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a {NEW} webcomic project
earthwormadam
ancient crust Registered User regular
ancient crust Registered User regular
I like webcomics. You like webcomics. Lots of people read webcomics and lots of people try to make webcomics.
I originally thought about making a comic called "You're a Nerd" and it would have been about nerd stuff and random nerdy things that I see happen. Then I got the idea of making some of the strips about the world of webcomics, which led me to just focus on the webcomic aspect, but still include a lot of the nerd-culturey stuff too. I thought it would be neat if there was a tome in the vein of "Understanding Comics" by Scott Mcloud, only geared for Webcomics and by Adam Gouveia. I could call it "Understanding Webcomics", hey that would be original! It would be B&W, and inked in a clean visual style just like the original book, only more zany and perhaps vulgar to better match the strange world of webcomics. A cartoony version of myself would walk the reader through all aspects of the medium. I'd like to include other popular webcomic characters, with their authors permission of course, and maybe just have popular authors show up within the comic themselves.
I have begun mapping out ideas, and the geneal structure for the book. Since I have nothing else to post right now art wise, I'll just slap some of my scribblings for now. Since it's about Webcomics, I'd like this series to take the form of a page a week webcomic. Though, I'd like to get quite a few pages into it, before I start releasing anything on the internet. Once the whole thing is done, I'd ultimately like to bet a bound book version of the whole thing but since that is very far off there's no point in worrying about that yet.
Anyways I'm starting this thread now as a means for people to bounce ideas around, and for a general consensus on whether this is a worthwhile idea for a project. Is it a stupid idea, am I stupid? Has it been done before? Let me know!
I read some webcomics, but not a ton of them, and consider myself to be kind of uninformed when it comes to the best webcomics, so if people could post some of their top 10 webcomics and why you like them, maybe which comics you think are under the radar and under appreciated too, that would prob be very helpful. Also any general things that you think should be included in a series like this would also be helpful. Thanks in advance.
My handwriting is messy but the foundation is all mostly here I think.
I originally thought about making a comic called "You're a Nerd" and it would have been about nerd stuff and random nerdy things that I see happen. Then I got the idea of making some of the strips about the world of webcomics, which led me to just focus on the webcomic aspect, but still include a lot of the nerd-culturey stuff too. I thought it would be neat if there was a tome in the vein of "Understanding Comics" by Scott Mcloud, only geared for Webcomics and by Adam Gouveia. I could call it "Understanding Webcomics", hey that would be original! It would be B&W, and inked in a clean visual style just like the original book, only more zany and perhaps vulgar to better match the strange world of webcomics. A cartoony version of myself would walk the reader through all aspects of the medium. I'd like to include other popular webcomic characters, with their authors permission of course, and maybe just have popular authors show up within the comic themselves.
I have begun mapping out ideas, and the geneal structure for the book. Since I have nothing else to post right now art wise, I'll just slap some of my scribblings for now. Since it's about Webcomics, I'd like this series to take the form of a page a week webcomic. Though, I'd like to get quite a few pages into it, before I start releasing anything on the internet. Once the whole thing is done, I'd ultimately like to bet a bound book version of the whole thing but since that is very far off there's no point in worrying about that yet.
Anyways I'm starting this thread now as a means for people to bounce ideas around, and for a general consensus on whether this is a worthwhile idea for a project. Is it a stupid idea, am I stupid? Has it been done before? Let me know!
I read some webcomics, but not a ton of them, and consider myself to be kind of uninformed when it comes to the best webcomics, so if people could post some of their top 10 webcomics and why you like them, maybe which comics you think are under the radar and under appreciated too, that would prob be very helpful. Also any general things that you think should be included in a series like this would also be helpful. Thanks in advance.
My handwriting is messy but the foundation is all mostly here I think.
earthwormadam on
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Posts
Some webcomics I read (probably all very obvious):
Penny Arcade (wut?)
Chainsawsuit
Dr McNinja
PVP
Starslip
Evil Inc
Sheldon
Next Town Over
Antics
Achewood
Something like this I think, could provide helpful tips to people starting out at webcomicing, but at the same time be entertaining to those who already follow them.
INSTAGRAM
http://www.abominable.cc/2007/06/20/episode-1/
edit: I think I like it because it balances humor with some insightful moments too. The characters are well drawn (both artistically and as characters). For many of them, you already grow attached to them by the end of the first strip they are in.
