Starting off a simple thread to get to know people, and their various inspirations relating to comics and webcomics.
What got you into them? And what was your first exposure to webcomics?
For Comics, it probably started when I was in elementary school. I would create simple stories for friends and classmates to read and pass around. Receiving the acknowledgement and praise from classmates was probably what motivated me to create more. Around this time, I had never picked up a proper comic book, but I mostly read the comic strips from the Sunday paper, which mostly consisted of Garfield, Peanuts, and the like. Around Middle School, I picked up my first ever comic book. It was one of those collective strips of Calvin and Hobbes.
And I was hooked!
I wanted to read as many comic strips, cartoons, and graphic novels I could find, as well as continue to create more comics for classmates and family.
I read everything from Garfield, to Sailor Moon Manga, to Archie Comics.
As for Webcomics, one of the first webcomics I read and came accross was Megatokyo. And that sorta continued my motivation and mindset of, "If I draw it, I can share it." Only this time, it would be a much wider audience.
And the rest is sorta history I guess.
What got you to make comics/webcomics?
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Please refrain from political topics or hate speech. Have fun!
Please refrain from political topics or hate speech. Have fun!
Re: What got you to make comics/webcomics?
My first real inspiration to try and be a comic artist was Jim Lee. I'd been reading comics for a while but Jim Lee's run on Uncanny X-men made me want to be a professional comic artist. I proceeded to not do anything about that until Christmas Eve 1999.
I found a webcomic by accident. One of the first. Sluggy Freelance. I read the entire archive that night and decided I could do that and Christmas day I drew a comic. I didn't draw another until April, 2000.
Both times I showed it to my friends. I did a third a couple or days after the second and one of my friends said "What, you did another one? Why?"
I hate to say it, but I've been drawing and writing for 20 years out of spite.
I found a webcomic by accident. One of the first. Sluggy Freelance. I read the entire archive that night and decided I could do that and Christmas day I drew a comic. I didn't draw another until April, 2000.
Both times I showed it to my friends. I did a third a couple or days after the second and one of my friends said "What, you did another one? Why?"
I hate to say it, but I've been drawing and writing for 20 years out of spite.
Booger.
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Evil_Chippy
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2018 11:45 am
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Re: What got you to make comics/webcomics?
Using the way-back machine, when I was young, my mother had a collection of Tintin, Asterix et Obelix and Lucky Luke, as well as other Belgium comics. My first memories are of reading these comics and making the connections of the terrible pun names hidden within.
As I grew older, I turned to reading for a lot of my time. When I was bored in class because little Billy couldn't understand the concept of 2*2, I'd open up one of my books and read. Suffice to say, this got me in trouble for not paying attention.
During elementary school, I discovered my father's old bin of comics and read some of the originals like Spiderman and Ironman and while they were interesting to me, they didn't quite have that same spark from when I was younger.
While I was in grade 4, I was sent to a writing workshop with two other schoolmates. We had won a competition for writing a comprehensible story. Mine was about little monsters that were hiding in a school and how they liked to eat misplaced sandwiches, homework assignments and the odd slow-running child. The workshop was interesting to take a part in because it was a bunch of published writers who were telling us: Just write. Something a young creator should be encouraged to do.
I later began to join RP communities on MUDs and MUSHs in order to try and flesh out my ability to create stories on the fly. While this was an excellent exercise, my youth and inexperience with patience attracted a lot of negative attention, which ultimately lead to me leaving the scene.
During high-school, while I still partook in some of the online RP MU**, I would come up with stories with a friend of mine. We would talk about world building and designs and reasoning while he doodled concept art. We never truly collaborated on anything together, but seeing him bring those characters to life on paper reminded me of the old comics I used to read.
This was the first time I ever saw a webcomic. It was Penny Arcade and VGCats. They were fun, light-hearted romps and I thought most online material would run that course. Nothing serious, nothing really long-winded. Boy-howdy, was I wrong!
As I was ending college, through a friend of mine who was in animation, I met Alli. She was working on her own comic called Vitara (I believe). Her style was bright, fun and bubbly. I had only ever really experienced Trigun, Cowboy Bebop and Dragonball/Dragonball Z as far as anime was concerned at the time.
