because of a physical “deformity” – a glowing red nose. In Santa’s Workshop, Hermey is rejected by his elf coworkers and bosses because he’d rather study dentistry than toymaking. They run away and form a friendship on the road, run into gold-and-silver (well, really, peppermint) prospecter Yukon Cornelius, and end up on the Island of Misfit Toys.

“One of us! One of us!”

The narrator of this piece is none other than folkie Burl Ives, who chose to work with the House Unamerican Activities Committee to be removed from the blacklist. Perhaps accepting a gig where the red-nosed outcast is proven right was an apology to Pete Seeger?

“Pete, I didn’t mean any harm! Oh god, put down that ax!”

The Little Drummer Boy (1968)

The introduction of Rankin/Bass’ Christmas specials into religious material, and, again, based on a song, turns our little drummer boy into a raging child misanthrope who is kidnapped, his camel sold, and his lamb run over by a speeding chariot. He is motivated by King Token to give “the babe” a gift, of drumming. Because there’s nothing that a 2-hour-old wants than someone drumming right next to him. Apparently, the drumming is so awesome that Baby J heals the lamb, and the LDB gives up his hatred of humanity. Bah.

Geez, a long time ago, this was enough to turn you into Darth Vader. Now Jesus just gets in the way.

Frosty the Snowman (1969)

What, more animation based on song? Sure, why not.

Oatmeal?

Magic may bring Frosty to life, but magicians reject the will of the people. Thankfully, love (in this form, Santa Claus, directed by the magician’s turncoat rabbit) saves the day. Convinced to forgo the hat in exchange for his Christmas gifts, the magician relents, and our resurrected heat-sensitive homunculus survives to flee to the North.

Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (1970)
Surprise, it’s another song-based story. The Burgomeister bans toys for being frivolous; toymakers and play are criminalized. Kris Kringle wanders into town, ready to do no good – he’s giving people fun things! Toy fascism is overthrown. A communist plot? Always with the red suits.

“Gee, that’s kind of a silly law.”

The evil mayor has an exaggerated German accent. Nah, they can’t possibly be referencing anything here.

“Toys are frivolous, impractical, unproductive…”

Kris Kringle is hot for teacher, which leads to marriage, and years later…

The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)

Then 1974 happened. On the secular side, we slap the feminists – they can’t handle things on their own.

We know it’s a sequel because Mickey Rooney and Shirley Booth reprise the voices of the Clauses. We finally move off of basing 30-60 minute specials on holiday songs, and work from a female children’s writer this time. Mrs. Claus decides that, since Santa is too sick, lazy, and frustrated with the apparent lack of Christmas spirit in the world to continue with Christmas this year, that she can take over for him.

Good for her, except that she’s incompetent about it, gets a baby reindeer sick from the heat in Southtown, U.S.A., almost strands two stupid elves in the American South after Santa’s canceled Christmas, and eventually has to call in Santa to take care of some things, while Mother Nature (!) gets her kids Heat Miser and Snow Miser to manage the rest.

On the religious side this year, we slap the intellectuals.

‘Twas The Night Before Christmas (1974)

“Even a Miracle Needs a Hand”, or “Faith Without Good Works is Nothing”. Young nerd mouse alienates Santa, so he won’t come to Junctionville. (What happened in 1974 to make Santa hate Christmas so much?!) Young nerd mouse eventually learns the error of his ways, and apologizes by fixing a clock he’s broken via his out-of-control curiosity. In the end, Santa comes after all. Again.

Did we mention that the human father in this one is a clockmaker? And the mouse father helps him out? And the kid’s name is Albert?

“You don’t know as much as you think because you only think with your head.”

This one still frustrates me about as much as that damned football and the parable of the Prodigal Son. I know, I know, I just don’t quite know how to

Let up a little on the 'wonder why'
And give your heart a try.

“I’m so sorry, I’ll never think and doubt again, Father! Where’s my Wal-Mart credit card? I need to buy presents for everyone!”

Later on, we’ll hit the later period Rankin-Bass specials, which just get weirder. Islands of Old Years, Pinocchio, leprechauns, Christmas in July, and a baby Claus suckled by an immortal lioness. To come.

Just watch them.

Online, for free.

No, seriously.

