Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, kickstarter

How to Get Likes And Reblogs On Tumblr. Or Five Empty Panels.

Published Sun, 11 May 2014 10:00:10 -0500

Last updated Sun, 11 May 2014 13:02:45 -0500

Lars Brown writes,

It started in January. "I have to finish this comic, but this desktop background of green hills and a blue sky is so distracting! What to do…"

I hastily made five empty panels on a yellow background in Photoshop.

"Perfect. I should share this on Tumblr." At the same time I also uploaded a drawing of my son wearing a tiger jacket sitting next to a tiger, as opposed to drawing my comics. "A day well spent."

The next day I checked my phone and found that I had 953 notes on my Tumblr. "That is something." An hour later I found I had another 400 notes. "Goodness."

I posted my surprise on Facebook and before too long Faith Erin Hicks pointed out that Tumblr had graced me with a Tumblr spotlight for the drawing of my son and the tiger. At the end of the day that drawing had garnered 2,103 favorites and reblogs, I had gained 1,200 new followers and my drawing of empty comic panels was at 115 favorites.

The next day I was eager to post a new piece of art, so I posted a character design of the character Alma from my current work, Penultimate Quest. It got 24 notes, which was about normal from before I had a Tumblr spotlight. I immediately lost 200 new followers because I had bothered to post something new. "So it goes," said Kurt Vonnegut. The empty comic panels gained an additional 509 notes.

A week went by, I finished a chapter of my comic and posted about it and received an endearing 13 notes. I went to a small convention and posted my sketches and netted 21 notes. A drawing of a little girl and her protector robot (in color) pocketed 26 notes. All the while the empty comic panels gained another 359 notes.

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Every day they trickled in, bit by bit. "I made this in 3 minutes and it's going around the world." 115 new notes. "Yellow isn't even a color that aids creativity or productivity." 59 new notes. "It's just empty panels!" 258 new notes.

I pushed everything to the side and focused on finishing my new comic. 264 new notes. I posted a link to my Kickstarter and got a reblog by Farel Dalrymple. The Kickstarter post got 33 notes, the empty comic panels another 193. It was madness.

From this point I can see what the future holds for me. Soon after my next book comes out I'm picked up by a small literary agency. The empty panels gain 709 new notes. They get me in touch with ABC Family. "You want to turn one of my books into a show on your network? What's even on ABC Family?" "No, no. We're interested in those boxes you drew." 1,985 new notes. I appear on Conan O'Brien. "So tell us about the comic panels drawing." "Well, it's five panels that make for a good first page to a comic. I could show you one of my comics-" "Up next is musical guest Smash Mouth!" 9,382 new notes. I begin to preface everything I do with "artist of Five Empty Panels." The movie adaptation will be directed by Ridley Scott. 81,392 new notes.