How's Your Webcomic? #363: Never Give Up

You've got a webcomic, right? Share your WIPs, concept art, pages, scripts, story ideas, whatever. Give and get comments and critique.

Turns out these can last throughout the week if we try.

Previous Thread:

Other urls found in this thread:

myscriptfont.com/
artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/
quickposes.com/pages/timed
senshistock.deviantart.com/gallery/
shutterstock.com/
pinterest.com/characterdesigh/
tumblr.com/theme/39018
pastebin.com/kNR2W5mV
docs.google.com/document/d/1uwfOSHXfrgvcf--PkPz9jXL6p5RqIsrYvXYwgQpgT3k/edit#
discord.gg/rXMbdqP
youtube.com/watch?v=5xPvvPTQaMI
courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse456/07su/administrative/invisible_ink_part_1.pdf
courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse456/07su/administrative/invisible_ink_part_2.pdf
courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse456/07su/administrative/invisible_ink_part_3.pdf
chrisoatley.com/category/podcasts/
web.archive.org/web/20140625035030/http://paperwingspodcast.com/
blambot.com/
cienciasecognicao.org/rotas/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Robert-McKee-Story.pdf
miss-melee.tumblr.com/post/143483233951/
mediafire.com/folder/9pf1nwwa92lbp/Comics_for_making_Comics
youtube.com/results?search_query=how to draw comics
soundcloud.com/user-896102128/0vamxkkv7ukw
youtube.com/watch?v=9SSUQxGjZZ4
bridgefirecomics.deviantart.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_name_origins
youtube.com/watch?v=XCiDuy4mrWU
youtube.com/watch?v=_IWg-mmO_6Q
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

Scrub Authors GOODIE Bag
Here’s a short list of sites that any new webcomic artist or writer will find handy:
>*-Struggling to find that perfect FONT? Create your own using this link;
myscriptfont.com/

>*-Don’t forget to brush up on that ANATOMY:
artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/
quickposes.com/pages/timed

>*-What’s a list without some reference STOCK IMAGES?
People: senshistock.deviantart.com/gallery/
Scenery: shutterstock.com/

>*-Here's a big fat compilation of CHARACTER DESIGN REFERENCE:
pinterest.com/characterdesigh/ (surprisingly not a typo)

>Links to get a rough WEBSITE started up:
Easy to use tumblr webcomic theme: tumblr.com/theme/39018
Do’s and Don’ts for starting a site: pastebin.com/kNR2W5mV
>Contact sheet if anyone wants to put information down, like their site and webcomic:
docs.google.com/document/d/1uwfOSHXfrgvcf--PkPz9jXL6p5RqIsrYvXYwgQpgT3k/edit#

>DISCORD CHAT going on: discord.gg/rXMbdqP


>Wise words from John Cleese:
youtube.com/watch?v=5xPvvPTQaMI

>Invisible Ink:
courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse456/07su/administrative/invisible_ink_part_1.pdf
courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse456/07su/administrative/invisible_ink_part_2.pdf
courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse456/07su/administrative/invisible_ink_part_3.pdf

>Paper Wings
chrisoatley.com/category/podcasts/
web.archive.org/web/20140625035030/http://paperwingspodcast.com/

>Fonts for your webcomic on Blambot:
blambot.com/

>Writing Resources:
cienciasecognicao.org/rotas/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Robert-McKee-Story.pdf

>Guide to promoting your comic:
miss-melee.tumblr.com/post/143483233951/

>Comics for makin' comics!
mediafire.com/folder/9pf1nwwa92lbp/Comics_for_making_Comics

youtube.com/results?search_query=how to draw comics

Bumperino lets keep it alive!

I have this idea for a story.

Short version is it's essentially Spongebob told from the perspective of Squidward.

Long version is it's a typical cartoon city "world" where there is a central comedic figure that everything revolves around. From their perspective everything is fun and games but everyone else is really terrified of them and being caught up in their antics all the time. This goes especially for the "straight man" character that is part of what would normally be the central cast (think like a Sandy.)

A secondary character arrives (the main character) and has a dramatic effect on the world by being immune to the comedic character's antics via a magical anti-shenanigans umbrella that they carry.

