Dos and Don'ts of Webcomic-dom, part II

[Anywherebuthere]

I've found that this is always a lose-lose situation. Draw a shoddy background, or no background at all, and people yell at it. Draw a good background, and nobody says anything, because it just feels right and natural to them, no matter how many hours you spent slaving over that one leaf's shading. The subtle effects and drawigns you put into your background people don't notice, but if you *don't* put then in there in the first place, they *do* notice their absense. Dig it? You can't win.

What about doing something like 8-bit Theatre has been doing, where you have sort of a generic out-of-focus blurry background that you can reuse? It doesn't look bad, and seems simple enough to easily do.

QT does "reuseable" backgrounds as well. Where there are "stock" backgrounds that new foregrounds wind up going on top of.

[Keffria]

Do try to make every comic a piece of art in its own right. Put effort into it. Very few people want to read chicken scratchings on lined paper.

But also, don't forget that part of making a comic is learning when to stop and post what you have. Perfectionism will lead to an abandoned comic; draw what you can, practice, and fix the blatant errors.

Also, run your scripts through a spell-checker, or (better yet) get an editor. Nothing turns readers off like poor spelling.

Don't go with the style, the characters, or the story that you think is going to net you readers. For every person that reads a comic just because it's a manga, three others will be totally turned off by your lack of originality; develop your own style!

[Jigglyman]

By "shoddy" backgrounds, I meant like one line as the horizon and that being it. A good backgroud can be something the artists draws new every panel, takes hours to work on, and is more critically acclaimed and well-drawn than a Van Gogh or a Monet, or it can be a carefully placed tree in a snow setting, or a blurred setting. It's irrelevant what it is as long as it serves its purpose, but my point remains: people do not notice backgrounds as much as they notice characters. And when you are the artist, I think no matter what you say you still enjoy praise, so it kind of sucks when nobody says anything about your backgrounds.

Basically, what I'm saying is that there's no argument here. Let's agree to agree.

[Mercury Hat]

Also, run your scripts through a spell-checker, or (better yet) get an editor. Nothing turns readers off like poor spelling.

Yes! Learn the difference between their/there/they're, your/you're, its/it's, than/then and so on. If you don't know, get someone else to check for you. When in doubt, use an online dictionary.

[Dutch!]

Do remember to, every now and then, sit back and appreciate what you've accomplished.

[Escushion]

A good background can depend on what you're doing and what the focus should be. If the background's important (like a big glamour shot of the scenery) then that's worth the work. If a background is just there to be there, a couple lines, some airbrushed colors that resemble shapes and things, and you're set.

[Warofwinds]

Do remember to, every now and then, sit back and appreciate what you've accomplished.

RULE NUMBER ONE! Everyone listen to Dutch! *bows* The philosopher of us all, eh?

[FinbarReilly]

Don't be so afraid of cliches that you create something incomprehensible. And don't embrace them so tightly that you create new cliches.

And don't do another "I'm making fun of webcomics" strip....When I'm doing it, you know it's annoying...

FR

[[geoduck]]

Re: Backgrounds.

One time-saver I sometimes use is to draw one really big background pic, then show bits and pieces of it as the characters move around the scene. Looks OK, and it's faster than doing it over four times.

[Dutch!]

Do remember to, every now and then, sit back and appreciate what you've accomplished.

RULE NUMBER ONE! Everyone listen to Dutch! *bows* The philosopher of us all, eh?

Yeah, appreciated...but don't start writing the gospel just yet...

...I break one of the first rules up the top there quite a bit...good old cut and pasted panels...

[Starline]

-Study other webcomics that you like. Figure out why you like them so much. It can help you with your own work.

[Jackhass]

Do: Develop your characters. Yes, sometimes comics can make it without developed characters (like the Farside) but you need to be consistantly very funny for that to work. If you have well developed characters you can instead fall back on them to make the comic entertaining.

Don't: Rely entirely on "controversial" jokes. Any jerk can have Jesus saying "fuck" or use racist stereotypes. Controversy for the sake of controversy is hugely over-used and will ultimately limit who your comic will appeal to and how far it will go.

[Col]

Don't: rely only on comics for inspiration. Read a book, watch a movie, get out and see things. Other comics are only part of the equation for getting the ball rolling in that thing they call your brain.

[Mr. Caravaggio]

Do fight the urge to start immediately on your comic once you've decided to make one. Building up scripts will help you weed out bad idea, develop character from day 1 and help you find the unique voice for the comic. It's just like when you need to draw a character a few times before you get the look down. If you were to just start the comic, the shaky first few strips might put off some readers (regardless of how endearing as the author might find them).

