Questions about starting comics

[Eageali]

I'm getting excited about starting a comic some time within the next few months (slightly intimidated by this too haha)! My art is not where I want it to be, but that's not the issue at hand. Anyways, I was wondering:

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?

2. How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?

3. Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?

4. What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?

Thanks ;-;

[CarolRiverArt]

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?

It begins funny? Telling a important plot from the very beginning. Right now I'm experimenting with romance.

1. How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?

I don't know it was inspired by daily life situations and friends.

1. Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?

I think Both.

1. What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?

Just start. Do you have fear to be critiqued?
If you are bad, They will criticize you.
If you are excellent, they will criticize you.
But maybe you are bad or excellent and people will like it?
so why don't you try anyway? You'll never know if you don't start.
You can learn a lot along the way.

[Rhonder]

You're pretty much me, but I was facing these decisions in January this year! So from a fellow newbie's perspective:

1.)

Comic began with an out of context action sequence to quickly give a taste of the main cast and genre. That is to say, it's an action-y fantasy story.

2.)

So immediately prior to this current story that I started in February, I had been working on this huge sprawling fantasy epic since like... 2007 lol. Anyways I decided to drop that project, but one of my least favorite things about it was how slow and uninteresting the beginning was. It had 2 chapters of straight slow burn introductory stuff.

Part of the problem was that I was basing it heavily off of the graphic novels/manga I was reading at the time in middle/high school. A lot of those stories would have kind of a slow start, but be well into the action within a couple of chapters (definitely by the end of the first volume, at the latest). I came to the realization that that kinda works when you can bust out a chapter a week (or even a month), but at the pace I can draw currently it would have taken months and months to get to the "good stuff". Would have been boring for both me and the readers.

So I kept that in mind when deciding where/how I wanted this story to start. With some "good stuff"~

3.)

I'm a fan of preparing ahead. Even with that ridiculous project I spoke about above, I had been writing well ahead of where I had drawn to in novel form so I knew how the chapters played out (for the record I only ever drew 2 chapters... like 20x lmao. and wrote ~9. The rest is still in my head). My current project is a one-shot (~50-60 pages) so I wrote and story boarded the whole thing out prior to drawing any of the real pages.

My feeling with a longer story (I'm working on writing a new "several chapters long" story at the same time I'm drawing the current one) is that I'll probably write it all out ahead of time, but only story board 1 or 2 chapters at a time.

(note: I'm no longer doing the writing in novel form though xD that's a totally valid way to do it, but it takes more time than worth for me. Now it's more of like... bullet points of events with paragraphs of descriptive text underneath them. Of course everyone has their own writing methods though!)

4.)

I guess the three main things are:

• Rip the bandaid off and go for it! People aren't joking when they say improvement comes fast. I'm amazed at how far my art has come in just a few months (I took the summer off, but the pages I drew in May vs. September vs. even now is crazy).

• Consider starting small. This ties into the next point, but consider tackling 1 or a few short stories/one shots before you go all out on a long series. It's suuuuuuuuper useful to practice and get a sense for how your comic making work flow works before diving into a huge project. The more streamlined and efficient everything is, the easier it'll be to take on a big project with confidence.

• This may not be true of everyone, but imo have modest expectations when starting out~ As a newbie without a preexisting following your story is unlikely to explode in popularity right away (although it might!), so I've found it better (personally) to keep my expectations low, especially while I'm familiarizing myself with everything still. It's more fun and less stressful that way xD

Instead of complaining about not having hundreds of subs right away, I'm amazed and super thankful for the amount of subs and interaction I do get each update.

Instead of stressing over imperfections in panels and obsessing over them, I try to note those things and apply them moving forward, etc.

This is why I'm a fan of starting with some short comics though: you can kind of get some of the awkwardness out of the way. That way when you get to a big project, you can start with some fans in place, and with overall higher quality work that is built upon the practice that came before it. This approach doesn't work for everyone, but many people find it helpful ^^

Best of luck!

[ble]

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

[rainbowolfe]

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?
My comic starts with the main character having a nightmare, with cryptic hints that it might not just be a dream. I'm writing a drama! (Though I think it might fall under fantasy too).

2. How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?
My comic has a bit of a slow start, so I wanted the readers to get a sense that this story isn't just a standard slice of life about an idiot and their cats.

3. Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?
At the very least, you should have an ending in mind ^^ You don't need all the details of how the ending will go either, just an idea.

4. What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?
Start small! My first webcomic was a long, long epic that would've probably rivaled Naruto or Bleach in terms of length. I never finished it, and I probably never will lol
It doesn't even have to be that small XD Aim for like, the length of a novella. (though it's totally okay if it ends up longer).

