World creation in your comics, how do you do it? (Fantasy/Sci-fi)

[TaisSS]

Hello!
I wanted to know how much everyone plans beforehand: not only the characters and the story in general, but the world they are setting their comic. (of course, this question applies more to fantasy or sci-fi themed comics).

I'm studying to become an editor (not much time until I graduate) at the moment, so I'm gradually starting to dialogue with more artists about this:
Some believe that it's not necessary to think beforehand every detail of the world along with the story and the characters, that they will just keep on adding things to their world's history, politics, rules and such as they go. I'm not saying that you can't add new things as the comic continues, but certainly those things can't be way too many. It's not impossible but, personally, I have found that this sometimes leads to plot holes in their stories and a lot of inconsistencies in other cases. It's not that it can't be fixed, but it ends up becoming more of a problem to the artist rather than a help to create a good, consistent story.

For example, my preference is having a well planned thing from the start. I have started my own comic, just a while ago, but I decided to post it only now that I have already planned things ahead-characters, story and world creation (since it's a story driven comic). I, think, details and things like parallels can make a story shine so much more.

But that's just me! What I'm actually interested in is what you guys think about world planning or how do you prepare it in your own comics.
As an artist and an editor I believe that hearing this kind of things straight from the artists it's the best, so thanks in advance for all the answers, even short answers are deeply appreciated

Also, thank you so much for reading!

P.D: I actually speak Spanish, so I'm really sorry if there is any mistake in my writing.

[MrsBartender]

Honestly build off just a single idea then expand, expand, and keep expanding, just make sure everything makes sense

[mariusthered]

character sheets work. depending what sort of comic.
name, age, eye color, hair style ect everything you can think of include weakness and strengths
environments are another matter. mine is easy because its all based in a city so i just made a map and worked out the crime areas.

[Kyosu]

Take a fantasy idea and then convert it trying to have a logic behind.
https://tapastic.com/series/One-Of take my comic as an example if you wish.
the enviroment, the buildings, the culture and the characters's body have a logical structure.
now I'm creating their language but it's hard to apply it XD

[TaisSS]

Yes, I also took a fantasy idea and created it's own logic and rules.
It's amazing you are going as far as to create a language, that's awesome! I speak 4 languages, but I completely dropped the idea of a new language for any of my ideas (if was going to go into that I wanted to give it a proper treatment like a real one, and I wasn't up to do that in what a new language respects).
Wish you the best of lucks in making your new language work!!! You can do it !!!

[TaisSS]

Yes, yes, characters sheets and their characteristics are always a must
That's cool! Of course, maps are always really helpful!! Is your city set in our real world, another world or kind of futuristic stuff?

[SethJH]

For my comic, the worldbuilding process started like 10 years ago. At first I drew a lot of inspiration from books, movies, and games I liked, but eventually I started replacing most of my ideas with more original things. I also looked at real world cultures and histories to get ideas. I kept a sketchbook for the past 6 years, working out things like "what does the infrastructure look like?", "what sort of services and accommodations would people who are covered in fur need?" and "what ways does the society's religious and philosophical beliefs influence their graphic design style?" I tried to keep a list of all the different topics I wanted to cover, but it got too broad and required me to design nearly every little aspect, and I've since narrowed it down to what's most important and interesting to see.

Needless to say, worldbuilding is my favorite thing to do- and I still have lots to work on.

[TaisSS]

First: you have some amazing backgrounds in your comic!! there is so much details in everything!!! Keep on with the great work !!!
I also want to applaud your dedication to your work! I, truly get what you say, the story I'm uploading now to Tapastic is a mix between real world and fantasy world. So it took around 3 or 4 years since I started to think about it. But my other story I haven't started to post yet is set on a completely different world, so I've been working on it little bit more than 10 years. I hope I can get to share it on this website later.
Second: yes, world building is really entertaining for me too!!
World building and story telling
Third: I do believe too that getting inspiration from books, movies, games and also from real life gives an story another depth.

