/mmg/ - Manga Making General

[Anonymous No.7055122]

The general thread for Manga / manga-styled comic-making, manga-style illustration and related comic work. That said, everyone is welcome here.

Support each other and talk about your work or the work of others that excites you. Inking, character design, paneling / layout, writing, planning, and other discussions are all welcome.
Post resources, questions, in-progress pages, breakdowns of other works, etc. If a work is not yours, credit the maker (unless it's fucking obvious like a full page of One Piece or something).
Thanks to everyone for making /mmg/ a level-headed and helpful place. Remember, drawing and making comics and manga are difficult endeavors, and we're all in this struggle together.

Previous thread: >>7036651

Some resources:
/asg/, our stylistic sister-thread series for those focused more on illustration >>>/ic/asg

Books:
Understanding Comics
Making Comics
Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga
https://mega.nz/folder/Dd4hnZTC#EjMIcTDPLbWXkAJLPHx2Kg
Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting
https://archive.org/details/RobertMcKeeStorypdf/
Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga
https://kupdf.net/download/even-a-monkey-can-draw-manga_58b9ca16e12e89233badd376_pdf
The Shonen Jump Guide to Making Manga
https://mega.nz/file/i81imLpI#GcheJ9Jjk3lw1RE9nQWgL4RG4wEBNOcRmgA-iaU6Wpg

Videos:
"Manga Senpai/Tokyo Name Tank", "SMAC! THE SILENT MANGA AUDITION COMMUNITY"
Habanero Scans: https://www.dailymotion.com/HabaneroScans/videos
Full MANBEN Series link: https://mega.nz/folder/YQYAGJTR#1PAs3gRYTMoerPapIZTXGg
https://www.naokiurasawa.com/
Urasawa Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkIFOAoFm47XOAlJwTa6Ieg/videos

Source of OP image is Claymore, chapter 110

[Anonymous No.7055123]

>>7055122
Some western / indie publishers of Manga:

Saturday AM ( https://www.saturday-am.com/ )
> Digital indie magazine, seems to be on the up-and-up
> Open submissions for long-form series; also distributes series currently being published elsewhere.
> Regularly publishes one-shots, making it a good potential outlet for already-finished work.

Oni Press ( https://onipress.com/ )
> Technically indie, but at this point large enough by comic standards to be mentioned in the same breath as other publishers.

Antarctic Press ( https://antarctic-press.myshopify.com/ )
> Longtime large-indie publisher of OEL / manga-esque books.
> Seemingly taking submissions at present if http://www.antarctic-press.com/html/submissions.php is anything to go on.

Yen Press ( https://yenpress.com/ )
> Started out as a small indie publisher of original / Korean material, and has grown reasonably popular since.
> As of 2016, it is also one of the western arms of the Kadokawa Corporation, with Kadokawa owning a 51% stake.
> Editorial inquiries can apparently be sent to [e-mail], however, they apparently are not open to new submissions at this time.

Viz Media / Viz Originals ( https://www.viz.com/originals )
> *The* western manga publisher.
> Currently in the exploratory stages of setting up an English label.
> Submissions are open and several books have been announced. However, progress on the label seems to be moving very slowly.
> Still might be worth a shot anyway.

Shrine Comics ( https://shrinecomics.com/ )
> Small indie manga publisher
> Seemingly attempting to make the transition to physical volumes
> Allows crossposting to other sites

Iconic Comics (https://www.iconiccomics.com/))
>A bit like Oni Press and Antarctic Press
>A small publisher with a focus on indie works with manga inspiration

[Anonymous No.7055124]

>>7055123
Other open comic publishers:

Dark Horse ( https://www.darkhorse.com )
>Dark Horse still welcomes your submissions, and all submissions will still be reviewed, just as they always have been.
>All unsolicited story/series proposals must have a full creative team on board. Writer-only proposals will not be reviewed.

Image comics ( https://imagecomics.com/ )
>Image Comics only publishes creator-owned material. They do not contract creators; they’re only interested in publishing original content for which you would retain all rights.
>Image Comics publishes creator-owned/creator-generated properties and THEY DON’T PAY PAGE RATES. Image takes a small flat fee off the books published, and it will be the responsibility of the creators to determine the division of the remaining pay between their creative team members.

Drawn and quarterly ( https://drawnandquarterly.com/ )
>Please email a low resolution PDF with at least 20 pages of comics and cover letter to submissions. Do not send dropbox links, scripts, or proposals. Please read our submissions FAQ.

