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My goal is to pencil, ink or colour a page a day so I finish the month with at least 10 finished pages of my long put-off webcomic project.
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Nov 2, 2016 02:32
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In college it was relatively easy to keep up with my comic because I had a pretty manageable schoolwork load and no real bills yet. Now going to grad school full time and working part time, even though I still have a good amount of free time left over, I usually eschew spending much time on my comic in favor of doing other less taxing/less rewarding things like just watching TV, or, in "rewarding but not taxing" category, sleeping. What are you guys balancing on your plate along with comic stuff? How do you make it work? I know for some people drawing is like breathing or eating and they can't imagine going without it for a day or even several hours, but as much as I dearly value the hobby, I don't share that blood need for it. So I'm just interested to hear how you guys make it work with other obligations, whether it finds away into your schedule one way or another or whether you kind of have to slap that ketchup bottle of life.
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Nov 2, 2016 03:07
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I think I'll participate: I'll aim for 20 pages penciled and inked (and spend the first few days writing and thumbnailing) just need a good idea...
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Nov 2, 2016 03:43
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sweeperbravo posted:In college it was relatively easy to keep up with my comic because I had a pretty manageable schoolwork load and no real bills yet. Same. Except for the free time left over. quote:What are you guys balancing on your plate along with comic stuff? How do you make it work? I know for some people drawing is like breathing or eating and they can't imagine going without it for a day or even several hours, but as much as I dearly value the hobby, I don't share that blood need for it. So I'm just interested to hear how you guys make it work with other obligations, whether it finds away into your schedule one way or another or whether you kind of have to slap that ketchup bottle of life. This past year I've almost totally stopped updating and it makes me feel like poo poo, because if I don't draw I feel like poo poo, but I've got no loving time. 
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Nov 2, 2016 04:39
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Nanomango.. the tiny fruit month is finally upon us. Grab your microscopes fellas, let's get to work.
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Nov 2, 2016 05:11
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Honestly, I just treated drawing comics like a fun reward at first. Come home from a long day at work, work on a page. Down time during my lunch break, do some thumbnailing. Once I got into the habit, it was easier to fit it into my routine. It's hard to find a balance between wanting to do something and feeling obligated to do something, though. I also really don't have any hobbies besides drawing. I'm not big into video games and it was easy to pick drawing over refreshing websites for an hour. I get that I'm an anomaly, though, so my advice might not be too helpful for a lot of folks. If you're having trouble focusing, I'd recommend trying the pomodoro technique for time management. Basically you work 25 minutes, then break for 5, then repeat for a total of 4 cycles (2 hours) and then take a longer break of 20-30 minutes. There's an easy to use website for it, or a multitude of phone apps (I like Brain Focus for Android). I like breaking my workflow down into time rather than tasks, it's easier for me to say "I'm going to work for 2 hours starting at noon" rather than "I'm going to finish this page".
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Nov 2, 2016 15:59
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Can somebody help me figure out a weird problem I've noticed on the mobile version of my site? For some reason, when I view http://iothera.com/ (current and last few pages fully work-safe, by the way, so don't worry about testing it) on mobile, I can't seem to zoom out, so I can't see the whole page at once, and it's very obnoxious and bad and I don't know how to fix it. I'm using the Inkblot theme for Wordpress. Probably the site should just be rebuilt from the ground up since it barely works and it looks really basic, but I still don't really know if there's a better CMS to build a self-hosted comic site with. And with the kind of content I have sometimes, most comics hosting sites aren't really viable alternatives.  But for now I'd just like to make my comic legible on mobileEDIT: I think I fixed it-- I was goofing around with the minimum width setting, but missed that there's another setting that actually allows the comic to be resized. If somebody else could test it on their device and let me know if it looks okay and works like you'd expect it to, please let me know, though. Empress Theonora fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Nov 11, 2016 |
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Nov 11, 2016 09:47
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Ka-Blam is rolling out a KickStarter fulfillment service. We've kind of always offered this, unofficially, but it's something we're trying to really officially support now. I meant to post this hear a week or so ago, but just plain old forgot. Oh yeah! For the rest of 2016, you get like 20% off print cost for any KickStarter fulfillment. Here's a link about this: http://ka-blam.com/main/kickstarter-reward-fulfillment-at-no-extra-cost-yep/
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Nov 14, 2016 00:36
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So I can't draw worth a drat but I've found an artist who has reasonable rates and is willing to to that part for me. Is there a preferred or industry standard way of setting a layout for an artist to work from? I know how I want certain scenes framed out and panel layouts and the like, but want to check if there's a certain way to communicate that.