I'm not great at doing comedy but how I imagine it is the story starts with the typical silly cartoon comedy to highlight the antagonist's antics. It's supposed to be funny for the same reason most cartoons are funny (situations with irrelevant consequences). But the tone is supposed to shift over time as the perspective shifts from them to everyone else to the "hero."

Ex. A cartoon characters gets hit with a hammer and turned into a coin it's funny + they are fine in the next scene

It's less funny if they emote real fear before-hand

It's even less funny if being smashed into a coin kills them (morbid humor notwithstanding)

I'm not sure if I want to take it THAT far or if hostpitalization is enough. Something to show that they are not actually fine. And this would go for a lot of classic gags like running into walls or getting pied.

There's a lot of other stuff like mixing classic cartoon designs with modern designs but this is already a long post.

Still working through the designs of the main two characters. I've mostly settled on the head the main guy and the fact that he only has one ear. Not sure where to go with the body though. And the girl is coming around.

Then I just got to try to populate the general cast.

Trying to come u p with designs for cartoon characters is surprisingly difficult. It's not hard for me to do human(oid) characters. I think it's because I feel like source pool is staggering. I was thinking of finding a random word generator and making up characters based on whatever it spits out.

The city has no theme (like Bikini Bottom where it's all sea life) so the population could be anything...

Trying to atmosphere.

l-link pls?

Just starting out, getting over that it's never good enough mentality and just leaping into the first page. I'm going to build a bit of a backlog of pages before I start posting as well so I can keep up the momentum. It's super encouraging and flattering that you're interested though.

Thread Question.


Is there a type of music you listen to when you draw/write?

Is there any specific song you listen to that gave you a specific idea? If so, what was it?

reposting page 5 from last thread.

neato.

I feel like the smoke could use some work. It looks like he's exhaling his kidneys

alot of songs inspired me to keep working over the last few months
but If I really need to force myself to work, I listen to this weeb shit.

soundcloud.com/user-896102128/0vamxkkv7ukw

this was one of the only things on the page that I just drew rather than referencing anything, I'm going back to this page to fix any text problems I have so Ill redraw it then.

>Is there a type of music you listen to when you draw/write?
honestly, alot of crap half the time.
>Is there any specific song you listen to that gave you a specific idea? If so, what was it?
I ended up writing a short story in college about a group of students who start a cult in the basement of campus after listening to Voodoo By Godsmack.
youtube.com/watch?v=9SSUQxGjZZ4

I've been listening to a lot of Gorrilaz lately.

But the usual genres I like to listen to is rock, EDM, and jazz.

Luckily the Dangan Ronpa soundtrack is all three.

I think you're definitely at that good enough to start stage. Unless you were planning on this being 100% publish and print ready from the start, your current level and style is very appealing. you would only get better at the other aspects of webcomic making as well as your art from here on out. Either way would love to bookmark

fixed,

oh yeah, much better.

"Way of the gun " guy here! Said I was gonna do a batman fan comic , it's going to be called batman: zero sum. dude in here inspired me, shouts out to him. Here's a preview page ,Just Started today, never liked doing city scapes but after watching some bat man stuff I noticed they all mostly start with a view of Gotham why not do the same. I'm going to try my best to finish this short within 2 weeks. Should get faster when I get to the human figures as I have a more enjoyable time drawing people doing stuff. "Way of the gun" is going through some exciting stuff right now don't want to say much but I have been working on it just want to get a good number of pages done before I dump them.

How do you feel about using gimmicks to offset subpar art in a webcomic?

I'm interested in getting into webcomics as sort of a solo side project/creative outlet to work on when I'm not doing other stuff with my friends, but generally they do most of the heavy lifting in the art department when we collaborate. I'm not much of an artist and won't make any allusions to the contrary, but I was thinking that I could potentially offset that by shaking up the standard format a bit by applying some of the skills I picked up at my dayjob. (eLearning developer)

My plan being to create a sort of browser based interactive webcomic/visual novel hybrid. Created in the same software I use to make online courses/exams, uploaded in long monthly chapters as opposed to daily/weekly strips. Each being complete with sound effects, music, limited animation, "mini games", etc. all integrated seamlessly to mix things up and keep it interesting.