Well, skip “Red Sleigh Down”.

You know what, you do smell an awful lot like flowers.

Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo (1997)

Merry Christmas Charlie Manson (1998)

Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics (1999)

A Very Crappy Christmas (2000)

Red Sleigh Down (2002)

It’s Christmas in Canada (2003)

Woodland Critter Christmas (2004)

It did start with Christmas, didn’t it?

"The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
...
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;"

– Clement Clark Moore… or not?

Lays his finger to his nose… smokes a pipe… often seen drinking Coke… rumors of a “magic” dust that helps him fit down chimneys… gets more work done in one night than Bowie ever did in Berlin… and we have to leave food out for him after every stop. What’s this guy Santa on?

Silliness aside, there have been some, well, cheerful consumption in Christmas specials.

Of course, there’s the Cookie Monster, who doesn’t let Christmas get in the way of his habit.

My family’s nickname for me during the holidays.

Pac-Man, whose entire life depends on constant use of “Power Pellets” to save himself from “ghosts” that want to “chomp” him, gets Santa’s reindeer powered up to save the day in Christmas Comes to Pac-Land”.

“I’ve never seen Rudolph’s nose so bright!”

Kid Notorious (Robert Evans, producer of Chinatown and Popeye), for example, hates Christmas. He wants nothing more than to escape Los Angeles and go fishing off the coast of Mexico. He leaves his friends-in-need behind: Slash, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon want to sing carols; Midget needs consolation after his WNBA girlfriend dumps him; his housekeeper Tollie Mae needs help raising money to save her church.

Never trust Midget with the ether. “DON’T LOOK AT ME!”

A Mexican jail, desert hallucination-dream, and return to LA later, the Kid holds a telethon to save Tollie’s church, and a miracle! It snows in LA! But… is it snow?

“There is something about the Christmas season that makes a man want to return another man’s cocaine.”

Even good ol’ Billy Burroughs got in on some Christmas scoring, with “The Junky’s Christmas”, a short animated by Nick Donkin (whose work you may remember in the music video for Alice In Chains’ video for “I Stay Away”) from the Interzone short story.

“I got a legitimate condition!”

Danny can’t score on Christmas – he’s got no money, the docs won’t give him a script, there’s nothing to steal, no dealers in sight. What’s a guy to do to get a fix? Maybe… a Christmas miracle?

“Legs… legs.”

Me, I’ll go back to scarfing cookies.

Who doesn’t want video games for Christmas?

Who doesn’t want video games in their Christmas specials?

You see, sometimes a princess needs saving. Sometimes it’s poor children. And sometimes it’s Santa Claus.

Superheroes and electronic saviors are a nice counterpoint to the EVIL ROBOT SANTA or those working for similar aims. Remember the time Santa crash-landed in Pac-Land, and had to explain who the hell he was to the freaked-out citizens of that particular video game village?

Or that time when Dr. Robotnik kidnapped Santa and replaced him? And demanded the kids give him presents? And Sonic had to save him?

Yeah, maybe this is why Sega went under as a console maker.

Of course you don’t. That’s stupid. Why all the tie-ins to franchises that just DON’T MAKE SENSE?!

Oh, right, money. Sales. Video games are huge Christmas gifts.

Let the video game festivities continue:

Donkey Kong Jr.: A Christmas Story (1982) (1 of 2)

Earthworm Jim: For Whom the Jingle Bell Tolls (1 of 3) (sorry, crunched video)

And, last, but not least, Mario and Luigi try to teach cave people the meaning of Christmas. In the middle of August.

“These my toys, Koopa dude!”

You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

Sometimes children are naughty; sometimes they are nice.

Sometimes Santa is naughty, too. In the far future, Santa has been replaced (secretly defeated??!) by a HIDEOUS ROBOT OF DOOM, RAINING DEATH ON ALL IN ITS PATH!!!

The final result of our capitalist domination of a religious tradition: “moral” behavior rewarded by mystically-granted materialism. Wait, haven’t we heard this before? (Wait, I’m confused.) Eventually, technology enforces this structure, resulting in out unforgiving robot Santa overlord. No one is good enough.

In Futurama, Xmas (pronounced “Ecks-mass”) is dominated by a Santa whose programming, too strict to reasonably judge the “naughty/nice” dichotomy, kills everyone in range on Christmas Day.

