I've started a few webcomics at this point, and all of them are ongoing…well, at least in theory.
There's always the question of where to start. What's page one gonna be?
With my first comic, Typical Strange, I LABORED over that decision for years.
Kind of, anyway - it was originally an animated series (which ended up being way too much work and took too long to do for one person doing all the visuals. At least, it was too slow with ME being that person.
But all that time of planning, and then a couple years working on the animations, gave me a pretty good idea of who the characters were, and at least a few of the stories that were going to be told. There was a simple backstory for the six characters, but there WAS a backstory and a history in mind before episode 1 uploaded…and it was all still there when the first webcomic page went up.
It's funny - the beginning of that comic is just one of my main characters coming to some unimportant insight about movies. It sets up that character and the tone of the series - to some extent, anyway. Things change as the pages roll on, as we all know.
I think that's okay, to allow for a webcomic to change and reshape a bit as the pages and years go by.
If it were all written, edited, and drawn and lettered, and maybe edited again and put together before anything is uploaded - that would probably make for a more coherent comic!
Anyway, I'm off course - that comic started In Medias Res, or mid-action.
When it comes to “action”, the term is a bit loose - it that comic, the ‘action’ is just a dude working in a video store talking to himself.
My next series didn't get too far - there was some planning behind it but not the years that I pondered my original series. That one was Chatterbox, and I LOVED how that one started, with my Super Secret Agent characters in the middle of a mission. I had a plan for some things that would happen later, and maybe I'll get back to it eventually, but the lesser degree of planning definitely left me a bit confused about what to do next, after the initial burst of pages (and big changes in the visual style in those couple-dozen pages).
Hopefully I'll get back to that one.
My newest comic, Kaiju Valentine, started as a standalone “gag” series with a simple, fantastical concept of a normal sized guy dating a giantess. I had a handful of gag ideas and eventually the thing morphed into an ongoing story rather than standalone joke pages. With much less planning ahead for the series than the previous comics, I find I'm getting a bit stuck here and there with what to do next. I DO have the broad strokes of what's going to happen as the story goes on, but some of that stuff might not happen. It's kind of halfway planned ahead, and halfway figuring it out as I go.
Kind of like this Newspost, which went a bit all over the place itself…
I guess I'm of two minds on how to start a new comic - I do like some planning because I think it helps
the thing have legs, and keep going without getting stuck. But there is definitely a tendency to wait, and plan, and plan, and plan for too long without jumping in and getting started.
See you next time!
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Where we Start
Banes at 12:00AM, June 13, 2024
6 likes!
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PaulEberhardt at 6:00AM, June 14, 2024
PaulEberhardt at 5:59AM, June 14, 2024 delete Don't think too much about how to start, just start it already. It took me more than a year to realise this before I started my first comic and then one fine day I just posted everything I had drawn so far in roughly the order it lay around and gathered dusk on my desk. I'd probably still have zero comics if I hadn't done that. Now, I've been thinking for quite some time on how to start resuming it... ;)
bravo1102 at 3:07AM, June 14, 2024
That's swap out, not swoop out. Though the meaning is somewhat similar. Point is, mix it up and get the reader in there. But set the stage first with that crane shot, you paid for it. Set that stage. Show the audience how much thought has been put into the setting and background. And feel free to foreshadow. Make every shot count even that seemingly gratuitous helicopter zoom in.
bravo1102 at 3:03AM, June 14, 2024
A few writers recommend that once written you should go back and swoop out the first two chapters. Begin in the middle. Put the reader right into the middle of the action and once that is done go back into world building/info-dump. Of course you can still have the set-up shot with the scene coming down to introduce the setting. Gotta have those money shots so the audience gets a hint of how much of a world-building/stage setting genius you are before the first word of dialogue is spoken. Script is bare bones. If your cast wants to add lib to fill out their characters, let them. It often adds to the story. Or it can kill it. You're in charge. What do you want to do? But whatever it is, stop planning and start doing. The best planning in the world is worthless if you never implement it.
Coydog at 11:22PM, June 13, 2024
Just dive right into it and you'll be miles ahead of the people who just talk about doing it but really don't do anything besides lunch.
Ozoneocean at 8:35PM, June 13, 2024
When I was on Facebook I used to laugh derisively at the NOOBS in the Webcomics group there. These goobers would post about how they had some story in planning for two years or more and would be asking about the best title to use on Webtoons for when they eventually get around to doing the comic, and how beter to get subscribers and monetise when they're famous- BEFORE THEY EVEN HAVE A WEBCOMIC. THAT my friends is a pretender. DO NOT become a mooncalf like that, they will NEVER be a webcomicer. Pure wannabe energy.
Ozoneocean at 8:30PM, June 13, 2024
It's always just best to GO for it. A story only needs extensive planning if you have a big thing in mind - like Lord of the rings... Too much planning kills passion. Even Lord of the Rings wasn't really some giant planned thing initially, Tolkien just went for it with shorter test stories first before he went deep. into setup.
RobertRVeith at 4:23PM, June 13, 2024
I've become convinced that there aren't any bad stories, just good and bad ways to tell them. Dragons in Civilized Lands began at what is now Chapter 16. That is, I wrote and drew *that* chapter thinking it was where things started. But reading it, I realized I was trying to cram too many characters, too much world building, too much EVERYTHING into those first 20 pages. It was an exhausting read. So, I stepped back and wrote a "prequel" which turned into more than 400 pages. The webcomic still hasn't gotten to that first story yet.
Banes at 12:15PM, June 13, 2024
@Ironscarf - That's excellent! Just getting into the characters can suggest more and more stories. A good argument for doing SOME prep, then jumping in and seeing what happens.
Banes at 12:13PM, June 13, 2024
@marcorossi - That makes a lot of sense, yeah. Works for movies, too. That's used a lot for good reason!
Banes at 12:13PM, June 13, 2024
yyyyyep.
Ironscarf at 10:38AM, June 13, 2024
My current comic tricked me into starting it. I had everything written from start to finish, which came to about ten pages or so, but once I'd started the characters had other ideas. If I'd known what I was getting into I'd probably still be at the planning stage.
marcorossi at 8:55AM, June 13, 2024
I generally try to open the webcomic with a scene that explains the setting and the general mood of the comic. Often this scene is separated from the story proper, like a flashback or a flashforward.
jerrie at 7:27AM, June 13, 2024
Uh hunh.
Banes at 5:48AM, June 13, 2024
mmm-hmm.
plymayer at 3:43AM, June 13, 2024
Yep.