Share your story: How did you get into webcomics?

[GFalconDX]

I started reading webcomics beginning with Megatokyo. From there, I got into other webcomics like Instrument of War, which is gone now, but I really loved how accessable they were. But I didn't realize that I wanted to do webcomics until around 2013, after not being able to find an animation job, and not doing too well in the field of Visual Effects, and I decided to try my hand at drawing webcomics, starting with the comic that I have, which was in it's early iteration on paper at the time.

Now, after a few restarts, I'm 1-2 pages away from completing the 1st chapter (yeah, I'm only able to work on it on my own free time). But it's slowly gaining momentum, at least to me. I'm hoping to ultimately make this a full-time career, but for now, I'm going to keep this going one page at a time.

[jacintawibowo]

Ooh what an interesting way to get into comics! Was your dad a comics collector? Or was it a hobby thing of his?

Her mom would buy us manga, or if I couldn't afford any my friend would let me borrow some of hers.

Aaw that's so sweet! You were like a little manga appreciation team (also hey! I read some of Fables too!).
Haha, I totally get you with the "mind explosion" over making comics XD when I found out people were drawing original comics with original characters and everything, I just exploded with awe :b
did you and your friend ever finish 3RWT (the story)? Or was it a project that was dropped and you two moved on from?

Your passion for webcomics really shows in your artistic progress. Regardless of the projects you've done and the different career paths you've taken, you keep coming back to comics, and that's admirable!
Super cool that your first solo webcomic got picked up by a publisher! You've definitely got a lot of webcomics in your future.
Do you see yourself taking on webcomics professionally as a career path, or as a hobby?

[jacintawibowo]

I've never heard of Sinfest or Whomp before! Looks like they're both really well-known and established comics.

Definitely good to just try comics! Even if it's just to test the waters. It helps to start somewhere!
With the good reception you're getting on your current comic, do you see yourself coming back to your story comics? Or are you comfortable with your current comic series?

[jacintawibowo]

Hmm, I see. I don't think it's unheard of for creators to lose motivation in their webcomics. That does happen, and it can be a challenge to get back on your feet.
I don't think you should worry so much about your story having writing issues, a lot of people in this discussion have admitted to writing very flawed stories when they started (myself included!). Many of them had to re-boot series or start anew, and there's no shame in that at all.

I think right now your response shows a lot of uncertainty, and your anxiety is kind of coming out of this fear of the unknown. To combat that, take a moment to really figure out all the "maybes" you're thinking about. I can tell you already that no one expects "strong imagination" in a story. That's not what makes a story good. Be honest and get objective, list down what you can improve on. With an attack plan, you'll have a direction and certainty. Confidence will come in time :] I'm familiar with anxiety, and understand that it can really take a toll on self-confidence. I'm still nervous with talking to new people online here and on twitter, but constant practice goes a long way. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, they're essential to the learning process.
I talked on there for a while, but I hope that helps even a little bit.

[jacintawibowo]

I see. Looks like you've used your resources before the program discontinued :B
It's good to hear there's another school to help out comic-industry peeps out there :3

[jacintawibowo]

I agree, actually. Tumblr's great for getting work out there and having an organized doodle/portfolio blog, but I found it super painful that I couldn't respond to comments or reblogs. There's no proper messaging system, and the site's strength is in getting fandoms to notice fanart than getting original content be discovered :b You'd have to be a pretty established and popular artist to have a successful webcomic on tumblr.

Haha XD exactly right? The characters are all amazing! Cucumber Quest is doing a fascinating job with giving us the unexpected with her characters. I definitely have a soft spot for Nightmare Knight's quiet side, I really want to know more about him! I hope he'll have a chance to talk to Cucumber more :<
That's good, we both have a mad love for CQ >:D

[jacintawibowo]

Wow! First person in the discussion who mentions finding comics through Google+ XD
I agree! Tapastic's got a great way of showcasing soo much quality reading material!
Honestly, that's a great way of getting into comics! I love the fact tapastic is encouraging readers to become creators, and how easy that process is. Before Tapastic, posting comics on the internet was very intimidating, with no guarantee of any readership.
It's awesome that you found yourself and your purpose through Tapastic and comic-making. Do you see yourself continuing this craft in the future, professionally?