“You’ve been NAUGHTY!”

Invader ZIM’s robot Santa is more abstractly menacing: once it overtakes its creator, ZIM, it assimilates all Christmas knowledge into its jolly arsenal.

“Put him in the actually STRONG Jingle Jail!”

An honorable mention goes to “The Tick Loves Santa”‘s Multiple Santa, as he’s human, but electric. And there’s a disembodied animatronic Santa head.

“I may never sleep again.”

Santa’s reign of technological terror is incomplete without his robot minions: hideous laughing animatronic reindeer! This one, from MST3K’s treatment of the terrible Mexican Santa Claus film. This robot reindeer was created by none other than Merlin to aid Santa in delivering toys to deserving children and dispatching the devil Pitch. Sure. Why not.

… there are no words.

The focus on actual robots is a bit simplistic, however. Remember the network built to surveil you and all you love, every waking moment, every financial transaction, every B and every T. Sam?

“Don’t fight it son. Confess quickly! If you hold out too long you could jeopardize your credit rating.”

Remember,

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!

He knows. HE KNOWS!

Ah, Jim Henson. Where would our entertainment landscape be without you?

Jim Henson’s head, in Time Piece

You, Sesame Workshop (previously Children’s Television Workshop), and the Creature Shop brought us so much: Sesame Street, Muppets, Fraggles, The Storyteller, and more.

Most young TV Americans are, at a very young age, introduced to the Muppets via Sesame Street. When I was a wee babe, my first Christmas introduced not one, but two Sesame Street Christmas specials: Christmas Eve on Sesame Street and A Special Sesame Street Christmas. “Christmas Eve”? Awesome. “Special”? Not so much.

Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Part 1 of 9

“Christmas Eve on Sesame Street” has a storyline you could never get away with in 2009: Oscar tells Big Bird that Santa can’t fit down chimneys, so there will be no Christmas. A distraught Big Bird camps out on a roof, all night, to warn Santa, falling asleep on the roof. I cannot stress this enough: Oscar, a curmudgeonly old man monster who lives in a trash can, nearly causes Big Bird, a 6-year-old child, to die of hypothermia. Screw the B arc of Bert & Ernie re-enacting The Gift of the Magi. This is children’s entertainment.

A Special Sesame Street Christmas, Part 1 of 6. If you really want.

“A Special Sesame Street Christmas” has… well, it’s got Anne Murray, Ethel Merman, Leslie Uggams, Michael Jackson, … lots of bad music, nonsensical setups, and not a DVD release in sight. It’s just, well, not very good at all. Maybe the fact that CTW wasn’t directly involved had something to do with it.

Sesame Street gives way to the (more adult) Muppets, who have a host of their own specials. These start with John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together, one year later, in 1979. I hadn’t seen this one until two years ago, actually.

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas introduced us to poor Emmet, his poor ol’ Ma, his poor ol’ friends, and the River Bottom Nightmare Band. Oh yes. Even better than KISS on the Paul Lynde Halloween Special.

The Muppets, as all great franchises, tackled the Scrooge story, in The Muppet Christmas Carol, with Michael Caine as Scrooge, and, um, Gonzo and Rizzo as the narrator. They attempt to parody It’s a Wonderful Life in 2002′s It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. Closest to my heart, though, is A Muppet Family Christmas, not only because of its convergence of the Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggles, and even the juniorizing Muppet Babies, but because of the news voiceover during the credits of the airing I taped in central Florida in December 1987. (You will want to watch this one.) Oh, babies.

A dilemma. What would Animal do? Watch the Truman Capote movie?

Happy holidays!

The American cultural-commercial force known as “Christmastime” now begins its mobilization on November 1. One can’t even wipe the grease paint from one’s face the morning after Halloween revelry without being blindsided by large containers full of cheap decorative holiday trinkets, either at a grocery or convenience store, or personal storage [argh].

Wasn’t there a holiday in between the darkness and the lights? Something more American-oriented than demons and barn-staged virgin births?

Oh, right, the thing with the dead turkeys.

