xylia

[Elle]

Considering this forum is about a webcomic, and this section of the forum is about webcomics in general, I figured it'd be nice to have a thread where all you webcomic artists/writers/hopefulls can lay down some advice, or articulate some experiences you found helpful or destructive to the process!

Tricks you came across, websites with helpful tools, things to avoid art/storywise...Anything you think would be good to note.


(I'm allll ears, seriously--gotta get my butt rollin' on my own!)

[KEZ]

I've got a blog-ish link on do's and don'ts of webcomics. It's new though, so not too much content yet: http://webcomictriage.blogspot.com/

What it does have is very good, and could come in handy to all webcomic creator types.

[BarbJacobs]

I don't really know nothin.

Popularity seems to be what we are all after. After all, the more readers, the more hits, the more hits, the more potential for adertising $$ gain on your property. Okay, maybe that's not the only reason to create a webcomic, but everyone wants readers, or what's the point, really?

But what makes for a popular webcomic?

SOme of the stuff out there that is popular, I just don't get. There are some REALLY poorly drawn, poorly written amaturish things in the world of webcomics, so really- anything goes.

Frequent updates seems to be the key thing in webcomicdom. The more you update, the more you get seen, the more votes you get on vote sites, the more popular you become. But if you cant update often, at least stay consistant.

Color seems to be better received than B&W in webcomics. Usually.

F*bombs - popular.
Big boobs - popular.

So, for all intents and purposes, Xylia's gonna bomb, cause I dont have big boobs, curse words, or frequent updates. ^_^

SO WHAT DO I KNOW?!!!

~B

[canterrain]

Gonna go with Barb. Gee... in fact.... what she says feels familiar. As though I said it somewhere at some time. *ducks the swipe from Barb!*

The most popular comics update 5 to 7 days a week.

These are also usually simply drawn (to achieve set deadline).

Many of these are 4 to 6 panels.

They also tend to be black and white 6 out of 7 of those days.

Very few (if any) of the top popular comics have art even close to what Barb does. Even those that start to somewhat get to that level... use copy and paste tricks with their art. (I'm talking you Questionable Content).

Art is negotiable if a storyline that advances forward at a fast pace is there.

Dominic Deegan is an example. Now the art -is- better than it was. But it's still not -great-. (And the early days, wow)

Honestly, you an get away with not having big boobs and the f bomb if you just update every day. (Dominic Deegan, Questionable Content (though that's just 5 days a week, but still often) formerly General Protection Fault and various others are one I can think of that update very frequently and involve no nudity and no obscene cussing and are still popular.

But that's how to make a popular comic.

How to make a GOOD comic?

Update consistently: Just like writing a story, if you get out of flow it's hard to get back into that flow.

Type out your speech bubbles: Your hand writing probably sucks, and even if it doesn't it looks weird.

Have an idea of where your story is going: We're all smart, and we can tell when you're making it up when you are going along.

Don't plagiarize: We know our fantasy/sci-fi/what have you. We know when you haven't even written the story. (I'm talking to you Eragon)

Know your characters: Because there's nothing worse than reading through a story/webcomic/etc. and going, "What? Everything that they've done prior to this suggests they'd never do that particular action. How stupid."

Speaking of characters, make them/their actions believable: Obviously, I don't mean fantasy stuff. If your world involves jumping great distances an magic, that's different. But if it's obvious that this isn't a natural thing for your characters to do and you are forcing it for plot, it's going to feel weird. This is sorta similar to the last one, but slightly different. A good example I can think of is Neo. How often did you want to go, "Just tell me everything all ready! Save everyone a headache." Because it didn't feel natural for him to remain silent on every little secret. Also, stereotypes are overdone and overused. At least give them a twist to give them an extra facet to their personality and make them feel like more than a two dimensional character.

Create a backlog: Get as many pages ahead as you can. Wait to release your webcomic if you have to. Things happen, life is hard sometimes, and occasionally you just won't have the time, focus, or even WANT to work on the update that day/week etc. A backlog means if you need it, you can hang on a little while and still be free and clear.


Ok.. that's plenty for now. Too bad I totally suck at art huh? I'd love to make a webcomic. Have the ideas/stories and so on in my head.