How did you decide to start making comics/novels?

[supriyashukla2398]

Read Imperfectly - Perfect | Tapas Web Community

It all began when I started creating characters in my imaginary world. These characters and their stories became so vivid and compelling that I thought, "Why not bring them into a novel?" That's how my journey into novel writing began.

[riddp]

I mostly write but for a new series, I felt it would be good as a comic. And after asking my friends to draw, I thought maybe I could draw. Considering my characters were also simple for a beginner like me, I gave a try

[SagaHolmgaard]

At first I wanted to be an illustrator, who also wrote books and illustrated them sometimes. I started wanting to make my own webcomic when I first discovered webcomics, somewhere during highschool or right before starting highschool? Back then I was reading Paranatural, Monsterkind, and some other hiveworks comics and I was really inspired!

I tried a bunch of times during highschool, but I clearly just didn't know how to create such a big project. It was while studying at uni that I finally managed to launch my own webcomic on Tapas. That was in 2019, and I'm not updating it currently. Now I'm more interested in making comics in Swedish and sharing more locally But I wouldn't have gotten here if I hadn't first decided I wanted to make webcomics!

[Lensing]

True story, kind of embarassing but also cute:

Summer of 1983, I was at 8 years old and my uncle and aunt´s place in Frankfurt/Germany.
My uncle had Asterix comics. I started reading the comics and fell in love with
the medium and the characters. I wanted to be Asterix, then this feeling transformed
into wanting to draw Asterix, then transformed into wanting to be a comic book artist.

I was always a strange kid and my parents supported me being strange. I was wearing
a bowler hat in school when I was at that age and I had a weird clothes style which made
me some kind of outsider anyway. I sucked at everything, I had bad grades in school
and was bad at sports. I was very creative and one of the reasons was that my parents
didn´t have much entertainment in the house but we had one acoustic guitar and always
large printer paper and pens. So my brother and me would draw comics all day to entertain
us. Then I started drawing in class instead of listening to what the teacher said.
Girls started to get interested because they liked that I was good at drawing.
That´s how I pretty much spend my life until I was 16 and left school with horrible grades
and no plan what to do

[Emalie]

I think it's because of my family. My dad liked to draw although he took a different path towards art. Let's say that his life had many ups and downs and although he loved to draw, he never had the opportunity to be an artist.

His sister was a painter, and she dedicated herself to painting portraits until she couldn't anymore due to illness, so I think some of their talents impacted me, although if I'm honest I'm taking it as therapy for myself and not as a profession. It makes me feel comfortable with what I do.

As for writing, although my mom is not a writer, she won two short story contests when she was young and loves to read. However, as in the case of my dad, she works on something different that is not related to writing a novel.

[2DLenzy]

I actually used to do short comics/stories since a young age. I remember listening to amazing stories told/enacted by the teacher aid, in elementary school, which is where I learned to daydream and grow an imagination.
But my real "I wanna make comics" moment happened around 4 years ago, when the pandemic was still a thing. I was actually hanging out with my uncle and mom and they were talking about fryer chickens. Gave me the idea to do a short funnies comic based on a chicken who was a friar, but that story soon spun into more heavy dramatic stuff. It's technically not the first comic/story I've ever done, but it's definitely the first ever to be published online.
I had wanted to do comics since I was very little, just had a hard time actually doing the work cause I was alone in the process. Now that I'm older and have access to technology and resources I'd never thought I'd have, it's been a fun process.

This current comic is all by trial and error, and it's gotten me very interested in doing digital art overall. I'm very excited to see what other stories I can come up with down the line.

[KevinReijnders]

Because making an animated series on my own would be nigh impossible haha.

And the thing that made me think "I can definitely do this" was when I saw how popular the Netflix series She-Ra and the princesses of power was, and how mediocre I felt it was in both writing and technical execution.

I really felt like "well I can do that!" And pretty much started doing just that.

[dayworks]

Thanks for saying that. Especially about the art. I worry about it sometimes. I came up with the particular because it was something I felt I could keep up over the length of the project (maybe 300 "Pages") But I do fret about it lacking details sometime.