[keii4ii]

1

It starts with an introspective series of images about a boy growing up with his family, gradually losing said family (how he loses them is not specified). I'm writing fantasy drama, the non-epic, more earthy kind.

2

I actually had to make 20 chapters of its prototype first, before realizing what I was doing wrong and how to fix the problems. I scrapped those 20 chapters and started anew. Thankfully the chapters were fairly short, but still! EVEN AFTER THIS I had to come back and apply major revisions to the beginning (like, more than one scene getting totally rewritten and redrawn?), after making maybe 10 chapters. This time though, I got to keep those 10 or so chapters.

I don't regret "wasting time" on those discarded 20 chapters of the first run. I had to go through that process to figure out what to do.

3

It depends. I would say figure out the gist of the story at least, so you know where it's going as well as the major stops. That's what I'm doing. I'm still struggling and learning TBH, but I know I would be doing much worse without that bullet point outline!

4

JUST DO IT! And if you feel intimidated, it's okay to not post your comic until you feel more ready. Just make those pages, get a feel for it, maybe share with a trusted group of friends/fellow creators to get some feedback. You don't have to show them to the whole world right off the bat!

[Wumbl]

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?
My comic is an action-styled comic so it starts with a car chase and then a brief altercation to introduce the protagonist.

2. How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?
Because an opening should normally establish the setting and main character. What better way than to show the character in action? It's a good way of introducing him without having to state anything too directly.

3. Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?
It is never a good idea to start drawing until you have most of the story planned or at least the main structure. Also, having ideas for the ending is helpful. You can change anything later, but you shouldn't be writing on the fly because your pacing will suffer.

4. What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?
Just quit belly-achin' and upload your stuff. If you haven't made a comic before nobody will judge you if it's not good at the start. My first chapter sucks but that's not a big deal. You can always go back and redo the beginning later if you want, or keep it to give an idea of your improvement as you're making it.
Also - do everything is stacks. Sketch 10 pages, then line them, then colour. Doing them a page at a time sounds fine in concept but is a bad idea. If you do one layer at a time instead you'll have much better style consistency.

[LT1986]

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?
   My comic begins with the main character of the first third of the story training with his son in an alien marital art. My genre is action.

2. How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?
   I decided to begin my comic with the first main character training his son, because it is in the beginning of the story that I wrote over a decade ago.

3. Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?
   I believe that a combination of planning and going with the flow are needed. I'm personally doing a combination of both. I wrote my entire story years ago. I have to go with the flow as I make scenes that my words don't completely explain. I also think of new things as I draw the comic.

4. What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?
   I recommend that newbies should not worry about the outcome and always try new things that will make them a better artist. I'm saying this, because the growth of my web comic has increased the more that I interact with other creators and push myself to improve my work.

[cherubas]

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?
My comic begins with my main character telling his best friend about a weird recurring dream while the two of them spar. I'd say my genre is primarily action/fantasy but with a bit of humor, drama, romance, and (if you'd really consider it it's own thing) even some BL. My favorite series of all time is Avatar: The Last Airbender which I feel does a great job balancing a bunch of great genres, so tonally I'm aiming for something along those lines with slightly fewer restrictions on how adult topics or language or possibly even violence content is handled.

2. How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?
It took me quite some time because I wanted to balance a bunch of things such as showing the overall tone of the story, setting up plot for later, establishing character personalities, and working in a hint of action. In the end I settled on this opening because it showcases my main character's personality, it sets up the dream which will be far more plot relevant later, it shows off an average day in the life of my main character, it establishes his relationships with a couple of other key characters, it demonstrates that he can fight, and (hopefully) it quickly lets readers know what sort of tone the series as a whole will have.

3. Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?
Personally, I'd say it's good to have a lot of stuff planned out. That said, I've had ideas for a series for literal years and I kept changing my plot and characters either because I became bored of an idea or found plot holes I couldn't iron out or I let someone's reaction to pitching my ideas psych me out. So eventually a good friend of mine who has a webcomic with over 100 pages told me that my planning method isn't working and I need to instead try just GETTING STARTED and committing to an idea. He encouraged me to just go ahead and get a page out without waiting for everything to be totally plotted. I did, and honestly I think this was the better choice for me because I'm indecisive a lot of the time unless I'm forced to decide.

