What have you learned from making comics?

[Legendofgenii]

This is probably my worst page for it. Luckily I never coloured it because I'm going to stretch it out and illustrate what Erras is saying, instead of crushing Gen underneath all those speech bubbles.

Now I've seen that example above though it doesn't look as bad.

[cookieroach]

yeah I think the author of the page I posted had some health issues and a tight deadline, so that's the reason behind the wall of text...

@Legendofgenii ohh nice to see your art! yep, compared to the page above you could fit even more text into it without a problem

[Phantomlight]

I think I have comic strips like this one xD But yours isn't daunting. I don't mind it. The other one that @cookyroach showed was definitely more daunting but considering the reason for it, I am not blaming the creator.

[M.ComicFan]

Where is this page from?

[somekh]

• literally just don't draw the other eye if you don't want to.
• or the mouth
• or the nose
• literally no one will question it if you just genuinely start leaving facial features off of the page. it's amazing. you don't even have to shadow it. just don't draw it.

[GesuGesu]

1. Plan ahead. Pantsing is was fun until I ran our of ideas and went into indefinite hiatus.

2. Don't worry about perfection. Readers will take only 0.3 seconds to read a panel, so if it isn't perfect, leave it alone. Things don't have to be pretty.

3. Shortcuts are your friend and there is no need to be an elitist about tracing or heavily referencing objects you need for your story. Ain't nobody gonna be able to draw a helicopter from memory. Use all the stamps, brushes, and stock images you want.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Regarding that wall of text from Hunter x Hunter. Yoshihiro Togashi does that on purpose. He likes to have exceedingly complicated dialogue.

Which brings me to my piece of advice:
Ahem.
Exposition is okay. Exposition is necessary. If you need your characters to dialogue dump, every once in a while, it's not the end of the world.
I spent a huge chunk of my comic trying to avoid exposition, and it hurt me in the long run, because now...I have to play catch-up and explain some things about the power system in my world.

Second, is don't rush things for the sake of a fast moving story. I spent a big chunk of my story just going from villain to villain, without making them have an impact on the hero characters. So again, I'm playing catch up now, and letting my comic breathe, and allowing my pages to be a little less crammed.

[cookieroach]

haha I love this! I've started to do this with details that seem unneccessary for the panel, like if an arm or leg is partially hidden behind something I just might jus skip it

[Legendofgenii]

LOL! Oh and - just draw insignificant background characters as bowling pin shapes.

[cookieroach]

yeah, like @nathanKmcwilliams already mentioned it's from Hunter x Hunter. It's really good actually, one of my favorite comics!

[Legendofgenii]

@Legendofgenii ohh nice to see your art! yep, compared to the page above you could fit even more text into it without a problem

Yes, there's a teeny bit of space on the bottom panel right!? Haha! Don't encourage me.

[cookieroach]

Yeah I agree, there's no reason not to try to be as efficient as possible. The goal with a comic is to tell a story, and you'll get much more done if you don't spend too much time on the details. (My problem can be the opposite though, rushing it a little too much...)

[cookieroach]

Good points! I tend to not have a lot of text, but I'd like to have some pages that are more text heavy, and a bit worried that the contrast might put people off. Like you have to choose between the two.

Yeah, pacing is really tricky! I think I have to work on pages/panels that lets the comic breathe as well.

[Phantomlight]

It's fun and funny to see how creators deal with the background characters. Some make them into colored blobs others make them into clones of one design. My Weird Roommate by Sakurada Yana comes to mind for the second example. She makes this one character with a leaf on the top of their heads as all the background characters xD

[Shanny8]

Keep enough content going on to keep your readers excited for the current issue/page they're reading and anticipating the next.

[Legendofgenii]

That sounds quite cute... and a bit surreal. I don't mind it, especially in japanese/anime type comics.

My BG characters have dots for eyes.

[KiabIce]

That does look a bit heavy lol

[Legendofgenii]

Haha! Yep. You can even see where I sort of attempted to make it not look like one giant speech bubble. Still is though.

[ghostmaya]

Many things~! Like how to manage time, art, story telling, and enjoy life~
I've been making my comics Oh My Ghost for 4 years and until now, I'm still trying to improve~ ^_^

[Legendofgenii]

Don't accidentally hurt yourself posing for a reference!