Use comic elements in websites - Tips for webmasters

In modern professional life, websites are what business cards used to be - and a little more. Hardly any company, freelancer or self-employed person can do without it, because those who cannot be found on the Internet today usually have a clear competitive disadvantage compared to their competitors. This insight is spreading more and more and means that the number of homepages increases, regardless of the area. According to NM Incite, the number of blogs alone more than five-fold increased worldwide between 2006 and 2011. Figure 5: Elements in the style of a comic can bring a very special life to a website.

However, anyone who has already dealt seriously with the topic knows that it is not enough to have a homepage. To ensure that it fulfills its purpose, it should be designed to be as user-friendly, attractive and informative as possible. In many cases it also pays off if your own homepage stands out positively from other websites in the same area, for example through its imaginative design. One means of doing this is through comic book elements.


When creating a homepage, it is important to be clear about its goals and target group. It also depends on which design is suitable for the page. Comic elements can make a website more attractive, but only if they fit the topic and are used correctly. They are suitable, for example, in the following cases:

• Websites of artists, such as designers, photographers or illustrators
• Blogs that prefer humorous or satirical topics or pop culture or youth culture in general.
• Pages on which a product should be advertised in a lively manner.
• Websites that are preferred to a young audience.

If you want to use comic elements in connection with serious topics, you should be familiar with this type of design and be artistically ambitious. Ready-made cliparts quickly look out of place here. On the other hand, sophisticated and artistically sophisticated comic elements can be effective in a wide variety of contexts.

According to an interesting article on tn3.de, the point of comic elements and scroll-activated animations in websites is often to bring a little storytelling into a blog or a product page. Corresponding figures or images can also simply be used to loosen up and help identify a user with certain content or products. They also often help to give a homepage an unmistakable character.


There are several sources for online items. On the one hand, these can be made yourself. This option has several advantages and disadvantages:

(+) In this way, users enjoy the greatest possible freedom, provided they have the necessary tools.

(+) The result is very individual and thus contributes to the unmistakable character of the homepage.

(-) At least if you want to create professional-looking comic elements yourself, you have to be familiar with the necessary software.

(-) The creation of your own comic elements takes time. It is less of an option to quickly build a homepage.

Another option is to resort to clip art. These are available online in large numbers and can be easily integrated into a homepage. Large communities such as the Gutefrage.net portal have collected their members' comic pictures and published them as a gallery. Again, this method has its own advantages and disadvantages:

(+) Cliparts do not have to be created by yourself. They can be easily downloaded and integrated into a website. Great technical skills are not necessary for this.

(+) The use of cliparts costs comparatively little time. (-) The possibilities of expression with cliparts are naturally much lower than with your own creation of comic elements.

(-) The trained viewer can sometimes see relatively quickly when comic book elements are cliparts. If it is a designer's website, this can be viewed as a weak point.

(-) Cliparts are only available free of charge to a limited extent and the authorship must be observed when using them. This means that users cannot indiscriminately use all cliparts on the Internet and use them for their website. In the worst case, such a procedure can have legal consequences.


Whether costs have to be taken into account for comic cliparts at all depends on the type of use. If you are looking for cliparts for non-commercial use, e.g. for your own blog, you will find a whole range of collections on the Internet that offer motifs that can be used freely for this purpose. The choice is huge. However, in some cases special provisions still apply to use (for example, a reference to the source is required in some cases).

The matter is different with commercial websites, for example the homepage of a company. In this case, the search for free cliparts becomes much more difficult. If you still want a certain selection, you should be prepared to pay. The prices differ, but often start at just a few euros. Depending on the prospects of making money with the help of the website, this issue is a sensible investment in the long term.

Important: It gets difficult when users place banner advertisements on the blog. In case of doubt, it is already a commercial site. To be on the safe side, website operators should either make a small investment or seek legal advice beforehand.


There are many possibilities when designing a homepage. Above all, those who run the site not only for pleasure but also for a commercial interest or who want to reach as many people as possible should attach importance to a successful and appealing design. Comic elements often help to give a website a distinctive character - provided they are used correctly. As with so many things, the same applies here: Those who take their time and proceed carefully have an advantage. This also includes thinking about the creation or procurement of comic book elements and the legal conditions for their use. Ultimately, the effort is worth it, because a good homepage is an investment that pays off in the long term.