Comic Genesis Forums

starline wrote:A lot of people go back and do that. David Willis from It's Walky (http://www.itswalky.com) is slowly redoing his archives. He addes a new intro and everything- http://www.itswalky.com/d/19991225.html

He said he's only redrawing the first chapter, although I wouldn't put it past him to redraw until the drawing styles connect (somewhere in the middle.)

Don't do it. I believe in going forward, not back. Yeah, some of my early stuff sucks, but if I start that I'll be redrawing the whole series, and that's just not worth it.

I'll just have to make sure my next comic's that much better.

I'm not for the redraw myself. If anything, the characters looked more life like in the first thirty odd strips than they do now. The style has evolved, but's slowly become more cartoony than more accurate. It's quicker too.

I did go back last year and over a few months recoloured the first 160 strips after I bit the bullet and started colouring the comic, but other than that, I'm leaving them as is.

I'm still fairly happy with the early archives. Some of the best strips are in that first 50.

starline wrote:A lot of people go back and do that. David Willis from It's Walky (http://www.itswalky.com) is slowly redoing his archives. He addes a new intro and everything- http://www.itswalky.com/d/19991225.html

And here's a potential problem for restarters.

I prefer the original.

If you do it, be careful. Willis seems to have fallen into an exposition trap and can just about feel the edge of why it would be tempting in a re-write. It's probably best to stay with the original... Well, not "script", because dialogue may need tweaking, but "direction."

Probably best to ask other comic writers for a critique before you start, actually.

- Joel Fagin

Joel Fagin wrote:

starline wrote:A lot of people go back and do that. David Willis from It's Walky (http://www.itswalky.com) is slowly redoing his archives. He addes a new intro and everything- http://www.itswalky.com/d/19991225.html

And here's a potential problem for restarters.

I prefer the original.

If you do it, be careful. Willis seems to have fallen into an exposition trap and can just about feel the edge of why it would be tempting in a re-write. It's probably best to stay with the original... Well, not "script", because dialogue may need tweaking, but "direction."

Probably best to ask other comic writers for a critique before you start, actually.

- Joel Fagin

well, yeah if one has a huge following, one has to be careful, lest it turn out to be the "enterprise" of webcomics.
unfortunately for some, the first pages of a webcomic leaves a lot to be desired from the artist's perspective.

I think the fans would still like Willis's new first pages but from a pure writing perspective, the first half dozen of the new ones are worse than the old. The old ones introduced things better and in far less ham-handed way.

In fact, from a "getting readers interested" standpoint, his old first strip for It's Walky was much, much better. I really liked that.*

- Joel Fagin

* It was Walky at the end of a trail of destruction and someone shoulting "Walkerton!" angrily at him. Tells you as much about the character as the first two pages of exposition in the new version and is much more fun.

I don't intend to re-do my earlier stuff even if it is a little rougher than what I do today.

But given the situation you presented...you had an old artist working with you and you got rid of them and replaced them with a better artist...then I might consider it. But since I write and draw it all myself it really isn't an issue.

Jackhass wrote:I don't intend to re-do my earlier stuff even if it is a little rougher than what I do today.

But given the situation you presented...you had an old artist working with you and you got rid of them and replaced them with a better artist...then I might consider it. But since I write and draw it all myself it really isn't an issue.

yeah, my situation is that i'm the artist, my skill has improved drastically since then, but not also that, my writing ability has increased, also.

Every now and then I'll see something wrong with a page, maybe a shadow or highlight or something I didn't put in, so I'll take the page, run it through the hoops again, and put it back up all sparkly and shiny. I've "remastered" a bunch of my older pages this way.

I would never completely re-draw the earlier pages. Style shifts are some of the things you expect to see in a webcomic, and it's kinda a treat to go through someone's archives and watch the artist(s) progress.

Phalanx wrote:I might consider it... but only AFTER I finish the entire series... It sort of makes the whole ending of the comic easier.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HELLO

I only have 18 strips up right now...and I already want to go back and redo some of them. Especially the first one. And then, I want to shade the first couple strips like I'm doing now.

But I'm not gonna. If I ever do, you have my permission to shake your fist at me and say, "Bad Kat!"

*waves to all*

Heya. It's been a while. Work's just been killer (I have renewed respect for people who work full-time and make a comic now). A few months out and I feel so out of touch with webcomic-dom. What's been going on?

Regarding the restarts, you could do alternate starting points, and let the reader pick whether they want the reworked pages first or the orignal art. That's what I plan to do anyway...

...well when I finish. which at the rate I'm going, is about 10 years from now...

ps: hey CW, your art looks awesome lately

Phalanx wrote:*waves to all*

Heya. It's been a while. Work's just been killer (I have renewed respect for people who work full-time and make a comic now). A few months out and I feel so out of touch with webcomic-dom. What's been going on?

Regarding the restarts, you could do alternate starting points, and let the reader pick whether they want the reworked pages first or the orignal art. That's what I plan to do anyway...

...well when I finish. which at the rate I'm going, is about 10 years from now...

ps: hey CW, your art looks awesome lately

that's always an option, ping, there's plenty of paths one can take.

PING! <3

...Anyway, redoing your archives, that depends on what you're going for. If you're serious about drawing in the readers, and you feel that a poor beginning is scaring visitors away, then by all means, re-draw enough of it to persuade them to stick around. But if you're just comicking for fun, and stats don't bother you, then don't bother re-drawing it.

The main issue with re-drawing pages is that you're constantly improving - it could be that when you've finished a re-draw, your style will have improved sufficiently that the earlier re-done pages look awful again. You may find yourself trapped in a vicious circle.

Personally, I've come to the conclusion that a re-draw can usually wait 'til you think you're going to go to print. A lot of people like to see improvement.

My story is time based. I use dates a lot in the story, though mostly as a subtext. Which means that if I restarted my comic I'd ruin the whole set up. I'd be forced to backdate it and I'd just feel silly.

Also, even though I've been going a year and some of my older stuff is just really starting to bug the crap out of me, artwise, I don't want to touch it. I keep meaning to go back and manipulate the dialogue, but I haven't yet.