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Nov 14, 2016 22:32
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The templates at http://www.fredvanlente.com/comix.html are pretty much the standard for writing a comic script, and you can generally explain panel layout there. If you're really anal about getting a specific layout and character placement, you can send the artist a napkin doodle, but be aware that a lot of artists really really hate that. Comics at its best is a collaborative process between two or more creators, and a certain amount of compromise often builds stronger results. EDIT: I haven't posted in a while, so here's some thumbnails from the cool stories in our next book! I love seeing how different artists approach building the page.    
Squidster fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Nov 14, 2016 |
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Nov 14, 2016 22:49
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SkaAndScreenplays posted:So I can't draw worth a drat but I've found an artist who has reasonable rates and is willing to to that part for me. Is there a preferred or industry standard way of setting a layout for an artist to work from? You can draw thumbnails (tiny versions of the pages), but most artists are going to want to do things their own way, so don't be surprised if they don't adhere to them slavishly.
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Nov 15, 2016 01:15
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I'd think doing your own thumbnails for yourself might be good practice to find out how much text / action can fit on a page, too. Even if the artist doesn't use them, it's good to keep in mind the flow of the pages as you're doing the writing. I've never collaborated, but I know I have to do a lot of editing on my script when I start doing thumbnails because I just write too much and even now I over / under estimate how many pages a scene will take.
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Nov 15, 2016 01:38
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SkaAndScreenplays posted:So I can't draw worth a drat but I've found an artist who has reasonable rates and is willing to to that part for me. Is there a preferred or industry standard way of setting a layout for an artist to work from? Why not ask your artist for ideas?
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Nov 15, 2016 02:27
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SkaAndScreenplays posted:So I can't draw worth a drat but I've found an artist who has reasonable rates and is willing to to that part for me. Is there a preferred or industry standard way of setting a layout for an artist to work from? Talk with your artist about it, you can establish a system that works for both of you. Also be aware that they may bring some fresh ideas to your layouts that you hadn't considered, obviously if you're paying them you should get what you want but I'd at least keep an open mind. As far as NaNoManGo stuff goes, I've been outlining my story but don't have any art for it yet. November hit me like a ton of bricks and I had to focus on a lot of paid work, as terrible as that sounds.
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Nov 15, 2016 10:36
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My NaNo goals are going well but they keep shifting. I have 8 chapters primed for shading and I've revamped my shorthand thumbnails up to chapter 10. I'm not going to have my ashcan ready by the end of the month but I'm happy with the work I'm doing and I feel like I'm improving the story by giving each scene a stronger individualized identity, as well as clarifying relationships between characters. I'd really rather have something I LIKE to give for feedback than to know something's wrong but not have figured out what was wrong.
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Nov 21, 2016 06:13
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I'm officially going to change my NaNo goal to be "have a script outline" because man, November is hitting me hard. My NaNo goal is the one deadline I have this month that can be postponed or moved so...
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Nov 21, 2016 09:49
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Hah, yeah, I fell behind my optimistic goals. I've finished my pencils and started inking, probably going to start updating tonight if I can get enough ahead of my update schedule.
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Nov 21, 2016 13:43
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Mods please put this in the OP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOLzS2MmkzQ
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Dec 3, 2016 19:13
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Do wish they'd have brought up the lack of ways to advertise yourself.
