To redo early pages, or not redo early pages. That's my question

[pwh13]

Okay, so something has been eating away at me for a few months now. My comic has been evolving since I started over a year ago, and as things go with time, they tend to improve or change drastically. One of the main questions that I constantly ask myself is whether or not to go back and re-draw some of the earlier pages in my comic. I'm pretty torn as to what to do.

Here are some thoughts.
Leaving it as it is.

1. You get a sense of artistic progression.
2. You can flip back and see how much has changed with the writing, sense of style, and tools used.
3. Gives you the time to continue to push foward with your comic.
4. BUT it might deter people who come across the comic and stop reading because of the older style/skills shown in earlier pages.

Changing it to reflect your newer pages.

1. You get a nice consistent style throughout your comic's life. For the most part.
2. The newer and more recent art is more welcoming to new readers.
3. Takes a lot of time to go back and re-draw old pages.

I really don't know what to do at this point. Should I take the time and go back to redraw earlier pages? OR should I just keep calm and keep drawing on?

[joannekwan]

I think it really depends on how much you want to redraw and how long it will take to do that. If it would take more time than doing your new updates, I say leave the redraws for only the really messy bits, like if someone's face is waaaay off model.

For my completed series I fixed up a number of things as I was nearing its end, but these fixes took all but 15 minutes each.

[heterodont]

I'm on the 'Don't Redraw at all unless you're planning to print' boat - which is pretty self explanatory. While you might get consistency by redrawing your older pages, I advise against doing so unless your old pages are completely unreadable and/or incomprehensible (inconsistent speech bubbles, poor font choice, etc.) You're going to get trapped in a cycle of redrawing pages, even if you think you aren't. By the time you catch up with your latest pages, they're going to seem bad because of the amount of work you put into the previous pages (not to mention, you probably would've improved by the time you catch up again) so then you have to redraw THOSE pages.

Readers usually don't seem to care if the art is bad. I started my comic late 2012, and it's still going. After nearly two years of art school as well as a TON of drawing in between, you can expect that the difference between my first page and last are incredibly drastic - however, none of my readers have told me that the earlier art was offputting.

Most people look at the quality of writing and then the quality of the art, and usually with good story/writing, they can forgive 'bad' art at the very beginning.

[pwh13]

@joannekwan I think it would take me a lot longer to redraw these pages unfortunately. I might go make some minor changes, and try to put off major ones. Thanks for the input!

@heterodont Now normally I would totally agree with the forgiving of the "bad" art at the beginning. I just noticed a trend of having a lot of views on the first few pages, then dropping sharply off. It kind of made me wonder if it was bad or something. Thanks for the input!

[Herofeeder]

im leaving mine,i dont ever want to forget how much i progressed in a small window of time

[LoboSong_Hitaka5Ever]

I like it when people keep their old stuff because it shows how much the artist has improved over time, which can be very gratifying. But I also enjoy people redoing them because I'm so used to the current style that if I wanted to re-read the comic, I'd feel off-put about it. Ultimately, its your decision and if you're motivated to redo them or not

[jennula]

I started to re-draw an older comic of mine, and it was my worst mistake ever since I couldn't stop at just fixing some glaring errors...XD

With SPEJS, I've decided to just let it be and move on, otherwise I get stuck with redrawing comics forever. It was enough that I had to color it twice (once from greyscale to colors, second time adjust colors to look better).

You will always find errors, but I guess that's a sign that you're improving your art. And it's better to move forward and do new stuff than re-drawing stuff for 100 years (in my humble opinion). I have to live with the fact that the first chapter has some cringe-worthy art, but if people enjoy the story and the characters, they can live through it - it only gets better ;D

[timinabox24]

I am currently still redrawing about 8years worth of pages XD
I've redrawn some of them for 2nd or 3rd time already and they are still not any closer to being even remotely bearable to look at tho X_X
whaterver you do, don't redraw them until you're sure you're ready to do so
otherwise you'll get a bit better and think I must redraw my old episodes! then you'll get even better at drawing and think oh noez now I haveto redraw them again so all of them can look even better D; and that just won't be good for anyone X_X

[Marton]

I agree with "don't redraw unless you're gonna print".
Even if you do redraw, it's likely you want to redraw the redraw after a while, every artist feel that way and it's something you have to accept. Nobody cares about it besides you. Instead of wasting your own time, move forward, and look back at it as a learning process.