4. What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?
If you find yourself in the spot I was in, going too long without actually starting, you may need to realize you're always going to find an excuse not to start. In which case, you almost have to say "I'm never going to be any MORE ready than I am right now" and just do it. Put a page out. It'll feel a bit liberating. Now, I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but I've also heard, repeatedly, from every experienced source that I've listened to, that you should basically expect to be ignored for the first year or so. I mean, I know that's not very refreshing to hear, but it's better to brace for that now than to put out a couple of pages and feel your will to create completely leave you when you realize you only have 5 followers.

So, to recap, for your opening I'd say you want to show off the most interesting part of the status quo, whether that's your character's personality, their world, or just your knack for writing witty dialogue. Plan some of the major beats, but not every line of your entire comic. There will be time for that later, and ideas (and characters) will evolve and change as you continue to work on the comic. Some writers say it's best to just plan out what you want the overall message of your series to be and know THAT before you go into it. Lastly, the best advice probably is just: START. Put a page out there. Don't wait for everything to be perfect because it never will be, just get started.

[BlueDragon]

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?
Mine begins light heartedly at the end of the main character's school year (end of 8th grade.) It's in the fantasy genre.

2. How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?
I wanted to show how the characters begin the story, so the contrast of who they become is more stark. It also shows that the characters are coming from a normal world, before any fantasy elements existed.

3. Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?
I think it depends on the story. If you are doing a strip comic, or something that's a gag-a-day with no plot, you can probably wing it and just have your fun (might not be bad to have some ideas jotted down, first, though.)
If you are writing a long story with a definitely point "a" and point "b," I personally think it's best to outline and have notes and scripts. That's what I do. But...everyone works differently. It's nice to have something to reference and make sure I'm not forgetting important plot points, though.

4. What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?
Get comfortable drawing your characters. Start. Don't procrastinate so much you never even begin. Your art will improve, and you can fix things. Practice makes perfect, so working and reworking is not a bad idea And critique yourself, but don't be so hard on yourself that you aren't having fun or enjoying any of your progress.

[eochoa92]

I'll be the odd man out in this one...I think.
I started a hero/action comic a few months ago. The only thing I had slightly worked out was the beginning. Besides that, everything else, I'm kind of taking it episode by episode.
Why am I doing it like this? I'm not tied to any publisher and the artist isn't tied to me, so there's really nothing or no one pushing me to push out episodes every week - which may ease some pressure others might face if that's the case for them.
This isn't the best method to start a comic, I know that. It is best to pan out a beginning, middle and end.
But also, most importantly, make sure you have fun with it.

[Shanny8]

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?

I toggled back & forth between a conversation between the MC and his friend from a couple nights ago and the present day battle he was engaged in. I'm writing a superhero comic...

2. How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?

I didnt want to start the story like every other superhero story with the origin of how they got their abilities...

3. Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?

I planned out the story to start this way, but I've been also going with the flow of where the story is headed- it's also given me a ton of ideas to thread into the main plot.

4. What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?

Dont overthink things or feel pressured to deliver a grand slam opening. Just write and make sure you dont drag the main points of the story too long.

[phen]

Oh yay, you'll be starting your comic soon! This is really exciting, you should definitely be excited, too. And it's really rad to hear you're diving in regardless of your feelings about your art -- your work will be massively impressive to fresh eyes and it will improve with lightspeed the more you work!

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?

My comic's genre is psychodrama which begins in a college dorm with onomatopoeia and a problem.

1. How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?

The theme of the comic is identity via psychosomatic experience so I decided to open with pure elements to each via the clicking of a mouse in the main character's dorm room. This sets the mood and tone for the rest of the work.

1. Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?

It's wise to plan the story out so you have the blueprints there to reference but it doesn't have to be meticulously plotted from A to B to C. Basic planning saves time in the longrun and time is crucial once you get to regular updates.

1. What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?

If your vision is exciting and you're itching to tell this story, go for it! Comic making is such a rewarding experience that even if this vision changes, you'll find your technical skill will advance, making your journey through writing and drawing reinforced with the knowledge you've gained over time

I highly encourage everyone to get involved in the community as well. Veteran creators and new comers alike can be invaluable resources of information and support, just as you share your own insight.

Most definitely looking forward to your work, I hope you'll share with us when you start posting! ^^

[imiogri]

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?
I just throw the reader right into my main plot point: the mc is a genius. After that I build upon his character and then the bigger story catches up. I've categorized it as drama, but it's more of a psychological/horror drama with some other themes sprinkled in.

2. How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?
I was considering making a big scene explaining exactly how my mc is a genius, but I realized it was like babying the reader. I realized that shrinking it down to just "Your son is a genius." could awake confusion and intrigue, which might make the reader want to continue looking for answers.

3. Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?
I only made a very rough outline of my script before I got impatient and threw myself into drawing. I regret it now because the beginning is a bit weak, but I at least got started. Right now I'm making the script as I'm drawing the pages. Since the pages take a while I got a lot of time to improve later parts.

4. What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?
Stay confident in your work! Even if you don't think it looks your best, an outsider will always think differently. Don't dwell on it too much, and if you think it's fun to post, then post! That's all that matters. What I would recommend is letting pages/the script sit for a while before you start posting, you will start realizing new things you can improve upon.

Good luck with your comic and have fun! As far as I've seen this community is super nice, so you shouldn't have to worry. We're here to help you out.

[punkarsenic]

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?

my comic begins with my mc getting thrown in jail, and im writing fantasy romance

1. How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?

at the time - 2.5 years ago - it felt like the beginning of the action, and a compelling place to start. im not sold now rly.

1. Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?

i went with the flow for the first 7-or-so chapters and i honestly really regret it. in the summer i developed a full plot plan with the help of a teacher at my college and now i have an end in sight and a way to get there the writing is better and it feels a lot better too.

i now have a plot plan, and for each chapter i develop a scene plan, then page by page, then thumbnail and script

1. What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?

have a buffer before you get started! if you have 20 pages ready when you start releasing a page a week, you have 20 weeks to get another 20 pages made! it helps you stay on schedule and makes things less stressful

also, dont worry too much about numbers and getting popular. besides the fact that its 90% luck, people generally give webcomic popularity ten years. the comics you see on noteworthy may be new, but their creators rarely are, and theyre often bringing over a following from elsewhere.

wanting popularity and therefor (relative) economic success is fine - at some point it needs to be seriously considered - but when youre just starting out, focus on enjoying the work! if you dont enjoy it, itll never be worth turning into a career.

another thing to keep in mind: working on multiple pages at once is faster than working on one page at a time. if youre worrying abt your workload or your schedule, try sketching four pages at a time, and then inking those pages altogether, colouring, etc etc. youre switching tasks less so you can get into more of a swing. working one by one i can make a page a day - working in batches i can make four pages a day.

[crayon_witch]

1. How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?

Mine begins with my protagonist breaking into a space pirate ship to steal some sort of treasure, and running into many obstacles along the way. It’s science fantasy!

2 How did you come to the conclusion to begin like that?

I had a lot of trouble with this at first, but after watching a lot of Lessons of the Screenplay on youtube, I became strategic about it. I chose the scene that is the very closest to the end of the story without losing any important information. Also, I chose specific obstacles for my protagonist to overcome to show different aspects of the setting, magic system, and theme without verbally explaining it. I wanted to use my protagonists’ actions and how she reacts to conflict to develop her quickly and make her likeable.

Most importantly, I wanted to show my protagonist’s great flaw to set up how she’s going to develop over the course of the comic. Her whole thing is that she isolates herself and doesn’t have many friends. So, I highlighted her lonliness by having her go up against space pirates that function as a close family lol.

My beginning is in still in its very first pages, but by the end all of this will be (hopefully) established. Basically, I cut as much written exposition as possible. Show, don’t tell and all that.

[crayon_witch]

3 Go with the flow or plan it out?

The answer is frustrating, but it really is different for everyone, just like the art process is different for everyone. I personally plan out the important story beats, but I don’t go into specifics. For example. I might say, I want X to go to the grocery store and meet Y. But I don’t plan HOW until I get to that scene. It makes for some fun organic storytelling without feeling like I’m making it up along the way!

I think keeping a webcomic more open ended like that also helps because they are very slow, and you want to give yourself wiggle room as you grow with your story. If you need to scrap something because it no longer works for you, scrapping something that took you less work is easier than a more detailed outline.

4 What advice would you give to newbies?

I’m a bit of a newbie myself, but for years I drew fan comics. It made good practice for my original story. I would find a story you’re passionate about— one you can’t wait to tell— and just start. Break it into steps instead of saying, “Okay! I’m going to make my comic now!” It was a lot easier for me to go, “Okay, I’m going to sketch this panel now!”

Also, have somewhere you can share you work with friends! Getting instant feedback and encouragement helped me loads with the slow pace of comics. As soon as I finish a page, I can share it in private, and it makes posting less intimidating!

Also... I made the mistake of putting off starting because I didn’t like my art, but I realized if i keep doing that, I’ll never actually begin. You will always see flaws in your work, even as you improve. All artists do, including the ones you look up to. Making a comic is honestly the best way to improve quickly!

[shazzbaa]

• How does your comic begin and what genre are you writing in?

