Should you re-make your comic?
Should you re-make your comic?
When, why and how to do it.
I’m willing to bet that I’m not the only one who wishes they could re-make their old stuff and apply their current skillset to improve it. I’m also willing to bet that I’m not the only one who wants to start a long project over again when they’re halfway through because they feel the beginnings are not as good as where they are now.
If that is your motivation to want to re-make your comic then don’t. Don’t do it. Honestly, it isn’t worth it. Especially if you’re a Webcomic creator and you have episodes that stretch on over years, you’re constantly going to be improving anyway and so every x number of episodes you put out will look better than those early ones. So, in that case don’t do it.
That’s what I told myself I’d be like with Flowers & Shadows.
But…
Yeah…
I’m starting again.
But I have a good reason for it, honest. And if you feel you’re connecting with what I’m about to say then it might (MIGHT!) be reasonable for you to start again, too.
My plan with F&S was to create a vertical WebToon because I’d never made one in that format before and thought it would be interesting to try something new. I’d converted traditional format comics to vertical scroll before but never created with the vertical in mind.
And I was pretty excited about the new way of thinking and creating. Right up until I got halfway through the comic. Things started to feel off. I couldn’t quite describe it, but I kept on anyway, hoping that those feelings would go away. Not only did they not go away, but they intensified to the point where I was having trouble starting episodes/chapters, let alone finishing them. Everything I was drawing felt boring. And to me, boring is worse than “bad”.
You can get away with bad art if the art serves the story in an interesting way. But if the art (and story) are both boring, then nothing else matters. And I slowly started to realise I had created a boring story. And it took a little while to figure out why that was and I’ve got it down to two reasons. I’m going to start with the writing.
I’m not a profoundly good writer by any stretch. I’m okay. Maybe a C or B- student. Enough to get by. But what I had done was write my script as I normally do, where I think about the main narrative arc and figure out how I’ll go from plot point A to B to C in the most interesting ways. So far, so good. But then I took that and I turned the script into episodes to fit with the vertical format. And that was how I screwed it up before I started drawing.
See, I had no resolutions in the episodes. They were kind of arbitrary and as a result it really impacted the pacing. I couldn’t see this while I was creating, though. It was only after I had a few months’ worth of work out that I started to notice it.
So instead, I’m re-writing the script. The main story is going to be unchanged. I know where I want to go, I’m just changing how I get there. Now, onto the art.
I decided that I wanted to have an art style that would be quick above anything else. I’d develop a system where I’d do the basic lines, a thicker “ink” line and a thin pencil line for details. It’s not a bad way of looking at it, but it can’t survive on its own. I wont’ drone on about this but basically all I was doing was focusing on this drawing system without considering the other key fundamentals in comics like structure, perspective and composition. I let those go to the back of my mind and eventually dropped them altogether and some of the art is really bad, you guys.
But it goes even further back than that. The character designs felt kind of half-baked and I started to feel disconnected from the characters. They were no longer inspiring to me.
Now, there’s every chance that in 6 months I’ll be in the same position again, but I don’t think so. I’ve started projects, or nuked them into oblivion from a place of insecurity in the past and that’s a place you never want to make decisions from. But, to me, finishing a bad project isn’t going to serve my long term goals. Rescuing a bad project is and that’s what I feel I’m doing. I’ve peppered in the redesigns of my characters that I’m much happier about and feel like they’re much more interesting. Interesting because there was more thought put behind them, essentially.
I’m putting myself back in the pre-production phase and, more importantly, I’m going to take my sweet time. Not too long, mind. Finished, not perfect, right? But I want to make sure I have a strong foundation so that when I do fire that starting pistol again, I’m much more likely to finish the race.
Should you start your comic again? Well, if you’re feeling a little insecure about your current work, then you probably shouldn’t. But if you feel that the comic is built on a house of sand, then there’s no shame in abandoning a project that isn’t working. Whether that means starting again or moving on. Sunk cost is a fallacy for a reason.
I’ll see you next week.
John