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Dec 4, 2016 04:58
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Speaking of advertising oneself... I recently had a story featured in an online anthology (Not the most illustrious of accolades, I know, but it's something) and have been trying to get it out to as many people as possible. The people doing the anthology have been promoting it to some degree but I sort of want to do some stuff on my own to attract new readers. Been blasting links to it on social media, but I don't really have that many followers to begin with on those. Any other tips to advertise oneself? I'm always bad at it since I tend to feel self-conscious promoting my own work. Like I don't want to be "That Guy" who won't shut up about the thing he did (I said whilst being "That Guy" who won't shut up about a thing he did).
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Dec 9, 2016 00:49
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Ditto. Huge problem with the medium. Huge. Needs major upheaval.
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Dec 9, 2016 16:26
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KingKalamari posted:Speaking of advertising oneself... Sometimes you have to be that guy, though. If you think your work is worth seeing, you gotta be visible so it gets seen - there's no real place where you can put work out there and have it instantly receive the popularity it deserves based on its quality, you have to be willing to yell about it and get attention. Have you submitted your work to any comic/webcomic focused blogs? There's a bunch out there, and some of them are pretty specifically tailored to niche media and creator types - if you fit into one of their categories, they would be more willing to run your submission or write a review of it. Also you wrote a whole paragraph about a cool thing you did and didn't even post a link. Post a link!
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Dec 9, 2016 18:51
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Webcomics needs a Newgrounds. Back on Newgrounds, something could indeed blow up in one day, based on its merit. There could be something like that. It would take careful planning, and most of what makes it work would be how the very first page operates. As it was with Newgrounds. And Newgrounds futzing with it too much was a huge detriment.
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Dec 9, 2016 22:28
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Scribblehatch posted:There could be something like that. It would take careful planning, and most of what makes it work would be how the very first page operates. As it was with Newgrounds. And Newgrounds futzing with it too much was a huge detriment. I sat down with my editors this past week, and came up with a list of 27 podcasts, 8 review blogs and a pile of comic news sites that we're going to target for our next Kickstarter. I've started posting artwork every day to Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. We're also going to start applying for panels at conventions, and printing out hundreds of sample comics. This year the team is gonna hustle our butts off, and make it big or die trying. In the spirit of hustling, here's our brand-new group instagram: https://www.instagram.com/torontocomicsanthology/ Squidster fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Dec 9, 2016 |
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Dec 9, 2016 22:40
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Look, stop that. Things aren't just 'done'. The best version of what we've seen hasn't been made yet. Neither of us can pretend what it looks like. Facebook crushed Myspace. Because people could just see it was better. Patreon just came about one day and stuck, despite being a very basic idea that had sorta been done before. There is a reason that Korea is crushing it out there with their webtoons. Something can happen, but not with your attitude.
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Dec 9, 2016 23:19
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Yeah, stop putting effort into practical methods to promote your anthology and instead wait for an unprecedented shift in the status quo driven entirely by a service yet not conceived.
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Dec 9, 2016 23:59
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Mr Phillby posted:Yeah, stop putting effort into practical methods to promote your anthology and instead wait for an unprecedented shift in the status quo driven entirely by a service yet not conceived. maybe we should do both
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Dec 10, 2016 00:22
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The roads are still passable for now, but the foundation is breaking apart. And it should be addressed -- loudly -- so we can figure something out. Korea has made an industry out of what seemed to be incumbent on pure luck. It's worth looking more into. http://www.lezhin.com/en/comic/dogma_en I really like this system here. Scribblehatch fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Dec 10, 2016 |
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Dec 10, 2016 01:11
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I don't think we'll see another mega-platform again. Newsgrounds was obsolete in the 90s, much in the same way Keenspot, Keenspace, and the other platforms rapidly became. The market got bored, and newer competitors offered entirely different kinds of content. It wasn't a platform feature or instant messaging that killed them, it was competitors offering newer and more exciting brands of content. You want incredibly professional and punctual webcomics? Hiveworks. You want smut of a million fetishes? Oh man does the internet have you covered. Manga from established creators, Crunchyroll or a thousand scanlation hubs. Manga from newcomers, Webtoon. DC & Marvel, Comixology. If you want to make a new comic platform, great! You better think of a niche that nobody else owns, and come prepared with fat stacks of cash to invest. Personally, my comic platform is comic conventions. I'm blessed to live in Ontario, home of a thousand cons and a million hungry fans. 20 weekends a year, I load up my dent-wrapped Honda with books, and sell comics to strangers. I use social networks to drive people to our convention tables, and Kickstarter as a pre-order hub. My limited understanding of marketing has taught me that you need to develop a parasocial relationship with your audience. You need to have a recognizable and friendly persona, to be comfortable appearing vulnerable and open to a thousand strangers. You can't be a dick, or at least not extremely so. Our angle is that we're here to help out new creators. We share data with newcomers, talking openly about contracts and rates, and try to get people connected to better opportunities. People have responded well so far! In conclusion: if some amazing mega-platform does open up, you're still going to be competing with a million other folks who 'merit' success exactly as much as you do. The edge will go to those willing to do the unexciting grunt work of marketing.