I'll be honest, most of the truly nerd focused comics lose my interest fairly quickly because there are only so many ways you can tie pop-culture into a comic.
edit 2: but if you want to make a comic about other comics, maybe look into
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2114# (a little too wordy, but pleasant art and it used to be routinely funny before its last two arcs)
http://www.oglaf.com/ (super NSFW a lot of the time- nice art but a little hit or miss (i think it is because English is not the author's first language... but I could be wrong there])
http://cucumber.gigidigi.com/
MS Paint Advenetures- bizarre. Somewhat difficult to get into, hard to get out of once you are though. Even if you don't dig the story/characters/humor, it's an interesting concept, and it uses animation/music/interactive segments which break it out of the "it's like a print comic, but on a website" mold.
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/
Sam and Fuzzy- Well drawn; kind of a weird case because it transitioned from a standard gag/punchline comic to a more story based format several years in. I suspect at cons fans get into fights over which one is better.
http://www.samandfuzzy.com/
Questionable Content- Somewhat indefensible soap opera with way too much dialogue and impenetrable indie band references. Only really keep reading because of momentum. (Though I'd feel a lot less guilty about it if it was drawn better- it's improved a lot over the years, but it could be miles better if someone just sat the artist down and gave him some broad pointers about staging/lighting/color/design.)
http://www.questionablecontent.net/
Sinfest- Nice, solid art, but it's getting a bit long in the tooth as well- but I no more than the average newspaper comic, from which it's taking it's format (ie: repeating gags on a single theme, characters generally don't go through life-changing 'character arcs', etc.)
http://www.sinfest.net/
Scary Go Round/Bad Machinery- Solid episode-based comic. Also, British.
http://www.scarygoround.com/
Nedroid- Awesome.
http://nedroid.com/
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal- Hysterical. Not the best art, but the humor more than makes up for it. (Also I like the rollover dot bonus joke panels).
http://www.smbc-comics.com/
Octopus Pie- Fun art, good characterizations. Involves New York people.
Johnny Wander- Nice art, not necessarily laugh-out-loud humor, more slice-of-life stuff.
http://www.johnnywander.com/
Hark! A Vagrant- Fucking hysterical history comics.
http://harkavagrant.com/
Moe- by our own Michael Firman, awesome style and humor. (Also recently got better because he's actually updating it regularly now, which is awesome.)
http://www.firmanproductions.com/
XKCD- stick figures and graphs, slashdot-reader type nerd humor.
http://www.xkcd.com/
Helvetica- Kochi (or somebody else in the chat thread, I forget) recommended this recently. Very nice art- just kinda started, story-wise.
http://helvetica.jnwiedle.com/
Antics- Fletcher's comic. You've seen it, you love it.
http://www.anticscomic.com/
Twitter
I prettymuch post updates of every webcomic I like in there as they come out.
But here are my personal recommendations, I warn you, some of these have sex and some are nsfw and I honestly can't be arsed to tag which ones for you because, well, its a lot. Just because they're nsfw or have sex as a theme doesn't mean they're not good or worth reading either. Some are better than others but they're all very readable and some are fucking amazing.
so, in no particular order, but with stars beside my must-reads
http://tjandamal.com/ *
http://judecca.co.uk/ *
http://www.doomsdaymydear.com/
http://www.lutherlevy.com/ *
http://www.stringtheorycomic.com/ *
http://templaraz.com/
http://www.blasternation.com/
http://foxsister.com/
http://sfeertheory.littlefoolery.com/ *
http://www.teahousecomic.com/ *
http://www.lovemenicecomic.com/
http://www.powernapcomic.com/ *
http://helvetica.jnwiedle.com/ *
http://www.tunecomic.com/
http://sakana.smackjeeves.com/ *
http://obsidiuscomic.com/ *
http://alpha-flag.com/ *
http://bff.nematodeinspace.com/
http://www.wolfwearswool.com/
http://daddylonglegs.smackjeeves.com/
http://www.meekcomic.com/ *
http://lackadaisycats.com/ *
http://www.octopuspie.com/ *
http://boxerhockey.fireball20xl.com/
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/
http://realistcomics.blogspot.com/ *
http://www.oglaf.com/
http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/ *
http://www.friendswithboys.com/
http://knights-errant.smackjeeves.com/comics/
http://alwaysraininghere.com/
http://thechipperwhale.net/
http://agentagnes.com/acrobats/
http://www.abominable.cc/
http://14nights.kstipetic.com/index.php
http://tinf.nematodeinspace.com/
http://toy.the-comic.org/comics/
http://kyandi.smackjeeves.com/
http://www.storyofthedoor.com/
Now personally, a webcomic about webcomics would have to be fucking amazing for me to bother reading it it. It would be like watching a tv show about other tv shows. I'd rather just watch the tv show they're talking about on the show. And I mean, as far as publishing a comic about webcomics...? Webcomics are so.. alive one day on the internet and then the site is destroyed the next, it's kind of.. Someone browsing their Chapters, finding your book on the shelf, if they pop it open and browse through it, they won't understand what is going on at all. So I mean, i'd have to see your idea in execution, I guess. It will be especially harder for you because you don't read that many webcomics.
