Making Comics: Howling into the void three times a week.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Making Comics: Howling into the void three times a week.

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

I make A Ghost Story and the new thread is a good start to trying to worm my way into discussions instead of lurking from the sidelines.

Right now, I'm looking for resources other than Scott McCloud for paneling and framing panels! I'm tired of winging it+feel like it need to put more thought into how I set things up.

# ¿ May 26, 2015 10:17

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 16:20

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

Geekboy posted:

I'm going to have my first table at Galacticon in Seattle (I'm getting it for free. Yay, nepotism!). So. That's kind of a big deal. Any "babby's first convention" advice?

I've been to plenty, but it's my first time on the other side of the table.

I know this isn't "my" audience necessarily, so I'm thinking of doing some scifi portraits of something similar to draw attention and then have some booklets of my comics. But ideas are appreciated.

I've only worked a couple of very very small anime cons but the most important advice I can give you is to have a table mate who wont annoy you after being around them for many hours and is willing to go get food for you both (provided you're not bringing your own food in with you) and to bring lots of water and something to do. Make eye contact and talk to people as they show interest. And get out from behind the table a few times and go wander! You'll go crazy cooped up behind the table all day. And if you're socially anxious, have your tablemate or your next-door table neighbors watch your stuff for a minute and go outside to breath. Don't force yourself or you'll have a miserable time. Good luck!

# ¿ Jun 13, 2015 12:33

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

i pay a little man to electrocute me every time i dont get a page done on time

actually getting paid for the comic helps motivate but also the impatience to get to part of the story i'm excited to tell motivates me to haul rear end.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2015 15:12

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

Delta Echo posted:

Here's an example of the efficiency I'm referring to. I spent easily 12 hours turning this image

into this image

why

# ¿ Jul 28, 2015 05:49

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

you forgot the ring on his finger!

# ¿ Jan 8, 2016 14:04

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

FunkyAl posted:

I've been out of the loop for a while, how is the webcomics scene these days. How are you people.

webcomics are over. we tried to call you!!

# ¿ Jan 14, 2016 06:38

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

DrSunshine posted:

I actually read some articles that seemed to be claiming this a few weeks ago. Basically, the point that was made was that with the rise of mobile web and how a lot of peoples' only interactions or experiences with the web are through their mobile devices, webcomics are threatened as a medium because most just simply aren't formatted to be viewed on a mobile device. That, basically, webcomics are a relic of the desktop computer age and therefore doomed to obscurity after their brief heyday in the early 2000s. Thoughts?

ahahaha thats such a weird stance for those articles to take when it runs contrary to every aspect of reality

# ¿ Jan 14, 2016 21:15

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

i get irrationally pissy when i have to take the extra 3 seconds to scroll down or click through to (non-longform story) comics so i hope the standard is still "front page, on screen as soon as it loads"
three word phrase has basically the perfect comic website for someone like me bc its ridiculously utilitarian

# ¿ Jan 14, 2016 23:53

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

Reiley posted:

My rule has always been "the best idea is the one you haven't had yet". In the act of telling the story you came up with you'll think of better paths for it to take which you likely wouldn't have thought of had you stayed in the planning stage. It's an organic process and the act of making your comic will inspire you to come up with even better ways to keep telling it. That's a big reason to be wary of too much worldbuilding, you're technically never fully planned for the ideas you're yet to have.

its infuriating, yet freeing, how true this is. i dont think ive ended a single chapter yet where the plot didnt drastically change along the way

# ¿ Jan 24, 2016 00:17

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

Retro Ghost posted:

Hi hello!! I have a few questions and thought maybe you guys could help me. I'm getting ready to make a 15 page comic and I've never really done anything like that!

Recently, I've been making a short sketchy comic every day until valentine's about my horrible first relationship. (they're true stories but i made us both sum badass fursonas so he'd be more anonymous)
So, I made my hand writing into a font because my handwriting is horrible and I think it's illegible most of the time. You can see the font in the last 2 comics, and I'm wondering if I should stick with the font for my longer comic, or try hand writing it again?

http://imgur.com/a/CSNbT (language is nsfw!)

