hi /co/
i'm thinking of making a webcomic.
Anyone got experience or advice on how to get more views and publicity - or does it just come naturally?
and what's the best way to set up a webcomic - is it expensive/complicated?
hi
okay
yes
diy
host
no
k thanks
do you have a web comic? can u send the link?
You webcomic needs to have gay shipping potential and / or waifus
Make sure the plot doesn't go anywhere and the dialogue is comfy and mundane
Open a Tumblr and make shipping fanart of the most popular franchises of the moment, right now it's Undertale
Reblog popular people's cute comfy things and say cute comfy things of your own
Get a commission of your gay characters from someone who has a lot of viewers
???
Enjoy your poplarity
:^)
now thats what im talking about!
>>78120207
build a buffer before starting to publish. See how fast is actually your output so you can see wat your production can be instead of constnatly trying to reach an impossible release schedule.
A regular schedule, even if it can be sparse is the best guarantee to maintain readership.
There exist hosting website for webcomics, or you can easily host it yourself.
>>78120341
Hey I just got a concept, it's about a lesbain couple who constently make out, not matter what, they are alway into each other's mouth and can't get apart from each other. And they go on adventure resolving mysteries, discovering treasures and defeating badies while constantly making out.
>>78120207
If we'd have a succesful webcomic, you think we'd be here?
Just shill it here until you get popular. Then all you have to do is completly cut contact
>>78120341
This.
Also allow your characters to be bland enough so your future fans can inset all their shitty headcanons into them. Hussie perfected this.
>>78120207
Start by doing comics. Ask people who will be objective to you (not friends/family) what they think about your comics (/co/ is shit when it comes to giving quality advice, and /ic/ have a tendency to not give any advice at all unless you want to be Rembrandt 2.0). When you have something that seems good enough, upload it to the internet. There are about a billion free web-comics hosts you can use. Make sure that you have a handful of finished comics to upload at once when you've created the site. Keep to your deadlines and listen to what people say (especially the people who dislike your comic). Try to sneak it in to different threads on /co/. I don't usually visit tumblr/reddit, but I think it's good places to find readers.
If you are a legitimate autist. Don't even bother. Please. People will only laugh at your stuff. And for everyone else, one less Sonichu is always better.
Also. Read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics /Making Comics. They are great in learning about the medium and how to build a comic, while not going too deep into learning how to art. You can get other information sources for that if you want to.
>>78120207
Yo Op, I'm a lazy shit too. You, me, right now. Storyboard out some loose shit. Post in a little bit.
Don't let me down OP.
>>78120815
i would read that, but only if it is exactly like you said
>>78120207
If this is your first project, listen to this advice I have learned from several webcomic artists I know personally: plan ahead.
1. Have a clear goal: finishing the story. Decide the amount of pages you are going to make before you begin. If you are making weekly strips or short stories, then no worries. But if you are making a story, decide the length. And try to make it as tight as possible. You will get new, better ideas as you draw and soon giving up and starting a new one will tempt you. Keep it short.
2. Decide the style. Don't try to impress anyone. Choose a technique that is economical and fits the genre.
3. Whatever happens do not give up, and show your work to as many people as possible. You deserve validation and support as well as criticism even if you are not the next Michelangelo or Shakespeare.
4. Finish the story. It is a magical experience even if only 3 people read your comic.
>>78121962
Listen to this guy.
>>78121665
This guy is fine too.
Regarding popularity and fans and attention and what have you: get good. I'm serious. Just work your ass off and get good at drawing. Practice your fundamentals and draw a lot until you're good at what you do, then get a tumblr and Twitter and post your art, be friendly and make a lot of fan art. Eventually, people will notice and you'll build a small following. Seriously, I've made maybe one actual comic in my life and I swear people just like me because I can hold a pencil without it exploding.
>>78122210
Mind posting some of your stuff?
>>78122769
Here, have something /co/-related. I don't have a webcomic yet or anything like that, though. I just draw a lot.
>>78120815
No! no! NO!
