What I’ve Learned in My First Year of Webcomics
During an interview with Tom Racine at Tall Tale Features, I was asked what I would tell other webcartoonists who are just starting out. I didn’t really have much of an answer. I eventually responded, in regards to the inner workings of web design: “If you’re not sure, don’t do it.”
Now I still feel that’s sound advice, but I think I can offer a little more. So with that in mind, here’s a list of things I’ve learned after doing a webcomic for a year:
You’re going to make mistakes, and that’s OK. I told myself this when I gave up on submitting comic strips to syndicates and decided to take a stab at webcomics. Unfortunately, I had no knowledge of how to do a webcomic. I did my best to learn the technical aspects of webcomics but I knew mistakes were unavoidable. The best thing to do is accept it and learn from what mistakes you will inevitably make. The “pre-forgiveness” I gave myself helped keep me calm during moments of crisis.
If you hate drawing your comic: STOP! I drew a different webcomic before the one I’m currently working on. It was a cute idea but after a hundred strips, I was sick of it. It became increasingly difficult to write for and just wasn’t fun to work on. But I kept working on it because I felt I had to. Drawing a webcomic is a job, and it is work, but it shouldn’t be a grueling chore. I eventually stopped drawing that first comic and gave myself a couple of weeks to reevaluate the strip and see if I could come up with a better idea. Thankfully, I found a much better strip that feels more natural to write and draw. I had to draw the wrong strip to realize what the right strip was.
Make a least one meeting with a copyright / trademark lawyer. At some point, once you feel you got a handle on your comic and it’s cast of characters, go find a lawyer and make sure your comic is not infringing on someone’s already established property. The lawyer I saw charged $100 just for a meeting but it was money well spent. I learned a lot. You don’t want to get hit with a cease & desist letter from a company with deeper pockets than yours.
Free time WILL be sacrificed. I used to see my friends every Tuesday night. That doesn’t happen anymore. Now not everyone will have to give up as much. And to be honest, if I worked a little harder on the weekends I could probably see them more often, but then I’d lose my weekends. No matter what I do, I’m gonna lose some free time. You have to really want to draw a webcomic. Don’t go into this thinking you can still do ALL the fun things you used to do. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
That’s all I can think of right now. I’ve learned more but those are the big ones; the important stuff I think all beginning cartoonists should know and keep in mind. If you’re a webcartoonist, please comment on the things you’d tell folks just starting out. I’m sure I can learn a thing or two as well.
This is a great list but I'm curious to what types of things you learned from the copyright layer. Is there any good general tips you can share that would apply to all web comics?
We didn't talk much about copyright. Our conversation mostly pertained to trademarking titles. The thing about trademarks is that there's no such thing as 100 % safe title. You work in degrees of risk. The more common the title, the higher your risk is of running into trouble with an established property. You want to come up with a title that doesn't exist anywhere else. The best comic titles are the ones that are gibberish. xkcd is, from a trademark standpoint, the greatest comic strip title in existence. A title like Bug, well, that's a fairly risky title.
Hi Adam, I wondering how does it takes to draw a strip? Only to draw, when you have idea already.
I'd like to start, but I'm afraid I'm not gonna make it over all work at home.
My comic takes about 2 hours to draw, but I draw the old-fashioned way; everything, including the lettering is done on paper. I figure if I used my Wacom Cintiq and a font, I could probably crank these out in under 30 minutes.
The best way to gauge your speed is to sit down and draw a strip without taking a break. Draw it all in one sitting and time yourself.
If you're worried about finding time to work on a comic, consider waking up before work and drawing it then. Also, you might want to choose a lighter update schedule for your comic. If you don't have time for five days a week, try three days a week – or two.
As a fellow webcomic artist that has just started out,I really want to thank you for this post.I'm always trying to learn from other artists and the mistakes i make as i go along.The fundamentals of a webcomic are simple,art and story.It's getting it right that takes time.
And how about research? I think for a webcartoonists, research is like a staple diet; you cannot AFFORD to ignore it! Like an idea generation exercise, web research is good for inspiration, professional detailing and versatility.
I'm with Tyler. This post was a helpful tidbit for me. Thanks for addressing it further!
Side note: "You can’t have your cake and eat it to." – might wanna fix that to "too"!
Loved the comic with pogs and g-ma's casket by the way 🙂
Oops. Thanks for catching the typo.
I just started a webcomic too, cause it's the hip thing to do these days. And besides drawing the comic, I was wondering how long you spend spreading the word. I feel I should be posting more comments, (like this) advertising, staying on top of twitter and facebook, but all this takes just as much time as the comic, so I'm pretty bad at it. Thoughts?
We miss on Tuesday too!! And Saturday…and other random days of the week.
