Creating a Web Comic
I will take this opportunity to take you through the process of creating a web comic, from first an idea to the production and launching of a web comic, and my particular struggles of getting the web comic of the ground. Also the various reasons that a web comic should exist and the use that a web comic has had for myself and the impact that it has created on my future comic book career.
The idea for the web comic came from a struggle to develop an idea for a comic book that I wanted to create as a hard copy comic. The main problem was basically that although I had the story in place for the comic book there was no way that the comic would have worked, this was due to a lack of back story, in order for a comic such as this to work it, I would have needed to have the viewer interested in character and where he came from.
With a big opening such as I had planned the impact wouldn't be strong enough to keep people turning the pages and keep the reader involved in the story, to leave them wanting more. The pace of the comic would have been to quick and high octane for a hard copy comic book. I feel that for a hard copy comic to work you need to have an introduction to a character, a tease into who the character is and slowly bring the personality out, leaving the reader wanting more and interested who this character is and what is the story, why is someone taking the time to tell this story.
I had always planned to introduce the character, in this case Detective Fox, shooting himself in the face. A big opener that would grab peoples attention, start literally with a bang, and progress from there with interesting imagery that would grab people. I soon realised that this means nothing, even as the comic would progress it still lacks the substance I felt was needed to carry the story.
This is were the web comic idea really came into play, a different kind of medium, a new medium to me and something new to explore with a different set of rules and a different type of audience. The idea of being able to publish ones self instantly, put your idea out there for anyone who cares to look at at anyone who wants to critique it will and can. A bold creative plain for artists to indulge themselves really without restraint.
With the idea there, now I began trying to work out just how I would set up a web comic, this took time and a lot of trawling through different sites. With the vast open galaxy that is the Internet I began my search and was recommended a few sites. Sites such as Toonlet.com, with a tag line on Google, create and share your own web comic from a computer or phone more quickly than a coffee break, great! but alas the tag line didn't go onto to say that this was not for an actual web comic but for creating comics from a pre-drawn characters. I checked back and it now says no drawing required which it didn't have before.
I had never used blog sites before so all this was pretty new to me, I powered on and with minimal success. A lot of sites wanted me to download software to run the comic blog which never went well with using a Mac, which seemed odd to me. I had been introduced to Blogger briefly before but had no idea how to actually use it for anything significant or indeed for a web comic, in my mind I needed to use a web comic specific blog. These set backs really put a bent in production, this once bright eyed boy with dreams of cracking the world wide web turned into a roaring, snarling, viciously frustrated web user, swearing frantically at the screen and cursing the day I ever had this damned idea for a web comic. So the idea was put on hold, at least as far as actually getting it online.
I began producing the work, I am not a digital artist, hand drawn, black and white is my particular method. Big opener, BOOM, and into the story with a pretty relentless pace. I believed that although this wouldn't work for a hard copy comic, this hard hitting, high octane pace was exactly what was needed for online comic world, keep the reader interested and bombard them with imagery, the online comic world is a very competitive market so in order to get people interested the work needs to really grab the reader by the uh hmm's and keep them there twisting all the way, get a good strong grip.
I set about getting the first four pages pencilled and inked. I work in a very spontaneous method which suits the web comic style. I work straight onto a page with an idea in my head, usually using photographs of myself as reference for a panel (insert image) and working on from there. With the web comic this way of working became the way that it was formed and I think gives it a very distinct style from my hard copy comic which is a lot more planned out and structured, well structured for my way of working anyway.
The next stage was figuring out a suitable method for lettering the web comic, the obvious way would be to use a digital tool such as Photoshop, illustrator, or Indesign. My limited understanding of Photoshop brought up more problems, I would have thought that a simple speech bubble would be indeed simple, this is not the case, an array of problems arose. For the first page this wasn't so much of a problem as I decided to defy convention and forgo speech bubbles altogether, which was a nice idea and in actual fact works quite well, with an interesting, almost elegant font against a black background, juxtaposed with the severity of the imagery, it produced quite a different feel for an opening page with such graphic content.
I had decided that Page Two would be a silent page and let the images speak for themselves, besides the guy just blew his head out, you wouldn't expect a lengthy soliloquy here. This page was quite a lot of fun to draw with pretty horrific reference material to get immersed in. A very heavy page indeed with harsh blacks and whites, a large weight on the page bringing the viewer down to a bleak bottom panel, a man alone, nothing left to loose. A man in despair, lost in a world with nothing for him anymore. No words so no real problems arising here.
