How Would You DO a Reboot?

[bsienk90]

Confessions is technically a reboot, I suppose. I kept all the plot the same, characters, title etc. But I just restarted it, created a new branding. I kept the old version on DA in it's own folder and deleted my Smackjeeves site. I found this site and re-launched.

[keii4ii]

With Heart of Keol? Already done, after having completed and posted 19 chapters on another site. To be fair, though, some of those chapters were very short, so it'd be more like 15 chapters.

I fixed some really stupid structural problems with the writing. NO regrets about it. The current version still has loads of issues, but at least they're the type of problems that make you go "the creator is really serious about this, but could use a little help"... as opposed to "who let this idiot make a comic?" XD

[noelburgundy27]

Okay,now I see deleting my comic was a dumb move all on its own. :\
But I guess REBOOTING isn't all that bad. I only got three chapters in and there was something about its flow that left much to be desired.
But eh, too late now, though I do have the backups. Maybe I will reboot and try to make the art style consistent this time, too.

These are very handy insights and I'd love to hear more, guys.

[AnnaLandin]

I have no plans whatsoever to reboot Grassblades - I've committed to the story in its current shape, and am happy enough with it that I don't feel the need to change it, despite the flaws it does have.

HOWEVER, if I ever wanted to reboot it - and that is a big if - I might do something about the pacing of the first chapter. It's a little bit slow, especially the first five or so pages, but that's it.

I'm not generally a fan of rebooting/redrawing stuff unless the original files are totally lost. The reasons being two-fold.

1.) Your readers don't care as much about consistency in art-style as you think they do. Most people are aware that in webcomics, art improving/changing over time is part of the package.

2.) Rebooting/redrawing stuff, unless you need to fix major structural faults in the storytelling, risks getting you stuck re-doing the same things over and over again. I've seen it happen to so many people - they get stuck tinkering and reworking and making their first pages "perfect", instead of finishing them. Finishing stuff really is more important than making really good stuff. Making really good stuff is something that happens while you learn how to finish stuff - and a flawed finished story is worth more than a perfect, unfinished one.

[Stellamari]

I had experience rebooting my writing stuff and I don't think i will attempt it again. I tend to be more critical of it when rebooting that in the end lead to me being indecisive that it didn't get anywhere in the end. If given the option, I'd rather focus on making new ones.

[StevenDacasin]

Definitely would after a certain point. Most notably art wise and im going for a long running series so i might reboot the earlier chapters.

[michaudmarc]

I did a reboot of my comic based on comments I had gotten from critiques of when I finished it the first time. Specifically, each of the four chapters was drawn in a different medium, which they felt was jarring to the reader. At that point, I hadn't given myself the chance to correct the things I didn't like, so I decided to reboot. Same story but new layout. 80 pages became 70 without really losing any contact, only being more creative within my panel structure, which is a pretty regular 2x3 grid. It was painful, but I couldn't be happier with my decision, the comic is much better for it! Check out the comic here: Arc29

[abbastudios]

The one that should care is you. I didn't see the original, so l would have no idea. How many people saw the original and why should they care what you do with your own Creation?

[carodoodles]

I did briefly considered about rebooting my comics The Satrians because it was created and done in a kinda rushed manner for my grad school's senior thesis project. I realized that its pacing is more ideal for graphic novel not for webcomic. In that situation, readers reading comics very quickly is serving me very well because they can breeze through beginning then enjoy my hopefully improved writing

But NOPE I don't want to do a rebooting. Rebooting takes SO much energy and time. Like others said above, I'd prefer to focus on learning from mistakes and go making new things. What I did instead was going back to some of pages and edit very small things.

[getsuart]

I'd reboot Echo and make her having a bikini chainmail, high heels and magic of love.

Nah, it would only be for the pacing and drawings of the first chapters.

[noelburgundy27]

The thing is I had 300 subscribers before the deletion. I lost it all because my parents were this close to finding it (Not Out of the closet yet here so a gay comic is never welcome), so I had to go into hiding.

I have the originals in another website. Of course, you can have a look clicking here (I won't make the same mistake there as I did here if I ever do a reboot.I'll just wipe out the pages and work from scratch with the present fanbase)

They COULD care. It was one of the first gay comics here, I think (series no. 1910 in Tapastic is something, ain't it? Hehe...) And maybe they don't, but I get some feedback so at least a handful would. I think it's more of how I critique myself, really,compared to the other material here.

[scythe]

Reboot? Nah. Once it's online, it's done. Move forward not backwards, upwards, not forward, and forever twirling, twirling to freedom!

[Waterdrain]

Maybe I'd try redoing some of the first pages to make them look better, but entirely starting from scratch? Man, I think it would take years to redo things over again.=_=; If I did try to reboot one of my comics I'd try to make it shorter so that it won't be as hard to work on, or at least thats my preference.

[joannekwan]

I don't think I would reboot any of the series I've started drawing. At most I would add in pages to help with pacing, but I'd only include those in a print or "perfect" edition of my stories, maybe once they're complete.

But if I have a well established series and I really want to change a majority of it, I think I would do a spin-off or an alternate/"what-if" kind of a thing.

[Pandastrophic]

My current series is actually a reboot of a comic I had about 3-4 years ago, the reason I wanted to reboot it was because I kinda liked the character of that comic I just didn't represent them well enough in the story, I also made a ton of mistakes working on it which I'm learning from making the comic again this time around.
What I changed was the whole story and setting, from high school to university, I fleshed out the characters more before starting it and also made it more focused on the two main leads than have it be about everybody like in the older version.

I felt I changed a lot of the more technical stuff in the comic, like the comic making process itself was changed as well as the planning phase. I spent more time planning this comic, actually planned out how it's gonna end and the key points, also story boarded a lot before actually starting to draw it. Also changed from a more manga-like grey scale format to webtoon and color which worked better for me. I made a lot of buffer pages so that I could be relaxed when uploading weekly pages.

It'll be good to see what worked for you and what didn't and if there are things that stressed you out in the comic making process that you feel you could improve.

[AngieVX]

Basically depends on a type of reboot. If it's a minor reboot, I would only update pages, or add new ones. I wouldn't bother my readers much with it.

[ghostnxs]

I despise reboots, so never

[mjmassey]

I have updated pencils for the first chapter of Vatican Assassins that I haven't inked yet, but they're all just updates to the art, no changes in story. Chapter 1's art is...horrendous, to say the least, and also unprintable in it's current form. At the time, I was determined to do it all in marker shading, but this was a horrible mistake. I changed to digital shading towards the end, but not it all just looks so bad, I'm afraid it deters new readers from continuing to the decent art a few chapters later. I'd like to complete the "remastered" chapter 1 at some point and post it up, and then maybe redo the shading in the early parts of chapter 2 (too many pattern tones).

But I wouldn't change the story. I'm actually quite pleased with how it started and how it's evolved.

[Zanreo]

Well, while not my entire comic (it's not really "one long story" so wouldn't be much of a point) I'm currently redoing an old storyline. I just looked at the old story, realized everything I neede to redo (which was... a LOT) and basically rewrote the whole script and layout (basic premise is still the same, but a bunch of storytelling changes happened)

[sleepingmarlons2]

I like this topic haha I am thinking about a reboot right now haha