My biggest inspiration being Shu Takumi games like Ghost Trick and Phoenix Wright.

Good idea, or a waste of time?

I rarely visit these threads so I apologize in advance if this topic or something similar has been discussed to death already, but I'm just looking for advice before going all in and running with it.

why dice girl missing a finger

My personal hope is that my characters and lore will be enough to ignore my shitty art
If it can work for One Punch Man, it can work for me.

Man your faces are great but that dude's body looks like a bag of garbage

Sounds cool man go for it. What would it be about?

I might be going back to that 4th panel aswell. I rushed the body on that one.

That lady on the right is in a real uncomfortable position lol or she likes getting hit from the back so much it's natural for her? your perspective could use some work bud

If you're good enough with composition that it's readable, you'll be fine.

One of my favorite webcomics looks like it was drawn by a 9 year old in MS Paint, but it has decent enough writing to make it pass.

But this looks good and I can't wait to see more, sorry didn't mean to come off like that , keep it up!

Honestly, you won't know until you try. Either it will work or it won't.

One thing I will say is that the readerbase doesn't care so much if the art is "subpar" as long as the comic is readable and gets the point across. (And is entertaining to them.)

I would say go for it.

Wow that really is good writing I went ahead and slapped my mother a couple times it was so good.

Finally figured out what to do with page 3.

youre my favorite artist in here hands down, the motion in which you portray scenes is so amazing even at this early stage of a page it's incredible .your a threat to me, tell me you have a Deviantart Senpai?????

I've got a bunch of everything. Still trying to nail down a social media system to promote my work for when I get serious.

bridgefirecomics.deviantart.com/

What even is this, user?

It's a shapeshifting monster trying to woo the blonde woman because there's a prophecy promising something good to the person she falls in love with, so every time he fails he feigns his own death and tries again as someone he thinks would be slightly more attractive to her.

Hitmen for Destiny. It's long as shit and the art is consistently bad, but it's a fun read. Lots of entertaining monster biology and overly complicated drama puzzles, and I ended up enjoying the characters even though the dialogue isn't that well written.

I won't go into too much detail as the concept is still evolving, but...

It's a tongue-in-cheek science fiction story about an alien engineer. He is the one of the only crewman working on a monolithic, state of the art, mostly automated space station. His duties basically boil down to being a glorified janitor, cleaning up after travelers who pass by and fixing anything that the robots aboard the station can't. He's pretty upbeat and enthusiastic about his crappy job though, and all of the new people and cultures that he gets exposed to living on what is basically a giant floating rest stop. Him performing his various futuristic mundane tasks forms the basis for many of the minigames in the first chapter.

One of his few living companions is an human girl who works at one of the station's fast food joints. She's basically a more emo version Trillian, but with some added quirks to make her feel a bit more fresh. Earth was accidentally destroyed several years prior to the events in the comic, turning humans into an endangered and nomadic species. While life in space is exciting and humanity has had a many years heal, it's still a sore spot and she occasionally gets pretty down in the dumps about it. This leads into a chain of events where our main character decides that they (as well as a robot and another alien character) should go on a little spur of the moment intergalactic road trip to cheer her up.

Their journey and friendship is the focal point of overarching story I want to tell, with each additional update being a short tale focused on them interacting with the new planets/aliens that they encounter as they travel the universe in search of their destination. Eventually, when all of that is said and done and they return to the space station, I want to slowly expand it with new plots centered on the various side characters established in that first story. Nothing concrete planned on that front yet though, just a few early ideas.

On Patreon, should I charge patrons monthly or per creation? I update every sunday at noon.

wip page 6, feeling real into working the last few days,

Generally charging per creation is more for if you update irregularly. Since you have regular updates I'd just go with monthly.

Names are hard. Names for the whole series, names for countries, names for the world, but mostly names for characters. I always feel like names should mean something but not that they should be recognizable. What do

Is it a good idea to self-publish a webcomic as an ebook?

Places are easy. Just give everything a similar suffix.


For example, here are cities of one country in my setting

>Tractaborg
>Magyaborg
>Sepiksborg
>Taraborg
>Kazaborg

the loose lineless look is good, but I think the lines could line up a lot better. especially the stripes on that pillar in back, shouldn't those be bowing down in the middle because of the perspective?