Onto page three and the question of text comes back into play, only a single line to deal with but again nothing seemed to really work, as basic as it may sound but a line tool in photoshop can be quite the tricky little son of a...I decided to carry on with floating text and it this helps to keep the first three pages together in a sense, a mans final fleeting thoughts, not in fact words, but something deep down in the subconscious, coming from a part of the brain usually reserved for the most fleeting of thoughts those that don't even register unless you really listen for them, but in a moment of clarity scream and can bring you back from the brink. This is what I thought for the floating text. Perhaps in hindsight, perhaps not who can remember these things. If I was to go back and change the text on these first pages and instead letter by hand, which is a possibility, I would keep the text floating, but perhaps change the style of the text to something slightly more abstract or sinister.
A change happens from page three to four we get a much more chaotic page. Although the second pages slows down the story a bit, its still has all the power to hold a reader with its absurdly graphic content and heavy styling, with page four we get into a different kind of comic now a comic which starts to make us wonder in which direction this is going to go. A strange energy enters and begins to engulf the main character bringing a new life force into Dt. Fox, this is where the text bubble now is no longer floating but in a box. The box was mainly due to the fact that this was easier to form than a text bubble in photoshop, again my limited skill determined this fact, which in fact actually worked out well for the later pages in the comic.
It was at this stage I decided that the comic should go up online. I had a discussion with a website named BadHaven, BadHaven is a comic book website that puts out reviews, comic book news and such. Based in Belfast and Co-Founded by Mark McCann they are one of the biggest comic book websites in Northern Ireland. I had made contact and put forward the idea of perhaps having a small banner on the website with a link to my page, I sent Mark the work that I had so far, he was suitable impressed and wanted to get behind the idea, but informed me that in order to launch the web comic it would be a better idea to wait until I had produced a greater amount of pages for the reader to get their teeth into. Sound advice and I agreed, plus this gave me a chance to actually find a blog site that I was comfortable with.
So the search began again I visited many different blog sites, Tumblr, Live Journal, Blog.com the list goes on, eventually I came back to were I started, Blogger. With a bit of patience and time spent I got the hang of the site, at least enough to get me started. I had a few decisions to make here, some decisions that may seem quite simple but they have really made the difference and have made my web comic my own. I have explored various web comics on Blogger and I haven't found one that operates like mine, whether or not this is because I have set myself up wrong on the site I'm not sure, but I like the way my web comic operates, it is a basic set up with each page, wait for it, getting it's own page, not very revolutionary I know, but from looking into the other web comics out there they all seem to have a simple next page button, this is a bit of a happy accident for me, as had I known how to set up a next page button I probably would have used it, but with my limited knowledge of the site this is how it turned out.
I feel that it actually helps the viewer engage more with the page, other web comics also have a scroll option, mine does not. Instead the viewer must use the page tabs at the top of the site, simply marked Page 1, Page 2, and so on the actual site is very basic, black, simple, this compliments the work with the heavy black and white styling. Using the tab option i feel also forces the user to spend more time one the page. The pages appear at a good size but for a clearer image it's best to actually click on the page which again makes the user engage more with the page and spend longer with the images.
These may seem simple techniques but I believe that they are a valid way of engagement, it also makes the comic very simple to navigate through. A lot of the other web comics I have visited also have a lot of clutter around the sides of the page, some is down to advertising, but mostly it is directing you to other web comic they may have put up or promoting other peoples web comics and I find this very distracting, bright colours seem to feature quite a lot and again I find this distracting. I suppose that if they are promoting other peoples web comics the promotion must go both ways, which must increase traffic but also takes the viewers attention away from the comic. I want the reader to become immersed in my comic and really take in what is happening on the pages and in the story, and enjoy the art work as well.
I really try to have a striking image on every page, even as the pages become slightly more minimalist I still want an interesting image to capture the eye.
I again started producing work for the comic with an aim of launching the site once I hit ten pages, this affected the work in that I knew that once I hit ten pages I would have to leave it on a bit of a cliff hanger, a bold image that would leave viewers wanting more. With that in mind I knew that I wanted to get some imagery tat would case a stir, and knowing where I wanted the comic to eventually go I was able to bring in the classic Jesus Christ pose, after Dt. Fox is hurled around the room by this mysterious energy he is suspended mid air in the Jesus Christ pose with a vortex formed behind him, and also the heart is showing, again a famous Christian symbol of the sacred heart.