I worked with her to try and flesh out her concept of Vitara, but after a while, it had become apparent that she was unsure of where she wanted the story to go.
We worked on projects together, piecing together different worlds - like I had done with my friend a few years ago. Ultimately, Alli came to the conclusion that we should focus on our strengths. I would write, she would draw. Together, we formed the crime-fighting duo we are today.
We started our first official project together called Out of My Element. We learned a lot in the beginning of that comic and one of the most important things we learned was not to write your magnum opus first. We put Out of My Element on hiatus and decided to hone our skills a little more with a concise, fully scripted comic that I had been working on with her on the side -My Hero!
And that is the long version.
TL;DR:
Cats made me do it.
As I grew older, I turned to reading for a lot of my time. When I was bored in class because little Billy couldn't understand the concept of 2*2, I'd open up one of my books and read. Suffice to say, this got me in trouble for not paying attention.
During elementary school, I discovered my father's old bin of comics and read some of the originals like Spiderman and Ironman and while they were interesting to me, they didn't quite have that same spark from when I was younger.
While I was in grade 4, I was sent to a writing workshop with two other schoolmates. We had won a competition for writing a comprehensible story. Mine was about little monsters that were hiding in a school and how they liked to eat misplaced sandwiches, homework assignments and the odd slow-running child. The workshop was interesting to take a part in because it was a bunch of published writers who were telling us: Just write. Something a young creator should be encouraged to do.
I later began to join RP communities on MUDs and MUSHs in order to try and flesh out my ability to create stories on the fly. While this was an excellent exercise, my youth and inexperience with patience attracted a lot of negative attention, which ultimately lead to me leaving the scene.
During high-school, while I still partook in some of the online RP MU**, I would come up with stories with a friend of mine. We would talk about world building and designs and reasoning while he doodled concept art. We never truly collaborated on anything together, but seeing him bring those characters to life on paper reminded me of the old comics I used to read.
This was the first time I ever saw a webcomic. It was Penny Arcade and VGCats. They were fun, light-hearted romps and I thought most online material would run that course. Nothing serious, nothing really long-winded. Boy-howdy, was I wrong!
As I was ending college, through a friend of mine who was in animation, I met Alli. She was working on her own comic called Vitara (I believe). Her style was bright, fun and bubbly. I had only ever really experienced Trigun, Cowboy Bebop and Dragonball/Dragonball Z as far as anime was concerned at the time.
I worked with her to try and flesh out her concept of Vitara, but after a while, it had become apparent that she was unsure of where she wanted the story to go.
We worked on projects together, piecing together different worlds - like I had done with my friend a few years ago. Ultimately, Alli came to the conclusion that we should focus on our strengths. I would write, she would draw. Together, we formed the crime-fighting duo we are today.
We started our first official project together called Out of My Element. We learned a lot in the beginning of that comic and one of the most important things we learned was not to write your magnum opus first. We put Out of My Element on hiatus and decided to hone our skills a little more with a concise, fully scripted comic that I had been working on with her on the side -My Hero!
And that is the long version.
TL;DR:
Cats made me do it.
Re: What got you to make comics/webcomics?
Wow. What a bunch of haters. Coincidentally I learned a new quote today that I feel pertains to this topic.
The best revenge is massive success.
-Frank Sinatra.
Re: What got you to make comics/webcomics?
My first introduction to comics came from several boxes of old Harvey comics and Archie comics digest books my Dad got for me from a yardsale. I would also find, once in a while, a few different sorts of of comics, but my childhood was pretty dry regarding comics until I hit high school and started seeking them out a bit more. Even then my only real option was to beg for a ride to Barnes and Noble to buy some of those amazing Hellboy trades. Once I managed to invest in comics a lot more my library exploded to a ridiculous degree and it's definitely making my move a pain. Oh boy, haha.
As far as drawing comics goes, I've always drawn and had some characters since childhood and would draw comics with them. I really only started caring about them and showing them off around high school where my circle of friends and I did terrible comics about ourselves that we found hilarious. This would eventually become my first webcomic, Warped!.
