Your opinion on "Your first comic should be short"?

[Azifri]

Meh~ I drew several short comics before the long one I'm working on now, and no amout of small comics gave me nearly enough practice for the longer project, simply because when you do a short story there are many pre production steps that you can skip. I think what's more importand when starting a long project (at least for me) is having your plot well outlined (with different amounts of details depending on your preferences or if you're working with more people), do concept art, develop a style and character design that will alllow you to be efficient, and so on. I still draw short comics on the side, it's good for practicing and experimenting with different styles, and just fun for me to do.

[Fafnir]

yur lucky. I wish I had the time to do side comics. Hopefully i will someday. I think that's the ideal situtaion. One big series, and little side stories, cause coming with new ideas and stories is fun, and its too bad you can't do anything with them when your locked into just one big story.

[redfish]

I highly recommend 'short comic be your first comic.' It's not just about practicing art but practising HOW you draw a comic consistently.

My first ever comic attempt was for a long story but I gave up quickly because I did everything by hand and was demotivating. Like I did all the backgrounds by hand too and it was driving me mad hhaha

I first thought that a comic had to be done with just clean pen lineart but I was so miserable and it took me like a year to actually complete it.

My next comic was a lot better.But I put the same amount of detail to every single panel when really I could break it up a bit. It helped make production faster and now I'm working on my long form comic.

[J.K.Borealis]

TLDR at the end.
That's why I decided to make my comic the way I did. The idea is to make a series of almost standalone stories that don't require any prior knowledge from the reader, but all fit into a larger narrative if the reader wishes to explore it.
It leaves me with both options: Expanding if I can afford it, or wrapping up if I foresee difficulties.
In the end, I'd like to be able to tell the story in its completeness, but the reality is not always kind, so the next best option is to give the readers SOME kind of conclusion.
Leaving my story hanging halfway wouldn't make anybody happy. Especially me.
I can also change the drawing, narrative, setting, protagonists, anything really and still make each story work as a standalone thing.

TLDR: I think a shorter story is better if you lack experience. It will test you and let you make mistakes with less pressure, as if you go with your "main" story from the start, you might ending up fussing over every little thing.

[Azifri]

It wasn't about about having time :') I had to simplify my drawings and teach myself enough shortcuts so I could be fast enough to afford drawing more in less time. For example, I stopped using line weights, reduced color palettes and shading steps, and made a personal library of references. Simplification may not work for everyone but I prefer to tell as many stories as I can. I'm still learning, but drawing more has given me way more practice than trying to get every panel to look super polished, and to me that's OK.

[J.K.Borealis]

100% agree.
I was stuck trying to do clean lineart and coloring for ages. Only to be told by EVERYONE that they prefer my messy drawings a lot more.
I think the trick is finding a way to train your reader what to focus on.
Just look at my panel. There's so much going on. Most of it is completely illogical. But I guide the reader's eye to the important stuff by making the important stuff stand out more and generally by spending more time detailing it, while I leave the unimportant stuff just "touched upon", "noted", "mentioned" (I'm struggling to find the meaning in English)

[Fafnir]

I mean... yeah sure.... But simple stuff still takes time. =/ Everything takes time.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

I mean sure, it makes sense, but for me I just went with what I had

I been trying to think of some short ideas to practice on for YEARS and i just cant make up short ideas, I dont know why lol
I also just wanted to get started! so just went with my idea, dont care its gonna take me 13 years to finish, as long as im having fun with it right

[darthmongoose]

I'm the kind of person who gives the "make a short comic first" advice. I have a bunch of reasons why I stand behind it.

• The first few pages of your comic are really important on modern comics platforms where readers have loads of choice and tend to decide if they're reading or not after a few "episodes"/pages. A person's first ever comic pages are likely to be a bit rough around the edges as they get used to the pipelines, which isn't ideal, so it's best to keep the rougher looking comics short, and launch into a big comic when you're certain your opening will be a banger both in story and visuals.

• Short, self-contained comics are really good for teaching effective story structure, theming, pacing, planting and payoff because you have to get across a message within a very limited page count. I often find comics by people who haven't made short comics before, they just sort of... set up a bunch of kind of cool characters and then just meander along from scene to scene and the scenes don't really have a strong purpose for the plot, and the protagonist isn't clearly established and there's no sense of a conflict or goal we're working towards, everyone's just kinda there? If you're used to making 10 page comics, you get used to making every page count.

