πŸ©·πŸ’œπŸ’™ ~ πŸ–€πŸ©ΆπŸ€πŸ’œ ~ 🩡🩷🀍🩷🩡 ~ πŸ’›πŸ€πŸ’œπŸ–€

πŸ’€ 30+, so plz be 18+ πŸ’€

artist β€’ jack of too many trades β€’ musicboi β€’ bedroom dj β€’ bad at video games β€’ rp fiend β€’ amateur nature photographer β€’ critter enthusiast

β€οΈπŸ§‘πŸ’›πŸ’šπŸ’™πŸ’œ

scribblitz on discord ~ feel free to add!!


🦝 tumblr (gross)
www.shoujospirit.tumblr.com/
πŸ—‘οΈ twitter (grosser)
www.twitter.com/scribblitz
🦝 art tumblr (gross and rarely updated)
www.scribblitz.tumblr.com/
πŸ—‘οΈ twitch (desolate)
www.twitch.tv/scribblitz
🦝 bluesky (that i constantly forget about tbh)
bsky.app/profile/scribblitz.bsky.social
πŸ—‘οΈ ...........does anyone even use cara???
cara.app/scribblitz/all

itsnero
@itsnero
HannahCan
@HannahCan asked:

In your opinion, what's biggest hurdle to starting your first comic?

(For the record, I'm approaching this primarily from the webcomics angle of things, but this advice can be applied to a lot of areas of comics.)

Resist trying to make your comic marketable.

It's extremely tempting to sand off the edges of your comic ideas to make it more palatable, especially when it's easy to go onto sites like Webtoonβ„’ and see the most bog-standard romance (complete that one 3D castle asset everyone uses) near the top. And in an era where people want to be in creative fields more than ever (even comics!) competition for attention is fierce. When newer artists hear about the success of works like Heartstopper, Tower of God, Sweet Home, One Punch Man, Pop Team Epic, and Lore Olympus it seems less like a pipe dream.

Firstly- success on online platforms like Webtoon (or Lezhin, or MangaPlus, or SaturdayAM) doesn't directly translate to any actual financial security, and that's what most people think of when they think of what it means to 'make it' in comics. Changing your ideas to suit a platform that may or may not pay your bills is a fruitless endeavor.

Secondly- webcomics, or even shorter projects like graphic novels or just a zine, are a lot of work. The aforementioned Heartstopper is almost a decade old. Comics are absolutely a long game! It's extremely easy to get burnt out even on passion projects, more so if you've removed some elements, hoping their absence would make something more successful only to not meet your goals.

Essentially what I'm saying is: don't get tripped up in the process of starting your first comic by the need to be successful. It can be really scary starting down the barrel of a decade-long idea when you want your efforts to actually go towards something (especially if going full-time is your goal) and that may make you not want to make comics at all. There's also always the chance that, despite the frequent advice of 'if you build it they will come' re: creative careers, no one will read your comic at all. But getting comics in front of eyes is a whole other discussion that isn't necessarily tied to the actual content of the comic itself, surprisingly.

Of course if there's something you really love that is exceptionally marketable by all means, live your bliss.


idesofmerch
@idesofmerch

As someone who initially tried to make their comic vaguely marketable, based off of a very vague suggestion from someone running a convention 12 years ago, I agree with this whole-heartedly.
It was only when I allowed myself to make exactly what I wanted that making comics clicked for me, and seemingly clicked for my readers as well. Don't be scared of doing the thing you want and people judging you: People are going to judge you either way. Force them to look at the real you as you push them into hell.


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in reply to @itsnero's post:

I find it pretty disappointing Webtoon ended up becoming a primary platform for webcomics. I feel like that site gives off the belief to people that their comics must be successful on the marketable side more than creativity. Not only that, I heard its censorship guidelines are out of whack regarding sexual or violent content removing pages later to be altered or completely cut out. This problem's similar to Tapas as well. But asides from these two platforms, I'm glad there's ComicFury proving to put creativity first for webcomics, and also the artists who host their comics on their own websites.

You’re right on the money with Webtoon’s censorship practices- they’re terrible. It’s a shame that now people will only associate the word with a soul sucking corporate entity instead of the medium itself (I think webtoon as a word has existed since β€˜96, independent of Webtoonβ„’). Very glad Comicfury exists!

this right here has me thinking about restarting my old webcomic; i stopped updating it on account of severe burnout and it took a few years of OCTs and being surrounded by other comic artists to get the will back.

...well that and I've gotten better at doing art.

Or at least I hope I have!