Fantagraphics ( https://www.fantagraphics.com/ )
>submission page: https://www.fantagraphics.com/pages/faq

Top Shelf Productions ( https://www.topshelfcomix.com/ )
>Regarding submissions, we're easy. Just email us a download link of what you'd like us to review. NOTE: We cannot accept cover letters, plot synopses, or scripts unless they are accompanied by a minimum of 10-20 completed pages (i.e., fully inked and lettered comic book pages).

Additional publisher lists:
> https://jasonthibault.com/definitive-list-comic-publisher-submission-guidelines/
> https://writingtipsoasis.com/best-independent-comic-book-publishers/

[Anonymous No.7055125]

>>7055124
Current Contests:

Zenon Magazine:
https://comic-zenon.com/article/entry/2023/05/09/132801

Silent Manga Audition: https://www.manga-audition.com/sma20-memorable-smile/

Magic international manga contest: https://www.shibuya-productions.com/en/magic/magic-international-manga-contest.html,73

4-koma Contest:
https://kitakyushu-mangataisho.com/en/

Mangano:
https://manga-no.com/mangano_award_1st#rules

/mmg/'s very own anon-led anthology: /ic/onography
https://discord.gg/QYnFBves7V
https://forms.gle/d3a2Cwwd44sJYyqv9

Additional community added Resources:
Mangafonts: https://mangafonts.carrd.co/
Hiro Mashima YT: https://www.youtube.com/@mashimaCh/videos

How (You) can help /mmg/:

> Know about a contest or a publishing opportunity? TAG THE OP and post a link.
> Have a new resource? TAG THE OP and link / mention it for inclusion.
> Have a link / DL for a mentioned resource? TAG THE OP and mention what you're supplying a link for.
> SCREENSHOT / PASTEBIN effortposts that help you for posterity.

[Anonymous No.7055148]

To the anon that made picrel: If you still post here, I would like to request a link to the rest of your comic as I forgot to ask it in the previous thread.

[Anonymous No.7055162]

Yay! My favorite general. I have pivoted my entire career and life direction because of this thread <3

[Anonymous No.7055192]

>>7055162
Anon, we're all just a bunch of idiots fucking around on a Burmese cardboard box-making forum. For the love of god please do not change your life because of anything anyone says here.

That said, I do love our little /mmg/ community and everyone here. It's always nice to see what everyone is making regardless of skill.

[Anonymous No.7055196]

>>7055192
nta but I will say these are the least toxic threads I visit

[Anonymous No.7055205]

>>7055162
I was already in an uncontrollable spiral before I found /mmg/ but I'm glad there are other retards to speedrun social suicide, homelessness, and eventually plain regular suicide with

[Anonymous No.7055272]

Sketching the new cover for my comic. The current one is boring and doesn't express the medieval fantasy vibe at first glance.

[Anonymous No.7055306]

>>7055272
>1800x4000
That aside, good idea.

[Anonymous No.7055351]

Apocalypse Knight debuts new pages on Monday and Friday! Check out the new pages here:
https://tapas.io/episode/3079851
https://apocalypseknight.the-comic.org/comics/

[hee hee No.7055489]

>>7055122
Is anybody here participating in CSP's global comic awards?
i uploaded mine 2 days ago

[Anonymous No.7055493]

>>7055489
I'm also participating but I'm cleaning my storyboard at the moment, it's cool to see there are others here participating

[Anonymous No.7055558]

Posting during a break. More storyboarding, this time with a nervous Aytan.

[Anonymous No.7055560]

>have ideas for several mangas already in mind
>have ideas for several porn doujins in mind too
>have ideas for several furry comics too in mind
>All have me sketching and drawing characters, scenarios they got into, and ideas of the world they live in etc.
>cannot for the life of me pick one on where to fucking start
And I hated this. I wake up every god damn morning having the feeling of wanting to start on one, concepting on the first page etc. Only for me to just scribble a bit before real life work/chores took over. Then the next day its that again as I feel the need to draw and do the page of the other idea. Its a repeating cycle and I kind of want to know if anyone here experienced that feeling as well if they are able to cope and fix this damn problem.

[Anonymous No.7055653]

Finished a 4 page minicomic.

[Anonymous No.7055655]

>>7055653
1/4

[Anonymous No.7055657]

>>7055489
When is the deadline? I'm working on a one shot I'm trying to finish by the end of March.
>>7055655
2/4

[Anonymous No.7055658]

>>7055657
3/4

[Anonymous No.7055659]

>>7055658
4/4

[Anonymous No.7055678]

Noob here. Is it possible to eyeball the general length of a chapter from its corresponding script/outline? If so, how accurately?

[Anonymous No.7055683]

Noob here. Is it possible to eyeball the general length of a chapter from its corresponding script/outline? If so, how accurately?