That's misogynistic and sexualized and lesbians please the patriarchy! It needs to be subtle, you see? They need to be sisters, and one of the two is adopted. But the truth is she is the really is the other sister's biological twin, and she was a boy before. Ever other character, including the sisters' parents, is of dubious gender and sexual orientation (always have them go for gay relationships though). Effeminate males work best for this, treat them as lesbians that don't attract straight cis scum.
Remember to make things ambiguous and never justify anything or give character a clear personality and goals, place things in the plot based on how much speculation they can foster rather than their usefulness to the plot , and make characters say things that they wouldn't normally say so people will wonder why they acted strange. You have to trust your readers with bad writing, so they'll replace the missing pieces with their headcanon.
Godspeed!
>>78120207
Step 1. Be a Grill
Step 2. Pls be in london
>>78120207
Honestly the fastest route that I've seen to "success" (but still not noteworthy money generation) in the modern webcomics world is to make something on tumblr and effectively use tags to draw in viewers. Also, pump out a shit ton of fan art as a supplemental aspect to your tumblr page, focusing on popular and "flavor of the month" characters while, again, effectively using tags (God help you if you make non-progressive Steven Universe fan art, though...). It helps to create the fan art first and gain a rep as a quality artist, THEN pivot to the webcomic such that it starts with a certain level of buzz and a dedicated following before the first page even hits. It is much less of an uphill battle at that point, and the fact that you'll have people encouraging you from the beginning is a HUGE boon to morale.
Otherwise, these things take years of grinding away just to become a blip on the webcomic scene's radar. This isn't an art form built around meritorious accomplishments and sheer skill, it's something where the best man often gets lost in the crowd and fails while a mediocre and easily digestible 4-panel shitfest with a weak punchline comes out on top.
>>78125105
Sucks, but you're right.
>mediocre and easily digestible 4-panel shitfest with a weak punchline
>shitfest
How wude.
Have each story arc completed in writing before you start drawing it so you don't fall into the trap of making it up as you go along. It also helps keep characters consistent.
Pander to the lowest common denominator all drama has to be superficial at best. NEVER try to deal with any serious themes because most if your fan base will at best drop you worst will go online and complain and attack you for "taking an unnecessary dark turn" and not being "conscientious" of real life people who been through it. Don't take ANY criticism at all always brush it if as sexiest trolls to garner brownie points also be a huge ass on twitter and the works because for some reason people like that.Make 3 pages a year and ask for money on patreon so you can "work full time on the comics and get better equipment" and increase your output by one more page. Have a lesbian character to make your comic seem progressive to get more brownie points. Follow these tips and you will make several thousands a month doing the bare minimum of work
>>78120207
Keep in mind no matter what you do, this shit is gonna take time and effort without ANY noticeable rewards. That said, Tumblr is indisputably the best place for aspiring artists to be.
>>78125105
Just in terms of getting hits, this is what you have to do.
If you want to actually RETAIN those hits and get readers, well that's up to you and your story.
>>78125524
>Make 3 pages a year and ask for money on patreon
Funny because this actually gets people to claim you're a good artist. As if the amount of time you take to finish a page doesn't matter.
>>78125105 here again. Supplementing my thoughts on the subject:
Use your pre-comic time effectively. While working on a consistent and long-term (yes, long-term) strategy of fan art creation and organic audience building, make a lot of actual comic content and just store it. Build a buffer, because work or school or life or whatever will always throw you a curveball that takes superhuman resolve to deal with and fix while retaining a balanced and productive work ethic. It's the same principle as having money set aside for a rainy day; without it, you're one hiccup away from living paycheck to paycheck with many months spent slaving away in misery and uncertainty just to break even. Quality of life and general enjoyment always suffers when you need to break your hump just to stay afloat, so understand the importance of having a fallback. Without it, you might even start to view the act of content creation as a burden, and if you're not actually loving what you're doing you end up making Questionable Content 2.0 or just quitting altogether.
>>78125979
I'd temper that with the fact that the best way to improve is to JUST PUBLISH.
Having things sit on the bench for too long can be counter-productive if you get anal on edits or revisions.