• A lot of people aren't really prepared for how much work maintaining a comic for hundreds of pages will be, and so they launch in and put tons of work into their early pages, lavishing them with detail, thinking "psh, lol these experienced comic artists are so lazy with their art, I'm going to make all my pages detailed and beautiful!"... and then about 10 pages in, they realise they've locked themselves into a project that's going to be hundreds of pages long... with a style pipeline that takes 24 hours per page, meaning that realistically they can either drop to updating twice a month and be stuck on the comic for 10 years, or update weekly and have no social life or other hobbies for the next 5 years.

• Your first comic is probably going to be where you make all your beginner mistakes, like making pages for a comic you want to print at the wrong DPI, not leaving a safety zone or having enough bleed, stuff like that. It's better to make these mistakes on a 10 page comic that took you a few weeks or a month or two than on a 200 page comic that took you a couple of years.

• For a lot of artists, each comic they do has a different aesthetic appropriate to the comic in question, and ideally once you get going, you want the art to stay at least relatively consistent. This can mean that if you're locked into a long-form comic, you don't have a lot of space to experiment with style, and can cause artistic development to stagnate. Doing short comics, each with a slightly different approach and with time dedicated to reflecting on each project and refining the approach in between tends to be better for artistic development because each project you can apply stuff you learned to the next one.

• Short comics are a fantastic way to meet people and make connections. For example, some of my earliest comics were entries to UK comics competitions, like the Manga Jiman (which is still running and is awesome) or things for anthologies I made with friends. It's actually how I met my fiance too; we were both in small press UK manga groups.

I don't even want to imagine if instead of making... I've lost count of how many different comics, each trying something new, I'd locked myself into one of my early ones for a decade. When you look through a bunch of my short comics from over the years, you'll notice things I test out that get added to subsequent comics, or which I try, but then get rid of because it's not working out, like....

"I'm going to ink my whole comic with fineliner pens, scan them in and then tone digitally!"
"....Okay turns out this is really time consuming. I like those rain effects though..."

"I'm gonna try hand drawn speech bubbles and really bold, almost cartoonish digital inking!"
"Okay, hand drawn speech bubbles don't really do it for me, but also this won a competition, so now I know my simpler, more chunky cartoony work has appeal. Good to know!"

"Let's make a heterosexual shoujo-esque romantic comedy with really fine inking!"
"........This was a horrible idea, let's never do this again."

"Okay I want to try more cartoonish, less manga faces and... let's make something for kids and work to a larger page size... and work in full colour with a muted palette!"
"Hmm... palette is a little grey... hand drawn speech bubbles still aren't necessarily working for me... I really like a lot of elements of this style though! I'm gonna work them into my next project!"

These aren't even all the short comics I've made, and then on top of that there are things like the old, abandoned webcomics. The freedom to experiment with short comics is fantastic for figuring out what works for you and what doesn't, so I'd definitely encourage it.

[faisalhussein394]

Funny story, I never thought of making a shorter comic even with the advice.

My ideas and passion of making my own comic has always going to be a long one. Short comics doesn't seem to work for me.

[NickRowler]

I usually recommend doing short comics to new comic creators who often feel overwhelmed by their larger, more epic idea.

Tho my first webcomic which I was able to complete, without giving up after 4 pages, was 80 pages long. Not really short but it helped me get used to the process.

[smokesalty]

I agree with you! I've also made a bunch of shorter comics before jumping into my current project, and I'm really glad I did because I made decisions that made making my current comic much easier.

For me, I started off making mini-comics (around 3 pages each) for my instagram before sitting down and scripting and drawing a 10 page comic (as you mentioned, I realised how much each page had to contribute to the plot) This is when I realised I chose really over-complicated shading. I kept making 3-10 page comics until I finally settled on a consistent style that i could work with.

I think making shorter comics is super valuable for finding a workflow that works for you, and certainly saved me from having pages to redo at the beginning of my comic.

[nickolaidas]

I think it's a very good advice. Then I remember that the first webcomic I started is going to be a 300 issue epic and I ask myself what the hell is wrong with me.

@faisalhussein394
Yup. The more I write, the more ideas I get, and the more the main story expands.

[migxmeg]

I'm so glad we went with this advice and started our short idea first because we found out that getting through a story in comic form takes so much longer than you think it will. The idea we thought would take 3-6 months is going on 2 years and not really close to done as far as I can tell (am not the writer). There are so many mistakes to make and a very very steep learning curve. If we were working on a longer story we'd need to make the decision about when to reboot and start over. Oof. I'm glad that we can just continue and look forward to completing this comic.

