There are a lot of ways to run a blog promoting your publishing company. Dark Horse uses its blog primarily to remind readers of new product. DC breaks news about its comics and runs interviews with its creators. Top Shelf and First Second talk about their own product, but also make time to discuss books they’re enjoying from other publishers.

One of my favorite publisher’s blogs right now is Hermes Press‘ relatively new one. Since they publish a lot of reprints of classic. licensed material, they not only keep readers updated on their publishing schedule, but also link to news about what others are doing with those same licenses. For example, Hermes is reprinting old Dark Shadows comics, so they’re also following production on the Tim Burton Dark Shadows movie. They reprint Buck Rogers strips, so here’s some news about a Buck Rogers screening in New York. They reprint Roy Rogers, so here are some links to other bloggers who are talking about Roy. It’s a fun blog that doesn’t just promote product; it engages in the larger conversation about the things it’s interested in. Some of the other blogs are doing that too (First Second and Top Shelf in particular), but Hermes is going all out.

What makes a perfect publisher’s blog in your opinion?

Amy Mebberson keeps pretty busy drawing Muppet and Pixar comics for Boom! Studios, and she also has done covers for their standard Disney characters line. So how does she relax after a hard day churning out the cuteness? By turning the dial to 11 and sketching super-cute versions of Barbie and comics characters. Amy has just set up a new blog, Fun Size, to collect her sketchcards and other incidental drawings of cute, rounded, smiling characters. For her everyday sketches, including the sketch covers she did for the Muppet comics at cons this year, check out her other art blog, My Blue Sky.

A coloring page, a comic, and a mini-lesson in gender roles, all in one!

It’s about time someone came up with a blog for three-year-olds, right? Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman broke new ground with a line of graphic novels for “emerging readers,” as they call them, and now they are doing it agai. Benny and Penny and Their Friends features the adorable brother-and-sister mice duo created by Geoffrey Hayes (who won a Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for Benny and Penny in The Big No-No). So far there is a comics panel to print out and color and a word balloon to fill in, and new content is promised at least twice a week.

Meanwhile, Reading With Pictures is coming into the final stretch with its Kickstarter campaign. Headed by Josh Elder, the creator of Mail Order Ninja, RWP is a nonprofit that plans to research the best uses of comics in the classroom, but lest you think they are a bunch of stuffy educators, their Kickstarter project is an anthology with a cover by Jill Thompson and work by Chris Giarrusso (G-Man), Fred Van Lente (Amazing Spider-Man), Ryan Dunlavey (Action Philosophers), Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules) and Eric Wight (Frankie Pickle), among others.

C.B. Cebulski by Tetsuya Aoki

If you follow Marvel’s talent scout on Twitter, you know that C.B. Cebulski is a big fan of food … he’s just as likely to point out a great place to get BBQ as he is to share tips and trick on breaking into the business. Now he’s launched a blog called Eataku, “an online home for people passionately obsessed with food,” where he’s posting restaurant reviews, recipes by Alex Maleev and even food-related artwork, as you’ll see above.

He’s also going to be a guest judge on the Food Network’s Challenge show, where various chefs face off in cooking challenges. This week’s challenge is “extreme villain cakes,” and it airs this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

“Four cake designers tap into their dark side as they create original villains and tell their stories in cake,” says the Food Network’s description of the show. “The cake designers also need to make their creations move or spin or shoot fire — making for a truly extreme competition. The competitor who can wow the judges with both the story and the special effects will take home ten thousand dollars.”

Via ComicsAlliance

A sample Ann Telnaes cartoon. 'Cause I just like her stuff so much

Every couple of days, the blog known as David-Wasting-Paper asks a different cartoonist the same set of questions — what’s your favorite pen to use, what things do you hate to draw, do you keep a sketchbook and so on. The answers are rarely anything less than elucidating, especially if you’re a process nerd like me. More to the point, he’s managed to get quite a few notable folks to fill out his survey, including editorial cartoonists David Horsey and Ann Telnaes, caricaturist Drew Friedman, Mack White, Rick Geary, Carol Lay, Bill Griffith and many, many more. If you’re an aspiring cartoonist wondering what sort of paper and pen nibs to buy, this site would make for good reference material.

Hawkeye by Grace and her Dad

I don’t know how I managed to be so blissfully unaware of 5 Minute Marvels for as long as I did, but my life sure feels richer knowing about it now. The basic concept is simple as can be and rather inspired: Every day, Tim Miner and his two daughters, ages 4 and 6, spend five minutes attempting to draw a different superhero (or villain as the case may be). Then they post it online for all to see, no doubt inspiring sounds of “awwww” in coffee shops across the country.