Yeah, Thanksgiving happens in there, and we get a day off of work for it. When I was a kid, watching Christmas specials was verboten until the day after Thanksgiving, no matter how itchy one was for the transition to SOON IT WILL BE CHRISTMAS.¹ A Thanksgiving special, perhaps with Christmas overtones, though, could slip through.

Of course, I only knew of two at the time. However, in the past few years I’ve discovered the type of special that would have bridged me, kept my holiday sanity in check once mid-October caused the birthday and Halloween screams in my gray matter to fade into waiting waiting waiting for November to pass to get to CHRISTMASTIME WHERE ALL THE COOKIES AND CANDY CANES AND SNOW-FILLED CARTOONS ARE.

The first Christmas movie with a Thanksgiving theme I was aware of (one that wasn’t typically viewed in my household, oddly enough) was Miracle on 34th Street, which begins at the first special event I was aware of: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade [warning: the Macy's site is absurdly Flash-heavy and loud]. Now, we always watched the (end of the) Thanksgiving Day Parade, which concludes its franchise-balloon-and-pop-music extravaganza with Santa Claus ushering in CHRISTMASTIME WHERE PRESENTS WILL BE BOUGHT FOR ALL THE GOOD CHILDREN AT MACY’S AND OTHER FINE RETAILERS. (Side note: Anyone remember last year’s parade, where the entire country was Rick-Rolled? Thanks, Foster’s.) But live-action movies and parades are not animated, are they? We move on.²

“Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” Rick-Rolls the 2008 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Many favorite comics and cartoon characters appear in the parade every year: this time we have such luminaries as Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse. Even Beavis & Butt-head got in on the Thanksgiving Parade commentary, in 1997, with Kurt Loder at MTV.

“Woah! I just got an idea of something you could could do with those dolls, Butt-head!”

Ground Zero for animated Thanksgiving specials is, of course, 1973′s A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving contains misinformation, browbeating, canine hallucinations, and avian cannibalism. Funmania.

Charlie Brown replays the common Thanksgiving legend of what it’s like to be invaded by strange people and have to feed them because they’re too dense to realize the imposition.

Speaking of imposition, I declare the Star Wars Holiday Special a Thanksgiving, not Christmas, special, since it was aired the Friday before Thanksgiving in 1978. This, and the focus on cooking. For hours. In Wookieese and Tim Conwayese (which may, sometimes, be harder to understand). No matter; we all know that Boba Fett was introduced to the world in an animated piece in the Holiday Special. We’re aware of its status.

Above, Tim Conway; below, Boba Fett. “And I thought they smelled bad on the outside!” Images courtesy Stomp Tokyo.

Of course, you can find endless information about the SWHS online. I’m a bit more interested in the video version of The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, which features Daniel Pinkwater’s 266-pound Henrietta, a motorcycle drifter mutated into a heroin-addicted fowl-headed monster, killing junkies to drink their horse-infused blood.

No, wait, that’s Blood Freak.

“But Herschel, what will the children look like?” Image courtesy badmovies.org.

Henrietta, though, is a mutant chicken of SCIENCE!, and a young friend of Christmas viewers everywhere (little Ralphie, here named Arthur Bobowicz) takes her under his wing while failing the seemingly simple task of going to a grocery store to pick up a Thanksgiving turkey. You see, there’s an oil shortage AND a turkey shortage in early ’80s Hoboken. They seem to have a Kotter infestation, though, as Gabe Kaplan seems to be everywhere at once while running for mayor to oust Dick Van Patten, and Henrietta-on-the-loose becomes a political pawn. Ooh, baste us in the local giant-chicken intrigue!

Henrietta terrorizes Hoboken. Yeah.

Seriously, though, it’s terrible.

As terrible as South Park’s forays into Thanksgivingdom? Starvin’ Marvin or Helen Keller! The Musical good enough?

Finally, MST3K Turkey Day clips makes waiting for Christmas bearable. (And waiting for MST3K Christmas episodes unbearable.)

Next up: HENSONMAS, where we celebrate the ridiculous sounds and motions of pieces of felt.

Notes:

1 This was in Florida, though, so it could have just been November mosquitoes and ants covering my body, as they did 11 months out of the year.

2 I should note at this point that, although I am focusing on animated, i.e. cel, stop-motion, and CG, specials, I am making a special exemption for puppets. Silhouettes and balloons are puppets, dammit, and will show up from time to time, as well as (of course) Muppets.

