Now that I’ve posted eight pages in about three months and started to wonder how this inconsistency can possibly attract an audience, I’m rethinking things.
And after finding the Webcomics Weekly podcast last weekend and listening to one or two archived shows each day this week, I’m more convinced I need to think about a different format, style and everything. The podcast features four of the most successful webcomic publishers on the Net. These are guys that either did or could see their webcomics become big enough that they’re making a living off their ad sales. Just as important to me, they write and draw three- or four-panel black-and-white joke strips and post them three times a week or more often. For them it’s all about humor, simplicity of design, and frequency.
The funny thing is that Mindover Man, one half of my main-character duo who debuts in the latest post, was originally conceived as a gag-strip character. In fact the next page I’m drawing is right from the first gag I thought up. It’s just that the more I thought of this character and the others you’ll be seeing in, oh, another six months at this rate, evolved much differently in my head. Maybe it’s that I’m much more attuned to the traditional comic book superhero, and think I have more to say in that genre than I do in the telling of jokes. But listening to the Webcomics Weekly guys, I think that I think a lot like they do; it’s just a matter of applying myself to a much different way of writing. Could I do it? I don’t know. It’s my opinion that every writer has a bit of ego in his or her head — why else would they think they have something so important to say that they have to put it out there for everyone, thinking other people will spend all-too-precious time to read what they have to say. And my writer’s ego thinks it can switch gears completely. Maybe, maybe not.
But one other thing they said was you have to have the burning drive in you to create your comic, so much so that you’d work on it regardless of whether anyone would read it, much less have it turn into a money maker. And that’s where I am right now. I’ve been killing hours upon hours with the script I wrote last summer, the pages I draw based on the thumbnails I drew last fall, and — here’s where the vast majority of time is spent — all the coloring that has to be done. I think if I’m ever going to be able to hit a schedule, the color’s got to go. And that’s too bad, because I really like doing that, too.
It’s far too early to quit on this endeavor; I just have to do something to justify efforts to build an audience. If I do any kind of marketing at all, it’s going to be pointless if people see that I update once every three weeks or a month. Not only does that not build traffic, it provides no reason for there to be any traffic. In no way does this work make sense other than to prove to myself that I can do this — which is not to be discounted either, as I’ve wanted to do this since I was 10 years old. But still. Time is valuable — to my family and me. In that order.
So for all four or so of you who stumble upon my silly comic, which doesn’t make a lot of sense at this point, I’ll admit, if you see the color go away or more changes, don’t be surprised. This whole thing is a work in progress. But it’s still a work worth doing. I believe in that.
For now . …
”Comment
