How to make a webcomic site like XKCD?

[ChildrenofGod]

I have some ideas for comics and I'm learning to create a website to showcase my works like XKCD. Is there a template? Something that's sustainable in long term and simple to implement?
Thank you.

[Xanthir]

WordPress is the common solution. It's easy to build, there are lots of services to get it running for you, and there are a number of webcomic templates.

Another popular alternative is to just use Tumblr, but that kills your ability to have good permanent URLs, and large-image uploading on Tumblr has a host of issues. I'd avoid this imo.

[madaco]

WordPress is the common solution. It's easy to build, there are lots of services to get it running for you, and there are a number of webcomic templates.

Another popular alternative is to just use Tumblr, but that kills your ability to have good permanent URLs, and large-image uploading on Tumblr has a host of issues. I'd avoid this imo.

iirc there's a thing to set up a tumblr blog to display at some other domain built into tumblr, not just as a "embed it with an iframe" thing, but I'm not sure.

Not that I'd necessarily recommend tumblr for a webcomic. I probably wouldn't?

There are also websites specifically for hosting webcomics, which have the webcomic forwards/backwards/first/latest thing built in?

Some of those are free.

I don't know whether a person would think of them as more or less professional than a wordpress site on average.

[ChildrenofGod]

Thank you for all your advice.
If I want to build my own website, then how do I create the backward forward buttons and other stuffs? I want to do this long term, so I would like something more individual.

[jestingrabbit]

WordPress is deeply customisable.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/webcomic/

Seriously, there's a link to the beginners guide there, check it out.

[Xanthir]

And the underlying website is by far the least important part of your webcomic. You can design something custom later if you want, but spending time/money learning web dev (or paying someone else to do some dev for you) is not justifiable here at the beginning. Just get something up quick that works; Wordpress satisfies that just fine.

[KnightExemplar]

Honestly, just posting things on reddit + imgur and keep an archive for yourself until you're positive you've got an idea of what you want to do.

The whole "website" thing will cost you money (domain name, server space). Its also one of the less important things to get right. I've heard of webcomic communities where artists get together to help share these sorts of skills with each other... but until you get a good feel for drawing and style, its best to just post stuff up regularly on /r/funny or something.

[ChildrenofGod]

If I use the Wordpress plugin, then, in the future I want to create an online store like XKCD's, is it possible to integrate the store into the Wordpress site?
Thank you.

[KnightExemplar]

If I use the Wordpress plugin, then, in the future I want to create an online store like XKCD's, is it possible to integrate the store into the Wordpress site?
Thank you.

If you're at the level where you're asking this question, you are definitely not prepared to be trusted with people's credit card information. Unfortunately, it is too easy to run a store. It is grossly irresponsible to request credit-card information from your hypothetical users unless you have some degree of web-security knowledge... and if you have such knowledge, you wouldn't be asking these basic questions.

If you ARE going to go that route, I'd suggest moving along the lines of Dwolla, or some other full-service payment processor. Its relatively difficult to screw up with Dwolla from a web-security point of view (worst case scenario: your user's Dwolla public information is leaked, which isn't bad at all). Of course, you still have to deal with the morals and ethics with regards to taking people's money and shipping them products quickly and on time... but at least a full-service payment processor solves one issue.

If you want to work with credit cards, you're gonna have to figure that one out yourself. There are similarly full-service payment processors that can deal with credit cards. But I feel like I have a moral obligation to prevent newbies from handling credit card information.

[Derek]

So does no one use Deviant Art for this sort of thing anymore? I don't move around art circles, so I wouldn't know, but it seemed like it used to be the place for this sort of thing.

[KnightExemplar]

So does no one use Deviant Art for this sort of thing anymore? I don't move around art circles, so I wouldn't know, but it seemed like it used to be the place for this sort of thing.

Lol, I'm not an artist either. But Deviant Art was the home to many non-regular webcomics I used to look at. It still seems to be one of the biggest artist social networks on the internet, and probably is a great place to start. I'm not an artist in any way though, but Deviant Art is definitely a top recommendation from me.

[johnypea]

Either wordpress, or if you want to code the site by yourself use something like Flask.

[TvT Rivals]

There are / used to be sites like SmackJeeves, Drunk Duck and Keenspot.