It’s difficult to find a definitive list of places to publish your webcomic, so I’ve decided to collect links here. It’s for my on reference, but for yours as well. If you also have a webcomic and aren’t sure where to share it, hopefully this post will give you some ideas.
And if you know of a website that is also a good place to publish a webcomic, please send me a message and I’ll include it, or leave a comment below.
So here it is
A collection of places to share your webcomic
Reddit is one of the best places to share your webcomic because it offers the highest potential for traffic. The danger is that if your comic gets to the topic of a popular subreddit, the traffic influx can crash your site. 100 upvotes usually signifies way more than just a few dozen visits, because what about all those who don’t vote?
Reddit is a community that takes use of the platform seriously. Users post content, which is then upvoted or downvoted. Depending on how many votes the post receives in a given amount of time, it climbs the board. Apart from the main page that displays the top posts from across Reddit, the site is organized into ‘subreddits’, each with subscribers of their own. The key to successful posting is timing and a witty title.
Places to share your webcomic include these subreddits:
/r/comics – This subreddit boasts a large community of over 400k, where a top post will regularly break 4000 upvotes. I post all my comics to this subreddit using Imgur. If you post to this subreddit, you can post from websites other than the principal domain if you have ‘artist flair’, or if you put [OC] in the post title.
/r/webcomics – The webcomics subreddit is mainly for posting your webcomic directly from the principal domain, so for example, thingsinsquares.com. You can post from imgur or other sites if you have flair or use [OC], but this community seems to actively support those posts that link to the comic’s owned website. Posts can top 1000 upvotes here or more.
/r/funny – Funny is one of the largest subs on Reddit with over 9 million strong. You can only post to /r/funny if you rehost your webcomic on Imgur. Posts here regularly break 5000 upvotes, and tend to hog the front page of Reddit. This is a tough nut to crack, so you need to research a bit and find out what kinds of posts matched with which kinds of titles that worked.
/r/lol – Over 19k redditors make up this subreddit. Posts tend to break 100 at the top, and they tend not to be comics. All the same, sometimes this community takes kindly to a funny webcomic.
/r/ragecomics – I don’t publish my webcomic to /r/ragecomics because I don’t make ragecomics. Anything that’s not a rage comic will be quickly downvoted here. All the same, it’s big, with 42k users and regular top posts that breach 100 upvotes.
Here are some other places to share your webcomic on Reddit that I didn’t mention because I don’t use them:
- /r/comicbooks
- /r/manga
- /r/graphicnovels
- /r/comicbookart
- /r/comiccon
- /r/comic_crits
Imgur
Imgur is the image platform for Reddit. Sharing your webcomic to imgur puts it in front of a whole different crowd of internet users, however. There are millions of users, and if your webcomic gets upvoted here, it will spread across the viral waves.
I love it because of the potential for publishing webcomics here. The community is 9 million. I hate it because 9gagers tend to stay on their 9Gag. This means very few conversions in terms of Facebook likes, Twitter followers, or website visitors. Basically, people scan your comic, giggle, and keep scanning. Most content on 9Gag is diverse in terms of medium, but narrow in terms of purpose. It’s pick-me-up content, brief and on the surface. Comics rarely make it to the front page, but they do, from time to time. The trick is speaking the language of 9Gag.
Tapas, formerly Tapastic
Unlike the sharing platforms mentioned above, Tapas is a webcomic publishing platform. You create a profile, start a series, get followers and watch your comic grow. Later, you can participate in their revenue program to earn money from ads, and a support program so your followers can get directly involved in the webcomic creation process.
The Tapas community is supportive. Commenters get involved, I haven’t had any trolls, and the revenue program is real, albeit with small returns. I used to publish my webcomic on Tapas, but although it might be the best place for publishing comics online that I’ve seen, it only really works if your content fits the community (adolescent, cute, etc.).
Webtoons
Line Webtoons (webtoons.com) seems to be an alright place to share your comics. It’s large, and they have regular contests that purport to dish out large sums of money 30k+. My webcomic probably wouldn’t be so popular on this platform. Most of the top comics are from Asia and are translated.
