Do you think in order to make a GOOD comic, you should be a reader of comics?

[darthmongoose]

All I can say is...er... "Good luck" to this person because...wow. That is some serious Dunning Kreuger effect they have going on there.

[candiedcotton]

Oh for sure.

Just kinda made me wonder how common that mentality was though, you know. How many folks decide to get into making comics when they're not really into them at all.

I'm an absolute addict, so I can't even imagine.

[DarkSena]

Everyone started off as a reader I would say
Even though I have to admit... I'm a terribly lazy reader. I hate to read But I love to look at the art, okay

[BoomerZ]

It is possible if he studies the medium for structure and and technique. Stories are stories. If you know how to write a story, that's half the battle. I would also say if he was a storyboard artist he would be fine. If all he does is write stories, I think he will be lost at layout. Lots of medium shorts and full shots at eye level will most likely be his go to.

[Nugtown]

I think they're lying, straight up
It's not necessarily because you need to read comics to make comics, you could feasibly do it on your own with no help. But there's a difference between "I have no need to reference comics" and "I have never read them!" <--not even absorbing it by casual exposure? Good one.

[AxemanRifflord]

...How is this person even expecting to get the art done? Are they going to hire an artist? Do the art themselves? Freeload? Have they even considered that part?

[candiedcotton]

Oh no, I've known this person for a decade. It's 100% believable, lol.

[candiedcotton]

I think they assume I will be the one drawing it, haha.

[DiegoPalacios]

Gotta say one must understand how the medium they are using works and reading is an easy way to get the grasp on comics.

[Lensing]

You should be really good at telling stories and be able to communciate with pictures.
You need some experience in visual storytelling, I can imagine someone who is into
movies and doesn´t read many comics and is still able to make a comic book.
But I think in reality most people who create comics are comic fans first

[powerplantanimations]

Yeh. I actually recommend people go back to early as the 30's and start seeing the evolution of comics first hand. This is why I think reading stuff like DC is useful lol.

[DNoble]

Has any good music ever been produced by someone who dislikes music? any films by creators who don't enjoy movies? Any novels by those who don't like reading?

Reading comics doesn't produce good comic creators by nature, it certainly helps improvement, but it isn't a prerequisite so much as it is a simultaneous phenomenon: People don't make good comics because they like reading comics, people who make good comics also like reading comics.

One is not the product of the other, they are simply simultaneous and symbiotic phenomena.

[hakei]

Sounds like "I'm going to cook the best steak even though I've never had a bite of steak or even watched someone cook a steak before but I'm good at cooking bacon so it's basically the same thing."

[AxemanRifflord]

They shouldn’t assume anything.

[theyrebothakilogram]

Yeah, there's a lot of visual tropes that you don't know unless you've read a lot of comics, so it's like everyone else is in on the joke except for them. Panelling is a lot more complicated than just 'picture with words' so reading comics is pretty important to making a comic

[ziibb]

Oh absolutely. They'll probably make a decent comic but not without tons of trial and error and even learning the basics through a much harder way than necessary.

I'm ngl though I think I understand them, I liked making comics ever since I was a kid but I didn't like the classic superhero style (the only type of comics I knew at the time) and just did my own thing steering clear of them. Once I came across webcomics and webtoon I felt like I found my place! Completely different format that has its own formulas and technique to learn about and I gladly read their tips and tricks and improved my comic skills.

Maybe let them do their own thing first. I know I wasn't like them where I rejected the very idea of ANY comic and you're right cuz reading comics is important to really master the elements, but maybe learning that itself is part of their journey!

[Katzalcoatl]

You do have to read a bare minimum of comics to understand how comics are made.

You can't cook a pie without looking at the recipe or at least tasting one pie. If you cook without any knowledge you will never arrive at the answer without many trials and errors.

Trying to do a comic without knowing what is popular and what is well accepted in certain genres is like attempting to draw the mona lisa without ever having seen the painting and just getting a vague description of what the mona lisa looks like by a friend.

You always need to investigate the things you are attempting for the first time. If you don't investigate your competition or your target audience beforehand your business will fail unless you are extremely lucky. And lets be honest not everyone is the unicorn they like to see themselves as.

[Katzalcoatl]

That mentality is common. But not necessarily in making comics. It can be in business, music, or other areas.

Many people just see something and think it's easy just because another person who practiced years makes it look easy.

Everyone likes to beleive themselves as exceptions to the rules while in reality they are not. (There are still exceptions to the rules but they are super rare.)

[Mallory]

Honestly this attitude is prevalent in all kinds of writing circles. Hit up any writer forum and you’ll see a small but recognizable minority of people who don’t read books/watch movies/etc but are going to write the next big thing and anyone who tells them that they probably won’t because they don’t respect their chosen medium is a hater (they’re also pretty much always doing it for clout/fame/$$$ without any respect for the market… like how your friend thinks they’ll make big bucks in comics even though the comic market is completely dwarfed by figures found in the novel/prose market).

I will confess that I am not a huge FAN of comics. I read about one volume a week (from the library) just to do research and be informed, but it’s a concentrated effort on my part. I usually buy any book I truly enjoyed reading, and my comic shelf only has about a dozen things on it, half of which are nostalgia from high school. So I don’t know if you need to be a huge, unrepentant fan of other comics to make them, but you absolutely need to read and respect the medium.

[abigaillmartin]

My mother is a writer and reader too and she wrote her own stories when she was younger. She always told me the more you read and the more experience you get the better your writing will get. I’ve loved reading not necessarily fiction but non fiction like intellectual books and fact and history so I’m not really a storyteller but more on an intellectual standpoint. I use history and science and the real world as my guide to enhance my ideas for my stories with a sprinkle of imagination of course.

I mean in the logic of a cartoon in which I draw, really anything can happen but I choose for it to be grounded in reality a little bit.

I admit I do have a great imagination but I’m not a great storyteller I’m still improving in that aspect of my comics. I also write scripts and the occasional novel but it kind of ends up in the most whimsical way possible and poorly written fanfiction.

But in my experience just read more and learn from the masters. And always keep reading!