On the site Miner says he welcomes submissions, so if you’ve got a young’un at home with a talent for drawing, say, MODOK, grab some pen and paper and get crackin’.

Swamp Thing by Bernie Wrightson

Illustrateurs is a relatively new (at least I think it’s new) blog celebrating the work of various top-notch European and American illustrators and cartoonists. Most of the text is in French, but that doesn’t really matter when you’re being offered a wealth of fantastic images like this awesome portfolio of  Bernie Wrightson‘s art.

Dragon Puncher

• The big news of the week is that Top Shelf has not only completely updated and streamlined their Web site, but has also unveiled a whole heckuva lot of new projects for the fall, 2011 and beyond, including new books by Jeff Lemire, Nate Powell, James Kochalka and Chris Eliopoulos. All in all it looks like an interesting line-up, containing a solid mix of all-ages and more adult-oriented material.

• Top Shelf isn’t the only one doing the Web site shuffle. Both Savage Critics and All About Comics have moved/updated their blogs,

• IcV2 offers some more information on Vertical’s plans to publish Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako in the fall.

• Tokyopop is planning to publish Neko Ramen, four-koma (or comic strip) about a cat that runs a noodle shop, and they’re posting sample strips to get folks all hot and bothered.. Look for it in stores in June.

• SLG will publish the debut graphic novel by one Diana Thung, titled Captain Long Ears. Check out our preview from earlier this year here.

• Here’s what the cover to the Essential Superman Encyclopedia will look like.

• And here’s what the cover to the next Zippy the Pinhead collection will look like.

• Author and Jim Flora devotee Irwin Chusid reveals that he may have a new Flora book in the works.

• Ben Catmull posts a panel from the upcoming second issue of Monster Parade. Man, I really liked that first issue. Can’t wait for the next one.

• Nat Gertler reveals that he’s working on a Peanuts Treasury book for Little, Brown.

• Can’t find a copy of last year’s Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror done by the Kramer’s Ergot crowd? Here you go.

• Finally, it looks like Josh Cotter is starting another one of those experimental journal/comics projects. This one seems to be called March Hare.

Perhaps Marvel is overthinking this whole super-spy Nick Fury angle. Perhaps a more sophisticated, retro approach, as suggested by Evan “Doc” Shaner, is warranted in these sullen times. By the way, check out the rest of Shaner’s blog for some more cool DC/Marvel pin-ups, including Fin Fang Foom and Black Adam as a Red Lantern.

Mico's Rocketeer

I’m really digging these two iconic logos the artist known only as The Mico did of The Rocketeer. Enough so that I wish there were more. (via)

I’ve never been a big fan of the X-Men but I’ll be hornswoggled if this collection of papercraft X-Men figures doesn’t seem like one of the better ways to spend a lazy afternoon. That Phoenix figure in particular looks especially fun. (via)

Sketch from Crumb's blog

Indie cartoonist and progeny of Robert and Aline Crumb has her own blog where she’s posting all manner of art work:

Lets just call it Soph’s online page. I don’t care. I will, anyways, be regularly adding sketchbook drawings, more fancy drawings, comics, tattoos, sellable artwork, upcoming news about my art n shit, photos, and comicand random fascinating shit about ME !!! yay !

(Note: images may not be safe for work) (via)

Mark Kalesniko (author of such fantastic and underrated books as Mail Order Bride and Why Did Pete Duel Kill Himself?) has a new art blog up where he’s posting some amazing watercolor pin-ups. (via)

by Henrik Rehr

Jim Rugg, Joe Infurnani, Geoff Grogan and several other artists have formed Pood, a new … something. Actually, they’re having a contest now to decide what exactly “pood” is, so head over there and leave your guess.

Via

by Evan Shaner

Over at the relatively new art blog Comic Twart, the various artists who contribute have spent the week drawing DC’s G.I. Robot character, and the results have been pretty awesome. Above is Evan Shaner’s rendition, but head over there to get a look at everyone else’s.