[Jewe11s]

For me it has taken a few re-writes to get a solid world built in my comic. (And still, I don't think I've done enough - but I'm a bit obsessive like that.) The first time I wrote it, I was definitely making it up as I went along. Once I got to the end of it, I had gotten to know my characters and the world they inhabited a bit better and went back to edit so that things were more consistent. Over a few re-writes, I got a better idea of the 'who, what, when, where,and why'. I found that really having a solid background of history, culture, spirituality (or lack thereof), and language (I am no linguist...) really helped strengthen not only the plot but also the characters.

Maps, histories, lineages, languages, and character sheets are all things I actually enjoy putting together en masse. On top of all that I think it is important to remember that giving your world its own mythos gives the story more believability. Legends and mythologies can tell you so much about on the people(s) who are telling the story, what they believe or value based on what themes are brought up, and they can provide your readers with vital information about the plot without resorting to exposition. Some examples include: the Tales of Beetle the Bard in Harry Potter and the Opera House scene from Star Wars: Episode 3. (Back me up, Nostalgia Critic). It immediately gives your story more history and depth.

I also like to get crazy with the planning and plotting of the world my comic inhabits. It's taken a lot of time (and a drop of obsession) to get it all figured out but I feel it was worth it in the long run.

[Sanz]

Los Esmeraldas takes place on several planets but mostly in the Main Characters Ships as well, when I get ready to launch her into a new planet the first thing I think about is setting, the era what the planet might have looked like before the influence of humanity and what it looks like now...or if it's more of along the side of ruins. space station and planets and ships are the main environments so I get tons TONS of inspirations of movies books and places. and takes notes on which planet or place or ship would have those attributes. and since it is in space and the planets are so open to interpretation anything could happen! I don't focus too much on beliefs and such. I do focus on species. if they have predators, if they are prey what they look like strengths weaknesses, how they breed even what they have to adapt and that gives more on how I should make there environment but works vice versa to. it works for me !

[mariusthered]

swipe city is set in a city that's gone independent from the rest of society so it has it's own rules. you are you cannot be charges with crimes outside swipe city but break new ones inside and your in big trouble (they even have a prison for kids called juvie road)
check it out here !

[Aloredd]

https://sites.google.com/site/adestria2/ is the result of my world building (minus some updates i need to add)

world building is extremely important, because of plot holes and inconsistencies. both annoy me to no end, so i try to avoid them in my own work.

a lot of my own work could be compared to other works though, because they are inspirations and foundations. The Drizzt Do'Urden books and other fantasy series like Lord of the Rings were an early influence, as well as World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs. Where i'm at currently is even based off of another story I tried writing about 5 years ago that I called Dawn of the Warriors (that had heavy Eragon (or however it's spelled) influence)

Needless to say, I'm much more satisfied with Adestria than DotW, though with some rework and maturation (I started it when I was about 12), Dawn of the Warriors could still turn into a fantastic story.

[asheskyler]

I put zero thought into the original world-building for my comic. But I did end up merging it with a world I had already made and it had some light stuff established like a map, a few countries, and a few species. I've just expanded on it since then. For a few other projects I did put some work into it fleshing out the countries, geography, history, and species a bit more.

[jerreaudriessen]

I like to write a bunch of cryptic texts. wait some time and draw what comes up in my mind.

I also ask fans to give me their interpretation of the texts and try to use that.
It sounds chaotic but i thinks its kinda realistic.

[AnnaLandin]

I love worldbuilding, so I usually do a lot of it for my stories, but it varies from comic to comic.

Grassblades, for example, has pretty sparse worldbuilding. I know enough of the structure of the world (political systems, belief systems, the presence of supernatural beings, etc.) to be able to tell the story well, but it is heavily centered on its characters, so I haven't gone all out with the worldbuilding. I could have spent months inventing systems of currency and drawing detailed maps, but I didn't, because those things aren't relevant to the story. Also, some things get invented as I go along, but it's mostly smaller things - like costume designs for secondary characters, or the architecture of specific castles the main characters pass through, etc.

