Comics are a good medium for me because one of my strongest skills is being able to do a little bit of everything. I'm not a spectacular pinup artist, but I'm fairly reliably good at drawing a wide range of things, which has always been handy working in comics, illustration and games, I have a writing style that's insufferably verbose so actually improves when I'm limited to small speech bubbles, and I write pulpy, character-focused plots that suit comics, I have enough of a design background to have my presentation and branding look decent, and I enjoy mixing comedy into my stories, even when they're serious, which works well in comics.
Throughout my career, I've worked on all sorts of stuff like books, games, apps, even films, but in terms of my solo work, my comics have always stood out as the most acclaimed and popular stuff I make alone, and since my day job is using my art, writing and design skills on stuff for other people, being able to make something that's 100% mine becomes important.
As a kid I was always drawing and I wanted to be an author! I'd fill out sketch books and write short stories all the time but I never thought that being a comic creator was an option at first. I guess I kind of thought comics were only done by professionals.
When I started making ocs and stories I really wanted a way to show that story so I thought to myself that 'oh, I could make a comic someday.' I used to be under the impression that I could only start my comic when my art was absolutely amazing, so for years I didn't do any sort of comic work. (granted my art and writing at 13 was bad but PRACTICE IS GOOD.)
When I decided to make my current comic, I will never forget how excited I was to be working on a long term project. I made a bunch of practice pages and I loved making them- I knew comics were for me because they're such a good blend of visual and written storytelling that has it's own style of art and layouts.
I find myself really admiring other comics, and I think they're such an incredible medium for storytelling. (And I can also work on it myself with full creative control)
I'm good at storytelling but I dislike writing and am bad at it.
Other mediums like game production or 3D had an even steeper learning curve and cost.
Comics are easy to consume on the go, doesn't demand much of your time compared to reading and have the huge boon of initial visual appeal. So they are a lot easier to pick up than a book.
I thought hard what I want to do for storytelling and what type of audience I would like to have and comics came first. My reader is usually a person who is very busy in life and doesn't have a lot of time to sit down and focus for long times on one thing. They may have many hobbies, or at least gaming as a hobby so their time to do them all is limited. I don't want to take all their time or compete for more minutes than I should.
My interest to learn to draw better comes from my desire to execute the story better. And going at it from this angle instead of the passion for drawing or desire to be an artist gives me a sweet spot where I can treat it as a job.
I have dyslexia and was a bit illiterate as a child. However, I wanted to be an author because I would always daydream stories. So I guess instead of writing things down, I ended up drawing them instead.
I guess comics are my way of being able to be a writer. As a kid/teen I wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist. With the raise of the internet, I noticed that people would post their comics online. I used to read these weird Naruto fancomics and I guess that sort of inspired me to post my own stuff. Tho I did at one point want to make more story based webcomics sort of based off of stories ideas I had as a teenager.
Um. You guys had a choice?
Jokes aside, it doesn't feel like it was a choice to me. I tried to quit drawing comics countless times in the past. Yet every time I quit they haunt me.
I fell in love with the medium as a kid and just kept doing it. There wasn't a moment where I went "oh, I'm going to choose comics to tell my story becauseI it feels like the best choice or because I can't do XYZ". For me it was always comics first. (But I ended up in design because they told me I wouldn't be able to feed myself with comics.)
I wanted to try something new. My love for stories is nothing new, neither is art and reading novels/comics–but the thought of actually making one is fairly recent. It was too intimidating for me before (studying anatomy, environments etc; time management; going against what my peers say. It's a lot to invest on. )
But I guess the love for stories and admiration of all the amazing artists out there inspired me to make my own. Joining the Tapas Community has only strengthened my love for comics and inspired me to work harder on it.
Thanks everyone for the replies so far! It's so interesting to see the overlap between us all in that we can't help but do it(for the most part lol)! I didn't start drawing again 'til I was 18 or 19 after dropping off the drawing train in my late tween/early teen years. Those of you who have been keeping this up since you were a kid have my respect!