[Anonymous No.7055712]

>>7055678
Its not an exact science. The same dialogue between two people can be all on one page or several depending on how you want to draw the panels/the page.

[Anonymous No.7055724]

>>7055659

[Anonymous No.7055732]

>>7055678
This is why you have to plan tbe page numbers from the beginning

[Anonymous No.7055740]

>>7055659
My only complaint is that flipping the bird from the back doesn't feel natural.
Pretend someone is behind you right now. Pivot in your seat and flip them off. You wont do it like that. You will do it proper, and it will just be at more of an angle

[Anonymous No.7055952]

>>7055659
I feel like she is your waifu Xd

[Anonymous No.7056019]

>>7055659
Are you actually Irish, Oi-kun, or is this all just researched knowledge?

[Anonymous No.7056020]

>>7055560
I know that feel, bro. I'm a terminal planner, never follow through. Every new plan I feel like I'm getting closer to something I can stick with though

[Anonymous No.7056383]

does anyone have the crack for clipstudio paint

[Anonymous No.7056408]

>>7056383
Just buy it when it goes on sale. The Pro version is cheap as hell at that point.

https://www.pipelinecomics.com/learncsp/when-does-clip-studio-paint-go-on-sale/

>For the last four years, Clip Studio Paint has gone on sale in the months of March, June, September, and November. The sales last six days. The price for the PRO edition drops from $49.99 to $25, and the EX edition goes from $219 to $109. An upgrade price point of $84 taking you from PRO to EX during the sale is no longer offered.

[Anonymous No.7056638]

Just a reminder to everyone that basic shapes are all that matter, in terms of quality manga art. The inking, the hatching, the lighting, the designs, the finishings, and even the composition, are just icing on the cake. If you're struggling with a page, the most likely reason is that your basic shapes are off. I recently went back to manga that I drew a year ago and went over it with broad, basic shapes, and I made it 1000% better, simply because my basic shapes were simply better. I remember struggling so much, at that time, to make my pages better by trying out different styles of hatching, different amounts of black shapes, how and where to use screentones, etc. doing and redoing my pages over and over again, spending several days just trying out screen tones in different places, etc. but all of that didn't matter in the end, because the basic shapes were shit.

Work on your fundies, guys.

[Anonymous No.7056642]

>>7056638
Care to post an example (yours or not) of a page with bad shapes?

[Anonymous No.7056975]

>>7056642
i redrew my own art. i distinctly remember being really upset at that page, but I couldn't figure out why. turns out I just sucked and needed to do more master copies

[Anonymous No.7056979]

>>7056642
another redraw. this one is not as grevious, but I was worrying wayy to much about where to put tones and how to fade gradate my black shapes using hatching, but turns out it was all wasted effort

[Anonymous No.7056983]

>>7056642
one last one. this one was also from a comic that I struggled so much on I just gave up because of the art. I think I only had 2 completed panels, despite it being only a 5 page story

[Anonymous No.7056986]

Hey, I was in the neighborhood and figured I'd post my latest update here:
https://m.webtoons.com/en/canvas/shadow-division-files-witch-hunt/homecoming-part-2/viewer?title_no=792199&episode_no=13

[Anonymous No.7056988]

anyways some of you might be thinking "you still suck bro" but at the very least I'm way happier with the way the redraws came out and I can tell that as long as I keep improving my basic drawing, I can make beautiful manga, even if there are no black shapes and tones. I don't know if some of you have read "ningyo no kuni" but it's a purely white background + line art + faint grey tone manga that's extremely beautiful, even without a lot of fancy finishing. basic drawing is all that matters

[Anonymous No.7057015]

>>7056988
Hey, I can see what you mean and I totally agree with what you are saying, the redraws are much better and you can see you have learned to set the mood better and your lines are more confident

[Anonymous No.7057033]

>>7057015
thanks. now that I"m thinking about it, I don't know how my posts helped anyone, because as long as you're drawing you'll eventually improve your art, it's a matter of time. But I guess, i just want to tell everyone that a bad page is not because you're lacking some kind of secret know how that is in an untranslated Japanese book somewhere, it all just comes down to doing more study

[Anonymous No.7057077]

>>7056979
This looks like storyboard vs finished product. Was the right side a final draft at the time?

[Anonymous No.7057081]

>>7056986
When you draw, is it storyboarded out in the webtoons style? I'm trying to decide if I want to do it in that fashion or more manga style

[Anonymous No.7057083]

>>7057077
left was what I drew a year ago, and right was what I did today. I realize they were kinda similar, but you have to know that the original comic I was drawing was a 5 page portfolio sample that I was trying to make, so I was trying to do it perfectly. I would redraw anything I didn't like, and I ended up spending an entire week on that one page. It went through 4 different iterations, I think. I struggled so much to get that result, because I was bad at drawing. If I struggled hard enough, I could make something decent, but still, I am not happy with it.