Regardless, I feel the need to poke my head around here once more, albeit in a different capacity. Inspired by the illustrious Raina Telgemeier, of Smile, X-Men: Misfits, Comics Bakery, and All-Around Awesome Person, I’ve decided to revive the stagnant SAC Blog to prime myself for the joys of the fantabulous funitude of the “holiday” season. The Telgemeister¹ mentioned on some-or-another social networking site that she is the proud owner of many, many animated Christmas specials. As I do not believe I’ll be viewing many specials this year (due mainly to a drastic uptick in the ratio of work needed to finish my dissertation vs. time left to do so) I feel the need to at least talk about them.²

This being the Sequential Art Collective³, for the thirty days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I plan on expounding ridiculously on the animated Christmas specials of my childhood, highschoolhood, collegehood, and more-recenthood – some you may have enjoyed in the past, some you may have never heard of, some you may be downright terrified knowing you were in the same room as a computer with a hard drive containing them.⁴

Some of you, no doubt, don’t give a crap one way or the other. Eh, I say to you. Eh.

Whatever your religious background, political and socioeconomic ideals, or ability to metabolize glucose and lactose, the “Christmas season” is an extraordinary force in American lives come November 1. I intend to ENJOY it. At 12, 15, 24, 25, or 29.97 frames per second, depending on the source.

1 She should shoot me for using that name. I expect candy cane bullets in my jolly old heart when next we meet.

2 Yes, this is how damaged and OCD I am about Christmas specials.

3 As a side note, what’s more sequential arty and Christmasy than an Advent calendar? This is, that’s what. Shut up.

4 And looking worriedly at me next time you see me and anything resembling gingerbread in the general vicinity of one another. Gingerbread…….

This week should bring my musings to a close on the subject of empathy. I’m sure I’ll return to it at a later date as my conviction remains that it is our brightest blade as writers and as human beings. An elderly bong smoker in the Haight once said to me that she believed the greatest enemy to the modern world was the lack of imagination folks have nowadays. The use of our imaginations enables us as writers to go into perspectives we can’t accept and gives us a basis for attempting to understand the motives of those we disagree with. It is the basis for empathy.

I had never thought about it but perhaps one of the reasons that our culture gets so galvanized is this dearth. Using our mental facilities to “walk in another’s shoes” has fallen out of fashion. I guess we fear presumption and pretension more than we fear emotional isolation. We are more willing to accept that we can never truly know anyone than face the possibility that we are all more alike than is comfortable for us.

We can’t conceive of solutions to huge problems so we reject any attempt at resolving these problems. We hide behind words and ideas instead of using them to reach out.

To stand against the darkness we must sharpen our blades and strike out from a thousand perspectives, granting voices to the voiceless and souls to the monsters. We have a responsibility to go beyond form and structure and into the miasma of the mass consciousness to plumb whatever truths we can from the whole of human experience.

The dredging of this riverbed begins with empathy.

And empathy begins with clothing.

One of the times I have ever felt closest to a stranger was an average day at the gas station in mid-February of one of those years I worked as a sales associate. A woman was pumping gas in the upstate chill that would whip across the western part of New York like a frenzied goblin. She wasn’t wearing socks. I could see her exposed ankles in the inch or two of snow with the traffic lights on the corner bouncing in the breeze.

As I watched her in the cold my ankles became electrically numb. I was inside, warm and toasty, behind the counter with a space heater blowing dry air across my feet and legs. I watched her finish pumping and walk briskly across the macadam to the front door. My ankles were buzzing as she slapped down her money and left the station without saying a word to me.

Since that day I’ve made a conscious effort to try to understand clothing (or in this case lack thereof). What does it feel like to wear certain things? How do certain fabrics or colors trail behind the eye? What impression do people believe they are making through the choices they make in attire? How can anyone leave the house in that?

The next time you find yourself people watching (you should be doing a lot of this – they are your subjects after all) make a note of how the clothing feels on someone else’s back. Does that sweater look itchy? Does it look as though it might chafe the skin? Are their sleeves rolled up like our President’s or do they keep the cuff buttoned even in the hottest weather? Ties or tee shirts? What army is their uniform from?

