Syndicated cartoonists have complained about the size restrictions of the press, censorship of content and similar issues for a long time. Comic enthusiasts have been increasingly irritated by the treatment of their entertainment medium receives as well. Then came the Internet, providing unlimited possibilities and unrestricted distribution. Thus the webcomic was born.
There are millions of webcomics out there, dealing with such vast topics as video games, college life, samurai, Lego men, identity and self-esteem, depression, suicide, childhood, and joy. The people I write for a living, for fun, as stress relief, for artistic expression, or often just for the hell of it. Then they stick their creations on the web and wait for a single person rather than finding and enjoy the fruits of their labor.
There seems to be several hundred new comics created each day. These often diminish and disappear after a few months. Occasionally, however, a comic rises above the rest and the popularity of the profits that the operator is able to give up all other work and scrape the lives exclusively on income generated by their websites. Some examples of this type are Penny-Arcade, PvP and Squidi.net ctrlaltdel.
Many people, when introduced into the world of webcomics, think to themselves "Would not it be great to have my own comic?" and some go further and create your own. So how can a newcomer to ensure that their comic continues beyond the first few weeks of excitement?
Now before we get into some useful tips that it's probably worth noting that I am the proud owner of a webcomic no. It was a few months before reaching some hooks and then grinding into the ground. I have plans to return to creating comics, but so far no. So I'm not drawing from a foundation of success, over the lack and understanding of some of the major factors contributing to my failure.
To begin, we need to plan a bit. It's unfortunate, unfair and certainly not fun, but necessary. Sit and think about your comic. Reach a location setting, characters and plots maybe even a few to try in Run the characters through some adventures and see how they react and how to react to them. His characters grow and change throughout this process and will continue throughout the life of your comic but you have an idea of your basic character traits.
For some reason the majority of comics revolve around a group of people (usually men) who are somewhat geeky and live together. Usually in a college dorm. I guess this is because it is the general life of the majority of webcomic authors. The same premise also makes lots of sense to base a comic. When designing my own webcomic the process went a little something like this: I designed the main characters, most of which were drawings that I had been playing with since high school. Then needed a reason to constantly look to each other and interact, which led to live together. They needed character traits that could relate to, so they become university students and had at least a passing interest in the geeky side of life.
I caught my first strips and showed them to some friends who liked it, so I started looking into putting them online. The initial training included two guys who lived together, a female love interest for one of the characters and a talking animal (in my case a frog, because I had this frog that had been pointing out for years and had become very close to it).
At this time I was not very experienced with webcomics, which actually only read the syndicated newspaper comics that the syndicated press companies post online. So I started looking through some of the major comics, only to find that Sluggy Freelance had the talking animals, geek boys who lived together and the love interest already covered women. A little research revealed that "college students living together" was covered in most of the comics. On the other hand, have some kind of crazy (and a little stupid) character, and a more sensible and reserved one was given a virtual. Then to rub salt into the wound, I realized that another comic had its main character design very similar to mine. So I got rid of the frog, removed the focus on the college game and the other to the left of the comic as it was. Not entirely original.
Anyway, the point is that you probably should try to be original. Check through your concept and remove the whole university life with crazy talking inappropriately anthropomorphic sidekicks. You will be better in the long term and have a more original creation.
Before you jump headfirst into publishing their comics online, you must create a slight delay in the comics. Try to get at least ten or so quality comics that you would be proud to have in place. If we are to have a comic based on the story, then it would be a good idea to plan your story arc in the first place. It's really useful to keep this collection of comics whenever possible, so you can stay behind in the creation of comics, but still have an online message content. Nothing turns away readers faster than them not content when you say you will. If you eat in your wallet, try to draw an extra strips not decreased.
