What makes a great comic opening? Let’s talk story hooks, structure, and pacing

[KevinReijnders]

As a webcomic reader I often enjoy seeing the artist's development as the comic develops, that's something you don't get to see often with pro works.

I guess it depends on the type of pro-work, but in my experience I've found that if you follow a specific professional artist you can see their work grow and evolve. If we're talking comics, it's a bit more rare to get to track that down in the western sphere, with how little author-owned works there are

You see it in a lot of tv-shows too. The first season is generally a bit rougher and them trying to experiment with the format, with the 2nd or even the 3rd season where they settle in the style of voice of the show.

The constant refrain of experienced web creators! Every veteran advises iterating on small projects instead of getting locked into big ones, but new creators always want to make their magnum opus right away. I'm no different except that I try to keep each chapter mentally as a standalone project.

Oh I do not consider Trespasser my magnum opus at all haha. If anything it was the backlog story I had from a couple years before that I dug up again to rekindle my passion in a period of creative burn-out. I grew to care about it more and more over the course of making it.

It's also not the first thing I've worked on and I have experience in setting myself up a production pipe-line. Hell, I don't think I would have managed to make it as far as I have had I not. In fact, I actually treat each chapter as it's own thing too, each book starting its own cycle of production.

I wanna do shorter stories not because I grow tired of Trespasser or because I'm burned out by it, rather I'm more inspired than ever and want to do even more than I'm doing now haha. Hell, I could probably spend the next 50 years just making more Trespasser!

The problem I'm having is that I'm getting new ideas that are better served as their own unique world/story, instead of trying to cram them into this current existing thing.

[kyupol]

Here's times I had more drama as openings instead of fights...

Mag-Isa

Brood Knight

[RED-VELVET-CUPCAKE]

I think characters are very important. Every comic I like has made a strong start with the introduction of their characters. I can't describe exactly what draws me in because there's a huge variety, but I think it can be summed up:
- their interactions with other characters (family, friends, enemies) I really like analyzing the dynamic between characters.
- how they go about solving their problems. How do they drive the plot forward?
- their quirks, hobbies, or something otherwise immediately memorable about them.
- their design. If they have an awesome design, that's a bonus.