Q&A : Time

Two Years. I've been doing this comic for two years now. It made me think about interactions with new comic creators. It's not exactly a specific question they ask, it's just a general asking for advice. 

Inevitably when you put comic people together they are going to tell each other about the story, or pitch they are working on. I've been told a lot of pitches for comics over the years. They are never practical. 

It's not that the stories are bad, they are short sighted. It is normally some variation of an epic story. There is the hero protagonist. Their 20 friends. Another 30 love interests. Enemies. Antagonists. Rivals. The writer has already figure out the first 4 arcs of the story. But the real story doesn't really start until after the 5th arc, which is a beach episode that is totally not a beach episode. Then there are 7 more massic arcs planned after that. 

My advice is typically a little simple and maybe a little jaded, but is always, "Cut the story down. What's the most exciting to you and start there."

With new creators, and really all of us, it is very easy to forget that comics take a really long time to make. Even doing relatively simple stories are going to take months, if not years. So you want to make sure you are excited about what you are making. 

For example with Open Trade, I promised 14 trades. It has been two years and she has only done 11 trades. She's getting close, but we have yet to cross the base finish line. Even I'm willing to say that 14 was a bit over ambitious. But it's not stopping me from promising 14 more Trades with Xavier.

I still like making the comic. I'm still excited about these characters and learning about them. Telling stories about them. I knew it would be long when I started. 

My warning about planning isn't saying that no one should ever doing anything large an ambitious. More that if this is your first thing, start small. Maybe call it a proof of concept. You can even see it on the work I did for TGC. 

Sturk and I did a short story to see how we work together and see if the stories would be good and fun before committing to do something massive. Likewise, I also did a short story on my own before going deeper into the TGComic world. Helps prove to me and all of you that I'm going to make a complete story. 

Going to comic cons there is no shortage of indie comics that are a part 1 of a 10 part story that will never see a part 2. Or going into webcomics, there are a massive amount of webcomics that stop after 3 pages. 

Making comics is a huge committment. And I want more comics out there. 

My goal and desire is for people to have a better experience. Doing the big story that is never finished is a bad experience for everyone. It could keep a promising creator from making something new as they are haunted by this project that they feel guilty for never finishing. 

There is a rush of endorphines when something is complete and you can show people that can be fully enjoyed. Then it is on to the next thing. 

After getting a couple things under the belt and figuring out what you enjoy, take on the big project and have fun making all sorts of new things. 

I look forward to continuing Open Trade for another 2 years. 

There will be other stories coming soon as well.