As a useful guide for your comics, decide about the format you have (for example, three or four panel gag strips etc.) and the development of the panels on the computer. You can then print these and draw the strips within the panels, ensuring they are kept clean and consistent. When comics have been developed, the analysis on the computer and touch up as you want. Usually the best practice to remove speech balloons and text and add these to your computer, because usually be neater and easier to read. Remember to adjust to all the speech balloons, not the speech balloons. It's amazing how often it is forgotten. Good sources for free for noncommercial use, can be found in http://blambot.com. Do not get too stressed about your artwork, I found that most people do not mind a bit inconsistent and not overly fantastic artwork provided they enjoy the content of the story.
So now you're ready to get going with the online side of things. Start writing your web page so that you can only upload when ready. Webcomic PHP management systems are relatively easy to find. I personally like ComicPro that, unfortunately, seems to have disappeared from the web. If you can catch it worth a look. Web hosting is easy to find, so you do not need much space to begin with so you can use one of the suppliers without many out there (including http://keenspace.com providing free accommodation specifically for webcomics), use the Web space provided by most ISPs, or buy your own hosting plan (you can get a very cheap because you will not need many features to begin with). By registering for any hosting package, make sure you have permission to change the read / write attributes of the files because the PHP comic managers will need this (this is done on Linux servers CHMOD through your FTP program; In Windows you can do, "Right-click a file, select Properties and change security permissions there, or you may need to use a protected control panel provided by the host).
You'll have to decide on an upgrade program for its cartoons. It's probably best to start small and build, maybe two or three updates a week. This way you have three to five weeks of comics in your portfolio, allowing you to stay back long before anyone notices.
While we're on the topic of deciding schedules, it will help if you really try to do an hour or so in their day to write comics. If you just try to fit in the free time that is "required to have completed only after the latter only, then you will often find they can not get a strip drawn in time.
Now that you have your comic online you can start promoting it. There are a number of comic directories out there that will help the exposure. Get your friends excited about the comic and that in turn get their friends excited. Read comics from other people and participate in the forums. Find sites that accept guest artwork or comics and send some of them. The best promotion comes from getting people to read the comic and fire a link across their instant messenger program to another friend. My current list of "must read every day" comics came entirely from various people sending links to me. Do not expect instant success, look to share their vision, even with just one new person every day.
Well, I hope that helps give you some ideas about how to make your comic and keep it running. When the characters begin to grow almost to create the stories and jokes and pull themselves will not be anywhere near as hard to write, since it was first started. Just keep drawing the comics on a frequent basis to avoid falling into the rhythm of your created world and above all fun.
There seems to be several hundred new comics created each day. These often diminish and disappear after a few months. Occasionally, however, a comic rises above the rest and the popularity of the profits that the operator is able to give up all other work and scrape the lives exclusively on income generated by their websites. Some examples of this type are Penny-Arcade, PvP and Squidi.net ctrlaltdel.
Many people, when introduced into the world of webcomics, think to themselves "Would not it be great to have my own comic?" and some go further and create your own. So how can a newcomer to ensure that their comic continues beyond the first few weeks of excitement?
To begin, we need to plan a bit. It's unfortunate, unfair and certainly not fun, but necessary. Sit and think about your comic. Reach a location setting, characters and plots maybe even a few to try in Run the characters through some adventures and see how they react and how to react to them. His characters grow and change throughout this process and will continue throughout the life of your comic but you have an idea of your basic character traits.
For some reason the majority of comics revolve around a group of people (usually men) who are somewhat geeky and live together. Usually in a college dorm. I guess this is because it is the general life of the majority of webcomic authors. The same premise also makes lots of sense to base a comic. When designing my own webcomic the process went a little something like this: I designed the main characters, most of which were drawings that I had been playing with since high school. Then needed a reason to constantly look to each other and interact, which led to live together. They needed character traits that could relate to, so they become university students and had at least a passing interest in the geeky side of life.
I caught my first strips and showed them to some friends who liked it, so I started looking into putting them online. The initial training included two guys who lived together, a female love interest for one of the characters and a talking animal (in my case a frog, because I had this frog that had been pointing out for years and had become very close to it).