[jacintawibowo]

Hmm I guess it's different for some people. I know artists that make beautiful drawings, and when I ask how they make it, they shrug it off and say "I dunno, I just do it." not really informative (or helpful), but it shows that it comes naturally for them.
I myself, don't personally work that way. Comics takes a lot of conscious decision-making and brainwork to get working compositions and readable pages for me.

What's your work flow like? Is there method to it, or is it "just do"?

[Doubtcent]

I really have no idea. I can see myself getting better through time, for sure, but as for becoming a professional? That's up to the readers and how long my perseverance goes. To be paid for art is a dream, but not the one that has a lot of bearing on what I make.
My goal is in fact to get better, and to make something I can be proud of. And as I keep going forward, I'm finding that I'm prouder of the stuff I make currently, and rather put off by my older stuff. Of course, I suppose that's normal. 0-0

[pottedlilgoree]

Oh... sorry for not being very helpful... i thought it's good to present my take on the matter and such...
I guess I'm that "just do" person - but that's a short answer
I want to be helpful - though for now i don't know the long answer for "how"
I can try to describe the specific details of some of my thoughts and feelings - but i guess that's just too much off-topic info

On a more related note - I really appreciate and believe that Tales from the Well are very well composed both visual and story wise it's an honor to read such nice comic

[iestavien]

I wanted to share my comics with a wider audience. And what better way to do that than the internet? Although, that hasn't worked out as good as I expected. I still want to have my comic published though. I don't understand how to do that yet. But it's too soon to do that anyway, I don't have enough material to publish yet.

[Wolven_Sister]

I think he collected them as a hobby of his. He once told me he was in early high school when he started buying/collecting comics. I doubt he read ALL of them, because there were so many boxes filled to the brim with issues upon issues. But he did tell me he read at least a quarter of them, which was impressive because there were easily a thousand or so he had. Since then, he's sold them all, which I was really sad I missed out on. I definitely wanted to browse through and buy some from him.

lolol yeah we were obsessed with manga/anime back then. We also educated ourselves on Japanese culture and a little bit of their history, and one of my friends attended Japanese classes for a few weeks, because we appreciated manga and wanted to know more about the country where they originated from. Fables is awesome!! I love twists/adaptions of Grimm characters, and Fables does it in a way that appeals to a darker-toned/mature audience. Yeah it's really crazy!! For some reason I just never knew that people could make comics for some reason. I made written stories separate from my drawings, or sometimes I would have a character say something in the drawing, but by no means was it a comic. When I saw her make one, I was like "Teach me your ways" and after that I pumped out 3 different comics (horribly drawn, cramped, smudged, cliche piles of mess). And when I got into high school I drew out 2 more different comic stories that were intended to be webcomics.

As for 3WRT we never finished it sadly. After the story arc where we all get our genders switched, we had no direction and we were all drifting apart at that time. So it just petered out without an ending : (

I love comics!!! I love they use both visual and written storytelling and that there's no limit to them. Characters can jump out of panels if you want them to, r you can make splash pages. It's endless to the possibilities of comics. I love how dedicated the fans are and although only superhero comics are getting any recognition now, I'm still really happy it's bringing more attention to comics. I remember in middle school no one had any clue what manga/anime was, what cosplaying was, etc...and now I meet someone who's into manga whenever I go to the bookstore. I think it's the artistic freedom comics have, but it's mostly the community of comic lovers that have gotten me addicted to comics/webcomics.

I hope to make a living off webcomics. If it was my job to upload pages everyday of different stories, I would totally do it! I have so many more ideas and stories to share with everyone. I have more original ideas, some based on fairy tales, and one that's a fan-comic (this one would be just for fun and no profit gain to avoid copyright infringement DX ). But I also hope to gain a steady income from regular comics someday.

eeek! Sorry for my super long post! : (

[colinwmd]

I'm not sure what the first webcomic I read was but I think I somehow stumbled across Scott McCloud's website around 2001 when I was supposed to be working and got interested in his "Morning Improv" that he ran then. He would make up a comic as he went along, one panel each morning. Some of them were great and some he clearly had no idea where they were heading!

