How to Make a Webcomic

Recently I decided to try my hand at a web-comic. I had no idea how hard it would be.

I started by registering a free website (already I had made a mistake) at Bravenet. I liked all the free tools they had so I registered a photo album for the comics and a blog to write about the changes in the comic. I called it InternetPimp because I already had an idea for my first three comics, all about how Google Adsense was similar to pimping the Internet. I only had a Mac on my vacation so I had the advantage of a pre-loaded copy of Comic Life to format my comics and make the chat bubbles look professional. That was the only good part of my comics. I also had a disadvantage on Mac of not having a very good drawing program for it. So I found a freeware app on the Internet called Seashore. I started with two comics using stick figures. My second stick figure comic got the best reviews on humor but they also said I stole it from XKCD. I checked and it was similar but not exactly the same. XKCD made fun of people refreshing where their package is; I made fun of people refreshing their Adsense earnings. I was off to an okay start and I had the comics all uploaded to the site.

Then I made another mistake. I went to the Penny Arcade forums to advertise my website. A- I didn't check the rules. B- I posted in the art forum, which required real art and not stick figures. C- I compared my comic to Penny Arcade on the website which they immediately noticed and ripped apart. It was a disaster zone. I got a bunch of hits, but my feedback got a bunch of terrible votes. It was bad. I was embarrassed immediately and couldn't believe I was that stupid. I changed my entire philosophy then. I updated the artwork using 8-Bit figures modeled after the new animated series Code Monkeys. I then decided to go to the G4tv forums and chat to talk about my newest comic. I got ripped apart in the off topic forums for advertising.

Then in the chat I got my first vote of confidence, but they also said that I shouldn't rip off the Code Monkeys art style. Then I changed my art style again using a difficult and problematic but original form, but I only made one comic like that. It was my favorite comic about how much the Wii Accessories cost. But then I decided to use a form like Cyanide and Happiness only a bit rougher. I liked this because it was easier to do humor with facial expressions shown by my emo-seed comic. I finally settled into my art but I still hadn't gotten any very good reviews. So I made one about how my Web Comic sucked and what do you know... I got a great review for that one. Someone suggested I sign up for the top 100 web comics. I did but I only got one vote other than myself voting 4 times, once per day.

Then I made my last comic. I made one about a fat kid, which is my favorite humor. (I'm not very skinny myself so I feel I can make fun of myself and its ok.) It was pretty good but somehow my sources of hits had bottomed out. I peaked at 900. I hadn't gotten any hits for three days and I realized my comic was awful. I ended the site. I made a big message at the top but left one sample comic up on the site. Then I contemplated why it was so bad. This is what I came up with.

1. I started advertising to early. I bottomed out of hits from my sources, and seeing how bad it was in the beginning, no one trusted the link enough to come back.

2. I used a free website. It was ad-riddled and disgusting looking, and would have been much better if I had my own clear site with more storage. (I also think it would have been funny for the Adsense joke to add a bunch of Adsense links around the comics.)

3. My humor really wasn't as good as I thought. It was "meh" funny and I had already angered the people by advertising too much so they reviewed it badly.

4. I couldn't find many diverse places to advertise my web comic. I found only one forum and only two chat rooms, which I tapped out quickly.

5. I went too quickly. I should have had some reviews from my friends and family before I posted on the Internet. I should have reviewed humor and used a journal to write down ideas.

My web-comic InternetPimp lasted two weeks and garnered 900 hits.