And there kind of already is a 'understanding webcomics', http://www.evil-comic.com/store/htmw/ by some pretty big names in webcomics, who also do http://www.webcomics.com/ . You should also download the webcomics weekly podcasts and have a listen through. I kind of think you might be a bit over your head with this one.
I mean, is your goal to teach people how to make a good webcomic? What's your goal. I mean, maybe it should be about your discovery of webcomics and exploration of them rather than a how-to or an educational thing...??
And then, most importantly, there's: How To Make Webcomics by brad guigar, dave kellett, scott kurtz, kris straub. Which ... seems pretty similar to what you're trying to do? I haven't read it, so I can't really call one way or another.
I suppose I should clarify that when I say I consider myself uninformed about webcomics, I mean uninformed compared to someone who reads multiple webcomics daily. Often times I am aware of them, such as the case with Abominable, but fail to continue reading them for whatever reason. I've read funny Cyanide and Happiness strips before, but I'm not a regular reader of that site either, so thanks for pointing that one out Nap.
I looked at that How to Make Webcomics book, and I think what I had in mind is different enough to continue on.
Yup Menace, interviews would be neat to do, though it would be hard to get in an in depth conversation in a comic without it getting boring. But I think it could work if done properly.
I pop my head into the SE comic thread every once and a blue moon, I suppose I should frequent it more often! Thanks for voicing your opinion Koch, I think it would be hard to make a good comic about comics, but I think if you saw it in action it would make more sense what I had in mind. I suppose that teaching people how to make better webcomics, and to avoid some of the common pitfalls would be one of the goals. But more importantly I think the goal would be to provide an entertaining, enjoyable comic in its own right. My discovery of webcomics and exploration of them could definitely be part of this, I think.
I think my next step is to layout a rough chapter outline, or maybe do the intro so that people understand what I'm talking about. Even if I don't see this thing through, I think I'll at least start on something so that it can be better decided if its worth continuing on with.
INSTAGRAM
Oh, comicsalliance publishes a lot of articles about webcomics, you should check it out too: http://www.comicsalliance.com/category/webcomics/
Cool, I hadn't seen McClouds website before, good show good show.
INSTAGRAM
It's kind of hard to get a sense of the project from your descriptions, EWA, but you're good at comics, so I'll be waiting for your chapter outline before pro-ing or con-ing.
(Something that would also have to be addressed is the divide between gag-a-days reminiscent of newspaper comics and long form stories that more closely resemble comic books and graphic novels. Webcomics weekly is decidedly in the former camp, and it seems like they have a massive blind spot when talking about the craft [their business talk crosses over well]. Making the comic about such a vague thing as "webcomics" seems like a bottom-up strategy, where you're stuck in with an awkward, ill-defined term that you have to work your way out of, rather than McCloud's approach of starting with the vague "comics" and explaining all of the elements under the umbrella.)
If you're making a comic, it ought to be fun. For you to make, that is. There should be some residual joy in the process for the artist. Joseph Campbell talks about 'follow your bliss.' I think modern parlance would have it as 'go where the fun is.' Creativity shouldn't feel like flossing.
I'm, um, making a comic myself. The idea isn't completely original, but it's original enough that it's special for me, and I know I'll make it my own.
Just bring yourself into it, and make sure you're having some fun in the process.
Ha thanks Linespider, really good point here also, thanks for that! Good luck with your future endeavors.
INSTAGRAM
I've been kinda curious about web comics actually. They follow alot of formats and release schedules. Some do a monthly release of stories, kinda like comics right? It's great finding unique webcomics cause it's hard for people to put out really unique stuff on printed, sold comics.