Trevor Kent -
Taka Comics With the beginning of the new year behind us, it's time for another new beginning: Your webcomic. Maybe you've always wanted to do one, or have an idea for one, or even tried getting into the print industry but found it to be difficult and subjective. Or maybe you just want to have a bit of fun, who knows. However, there are a few things that will make your webcomic easier to start and maintain. We've all heard the "build a buffer," advice, and its good advice, so I'll mention it later, but there's a lot more to preplanning than just "doing it." Here are the steps I would take if starting a new comic. I start new comics all the time, as my website is mostly short stories. I work mostly in dramatic comics, but I will bring each step into the comedic strip realm as well.
The first thing you want to do is find out the driving force of your comic.
Characters vs. Story vs. Theme, I call it. Start with one, then build on it by adding the other two. Maybe you have a great idea for a character or characters. Great! Now build the story and theme around them. Maybe you have a great story that you want to tell. Well that also works! Place characters in that story and go to town. I will use three of my stories to demonstrate:
The Regulars: Character Driven -
I made a female character named Queens. I liked how I drew her and wanted to put her in a story. To do that, I built the story around her job, which I decided was a bartender. The other characters quickly came into play: customers, co-workers, and friends. The setting was the bar, of course. The theme turned out to be the least driving force of the comic, but it played a role in the story.
The Forgotten Earth: Story Driven -
I wanted to tell a sci-fi story, so I began with that. I created the setting and story first, taking place on Earth, and then Mars later in the story. But I had to figure out how to get there, and I decided to make it a kidnapping/rescue story. My players came after I decided the story, adding the kidnappers, the character in trouble, and the rescuer. The theme once again came last, and didn't have much in the way of driving the story, but once again, it still was there.
Love/Toy: Theme Driven -
Love/Toy (NSFW) was a comic I had wanted to do because of the theme. The difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships, an exploration of heterosexual and homosexual relationships, and a coming-of-age story about someone discovering this new phase of her life. To pull this off, I needed characters and a story, so I wrote the story next: A girl attempts suicide, and ends up rescued by an older woman who is not sure of her own feelings and current relationship. After this, I worked in the characters, and their own stories were used to build the larger theme.
Now, for comedy, you are rarely using a Theme Driven story. Most are Character Driven, like
Penny Arcade,
PVP,
Evil Inc., etc. Certain people have personalities that play off of each other. Some are Story Driven, like
Menage a 3 (NSFW),
The Cow, and
Bardsworth. My current story is very much a "What If" scenario that is Story Driven:
A punk band survives the zombie apocalypse. Now that I have the characters and story, the jokes follow. Whether they are about music, being in a band, or fighting zombies, I can pull from every aspect of it to make jokes. Character Driven comedy is your basic comic strip: The jokes are made about the characters' interactions. Garfield likes lasagna and kicks Odie. Story Driven comedy is a little trickier, because you can't just pull any old joke out for the next day. Sometimes you don't have a joke in a Story Driven comic strip, especially if you wanted a dramatic moment with the characters.
This way of thinking about comics is very limited, but it gives you an idea of where to start your thought process. Start from one piece of the puzzle, and work from that. Don't make everything up all at once, especially because later on, you might have something that you want to work in.