How do people find partners to start a webtoon with?

[piranhamagi]

Hi all,

I'm actually a game developer, but I'm a huge fan of webtoons and webtoon artists and I was wondering, how do you webtoon creators find people to collaborate with? A webtoon creator I know told me to check this forum out.

My experience in game development is that if you don't have someone available that you know in person, it's painfully difficult to find a cofounder or early team. It was so difficult that I ended up just trying it solo for a while, but after I did find a person I knew to work on a game with, it was so fun that I decided I'd never start a venture solo like that again.

Is there a forum or site y'all use to find teammates? Do you just rely on local network? Do you use Fiverr/Upwork? If you are a team, is it usually artist + writer? What is difficult about the process for you and what do you wish was available to make it easier? Very interested in your experiences here, thanks.

[ninjashira]

It is very hard for most creative types to find someone to collaborate with if they aren't already friends or acquainted, because most creative endeavors require a massive amount of time and energy and passion for the project, especially when there's no budget involved, and most of the time when you meet someone in a forum or a Discord server, they're not going to share the same passion for your project that you do.

In terms of comics, these forums are constantly inundated with writers looking for artists, expecting the artist to work for free and turn out pages purely for the sake of the passion of the story. But the artist doesn't share the same passion for the story that the writer does, and it takes so much more time for an artist to draw a page than it does for a writer to type up a page of script that most writers are left wanting. A script that takes someone two weeks to write can take a year to illustrate as a comic - that is a massive investment of that artist's time for nothing in return.

The best way to foster a collaboration with an artist is to have a budget. It seems a little cold and calculated, but it's the fact of life. If an artist wants to draw a comic or create artwork for the sake of passion of the craft, they're doing to draw their own comic and create their own art. If you really want to expect people to collaborate with you on a long-term project that is going to require weeks, months, or years of their time, you need to be prepared to pay them.

That being said, places like these forums are a good place to look for artists. There's a lot of cross-over between comic artists, illustrators, character designers, and concept artists. You can also follow artists you like on social media and ask them if they're be interested in doing commissions or work-for-hire, you can check the Digital Webbing forums, Behance, the deviantART job postings... I would avoid Fiverr as much as possible personally, it's detrimental to the quality of the final work and undermining the worth of an artist's time.

But, again, you're going to find success when you can pay an artist for their work. If you can't afford to pay an artist for their time and effort, your next best chance is to work with a friend or classmate or acquaintance who already likes you, respects your vision, knows they can work with you, and shares your passion for your project.

[SaxofonSislak]

I'd love to share with you any kind of experience, but as far as I've been working I didn't have any chance to do something as big as a game or a comic. Luckyly I've got the chance to make a short collaboratios for NYE, but nothing else. In fact, this forum is very useful to find people, I can't assure any reliance but there's a lot of users eager to work.
On my current projects I have a little team where I fill the role as a writer with other friends (close ones) that helps with other tasks, but in fact, they're still close friends of mine.
Wish you can find your answer or any help with the following comments, good luck!
Love,
Saxofon

[elyss]

It depends what you mean by 'collab.' The word has a lot of meaning these days. I'm going to assume that you mean two people coming up with an idea and growing it together. For that, it's a bit hard. I've seen relationships spawn on reddit a lot on this basis and sometimes here as well.

If you have an idea you've already got going then it becomes much more difficult. Most expect that to be paid.

[Menbung]

First, @ninjashira answer hits all the right spots. I don't have anything to add or take away from it. That's basically it.

Building a creative relationship it's super hard, it takes so much time and dedication to create something that if you don't have the right incentives it can turn from a fun project into a nightmare. Even if you're best friends.

This may sound cold but if you're having trouble finding an artist is probably because you're offering no money (not saying it is your case I'm just making a point), offer money and you will find artist everywhere. There comes a time when artist need to make money, so passion projects for the sake of passion are relegated. You will find good artists if you offer money (the right amount), no matter the site you look, and they will work for you even if they don't share your passion, can't say so if there's no money on the table but they do share your passion.

[piranhamagi]

The way I see it, this is still an issue for someone that is getting paid in money, equity, or not being paid at all. In either of these cases, ideally you want to work with someone you like and on a project you like (I'm assuming this based on my experience). So what I'm more curious about is how people solve that problem of finding work where you would like working with the person and on the project. Local networks are probably the best solution for this right now.

[elyss]

That problem can be solved with transparency and seeking a professional partner. I can't stress the importance of Professional partner. Professionals don't drop projects because they get bored, that can ruin their reputation. I've worked with professionals I've found through reddit and have only had good experiences.

The only problem is is that with Professionals come higher prices.

As for transparency, I've seen a lot of artists post on here that they've left projects basically because of a lack of transparency. I've dropped collabs because of this as well. Telling your future partner one thing but giving them another is the fastest way to end that collab. Be up front with everything.

[piranhamagi]

What subreddits did you use?

[elyss]

r/comicbookcollabs mostly. Make sure to look at their collab posting guidelines

[Puck]

I was in the collab team with @SaxofonSislak and @feuersichel

It´s hard to find collaboration partners. There were not many replies when Saxofon asked for collab partners
for the NYE collab. I love the idea of working in a team and I like it when people are active and so I joined.
It worked but we also improvised and worked on our own with our ideas without talking much about it
but that was due to the 4 days we had to do it. It worked surprisingly well

It´s way harder to find someone for a bigger project like a complete story/comic.
The artist has something in mind, the writer has something in mind and often it´s something completely
different. I talked to a lot of writers with my own ideas what I want to draw or with their ideas what
the story is about. Sometimes the writers have a very straight forward opinion about the art style,
they only want a manga artist (most of the time) or another art style. That means when you don´t
do manga it´s already hard to find someone. You really need people who you can work together
with and who are willing to make compromises and let the other artist do their creative work.
I could write a book about this topic

[Puck]

That´s something I´m doing too,
I had a story idea and paid a writer to write it properly and then I paid him.
Then you have someone who does what you tell them and not someone
who brings in his ideas whenever he finds time to do it because the writer
is not paid. Save you a lot of stress you spend on waiting and remembering
the person to write your story

[eochoa92]

Trial and error, mostly.
For writers (which is what's seen mostly), it's more difficult as has been mentioned previously.
But I remember at a convention last year that happened to be a webtoon panel. One of the panelists was actually a very successful webtoon writer. I can't remember his name or his series, though I do remember he was Dutch.........or Scandinavian? Anyways, when it came time for the Q&A, someone asked him how he - as a writer managed to get an artist to illustrate his scripts. He said that he just started asking everyone he could on forums until some said yes.

