A well made webcomic with a lot of flashbacks?

[MegaRay]

As the title says, is there a well made webcomic with a lot of flashbacks? I am making a webcomic, and it has alot of flashbacks, I think I did it well in the script, but I would like to see how other people might do it and how people receive it.

[VibrantFox]

The first comic that came to mind that fits within this category is Strays

Strays | Tapas

It takes an interesting approach with flashbacks (at least that I recall) where the majority are done through dreams but they were very well received as it gave a lot more insight on the character beyond what readers were already seeing in the normal linear story.

There's probably other examples of stories that use a lot of flashbacks but it usually comes down to execution and where they happen in the story. Is is a jarring jump from the main story to a flashback or does it ease into it? Is it a recount via dialogue or just a pan back for context? Is it a drastic tone shift or subtle? Those are what usually plays into it that I've noticed so if it's planned well and executed well there shouldn't be too much issue and it can even be well received if it's giving new or valuable information as it relates to the overall plot of the story or background of a character.

[MegaRay]

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I run into Strays long ago, but I probably wasn't paying attention to the flashbacks, so I'll probably check that too.

[Mallory]

I think the reason people dislike flashbacks is because, when done poorly, they are conveniently placed RIGHT before the information from the flashback is needed in the main plot - even if it made no sense for a character to have a flashback in the moments leading up to it. It's jarring and feels like an author desperately trying to cover up a plot sinkhole that just opened up.

The vast majority of stories feature flashbacks or memories (snobby people will call that kind of narrative "non-linear storytelling" in that case, because gods forbid they use the word "flashback.") If your flashback makes sense within the emotional arc of your story, makes sense with the adjacent present-day scenes, and is ideally set up ahead of when its content is needed, then I don't think you have a reason to worry.

For a webcomic that does flashbacks well, there is Ava's Demon. (It's big enough to be the first link that comes up). I haven't kept up with it in years but I remember that originally there was a lot of, um, "non-linear storytelling".

[ninjashira]

I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but my comic Hollow has plenty of flashbacks, and it seems like people are enjoying how I'm handling it so far.

Hollow | Tapas

[vothnthorvaldson]

I think it's very reductive to assimilate to snobism the use of 'non-linear storytelling' to describe SOME types of stories with flashbacks.

The word 'flashback' evokes for most something more general than 'non-linear storytelling'. A lot of stories have flashbacks and are still linear stories, despite the little interruptions; other stories are made structurally non-linear by the flashbacks, and there is nothing snob about saying that.

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Regarding the topic, I'm not sure if I can help much, as I have the same problem sort of. I've limited strongly the amount of flashbacks in my comic compared to my initial idea, because I'm not sure how to make it work in a comic form, especially with a slow publication rate. My first draft had intricated things such as interlocked flashbacks and flashbacks within a flashback within a flashback; I simplified by simple flashbacks working both as explanation of current events AND as foreshadowing (eg. a character is reminded of some past events by a current event; narrates to other character past event relevent to the current event + something extra that we will need to understand the plot further down the story).

[Mallory]

No, you're right, of course, there are actual stories that can truly be referred to as stories told in a non-linear fashion. I was mainly referring to people who take on the idea that "flashbacks" are always a mark of inferior story-telling and therefore a dirty word to use. I think a certain portion of authors hear this opinion somewhere and begin to worry about their own use of a perfectly functional tool for story-telling, hence my dismissal of that idea as "snobbism".

[vothnthorvaldson]

Ah yes, I understand better. A whole cycle; some people use flashbacks lazily, giving them a bad name, people try another name, alter definition of said name, make it look bad and so on..

[J.Lovelace]

If you're ok with horror BL:

Urban Legend | Tapas