Meg Hunt's Alice

It’s not really comics, but it’s still too cool not to share. Picture Book Report is a new blog where 15 illustrators create and post scenes from their favorite children’s books, like The Hobbit or Alice in Wonderland, as rendered above by Meg Hunt. Anyone with an interest in illustration and/or children’s books should definitely have this site in their RSS feed. (via)

Julia Scheele's 'When My Boy Walks Down the Street'

Like the Magnetic Fields? Well, even if you don’t, or if, like, me, you’ve never heard a Magnetic Fields song in your life before (I’m deprived, I know) you’ll still want to check out this art blog, created by a group of London artists dedicated to making comics based on every song from the Magnetic Fields’ 3-disc 69 Love Songs. (via)

Art by Jay Fabares

Girls Drawing Girls is a (I think) relatively new art blog featuring female animators and artists doing girlie pin-ups. Though far from explicit, there is some nudity, so it’s a bit NSFW, but if you’ like good girl art, or just good cartoon art in general, it’s worth checking out. They’re also doing a charity art sale to help the people of Haiti right now, if you’re so inclined.

by Mitch Breitweiser

Chris Samnee, Mike Hawthorne, Andy Kuhn, Mitch Breitweiser and several other artists have united to form Comic Twart, an art blog where every week the group will draw a different character. This week’s character, if you couldn’t guess, is Zorro.

But you will have to pay to see it.

The standard model for creator-owned webcomics is to put the comic up for free and make money via ads and the sale of books, T-shirts, and other merchandise. And one of the most influential guides to that model is How to Make Webcomics, authored by the four members of the Halfpixel collective: Brad Guigar (Evil, Inc.), Dave Kellett (Sheldon), Scott Kurtz (PvP), and Kris Straub (Starslip).

In late 2008, Halfpixel took over the domain webcomics.com (previously owned by T Campbell) and reconfigured it as a how-to site for webcomics creators, providing advice on everything from how to draw word balloons to how to build an audience. Guigar is the editor-in-chief and writes most of the articles, with Kurtz and occasionally the others also providing content.

On January 3, literally overnight, Guigar put all the content behind a pay wall and announced that henceforth, readers must pay a $30 annual subscription fee to access it. The internets swelled with outrage, but Guigar pointed out that the site is a professional tool, not a webcomic, and thus of monetary value to creators.

I interviewed Guigar via e-mail about his reasons for the change and his reaction to the criticism that followed.

Brigid: OK, let’s get the obvious question out of the way—webcomics are free, so why are you charging for your site?

Brad: That’s a misunderstanding that I’ve been dreading ever since I decided to do this. Webcomics.com isn’t a webcomics site. It’s a site about webcomics.

In other words, it’s not an entertainment site; it’s a site that tries to help people who want to build their webcomics into a successful business by giving them the tools and advice that they need. I have three other sites that are webcomic sites. Those will continue to operate as free sites just as we discussed in our How To Make Webcomics book—which also must be purchased.

And, in order to continue doing a Monday-through-Friday update schedule, like I have done for the past two years with few exceptions, I had to find a way to make the site generate revenue.

I couldn’t use advertising. The site is very much aimed at a niche market. It doesn’t generate the volume or the type of traffic that an advertiser would find attractive.

So that left subscriptions. Or closing the site so I could direct my attention towards something that was going to give me the financial return on my investment of time that I needed.

I like doing Webcomics.com. I wanted to keep it going.

So this was the option I chose.

Brigid: Historically, not only webcomics but newspapers and magazines have had a lot of trouble getting readers to pay for content. Why do you think this will work for your site?

Brad: Newspapers and magazines offer content that can be easily found elsewhere—and much of it is information that readers may not feel as if they need. That’s not the case with Webcomics.com. I think the quality of what I’m doing on that site will prove to be worth well more than $30 per year to my readers.

Brigid: What will readers get for their $30?

Brad: — Frequent updates of news, advice, tutorials and strategies by webcomics veteran Brad Guigar.

— Monthly contributions by webcomics pioneer Scott Kurtz and Penny Arcade’s Business Guy, Robert Khoo.

— Personalized features like a new e-mail-based organizer to help you plan for upcoming conventions.

— Feedback and guidance for your comic and the small business you’ll create running it.

— A fully rounded, indexed repository of two year’s worth of information that you can use to help improve your work.

— A moderated, passionate, supportive community of webcomics creators.

— Inside information on conventions, vendors and other entities that webcartoonists access to advance their businesses.

— Deals on merchandise.

— You will have access to all of this plus the entire Webcomics.com archives, one of the most helpful and supportive forums for creative people on the Web, and several members-only offers.

Brigid: How will the premium site be different from its previous free incarnation?

Brad: It will be very similar to the traditional Webcomics.com, with a more intense focus on helping members get organized and build their webcomics.

