Comic Advice
Game Introduction
From what I’ve seen, these are the bits of advice that are most needed. To clarify, I’m not referring to any specific comics unless I clearly state the name of the comic. These are things that I’ve noticed in a lot of different comics, not any one on particular.
How To Play
Make sure characters are recognizable easily. You will be staring at your characters much longer than your audience will. What may be easily distinguishing for you could be harder for your audience. For instance, let’s say you have two characters who are black cats with green eyes. But one has curly fur, and the other has spiky fur. This will be easily noticeable to you, since you have probably spend hours drawing and thinking about these characters. But it won’t be to your audience. Unless you have a situation where it won’t cause much inconvenience for your characters to look very similar (such as Merinopaw and Cashmerepaw from Creekclan’s Fables, where these two characters aren’t doing much important stuff separately, so it doesn’t really matter if you keep them straight). If you’re ever worried your audience will get characters confused, you can ask if there’s been any trouble. Some solutions could be having panels where they two similar looking characters are next to each other more often, so that the audience can have a better chance to notice the differences between them. Giving them different accessories can also help, especially when the accessories relate to something important and specific to the character. For instance in Eternal Apprentice, Hazepaw’s blue ear reminds the reader that she was the one who visited Cobweb. Don’t introduce too many characters too quickly. And when you do introduce the characters, make sure your audience knows who they are. Even if it isn’t the most fluid dialogue for Hazepaw to add Cherrypaw’s name to the end of “Has warrior training been any better, Cherrypaw?” in Eternal Apprentice chapter 14, it does make it very clear who Cherrypaw is, which is what’s most important in character introductions. I would recommend trying not to go in depth on more than two new characters every two chapters. You may have situations were a lot of relevant characters are being met at once, like in Tales of Perfectheart chapter 7, but that’s not a bad thing, as long as you have specific get-to-know-yous with each character later. Dovestrike is first introduced in ToPH chapter 7, but she didn’t start getting so much popularity until later, when there were chapters specifically devoted to her. Even if you absolutely love your characters and want the audience to share your joy about them as soon as possible, your audience will likely enjoy them more if they’re not overwhelmed by too many characters at once, and instead will get more attached with chapters specific to getting to know the dudes. In general, the more screen time a character gets, the more the audience will tend to like them. Which means if you have all your scenes involving all your characters, your audience likely won’t know any one of them too personally. Being slow paced isn’t a bad thing. Give your audience a chance to get to know your characters before going all in on important plot stuff. Your audience won’t be invested in the plot until they’re invested in the characters. Creekclan’s Fables is a good example of this. There’s been a lot of foreshadowing and buildup in the chapters so far, but I can’t yet say what the plot is other than “Ferretpaw learns how to use magic, probably to fight someone”. But that’s not a bad thing at all. CCF has been kept busy with side plots, such as Appleskip, plus the characters and their dynamics are very fun to read, so the story doesn’t feel boring in the slightest. And now when the big plot stuff does start happening, I’ll be deeply invested in it, because I care about the characters. Don’t comic for clout. I’ll start off by saying this: posting a comic (especially a comic that follows the other guidelines here) will get you more clout. It’ll get you more followers, it’ll get people interested in the art you make. It works. But it’s not sustainable. You need real passion to make sure your story will last. Ask yourself this: if you knew for a fact that your comic would never get over 30 views, would you still want to make it? People enjoying your content is extremely validating, and can create a lot of motivation. I know that I’m more likely to want to get back to working on my comic after someone draws really cool fan art, or leaves a heartfelt message. But even without that, would you still have the drive to create your story? If not, then your comic probably won’t last very long. I’d recommend reevaluating the story and making sure it’s something you love above all else. There’s no shame in stopping a project that isn’t making you happy. Please please please make your word bubbles readable. Get a friend to proofread them if you need to. Whether you type or handwrite the dialogue, make sure the audience can easily read it. If you’re typing, don’t make the font too small. Make sure the text color stands out from the background. Your audience won’t be willing to have to work to read your comic unless they’re really invested, which for most beginning comics, they won’t be yet.
Author
MeadowFoot_ToPH
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Game Information
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