Still, it’s a good idea to post your webcomic here because of the exposure, and if they spot your comics in their “Discover” section, you could be recruited as a paid contributor.
BoredPanda
Bored Panda is another place that features longform posts, mostly. If you try to post a single webcomic here, it might not break the 10 likes threshold. Your best option for sharing here is to create a long post that includes a number of your comics based on a theme. It might be in your best interest to post to Bored Panda in third person, speaking to the community in a passive, neutral voice.
9Gag
I have a love-hate relationship with 9Gag because it is a content mill. It’s an aggregation site that has categories, but mainly it seems that the front page is what people scan. Featured posts here can get upwards of 35,000 upvotes, which means thousands of views. The problem is that very few users of 9Gag follow you on social media, much less visit your website. In fact, many users consider it inappropriate that a creator would want them to, God forbid, leave 9Gag.
MemeCenter
Memecenter only works if you get featured. Otherwise, you’re unlikely to get much traffic. They stick a “memecenter” logo on the side, so anyone who shares your webcomics from here will have that branding, which is of course lame.
Memecenter posts seem to have a lot of anime and Spunge Bob, so you can expect a younger community and one that is more keen on that kind of animation. The comments are ridiculous, and there’s a lot of trolling. But all in all you can grow a community here. Just don’t expect it to convert elsewhere. I’ve stopped posting here because I don’t appreciate the automatic branding. And comic creators beware: you cannot delete your Memecenter account.
HUGELOL
Creators watch out, this place is filled with trolls. But those asses aside, there are some good commenters. Comics get featured on the ‘rising page’, and can easily get onto the front page. It’s a newer community, and front page likes can break the 200 threshold. Like most content mills, I don’t like this one. I’m including these websites here for people just starting out; it might help.
Instagram is owned by Facebook, but has proven a much better place to share comics online than the latter. This is because of its inherent utility as an image-sharing platform without all the fluff. As long as you can avoid the Instagram shadowban, this is a great place to post comics.
The added value of Instagram is its Story features. Stories can be used to drive traffic to your website. They can be used to publish affiliate links, or to promote your own online store. These can also be saved on your profile so that new followers can quickly access them.
Also, with the carousel option, you don’t have to post a full comic but rather post by panel (alternatively if you have a rectangular comic, you can prep it for Instagram using Squareready).
Tumblr
Tumblr is essentially a community-on-demand once you start using a blog there. Given that the company has over 400 million blogs, you can count on instant eyes when you employ hashtags correctly. What’s more, tumblr is generally receptive to the comic medium, so you can quickly establish a following.
If you’re like me and prefer to have your own website, you can still buy a domain name through tumblr. Their API allows you to connect a tumblr blog with social media and/or your webhost so that new comics on other platforms can send push notifications through tumblr.
Facebook used to reward consistent publishing, but many comic artists have noticed that its algorithms have begun to favor boosting posts. Due to the security breaches in 2018, accounts with over 100k followers are also more tediously scrutinized. Still, making a page on Facebook for your comics is key to getting your work in front of more eyes.
If you have a WordPress.org website, you can use NextScripts to auto-publish to tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter without having to log into those social media accounts.
Twitter is another good place to post your comics. But while you can hack growth on Facebook and tumblr by auto-posting, Twitter requires community engagement to grow. If you’re not active on Twitter, then sharing your comics to the platform will not get you very far. Case in point: my Twitter.
Patreon
Normally creators can use Patreon to offer perks and rewards to dedicated followers who offer financial support. It is not quite a webcomic hosting site, but it could be for those few who want a bit more from you as a creator. By creating tiers of rewards for followers, you can invite their support while shifting their engagement with you from other platforms to Patreon itself. Patreon allows you to restrict posts to certain reward tiers, and it also allows you to schedule comics to publish live at a later date. To give supporters “early access”, there is also that option.
Patreon is a community website where sooner or later you should be publishing your comics.
Do you have other ideas of places to share comics online? Tell us about them in the comments below.
Hey, ThingsInSquares!
