Idle Thoughts...
So... if I want to take this whole blog and drawing and minicomics thing a bit more seriously, I'm going to have to start pondering some seriously scary changes to how I do things. In chats with friends and neighbours and friendly neighbours, the idea of a web comic came up. Now... this is a problem to me, because web comics strike me as not the sort of think you start thinking to do, but kind of come about fully formed. Well the successful and good ones at any rate: Hark a Vagrant!, Cat and Girl, Nedroid etc etc. These are things which came about because the creator had a strong idea and then put it down on paper. But I don't really have as strong an idea... as such.
I have an idea for a sort of loosely connected series of sequential narratives though. I have tonnes of short story ideas and have always struggled to find a way to illustrate/ write them. Am wondering about some sort of loose framing narrative for such things and just... get them out. Not to be the next great web comic, because I doubt I'll ever be that. No. Instead so I can get things on here regularly which I have created. I'm doing well at updating this place regularly but, as you have no doubt noted, with the work of other people rather than my own. I'm still very cautious about my own skills and in my brief attempts today to cook up some ideas I'm already being too harsh on myself.
But, and this is the real reason why I'm writing this, I need to get the slightly off attempts together to form a slightly better whole... and maybe just to see that my initial struggles did get better. After all, by turning off the interior editor and critic inside myself, I got "The Bombardier's Eyes" finished. Maybe it's time to turn that to other forms as well...
The pondering continues.
I have an idea for a sort of loosely connected series of sequential narratives though. I have tonnes of short story ideas and have always struggled to find a way to illustrate/ write them. Am wondering about some sort of loose framing narrative for such things and just... get them out. Not to be the next great web comic, because I doubt I'll ever be that. No. Instead so I can get things on here regularly which I have created. I'm doing well at updating this place regularly but, as you have no doubt noted, with the work of other people rather than my own. I'm still very cautious about my own skills and in my brief attempts today to cook up some ideas I'm already being too harsh on myself.
But, and this is the real reason why I'm writing this, I need to get the slightly off attempts together to form a slightly better whole... and maybe just to see that my initial struggles did get better. After all, by turning off the interior editor and critic inside myself, I got "The Bombardier's Eyes" finished. Maybe it's time to turn that to other forms as well...
The pondering continues.
You don't necessarily need a lot of material or an overarching narrative for a webcomic. I'd say there are enough ideas in a typical page of The Common Swings to keep a webcomic going for weeks. Just posting a picture of a made-up author with a brief biography and bibliography every week might be enough. The most important thing is to keep it regular and don't stop. I think your artwork is more than good enough. If you have any doubts, stop looking at the best webcomics and dip into some more obscure and mediocre ones (try dipping into the Webcomic List).
ReplyDeleteI've got the opposite problem: a fully formed idea for a webcomic but it's taking me ages to learn how to draw it (but if/when I have it will look very distinctive).