Thread "Looking back, looking forward..." in forum "So I've been working on this little story..."

Posted at 12:02PM, Feb. 28, 2011

I went back into the archives of my comic and reread through the stuff I've posted so far, and it was a reminder to me of how far I've come both technically and artistically in the past few months. This undertaking, so far, has been a crash course in everything from html and css coding to advanced figure drawing.

Comparing the earliest pages, where I was still trying to find the style of the comic and pushing the limits of my artistic abilities beyond what I had done ever before, to the latest ones, which have actually started to have the smallest hint of actual professionalism to them, I can't help feeling both a bit proud of my progress and also a bit of mild concern at having those early pages be the first thing that new readers see as they read through the comic for the first time.

I also wonder if I have lost some people before they got all the way through the comic to the better pages because of this.

Some of them are fine.
I still love how the intro's single panel "storybook" style pages look.
But there are several places where I'm rather dissatisfied with some of the art and layouts.
I'm wondering if I should go back and revamp some of these early pages.

So the question is, what should I do?
Revise and improve, to bring the quality up to par with the latest pages?
Or should I leave them as they are, the original pages that my first readers thought were worth coming back to?
I'd like some reader feedback on this.
-Scorp

Posted at 8:04PM, Apr. 17, 2011

Odd … I don't see any replies on this. But I did read that you had decided to leave them as is. I think that is a good choice. If you decide that you do want to update them later, for when you go to print, you can include the originals as some "bonus" materials for the print version. In fact, if you were to decide to go ahead and update them in the on-line version, keeping the old ones for the print version would probably be good too.

Personally, I love following along with a comic artist as their drawing and painting techniques are refined. It gives me a more personal feel for the artist as well as the comic. "Selkie" (http://www.selkiecomic.com/)is a good example of this … I started reading "Selkie" in July 2010 and he'd already been going for a few months, but, as with "The Greening Wars" I took the time to go through the archives and got to watch as his drawings gained in refinement (and color!) over time. "Selkie" is one of my biggest favorites, in part, because I have gotten to follow along with those changes and refinements. I have some of that attachment to "The Greening Wars" now too.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Posted at 8:04AM, Apr. 21, 2011

The feedback I was referring to came from a couple of friends of mine both online and off, one of whom is, for lack of a better word, my "unofficial advisor and canon/continuity checker"; aka: "the guy I made read this crazy little comic when it was mostly chicken scratch and thumbnail pictures" (and there's a reason most of my lettering is done on the computer- its either slow perfect calligraphy/engineering script or chicken scratch, not much in between)

He's the primary one to blame for getting me from "what's a webcomic?" to "I <3 White Noise and Girl Genius and Twokinds and…" to publishing the Greening Wars as a webcomic. XD He's a major anime/manga/webcomic fanboy all the way back to "Inuyasha"'s first states-side TV run, so he's kind of been the one answering questions for me like "Have you ever heard of this site called topwebcomics? Is it worth putting my comic in the listings?" and "Is this too weird to put in?"- that one he answered by showing me Girl Genius and Twokinds- I'm thinking I'm going to have to try pretty darn hard to out-weird those two. Might just manage it though. XD

And it does make me feel better to hear that the art is not just a forgivable factor, but can be a good thing. I can see how it does make a difference leaving them as they are, warts and all, kind of the "yes, I am not infallible" thing. XD I try to keep up a high quality level, but sometimes I have pages that look good at the time that I post them but then later I will realize that I screwed up Kyra's face or forgot to color in Ark's eye patches or something. Now that my comic seems to be really starting to take off though, I'm coming to realize that people can be pretty understanding about mistakes like that for the most part, as long I don't make it a habit. Seeing the way that the guy who does Goblins has improved and refined his style over the years has really helped, too.

Though I still can't help comparing myself to Madsniper's awe-inspiring figure drawing skills on "White Noise"! The girl is just plain jawdroppingly good! I'm playing catchup on that front; she really shows how being classically trained has its advantages over my duck tape and shoestring art education. I kind of reinvented the wheel as I went , and its hard to break some of the bad habits I got into before I started really studying how to do things properly.(I never really considered a career in art until life kind of drop-kicked me into it and I found myself finally doing something that required all of my skills at once.) I'm starting to slowly get to the point, though, where I can reliably say "I don't totally hate the way this page came out!" XD

Posted at 7:05PM, May. 4, 2011

Well now. Madsniper is something special. But then, you've kept to your updating better. ;-) (Madsniper; if you're reading this, I'm just teasing … I'm still a loyal fan!) It's just like with my photography or my painting … there are a lot of artists "out there" who are way better than I, but I keep striving. Since I started posting to dA though and found that others can appreciate what I do, it's helped ever so much.

But … now I have to go find "Girl Genius" and "Twokinds". :-)

Posted at 9:05AM, May. 7, 2011

Both highly demented, and highly recommended.
The guy who writes Twokinds… boy just ain't right.
Without spoiling anything, the scene where the pizza guy shows up is priceless.
Literally fell out of my chair laughing.
You'll know the one I mean when you get to it. XD