At this time I was not very experienced with webcomics, which actually only read the syndicated newspaper comics that the syndicated press companies post online. So I started looking through some of the major comics, only to find that Sluggy Freelance had the talking animals, geek boys who lived together and the love interest already covered women. A little research revealed that "college students living together" was covered in most of the comics. On the other hand, have some kind of crazy (and a little stupid) character, and a more sensible and reserved one was given a virtual. Then to rub salt into the wound, I realized that another comic had its main character design very similar to mine. So I got rid of the frog, removed the focus on the college game and the other to the left of the comic as it was. Not entirely original.
Anyway, the point is that you probably should try to be original. Check through your concept and remove the whole university life with crazy talking inappropriately anthropomorphic sidekicks. You will be better in the long term and have a more original creation.
Before you jump headfirst into publishing their comics online, you must create a slight delay in the comics. Try to get at least ten or so quality comics that you would be proud to have in place. If we are to have a comic based on the story, then it would be a good idea to plan your story arc in the first place. It's really useful to keep this collection of comics whenever possible, so you can stay behind in the creation of comics, but still have an online message content. Nothing turns away readers faster than them not content when you say you will. If you eat in your wallet, try to draw an extra strips not decreased.
As a useful guide for your comics, decide about the format you have (for example, three or four panel gag strips etc.) and the development of the panels on the computer. You can then print these and draw the strips within the panels, ensuring they are kept clean and consistent. When comics have been developed, the analysis on the computer and touch up as you want. Usually the best practice to remove speech balloons and text and add these to your computer, because usually be neater and easier to read. Remember to adjust to all the speech balloons, not the speech balloons. It's amazing how often it is forgotten. Good sources for free for noncommercial use, can be found in http://blambot.com. Do not get too stressed about your artwork, I found that most people do not mind a bit inconsistent and not overly fantastic artwork provided they enjoy the content of the story.
So now you're ready to get going with the online side of things. Start writing your web page so that you can only upload when ready. Webcomic PHP management systems are relatively easy to find. I personally like ComicPro that, unfortunately, seems to have disappeared from the web. If you can catch it worth a look. Web hosting is easy to find, so you do not need much space to begin with so you can use one of the suppliers without many out there (including http://keenspace.com providing free accommodation specifically for webcomics), use the Web space provided by most ISPs, or buy your own hosting plan (you can get a very cheap because you will not need many features to begin with). By registering for any hosting package, make sure you have permission to change the read / write attributes of the files because the PHP comic managers will need this (this is done on Linux servers CHMOD through your FTP program; In Windows you can do, "Right-click a file, select Properties and change security permissions there, or you may need to use a protected control panel provided by the host).
You'll have to decide on an upgrade program for its cartoons. It's probably best to start small and build, maybe two or three updates a week. This way you have three to five weeks of comics in your portfolio, allowing you to stay back long before anyone notices.
While we're on the topic of deciding schedules, it will help if you really try to do an hour or so in their day to write comics. If you just try to fit in the free time that is "required to have completed only after the latter only, then you will often find they can not get a strip drawn in time.
Now that you have your comic online you can start promoting it. There are a number of comic directories out there that will help the exposure. Get your friends excited about the comic and that in turn get their friends excited. Read comics from other people and participate in the forums. Find sites that accept guest artwork or comics and send some of them. The best promotion comes from getting people to read the comic and fire a link across their instant messenger program to another friend. My current list of "must read every day" comics came entirely from various people sending links to me. Do not expect instant success, look to share their vision, even with just one new person every day.
Well, I hope that helps give you some ideas about how to make your comic and keep it running. When the characters begin to grow almost to create the stories and jokes and pull themselves will not be anywhere near as hard to write, since it was first started. Just keep drawing the comics on a frequent basis to avoid falling into the rhythm of your created world and above all fun.