[feuersichel]

I worked in 3 collabs so far (one just started). The first one never got to the first page. I think the problem there was too many people and lack of "leadership". With that I mean, you need someone to be the passionate leader and coordinator. And this is a hard job! Also there was no basic idea of the storyline and it was expected that everyone brings in some ideas. Which isn't a bad idea per se but in this case with that many people, it didn't work. I struggle alot with writing myself and when I am one of the only 3 people to bring in ideas....interest dies down.
On the other hand this newyears collab with only 4 days from start to finish worked super well. But we had a writer, a liner and a colorist. Everyone knew what to do and the idea was set.

The 3. One is with a friend and is fun project without stress or benefits.

[Puck]

Good point with the coordinator and leadership, this can also cause many problems when someone
2 or 3 people feel like the leader. It´s something the group has to talk about before.
One leader can also lead to the problem that the other team members have the feeling they
can´t decide anything or they don´t like the ideas of the leader and then they lose interest
and focus on things that interest them more. It´s really difficult.

Ours worked because we all worked indepentendly and we didn´t discuss anything,
I didn´t follow the script strictly because there was not enough time for communication
which was good in that case. Everyone improvised a lot and we were fast.
Imagine we did more than one page, we first would have to decide on a style,
a story and everything

[SignedA]

I also agree with everything you said previously. But I want to make it clear that the speed at which a writer produces a story shouldn't be a yardstick. Because whatever the job / work to be done in any field, it takes time and this time is due to experience (in the field in question) and to the vagaries of everyone's life. A novice writer will take much more than a week to create a story, and not a rushed story, but a story with tons of documentation to scrutinize, research on the theme of the story, on the scene. , the characters, cultures and people present in his universe for the stories of fantasy or science fiction, and then after all that, the writing of the story itself, without forgetting the proofreading and correction.

Just like a beginner draftsman will take hours to draw a simple cube in perspective, compared to an experienced draftsman. Both parties, as long as they are serious, have a tremendous job to do. And as you have already said, the motivation for the project cannot be the same for everyone, the imperatives of the personal life of each one, among others, can create many problems putting in danger the collaborations.

Otherwise sorry to sound Rabat-joie, but I wanted to clarify this point because it was not the first that I came across this kind of comparison.

p.s.: I answered like that because being a writer having trouble finishing writing his stories, I felt aimed ... it may be stupid of me but hey. And also, I have already had several bad experiences of collaboration where for one, it was me who had a problem and the other was my collaborator who did not want to continue our collaboration. Besides, I had to learn, and I'm still learning to write and draw, because I do my projects on my own.

[Jenny-Toons]

I've done collabs with people who both working on their own stuff and people I knew beforehand. I'd say building that relationship is important because you want to know you can count on people (and people can count on you) when it comes to work ethnic.

Also important tip -- take on more roles within the comic making process. A lot of collabs really don't go anywhere because a lot of people go into the mindset that a comic is just "writing + art". It's a multi-step process with a lot of parts, and if you break down those parts, you don't want one person carrying the whole team (as with any team project).

For the collabs I've worked in, which was often a group of 2-3 people (I think 9 was the biggest I did), we all split up the work in these parts:

Script (which is the writing)
Storyboarding
Sketching
Lineart
Flatting
Rendering
Effects
Lettering

Everyone kinda had their 1-2 roles, and we often talked about the process. But in the end, no one person took on everything. And that's the most important part for collabs -- if you're not paying someone, it helps to take on some of those roles.

So if you're looking for a partner, I say it helps to go "along with script-writing, I can also flat, letter, and do a quick story-board" (an example). Because then, a potential partner can go "alright, this person has more skills and has a strong work ethnic."

[SignedA]

Besides, speaking of storyboard, if I remember correctly, it seems to me that professional comic writers and possibly those in animation too, learn to storyboard in their school curriculum as this is part of the job .

[piranhamagi]

How'd you find the people for those collabs? Did you just use forums, a local network? Was it a painful process to find the people or relatively simple?

[Jenny-Toons]

I ended up collaborating with creators I befriended in a discord server (I was in several at the time). It was in a vc chat with friends: we were joking around with idea concepts, but then we came across an idea that was really funny, and we were like

"Wow -- this works. Okay, let's work on this together"

Want to point out that I wasn't looking for a collab at the time. I was already working on my own comics and had no desire to really do any collabs. But I got in the vc with friends, and we talked -- we already had a connection, I already trusted their work ethnic, and I loved the ideas we came up with together.

Many of the collabs I've done have been this way -- I wasn't looking for one: it just found me, and it was mostly among people I already grew to know.

My advice? Get to know people -- talk about your comics but also outside of your comics. Form some connections, whether that be in on the forums, in creative discords, or any other online place.

[rokudoku]

It's better if you start a short project around 1-10 chapters, especially if you don't know any comic creators personally. Also bigger chance for you to find a partner if you're offering a partnership for comic competition (which usually have short and clear goals).