Because (and this is gonna sound weird), I don't like how novels make you picture characters inside your head? Sure, you can say that's the fun in books and it does lead to interesting interpretations in adaptions but like... for me it doesn't matter since the author had a certain vision for these worlds. What he sees is the ultimate interpretation.
Again, it sounds weird, I know, but that's why I need pictures. Granted you can say the same thing about how writers who rely on artists (me), and how both of us have different visions (with me not caring half the time and letting my artist do whatever he wants).... but I just think you're getting something more definitive out of comics.
a love for visual storytelling for the most part
i started out being a big bookworm as a kid but then around middle or high school got really into manga and comics (or at least ones that werent the sunday funnies). theres also the fact that my dad was an artist so i spent years from childhood and on aspiring to be like him till id found and formed goals of my own that weren't so intertwined with being as good as people i looked up to
i think the comics that really dragged me in were the archie sonic comics (which a good chunk of folks may or may not know) but between the official solicitations and then fan comics and other original stuff people were posting to their own sites or DeviantArt i wanted more n more to make my own stuff and having been one of those kids with a big imagination and lots of stories floating around in my head it just kind of clicked to go forward with doing comics
ive considred animation as well but between the learning curve and just not finding a groove with it like i have comics ive stuck to panels and pages
This is an interesting question. I'm more of a visual person than a words person. Writing novels is thus not my best storytelling method. SO here I am, where I am today. Comics allow me to improve my drawing skills and I have a passion for drawing with a chance to story tell. A little like killing two birds with one stone
<.<
Um...well I always liked drawing and writing, and I always drew and wrote stories to go with them.
But when I got to college and started writing courses, most of the class was like luke warm on my writing, and one person even said I wrote one story like it was a comic book.
Soooo I dropped trying to be a writer and just started doing comics for myself until the person who later became my partner encouraged me to start sharing my comic online.
Womp Womp
So there we have it. The love of my life is why I stuck with my comic :3 And we weren't even dating then XD
Original thought process: "Comics artists can do whatever they want, and they can even work solo! I can learn all these cool disciplines, like storyboarding and design, and make something with them!"
Lessons learned: "Oh, there's a reason people work on teams. And working solo means I have to do all those tasks myself."
Still enjoy it, though! I feel that I would be pretty bored if I couldn't tie my drawings together with a story, and I'm not really the book illustrator type.
Comics/mangas are always been around me since young age (big bro was a shounen manga reader). Also It's easy to approach as a kid.
But to start the journey of drawing comic, I first saw a pencil-drawn flipbook comic from a classmate when in primary school. And that started my comic-making life, I drew a lot of unfinished action "comic series". After high school I stop drawing them for quite a long while. And in this recent 8 years I slowly returned back to comic.
Fact: I drew more comics pages than art pieces, just over 1K pages already. (counting everything including childhood drawn pages)
So it's just my default go-to medium if I want to tell my stories. (and still a traditional-page comic creator!) The difference is changing from quantity to quality & being more selective now.
Why the comics? They are ... (and here I get nostalgic)... my inspiration and my escape from the real world, I love writing stories since I was very little and drawing them has been my delight, but if until now I started publishing them it was because I didn't have enough confidence in myself.
I have a lot to improve, but even though I'm at a certain age where I have to deal with my responsibilities as an adult and I don't have all the time I need, I want to use it to publish more stories.
I've always wanted to draw a comic strip since I grew up on syndicated newspaper comics and 2000's internet webcomics. As a side effect of learning to draw comics I've had a storyline on the backburner for like 10 years so it might be healthy to get that whole thing out in a longer format.
Then, past that,I have no illustrative goals--I'll probably move on to my next bucket list endeavor, which is probably recording an album. I don't really have a creative goal, I just need to create more and more on varied mediums.
For me I always wanted to make animated films even a small child and after so many failures I decided to just give a comic a go. I had many friends tell me I should of done comics in the past but it never really interested me beyond Peanuts,Garfield and a few Manga. I always gravitated towards animation.
I have the whole thing played out in my head like animation. But I do not have the time, money or resouces to make it so. It needs to leave my head..so comic it is!