From there I looked at some of the comics he linked to. The only one I'm sure I got into from there was Dresden Codak (although I guess that was some time later as I don't think Dresden Codak has been going that long. From there I got into Dinosaur Comics and a lot of the popular ones. I think around 5 or 6 years ago I thought of making my own comic as I had a few ideas for gags but for a long time only wrote down the ideas I had. It wasn't until two years ago that I started trying to draw them and now seem to be coming up with ideas as fast as I draw them (I draw slow!)

Outside of the web I never read a great deal of comics, although when I was young I did read the original "Transformers" series in the UK which was a mixed introduction. It started as a blatant promotional "make sure every character has dialogue and don't worry about the story" comic but got quite good for 2 or 3 years. Then it strangely seemed to aim at an ever younger target audience as I was getting older! It didn't help that the UK series published all the stories from the US series and also tried to fit their own stories around them without messing up the continuity. It resulted in some painfully contrived "get out of jail" sequences...

[candycanadianduck]

I've liked the idea of comics since I was really small but I didn't find ground in them until middle school. A friend had shown me a few webcomics that I spent all my time reading. They were comics like Goblins, and Gunnerkrigg Court which are still two of my absolute favourites. My brothers had all left for the summer to spend time with my grandpa and my mom wanted me to hang back and spend time with her, so I did. I'm not really big on socializing and definitely wasn't then. I spent that entire summer reading books, learning to draw, and borrowing comics from a friend. It snowballed from there. Since then all my free time has been spent watching anime, cartoons, reading manga, comics, webcomics, drawing, the whole shebang.

[jacintawibowo]

Onlinecomics.net? Wow, that's the first time I heard of that site! Fascinating. Any idea why the site shut down?

and wow! You read through a looot of webcomics! That's good. Having a large reference for how webcomics are done is super important. I've definitely seen Earthsong on topwebcomics.

Yes, absolutely! The writing styles are different too. It's fascinating seeing the kind of liberties webcomics take.
The personalized sites were so helpful when the comics got complicated with a huge cast of characters XD the character bio page is a life saver for that kind of stuff!

Haha! You certainly have a dedication for webdesign! I admire that. Do you currently post your successful webcomic on tapastic, or are you going to move it to your web designed sites? :b

[jacintawibowo]

Oh wow Pheonix Requim was such a thing back then! Always aggressively on the top of topwebcomics!

That's awesome! You've fed your comic-hunger :B Did you find new webcomics solely based on searching on google, or did you find other webcomics by being linked to them? Or is it a mix of a lot of different things? XD

[jacintawibowo]

Ah I believe that's the second time Megatokyo was mentioned. Accessibility helps a lot with getting people into webcomics!
I see, I definitely feel you. I thought I wanted to do animation for the longest time, but after taking sequential art classes, I felt more at home with those classes compared to animation.

That's a great place to be! Progress is progress no matter the pace. Do you still see yourself branching into other art jobs like animation and visual effects, or do you see comics (in general) as your future?

[jacintawibowo]

Time will tell then! Best case scenario is the webcomic doing so well that it gets picked up by a publisher, does epic-ly well in print, and gets you lots of moneys XD a long-shot, but it's anything's possible!
That's definitely normal, and a good way of pacing yourself. Cheers to you and your webcomic career!

[jacintawibowo]

oh no! It's totally okay to share your way of working/thinking. It's a valid way of creating art (as I said, I know a handful of amazing artists who "just do" and can't explain their process, but produce beautiful work regardless). It's generally tough for artists like me to grasp, because we want to know how people make their beautiful art and learn from them. It's just hard to go on an "I just do it" sometimes XD
I totally envy artists who can just go on "a feeling" and produce pretty work!

oh my thank you! I'm super stoked that you like reading Tales from the Well

[jacintawibowo]

Hahah, yeah posting on the internet is not always so straightforward. What struggles did you face with posting on the internet?
It's definitely not impossible to get your comic published, it's just going to take a lot of hard work getting there :b
Are you planning out a buffer for your webcomic? What's your current "attack plan" with sharing your comics on the internet?