From my perspective, tumblr seems to be the de facto platform for comics. Most of my favorite artist are using it and it’s a constant source for finding new talent. In fact my entire site, jesselucas.com, runs off of tumblr.

But is it the best place for comics? With the launch of Darling Sleeper, I’m questioning tumblr’s reign. Shall it be usurped by the new kid on the block, Medium?

Tumblr has many amazing features, including custom templates and domains. What it doesn’t have is a simple and intutive way to customize image layouts that are mobile ready.

Let’s use my comic Palisades, KY as a test. It was originally made for print at A4 size for The Lifted Brow and was printed at A5 size in my minicomic Colloquial.

On tumblr I posted the A4 print version of the entire page. I could do the exact same on Medium. After experimenting, I learned that doing so wouldn’t fully utilize the power of Medium’s editor and doesn’t make a lot of sense for the web. Instead, I saved out each panel and created a custom background image. The editor allows me to lay out the panels in a similar format as the printed version on tumblr.

Now wait and checkout this magic!

See what happens when you view the same comic on mobile Medium. The responsive nature of Medium really shines by realigning the smaller images for a much better reading experience on smaller screens.

Of course I could break the tumblr version into smaller sections as well. The issue is Tumblr’s editor doesn’t give me the control to layout the page to match the printed version. Medium gives you an elegant and powerful way to post comics for the web and mobile consumption.

For now, I’m still sticking with tumblr as my main platform but will post everything on Medium as well. So, here’s hoping tumblr will improve their editor or Medium will give us the ability to use domains. Until then the verdict is out, but definitely consider using Medium for comics.