Comics making sense

Kaito26 2018-09-28 09:12:48 UTC #1

I feel like when you do any kind of story, you have the idea in your head, but when you actually show it to another person, it may not make sense to them because they don't have the same mindset or idea that you had when making that story, leaving out crucial information and expecting the other people to have the knowledge of the story the same as you have, even when you don't realise it.

So I am going to ask you guys, if my comic makes any sense, if not, what areas do I need to explain?

You can also put your comic down if you want me and others to also see if your comic makes sense

BobbyjoeX 2018-09-28 12:40:00 UTC #2

imo, usually comics dont make sense in the beginning cause the reader hasnt read enough to piece it together yet.

I know My comic is like that

A-weird-girler 2018-09-28 12:59:45 UTC #3

This is frustrating for me too, but I realize that it's caused by you already knowing where your story is heading since you already wrote it. Try to have more exposition, that always works if done well.

c0ldw1nter 2018-09-28 17:23:47 UTC #4

If you start from something like an ongoing conflict, it can be hard to follow. But if the next pages explain the crucial details before the reader forgets them, it's all cool. It can be really tricky to keep the story interesting while purposely withholding details.. I've taken an easy intro approach with my comic, where the main character is as clueless as the reader.. Not sure if that makes it any more intriguing.

TenguHarley 2018-09-28 20:14:15 UTC #5

Haha I'm at the same feel too, it's honestly a hit and miss for readers depending what they're into really.

From what I've noticed, it's either that the reader will relate to the character/situation that they will delve in more to the story. Or there is an intriguing mystery that you want to solve and want to follow the story to find out and etc etc. Though this is my point of view as a reader to other webcomics.

At most what steers me away is pacing to where it's way too fast or there's too many characters that show up and its hard to keep up with :x I've come across some that I want to read up to recent but I can just never delve into it. Sometimes I think it could be my mood for certain things which honestly sucks. Though I agree with @c0ldw1nter pretty good points there.

Here's my webcomic, the prologue entails of two heroes fighting against monsters and then transitions to the main character who's off to start his job as a miner. Though throughout the story, we will get to points where we see what goes on with the world and etc.

X.J.C 2018-09-28 20:42:40 UTC #6

Some advice after reading the fist few chapters of Eunice, I had some trouble with telling the characters apart (the main character is done well with the striped shirt though), especially in the earlier pages the eyes look mostly the same.

Chapter 3, Page 13-15 is nicely done and but there is some inconsistency with these pages.

I think the story isn't that confusing (It's clear for me), you might want to work on differentiate the character designs a little bit but other than that it's pretty decent.

...

I use (or I think I use) abstract story telling in my first comic (beware its old and cringey), I like to give the reader the opportunity to fill in the blanks (my story is based on a common fairy tail so most people have some understanding of the plot).

Cavechan 2018-09-29 01:23:52 UTC #7

I just read chapter 1 and overall I really enjoyed it! I don't think the story is confusing. It does seem there are a lot of things happening at once but not everything needs to be explained upfront. You're really good at drawing a lot of different poses and expressions. The way you use comictones is effective and it seems to be just about the right amount (too many can become messy sometimes).

I did notice some really minor things that could be cleaned up a bit. I made a few notes while reading:

On page 1, the setting isn't quite clear in the first panel. I see the world in front of her is on fire and it must have been... her village? town? city? was destroyed. There's also something strange going on with the black outline around the text. It looks like it's cut off on the top/bottom and even the sides. Not sure what might be happening.

On page 6, there's a large space after the apostrophes. There might be something wrong with the font. It's also on the title page though. It's a bit difficult to read.

On pages 8-11 I noticed some of the text has jagged edges. I'm assuming you are using Photoshop? You should be able to change the text to have smooth edges. On page 10, the prince(?) isn't holding any reigns for the horse! D: Or is it magic? If so, then that might not be clear.

Page 14 The paneling on this page isn't necessarily confusing but the hierarchy and layout of the panels is a bit off, for lack of a better word. The first two panels could be combined into one, panel two could be the one of her running. Maybe she's looking away and you see a silhouette of a figure in front of her. Then the third could be her bumping into someone. Panel 4 is the map on the ground and the last panel on the page is you see part of the new character. The next page is then the intro of the new character. I think it's easier to show as an example. This is extremely rough (which is fine for drafting) to give an idea of what I mean.

page 1:

page 2:

Doing a full pose of a character on a new page like this is a basic and effective way of introducing an important new character. It has really strong hierarchy in that the new character becomes the most important thing on the page and it looks cool.

There are a lot of cool scenes! Like the fight with the monster in chapter 1! There are a lot of dynamic shots like on page 27 and the fight is easy to follow. I'm looking forward to reading more.

Here is the link to my comic. I have a couple others as well in my profile!

Kaito26 2018-09-29 01:50:40 UTC #8

@Cavechan Thanks for the feedback! I'll take your advice and check your comic out soon!

unknown_user 2018-10-04 15:26:41 UTC #9

@Kaito26 well... Let me list what I understood after reading the first chapter:
1. The girl with long black hair is the main character.
2. She turned out to be in some unfamiliar world.
3. Her native world was destroyed (by some monsters and cataclysms and probably other "chaotic" things?)
4. She heard the voice who told she that she should defeat the guy (girl?) named Obsos to save the world (I didn't clearly understand which one). The problem is that she don't know who it is and have to find and recognize him first.
5. She thinks that the monsters which appeared in the unfamiliar world are some signs of danger to this world. Probably signs that it will be destroyed in the same way as her own world.
6. She can use some magic, at least magic illusions.

At the beginning of the second chapter I confirmed guesses nn. 1, 2, 3, 6 and also clarified things about n. 4.
I still didn't get why she and her new friend think that map will help to find Obsos, but probably I should read further to clarify this...

Summarizing, I can say that the beginning of the story as a whole makes sense (I hope that I understood it correctly) even if some particular pages look somewhat confusing.

When I started my own comics and showed it to friends, I faced the same problem you mentioned in the main post of the thread. There were a several points which were clear to me, but not to them. I think that I'll try to clarify everything in the future. For now, I'd greatly appreciate if you'll read it and say if it make sense for you:

Lennart 2018-10-04 15:44:36 UTC #10

Yeah, i have written down a lot of my story already but my execution and delivery might not be very good anyways. Story telling in a comics form might not be my strength even tho, i just love to draw.