If you could change the beginning of your comic

[popsiclestick]

for SARGENTUM, i'd redraw the entire prologue linelessly to match the later art, and probably not go for the cliche of the protagonist waking up to start the story. we are thrown straight into the world, but at the same time i dunno? it seems to be a bit of a trope?
i've also been having a lot of anxiety over the pacing and dialogue, and i'd not only neaten up the art but also try and make the scenes and dialogue flow better - i can't tell how well it flows because i've spent so long drawing and rereading each page, and i'm constantly worried it's bitty and unprofessional.

i'm trying to learn from this to make chapter 2 a better comic, but honestly, this sorta stuff keeps me up at night

[alaingrey]

I've got to redo the lettering. I liked how shitty it is and feel like it gets the feel of a lot of the dialogue across, but maybe finding a font that works in the book could do a lot of good.

[Shanny8]

Other than art being a little better(coz I started on my story when I totally wasnt in a good drawing mood), I wouldnt change a thing. I'm good with where the story is and how it is going so far.

[Potoh]

I'd probably start Amaranth with a little more drama, and not make Roghan and his mom Moira walk away so calmley from their burning house xD And I would indicate more clearly that something aweful had happened. Now it's a little too casual.

[KSlinger]

For West I'd just redo the art. I know that if I'd tried to pace it differently (tried to draw it out) I'd be sat here wishing I'd cut the crap, and even the art I don't hate, necessarily, I just know it could be better.

[quakeulf]

For Lemonade: I'd add another 20 pages to it to make it the long and satisfactory opening it should have been to better reflect the musical score. :3

[timinabox24]

I would not change the beginning of my comic, or any other part of it so far

[antimekii]

Tbh, I've been thinking about rewriting Mosquito Girl I would keep some of the plot points in the first few chapters but it's honestly all over the place and random. I started it just for the heck of it and planned it as a character driven story but idk. Also I already redrawed the first 10 chapters last year and it killed me. Redrawing takes so much time and i honestly wanted to give up but yeah i still did.

So if I ever rewrite my comics I'll probably start things off slow, building up the other side characters and probably dropping some foreshadowing cause I finally made up my mind with the plot and ending.

[Michelle]

@popsiclestick Haha, I sort of have the same waking-up start to my story. Not like the "hit the alarm clock get out of bed", more like waking from a dream or suddenly coming into consciousness. I didn't realize at the time it was such a trope to start that way D: But if it works for your story and doesn't feel like a total cookie-cutter approach, I don't see the harm!

@alaingrey Urgh I feel you. I know I need to redo all the lettering for chapter 1 of my comic because it's so clunky. But I do think your lettering lends a nice feel to the artwork that would be lost if you replaced it with a font. I wish my handwriting was nearly as consistent ;o;

@junorunow Haha yeah I had that problem in my older comic (which was also called Amaranth??? zany :0) where character reactions were kind of silly and inconsistent. Casually walking away from a burning house could work if you wanted to suggest they set their own house on fire, though XD

[keii4ii]

I already did! Twice! \o/

The first time, I had drawn multiple chapters of the comic, all the way up to a point that happens in mid-chapter 10 in the current version. Scrapped ALL of that (save for a few panels here and there, which got recycled). Rebooted. Why? Because I'd written myself into a corner. I could have continued that version, but it would not have been a story I truly wanted to tell. I did it to fix the future; fixing the past just happened to be a requirement.

The second time, there were a couple of things about the first chapter that really bothered me. I didn't reboot, but made some significant changes to those specific parts of chapter 1. It wasn't just tiny tweaks; one scene was completely rewritten and redrawn from scratch. Another scene hadn't even existed before the revision. The result was a definite improvement.

[aspiderjonny]

My J-Man series actually is a reboot of a comic I made in High School, but there are things about Book 1 I would change. Aside from better art (obviously) I would probably try to do a better job showing the friendship between Jonny, Abe, and Susie. Jonny and Abe's friendship I think was better showcased in Book 3, but not as much as I would've liked. I have ideas for Jonny and Susie, but that won't come for a while. I'm just afraid people don't see them as friends, and more plot-devices.

Book 1 for The Valve, my other series, I might not change much, since it's still fairly new. But I do wish I had fixed my big-head syndrome before doing comics.

[Puppisama]

I'm kinda pleased with the prologue of VCvsDvsCFAD, instead of changing anything, I'd add more pages to introduce the characters better and the world where they are. Instead of beginning with Evil ranting about Momo, I'd have started with how screwed the world is (most of the landmass is underwater...), where she is, ( in a recreated Amazonian Forest) and how dumb her sexy asistant is, then, her rant.

[ypirouz]

What I want to change about the beginning of my comic Torus Link is Side B of the Prologue, i.e. the bottom half. The structure I was going for was a "glorified lecture"about why Society's structure can't be changed. But in the end, I think I made it too verbose... I fear that people pass it up for prologue alone, and they miss the rest. Also, I think the major differences I WANT to show between Side A and Side B may not be obvious--- like that there are two different sets of Fire, Water, Earth and Air as entities, for example.