One of the funny moments when I was telling the boys the story was I describing them returning home after being away for two years panning for gold in Alaska before winning the Iditarod. The oldest stopped me and asked how the house had changed in two years. I said "not much, but we got a different rug in the living room." to which he replies "I don't think you'd change that rug." Evidently his sense of disbief was suspended until I starting messing with the rug.

[Lensing]

Did the pandemic & the isolation through the pandemic motivate you do start doing the comic?

[Wolsal]

Oh my gosh that’s great lol. and don’t worry about the art at all! I genuinely adore the style, and it’s clear even just from a glance that you have serious talent and dedication to what you do!

[JokesterComics]

Well, I guess it's always sorta been my dream. When I was around 5 I really wanted to write a book, then I wanted to make video games, but I realized that was too hard, then I started reading the manga One Piece, which made me love books again. That was sorta my inspiration, and I started thinking up my OC's around that time, and now, 5 years later, after I had a well established world and characters, I thought, screw it, I'm gonna start writing. I had a few other stories I wanted to write, but this was the one I always came back to, no matter what.

Read Kura :: Fluffy the bird and Purps the cat | Tapas Community

[dreample2000]

I started making my own comic at about 8? I've always been an artsy child; one of my earliest memories was showing my parents my drawings. I've written down stories after that but I lost my diaries so I forgot about them and I've always had problems with my work ethic (so easily distracted by my own fantasies lol) so most of them are unfinished. I've also written and completed fanfics in AO3 before I started on my ongoing works here. Due to present circumstances, I sadly can't finish my comic so I'm currently working on an easier to complete work:

Read An Immortal Love | Tapas Web Community

[dayworks]

Yes. I absolutely needed something to do. Although there were a couple things that primed me.

When I was prepping the manuscript to take to agents I went to a scbwi convention and attended a graphic novel break out session hosted by Drew Brockington (Catronauts). I showed him some of the illustrations from the manuscript (the color chapter title illustrations predate the graphic novel treatment) and he received them well. We even exchanged some correspondence about the old school four color printing process for bronze age comic books that I was emulating for the illustrations. The big take away for me was when he talked about submitting graphic novels to publishers, Standard practice at the time was a 10 page sample. I thought "10 page sample?! Not a whole freakin' manuscript?! That's easy!" So I may have done one of those before I just said f*ck it, and starting adapting the whole book start to finish.

[2DLenzy]

It did. Had nothing to do during that time. Also, my dad had given me a tablet and I started drawing for the first time after a long period of no drawing, so there was a renewed energy and sense of excitement that took hold of me initially. Didn't care what the art looked like, just wanted to start a long-term project and see how I did. Isolation with no external pressures kinda helped with that.

[dayworks]

How do you feel it's gone since then?

[dayworks]

Thanks for that. I'm glad you appreciated the story.

[thournewrites]

Creating has kinda always been like breathing to me; I did it without thinking too much about it. I had stories I loved growing up and was super influenced by anime as a kid which definitely inspired me, but more than anything I didn't have a lot of friends as a kid so I had lots of time for imagination lol. Art and writing have just always been a part of my life and always will be to some extent.

Read Ugh Not Again | Tapas Web Community

[kitschensyngk]

I've always been a creative individual, and Nachos Con Carne was born from characters that were floating around in my head since grade school.

I discovered webcomics like Sluggy Freelance and Megatokyo, among others, as I was entering college, and they inspired me to turn my idea into one. I took a bunch of classes in creative writing and film while teaching myself how to draw, and after I graduated, I had a lot of free time while job hunting, so I just decided to do it.

Read Nachos Con Carne | Tapas Web Community

[Shanny8]

I've always wanted to make comics...plain and simple.

[thepenmonster]

My mum gave me a copy of Superman vs Muhammad Ali back in the 70s and I never recovered from the brain damage. In retrospect I wish she had given me a banjo or something more useful.