I deliberately didn't want to have a shining ray of light filling the void, instead a black hole, the direct opposite. This could be misconstrued as Hell, I'm throwing a few curve balls here to the reader with a mixture of subtle hints. Even with the placement of the vast blackness being considered, had I placed this above Dt. Fox this would definitely screamed Heaven, an ascent. This goes for if the energy had came from below, a descent into Hell, but by placing the energy source behind it becomes less obvious. I'm not sure how many people picked up on these points but they were in my mind when putting the pages together as the story depends on these points as it progresses. Immediately he is then jolted back into this darkness.
With these last pages I have made a switch from digital text to hand lettering. The decision was a pretty easy one to make, I had made the choice to attempt hand lettering for my hard copy comic Hunt: Part One, this was pretty successful, maybe a few mishaps along the way but ultimately it gave me the confidence to go ahead and hand letter the online comic. In fact the hand lettering on the web comic is better than on the hard copy, due to the learning curve. I am still using the text box as opposed to the bubble as I find it easier to arrange the text in.
Small things really make a difference, for example finding the right thickness of pen, may seem a pretty obvious thing but from trial and error I have found that the number 5 uni point pro is best for me, the number can be a bit to think and I reserve it for emphasised text, but the No. 5 is just right.
The process is a basic one, I have the script beside me with a few notes on where I had planned to put the text in the appropriate panel, I experiment with where the type will fit sometimes crossing over into the next panel, if it seems to detract from the image and allows the intrusion into the adjacent panel. The text is applied to a separate sheet of paper laid on top of the panel pages using pencil for the initial lettering and a light box underneath, this allows me to change the position of the speech box with ease. I rule out lines for the lettering just to keep everything straight, again this may all seem quite simple and obvious but these small things really matter. For instance when I put the first panel page onto light box I need to make sure that it is close enough to the edge of the light box that my ruler reach to the other side of the page but still allowing room that it will rest against the slight lip on the side of the light box, this gives me a straight line and keeps everything in order. Also when the page goes down I apply a strip of masking tape so that I know where to put the next page that follows and also allows me to easily place the text page on top and in alignment. Simple little techniques that save time and give me more consistent lettering work.
Back into the comic, with page seven I wanted to change the pace just slightly, to really convey that this man is gone this was the last chapter in his life, no body left no evidence, again a bit of a Bible reference here. With the last pages being quite fast and a lot going on I think that these empty still panels make a nice change visually for the reader and will make the next pages even more interesting to the eye as they progress, from lots of white, to the reverse, heavy black backgrounds. With the first two pages being heavy in white on black, contrasted to the next pages being more black on white, and now back again to white on black. A visual flick, and also with the next with the quiet page now we enter into a different realm, and really starts to draw interest into what has become of the good Detective.
A different story now starts to emerge, and with the cut off point that I had given myself of ten pages I want something different to tickle the readers interest, not giving to much away but showing this is something different, and allows for questions to be asked, no explanation given, just a barrage of harsh white images, twisted and formed. Until the final tenth page in that instalment and we have a full splash page reveal, but again with a question being asked by the main character, and therefore being asked by the reader. Again pretty quick pages not to many panels and not to many speech/thought boxes, but strong and interesting imagery to grab the attention of the eye.
So with the first ten pages of the comic up on the blog and ready for the world, I went about promoting the story, first point of call really was a test with Facebook. The quickest way to get word out through both my Facebook Illustration page and also my own personal page. I had refrained from putting pages up on Facebook when I was drawing the comic as I thought this would cheapen it and also would take traffic away from the page. I released snippets of pages to try and increase interest but mainly I just took over peoples news feed and poured out the news that the new pages were up.
I saw an increase in page views but no real big jumps in pages views. I received good comments from people but these are to be expected from friends and family. I approached Mark about the idea of the banner with a link to the page, unfortunately this idea fell through, mainly down to the fact that I wouldn't be paying for space and the BadHaven website was growing in advertising as it became more popular. I also approached Uproar Comics who I have a good relationship with, again I spoke about a possible banner, explaining that my page views were rising and it may bring more interest to the Uproar site. The idea was put back and forth but we couldn't come to a suitable agreement for both parties, mainly down to the fact that they wanted possible to take a part ownership of the story, now this seems very small and really I wondered why this was even mentioned but they said with the Uproar Banner it would then be a part of Uproar and I wasn't happy with that. No money was spoke off but something just didn't feel right so I declined and moved on.