This is also why you first webcomics should be shorter stories. When you artstyle improve you can move on to another story instead.

[hushicho]

My general opinion is that you should almost never go back and redraw older work. It traps you in a cycle that is difficult to get out of once you start: "oh hey," you think, "my style has changed now and developed; I should go back and revise those older pages" and then you get done with that and think "oh hey...my style has changed and developed; I should go back and revise those older pages..."

As a rule, I don't go back and redraw things. I accept them, let them go, and make my peace with them. That's usually best; I think you should put the effort forward to make new things rather than become stuck in a cycle of potentially endless revision.

If you feel like revisiting an old work or an old story at some point, I think it should be approached holistically as much as possible.

[JeremyRay]

If you consider this to be an important work, than redraw. If you're just playing around, than don't bother redrawing the early pages.

[Kawaiiyusra]

Your art is always going to keep improving, so the pages you fix by next year will also be still outdated and look old and it's a never ending cycle. It's better to spend the time making new pages and never looking back. Webcomics are forgiving because most people will understand that he webcomic's art has evolved.

I want you to go visit Questionable Content (One of the most popular webcomics online)
Here is their first page
Here is their recent page

The fact that they kept drawing and never looked back is the reason why over 3000 comic strips! O_O;;;
So don't worry about it too much. Keep trudging forward.

[shazzbaa]

Echoing others, I think you should basically only redraw if you have a specific reason OTHER THAN "my art is better now," because your art will always be getting better and better. Literally every webcomic has this issue of older pages being way different from the newest ones!

If you have something that limits you, like "the first ten pages were at the wrong DPI and I can't print them, so I'm going to redraw them for the book AND THEN I'M GOING TO STOP REDRAWING" then sure! That's fine! Or if your story is completed and you want to redraw chapter one because heck, you have the time -- go for it!

But if it's just redoing the art to match current pages, it's very impractical. When you get better, are you going to go back and redo those pages again? If you redo the first ten pages, what are you going to do when page 11 looks like your worst page and you worry about that one driving off readers? Giving into the temptation makes it harder to resist next time. I agree with the others! Keep going forward!

I just noticed a trend of having a lot of views on the first few pages, then dropping sharply off. It kind of made me wonder if it was bad or something.

I think this is probably normal, just based on the first page being there the longest and getting seen by the most people. I'm gonna point at Grassblades -- Anna's art is no doubt fantastic, but her first page has 10 thousand views, then each page those views drop by a thousand until they stabilise around 5k. One of my favourite comics drops 11,000 views over the course of the prologue. The Last Giant goes from 20k to 4k from its first to second episode. The degree of the drop varies, and I haven't done any studies or anything, but it seems pretty common!

[Jazdraws]

Have to say I'm on the RE-DO side. I've started going back and re-doing some of my older pages, since honestly I've just gotten better and I find them embarrassing.
As I've drawn my characters more, I've developed both their designs and character arcs more, so some stuff needed to be added and touched up.
I like seeing artists inprove, but for me I wanted a more consistent look.

[sarrowsmith10]

I'm kind of in both camps. Don't redo pages and do redo pages. Here's from my own personal experience:

Redraw pages:
*I got some pretty harsh reviews on my first pages. So, before the book went to the second printing, I went back and redrew pages. (I was about half way through chapter 3 by then, and I redrew chapter 1 pages) However, I don't think the actual quality of the art changed very much, so someone who hadn't seen the original pages might not have known the difference. And I redrew things not because I thought I was better now, but because some panels needed to be moved around, characters were missing things like swords, or the dialogue didn't flow and I needed to flip characters around (like always having a character on the left, etc.). Since then, I've never made edits like that in any of the other projects I've worked in. (Mostly because I charge an arm and leg for revisions)

Don't Redraw Pages
*Subbers don't want to read old pages again. Even if they are pretty. I guess if subbers aren't notified that you've updated pages, then its less of an issue. Secondly, there are comics that I absolutely CRAVE new pages from. And if I have to wait because the creator is uploading stuff I've already seen I get indignant. (I know, my sense of entitlement is strong, I'm sorry)
*You get stuck in a cycle of never doing anything new.

