In the conclusion for now, some things Iâd really recommend doing if youâre seriously considering making a webcomic (or really a comic in general). Some of these donât really apply to strips or gag-a-day type of comics, but Iâm not talking about those here.
1. Write down ideas\sketch stuff, LEGIBLY. âIâm gonna remember it laterâ NEVER works. And if you scribble it somewhere on a piece of paper, youâd better scan it or retype in one doc later, because tiny notes always get lost among other doodles in my skethbooks.
(i know itâs hard to keep everything clean and organized, but this mess is just not productive)
If your project is a collaboration, save your conversations. If youâre working alone, make a blog for your ramblings. You have no clue what tears of relief I cry when I open that blog and rememeber I donât have to painstakingly look through my heaps of sketchbooks and folders for a tiny idea Iâm not even sure I wrote down a few months ago.
2. Inspiration folders, or even better, inspo blog with tags also help with collecting and remembering ideas. Color schemes, landscapes, style inspirations, atmospheric stuff, maybe some photo references, all those neat things.
3. Basic tier: character design sheets. Top tier: common poses, expressions. God tier: outfits they wear throughout the comic. Holy cow tier: turnaround sheets for all those outfits.
(Iâd die trying to find good pages for references without these)
4. If you havenât finished detailing the plot, donât even think about moving on to drawing the comic. Youâre gonna regret it when you come up with a really cool plot element that canât be incorporated anymore because youâve already drawn all the parts you couldâve tweaked.
5. Donât just define the plot, make a script. Writing down the lines and the brief description of the actions serves me fine:
(notice that I approximately divided the pages & the text thatâd go to each panel on a page)
6. Hard mode: make thumbnails for all the pages, if possible. At least whenever a new chapter starts.Â
7. If your story involves some convoluted chronology shenanigans, youâd better write down the events of your timeline in the chronological order.
8. Backgrounds. You canât avoid them, bro. Like half of the comics are backgrounds, especially if your story involves a lot of adventuring and looking around. I know it hurts, but youâll have to become friends with them. Read some tutorials, practice on photos, go out and sketch some streets, use 3d programs (like Google Sketch) to understand the perspective, use sites like houseplans to visualize your buildings better, I donât know. Just be prepared for their imminent evil. Â
9. If youâre drawing digitally, pick a brush size for the lines and stick with it. You donât want your lines and detail levels to look all wonky and inconsistent in different panels. And I donât mean the cool stylistic varying lines, I mean this:
Also, things on the background should have thinner and/or lighter lines to avoid distraction. Usually less details too, unless youâre making a busy background with a simple foreground to help it pop out. Or wanna draw the attention to an object on the bg.
10. Readable fonts. Even if you chose to ignore people with poor sight or dyslexia, the majority of your readers arenât gonna be excited about struggling to decypher this:
Also, as much as I love my black speech bubbles, colorful text on black still kinda hurts the eyes. I wouldnât recommend doing that for all the characters. Black speech bubbles are usually used for creepy, inhuman voices. And yes, having a colorful outline in this case helps.
11. Probably newsflash, but did you know that panels have their place, order and functions? They do! My favourite thing ever is how I used panels when I was like 12:
(comics ainât rocket science, but this one is)
The composition of the panels and word balloons always serve for a better reading experience. They guide your eyes over the page, so that you never feel lost or confused. The images in the comic equal frames in a movie, so itâs pretty damn important in what order you look at things and how quickly you can understand whatâs going on!
(Eric Shanower & Scottie Youngâs Wizard of Oz)
12. One update a week is fine for testing waters. Donât overestimate yourself, especially if you have a pretty busy life outside it. A stable comic that updates slowly, but regularly is better than an unpredictable erratic one. You can always pick up the pace later, if you feel confident enough.
13. Try to always have a buffer - a couple of pages in reserve. If youâre making the pages much faster than youâre updating, this shouldnât be a problem. But if those paces are equally the same, itâs goddamn HARD. But on the other hand, if something happens and you skip an update, those come in handy.
If youâre looking at this list and thinking âwow thatâs a LOT of workâ, youâre totally right. And itâs okay to be intimidated at first! But thatâs why itâs important to start with something small. Once you get the formula down, these things will be natural to you.
