I have a lot of thoughts about an opening chapter.
My philosophy is that your opening chapter should be a microcosm of the story, distilled into a form that hits the key notes and introduces the character. If your story is a murder mystery with a top notch crime solver, that first chapter should be the crime solver solving a murder mystery in whatever unique way that solver does it. If it's a battle shonen, you better show me some fighting that hypes me up, with the main character using that opportunity to demonstrate the personality trait that makes their story one worth following.
By the time the reader finishes the first chapter, they should have a pretty good idea of what kind of story you have, what the draw is, and what to expect from your story moving forward. That way they can nod and go "yes, I want to see more of this" or "not for me, thanks."
I did all of this with my first chapter of Etherwood - the first scene is a microcosm - who is this character and what is she like, how does she do things, with a magical creature from occult lore that has never been depicted in fiction before and some pretty pictures. That scene contains the main elements of the story and the promise of the kinds of things I plan to show. The first chapter is a slightly expanded version but now including the Fox, our main complicating force, and the basic establishment of the story. I do the same again with the first three chapters and a further expansion into the 5th chapter, after which the introduction is done.
It's like a comic symphony - I have an exposition of the first theme, the introduction of the second theme, a recapitulation, and then finally you can see the melody in full swell. After that, I'll include developments and various movements of different themes and moods, but not too soon.
So it's not fast or slow so much as the prefiguration of your whole story. If you tell a fast kind of story, the intro should be fast, if it's a slow story, then it should be slow.
One pet peeve of mine is if your opening starts with space or other cosmic scale picture while your prologue text rolls about gods or cosmos or philosophy that is not particularly relevant without showing the main character. Space opening is okay if it's the establishing shot for a scene that takes place in space. Nobody cares about your worldbuilding until we care about your characters, and philosophical statements should be embodied in the characters, not stated by the narrator.
No, but I did rewrite and re-do it several times prior to launching. I learned a lot each time.
Definitely agree. Worldbuilding alone without characters to care about is just mental flatulence for the audience.
Some comics that definitely get the intro right are Naruto, MHA, and Dungeon Meshi. Each one does something different but they are all excellent introductions to the characters, setting, and themes that their stories delve into.
I'll admit that made it hard for me to get into your comic, jumping in at later points worked better for me than reading it from the beginning.
