Just the first frame of the best comics updated daily
A major problem in the web comic industry is that their comics are easily copied and shared with no attribution or links back to the original creators. The web was rife with comic aggregators that stole web comics wholesale for their own monetary gain.
As a fan of the genre, I avoided those aggregate sites, but I still wished I had a one-stop daily collection.
A mindful comic aggregator
An idea struck me: if an aggregate site only displayed the first frame of the comic, viewers would have a visually engaging way to browse new comics while having no choice but to click through to read any in full. The first frame alone provided little to no value, yet motivated strong curiosity to click through.
Once a user clicks through, the creators gain a visit, their own banner impressions to self-monetize, and a chance to capture their audience further into their own content.
To me, this felt like a win-win for both creators and fans.
Automated screengrab and cropping
As I built up the site and constructed a database of web comics, the number of comics ballooned to over 800. In the early days, I was able to automate screengrabs and manually crop the frames on my own. But as the number grew, I needed to improve automation to keep up.
I built a series of cron jobs that ran overnight, categorizing each comic with precise or estimated coordinates of where the first frame was typically positioned. My manual input reduced to minor corrections, around 20 of the 800 a day, making daily updates easy to manage, even over holidays.
Snapshot of a daily update
I applied infinite scrolling allowing viewers to scroll to their heart's content. Click-throughs were collected to allow people to sort by popular. And viewers could also randomize and change the size of the frames in the grid.
Community recognition
The idea was validated as industry blogs gave my site and the idea in general positive reviews.
Outcome
The site amassed hundreds of daily visits over the course of several years. However, as time went on, even the small amount of maintenance became inconvenient. The site continued with a new owner for a short while until he also ceased maintenance. But a remembrance of the site continues on in its last updated state.