Monthly, definitely.

This is Minerva the ghost. Say something nice about her.

Disgusting

Unless you already have a following, probably not, especially if you plan charging money for it. most webcomic readers I know about don't seem too keen on the eBooks market, so I imagine a lot of people will overlook it that way.

why?

okay and should i publish the pages once a week (like i do now) or can i just upload them as soon as each one is finished? i draw 1~2 pages a day.

thicc

Well if you draw pages that quickly you might as well make them a reward for your patrons. You could do something like

$1 reward: read next week's page early
$5 reward: read the comic buffer

If pages are that quick for you, you might want to up your update rate a little bit. Updating twice a week might help draw in/retain readers better.

It's one more avenue for getting your work out, and can be done for low or minimal cost. Comixology Submit is a relatively easy way to publish and distribute a PDF of your comic; I've used it for mine as well as web and print versions.

The way I see it, it breaks down like this:
Web - lo-res (standard definition), free, needs an active internet connection.
PDF/digital file - hi-res, low cost, can be downloaded to mobile devices and read without internet.
Print - hi-res as it was intended to be seen, standard cost, doesn't need batteries, and can be personalised with signatures and sketches.

The Print and PDF versions can be practically identical, and you can include sketches, fan art, director's commentary and other extras that either aren't available on the free web version or are otherwise scattered across the internet.

You'll still have to do all your own marketing/advertising/shilling etc.

not him but they sound pretty lame desu. Borg Borg Borg, it's like naming all your towns Watertown, Allentown, etc etc

That's how most cities in places like Europe and Asia were named though.

Doesn't make it sound any better? Just my opinion but even generic fantasy towns from a random generator sound better than that

>muh historical accuracy

This might just be brilliant. You've kind of hit on the major issue with it though: in order for them to be reasonably bothered long-term and not just get used to it, there has to be some kind of real consequence to the careless actions of the main character, but also a reason the grump can't do anything about it.. it has to have real conflict but at the same time not be so hopeless that the reader gets depressed and burns out on caring
I like these characters. They're a lot better looking than most real cartoons though

are the google ads on webcomic pages profitable?

>not liking historical accuracy

If anything it has more to do with language than anything else.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_name_origins

Cities and towns are often named after local geographic features, which is why there are a lot of similar place endings, like -ton, -town, -wich, -berg, etc.

Giving literally every place the same suffix would be boring, but a few recurring suffixes would add verisimilitude (eg -burg for large cities, -ton for small towns and villages).

Yeah I'm all for that. I like the variety of suffixes with meanings/relevance with a healthy mix of random named as well.

Still working on designing this character, think I'm narrowing in on something I like, but still trying to find a good color combo I like. I know the general ballpark of where I want the colors, just gotta get em to work.

youtube.com/watch?v=XCiDuy4mrWU
youtube.com/watch?v=_IWg-mmO_6Q
this kinda thing gets me pumped
i usually need visuals to get inspired, particularly videogame cutscenes, but their music can certainly do it too, especially the ambient stuff.

ditto

wait, but she only said it twice, right?
also given the kinda shit BJ put people through in the movie, I have to imagine there'd be lots of extremely lewd fun to be had in a scenario like this. Burton loves him some tentacles..

that is an interesting premise for sure

Considering you came up with a fantastic name for this guy in the last thread and a great name for that other creature, you probably have nothing to worry about
but just combine good sounds, good roots.. occasional puns.. it's all good

boo

yeah you're definitely in the right area. the just-off-blue for the hair and skin is great. and I think the lilypad hat is the right color, but I'd go with a darker, yellower green for the dress. not too saturated of course

The name for the other creature, gatorelk, isn't that...creative. it's just throwing two existing names together. Oldeking is almost more of a title, the lion guy probably has a real name as well hahaha.

Great design.

Not the biggest fan of your comic, the humor is just not doing it for me, but your visual direction is pretty good. Reminds me of 00s cartoons. Ever considered becoming a character designer? We're in desperate need of that, I can't take any more of those CalArts designs.

Shitabout to ramp up!

boi you know it.

