Howdy.

[CryptoKnight]

Like Rob, I like to hear the sound of my own voice, but I'll keep this relatively brief.

My name is Brian, and I am the creator of "Three People Get It", a webcomic which is (at this particular moment) a whopping 61 episodes old.  I am over 40 years old, and this is my second attempt at a comic (I tried once fifteen years ago, even to the point of submitting to King Features).

My comics tend to be NSFW in the dialogue department (the drawings, not so much...it's hard to get too nas-tay with stick figures).  I do stick figures because I have limited artistic skills.  After my first few weeks, I decided my work was too sparse, and I have chosen to embrace the style and medium, and am trying to make the art as good as it can be, rather than just a half-asses afterthought with regards to getting my joke out there.  As such, I have more backgrounds and decorations than before.

I love to study the humor in strips.  I consider the creators of "Pearls Before Swine", "Dilbert" and "Foxtrot" to be comic geniuses.  Many of their strips have multiple punch lines and circular references, and I seek to emulate that in mine as much as I can.

What I am looking for is a place where people will give feedback.  I don't expect most people to like my strip, and if people tell me what they think, then I can identify if it's something I should address, or if I should just concede that I'm not interested in making that particular reader happy.

I also want to talk about ideas and such.  I have no shortage of ideas, just time to implement them.   I typically carry a backlog of over a dozen "approved scripts", (strip ideas which I have decided don't suck and actually intend to draw, as opposed to the tons of throwaway ideas I have...).

I do my art in CorelDRAW, and do final touch-ups in Corel PhotoPAINT, if necessary.  I have also used Minecraft for some scenery, and I liked the result.

I *have* found that people who like my strip tend to have an odd, slightly evil streak in their dark little hearts.  I don't know why this is, but it keeps me up at night...

[Gar]

Hi Brian, welcome to the board! I'm at work so I'll have to check your comics later, in the meantime there's a lot of good advice to be found if you want to dig through the threads here a little. If there's a question you can't find an answer for, just start a new topic, it's a pretty friendly bunch :)

One thing that stuck out - You say you're doing stick figures because you can't draw: You'll never learn to draw if you keep doing stick figures. You don't have to be crazy detailed (take a good hard look at Dilbert, it really doesn't take that many lines to draw him), but it's more fun if you keep challenging yourself. Try drawing stuff you don't think you can draw, you start getting better after a pleasingly short time, and just keep getting better until you get Good...and then you keep getting better!

It's a great medium to work in.

If you're using Minecraft to do some backgrounds, have you considered doing episodes entirely in Minecraft? That'd play well on Reddit and get you away from some of the inevitable XKCD comparisons.

[CryptoKnight]

I can actually draw in a "better than someone who doesn't draw, but not as good as someone who does draw" sort of way.  My previous strip attempt looked halfway decent (to me), but in experimenting with sticks, I've found that I can be more expressive with them than with my drawings.  This has been a great exercise because I am learning that without facial features I have to use the whole body to get the characters' feelings across.  Also, since I've been getting quite a bit of positive feedback, I'll stick with this.

I do experiment a bit, such as with the Minecraft backgrounds.  I was pleased with how it turned out, so I'll probably do more of those, maybe in a "Spaceman Spiff" comic-within-a-comic sort of way.

Also, my very first strip helped to nip the whole "XKCD" thing in the bud.  I don't hear about that much.  (I've also found that most people who read more than one of my strips jump to the beginning fairly quickly, so I know that they know that I know that it feels XKCD-ish).

FWIW, my June 8th strip has the Minecraft background.  It's an Oglaf-related joke.  ThreePeopleGetIt/Sticklaf