Hottest of Takes Time!

[thepenmonster]

This is 90% of making comics;

The rest is just cleaning it up so other people can read it.

[GumshoeComix]

my take - lettering is the only not fun part about making comics and no one can tell me otherwise

[DualDragons]

Hot take:

There is always one character or more during comic development you can scrap from your story and it won't change a single thing happening in it
(And I am not talking about background characters)

[GodbreakerComic]

Hot Take: I absolutely hate the scrolling style of layout in webcomics. Its a personal preference but to me its like...

(Word bubble)

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Guys face

Nothing

Nothing

etc. It is an immediate turn away for me.

[river121693]

hot take: if your comic isn't getting a lot of traction. It's most likely a quality issue

[GodbreakerComic]

Backgrounds. Backgrounds can go to hell.

[kalmia]

I agree to some extent. Maybe i'm a little biased because my comic is in scrolling format and I'm used to Webtoon haha, but I actually like it. I think it can help with pacing and adding effects and small details that are harder to add with classic comic format. But I do hate when you see like one panel, if that, at a time, I like to see at least 2. It feels like a waste of space and takes forever to get through. But like you said, its definitely a preference thing and people are totally entitled to their opinions!

[darthmongoose]

hot take: if your comic isn't getting a lot of traction. It's most likely a quality issue

Yeah, this

While reviewing comics, I very occasionally come across one where it genuinely, truly is a really high quality comic that's just at the wrong time, or on the wrong platform to be popular (search "Bloodshot" or "Rest Area 51" for good examples of this on Tapas).

....The vast majority of comics under-performing on Tapas though... including a lot who say "Oh, my work is really good and clearly just not popular because it's [page format/black and white/ non-manga art style / not romance-focused/ heterosexual]!" It's actually...er.... lacking in the art or writing department as a much more prevalent issue. Weak composition, sloppy line work, unfocused plot, unlikeable characters, poor font choices or font size too small for the platform, bad use of space, confusing visual storytelling, bad use of value and colour to make things readable, speech bubbles shaped like rugby balls, busy covers etc. etc.

Fix all the issues with your comic first. Get feedback from professionals. You can blame the fact that your comic isn't BL for your lack of success when you've definitely established that it 100% isn't actually that you still need to do some work.on yourself before you blame other people for your lack of success.

[thepenmonster]

The padding is utter shit visually speaking, but that's what folks want so what can you do?

[IndigoShirtProd]

Burned my hand on this take.

[Nugtown]

I can agree but there's some times when i'm not sure I can. The shittier, more badly written, more confusing older version of my comic did GREAT and it was taking off faster than I could keep up with. But it suuuuuucked.

I've had time to think about what I did right as much as what I did wrong. But never ever underestimate things like bad timing, circumstances and just a general lack of visibility being the ultimate drag, i've seen WAAY too much hot stuff go criminally under the radar. If movies can suffer this fate anyone can.

Oh right my hot "take", photocopied backgrounds are lazy and make everything look like a crunchy mess.

[thepenmonster]

Something something meritocracy something drink milk and say prayers something bootstraps something unicorns out my butt.

[Innocynce]

Um... Yeah, word bubbles are PAIN. They're needed but always a pain, I kinda don't mind backgrounds (usually do them simple as possible though....) But word bubbles WILL GET IN THE WAY and all of everything you drew on the f'ing panel and/or page is meaningless! Because that thing is taking all the room...

Maybe it's just a thing with me? I don't know...

[IndigoShirtProd]

But word bubbles WILL GET IN THE WAY and all of everything you drew on the f'ing panel and/or page is meaningless! Because that thing is taking all the room...

I have to disagree, the only way speech bubbles are getting in the way is if you don't plan around them before you make the final page. Those things are supposed to help with reading comprehension when it comes to the comic, not hinder it

[GodbreakerComic]

If its a tight scrolling layout I'm all for it. But when MF'ers try to turn 2 panels into 6 pages I'm out.

[ThunderChicken]

Especially when 50% of each week's update consists of the last few panels from last week's update. A small recap might be OK, especially with a comic that doesn't update regularly, and might even be OK if the weekly updates are sufficiently sized (IE things actually happen in the update), but so many comics in the scrolling format reuse last week's stuff to pad this week's update.

It would be like watching a show that started with "Previously, on..." and then spent 15 minutes talking about last week, leaving only 15 minutes for this week.

[ButterflyEmpress]

90% of writing is just thinking at a blank page for hours

[Innocynce]

Not for me; like every time I try it; everything gets jumbled so badly...