How do I start with making my own Webcomic?

[BlueGuy333]

So I had an Idea for a Webcomic in 2020 (that's when I started drawing) I've come pretty far art wise and think I've reached an acceptable Quality.
I've also thought alot about the Story and have a general Plot, also have a bit of the script for the first few chapters.
Now I don't know how to approach starting to draw the first chapter it's kind of daunting because i want it to be as good as it can but I can't decide where to start.
Should I start with a Storyboard? Or should I just get to sketching?

Do you guys know any good Teachers on YouTube?
I've watched Marc Brunet and he's great but he's not a comic/manga kinda guy.

[IndigoShirtProd]

I would recommend starting with a storyboard/thumbnails rather than diving into sketching pages.

Scott McCloud's book(s) on comic are also a great resource and are highly recommended by many creators. I think you can find .pdf files of them if you look them up. And there are plenty of creators on youtube that can give advice about story, page creation, and script writing. I would suggest looking up the creator Whyt Manga; he has plenty of good advice videos.

[NickRowler]

Storyboarding and thumbnailing is useful for figuring out your layout. It can also help with visual pacing. However you could add notes to your script to help with this. Thumbnailing can be very simple and rough and just something you do in a sketchbook. If your comic has a very simple layout, like a gag-a-day, you might not need a storyboard.

Something I will do before going into making my pages is creating a "mock up" page. It will help you get a sense of what style you want to do your comic and helps fix out some kinks. For example I had a comic where my mock up was in black and white but I decided I wanted more contrast so my final comic has greyscale.

[LunarScyphozoa]

Its usually good to start with writing down all the important events, making a word for word script can be a bit draining the fun out of drawing so I usually just do an outline. Then it’s good to start thumbnailing/storyboarding the whole first chapter or two just not get a feel for how you want the comic to be. Character sheets and stuff are important too but I feel like you already know that stuff

[BoomerZ]

First off with your idea, know where you are going. Know how it's going to end and what story you are going to tell. Make a very loose outline for that. The how you get there can be as loose as you want but this will allow you to not write yourself into a corner. If this is your first try, make a short test comic. This way you can work out pacing and the like. You will never learn how to make a comic until you do it. You don't know what you don't know.
Thumbnails are not a needed thing in modern digital comics. Thumbnails are a traditional technique when you didn't want to waste time drawing an entire page and find out it didn't work. Nothing digital is permanent. Just zoom out to make the picture smaller and make a rough idea where you want stuff in the panel, zoom in and flesh it out. You can rough your whole page without wasting the extra step of thumbs first.
Make a script of dialogue, don't wing it. The dialogue will dictate the panel. It will also tell you a good spot to end that episode, always leaving the audience on a note of "I need to see what happens next".

[smokesalty]

For me, I made a couple test pages before I began. It just meant there was no pressure for the pages to look amazing, and I could experiment with what style of drawing worked best for me and was most efficient.

Before I start drawing the actual page, I make quick thumbnails that show how the page will be laid out just so I can see how it flows. Sometimes I lay down some colours if I'm not sure what colour scheme would fit. Then, I'll actually start drawing the pages.

(examples of my thumbnails:)

They really don't need to look amazing, no-one but you needs to understand them unless you're working with someone else.

But yeah, experiment and see what works for you! I do not work the same way I did when I first made comics, it's mainly trial and error. The most important thing is to just put pen to page and try something!

[darthmongoose]

To echo IndigoShirtProd, you should definitely first read the book "Making Comics" by Scott McCloud. His other books are good, but there's a lot of repeated content between "Understanding" and "Making", so I think a creator can skip "Understanding Comics", and the later one "Reinventing Comics" is worth reading, but not as essential.

For youtube tutorials, this one is really solid for making long-scroll comics:

This channel isn't tutorials so much as analysis of excellent comics, but it's well worth a watch:

Strip Panel Naked

Finally, not a Youtube, but I did write an entire document on making an effective and successful Tapas comic, which may be useful!:

Tapas “How to get eyeballs on my comic and keep them there” Guide

A lot of the work of making a comic is making decisions before you start. So you've already planned your first chapters and have a general idea where your story is going, which is great! I also recommend making sure to try to plan the pacing of your story to establish a strong hook within about the first 3-6 updates if at all possible, because Tapas (and especially Webtoon) is an attention-economy

Next you'll want to decide: Long Scroll or Page by Page.
I'm gonna give a hot take here that'll sound weird because I make page-by-page comics myself that I spread out a bit into a pseudo long-scroll format. If you don't have a really strong reason to make a page-by-page comic, like say "making a print book is a big part of my strategy with this comic" or "I make pages traditionally on paper" or "I have been making traditional format comics for years and I'd rather stick with what I'm already good at" or "I'm an experienced comics creator and I know page-by-page suits the storytelling/humour style I'm going for"... then make a long-scroll comic. It will work better on the platform, it'll probably get more readers and has a higher chance of getting attention from the staff.

Planning out pages or episodes, personally I write out what needs to happen with bulletpoints or a script and go straight to rough thumbnails. Remember with thumbnails, they only need to be as complex as they need to be for you to tell what's going on, and don't be afraid to scrap things and try again. I often do my thumbnails on paper because I work page by page and it's easy to do chilling on the sofa with some music.

From this thumbnail compared to the final page, you can learn odd things about how I personally make pages:

1. I don't actually have my dialogue written in stone until I write it on the page. I know the gist of what characters will say, but I often change up the exact wording based on how it flows or fits with the panel shape or expressions. Obviously, this approach isn't for everyone!
2. The positions, expression and poses aren't always exactly the same. I'm personally a "go with the flow" sort of artist. Again, some people like to be VERY clear with much more detailed thumbnails that plan out exactly what a panel will look like.
   Do your thumbnails however works best for you! You're the boss! All that matters is what gets you the best results!

Now you know what you're making, you should decide how!
Work out how many panels roughly an average episode or page of the comic you're making is going to be by thumbnailing a few from your script. Now have a go at drawing out a full panel or two in the style you want to work in and see how long it takes, or ideally try a full episode or page. If the amount of work was unreasonable, like if if took you a month to draw an episode or more than three or four days to draw a page, you need to look at ways to streamline your style. You will get faster at drawing over time, but it's best to start with something that balances "it looks nice" and "I can keep up reasonably regular updates of this on top of my work/study, social life, physical needs (like sleep) and other obligations."

For example, my first style test of my comic looked like this:

I didn't even finish this style test before realising this was way too time consuming (and also that some of my colour scheme choices weren't working out). So I tried a few times and ended up drawing it with mostly flat colours, shading only on skin because people pay more attention to faces, and with a simple "Add: Glow" edge highlight on foreground and simpler background rendering with a lot fewer texture passes like this:

Finally... before you launch, do these three things:

1. Google the name you want to call your comic and the word "Webcomic" and make sure there isn't already a comic on Tapas called that. If there is another well-known comic called that, or a comic on Tapas called that, come up with a different name.
2. Put time and effort into coming up with a really polished logo or title font for your comic.
3. Make a strongly designed cover, thumbnmail and banner for your comic before you launch any pages. Do not launch with a placeholder. Why? Because you may rob yourself at a shot at a "new from the community" feature if your comic doesn't look polished. Launch with something that looks like a well-thought-out product for maximum effectiveness!

Doing all your research and development upfront can be a bit annoying when you're rearing to go, but it'll definitely pay off because you'll feel a lot more confident and make a lot more impact with your launch.

Good luck!

[system]

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.