Don't be afraid to disagree with yourself. As state by another post, you can't let your comic be dictated by the fans less it become distorted from it's true personality. But at the same time, challenging your own ideas of right, wrong, cool or boring will help you write 3-Dimensional characters.

Do try to make every comic a piece of art in its own right. Put effort into it. Very few people want to read chicken scratchings on lined paper.

Just not too much, if you spend 10 hours on every page, you will burn yourself out of comics all too quickly. I realize everyone has a different pipeline, but I think it's best to do the whole page evenly in case you want to stop at some point. If you work on it a frame at a time, then after an hour of making the first panel look good the others are just going to seem like the last few miles of a marathon.

• Don't use Macromedia Flash. The quality is poor, and once you get used to it, it's hard to steer away (help me!).

*Blows Rasberry at Jiggly*

Do: Realize there is a real world beyond the art table. Enjoy it. Life goes by quickly time is something you can never retrieve once it's lost. Steve Troop of Melonpool was struggling with this after spending years on his comic he was trying to come to grips with the fact that he's dedicated the last several years to his comic and those years are gone forever. Having his comic on Keenspot, then Blank Label and shout outs from PvP and such he was at a point where he was frustrated at his daily hits and ready to call it quits. Since then he's reconsidered. But the reality it is a never ending beast. You can spend five, ten or twenty years of your life producing a web comic but understand that comes at a cost. You really have to prioritize your life and know what's important.
And the most important: Do it because you love to do it and nothing more. That's the only reason any of us should be doing this. If you can make a little cash then that's great but be realistic.

The most unexpected, but probably best advice in the thread...

[Jen_Babcock]

Do edit your work

Do think carefully about what each character is saying/doing- don't let them be complete whimsies of your imagination. Your characters have a life of their own, you know.

Do put 100% into your work.

Do write about what you know and what you love. Don't write a story for the sole purpose that you think it'll make you popular.

If you have a goal in mind... don't give up.

[Chaoticcomics]

Do seek opinions and criticism from people who aren't webcomic artists.
Why? Because the webcomic 'circle' can be quite 'insular' at times, and hearing fresh voices can lend you perceptive. Besides, if your friends and family like it, then who cares what Joe Schmo comic artist from Piscapo says, if it's negative? Remember that webcomics are kind of a novelty item, so don't expect much from the majority of internet users, who are either playing games, cheating on games, looking at porn, or paying bills online, or spamming people with ways to pay bills online.

Don't be afraid of competition. There isn't a whole lot in my genre, and not a bunch in some smaller ones. So what if you're not a MegaTokyo in 3 months after launch! You could be in 6 months, but you can't if you're scared of the competition.

Do NOT post 3 months of filler! Just say you're taking a hiatus or pause. And when you come back post in the forums or on Online Comics.net that you're back, so fans can stop on by.

There, that should do it for now.

[Alschroeder]

DO try to take advantage of html-linkage---consider linking to previous parts of the story as they're mentioned, rather than redrawing a recap. Remember that a webcomic is NOT a print comic. If you just think of this as a prelude to a print run, you'll miss a lot of opportunities.

Do what YOU love. Don't do a gamer comic just because Penny Arcade is popular, unless you love gaming. If you love it, you'll stick with it, and chances are, you'll find other people who do too.

Post in forums not associated with webcomics but associated with what your comic's about, and include your url in the sig. (I get quite a few hits from superhero forums, such as dc comics'.)

As for backgrounds---very rarely will you be complimented for backgrounds, but the reader DOES appreciate them when they're good.

---Al

[Blackaby]

Do not use ungodly amounts of filler strips and then KEEP THEM IN your archive so that you have to funk through twenty strips of BLERK to get back to the story... or did someone already mention that?

[Jeffy]

Just not too much, if you spend 10 hours on every page, you will burn yourself out of comics all too quickly. I realize everyone has a different pipeline, but I think it's best to do the whole page evenly in case you want to stop at some point. If you work on it a frame at a time, then after an hour of making the first panel look good the others are just going to seem like the last few miles of a marathon.

10 hours? pfft! I got that beat easy on the last strip, and likely on the rest as well. Since I started, the better I've made my comic look, the more time it's taken, think it now takes me 2-3 times as much time to complete a strip as it did the last time I did color strips.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Go outside and spend time with friends. And bring a notebook because more ideas will come from that instead of just sitting in a small room marintaing in your own stink.

I already spend close to 20 hours a page from conception to final product. Yuck.