This felt like a bit of a set back, I was pleased with the work and felt that it deserved a place somewhere on a website that could take it possibly to a new level and get my work out on a larger scale. I went about promoting the comic myself, not so much on Facebook but more with other comic artists that I had met through various channels. A big part of this was meeting the comic book creators group in Belfast, a collective of artists, writers, letterers that meet once a month in Belfast and discuss comic books and up coming projects, I mainly went to make contacts and get honest critiques on my work from people working in the industry.
Even though I was having to do the promotion myself my views climbed steadily, reaching around 600 page views, not a bad number but this did take a couple of months to reach that number and it was a slow climb. I began work on the second phase of the web comic, knowing that this would be a darker part of the comic, and with a bit of a back story now people wouldn't be going in without knowing what they were getting into.
I had a good idea that the images would have to be really strong, as I knew that this part would be against a black background so nothing else to focus the readers attention on but the image of the form and the text. I had considered another big bang for the first page to grab the attention and keep at a frantic pace, I planned to start with what became page 12 but I reconsidered after it took me longer than I expected to get the next seven pages ready. I decided that four or five pages wasn't enough to get a good rhythm going, or enough to get to a point were I could leave it on another cliff hanger without sacrificing some of the imagery and pace that I wanted it to charge along at.
So I added a page for the next instalment, a quiet enough page, not answer the questions, and not showing to much of what Dt. Fox had became. I also had to consider due to the time that passed, most people would probably re-read the first ten pages so a nice break on this page would set up the next part quite nicely. This is when I was really allowed to let my style come through, the macabre, the disturbing images that I wanted to put into this web comic. Something that will make people a bit uneasy, but engage them with the drawings and want them to keep reading.
A lot of my artistic influences came in at this point, Francis Bacon, Picasso, Jenny Saville, Vince Locke, and horror film works as well, I didn't look at these artists while I was drawing the pages but after the fact I began to see certain aspects in the work, and other people began to compare some of the panels to other artists works. Interestingly enough most comparisons came not from the comic book world but being compared to fine artists. This could be because I mainly grew up around fine art and the comic books came a lot later. Really each panel in these next seven pages are in a way its only little piece, its only canvas that brings the story along. I don't feel that they are conventional comic pages, considering that the panels have no backgrounds just the figures carrying them but I would say that none are boring, and if I was to select a hand full of those panels and put it as a stand alone piece it would hold it's own as a piece of art. Or maybe I'm just a bit to proud of my own work.
I felt that I had some very strong pages here and kept them pretty quiet, I was in the process of getting these ready to be put out and with the hard copy comic nearly ready I was gearing up for a big promotional push, using both comics and really going all out on every front. I knew that the Hunt series would show two contrasting styles to my work and a good range and give people plenty to read. Even though I would be keeping Hunt: Part One of the net, I did upload it so as to be able to ask for reviews from comic websites such as BadHaven and Uproar and any other comic website or publisher that would look at it and give me there time to do a review.
Just before the release day was looming I checked my page views, which stood at just under 700, so it was still climbing but that was maybe in about a month and a half, not the growth that I would have wanted. So it began, my hunt for reviews, promotion, and a bit of recognition, really get my name out there, I put the comic up and began sending it out, firstly with links to the page over Facebook, with a good response and it also attracted a lot more likes for my illustration page which showed that it was going further than just friends and family.
I began contacting people in the Irish comic scene as this is really where I want to start my comic book career after I finish this degree. Everyone from Uproar to Abandoned comics, sending links to both the comic and the web comic asking for reviews, I also contacted BadHaven and asked for a review, pretty much everyone that I contacted got back to me with a review. I contacted pod casts for Irish comic art in the Republic of Ireland and have been told they will feature a small part one the comics in an upcoming pod cast.
All the reviews came back positive, except for one which was from a small blogger that I had met through the comic book creators group. As the reviews went up the pages views started to climb in less than two weeks the page views had doubled. it is over a month and the pages views keep climbing, on last inspection I have achieved 2072 pages views, with 1010 coming in the last month, with views coming from as far away as Turkey. I hope they are enjoying it.
Stats from my web comic. Page views from across the globe.
With more reviews coming out this month I hope this rise keeps up. The next instalment will hopefully keep up interest and bring in more people and introduce them to the work. With interest growing for Hunt: Part Two it can only help Hunt: Part One, I get a lot of people asking where Hunt: Part one is, I tell them they will be able to buy it from the middle of May, for a very reasonable price.
Matthew H. Smyth
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