[KSlinger]

I plan to redraw/edit the first 20ish pages of West for printing. This is to create a more uniform style, invite new readers to pick it up from the get go, and give older readers something fresh to look at. However, I really like the idea of keeping the original version of the comic online for people to see. To me, those messy transitions were a necessary and valuable part of the creating process, not something I (or anyone) should be ashamed of. That said, there is value for both readers and artists in investing in a story that has it's identity and 'look' firmly nailed down. It's simply more professional and if I want to West to be taken seriously I need to start with the basics.

That's my stance on redrawing, but as far as actually doing it goes I'm reluctant to get mired down in anything that delays the progress of the story. This comic is going to take years to complete and while that's fine with me, I'm also keenly aware that anything can happen at any time so delays (like redraws) are something I could do without. More over, my current interest in making a living from comics is low enough that I'm happy to let the comic cultivate a following by itself, speaking for itself, exactly the way it is. For me there's no need for recognition and professional success at this time, just an urgency to deliver, though there's certainly nothing wrong with wanting both.

Improvements can always be made, but what those improvements are depends largely on your priorities and what you want, so have a think about that.

If your want to improve your following consider whether it's the quality of the early pages or simply moving on with the story that will help more. If it's been a year and you feel the story is at a point where events alone will draw people in, maybe hold off the redrawing for quiet period. If it's been a year and you feel it's the style of the art that's winning people over, rather than current plot, then yeah maybe a redraw is in order.

[TACOBERTO]

I'm totally on the go back and re draw side of the debate. When new readers come to view my comic they have to see the less than quality writing, art, and structure of the second chapter (First one I'm fine with) which I've always feared is the reason why I have such few subscribers.
My major roadblocks would be the time it would take to re do it and how that would take away from the current pages, on top of that it would cost a lot to commission those pages all over again. Add on top of that I'd have to re-write those pages and I'm stuck wanting to do it but without the time and money to do so.

[ryoko]

My brother recently gave me an art tablet which I didn't have when I started putting my comic up a year ago and I have Clip studio now. I've been using it to fix the spacing of my first chapter since the pages were cramped due to the fact my scanner isn't very big. I was limited to how much I could scan at a time. Due to some confusion about the storyline I've been redoing the speech bubbles on those pages, too, for the same reason. The flow is better now and it's easier to read. Other than some minor clean-up of the actual drawings, I haven't really re-drawn it. So, in my case, redoing the first little bit to make it more legible because I now have the tools to do it was my reasoning.

I think if you've got things to fix to make the pages easier to read, then that's fine, but I know in the past I've been caught up in the redoing things over and over again and it's a cycle that's hard to get out of. Ultimately, the more you draw the better your art will look/progress, so the newer stuff will always look better.

[pwh13]

There is a lot of great feedback here.

As far as I can tell, I think it would be best to go back and make minor adjustments to bigger issues, but not go crazy with the redrawing.
@sarrowsmith10 made some good points about having current readers go through old pages again, might not be a great thing.

@shazzbaa Yeah I think going back after maybe finishing up the comic would be a good idea. GO FERWARD!

@Kawaiiyusra Questionable Content is something I've been reading for yeeeears. It's one of those comics where the art continues to evolve, 3000 pages in. That is something I would NOT want to redraw. I see your point though.

@Jazdraws Yeah, consistency is something I want to keep with, which is why I'm so torn on this thing.

@ScampiCub I'm trying to make a living off of several avenues, this comic has been the most successful to me. The problem I have is a bit two fold: One, the art could drive away some followers. Two, continuing the story can lead to some great things that I don't want current followers to miss out on because of redraws.

[danrafter]

Hi, There: I lean toward fixing up the old pages. It would just bug me too much to know that there are pages that don't show me at my best. I'd worry, too, that the older art might turn off readers who might stick around if the art at the beginning of the story was as strong as the art near the end.

Of course, redrawing does take a lot of time that you could spend on new pages. I just know that the older pages would nag at me until I did something to improve them.

Just my thoughts.
Dan