Genre is fantasy! It starts with the two main characters, best friends, chatting about the cool idea one of them had to cast magic directly off his body (this turns out to be a terrible idea). In a broader sense, the story kicks off when a demon-hunting organisation barges into town in pursuit of an aberrant monster.

Starting a story off with two characters who already know each other turned out to be a huge challenge. I had to have some way to introduce how my story's magic works to the audience when there's no reason for the characters to be explaining it to each other -- so I started it off with one of them doing something risky, so that the other could remind him why this was weird and risky and introduce some basics of the system -- and their relationship with each other, in the process.

• How did you come to the conclusion to begin your comic like that?

Older versions of the story actually started out with the demon-hunting organisation barging into town, since that's kinda the first big plot thing that happens. But this turned out to be, weirdly enough, way more boring than starting out with two friends talking, because we didn't have a reason to care about anything that was happening. Are the demon-hunters good or bad?

Opening with the friends and then showing their fear and confusion when the demon-hunters barge in made them suddenly more interesting. The things they said that were boring exposition in the first version became more relevant when we start out the story with the feeling that nobody trusts these people.

• Is it best to go with the flow or plan your entire story out first? What are you personally doing?

This depends on how you work best! I think it's a good idea to start out with some plan.
If this is your first story, though, I wouldn't script the whole thing in detail from the start. You'll learn SO MUCH just from your first few pages or first few chapters that you might end up wanting to make big changes, and it's easier to do that if you just have a loose outline to juggle.

I think it's a good idea to know the general ending you're shooting for, and the basic steps of how you get there, but it's okay for that basic outline to look like ">they leave home to search for the wizard >go to elven city >convince wizard to help them (somehow???) >go to the enchanted forest (???why) >in enchanted forest meet the faeries" etc etc.

When I started, I knew what I wanted to happen in chapter 1, and I had half of chapter 1 scripted. I ended up changing a bunch of it, and ran into some mistakes that probably could've been avoided if I scripted the whole thing today.... but I'm not sure I would've caught them my first time through, because the reason I know to look for that stuff now is learning from those mistakes. Now I have a basic outline of how the rest of the story goes, with major scenes and points I want to hit, but I write the actual script just before I start that chapter, so that I have some wiggle room and some new ideas to be excited about.

In general though, planning a little bit ahead makes sure that you don't paint yourself into a corner, and you don't suddenly realise you have to explain dragons on the page right before a dragon appears, giving you an enormous wall of text. You're able to look ahead and say "okay, dragons are gonna show up at the end of this chapter, so during the chapter I need to find some natural places to share information about dragons."

• What would you recommend to newbies who are timid about starting?

I felt like this was really well-said!

And here's my slightly more rambling thoughts!

Don't wait for your story to be perfect, because your first story never will be. But: it can still be good, and it can still connect with someone. The only way to get better at comics is by making comics!!
I literally went to art college and got my degree in comic-making, and EVEN THEN I learned way more when I actually sat down and started trying to tell a story in comic form. There's no way to learn and prepare enough to master comics without actually sitting down and making pages.

[McAmps]

1. My comic is romance, but also a fancomic for Mystic Messenger. It starts with the inciting incident that leads the girls to the hot guys. It takes several pages before they fully get into this though, which (hopefully) gives readers time to get to know the two MCs.

2. Since this is a fancomic, it starts like how the game starts.

3. So my comic actually an adaptation of a story my friend and I wrote. The story is ongoing, but extremely far ahead of the comic. What we did was make a very basic outline, but go with the flow with the actual writing. Since the story is so far ahead, it lets me adjust any plotholes or inconsistencies for the comic version.

4. Ah I'm a newbie myself, but I'd say go for it! Once you have a comfortable buffer start posting. Have fun making the pages and don't get too down if you don't get a lot of attention at first.

Good luck!

[chocolatteboss]

The starting of a comic is always a hardest part, so don't worry once it begins it will gradually get better

here's my work:https://tapas.io/series/Peasant-Queen

1- My genre should be an adventure but we didn't get there yet. for now it's a comedy of kid running around with no idea what is going on around them while there are darker things they will discover later.

2- I re-wrote/ storyboarded it about a million times before I decided to start it like this, I settled on a beginning where it is short- not much words, only watching an interesting event happening. Basically when I start I try to attract the reader without making them read and spend lots of energy.

3- I had an idea of the main events when I started. I let my stories form in my head for a long time before I begin to write them. Then I write the events of the entire story in bullet points. my current story has about 200 bullet points written in word document on my computer, then I storyboard the story it very rough sketches no one understands but me

4- Don't be too ambitious. Just finish your first story. you will build your own process when you start working. you will never learn until you start making.

Good luck my friend