The one on the right, however, took 20 minutes, and with maybe 30 more minutes I could finish it into something that could be called a final product, I think. Even if the results seem the same on the surface, I struggle a lot less now, with drawing fundamentals

[Anonymous No.7057093]

>>7055196
nta but I vizit ic one in a blue moon (when my hands type automatically 4chan ic instead of just 4chan) and this are one of the most wholesome comments I read on here.

[Anonymous No.7057096]

>>7057081
I storyboard in scrolling format. I used to do it in page format but I was running into too many problems with panels being too small. With webtoons it's especially important for panels to fit phone screens and be legible.

[Anonymous No.7057098]

>>7057083
I understand. I'm trying to incorporate negative space into my panels. I hope to post something soon and get your feed back, since you might be the only published anon here. Also, did you learn japanese in tangent with drawing?

[Anonymous No.7057101]

>>7055560
>>7056020
Sounds to me you guys are not fully committed to one thing. Dont know if this will help, but try to eliminate ideas one by one until only one remains. Tell youself why you like this or that, what you dont like, pick and chose elements, and combine them in only one thing. And try to go out from there.

t. not an aspiring mangaka, just a drawing hobbyist lurking

[Anonymous No.7057104]

>>7057098
i think you're mistaking me for cowboy anon, who draws way better than me. thanks, though, it's cool to be mistook for him

[Anonymous No.7057108]

>>7057104
I must be! You are also very talented
>>7057096
This is something I forget. The majority of readers aren't going to be on a monitor.

[Anonymous No.7057116]

>>7057108
>You are also very talented

[Anonymous No.7057137]

>>7057116
Do you have anything going online? (I don't mean blogs, I don't have social)

[Anonymous No.7057150]

>>7057098
>Also, did you learn japanese in tangent with drawing?
If you are indeed mistaking him for me (cowboy anon/octagone/published eromanga guy/dingle (geez that's a lot of names)) then the answer is that I didn't learn japanese.
I know a little bit from trying to read/translate for myself raw manga and general osmosis of using 4chan for a decade, but all my japanese is bullshitted with the help of MTL + dictionaries. I can speak it, and I can't really read it or write in it without a lot of help from tools.

>>7056638
>>7056975
>>7056979
>>7056983
I dunno man, they both look roughly as good as one another. That is to say, the "before" doesn't look as bad as you feel about it IMO (though some of the compositions are definitely better, notably the "I should be asleep" panel has way better comp/values). I think you just realized how much time is wasted in trying to polish pages to perfection. This is why when I'm asked how long pages take I say "it depends on the project", because some projects I can end up spending 10+ hours per page and some projects I can bust out pages that tell the story just as well if not better in one or two hours. When you're working on something with the mindset of "this is going to be rough and unpolished" it frees you to do only that 20% of the drawing that contributes to 80% of the end result.
Anyway, they look solid. Keep it up bro.

[Anonymous No.7057152]

>>7057108
>This is something I forget. The majority of readers aren't going to be on a monitor.
The numbers according to line webtoon is about 80/20 phone/computer. It's pretty clear which should take priority but tbqh 20% is also a large readership so I think it's good to avoid "time wasting" panels (obnoxiously long) as to not completely alienate PC readers. Also vast majority of us authors are in the PC group and it's good to try and impress our peers so we can grow stronger

[Anonymous No.7057153]

>>7057150 (me)
>I can speak it
*I can't speak it
All my communication with my editor is through text, including meetings.

[Anonymous No.7057242]

Anyone here work traditionally?

I've been really, really trying to make Digital work. Like, for actual years, but it's never stuck.
Sketches look... okay. Line art looks absolutely soulless no matter what I try though.
Some people seem to like it, but I'm not happy with it.

I drew in my sketch book for the first time in a few months and was struck by a feeling of:
>Oh yeah, I DO know how to draw
Like, I'm not pumping out masterpieces but I can sketch something and be happy with it. And the inking isn't half-bad either to my eyes.

It's so frustrating because Digital is so obviously THE WAY. Layouts are faster, I can do it all in one program, I got 3D tools and posing to try out shots and speed up, no need to worry about tools, or storage, or materials...
I have no idea why I'm getting so little transfer between Digital and Traditional.

[Anonymous No.7057249]

>>7057242
Anon many, perhaps even most pros continue to make their manga analog to this day, and of course there's the 50ish years of pre-digital manga production before the era where drawing comics digitally was really a practical option. If you like the way your work looks in analog then just make stuff in analog. You wouldn't exactly be swimming against the current.