Also, for formatting, I have all the pages set up in 3x3 rectangles, all about the same size. I kind of based it off MAD magazine comics because mine will also be a comedy. Some pages are different and have bigger panels, but most follow the 3x3 layout. I'm not seeing a lot of webcomics that do this really simplistic layout, and I'm wondering if I should rework most of them to be more expressive? Do you think it will turn out atrocious? I know it's hard to say with nothing to base off of. Thanks!

these are extremely good fyi and i echo everyones sentiments about the font/hand lettering in that the handlettering looks way better and is just as coherent w/o feeling sterile

# ¿ Feb 9, 2016 21:33

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

im pretty sure selling fan art does not harm the parent company unless your fan art is like ideologically offensive or something or the company is small (homestuck, undertale). youre creating a product that did not exist prior, is a unique product only you can provide, and will almost certainly not be sold "legitimately" through an official store or something. no ones losin money here.
e: additionally im struggling to imagine how artist alleys at fandom based cons would survive if they only offered original art

# ¿ Feb 17, 2016 05:44

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

sweeperbravo posted:

In this vein, and this would be a drastic cut, but I think the best punch is right there in the second panel, God just being like "poo poo, seriously?" IMO the reveals get less humorously rewarding from that point onward. If as a writer you want "an inebriated God's decision to extinct the dinosaurs" to be your punchline, I feel like the rest of the comic would have to be restructured so that that packs a bigger punch, right now it comes after the biggest punch and gets dragged on to the point where it feels like a setup for another punchline that doesn't come.

basically, like WOB says, humor is something like 90% timing, and that boils down mostly to "how long does this go on for/how long until the best joke happens."

dang yeah i agree. if you want to continue with this train of thought they should be separate comics. as it is now it takes way too long to meander to what is assumed to be the punchline and the punchline is kind of a weak hit. sweeperbravos suggestion of keeping it extremely short and sweet improves it a lot

# ¿ Apr 9, 2016 22:29

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

submissions for what?

# ¿ Jul 9, 2016 08:07

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

Burkion posted:

So I'm looking for an artist to work with me on a project.

I'm looking for a partnership here, who would have equal say over story and pretty much everything that goes on there in.

Where would be a good place to start looking?

whats the pay?

# ¿ Oct 12, 2016 03:03

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

art takes more than just showing up and to be successful you usually need 2 of these 3 things: good comics, be able to sell yourself and your comic or have a good personality. sometimes freaks like me slip through the cracks but you cant sell the product on its own merit. you have to make yourself marketable too

# ¿ Dec 10, 2016 05:56

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

Reiley posted:

Don't plot your story too far out cuz you're gonna get 1/10th the way through your script and come up with an even better direction to take it just from creating the world and fleshing out your characters and then all the other 90% of the prep work you did is useless.

co-signed, this is the best way ive seen this feeling put. i dont know about other people but i think a story is going in one direction and then it turns out to be a totally different story because i found a better, more interesting direction to go in and decided to chase it. i only have an end point planned out for story arcs, how i get there is whatever

# ¿ Aug 15, 2018 02:58

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

its a good one chief

# ¿ Nov 8, 2021 05:08

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

i use and like https://www.comicctrl.com/ . the phrase you want to search for is "comic management system" for alternatives

# ¿ Jan 28, 2022 23:51

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 16:20

fun hater: May 24, 2009; its a neat trick, but you can only do it once

Cephas posted:

I keep running into the same technical problem. This color distortion keeps happening when I try to convert an image to Tapas's desired resolution. I think it must be a problem with working at a high resolution (Clip Studio's "A4" size) and DPI (600) and trying to crunch it down to Tapas's low image quality. It reduces it to like, 15.43% size or something, which I can imagine leads Clip Studio to make some tough decisions about how to render the image.

Should I just set my DPI to 300 and work at the dimensions Tapas wants me to work at? Or should I ditch Tapas and fully embrace early 2000s energy and host my comic on a website of my own?

you could send it to me and i could noodle around with it and see whats going on. might be easier if i can just open it up

# ¿ Apr 10, 2022 20:15

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Making Comics: Howling into the void three times a week.