The Pros and Cons of Bonus Pages

You know what I'm talking about: special pages that show up in webcomics around holidays or special events. Usually, they're either one-shot comics or a splash page featuring the characters of the comic. Done well, they're a lot of fun to see. Done badly, and readers will eventually stop coming.

As an artist, I can understand why one might be given to splash pages, especially if you get behind in your work. You don't want to disappoint your readers, so you throw together a little something, a bone to toss to the ravenous hounds, and hope to get your butt in gear by your next update. However much you enjoy drawing them, though, there are some major drawbacks to too many bonus pages.

As a reader, I enjoy the occasional bonus page. I don't have to sift through a gallery to find any extra work, it's usually appropriate for the holiday, and it's another view of my favorite characters. But when every other page is "bonus art"... well, needless to say, it disrupts the story, and it's a little hard to keep track of a plot when every few pages jerks me out of it again. It's kinda like trying to read a book, but every few lines, the phone rings or someone tries to strike up a conversation or a really snazzy bit of dialogue on TV snags your attention. It just doesn't work.

For Strawberry Syrup, I have a pretty strict view of bonus pages that interrupt the comic: if there's a holiday within a day or two of the update, holiday-related bonus art is a go. Special events, like the Olympics or yearly anniversary of start of the comic, are also on the OK list. Beyond that, any extra art I do goes in a separate gallery and doesn't break up the comic itself. (Okay, so I copped out that one time with the dentist and the drilling... and the sandpaper... but even then, I felt bad about it!)

Of course, it's up to the artist to decide when to do bonus art. For example, this coming Saturday is Valentine's Day, but my update this week stuck to the story. I don't really have anything against Valentine's Day, but it just seemed too far from my update day, and for some reason, I'm not in a very Valentine-y mood. I'm also still feeling a bit bad about skipping most of November and December, so more story, less flair. But if I do happen to get in the mood to do something for it by Saturday, I can still stick it in my DeviantArt gallery.

So, if you're doing a webcomic and debating bonus pages, just remember that while they're fun for everybody once in awhile, they aren't a substitute for your comic itself. Even the best of treats lose a little of their specialness if you get them too often.