10 Things ALL Webcomic Creators Should Do!

Back again with more webcomic tips!

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
1:08 Start Small
3:47 Character Designs
5:18 Back Up Files
7:00 Backgrounds
9:16 Feet
10:26 Screen Design
13:43 Work Efficiently
17:43 Website
21:20 Take Care of Your Body
24:13 Make Your Ideal Comic

[bookvee]

Heh. I was once yelled at for reusing the same background in eight frames over four comics. I am NOT redrawing an identical background. I just leave certain areas transparent such as the window, and use a colour layer over it to depict night time. Why would ANYONE redraw the same background eight times? It was a bedroom, by the way.

[pinkkiwicosplay]

backing up your files is SUPER important -a novelist who lost an entire 23 chapters after my school google account was deleted upon graduation

[droidigan]

the guy who lost all three backups in one day had me CACKLINGG, dude's gotta be the unluckiest man on earth

[J.K.Drawing]

“ Draw backgrounds.” Literally passes out.💀😂😂

[RJayStreet]

7:24 I still hear my late professor in my head saying, “Draw the backgrounds. Do not leave that panel empty.” Now I’m going to hear his voice with that vine boom. 😂

[zephyrdagonheart]

Number 9. FUCKING LISTEN TO IT.

I used to play the viola, and I sprained BOTH my wrists pushing myself too hard. I also have back problems due to the posture I had to sit in. To this day I still get really bad pains from those sprains in my wrist and my posture greatly suffered, with me now having occasional back pain. And due to stress my body developed a stress indicator of sending me into debilitating pain with inflamed ribs. I can still draw, but now I have to keep an eye on my body to see when I need a break. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.

[SHROOOOM]

Props to the milk cartons that just appeared and disappeared 8:17. Made me rethink the way I look at art entirely, on a deeper level than I could ever even imagine.

[citizencalmar]

It was your "what not to do" video that got me into this channel. When I clicked on it, I was worried it was just going to be some rando complaining about tropes they don't like, like "Don't put your protagonist in a love triangle, that's a boring cliche!" When I saw instead that it was objectively good, sound advice for how to be successful in webcomics, you gained a new subscriber. This is a really good companion video to that one.

[voidinkedpen]

when you started saying the next tip was "something you get yelled at a lot for" i was genuinely like "oh boy what is it?" and then you said backgrounds and I started cackling. As a storyboard artist and comic creator I 100% see this issue so much it drives me nuts like "why is character jones in a blank white void??? where are we, what is happening?" also BLESS YOU FOR MENTIONING CAMERA ANGLES AND TECHNIQUES PLS IM BEGGING COMIC ARTISTS TO TAKE STORYBOARDING COURSES THEY ACTUALLY HELP SO MUCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA!! they are very interchangeable and a lot of storyboard artists in the industry actually started out making comics. its a very good skill to learn~ (also star thank you for making your videos in general, they've been helping me stay motivated and productive during comic planning and got me to read Castoff which i am deeply in love with now lol)

[Ebus-obmq]

The 180 degree rule in #6 seems like something that could be used to intentionally unsettle audiences in intense scenes like with unstable characters or to amplify a tone shift, ESPECIALLY in horror. But that just reminds me of the old saying for all art "you need to know the rules to effectively break them".

Great video with excellent advice!

[CloverMations]

THINGS EVERY WEBCOMIC CREATOR SHOULD DO, #1 : Start Small 1:10
THINGS EVERY WEBCOMIC CREATOR SHOULD DO, #2 : Keep your character designs simple and easy to draw 3:48
THINGS EVERY WEBCOMIC CREATOR SHOULD DO, #3 : Back up your files 5:20
THINGS EVERY WEBCOMIC CREATOR SHOULD DO, #4 : Draw backgrounds 7:18
THINGS EVERY WEBCOMIC CREATOR SHOULD DO, #5 : Show feet 9:16
THINGS EVERY WEBCOMIC CREATOR SHOULD DO, #6 : Study screen design 10:29
THINGS EVERY WEBCOMIC CREATOR SHOULD DO, #7 : Work efficiently 13:49
1 : Keyboard Shortcuts 14:32
2 :
3 : Make custom brushes
THINGS EVERY WEBCOMIC CREATOR SHOULD DO, #8 :
THINGS EVERY WEBCOMIC CREATOR SHOULD DO, #9 :
THINGS EVERY WEBCOMIC CREATOR SHOULD DO, #10 :