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for all your blog posts about getting started on webcomics. They have been very helpful and now I started my own series on Tapastic. I don’t think I would have gotten into it so quickly and confidently without the help your posts provide. Thank you very much! 😀
It’s my pleasure!
I wonder what comics is yours. I would like to read ?
THIS WAS SO HELPFUL!! YANG (MY COMIC) IS GOING TO RISE TO THE TOP!!!
I posted my webcomic as well called negative exorcist both on tapastic and webtoons what’s yours
Hi, thanx for your sharing of information. Anyway, I’d love to read your comic in Tapastic. What is the name of your comic so I can look up for that?
When a website has dedicated webcomic hosting, it means their primary purpose is to provide everything you need to start publishing your comic on the web all it needs from you is the actual comic.
I’ve been meaning to write a post about comic hosting specifically, since Tapas really belongs in a conversation on dedicated hosting as you say 🙂
Thanks, this really helped out!
no problem!
Hi. Thanks for all the information. I’m 13 and don’t really want to deal with horrid, nasty people (that’s what school is for). I’m going to try Tapastic, but I’m still pretty nervous. Thanks for encouraging me to be bold and share.
Tapas is a nice place to post–the community is generous
Hi
I’m thinking of making a manga with someone that helps me with drawings and post it online, but I want to think of it as a serious project and I don’t know which place I should choose because I want to post it where lots of people will read it but I’m not really sure if I’ll earn some money eventually or I’ll be wasting my time, what do you think? Good post by the way.
I don’t understand–you’re a writer then? I would never say it’s a waste of time, unless your motivation is money, then it is.
Hey man great work, I have a question: If you publish in Tapastic, are you free to publish the chapters in other platforms as LINE WEBTOON or your own tumblr?
Yeah! You are. However, if you’re ever brought onto Webtoon’s payroll, they retain rights to the digital version of the content you produce there. I’m not if retroactively. But if you publish freely there I’m not sure. Late last year Tapas tried to change terms and conditions to trap people into giving up their IP–there was intense backlash from the community so they reverted the TOS back.
Thank you very much for this helpful article!!! 🙂 🙂 From a comic artist looking to get more exposure and support, this is distinctly helpful to know where to start.
Tapas or Webtoon?
Tapas unless you make Manga webcomics
Thanks for the article. I followed the advise you gave, and it has helped.
Doing ok on Reddit.
Surprisingly I am doing better on Webtoons than Tapas, didn’t think I would get very many subscribers on Webtoons
Tapas you will get lost in the mix .i put 187 episodes and practically noone even looked imgur is worse its nothing but assholes living in their parentz basement saying ugly shit to everyone its really stupid so far facebook is the only one i got noticed on and not much there either .
can i post random comics in tapastico ?
Hi! I know this is kind of unrelated, but I was wondering if you could recommend me any software for drawing comics. I started writing my first comic on paper and I am at a loss to what software to use to draw on my pc. I don’t have a drawing tablet of any kind, so I would need some kind of sofware that allows me to scan my drawings and alter them with a software. I thought of Photoshop but I am not sure, could you give me some advice? I love your comics and been reading them for quite some time so I would really value your advice!
Have a great day!
Connie
Clip studio is a good program for scanning and altering. Also if you ever get a tablet it is great program for drawing. plus you pay for it once and have it for life unlike the subscription process with photoshop.
Hi. U can use medibang paint In laptop r computer n ibis paint apps on phone.
What about hosting a webcomic on a wordpress blog? I haven’t started one yet, but plan to.
How about comicfury.com and/or webtoons.com
Thank you for your blog post! The information I learned has given me a good base point on where to start my webcomic journey.
Thank u very much. I liked your blog. And there is a website called smackjeeves.com which is really good for comics publishing.
Is wordpress a good way to host a webcomic, or does the advantages of othere sites like Tapas greatly overwiegh it?
I had this same question or very long time. I ended up building a website for this purpose but after a while I got exhausted trying to promote and maintain a self-hosted blog. I’d say if you’re going to WordPress, to use their standard platform, less work for you on maintenance. You can focus on your webcomic.
Anyway I’m in the process of moving. Still not sure if I will stay with WordPress.com or move to one of these on the list.