My first webcomic was Vera Brosgol's Return to Sender, which no longer exists, the 10k Commotion, and... Megatokyo and Penny Arcade. Really, though, it was Return to Sender that made me think about putting some of my dumb comics I drew for friends online. Then I realized those were terrible after about a year or two, and changed focus, eventually hitting on Cosmic Dash, my sci-fi series.
As far as drawing comics goes, I've always drawn and had some characters since childhood and would draw comics with them. I really only started caring about them and showing them off around high school where my circle of friends and I did terrible comics about ourselves that we found hilarious. This would eventually become my first webcomic, Warped!.
My first webcomic was Vera Brosgol's Return to Sender, which no longer exists, the 10k Commotion, and... Megatokyo and Penny Arcade. Really, though, it was Return to Sender that made me think about putting some of my dumb comics I drew for friends online. Then I realized those were terrible after about a year or two, and changed focus, eventually hitting on Cosmic Dash, my sci-fi series.
Re: What got you to make comics/webcomics?
I read a lot of Garfield in middle school until my child psychiatrist introduced me to Calvin and Hobbes. Boy, was that an upgrade. Also read a lot of Archie comics and manga. Tried to draw my own comics, but was never good enough at drawing.
I did a bunch of creative writing in middle school but took it more seriously in high school, where I came up with some projects I still have today.
Around 2010 or so, on 4chan's comics and cartoons board, there was a half-baked animation studio/comics collective where hpkomic and I met.
By university, I joined a Boston-area comics social group, where I made a lot of great friends. I joined the pool of writers and artists for the amateur webcomics magazine Premier Comics, where I collaborated with Jamil (known then as MilkTea) on a few short comics. I also got back in contact with HP, and he helped me develop my ideas and contribute to his webcomic Cosmic Dash.
I think comics are a great form of expression in both physical and digital form, and the latter especially has connected me with a lot of wonderfully creative and generous people.
I did a bunch of creative writing in middle school but took it more seriously in high school, where I came up with some projects I still have today.
Around 2010 or so, on 4chan's comics and cartoons board, there was a half-baked animation studio/comics collective where hpkomic and I met.
By university, I joined a Boston-area comics social group, where I made a lot of great friends. I joined the pool of writers and artists for the amateur webcomics magazine Premier Comics, where I collaborated with Jamil (known then as MilkTea) on a few short comics. I also got back in contact with HP, and he helped me develop my ideas and contribute to his webcomic Cosmic Dash.
I think comics are a great form of expression in both physical and digital form, and the latter especially has connected me with a lot of wonderfully creative and generous people.
Re: What got you to make comics/webcomics?
Awww...Chippy...I did the MUD/MUSH scene too growing up! 
In my case I was a late bloomer in a sense since the internet was new when I was 14. MUDs got me into anime and because we didn't have cable so I couldn't WATCH anime, I would get manga. Sailor Moon and Gundam wing were my biggest influences. Got a book on how to draw manga from the library and tried it out a few times. My mom was always supportive of my art hobbies so she got me manga paper, dipping ink and a real g-tip pen. You know...for real men! RAUGH! (So much mess!)
I think my first webcomic was Kagerou Electric Manga or MegaTokyo which showed me the way to put things online. Although, I was already making sites with my comic pages in my HTML classes. I would go to the library with my floppy discs to scan my art, then bring it home to photoshop things, then upload them.
Kids have it so easy these days.
In my case I was a late bloomer in a sense since the internet was new when I was 14. MUDs got me into anime and because we didn't have cable so I couldn't WATCH anime, I would get manga. Sailor Moon and Gundam wing were my biggest influences. Got a book on how to draw manga from the library and tried it out a few times. My mom was always supportive of my art hobbies so she got me manga paper, dipping ink and a real g-tip pen. You know...for real men! RAUGH! (So much mess!)
I think my first webcomic was Kagerou Electric Manga or MegaTokyo which showed me the way to put things online. Although, I was already making sites with my comic pages in my HTML classes. I would go to the library with my floppy discs to scan my art, then bring it home to photoshop things, then upload them.
Kids have it so easy these days.