[Anonymous No.7057351]

>>7057242
>It's so frustrating because Digital is so obviously THE WAY
I use a mix of trad and digital. I think it would be more work to just do digital, but maybe that's just the way I like to work.

[Anonymous No.7057367]

>>7057242
Some of the best in the medium still use analog; one that comes to mind is Dandadan's Yukinobu Tatsu. You're good.
I also struggled with transitioning from analog to digital. What helped for me was sketching physically and then doing all the inking in digital. That way, you can't screw it up too bad.

[Anonymous No.7057386]

Can you share comics/mangas that you love that are very poorly drawed to give us drawlets some hope?

[Anonymous No.7057423]

>>7057367
Dandadan is traditional? Holy shit…

[Anonymous No.7057477]

>>7057423
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkozKZtKEuA
Ayep. That man is a total fucking machine too. I think the entire time he's been drawing Dandadan he took a week-long break only once, or something crazy like that. I have no idea how he went overlooked for so long.

[Anonymous No.7057493]

>>7057386
Anything by Fujimoto specifically Chainsaw Man

[Anonymous No.7057580]

>>7057423
>>7057477
>>7057493
Coincidentally the Chainsaw man art went to shit after the Dandandan guy stopped being Fuji's assistant and started drawing Dandandan.

[Anonymous No.7057628]

>draw comics and enjoy it (pic related is one of my quick sketches)
>writer wants to commission me for $45 per simple page (26 pages total)
>get more info about it and he wants it to be like a job where he manages me and my work, multiple meetings a week, etc (all the extra work is unpaid)
>says he's talking to a lot of artists and they're all interested. I say ok, don't really think about it
>somehow "I win" and he emailed last Thursday to let me know
Is this typical for comic artists? I mostly work on my own projects. Last guy I worked with handed me the script, gave little feedback, paid me, then that's it

[Anonymous No.7057633]

>>7057580
pyw

[Anonymous No.7057647]

>>7057628
just a lurker, not an artist but that sounds shitty anon.
I've been micromanaged at work before and it starts weighing on you really quick, maybe give it a try if you feel you can get out of it easily
Also love your drawing, have fun

[Anonymous No.7057736]

I'm really enjoying drawing my submission for the contest, even if it doesn't win anything, just finishing it will be a great accomplishment

[Anonymous No.7057760]

>>7057628
>all the extra work is unpaid
Absolutely not. If he's going to be riding your ass like he's some fucking dime-a-dozen middle management jackass, then he needs to be paying you for every 30 minute interval at a set rate, with even a second into the next interval counting for the full 30 minutes.

I would personally not work with this guy if he's going to be like that. Guarantee you that by the end he's going to fight you over payment. Based on how you're describing him, he acts like his writing is the end-all be-all of the thing when so many of us are over here pulling both roles. What a joke.

[Anonymous No.7057796]

>>7057647
>>7057760
Thanks anons. I turned him down and wished him the best of luck with his project.
The low pay per page was already fucking with me a little but I can't handle that amount of micromanaging, paid or not.

[Anonymous No.7057840]

>>7055272
Maybe I will add two lil angels in the upper left and right

[Anonymous No.7057885]

>>7057633
your mom

[Anonymous No.7057897]

>>7057840
Looks perfect as is, anon. The stained glass looks great

[Anonymous No.7057899]

>>7057840
Altarusia anon, you may want to try doing some shading like she's standing in front of actual stained glass. Would make it look less flat and attract eyes of viewers more. Nice work regardless.

[Anonymous No.7057915]

>>7057899
Since the light is coming from the back then the shadow would be covering all her body with exception on the extremities, right?

[Anonymous No.7057942]

>>7057840
If I saw this cover in a store I'd definitely check it out.

[Anonymous No.7057945]

>>7057628
I have a sibling who's a popular romance webtoon creator and she gets these DMs on a weekly basis.
One of them straight up said
>Look I'm giving you the opportunity to work on my comic, we can share the profits 60/40
>BUT if a popular mangaka finds my comic and wants to pick it up I'd have to drop you, sorry!
Most these guys are just straight delusional and produce nothing.

[Anonymous No.7057948]

Holy jesus my fucking back.

How do you guys avoid the pains and aches that come from sitting and drawing all day?
I've found pullups and deadhangs to work really well, but I've been skipping workouts... So this is whatbI get.

[Anonymous No.7057966]

>>7057945
>Most these guys are just straight delusional and produce nothing.

