Comic Genesis Forums

**Repeats everything that CJ said, only in a lengthier and more boring way**

Damikey wrote:well I was actually wondering how many strips should I have prepped before I sign up, do I need to pitch it, does this shirt make me look fat and if a woodchuck chucked wood, wouldn't someone have recorded the amount of said wood by now?

Heh. I like you.

My advice would be to sign up now. It takes a couple weeks to get a Comic Genesis account anyway ((but it's worth it!)), so you can use that free time to build up a nice pretty buffer that will be gone before you make fresh ones so you die a little inside...

Um... Where was I going with that...?

Well, anyway. Don't pitch until you're a ways in, so you've got a decent archive built up. One or two comics isn't a good way to judge whether a comic's Favorites-worthy or not.

And yeah. They'd probably tally how much wood a woodchuck chucks, if a woodchuck COULD chuck wood. But he can't. Poor woodchuck.

make sure you buy ramen it's cheap and it's the official food of poor cartoonists

Be prepared to offer Fanart to Kisai once she fixes your problem.

And you will have a problem. She will have to fix it.

Whatever it is, have fanart ready for it.

Was ist Kisai? And me loves doin fan art. specially when I are fan. And thank you all for such a fun string of posts. This is mighty cool.

Damikey wrote:Was ist Kisai? .

Kisai is the bestest admin evar. Actually, she's kind of the slave around here. Gets lots of abuse, keeps everything running, doesn't get enough credit. So if she helps you, you owe her fanart.

it helps if you know that she's generally represented as a catgirl, but much as the gods of ancient egypt, that's not necessarily set in stone.

yes, I know most everything the egyptians did was in stone...you know what I MEANT.

Oh, before I forget!!! If you plan to join a webcomic directory, ie. http://www.onlinecomics.net, have a pretty good number of comics in your archives. It helps.

But that's kinda getting ahead of yourself.

Also, remember to have fun with it. Take it from me, if you don't enjoy what you're making, it will show through in your work for the most part.

And read HNTRAC!!!

Ah! How could we forget that? Yes, that is the most important thing.

that and remembering "never put salt in your eye"

Noise Monkey wrote:And read HNTRAC!!!

Seconded, thirded and zillioned!!

well I was actually wondering how many strips should I have prepped before I sign up,

Theoretically, one because you need to provide a sample when applying. Practically, a few weeks of updates are a lot of help. If you intend to update more often than you can manage to draw, then a year or two of updates will ease your life.

do I need to pitch it,

No but if you don't, noone will know about it. Make sure that, wherever you pitch it, you read and obey the rules of that place. For instance, our pitching forum requires you to have a certain number of comics in the archive so that the visitors have something to evaluate the comic by.

does this shirt make me look fat

Yes.

and if a woodchuck chucked wood, wouldn't someone have recorded the amount of said wood by now?

No.

Get around get to know a few things, look various sites and see how other people are doing things, and next time ask more specific questions and (maybe) the answer will arrive sooner.

Silly mcD! Everyone knows that if a woodchuck could chuck wood, a woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuk could chuck wood.

But they can't, so they sha'n't

Why you wanna make a webcomic though? For fun? There are no rules about the comic. Just obey the forum/pitching rules if you decide to pitch.

If you are thinking "oooh, lots of donation $$$/fans/fame, I'll be a guest at conventions!" then, unless your art is equal or better than syndicated strips/published manga/professional artists, give up that dream. Do one or more webcomics for fun. Get the hang of it. If you're not having fun making them, then unless you're a hardcore pro, your readers won't have fun reading.

Then, once you've got the hang of it, start your "world domination," (erm, "Fame/fortune") comic.

And be sure you enjoy it.

Fame? Fortune? Yer kiddin right? I am doing this because I have a Muse who's name is Neesa. She has been outrageously popular wherever she has been and I had an idea after reading so many webcomics. I suddenly had an apostrophe <he means an epiphany>, lighting struck my brain <that must have hurt>. Do a webcomic about her. Fortunately I am an artist in a Manga sort of style.

I am a bit scared actually <Hes terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought>, though a web interview of Jennie Breeden has helped me get over that. Well not completely but enough to start taking steps. I do appreciate all the advice and silliness. Where I live i havent had alot of chances to meet many artists and I have only been to one Con so far, though that will change.

Oooh! A "Hook!" Fan!

First off all I think you really need to know to get started is what it's going to be about. You can go far if you know the beginning, a bit of the middle and the end. A good base in art helps (I spent two years getting ready for mine) so classes if you can afford them and books if you can't will help you big time. A good Anatomy book (I suggest "Human Anatomy made Amazingly Easy" by Christopher Hart) and a good book on perspective will help, especially if you spend thirty minutes a day with them.

The other thing you need is a good base in storytelling, which is harder to get. I'd suggest two things: Read a lot and Write a lot. I'd also suggest reading Stephen King's "On Writing" and Terry Brooks "Sometimes the Magic Works". They're both geared towards text novels, not graphic ones, but the tips they give on character development, profanity, world building and outlining will help any writer in any medieum do whatever it is they want. For read-a-lot, I'd read whatever you could get your hands on, and then pick two webcomics, one that sucks hard and one that's freaking incredible--I'd go as far as suggesting four comics, a bad and a good in art, and a bad and a good in writing--so that you can tell what works and what doesn't. For write-a-lot...well, it's obvious, and I'd suggest (read: Plug) NaNoWriMo if you're absolutely insane (check sig for link). As an excercise, it's very good and there are THOUSANDS of writers who are just aching to help newbies learn the fine points of amature storytelling.

For actually MAKING the comic, invest in good tools. Good paper, good pens, good pencils, good erasers to start with, and then a good graphics program (Gimp if you're broke, Photoshop if you're rich are the two I'd suggest) for producing it. I'd also suggest investing in a tablet, though I'd wait a while to see how much you like doing computer art before you go that far.

CW

I'm surprised no one has suggested visiting the 'Help' forum, seeing as how that's generally where all the info that everyone has repeated up until this point is stored and available in catagorized fashion.

...but I suppose that wouldn't have been as fun, eh?

Absolutely not. I love everyon talking and stuff. far more welcome than just reading something. This is more alive and natural.

That, and you don't get hazed if you don't introduce yourself.

*sniffle* I never got Boxed...

Hmm..... *sideways glance*

I got boxed when I started a thread asking wtf the box was.

Damikey wrote:Absolutely not. I love everyon talking and stuff. far more welcome than just reading something. This is more alive and natural.

True, but you should still check it anyway. There's a lot of stuff there that is helpful.