Starting a Webcomic

[Tetrunes]

ahh my thread noo

the bad memories



Also good luck to you, AS!

[AwkwardSkeleton]

I need to think of a name for the webcomic. Yes, it is about video games. Yes, it is sometimes about real life. No, it is NOT going to be called Awkward Skeleton.
I've come up with some front runners for names:

Super Flash Bros Brawl
DoubleJump
CritRockets
HM05 (only pokemon players will get this one)

I may post comics, but my computer is being a dick and Flash isn't working on it right now.

[Madican]

The name is kind of the last thing you should be thinking of. Focus on the characters first.

[Tatzel]

Depends, what if you are already done with the characters and you really only need names? That's a problem I'm currently facing. Sometimes stuff doesn't come to you automatically, and I was always bad with thinking up names.

[AwkwardSkeleton]

Depends, what if you are already done with the characters and you really only need names? That's a problem I'm currently facing. Sometimes stuff doesn't come to you automatically, and I was always bad with thinking up names.

You trying to start a webcomic too?

[Tatzel]

Pretty much, but I'm going to post pages on my art accounts until I got a website up and running.
As soon as I get my names, I'm good to start.

[TerraChimaera]

agh ever since I found this comic I've wanted to make my own comiiiiiiiiic~
I want to do a smash bros-ish comic for the new one but then I remembered I can't draw things in ten minutes

[AwkwardSkeleton]

Ok, starting a webcomic seems like something many people have tried but few have actually succeeded.
If somehow I was able to collaborate with someone then I think it would be possible, but that seems really hard to do if you live in 2 completely different places.
List of video games the comic is going to be about:
Nintendo (mostly Zelda, pokemon and brawl)
Valve (mostly tf2, sometimes other games)

[hotb]

I'm collaborating with someone to make a comic and it's fine.

With email, IM and voice/video calls it couldn't be easier to communicate with faraway strangers.

[AwkwardSkeleton]

Ok, starting a webcomic seems like something many people have tried but few have actually succeeded.

Changed my mind, seems easy to get a webcomic page up and running but seems hard to get it popular.
By the way, I know I don't have enough subjects for my webcomic, so if anyone could tell me more video games it should be about that would be nice.

[Dire]

You're best off writing about what you already know instead of about games you've heard about second hand.

A number of things you need to consider, firstly your update schedule. How fast can you draw a completed comic? This will determine how often new content is posted. That said, once a week minimum is necessary to keep people interested. Any more then that and people will forget to check for it.

With that in mind you should also build up a back log of content so you'll always have something to post when the day comes in case you're running late. I recommend 30 pages.

Lastly, when your comic debuts, you should probably upload a small handful of comics at once so people have a few things to read so they can get into whatever it is you're doing.

[DoNotDelete]

On the weekly updates: I've been thinking about that...

I wondered if I would be better off putting up whole chapters when I finish them - but this could mean at least two month gaps between chapters.

I'm leaning toward my story chapters being 12 pages long (but at a push I could on occasion do short chapters of 8 pages); I think personally I'd rather submit complete chapters in chunks than leave readers hanging between pages - to post a chapter-based comic page-by-page seems broken, somehow.

People talk about keeping readers interested by submitting something every week - but is that really true? News of a new comic on VGCats spreads quickly enough through the internet when the guy gets a chance to put something up. Also would pressuring yourself to do a comic every week err on 'quantity over quality'? Are you really better off churning out garbage week-on-week week-after-week? Do you do yourself and your followers a disservice by giving them anything less than a decent, complete chapter every few months?

There are differences of course between the conduct a one-shot funny comic writer/illustrator and a chapter-based novel writer/illustrator should engage in.

The name is kind of the last thing you should be thinking of. Focus on the characters first.

I thought he was more thinking of doing fan comics like Katie - he doesn't need to invest much time in developing characters for those kind of things.

[Dire]

The VG cats guy has been around for a while now though, so he has a following, but I can't imagine his fan base growing much anymore.

As far as submitting whole chapters go, I still think it's necessary to keep a tight and frequent schedule. Bi weekly is quite acceptable for a multi page thing, a month might still be okay. But whatever happens it's gotta be regular enough that someone can go, 'oh it's the first, time to check for DND's latest update'.

Also it's good to have a set date for when people can expect the next chapter to come out.

As far as quantity over quality goes, if an artist can't keep up with their deadlines they shouldn't be doing web-comics. This is true of a lot of things. You wouldn't go to a restaurant and wait two hours for your food because the chef needs to make sure it's 'just right'. It's a business, the chef is hired to cook the food 'just right' in a prompt manner and get it out to the customer.

I haven't done web comics because I don't think I can keep up with the update schedule. I much prefer the print format, but I think I'm gonna have to get over myself and do a web comic because it's pretty impossible to sell (self-published) books to people who have no idea what they're about.

It's quite possible to do a chapter based work and post one page at a time. John Allison's Bad Machinery is an excellent example. The reason why it works is because it isn't wasteful, every page moves the story along or provides insight. Genre might have something to do with that though. A battle manga like Bleach would be terrible page by page because whole pages are dedicated to people 'powering up' and action lines, and to be fair, battle manga need their action lines.

[TheStranger]

I feel more inclined to forgive slipped schedules when its a hobby or a side project for the creator, real life will always come first in that case, but when its your fucking JOB like VG Cats, then there is no excuse, barring health issues

[Dire]

That's fair enough. I'm not really thinking about it as what the audience is owed, but rather what the creators needs to do to stay competitive. Even if the creator has another life or some illness, if they don't post they wont be getting new visitors or even returning visitors.
So a hobby artist can feel free to do a comic at their own pace, but it pretty much voids the chance of getting traffic.