What's something you know now that you wish you knew when you started working on comics

[Gebo]

woah that's so smart. I just used the tapas ratios 940x4000 but then they updated to crop the comic for you. I considered going bigger to better plan the layout but didn't know what to use.

[carloswebcomic]

I started webcomics in 2003, so I had to learn HTML to make my own page.
I think the only thing I wish I had known was the value of writing scripts ahead of time.
I used to make up scripts on the fly as I was putting pen to paper.

It ended up being extremely stressful.

[sorible]

Yeah, it took me a long time to be able to figure out which ratios I'm comfortable with, I couldn't really find any helpful info online, so everything I know is all self taught.

[Kelheor]

I started drawing comics when the stars aligned that we just watched Bakuman series about two Japanese boys who wanted to become famous in manga world and there was a contest on Medibang with the prize to be published in Jump+ (Shounen Jump web-magazine).
I wasn't that good, I barely picked up drawing that year after a decade of not-drawing, I never ever drew comics, but what I had was a lot of motivation. I still don't think my art is good enough, nor do I have a perfect style that I can say "this is exactly how I want my art to look like" and I am drawing for 5 years now. But finding that motivation to actually create something from start to finish and gain something from it (doesn't have to be money, could just be a bunch of self-esteem) is something I frequently rely on

[iHateFridays]

I wish I'd known how to actually make comics lmfao

Or at least spent some more time figuring out what I wanted to do

[lillianl100204]

The stabilizer. Before I knew that was a function, my artwork was wobly and uneven. Having known this now, i have to go back and fix my earlier panels.

Also check out my comic i'm almost to 10 subscribers!
See? uneven and blah lol

I AM MEME!! | Tapas

[Yulek]

I wish I had started smaller.

You learn how to make comics by making comics.

That also means that with your first project, the learning curve is immense.
So you improve a lot with each episode and nothing is stable.

So even after ten episodes you will want to go back and start over.

Doing short projects as first projects really helps to get more consistent

.... Also to figure out what kinda style will actually work for you and your drawing speed :')

I pretty much do that now with a reboot of my first series.
Ill actually think things through and try for a sustainable style.

[sorible]

Yesss I turn up the stabilizer to max on every single lineart pen I use (not even joking). I have a really weak wrist so my hand would shake a lot and make my lines all messy.

[Lady_T_Musings]

Banners and promotional materials should be done before your comics release date. Idk how I fudged that one up, but I did. I had one picture I planned to use for everything promo, but depending on the size requirements it would be cropped mega funky, so I had to go change some stuff up when the comic was being qued for release. I also didn't realize how many banners I would need at different ratios and sizes as all these social media and comic sites have their own preferred format and many are strict on it so if the size is off, it won't even be accepted at all. I assumed most would just stretch and I could fix it later, but nahhhhhh.

[lillianl100204]

Omg yes. That's my main problem but the stabilizer is soooo nice to me XD

[OffBased]

Oooh that messed me up too. I would figure out the dimensions for one place and make the promo stuff in that dimension only even if I planned to post it on multiple platforms

[Rhonder]

Reflecting on my first webcomic compared to my current one, the ones that most stand out are:

• It's okay to go on hiatus to rebuild buffer if you run out. Thankfully my story was only 70 pages long, so when I ran out of buffer around the halfway point I didn't have a terribly long ways to go, but the 2nd half of the comic was more stressful than it needed to be because I just... didn't want to take a break. Even when i started consistently missing deadlines lol. For this project I already have picked out the episode that I'm going to take a hiatus after to rebuild buffer. It just makes way more sense.

• Work within your limits. This is mostly in regards to balancing comics with the rest of your life and responsibilities. I ended up going really hard on my first comic for the first like 4 months. It was basically all I did when I wasn't at work or sleeping. At first it was fun to get so much work done and fly through the story, but it didn't last very long and I hit a period of mild burn-out afterwards. I missed my other hobbies and hadn't been spending as much time with my friends and family as I would have liked to. This is another reason I should have taken a hiatus around this period For my current comic, even though the pace of drawing is slower than I would like, it's because I'm taking better care of my comic/life balance. I'm not moving as fast, but I'm also not burning out, which is important I think!

• Spend more time outside of your comic practicing fundamentals. I was so focused on speed and just getting my first comic done that I didn't really spend as much time improving my art as I should have during its run, especially some basic fundamental things. Proportions, how to draw characters from certain angles, careful color selection, etc. I definitely still improved a lot in many aspects, but I can see now with my current project that just... spending some time every week or two doing studies and tackling weak areas more directly really does help you improve much faster in general. This also cuts into my comic speed, of course, but since this is still a learning project I'm more concerned with getting as much progress out of it as possible rather than just going fast or whatever