The other thing I'd change is the amount of time and care I put into those first prologue pages. Some of them were rushed, and I know I could do better had I taken more time. At the same time, I would not change Prologue A--- I'm happy with that. XD

P.S. Thank you Michelle for posting this--- I've been leaning towards changing up my beginning pages for those very reasons. It's nice to know I'm not alone in either being dissatisfied or satisfied. I'm curious--- how many here WOULD change their beginnings?

[carloswebcomic]

I would do all the artwork with earwax and replace all the characters with chimpanzees slinging faeces at each other. I would also change the name of the comic to "MONKEY MADNESS!".
So in other words, I would do a completely different comic. But considering the linearity at which times travel, I guess that's not going to happen.

[Michelle]

P.S. Thank you Michelle for posting this--- I've been leaning towards changing up my beginning pages for those very reasons. It's nice to know I'm not alone in either being dissatisfied or satisfied. I'm curious--- how many here WOULD change their beginnings?

It's really interesting reading people's reflections on their comic intros! Including those who don't have anything they'd like to change; I wish I felt that confidence about my early pages, haha. But I can relate to a whole lot of these.

As for if I would actually change my beginning... I'm at least going to re-do the existing lettering because it feels so clunky. I don't know if I'll add more dialogue to my intro, but maybe more SFX lettering, just to make it feel less silent.

[jmhenry]

I'd make a few story elements a little less vague and have some key story hints appear more noticeable. Sadly no redos allowed in webcomics...

[ypirouz]

I hear you. I notice that SFX start to appear around page 13 of Centralia, which I think it adds to the overall effect. However, without mentioning SFX, I also read the first pages without noting that anything was "missing."
Sometimes I feel the same way--- wishing I could be as confident about my earlier pages and just keep them the way they are, "flaws" and all. I think the reason why I'm not content to keep Prologue B in Torus Link the same is because I'm legitimately dissatisfied with it. I think the story will not be all I want it to be until I fix it, and that's enough to make me to redo it.

So I know I'm going to take a month or two to redo that part once my current chapter is over. Listening to the feedback on commenters here who've said it takes a long time to rework pages! I believe it! XD

@jmhenry Interesting viewpoint, jmhenry! Why are redos not allowed in webcomics,
would you say? In my opinion, I see that they can be done. I'm
interested to know what you think.

[jmhenry]

Interesting viewpoint, jmhenry! Why are redos not allowed in webcomics, would you say? In my opinion, I see that they can be done. I'm interested to know what you think.

It's not really that they can't be done, it's that the community keeps telling itself that it can't be done. In the past, we've had some webcomic authors try and rework their comics, wind up dissatisfied and wind up in a redo loop that ends with the author giving up on their comic.

That pretty much led to people to believe, very reasonably, that it's a bad idea to go back and rework it, just learn from earlier mistakes and move on. It was kinda meant(at least I believe) to be for the sake of the readers' patience and the author's sanity, but nowadays it just spiraled down to authors (and readers) outright mistrusting anyone planning to rework parts of their comic, even if that change would better the comic overall.

Sorry if I sounded in any way negative toward this thread at all. It's just that "be quiet and keep your head down" element of the community(among other elements) that really grinds my gears.

[Michelle]

In terms of redoing entire pages, I think it's a matter of weighing the pros and cons, and oftentimes it's just not worth the hassle. But if you're taking your comic to print, for instance, it's a good idea to revisit early pages to ensure a consistent look.

Redraws can spiral out of control when you don't have a specific goal for re-doing old pages. If the goal is to catch the artwork up with the newest pages, it's easy to get trapped in a never-ending loop when your old pages start looking better than your newest pages, and then you have to fix those, and so on...

You also have to consider if you can re-do old pages while not falling behind on new ones, which is hard for a lot of people and might lead to burnout.

But if you have a specific goal in mind, or just have minor touch-ups to the old pages, then it's probably not that bad to go back and fix them. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm going to re-do all the lettering for ch 1 of my comic, but I know that won't take as long as re-doing the artwork. If I do make changes to the artwork, it's just going to be minor touch-ups. But that's mostly because I'm planning my comic for print-- otherwise I might be inclined to just leave it.

At the end of the day, though, it's up to the artist and what they think they can handle!

[ypirouz]

@jmhenry -
No worries! You're speaking your thoughts, and I'm happy to hear and learn more. Nothing negative about that in my opinion.
I don't like keeping quiet either about things I disagree with--- I just generally try to find a way to express my disagreement without insulting others. It doesn't always work, but I'm learning I can't always walk on eggshells anyway, or the truth I want to say will never get out.

And thanks for explaining it for me. I could definitely see where redos can become a negative spiral--- fixing one thing can lead to constantly trying to fix EVERYThing, in order to match it up with everything else that comes afterward. I actually ran into that problem, redrawing two poses in my prologues after already uploading them--- the first pose, though anatomically more accurate and clearer, always sticks out to me as "different." (I won't say which page in case pointing it out makes others nitpick it too!! XD)

The second pose, I got so fed up with changing that I just left it as it originally was… flaws and all. And accepted that it went with the overall flow.

So, I agree with you @Michelle, that at the end of the day it's up to the artist. I think it's VERY important to have a goal in mind when doing it. Changing typos, redrawing something clearer because you can't tell what's going on otherwise… just what helps you be happiest with the comic in the end.

(good luck with the printing endeavor by the way, and congrats for it. That's what I'm working my way up to too.)