Hi! Thingsinsquares
I want to comment and thank you to the all blog spot i’m starting to create a Webcomics, i’m not sure where i can publish my webcomics i hope can you help me. Thank You
Just wondering can i like create a CC license for Imgur or reddit for my comic?
I think webtoon , tapas , youtube , Pinterest , Instagram , twitter , mangatoon , webcomic are better . Newadays youth don’t use Tumblr , 9gag , boredpanda type apps . And reddit is so confusing place too .
Yeah u can also make ur own website it also best place for .
Though I don’t have much knowledge about but me and my all friends ( including my online friends too ) like webcomics so much . Some of them even don’t use twitter and instagram ( because there become bored though today ) . As far as we go to search for website .
I am 15 years old and I know what is my generation using .
And thank you for ur tapas comics
Thank you, this was very helpful! There is also another site/app I plan to use called DeviantArt, though if this one doesn’t work out, then I can always come back here to see other options!
i think i want to start making comic by my own but my parent dont want me to do it
I
this was helpful…like i dont think this could have come to me at a better time than now! i was trying to share my comics to pepole for years! and ive went high and low to find something or someone who would give me a chance i was looking for the youtube of comics more or less…now i think i might find it thanks to your years of wisdom! by the way webtoon is not the place to be for webcomics. turst me they spit in my face and tolled me to read there stuff or go. so….yea! thanks!
I’m glad. If you find any new places or ways to publish, feel free to comment here what those are, since I haven’t updated this post for a long time.
yo i dont know how to post the comic in webtoons
ok now i found how to do it
Thank you for this excellent resource. I’ll be sure to post my comics in most of them!
How is it that you completely missed two of the biggest and most open comic hosting communities?
The Duck Webcomics – (Free to join, read and publish. Rules do apply if you’re posting adult-oriented work. Support is available and simple to use.)
&
Comic Fury – (Free to join, read and publish. Rules do apply for types of work ie: Violent, Sexual, Language etc. even gives you a ‘custom’ URL for your comic.)
Hi Cale, thanks for writing this really informative article. I think the landscape may have changed somewhat since 2017 and wanted to say this about the Reddit comics group:
I really liked how the rules of the group stated that if you didn’t like a comic, you should just move on to the next one. I think that’s really relevant as humour is always very subjective and with comics you add in stuff like genre and art style that’s never going to please everyone. However, one thing I posted on it I received a notification that someone had ‘upvoted’ it, clicked on the notification, and there was a notice that it had been deleted by an admin. I couldn’t understand why this had happened, so I used the message button and asked if they could please explain how it broke the rules so I could avoid doing the same thing in future. I received a one-line reply along the lines of ‘I don’t understand what this comic is about’. This was really disappointing considering the rules suggested it was an open forum when it seems it’s being curated. Some other people who posted comics on it I quite liked also seem to have stopped using it even though their content is still turning up elsewhere, and Googling this reveals that it seems to have banned some established and popular creators, so what chance do nobodies just starting out stand? It seems like a classic example of something that’s become too popular for its own good and it’s being mismanaged.
The other issue with it is that Reddit allows people to vote against posts as well as for them. So what seemed to happen was I would get notifications that 5 or 10 people had voted for something I posted, and then it would fall down quite often to 0 with the stats of around 50% upvote rate, which isn’t very informative as to knowing how many people actually liked it. I’m not really sure why people do this as I wouldn’t personally vote against something I disliked unless I found it offensive or it was trying to force a political view, but Googling seems to suggests people do it because they rightly or wrongly think it will make their own posts more visible. I posted some stuff in a group for the software I was using and some other groups on it, and received largely positive votes and some pleasant comments and constructive criticism, so it seems to be a problem with that group in particular rather than the whole site.
I do think the Koreans are on to a good idea with designing platforms for reading on mobile phones though. I tried the ‘Imgur’ site and TBH it looks like it’s more for wannabe memes and photos of cats.
And writing blog posts to help other creators is a good way to promote your own work, as I wouldn’t have found yours had I not come across this post. 🙂