How To Make A Webcomic

I’m going to split this post into two sections: Part One is entirely my personal views and opinions on the topic. Part Two will be a series of sources on the topic, with some added commentary.

Part One: My Thoughts & Tips

I’m going to simplify my tips into a short and sweet ‘Dos and Don’ts’ list. 

DO:

Make your characters human.

This is part of the whole ‘believable’ thing. By human, I want to clarify that I simply mean ‘flawed in some way’. Everyone has to have a weakness, even if only one. If you have characters who are entirely invincible and incapable of being harmed physically, mentally or spiritually, it makes it very difficult for readers to feel much towards them. If this is your goal - having an unrelatable character, then go for it! But that is rarely a goal most artists seek to achieve.

Give your characters some ‘umph’!

You can have as many Plain Janes as you like, but if you want readers to be involved and fall in love with your characters, you have to let your babies be a little messed up in some way or another. Give them some weaknesses, some pet peeves, dislikes, things they’re bad at, etc. This makes them highly relatable and more fun to follow. These kinds of things can also make a character interesting - even the strange things! If you have a character who is allergic to carrots, this weird quirk can be used for a panel that is both hilarious, and that makes readers like this character that much more. Give your characters anxiety, depression (I sound so awful right now), disorders, social awkwardness, whathaveyou. Readers love this, and you will love the opportunities for branching that it adds to your story.

Be diverse!

And I don’t just mean racially! It is absolutely true that having a diverse cast of characters will draw in a wider variety of readers, but that isn’t the only factor to take into account. Try adding characters of different sexualities and orientations, heights, weights, etc. No two characters should look even remotely similar unelss they are related. If you need help in this, try Googling random photos of people until you are inspired. The majority of all highly successful webcomics have a cast that is diverse in every aspect; so for an aspiring webcomic artist, that is a good train to hop on not only for the boost in readers, but for a better overall webcomic as well.

Put time into your characters.

This is a major DO. Although you may not have every facet of your character decided upon creation, try to add as much thought as possible in their development. Draw your characters repeatedly and chisel them into who you dream for them to be, and play with their concept until you find what you like. Make sure each character is unique and that there are only similar personalities, and not personalities that are so alike, they overlap in a way that ruins the individuality of both characters. Devote time to developing each character individually to ensure that they are as unique and interesting as possible. Little details such as favorite foods are important, but they can come later as the story progresses (and are more likely to come at that time anyways). 

Some things to find out: 

Name: Every character needs a name. You can choose random ones that you like, or match it to your character’s personality or destiny. This one is really all up to you.

Age: Kind of a ‘duh’ thing as well, but still important.

Super Deets: Solely for the sake of not having these all be separate bullets, I’m going to tie a lot of things into this category. Race, height, weight, hair/eye color & shape, etc. Essentially the character’s appearance.

Major Deets: Again, lumping some things. This one will be orientation and gender [identity], as well as some basic likes, dislikes, and other personality traits. I’m also going to include any family members of the character that are pertinent to the story (i.e. if your character is a teenager, then their siblings or parents would likely be important factors of the story).

Minor Deets: Lumps galore! This would be for extra interests/personality traits that are later discovered, long-lost/otherwise irrelevant siblings or family members, and things of that nature. These deets don’t really impact the story unless you choose for them to. 

DON’T:

Copy characters...

Please just don’t. Yes, your favorite webcomic artist just might be a genius in creating amazing characters. However, copying much of their look/personality is a big no-no. You would do much better with messaging that artist and asking them their character creation process. Just. Don’t.

Rush into the story without knowing your characters.

The only way this would be possibly successful is if you plan for readers to learn about the character along the way as you do. I would still advice you to have some sort of idea of who they are prior to doing this, but otherwise stay away from doing this. Try and picture your character as being a real person so that by the time you start drawing your comic, you know them like the back of your hand and can predict their reactions and responses to things, or even hear what their voice would sound like if they were real. 

Force yourself to like a character.

If you think up a character and find that you just don’t like them as much as the others, try and fix them. A major issue with you not loving all of your characters somewhat equally is that you start slacking in drawing and developing those that you don’t favor, and their presence in the story becomes awkward. Redesign them, do what you can to make them likeable (unless they’re supposed to be unlikeable, then that’s just how they are!). However, even for characters designed to be unlikeable, they should still be able to be liked by somebody, and not just be unlikeable because their lines are dry and they lack a personality of any sort.

More brainstorming!

I know, I know. That was the last step! But brainstorming is so vital to creating/thinking up all kinds of things, and names are no exception. The name of your webcomic could be a form of advertisement in and of itself, so it’s important to choose one carefully. (It’s okay if you have to go back and rename your comic, but the name should be tied to the plot, so you never end up having to do so). 

Your comic name should: 

Be original: If you type your potential comic name into Google and others pop up, that’s not really so great of a sign. How many pop up is important; if there are only two or three others, maybe it won’t be that bad to share the name, but if it’s hosted on the same website you’re trying to host your comic on, it’s best to try and think up a different name. And if there are pages upon pages of other comics with that name, it’s over. Don’t bother trying to justify it; the name is likely GOOD, but too common. You want to be unique!

Incite interest and suspense: In a bit of completely purposeful promotion, I’d like to point out @idoloncomic as a great example of this one. When the comic starts out (and even to date), you still don’t quite 100% understand the name or what it means, but throughout the story, you get little snippets and hints at what it’s about. This is the kind of thing you want: something that draws your reader in and entices them to want to know more. What does your title mean? Is it connected to the characters? (Just a note, as the author of this comic clearly already does, please make sure to actually have a purpose behind this mysterious name. Don’t just give your comic a random name and never explain what it means!). 