>me who hasn't gotten past the storyboard phase

[Anonymous No.7057972]

>>7057945
Is your sister hot

[Anonymous No.7058006]

>>7057945
I used to read the webtoon subreddits and there are a lot of writers like this. They don't want to pay an artist but want them to be completely dedicated to the writer's story.
I think it's mostly school kids but there are adult writers who prey on artists, too

[Anonymous No.7058041]

>>7057915
Yes, but keep in mind it doesnt have to be a stark contrast - after all, we don't know what is on the sides or in front of the girl. Just a small darkening and then the extra colors around her silhouette (as appropriate depending on the stained glass) would make it just a little bit more special (than it already is).

[Anonymous No.7058056]

>>7058006
It is frustrating how common this kind of exploitative (or best case completely ignorant of others' time) mindset is. From university professors giving you assignments as though they are the only class you're taking to social media parasites or others trying to get you to do free stuff for them "for exposure" to companies demanding you go beyond the bounds of your job contract while paying you jack shit and are shocked when employees end up burned out and quit.

I don't know why people are so incapable (or are intentionally unwilling due to greed) to consider that the other party in a transaction maybe, just MAYBE, might not be willing to be a slave.

[Anonymous No.7058065]

>>7058006
I tell people I'm a writer first and then impress them by telling them the art is mine too because I couldn't settle with not being 100% in control of my vision so I learned how to draw.

[Anonymous No.7058067]

>>7058006
>>7058065
Wait - is r/webtoon mostly just "ideas people?"

[Anonymous No.7058091]

>>7057966
Get to it anon (in the same boat)

[Anonymous No.7058108]

>>7058067
No it's mostly women koreaboos. The idea guys weasel their way over there so they stick out like a sore thumb.

[Anonymous No.7058116]

>>7058067
In some cases, yes
>I need an artist, also an editor, also can you write it for me too?

[Anonymous No.7058118]

>>7058056
I'ld say I want to exploit them and swipe some ideas since I can't come up with my own, but I've seen what the average idea guy comes up with in drawthreads.

[Anonymous No.7058127]

>>7058116
There should be less of these types around now that they have MJ/Dalle to get all of their ideas out.

[Anonymous No.7058128]

>>7057628
Lol I've been through this song and dance, though I applied myself. Ended up quitting after 9 months and ~150 pages. I hated it.
How enjoyable it is to you I suppose will depend entirely on the client and how particular they are about how pages should look and how many times they make you redo stuff either because they failed to communicate what they actually wanted or because of your own failings to draw in a style that is outside of your wheelhouse.
That said, 26 pages seems like a good, small project to find out if you like doing this kind of client work. Do it. You might end up hating it or liking it, but you have nothing to lose either way.

>>7057796
RIP.

[Anonymous No.7058129]

>>7058116
>I'm a writer looking for an artist, but also if you could help me with my writing that'd be nice too :))))))))))

Holy shit. What's the point of partnering up then? Might as well just also be the writer lmao.

[Anonymous No.7058136]

>>7057948
I get up and pace around for ~20 minutes at least once a day, often more. I make sure to stretch (crack) my back frequently. I raise my tablet so it's as close to eye level as I can get it without raising my entire desk up. I do still feel a building pressure in the lower back when I'm nearing the end of a long day of work, which is my sign that enough is enough for the day (not every day is like this). I want to do more, but I'm limited by space and money, so it'll have to wait until I'm better off financially and can move out of the parent's place. The only way out of this situation is through, by drawing enough comics to afford a move.

[Anonymous No.7058147]

>>7058067
/mmg/ seems like mostly ideas people. although there has been some work posted lately

[Anonymous No.7058149]

I don't even know how much I would charge for making a comic. It's a lot more tiring and complex than doing a simple drawing, and you don't know what awaits you on the next page.
>On the first page two people are talking.
>Next page a dinosaur in a submarine
Not to mention it's someone else's project, so you don't have the love factor to keep you drawing. Well, I would make it very expensive.

[Anonymous No.7058155]

>>7058147
Don't remind me. I just finished my 2 main characters design, and I'm working on the prologue right now.
Any tips for starting out would be greatly appreciated

[Anonymous No.7058216]

>>7058147
What gives you that idea? We have a decent amount of anons making stuff. Just off the top of my head we have at least 10 or 12 people who post semi-regularly.

>>7058149
Depends on the complexity of the art style, the amount of pages, whether everything is fully rendered (and color would cost more as you can't just grayscale everything), how involved is the paneling, etc. Even something somewhere in the middle art skill-wise would possibly cost around $10,000 or more if its not some super simple 4koma thing but instead was pages and pages.

[Anonymous No.7058232]

>>7058155
>Any tips for starting out would be greatly appreciated
Just draw the first page man you're overthinking it

[Anonymous No.7058234]

[Anonymous No.7058346]

>>7057885
granddad?

