Beginnings

Happy New Year’s Eve!
Thinking about the new year that is just about to begin, I thought to talk about beginnings in stories, and especially in webcomics.

How a story begins, the very first pages of it, are key for catching the audience’s attention and keeping it. The audience decides if they want to commit and invest their time (and possible emotional investment) in the story in three, maybe four or five pages.
So these pages have to be visually engaging and narratively engaging.
And somehow it seems to me (and I have no evidence to support this, it’s just a feeling) that the narrative strategy to how the story opens is slightly more important to the art itself.
There are several ways to open a story.
From the most logical, linear “start at the very beginning” method, to starting from the middle of the story, to even starting at the end!
However the method itself is not a guarantee that it will make your story opening engaging. I’ve experienced all types being super interesting and super boring.

What then, makes it engaging?

It’s establishing the stakes.
Even before the characters are introduced enough to be engaging, if the stakes are communicated to the audience in a powerful way, then the audience’s interest is going to be kept. The promise of exploring the stakes, the trust that builds between the creator and the audience that the characters will carry the story through and resolve what needs resolving is enough to keep a reader turning the pages after those first few that set it up.

What do you think? Does any of this ring true for you and your story?