Unexpected challenges of making a webcomic

[akitsukino]

Luckily there’s a lot of good advice out there if you want to make a webcomic. Things like marketing, planning ahead, dealing with stress are all covered in many places. There’s tons of info out there. But I want to ask you what are some challenges you didn’t expect? What do you wish you had known or thought to do before starting? What surprised you? Let me know below!

[Shanny8]

Getting sick...burnout.

When I first started making my comics some yrs ago, I lasted at least 3 yrs cranking out material before I went on hiatus. Coming back to comics after all that time away I thought it'd be like riding a bike; while I did get used to cranking out pages again, I realized that my body couldnt handle that type of load anymore. Got sick close to finishing the 1st chapter of my webcomic, and then hit a pocket of slight burnout; I was able to still produce art, but I had to put time between each piece I produced after finishing my webcomic.

This "burnout" feeling carried over to the 2nd chapter of my webcomic and through it. After finishing this I had to give myself a longer break to replenish my physical and mental well being. I'm now feeling giddy and ready to work on the 3rd installment of my webcomic, and I have to say- the rest helped.

[ZombieOwl]

For me, I think it was, and still is, a challenge to find time. So, I'm working to MAKE time and discipline myself.

When you're doing something on your own (you're your own boss sort of thing), it's tricky to make sure you do your work on a regular basis. Especially if you're like me, working full time, have other time consuming hobbies/classes, there's really not enough hours in the day for another hobby... But still, because I love comics and hope they can go somewhere someday, I'm trying to instill good practices in my life

also drawing fists was surprisingly not something i thought about before starting a kung fu comic XDD

[Hexigate]

Like all the answers here, the hardest thing is workload.

I just personally find it difficult to balance out the creation of a page throughout the days that I have. It becomes a thing where I no longer make standalone artwork or even practice because I'm putting all my energy into the pages.

[dawgofdawgness]

1) bubble placement. I didn't even realize that speech bubbles had a "flow" and help people read through the pages easier. I'm starting to get the hang of placing them in appropriate places, but still it's something that I always forget to consider when drawing my comic.

2) Realizing that no, you can't really draw a decent page all in one sitting.

3) Blocking is tedious and boring.

4) ummmm. Updating on time

[TheFalseVyper]

I 100% agree with @dawgofdawgness that bubble placement was something I wish I knew about sooner. You wouldn't think that there's actually a science to the correct places text bubbles should be inserted, but there is!

Aside from the bubble placements, I would say that I mostly struggle with reminding myself that I'm drawing a comic, and not shooting a movie. By that I mean that it isn't necessary to draw every single, teeny, tiny movement. Using too many panels to explain something can take away more than support the scene.

[fnflgbtcomics]

Talking about bubble placement leads me to talk about text stacking. I didn't know before starting my very first webcomic that people generally find certain dialogue construction within the bubbles more pleasant and easier to read. Thinking back on it, it should have been obvious that tiny details make such a difference, but my partner really started teaching me more about it when we started working on comics together.

[pterodami]

I realized that most of the times I need to say lots of things with only few words because I need to put those words in a limited space.

[turtledance24]

I do comics everyday for these last two months now, day and night all I do is draw and I feel some struggles too sometimes but the thing that makes me keep on going is...I think I just love making comics that much...

[seru]

When you get more followers and subs, you get not-so-good fans and sometimes unsolicited advice from randos and harsh criticisms that may or may not be constructive.

[LordVincent]

Fans who think they dictate your life telling you they don't approve of your transgender identity, your spiritual beliefs or your piercings.
Fans who think you owe them a date and when you say no they rage and leave nasty comments on your comics.
Fans who sexually harrass you or try to guilt you into things.
Having to fear that huge chunks of your income could be snatched away any day because anti-sex prudes ruin everything and make companies turn on you despite the fact that your type of content is what built their platform to begin with. (Cough cough Patreon)

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[J.Z.Castillo]

I didn't expect it to be so difficult overall... like I never imagined I would spend so much time planning panels to make the page flow nicely

[DokiDokiTsuna]

THIS. I did not expect the endless harassment and begging for smut...I'm getting ready to block a guy right now if I get one more entitled comment from them...
So far I haven't gotten any not-so-good fans yet, so I can be happy about that. ^^;

[spadesart]

tbh getting audience feedback? its really hard for me to get any engagement or feedback from my readers at all. not sure if im doing something wrong or if my comic has just been answering everyones questions as it progresses?

[feardeer]

All in all, it's actually going more smoothly than I anticipated. I've had rougher experiences with webcomics in the past.

But the biggest challenge for me has definitely been streamlining my process. Gotta go faster; gotta maintain quality; gotta have the right aesthetic.

After that, framing and paneling. I'm not super confident in how I frame my shots. It's probably a matter of studying other comics to figure out what's effective and experimenting more at the thumbnail stage. I know the basics of effective paneling, but I want the confidence to be more creative with it!

And lastly, connecting with other creators. I have social anxiety, so I didn't expect it to be easy. But dang, I think I've had a proper conversation with maybe... three or four(?) other Tapas creators in all my time here? So uh, hey guys, hit me up. I am a great awkward cheerleader and I love to talk about plot things and gay stuff.

[lartianmartian1]

I don't even have a comic up yet, but I could use me some comic friends to talk about about plot things and the gay stuff and to cheer one another on! I have bad social anxiety too, so you are not alone.