I've been going through he HU archives lately.

One thing I've been noticing is that HU used a lot of teasers in the early days and it seemed to really help build a sense of excitement for the upcoming issues. HA did this too, and still does to an extent, but it's largely fallen by the wayside and that seems a shame.

I was thinking, with HA #8 coming to a close, it's a good time to think about teasers for HA #8.

For me, the most effective teasers were probably the “Watch the skies.” ones leading up to HU:EGO. They had a good sense of anticipation and mystery to them. In short: they teased. :D That would be fun for HA #9 too…

Yes, teasers! Gives us a good break between issues.

I suggest artwork for characters who are going to appear in the story (EGO had artwork for almost every character who appeared).

Here's an idea, make a picture of Zombie Queen, and put the phrase “Long Unlive the Queen” on it.

Good point, I also love doing teasers – HU:EGO was the first chapter I organized, so I put a lot of effort into that, which included organizing teasers both for all the characters as well as cross-promotion with other comics (the “watch the skies” ads).

We could do something similar for HA #9, with a Zombie theme, like having zombiefied versions of protagonists from other comics, maybe… so these teasers would be posted on the creators' comics as well as on HA - a classic win-win-situation :)

Abt_Nihil wrote:
Good point, I also love doing teasers – HU:EGO was the first chapter I organized, so I put a lot of effort into that, which included organizing teasers both for all the characters as well as cross-promotion with other comics (the “watch the skies” ads).

We could do something similar for HA #9, with a Zombie theme, like having zombiefied versions of protagonists from other comics, maybe… so these teasers would be posted on the creators' comics as well as on HA - a classic win-win-situation :)

Read this roughly one hour ago and have already started inking the thing I drew - I love me some zombies :)
As for slogans for the issue, can the title of each add be “Rise” - thus implying rise of the undead and obviously, R.I.S.E…

So how explicit do we want this? Should it include zombies and/or the Queen? “Watch the skies” worked so well IMO partly because it was so vague.

Also, should teasers be posted in comics that don't currently have an HA connection? (making them fan teasers, I guess…) I wouldn't mind doing a teaser in Chaos, but am not really sure what would be suitable. Chaos won't be appearing in HA for some time yet (I'd like to get the first couple of issues of his comic bedded down first).

I'm also happy to draw teasers for HA proper, of my own characters or someone else's.

One of each character to appear would be cool. One thing I noticed worked well in HU:Ego was that some teasers (particularly the Vora one) did not *name* the character so it had an “Ooh, who's *that*!?” effect on the commenters. That night be a good approach, especially since we're reusing minor(ish) characters in new costumes…

EGO had two different kinds of teasers: role call teasers which were basically a pin-up of every character appearing in the chapter, and cross-over advertisements which were from non-HA comics and had the “watch the skies” catchphrase on them. I think the Vora one might have been the exception, combining the two different types. If we do it this way, then I'd suggest:

Do an open call for ads on the dd news. Everyone who has a webcomic can depict one of their characters zombified with the “Rise” slogan. Each will be posted both on HA (to advertise the character's comic) and on the character's comic (to advertise HA).

Create non-zombified pin-ups of all characters - or just of the RISE characters (because they're the “new” ones)…? They could obviously feature the “RISE” slogan too (I agree with irrevenant that this might be more interesting than just giving their names) - only that here, it would indicate the team they belong to, not the fact that they're rising from their graves…

Abt_Nihil wrote:
EGO had two different kinds of teasers: role call teasers which were basically a pin-up of every character appearing in the chapter, and cross-over advertisements which were from non-HA comics and had the “watch the skies” catchphrase on them. I think the Vora one might have been the exception, combining the two different types. If we do it this way, then I'd suggest:

Do an open call for ads on the dd news. Everyone who has a webcomic can depict one of their characters zombified with the “Rise” slogan. Each will be posted both on HA (to advertise the character's comic) and on the character's comic (to advertise HA).

Create non-zombified pin-ups of all characters - or just of the RISE characters (because they're the “new” ones)…? They could obviously feature the “RISE” slogan too (I agree with irrevenant that this might be more interesting than just giving their names) - only that here, it would indicate the team they belong to, not the fact that they're rising from their graves…

I couldn't resist it and drew up something in terms of this. I've emailed you what I whipped up. I love me some zombies, I can't wait to get to drawing some of them.

ironhand wrote:
I couldn't resist it and drew up something in terms of this. I've emailed you what I whipped up. I love me some zombies, I can't wait to get to drawing some of them.

Thanks! Very cool :)