>>78126217
I'm talking about a true buffer, though. It's not a buffer if you have 4 pages made in the span of 6 months that you've edited 125 times. It's really going to come down to the individual, their approach, and their mindfulness of the goals and strategies they set forth.
>>78125602
>Just in terms of getting hits, this is what you have to do.
>If you want to actually RETAIN those hits and get readers, well that's up to you and your story.
This is important. If you make SU fanart all the time and then you switch to something else entirely, people will drop you. So if you have original ideas and you have integrity you're probably fucked. Look at Ashley Cope and how little success she's having despite the quality of what she's doing.
>>78126652
>Ashley Cope
Is she actually doing that bad?
I mean I know she's not as famous as some popular trash like QC or whatever, but it's not like she's unknown or anything. She's doing alright for herself, probably not as much as she deserves, but that's better than you can say for most web comics out there.
Just have a consistently unique style and solid humor. Even relatively simple art and characters can get by if they have those two things figured out.
tfw I just launched one myself and lurking for good advice
I am having a lot of fun working on mine, tho.
>>78120207
Kill yourself you're a cultural pollutant
Choke on nigger cock I implore you
>Start drawing webcomic
>Have female protag because I legitimately just wanted to have one, no other reason
>After a few pages review over the work
>mfw I realize it looks like something Aaron Diaz would write
Do I just give up?
>>78126795
She makes a living with the comic and that's it. Mind you, she's happy with it and she never complained about it, I'm not representing her opinions or anything.
The point is that her work is SO much higher quality than the vast majority of webcomics out there, yet it earns her much less than any other name in the scene because she's just working on the comic. I'm not the biggest Unsounded fan, but fuck, the writing is objectively fantastic, the art is great, it publishes 3 times a week like clockwork, it doesn't pander. Just a GOOD comic done well by a committed artist and writer.
Would she manage to make a living if, say, the art in the comic wasn't that great? Probably not.
Dresden Codak on the other hand makes 3 times the money with 1 page every 2 months and horrible paneling, and many of the other top names in the industry put very little effort in the comics themselves. It's not impossible to make it and I'm not a defeatist, but sadly there are other qualifiers for success in this industry and they have very little to do with comics.
>>78127019
Being Aaron Diaz is a pretty low blow, but consider the subject material that you're working with. You see a problem. Is it fixable? Could you reboot it into something a little better?
I'd say don't give up yet, but try scripting your story out a little more in advance so you can catch these issues before you make them.
>>78127080
Not to say she isn't deserving, but I'd say in terms of webcomic success, she's above average even if she isn't making as much money as Diaz or whatever other hacks.
And also
>the writing is objectively fantastic
ehhhhhhhhhh
It's not bad by any means. But fantastic is pushing it.
>>78127019
Keep the female protag, but see if you can make her ugly or homely. My general rule of thumbs is: If your first instinct with the character is to hear about her life, run with it; If your first instinct with the character is to marry her, fucking stop. The idea of making a good female character is that she could be swappable with a male or a sapient fish or a living cardboard box or whatever and you'd still value them based on a deeper intrinsic value.
>>78126795
http://www.pledgesociety.com/?by=earnings&category=3
Ashley Cope is #60, and Aaron Neathery from Endtown is slightly above. He's another guy who works 100% on the comic, and he works extremely hard at it (apparently he had health issues due to overwork).
Top 100 people in the comics category on Patreon and we're already below 2k$
Most people above in the list make
1) furry
2) fetish / porn
3) sjw shit
>>78127205
>Not to say she isn't deserving, but I'd say in terms of webcomic success, she's above average even if she isn't making as much money as Diaz or whatever other hacks.
My point is, if Ashley Cope with a better comic than me or you will ever make and a titanic level of commitment makes barely "above average" it means it's incredibly hard to be successful with a comic alone.
>>78127328
>it means it's incredibly hard to be successful with a comic alone
That's the whole point. This is a niche category within a niche field made for an extremely niche audience. You need to understand that, in terms of accomplishing true success, there's more multi-millionaire super well known sports stars actively playing today than there are even -moderately- successful webcomic artists. If you were to pick a random person in the world, they would more likely be a sickeningly wealthy sports superstar than a successful webcomic artist. I get that there's like 35 logical fallacies in that statement, but it's the case nonetheless. It's a very small field with an even small number of people that are "making it".