Thank you for this post! It's wonderful to hear from another webcomic artist (doing one of my favorite strips) on their advice and experience. I've been pretty good at giving up things like TV and video games but now that I have a new baby at home it can be a challenge to have the energy I would like for my comic. I usually end up working late at night after my daughter's sleeping or even drawing holding her in my arms.
I know for a fact that you MUST LOVE creating your webcomic or it's not going to work for you or the audience! Keep up the amazing comic!
You've had some great success your first year out! Congrats on a fantastic first year, and (as I raise my beer) here's to continued success in the years to come!
Thanks. Found your work and this article through Robot 6. Thanks for sharing!
"If you hate drawing your comic: STOP!"
This is a great piece of advice. It is sort of in line with the advice writers give (and get): write what you know.
Like anything, if you aren't into it, that negative energy will show through. Or more positively, if you love what you do, it will show. There is certainly a direct correlation between the quality of the work (in any field) and the enthusiasm of the worker. In a creative field, this is even more evident. If you love what you do and are excited about it, if will flow more naturally.
In rather simplistic terms, it's like having a good hair day, thinking your butt looks great in that outfit and feeling good about yourself. People pick up on your positive vibe and respond in kind.
Anyway, what I mean is it's clear you love doing this 'cause it's a great comic. Thanks for all your hard work!
Hey man, I wanna see the other comic you did. The curiosity is eating me alive!
Me too! I want to see your other comics!
Adam! Congrats on your frist year in web comics. I didn't realize we started at about the same time. As my father would say, "Great minds think a like… And fools seldom differ." I love Bug. It's great to see it doing so well. Cheers!
Funny that… I've been searching the net for the past hour to find out how to start up a webcomic.
…So, of course, that means I have questions.
1. What tools did you use to start? I see (from the bottom of the page) you've been using ComicPress… is it easy to learn? I just hope you're not using any high-end stuff (I'm only 18, I can't afford any fancy-shmancy tablets).
1.5. I just realized your comics don't even look close to being drawn on paper. How do you clean it up so well?
2. Your response to Dustin answered this question, but if the name of the comic I'm making happens to be one that's already taken, will I have to pay another $100 or so for a meeting? Or is this where the "degrees of risk" part comes into play?
3. Apart from the warnings to beginning webcomic artists, what's a good way to get started? (e.g. how to copyright, anything that comes to mind really.)
Anyways, Huber, I congratulate you on your first year of comics! I'd donate but.. seeing as now it's nonexistent.. I guess I'll just have to buy your book the second you release it. Or I could hoard Bug merchandise, either works.
(Also I like the sidebar revamp! Classy.)
1. ComicPress wasn't too difficult to figure out, and there's a fairly active forum you can go to for help. I went there plenty. I got into this webcomic nonsense with absolutely no website experience so I'm sure you could figure it out as well. As far as creating the comic, I just use pencils, pens and Strathmore Smooth Bristol. Pretty low-tech stuff. But I would suggest trying out materials and tools yourself. Find out what you're comfortable with and what gives your comic, once it's posted online, the best look. As soon as I had an empty website, I began posting test strips and experimented with different things before I started posting the actual comic.
1.5 I followed the instructions for scanning and cleaning up line art in the book: How to Make Webcomics A great resource for beginning webcartoonists.
2. It depends. $100 is what my lawyer charged for a consultation. I haven't had a second meeting yet but I assume I'll have to pay for that one as well. Ask the lawyer upfront if they'll charge you for subsequent meetings. I'm pretty sure they will but you never know. I'd say do your own search to begin with. See if you can find another comic, or property, with a similar title before talking to a lawyer. Your search won't be nearly as thorough as there's but you might find something that would save you at least one meeting.
3. I can't think any warnings beyond the ones I already talked about (don't worry about making mistakes, be prepared to sacrifice some of your free time, etc). As far as copyright goes, wait till you have a good amount of strips done (I'd say at least 100) and then contact the U.S. Copyright Office.
Hope that helps.
I'm wondering how you got your comic "out there" for people to see. What was your target audience? Did you spend a lot of money on advertising?
I actually didn't do anything to get my comic out there.
My target audience is everyone.
Didn't spend a dime on advertising. The comic got around via sharing sites (like StumbleUpon & Reddit), word of mouth and luck.
I've been flogging a lackluster comic strip for a few years now and the best advice I could give anyone is this: Draw what YOU think is funny. Entertain yourself first. Don't write what you think OTHER people will find humorous. That probably sounds like bunk but I know that a lot of us have started down this road saying "what will be a hit?" And when that happens, the work tends to fall into one of two categories "a forced, stiff comic" or more prevalently "a blatant rip off of a more successful strip."
But at the end of the day, readers have fun when they can sense that the artist is having fun.
Could not agree more! Great advice!
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