With my other projects, though, I tend to worldbuild a lot. I spend ages crafting political systems and histories of political conflict, determining the level and type of technology present, magic systems of there are any, economic frameworks, trade routes, layouts of cities, ethnic conflicts, religions, how the military functions, what are the societal norms in these places, architectural styles, ruins of older civilisations, and so on and so forth.

I just... I love building imaginary worlds. It's so much fun. I love feeling like the worlds I read about in other people's stories are solid, like they're going to go on beyond the limits of the story - I love feeling like they're more than a stage-set - so I strive to do the same for my readers.

However, I try to center everything on the characters I'm telling the stories about. I don't spend ages inventing an economic system if it won't be relevant to a character or a storyline. I don't invent fictional religions if I won't have a character in the story who is a believer in, or is introduced to, that religion.

One of the biggest challenges with building worlds is that you have to stop yourself from telling the readers everything. It doesn't matter how much you love this thing you invented - if it gets in the way of the story, you shouldn't bore readers with talking about it. Bring it up if it's relevant, but for the love of all things holy, don't do info-dumps. No one wants three pages of monologue about currency and economy, if what they're there for is seeing your characters go on an adventure.

[CaptainUfo]

In the case of Captain Ufo I did very little world building, because based on the original idea it was ment to be a planet-of-the-week kind of series that progressively moved thowards story arcs and adventure. It doesn't mean that the universe is incoherent, though: I just defined the charcaters and let my writers be free to build the continuity as the stories progress.

This is a special case, though, because I am usually really meticulous about that. Another project that I've been working on (a fantasy/steampunk spy story) has 250 pages describing the world, the political structures, religions, cultures, geography and everything.
To be honest, this is a bit overkill for a comic, but it started as a homebrew campaign setting for a pen & paper RPG.

[maxzaguishi]

Sci-Fi is a lot more fun to make those universes, but complicated if not handled, I think that depends on that vast will be your world or universe, works great if you must plan with maps and sketches that connect a small idea in my case it domino from my own mind

https://tapastic.com/series/WHITE-PALADIN-

[mckarenart]

Well, I use to say that I have some Tolkien-like-illness haha, because I can't stop thinking about genealogic trees or the past of the past of the past of every character I make. I'm building a Universe since I was 11 years aproximately (that is, 15 years ago). I love writing but in this moment of my life I'm not sure if I can do something that convinces me that doesn't take place in that universe.

In my case (it's a fantasy MULTIverse that includes this world) I begin with mythology that already and try to make sense, then change things and use them (reatures, places, whatever) the way that best serves or simply because I like to change it.

[sincerely]

I used to be all world-building and no story, but as I get more comfortable as a writer I've found that excessive world-building can be a distraction. My comic Opportunities is sci-fi but the story so far has been set on modern earth but I could spend forever just working out galactic politics and creating alien cultures that the characters may or may not interact with, but instead of I'm trying to focus on outlining the story ahead--The first book is written, the second book has a full outline, and the third book has a nebulous kind of idea to it--so I know basically where my characters are going and try to foreshadow the world they're moving towards, but anything outside of that isn't really important.

I'm also working on writing a modern fantasy story and I've been doing a lot more world-building on that because I'm still figuring out where I want the story to go. I want it to feel like a full, complex world even if it focuses on a narrow range of characters, so I'm definitely trying to figure out what kinds of things are going on that might resonate with the story. Also, obviously, I'm developing the magic system and how magical creatures work in the world, but eventually you've gotta just stop doing that and start writing, and that's where I'm at now.

[TaisSS]

That you are already panning the third book it's an amazing thing!
I completely agree with you about doing an excessive world-building might become a great distraction. In my personal work I always decided the main characters first, then the story+ a little bit of world-building, after that the secondary characters and lastly adding all that's necessary for the world to look like a well rounded polished thing. If there isn't a story yet, it's truly hard to know in which places one should deepen the details.

I wish you the best of lucks in your current comic and also the one you are starting to work out!