[RedLenai]

Each person is different, but I consider it a great advice considering the fact that most of the time people tend to get overwhelmed with big projects, and end up putting them on big hiatus or cancelling them. As well, I hardly believe people who make longer comics haven't made short stories before, or simple 4 panel strips and such.

Starting small is a nice way to figure out exactly how much you can handle, if you know you can chew more, then you'll put a bit more on your plate according to your limits.

At the same time, if it's your first, very FIRST time making comics then it's good to figure out the style, consistency, how do you narrate stories, how you manage to make a comic in a specific format be it vertical or traditional, narrative structure, how clear your message is, how you handle making a plot or how you narrate action and characters interactions.

[ilesarki]

I also recommend starting with a short comic, maybe multiple short ones, before starting a long story. This is a good way to figure things out with working methods and fleshing out the characters and the world, and your style in general. When I was younger I made that mistake many times by starting big projects right away, that all ended up getting out of hand and cancelled.

Also before starting a big project I recommend making drawings or paintings of your characters and different situations, as they can work as a concept and reference for the comics.

[FruitTartz]

When you make a comic for the first time, you make a lot of mistakes. You learn a lot. You learn what are the best ways to approach a story, what is the most efficient style of workflow, what does not work, etc etc etc.

A short comic to start with would be very helpful in terms of learning how to create a story from start to finish, and in the process develop your "comic style" as I like to call it. (AKA the more efficient version of your usual style. Coming from the background of an illustrator, you end up needing to learn how to simplify the style to work for comics and yet still produce a pleasing result.)

That being said, I don't think it should be a hard rule that you should NOT make long comics as your first one and you MUST go with a short story. I highly disagree with this advice, and it ultimately misses the point.

The reason why people recommend to not start with you "magnum opus" or start a "short story first" is for the reasons I stated above: you learn a lot in the first few chapters of creation, and you want to make the mistakes in a disposable way before moving onto the "real thing". But here's the thing people don't realize when they offhandedly make this advice: Comics have a very high barrier to entry from its sheer difficulty - the multiple skillsets required, and the endurance. I have seen many, many talented artists and professional illustrators attempt and give up on comic making because it's a long term commitment for an undefined payoff. Every illustrator is an artist, but not every artist is a comic artist.

The most important thing is NOT that you have to make mistakes and learn in a "disposable" way through the form of a short story. The most important thing is to have the passion and love for your story that will motivate you to work on the story for the long term. Nothing kills motivation quicker than working on a story you are half hearted about on such a difficult comic venture. I can tell you this, many will realise how hard it is, think they must not be cut out for it because they can't even complete the short story to move onto their passion project, and they give up entirely.

If your passion project is a short story, all the power to you. If your passion project is a long epic, then start that journey and learn, make mistakes, and keep moving on. The more you learn, the better. You can always reboot the story years down the line with your already developed fanbase when you have gained enough experience. You do not need to go through a half hearted short story to learn these things. And who knows, maybe you have a better comic idea and you decide to pursue that with all the experiences you have with the previous epic that you were passionate about.

I quite disagree when I hear people try to advise not to start with your "magnum opus" and to start with a "short story" because it makes the beginning passionate comic creators feel like they are doing something wrong by pursuing an epic they hold dear to their heart. No matter how many short stories you make, you will keep making mistakes and keep learning. So you might as well just have fun along the way.

Of course, everyone is different. Some like making short stories, some like making long ones. Ultimately, the most important rule is to love your story because that's going to motivate you to continue this grueling neverending comic grind process.

[KSlinger]

Shoulda, woulda, coulda! It's good advice for sure but there really is no right time to start a comic, short or long. Whatever you end up doing I think getting started and keeping it up is most important.

[Zhengo]

I took a few courses in college about comic making so I have made shorter comics in the past, even though I haven't put it online. The main reason why when working on projects of my own, they tend to grow into long form stories is mainly because I end up thinking of all the possible character arcs and world building I can explore and the project just ends up expanding

I do think there is merit to the advice, but I feel maybe that if you want to work on a long project, you might as well go ahead. I agree with what the above said that you should put your all into whatever project you're working on. And there's no point in working on a short project first if you don't really have your heart in it, especially if it's supposed to be an independent project. I think you can still practice storytelling structure in a long form project. Most long form stories are comprised of many arcs within them, and each arc is basically its own substory.

[powerplantanimations]

I don't agree with the statement that your first comic should be short, I agree with the statement "you should do whatever is possible for your first comic". Basically try to figure out ways to get much out of your story in the most creative ways possible.

For example, I'm actually going to be doing Diary of the Wimpy Kid page segments to expand the plot further so people can have more content (they don't take long) :v