If you are very lucky, you might have a moment like mine where you feel absolute clarity of connection. You may not know where the mind is or how to change a tire but you will know with utter conviction (because you feel it yourself) how stiff that dude’s collar is. It will creep around your neck like a snake and it will coil and uncoil with tight rapture as you think to yourself that it is August and maybe it’s time to unbutton at least the top button.

Jared Gniewek has worked in the music industry as a back line technician, performer, and promoter. He has also been a freelance writer whose work can be seen in the recent re-launch of Tales from the Crypt and heard on The Dark Sense, an audio anthology of the macabre  — http://www.earstage.com/darksense.htm.

Although this topic has been covered by many before, I would like to give my personal opinion about the dont’s and no no’s in making a web comic. More importantly, I want to share my ideas about what makes a bad webcomic (because we all know that there are tons out there on the interweb). You can take this in however you want: for your amusement or for your own edification. You, of course, can choose to disregard what I say since I’m just another random person spouting my ideas from my digital soap box but as a relatively successful creator and as someone who prides herself as knowing a thing or two about webcomics, I hope you take the time to carefully consider the points I will make.

Before I get into it though, I just want to mention that my presence on this blog will be spotty from now until January. Currently I’m studying for my PhD oral examination, which requires studying six days a week for 6-10 hours a day. I’ll try to contribute when I can but I’ll most likely need my free time to rest and draw my own comic, C’est la Vie.

Anyway, here’s a basic rundown of what I think makes a crappy webcomic and also how to prevent yourself from making one:

1) Bad web design- if the main page is completely incomprehensible, meaning you can’t even find the comic or have easy access to your feature’s archive, you’re going to have a hard time getting and maintaining readership.

2) Lack of regular updates- regular updates is absolutely key in making a successful webcomic. Even if you can only draw your comic once a week, make sure you get that comic up there like clockwork. Otherwise, you will lose the interest of your audience. You will also not come off as someone dedicated to their creation. If you don’t care, why should anyone else?

3) Ideas that are forced- just because you sense an unfilled niche in the webcomics world, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should go fill it. Write something that means something to you and comes naturally, even if it’s “another” gaming comic or slice of life strip about friends and their crazy adventures. Forced ideas beget forced writing and it’s painful and embarrassing to read.

4) Similarly, don’t force yourself into a popular niche to try to become popular. For instance, if your only goal is to be the next Penny Arcade,your work may end up looking derivative and poserish.

5) Bad art and bad writing don’t mix- collaborate if necessary. As you probably know, two people are responsible for Penny Arcade. Gabe draws, Tycho writes. Their combined efforts have a wonderful outcome. At the same time, bad art does not necessarily kill a comic if the idea behind it does not require significant levels of artistic skill. You don’t read XKCD for its art- you read it for its clever writing. Bad writing is harder to cover up, but if your art is pretty enough you still might get a following… but bad art and bad writing together? It’s a recipe for the perfect storm.

6) Listen to critiques and don’t get defensive- it’s the only way you’ll know if your art/writing is “bad” and it’s the only way you’ll get better. Develop a thick skin and remember that most of the time, people are out to help you improve. Join a webcomics community and ask other budding creators for their opinions.

7) Read through your scripts, edit, and make sure you like what you’ve done. Basically, be critical of your own work. People can see when someone puts effort into their creation versus someone who lazily slaps something together. No one is entitled to automatic praise. Most of the time, you have to work for it.

8 ) Have a clear idea of what your comic is going to be about before you start posting them online. It’s ok if your story and characters change gradually over time- creating, after all, is a dynamic process. However, if you abruptly alter the direction of what your comic is about two months into it, it’s a bit distracting and a turn off for many readers. Embrace the developmental process: sketch out your characters and think about what kind of story you want to do beforehand.Don’t have a schizo-comic (unless of course, that’s the point of it).

Most importantly, however, do enjoy making your comic. As cliché as it may sound, if you love what you’re creating that’s the most important thing. Screw the naysayers and live the dream!

Jennifer M. Babcock holds her MA in art history and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Egyptology from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, where she is also known as a comics scholar. A creator herself, she is the artist and writer behind C’est La Vie, which is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate and available at http://www.gocomics.com/cestlavie.