Thread "I'm new *Approaches nervously*" in forum "Meet, Greet, Show and Sell*"

Posted at 3:02PM, Feb. 26, 2007

I'm only here because my brother Dave (TheRealN.com) told me I needed to scan my crude ugly pictures and make them a web comic. I drew it only for my friends, but my brother can talk me into anything. I joined on Saturday.

Anyway, I had 212 pages drawn when I fould this site, so I scanned them and am in the process of uploading those scans. Just pencil drawings, very rough, and I'm not super proud of them (I have never drawn anything before; I'm more of a writer)… I've already found advice from members to be very valuable and can assure you that pages 213+ look much better. (See, here's what I drew today:

(My old stuff can be seen here: http://www.drunkduck.com/Used_Books/ I've only uploaded up to page 78 so far, so there are still around 130 some pages before I'm into the "improved" stuff.)

Anyway, please be kind to a writer pretending to be an artist (and pursuaded by a talented talker into placing herself in the line of fire of critics etc.), and thank you for your help.

BTW, I am a female. I choose asexual handles as a general rule, but people tend to be kinder to me when they know I'm a woman. *Shrug* Anything else you might want to know about me… I'm 24, a Biology graduate student, and I rent a house with my sister, her boyfriend, two friends, and our cat (who doesn't contribute much to our rent check…)

Posted at 4:02PM, Feb. 26, 2007

that many pages of story. Thats incredible, im also a writer, its good to have more around. Ive only been doing comics for about six weeks so im only on pages 7, but god blessed mr with artists fingers fortunately. your drawings will develope.

Posted at 9:02PM, Feb. 26, 2007

Can I give you an opinion? Stop uploading. If you wanted to put everything out at once, you could print them and staple them together as a book. Part of the nature of webcomics is that they are serialized. With that many pages you could have updated once a day for months. Seems like you still can. You dump all those pages at once then the only way people are going to be up to speed on your story is by sitting down and reading the whole megilla in as few sessions as possible.

I could be wrong. But I think you should tease the rest of it out. You already have 78 pages up. I think you should wait, let people start to get on top of those, and then update at a rate of no more than once a day. I know how impatient one can get when there's a backlog and you want to get it out there as fast as possible. But as a webcomic, I think you'll have far greater success ( that's "success" only in terms of readership - nothing to do with the artistic quality of your work) if you have a webcomic that updates regularly and reliably. Think bigger - long time-frame. Think in terms of running this thing online for a while and building a readership through steady updating.

Another possibility would be to upload in bulk but in smaller bulk. Like a print comic that turns out a whole chunk of story in one issue and then people have to wait a while for the next chapter. This way you're giving people a nice meaty piece of story to chew on all at once but still giving them time in between to digest. And I think I'll stop now with the food metaphors while I'm still ahead.

I can't comment on the work until I read it. But I will. I just don't like giving cheap, off-the-cuff feedback/critique.

Posted at 9:02PM, Feb. 26, 2007

Thanks. I was planning on it, but the comments were scaring me, because my drawing was so bad when I started. I'm embarassed by it and wish I could share the good stuff… (I wanted to have people reading at near the same place I was writing, but I guess it isn't possible.)

I guess I'll shrug off any commentary and take your advice. Please don't give me critique, though. These pages are not my good work. If I do a page a day, it would take me several months to get to my better stuff. If I do a chapter a week, it would take me 12 weeks (so same thing really). But I can do that. I'm just too sensitive, I think.

What is better, then? A page a day or a chapter a week? (Such a strange unfamiliar world I've wandered into. Curse you, Dave!)

Posted at 10:02PM, Feb. 26, 2007

~~

You're not more sensitive than me, honey. But it's true, you do have to develop at least a little bit of a thick hide, even if its just to deal with the random and infrequent jerk who trashes you just for kicks.

Do you have access/know how to use a graphics program in the computer? Something as simple as replacing your hand-lettering with a readable font would be a small but significant change that would help those early pages.

As to which is better; I think that's really a judgement call, and it's something I've seen debated on several forums. My opinion again? I do believe that part of the webcomic's nature is to be a serial entertainment. Because people tend to be online more days of the week then not, I think that a once a day update, if you can handle it (and you clearly can) is a big plus. If you get people to check out your site every day, then you'll get a regular readership just because people will know they can always find something new when they click the bookmark to your comic.

People like stories. We all like stories. Frequent, regular updates means that they can feel pretty assured that your story is one that won't up and vanish on them. So I would go for the once a day.

Then again; Charles Dickens updated once a month, and he had people lined up at the docks waiting for the ship from England bringing the next chapter of "Oliver Twist", or "Great Expectations"

It's gonna be a judgement call, when all is said and done.

Posted at 10:02PM, Feb. 26, 2007

Thanks. Yeah, I started doing the font. That's not hard (apparently, I write in font size 24 in real life. ;-) ) Can't do much about my drawings, but at least they look better than page 1.

I just put up my page for the day (with Arial font). I guess there's something to be said for regular updates. And there's no risk of them stopping due to lack of material at least… (I'm actually writing 2 to 5 pages a day.) For my readers, my story is just a couple months in the past. I'll have to avoid accidental spoilers in my remarks.

Posted at 5:02AM, Feb. 27, 2007

if someone is insulting you just to insult you, you can always report it…and we can do something about it

Posted at 7:02AM, Feb. 27, 2007

Oh, no, everyone is being really helpful and constructive. The problem is, it is mostly useless, since they are commenting on my old work, and I feel bad I can't show how I've taken and followed people's advice. I think too much, I'm sure. I should just let people help however they want and let them think I ignore them until some day a few months from now, the strip magically improves all of the sudden. ;-) (I hate people to think I ignore them. I feel like a jerk.)

In any case, I'm at least working on the text, since that's the one thing I can change on my old stuff. (It's taking me a lot of time.) Not sure if I'll replace the stuff already posted, but I might if I ever find the time and motivation.

It will be fine, I'm sure. Thanks for the hellos and tips and encouragement. ;-)

Posted at 1:02PM, Feb. 27, 2007

1. Hi, nice to meet ya
2. I think you should follow what Lilyrose said. With that many pages, you can upload once a day (and get a good amount of pageviews that way).

Posted at 12:02AM, Feb. 28, 2007

Looks like you're in for a good start, on top of welcoming you to DD, id like that to point out that criticisms are your friends, it would really help you along the way.

Posted at 11:02PM, Feb. 28, 2007

a long road is a head yong artist but you must impove with the pen and the powers of the photo may the duck be with you