[Puddle]

great vid! "Be your comic's biggest fan" is what I've been preaching for ages!! definitely something all creators need to keep in mind! x)

[faranleeelowyn]

Not a webcomic artist, but I am a writer. I agree wholeheartedly about starting small. Thankfully, I had a lot of practice writing short stories in my creative writing classes. Everything from 100-word challenges to my 13, 000-word creative thesis. Over the course of two years, I used those short stories to build a fantasy world and create characters for it. And now, I'm much more confident about creating a larger narrative because I already have a strong foundation to work from.

[pyritethefool]

The 180 rule is definitely something that I learned from my hubby who does animation. It's kinda funny thought, I naturally followed this rule until my mom said that i should break it to make the pages more interesting. So I did, for a while. Until I got yelled at for it. Luckily, when I didn't follow that rules, the comic I was working one was not dialog heavy, so wasn’t an issue.

[DensenbyoOFFC]

5:16 personally I would say either make them easy to draw like you said or just easy to remember how to draw. I drew a few characters that where super complex but easy to remember. Bonus points if there fun to draw. It's always more enjoyable (for me at least) to draw a character that's super complex but fun. Like cute shapes or interesting details that you enjoy drawing over and over

[tsakeboya]

After watching tbis video I'd like to give a shoutout to Manga May, a challenge organised by MonitorComics, where each day of May you have to make a comic page based on a prompt. Its goal was to help aspiring artists get over their fears of posting their first comics. After participating for 20 days straight i can confidently say it was one of fhe most important things I've done. It has given me the courage to actually start writing comics with the goal of uploading them. I'd encourage y'all to check it out next year, the community was amazing!

[evaespino]

I just recently read the first chapter of castoff and oh. My. God. Even though it was your early art, the characters personality are well established and isn’t your generic fantasy comic. Vector is such an innocent bean and must be protected. I’m very interested in the story, and I’ll keep reading to find out more about the story. (A “How I create my own site for my webcomic” would be very appreciated!) ❤❤

[NoahPopejoy]

I genuinely wish I had the patience to keep practicing drawing. I love writing scripts and ideas for webcomics. But my drive to learn how to draw is... not high... As such, I usually look for people online to draw for me and... well obviously payment is something I just HAVE to do because artists deserve compensation for their time.

[Arkhivez]

The fact that you felt the need to create a positive video about webcomic creation after a 'negative' video already sets you apart from other online creators out there in my eyes.

Edit: I can understand the controversy around the 'start small' tip. I have trouble coming up with 'small' ideas. The background 'controversy' just sounds like people being lazy. Yes, I too hated backgrounds and I understand. But then I tried actually drawing the things around me, places I go, and at first it's hard, but it's actually quite rewarding.

2nd Edit: I have to get on this soapbox for a second. So, I love the last tip, making what you want to make. Art teachers and writing teachers, especially the latter, are starting to become like nutritionists, if you listened to all of them, you would never eat. So many writing teachers are full of "don'ts". Scratch out the don't, and do. Make the dumb mistakes. Draw the wonky anatomy. Make a cringe romance story with OCs that make people's eyes bleed. Making a mistake hurts now but regret hurts way more later. Fall off the bike 5, 10, 100 times and then get back on.

[captainstroon]

Star hypes up point 4, making it seem like the most controversial take on webcomics ever: "Here it is: Things every webcomic creator should do, Number 4: ..."
aaand YT plays an ad.
That got a good chuckle out of me.

Tip 10 hits so hard. "Be your own primary target audience" has always been my first and most important tip to anyone asking for advice.


I really have to take "start small" to heart. I've been stuck on page 4 of my passion project for far too long now and could really use the experience. Maybe little episodical shorts using the same characters and world.

Working in IT, I can't stress enough how important the 3/2/1 rule is. Save your stuff in at least 3 different places, using at least 2 different mediums and have at least 1 of them be online. We had students not being able to present their final presentation because their laptops refused to boot due to the vibrations of the bike ride to school on the very same day of the finals.