Brigid: In the past, you had guest writers on the site. Did you pay them? Will you be paying your guest writers going forward?

Brad: We accepted submissions on the site. Participants were not paid, and we have no plans to pay anyone who wishes to submit items in the new site. Truthfully, I’ve written the vast majority of the site posts on Webccomics.com. I was happy to get submissions, but they comprised a very small percentage of the content. I’ve already stated on the site that if anyone feels awkward having their submitted material behind the subscription wall, they only need alert me, and I’ll happily take it down.

[Note: Brad answered this question on Sunday night. On Monday, he changed the policy and removed all content from guest writers unless they specifically authorize its use. “We decided that it was better to allow them an opt-in,” he said.]

Brigid: Why did you make the change so abruptly, rather than letting people know in advance that it was going to happen?

Brad: My fault completely. I was completely caught by surprise by that—and I’m embarrassed about that. In hindsight, it was a no-brainer. As soon as people stated that it made them uncomfortable, I did what I learned in kindergarten. I apologized, and I did what I could to make it better. All submitted posts are hidden unless the authors release the content.

Which amounts to a small fraction of the Webcomics.com posts.

Brigid: Why did you decide to put all the material behind a pay wall, rather than going with a partially free model with premium content?

Brad: Honestly, because the decision was between continuing the site and ending it. See, I could take the time I put into Webcomics.com and launch another webcomic and build it into a revenue stream quite easily. And, honestly, over the long haul, I’d probably make more money. But I really think what I’m doing on Webcomics.com is significant. I just needed a way to justify the time I was putting into it.

Brigid: Why are you choosing not to use ads to support the site?

Brad: I couldn’t use advertising. The site is very much aimed at a niche market. It doesn’t generate the volume or the type of traffic that an advertiser would find attractive.

Brigid: What about the podcast and the forum? What will happen to them?

Brad: The forum is part of the subscription. The podcast is a completely separate entity.

Brigid: Are you concerned that having all your content behind a pay wall will make you less visible (via Google, Twitter, blog links, etc.)?

Brad: We’re trying to build it in such a way that we can accommodate those things, but again, I’m writing for a very concentrated market. The things you’re mentioning are very useful for casting a large net, but our net is quite small.

Brigid: How did you come to this decision, and how long has it been in the works—was it your intention all along to convert Webcomics.com to a paid site?

Brad: It wasn’t the intention when we launched the site a couple years ago. It’s something I’ve been mulling for months. I talked about it with Scott Kurtz and Robert Khoo (both of whom will be contributors) and we agreed that this was worth pursuing.

Brigid: Why did you go with a flat fee for the year rather than a lower monthly fee?

Brad: Charging $2.50 a month through PayPal just seemed as if it would cause more problems than it would solve.

Brigid: What will non-subscribers see when they go to the front page?

Brad: The introduction to each topic we’re discussing.

Brigid: Do you feel that limiting the site to paid subscribers will raise the level of the conversation (both the technical content of the posts and the conversation with commenters)?

Brad: That’s the one thing I’m absolutely sure of.

Brigid: Do you subscribe to any paid sites to help you in your career? If so, which ones? If not, what would make such a site worth the money?

Brad: Man, I wish there had been such sites available when I was learning this over the last ten years! I’d like to think I would have signed up in a heartbeat. Instead, I had to learn what I know from an awful lot of trial-and-error. That and getting advice from my peers—some of which was good and some of which was not-so-good.

To get my subscription, I think the site would have to offer me something that I couldn’t find elsewhere—like Webcomics.com. Webcomics.com has a very high quality to its posts. And it’s that quality that has brought subscribers in already.

Brigid: How are subscriptions going so far? Do you have a goal, and if so, how close are you to reaching it?

Brad: I’m completely astounded by the response. It’s easily double what I expected for the launch. And the kind words of support and encouragement I’ve received from those people as well has been downright humbling.

I don’t have a subscription goal in mind. I’m doing something that everybody says can’t be done. Hitting a specific number isn’t a goal. Surviving the week is my goal. Making those new subscribers feel as if they made a good decision is a goal.

Brigid: From what I’m seeing in comments, a lot of your longtime readers are signing up. But with most of your content out of sight, how will you attract new subscribers?

Brad: People will be able to see the topics and the first couple paragraphs to every post. If it intrigues them, they can subscribe.

(In addition to Evil, Inc., Brad is the creator of Courting Disaster, Phables, and Greystone Inn. You can see more of his work at his own site.)