I have to agree with what was said up there about how personable the artist is, and how willing he is to be a part of a larger community. Over at LiveJournal, I have over 50 artists that I talk to regularly. I do guest art and fan strips on my sketch blog when I can, and on that same blog I had gone into a lot of detail about RCM’s character development, rough work, and other stuff.

Two months before the launch, people were already talking about my work, asking me questions about my characters, and donating to my Paypal account.

So I had visibility, a modest fan base excited to see the work (and thankfully happy to wait as long as they did), AND hard cash* — all for a comic that wouldn’t even exist for another month.

Visibility goes a long way, and making yourself approachable, accessible and willing to engage with your audience goes even further.

The creators of PvP and Penny Arcade have both started broadcasting their creative process via live streaming, which is an awesome extension of the idea, and I think more people should do it.**

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*”Hard Cash” — Okay, it was thirty bucks and the odd plug here and there. But still — I made money off my work before it existed, which is saying something.

**Except me. I draw too slow.