Make you excited!: If you don’t like saying/reading the name, chances are your readers don’t either. And you don’t want that. Think up a name that you are proud to say, and know your readers will enjoy as well. This means making sure it’s not too long, but not so short that it leaves too many questions. Be like Goldilocks and don’t stop until you find the title that is juuuuuust right. 

How to find that perfect name:

Now that you know what your webcomic’s name should do, let’s work on actually finding one. With, you guessed it, brainstorming!

For this, review your plot to make sure you have it down, and then try and think up some possible names that are fitting for your plot (or that pertain to the main character, if applicable). 

As an example, l’ll share how I found the name of my comic, Chocolate Teapot (unique, isn’t it?)

Basically, I started by reviewing my plot. In a very, very brief summary, it’s basically about a plan made in a fictional society to deal with their delinquents and bad guys, that sounds good as a concept, but is corrupt in practice. The names I first brainstormed were: “Welcome to the Farm”, “Cattle/Grazed like Cattle”, “Branded”, “Delinquents and Debauchery/Decadence,” “Decadence”, and “Fool’s Gold”. I brought that down to three: “Branded”, “Decadence”, and “Fool’s Gold”. I then wrote out my feelings for each, ultimately deciding that “Fool’s Gold” was the best of these.

I then went immediately to Google “Fool’s Gold comic” to see if the name was taken, and boy was it ever! There had to be at least 5 pages of comics by that name; it was a bust.

I went back to the drawing board, and decided to search phrases instead that matched the concept of my story: ‘an idea that seems good, but actually is very bad’. I typed this into Google and reviewed my results. 

My next list then was: “Brave New World” (a term created from the book itself), “False Dawn”, “Specious”, “Poisoned Apple”, “Chocolate Teapot”, and “Cheese in the Mouse Trap”. I then broke it down again.

I immediately crossed out “False Dawn”, “Specious”, and “Brave New World” because I just didn’t like them. That left me with “Poisoned Apple”, “Chocolate Teapot”, and “Cheese in the Mouse Trap”. “Cheese in the Mouse Trap” was unique, but a little too long for my liking; it was cut. I really liked both “Poisoned Apple” and “Chocolate Teapot”, but “Poisoned Apple” seemed very cliche, and a quick Google search found multiple comics by that name. I was left with “Chocolate Teapot”, which I fell in love with the more I said it to myself, and eventually it was the one! A chocolate teapot is something that might seem good at first thought, but in hindsight is really a disaster of an idea; perfect for the plot of my story. Plus it had that wonderful unique sound to it that I was looking for.

***WHAT do I brainstorm?***

This is one of the questions I was referencing in my blog description when I said that the sources I found for webcomic creation didn’t ‘answer the right questions’. I saw plenty that said to brainstorm, but nothing telling me what I should be brainstorming exactly, or how. So here’s my breakdown of it!

Brainstorm genres:

Find what type of story you want to write for your webcomic. This is not necessarily the ONLY genre you can have, but you do need to determine the primary one for your story.

Is it a romance? A comedy? Romantic comedy? Action? Adventure? Slice of life/modern? Historical? Realistic? Sci-fi? These are just a few examples of genres. Again, you can OF COURSE include multiple of these in your story as themes, but you should ultimately have one set genre for the entire webcomic. For example, if your webcomic is about a princess who travels the countryside with her elven sidekick in search of a magical gem, there would be one main genre that circles the plot; romantic: if the entire story mainly focuses on her romance with her elven sidekick or maybe a prince, adventure: if it is all about her travels and/or discoveries, action: if it is mostly about the fights she has with warring clans she encounters along the way/other kingdoms, etc. All of these can include any other genre, but there must be a main theme for the story to follow (unless you WANT it to seem scattered for a specific purpose).For example, the concept of the story being about the princess’ travels can still most definitely include wars, romance and maybe even heartbreak, but essentially the focus would still be the adventure aspect (or whichever concept chosen to be the main one). 

Brainstorm time periods: 

This may coincide with the genre you chose, but it’s important to decide the time period of your comic as well. You don’t want your character to pull out a gun in the middle of a fight if your story takes place in Fuedal era Japan.

Your story does not have to have a time period. Personally, I consider Fantasy to be a time period of its own. Any story with a fantasy genre can be interpreted as being Timeless genre-wise, which allows you the freedom of including various technologies, clothing styles and idealogies that are modern and incorporate them with otherwise unrelated time periods without having to try and make sense of it. Anything fantasy is generally made up, so in this case, you have much freedom (but explanations are often required for almost every aspect of a fantasy world, so keep this in mind. If you make something up, you will have to explain to your readers somehow how it works). 

Brainstorm Cliches: 

As I mentioned above, sometimes starting off with a few ideas of cliche stories can help get you closer to finding a good story. 

This one is fairly simple. Start with a an overused story idea and see if you can expand on it or turn it into something more interesting. For example, take the oh-so-cliche story of an unpopular teenage girl, and turn it into the story of a teenage alien trying to fit in with humans after her family’s spacecraft accidentally crashes on earth. Now we’ve taken an otherwise super-lame and played out concept and given it potential to be a really interesting story - and consequently an interesting webcomic. When you’re really out of ideas and just canNOT seem to think up anything original, this method is by far the best.