[Anonymous No.7058351]

>>7058346
fleestone?

[Anonymous No.7058360]

>>7058234
Baki has always had a...... tenuous grasp on reality, lol.

[Anonymous No.7058366]

these books are great and they helped me learn a lot, hell I still use them as reference to this day from time to time.

[Anonymous No.7058367]

>>7058366
vol 8 is the only good one

[Anonymous No.7058376]

>>7058367
vol 7, 15 have been the most helpful for me but the others also have their good points.

[Anonymous No.7058377]

>>7058366
The one about Copics was always my favorite. I couldn't afford Copics for years but the book taught me some coloring techniques.

[Anonymous No.7058382]

>>7058367
nah, vol 11 is the pretty important

[Anonymous No.7058386]

>>7058367
nah vol 11 is pretty important

[Anonymous No.7058393]

Recovered old files and god knows when i'll complete this but at least it's not completely missed anymore

[Anonymous No.7058395]

>>7058393
Love the angles!

[Anonymous No.7058396]

>>7058395
Thank you! :)

[Anonymous No.7058426]

Heres another pumkin person. Clothing these weirdos is hard, because nothing looks good on their legs.

>>7057351 I always enjoy seeing your art, very soulful.

[Anonymous No.7058441]

>>7058426
Spooky, yet cute. Could easily change with whatever expression is on that pumpkin. I think that's good character design

[Anonymous No.7058476]

>>7058386
>>7058376
>15, 11
A lot of it suffers by being heavily outclassed by other options. Like I can't imagine resorting to the themed reference ones when I have the internet and can pull up cosplay photos and drawings by much better artists. Same with the drawing fundies instruction.

It's different for the comic specific topics that 8 is mostly about, where the alternatives are limited.
>7
I fuggin hate the edutainment comic style of book though.

[Anonymous No.7058497]

>>7058476
sorry they didn't work for you anon, to me they helped me greatly, I guess its a matter on how you approach them. Of course its not the only reference material I work with, but whenever I do they help me a lot.

[Anonymous No.7058518]

>>7058497
>>7058476
>>7058366
>>7058367
I have none of these, are they in the workbook thread?

[Anonymous No.7058584]

I think ima gonna share what i have, tomorrow in the valentine's thread, do anybody knows how i can share it in something like an album, i don't remember if imgur still works to do that

[Anonymous No.7058798]

>>7058476
You have to remember that those books came out some 20+ years ago. At that time, the internet was still relatively new, Anime and Manga were reaching their first real crescendo in the west, and these were some of the few actually vetted books by Japanese artists and Mangaka. Because anime and manga was at a high at that point and was pretty popular, every single hack artists, amateur, and hobbiest was making "How to Draw Anime/Manga" books to ride to wave and make a quick buck.

Sometimes the specialized books were actually quite good. Hell, I still have three or four of them on my little reference book library.

[Anonymous No.7058824]

>>7057948
>Invest in a good chair: Like a good bed, you'll spend a third of your life in it.
>Press yourself close to your drawing table so you're not able to lean far over, and don't need to. This forces you to straighten your posture
>Wedge something very soft and firm between you and your chair, like a thick pillow
>Regularly check your posture
>DON'T sit and draw all day. Get up at regular intervals, stretch, go on short walks, even something as simple as heading to the kitchen to get a drink and back can mean a lot
>Do core and upper body calisthenics. A stronger back means less back pain

[Anonymous No.7058842]

>>7057628
>$45 per page
i hope you're spending an hour per page tops otherwise go flip burgers

[Anonymous No.7058881]

>>7058842
Minimum wage in burgerland is $7.25.
That means you can spend about 6 hours on a page and still make more than a burgerflipper. Though not if you're in bongland; if you're in bongland you only have about three hours depending on your age.

[Anonymous No.7058886]

>>7058842
I didn't end up doing it anyway and yeah page rate was too low (have to factor in paypal fees). I don't mind a lower page rate if it's easy but the unpaid meetings and micromanaging was a turn off

[Anonymous No.7058920]

>>7056638
>>7057083
What kind of practice would you recommend specifically?
You mentioned master studies would I just take panels and break them down as simply as possible?

[Anonymous No.7058933]

>>7058881
If you live a developed part of burgerland (and are living in an extended household like normal non-American people do, especially if they are poor) there are state minimum wages higher than the federal one, new york for instance is $16. (If you need to spend more than a third of your income on housing you can't actually afford to "live alone," 16x40x4, that's $2500, give your mom $500 for your room). You should definitely charge more than minimum wage to do comic pages, a comic page is basically 2-4 illustrations in itself not to mention the planning that went behind it and that it is part of a series without the other members of which it is worthless. Again if you are living in an extended household earning minimum wage in a developed part of a developed country, that's about what some people claim they earn from patrons, commissions, etc. Charge more. You might not have a big client again for a while, who knows...