Starting up the last chapter of this story arc; love drawing animals in armor

Music distracts me; I usually put on something like Stefan Molyneux or Styx

I could have sworn you said he was (something) the oldeking, but I don't remember.
yeah but gatorelk sounds good. a lesser writer would have said elkigator and that sounds terrible.

Is the creator of CitT still posting here? Love his comic.

Is 300 readers enough to warrant a Patreon without looking desperate?

nah he gave up a while back then gave up on comics entirely
but you can still follow his work.. uh.. i'll get you a link

Reposting.

...

...

...

ah, no blog. i guess he doesn't want to share now. oh well

about a 5 hour drawing session and this ones done.

Sup Forums, how do you write a description for your webcomic? Should I treat it like the back cover of the book and give a brief synopsis, or do I just say fuck it and give the most basic info like update times and stuff?

Yeah. Hence the thought bubble. It's in her head. At the end she is just ignoring them.

Shit taste desu

we really gotta work on getting your shoulders broader and your hips narrower when you draw men, but you really are improving.

Thanks, man! Understandable, I'm still trying to work on my humor for it. Writing funny stuff is actually a big worry of mine.

Yeah, prey much what I was thinking, too.

Patreon now has per week payment option.
Thoughts?

ah yeah i didn't see the thought bubble. i'm sure in the finished product it'll be more clear. That's actually a great ending, Lyds isn't the kind to fuck around like that
I actually feel the opposite of that guy. I love your writing and humor, the art's just a turn-off because of personal preferences. But he's right in that it's not like what cartoons look like today, it's more how they used to look.

Certainly your update schedule, so people know when new episodes are out.
A couple of words to describe genre (eg Sci-Fi Comedy, Western Horror).
Optionally, a very brief synopsis (like a couple of sentences).

Thanks! Haha, yeah, I mean, I don't really have a problem with how cartoons look today, but it's definitely not what I would want to make.

That's just a side plot. The premise is that there are secret prophecies that are generally guaranteed to happen, but can be affected by outside interference. A butterfly-effect nudge in the wrong direction won't ruin a prophecy, but killing a prominent figure in the prophecy will probably do it. So there's an organization (Hitmen for Destiny) that receives payments from people who would benefit from the prophecies to ensure they happen - mostly by killing interlocutors and keeping tabs on the people involved.

So obviously the first thing that happens is a pair of the agents fuck up and kill a major figure in one of the blonde girl (Anette)'s prophecies. The rest of the series is them trying to cover up their mistake and keep all of her resultantly affected prophecies running smoothly.

As I mentioned before, the strengths of the series are a baffling level of detail in its xenobiology and complex situations of peril and personal drama with the feel of puzzles, but the characters are written with a surprising amount of nuance. The art style was kept to this childishly simple level because, between the complex monster designs and panel timing, if the author attempted to collaborate on it with an artist who had any skill it'd still be in production. Unfortunately, this also keeps people from bothering with it. I push it whenever I can because the passion that went into it really shows and it deserves better.

crazy, man. almost as if crummy art leaves the creative part of your brain free

I don't know about that, but it certainly frees up the time. It's also a matter of action over concept - if you put all your effort into improving your art through fundamental practice and won't make comics until you're satisfied with how your characters look or your grasp on perspective, you probably aren't practicing the most important aspects of the craft. It's better to have a shitty looking comic that people can read and invest in and critique and that you can expand upon or revisit with a renewed level of skill than to have a pile of decent looking sketches and a premise that no one will bother looking through because those are boring.

No it doesn't

I'd rather just use it as a commission vector. pay per item, or give random one-time donations. I feel like people would much rather do that than have to subscribe and pay monthly
obviously getting monthly payments means stability for some people, the ability to confidently focus on work, but.. for me, doing it as a hobby, essentially trying to e-beg, i'd rather people feel free to just hand me some pocket change at random

I'm gonna give it to you straight, this is butt ugly. It looks too messy I feel like you should work on refining your lines before you color and also do better on the Anatomy. Also the designs are very bland. I appreciate the action though, but I feel like you can do better then this.

I feel like this is your work, it's terrible to say the least. It's not grabbing me at all. Your characters are bad actors reading off of a script and a poorly written one at that. Get back to the drawing board bud

>I feel like this is your work
he already said it wasn't.

Why do your male characters have sexy, childbearing hips?