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Dec 10, 2016 01:14
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So according to you, Korea was blessed with divine providence.
Scribblehatch fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Dec 10, 2016 |
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Dec 10, 2016 01:21
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I'm not particularly sure how that's relevant, but I'm fairly confident the folks who ended up at the top of that system are both very talented creators and marketers. You can't just wear one hat anymore, up until you're big enough to afford an agent. Raw merit was never enough. Do you think Stan Lee's success is based on his writing talent, or because he's one of the greatest hype-men God ever built? If you want to talk about the merits of one platform over another, I'm certainly up for learning more about other content delivery systems. I'll gladly use whatever options are available to market the poo poo out of my content.
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Dec 10, 2016 01:33
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You think the guy who makes the comic I just linked does any marketing on the side? Look at it! That is a level of art and output you can only attain if you focus all your time on it. And a larger swath of people are into that for those exact reasons. Marketing it is a CINCH, because it's awesome. But if the marketers didn't exist, well. gently caress. If you want everyone to be a jack of all trades, you're going to end up with a bunch of masters of none. And if that's not what you want, that's not how it's been coming off.
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Dec 10, 2016 01:37
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The terrible truth is that the world is full of talented people. Let's look at that artist for a second: They use instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kemi.jang/ ( marketing! ) They use twitter: https://twitter.com/kemi_jang ( marketing! ) They do fanart of existing properties as well as art prints: http://superani.com/jang/ ( marketing! ) They have a number of printed works with Clive Barker: http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Haemi-Jang/409992170 ( credibility ) This is not a fresh-faced newcomer. This is someone who's worked easily 5-10 years of backbreaking hard work to get themselves to where they are. Maybe they now have a full time agent or manager doing their marketing for them, which is great! But until such time as an agent smiles upon us, it's up to us to improve our craft and our salesmanship. Otherwise one of the other equally talented people, who's better at marketing, will rightfully take our place. EDIT: The other thing I'm looking into right now is government grants! If anyone here is based in Ontario, we have a grant specifically available for comic creators - http://www.arts.on.ca/Page6005.aspx . The application season just finished, but I believe it'll return in the spring. That's potentially 12k CDN available to comic writers or artists to build a project. Squidster fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Dec 10, 2016 |
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Dec 10, 2016 02:02
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Scribblehatch posted:You think the guy who makes the comic I just linked does any marketing on the side? The lady who makes that comic (Hae Mi Jang) got her start thanks to a government agency in South Korea called the "Korea Manhwa Contents Agency." Basically, she had access to an agent right from the start which allowed her to focus more on drawing and less on marketing. She has a huge advantage in that she had someone else doing all the marketing and contract finding for her right from the beginning, and it shows because her art is really great. I would wonder, though, where her career would be without help from a government agency that does not have to make a profit. If she spent all her time drawing and none of it advertising her product to people who want to view it, and the KMCA wasn't marketing for her, would she have her comic up on Lezhin? Would she have gotten a contract with BOOM! to draw a series of Clive Barker comics? With very, very few exceptions, SOMEONE has to do the actual business part of running an illustration/comic business and putting your work out there, no matter how stellar or awesome it is. The world isn't a meritocracy, unfortunately. If you want to make a living doing artwork, you need to do the not fun part in addition to the drawing. If you don't live in a place that gives you access to an agency that handles that for you, you have to do that yourself. EDIT: squidster beat me to a lot of my points, but my main one is that just because you didn't bother to research anything about her career, you assumed that she didn't do any marketing or publicity and that's pretty obviously not true. gmc9987 fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Dec 10, 2016 |
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Dec 10, 2016 02:10
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I have no idea what you are trying to say, Scribblehatch.