You cannot possibly enter into this with the idea that you will be successful, because it's about as unsure a thing as it gets. If that doesn't bother you and you just want to create for your own pleasure without this idea that you'll be able to quit your job and just do online funny pages all day, you can't ask for a better hobby than webcomics.
>>78127577
I know. It was an answer to people who say "just make a good webcomic and work hard!" not understanding that it's probably what matters the less in this environment.
This is one of those days where I feel like I'm digging my own grave and I'm just lying to myself on the good days.
>>78127328
Many of these aren't webcomic artists. They're other artists (mostly porn) that may sometimes create a comic.
The list is also missing some webcomic artists that appear under the "Other" category.
>>78127686
>not understanding that it's probably what matters the less in this environment
Again, that just goes down to your end goal. If it's to be "successful," yeah. If it's to just grow as an artist and put your passion to paper, and any other extras that may come are just afterthoughts, it's remarkably easy.
Pic related makes twice the money Unsounded makes, with twice the backers.
I've been meaning to start mine but mentally I get overwhelmed with wanting to work on too many projects at once
Sure there's the webcomic but I also want to write and illustrate a children's book, work on my animation, storyboarding etc
It all just becomes overwhelming
>>78129527
Another
>>78129527
>>78129570
You can draw okay but this isn't as funny or as cute as you think
>>78129787
Perfect!
>>78125105
Personally, I've found making fanart to build an audience an empty success. After four years online I've collected an audience of around 2400 watchers on Tumblr and Deviantart, but the only time they respond is when I do a Sonic or Shantae picture once every three months. I don't know if my original work is just that shitty, though.
>>78130130
It seems you can't take criticism either, please go back to your hugbox
>>78124715
You mean Kektopolis!
>>78131031
I managed to build up almost 4k followers on tumblr, and a good fanart picture of mine can get thousands of notes.
My webcomic on the same blog gets around 20-30 notes on a good day.
Tumblr is not the best place for webcomics.
>>78131031
>>78131182
Do you know how fucking BAD advertising is in general though? People pay money to put ads on websites and it's considered good when they get just 1% of that sites visitors to simply click on the link.
With 4k followers, that's probably 3k of them actually seeing your post and then 20-30 liking/reblogging and 30-60 actually clicking on the link to your web comic. That's not bad as far as getting the word out.
Unless you're saying you DON'T have a separate site for your webcomic in which case, that's only excusable if you're doing a 4-panel strip that doesn't need continuity, otherwise it's fucking terrible and pretty much counter-productive.
Starting from scratch is always the slowest and even the middle takes a while. The flow of new visitors is usually a small trickle with (if you're doing it right) larger waves. At the start, there'll be no trickle and only small waves, but if it's good enough to actually spread on word of mouth, then slowly but surely your comic will grow.
Alternatively, go to a con, find someone "famous", suck their dick and get them to tweet about your comic.
>>78131182
It's a good place to at least try to build buzz. A migration of even 5% of your followers to your core comic on a dedicated site is still infinitely more viewership than you would have started out with had you just started the comic with nothing else.
>>78127328
Cope doesn't really try to take too much profit either, nor does she even really want to
>>78127328
You do know that Patreon is just one revenue stream, right? Most comics who do Patreon also have ads on their site and sell merch.
>>78131068
There wasn't much object criticism in the post, if you wanted to elaborate you should have
How hard would it be to get a comic published by let's say image comic.
>>78126859
link?
>>78128683
What the fuck am I looking at?
>>78128683
how am i even supposed to read this?
>>78138540
Right here, chico:
https://imagecomics.com/about/submissions
It's not hard if you have your shit together and have a plan grounded in realism. But very often creative-types are hard pressed to be organized enough to realistically be up to the challenge.
>>78138703
I actually updated just now: http://amonguscomic.com/comic/blocking-it-out/
>>78120207
is this your comic??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tnwWbHIynw