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Dec 10, 2016 02:12
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None of that is what I call marketing. It does practically nothing for you to be on twitter if people weren't aware of your twitter. The same more or less is true for tumblr. The only reason I became aware of that artist is because of Lezhin. Nothing the artist could've done would've reached me better than that. And Lezhin accepts entries based on the work itself. I've seen the submission guidelines. They want more or they don't. Once you're greenlit, it's up to you to keep the audience interested, and therefore buying more installments. It's meritocratic from top to bottom. And yes, this example is not someone who came out of nowhere. The site had to be built on something or it couldn't have taken off. Just like the Newgrounds thing, there's a little too much face value in this conversation. And, lol. I have just 10 less twitter followers than her. I don't think she sees it as much of a tool. I certainly don't. Scribblehatch fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Dec 10, 2016 |
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Dec 10, 2016 02:20
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gmc9987 posted:Sometimes you have to be that guy, though. If you think your work is worth seeing, you gotta be visible so it gets seen - there's no real place where you can put work out there and have it instantly receive the popularity it deserves based on its quality, you have to be willing to yell about it and get attention. Have you submitted your work to any comic/webcomic focused blogs? There's a bunch out there, and some of them are pretty specifically tailored to niche media and creator types - if you fit into one of their categories, they would be more willing to run your submission or write a review of it. Thaaaaaat is a good point. I think I was feeling self conscious about using this thread for self-promotion since I know it's more supposed to be about mutual feedback and helping each other improve. But if people are cool with me sharing some more of my work on here you can download the anthology here. My entry is title "Oceans in the Sky: The Tomb". The rest of the magazine is really worth checking out: There's some really talented people featured in it who all worked super hard on their entries. I've also been posting samples to my Tumblr Also here are the first three pages of mine:    Feedback is always appreciated! The major thing I've gotten back that I need to improve for the next one is to add more detail to the backgrounds: They're passable at the moment but the type of story I'm trying to tell lends itself to more imaginative settings and I need to put a level of thought and detail into the backgrounds to reflect that. KingKalamari fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Dec 10, 2016 |
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Dec 10, 2016 02:39
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Squidster posted:I don't think we'll see another mega-platform again. Newsgrounds was obsolete in the 90s, much in the same way Keenspot, Keenspace, and the other platforms rapidly became. The market got bored, and newer competitors offered entirely different kinds of content. It wasn't a platform feature or instant messaging that killed them, it was competitors offering newer and more exciting brands of content. Personally I think there's a big market for some sort of Deviantart-style platform that focuses on webcomics. All you'd really need is DA's basic design along with the ability to add navigation buttons and some way to upload a buffer that will update on a set schedule. I know I'd probably sign up since I want to do a few short comics at some point but don't want to commit to the workload/maintenance required by a full-blown website.
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Dec 10, 2016 03:18
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Fangz posted:I have no idea what you are trying to say, Scribblehatch. nobody ever does
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Dec 10, 2016 03:21
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Hi I literally do webcomics for a living and Squidster is right, there's a fuckton of hustle involved. His post was pretty drat accurate to my own experiences. Talking with my friends who are also fulltime artists, it is clear that we all reached this point through different paths, but every one of them involved self marketing, poo poo tons of conventions, establishing connections, keeping an eye on new trends like crowdfunding, etc. 90% hustle, 10% luck. Self employment means learning new skills, that's the long and short of it. Kojiro fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Dec 10, 2016 |
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Dec 10, 2016 03:41
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