[Anonymous No.7059104]

>>7058933
Going to piggyback off of this anon's comment to say that unlike with a generic illustration in which you're competing against every single third worlder to ever pick up a stylus and their relative cheapo wages, a comic is still a "luxury" item due to all the extra work that it entails. Way fewer people are willing to go all the way as to make a comic - as such, it simply does not help anyone to lower their prices in a race to the bottom. Any potential rebuttal can simply be turned around by telling the client to go do it themselves if they want the comic so badly.

>I/I know someone that can do it for cheaper
Then go do it then, otherwise pay me my rates.

>See, these kinds of prices is why AI will replace you in comic making!
Is it replacing me right now? No? Then pay me my rates.

[Anonymous No.7059107]

>>7055558
looks pretty good to me

[Anonymous No.7059228]

"Ideas guys" who have no actual skill and undervalue artists never have any good ideas to start with and should be ignored.

Even if AI developed to the point where it could instantly produce their "vision" exactly as they want it for free, the result would still be garbage that no one will read.

[Anonymous No.7059268]

>>7058824
>good chair
>starting at $1000 usd, good ones around $1800
Guess I'll have back pain

[Anonymous No.7059280]

>>7059268
I just saw that razer got a good one at 700$

[Anonymous No.7059326]

>>7059268
You can still do back exercises.

[Anonymous No.7059474]

>>7059268
Squats

[Anonymous No.7059484]

Just did this for the OC redraw thread.

I just used the circle tool for the text, looks like crap, along with the font. What do you guys use?

[Anonymous No.7059506]

>>7059268
Get a $200-300 chair and add a pillow/towel.

[Anonymous No.7059519]

>want to get a good gauge of webtoons style
>check out random latest chapter of popular sword fart shit
>ENTIRE chapter is just people talking in the same location with absolutely nothing noteworthy happening
>scrolled for what felt like at least 10 minutes

People actually read this shit?? And it's POPULAR??

[Anonymous No.7059537]

>>7059519
No, the whole website is a work and an investor scam

[Anonymous No.7059539]

>>7059484
you can draw them with the speech bubble tool by selecting any of the options there

[Anonymous No.7059543]

>>7059484
Don't fuck with speech bubble tools or figure tools for speech bubbles, I just draw it in my regular line work pen on its own layer.

[Anonymous No.7059551]

>>7059484
Use rectangles with rounded corners. The text should have a buffer around it about the size of a capital letter. Plan the bubbles along with the layout so you don't run out of space or cover anything important. Also why did you cover the other character's head? They have some sort of rivalry so why is she faceless? You should split this into two pages. The first is the internal monologue and the two characters facing off. The next would be the kick and rival-chan's reaction

[Anonymous No.7059573]

>>7059551
It was just a meme I was making for an image I drew earlier >>7058333
I decided to try and make it a page with minimal effort. It took about 10 minutes to add everything

>>7059539
>>7059543
Getting mixed signals, I will try both

[Anonymous No.7059594]

>>7059573
>minimal effort
you're not good enough to put in minimal effort, sorry

[Anonymous No.7059602]

>>7059573
>Getting mixed signals, I will try both
I meant to say "I don't fuck with speech bubble tools". You can do whatever works for you, so long as it does work.

[Anonymous No.7059619]

>>7059594
My first attempt wasn't good enough? I guess I should call my job and see if they'll take me back

[Anonymous No.7059649]

>>7059519
Sometimes I feel like what /ic/ wants and what your average CONSOOOOM normie wants is wildly at odds with one another. /ic/ harps endlessly about developing proper perspective, feeling the form, etc. (not that you shouldn't do that, nobody TRULY wants to see bad art), yet tons of poorly made crap is popular on webtoon sites. /ic/ says that you should always have a lead, make sure you do this or that for plot development, and yet you have episodes like you just described where literally fuck all happens. Makes you wonder once in a while what's the point if your XYZ normie is literally so analytically braindead that they don't even care.

>>7059484
I do what >>7059543 does, I also just draw things manually on its own "speech bubble" layer. Whenever anyone uses the pre-made bubbles with a tool it's always stood out to me like a sore thumb.

[Anonymous No.7059657]

>>7059649
Appealing to the lowest common denominator is a shit goal, you should make something that won't be thrown in the trash the second the reader is done killing time on the shitter

[Anonymous No.7059668]

>>7059649
The craziest thing on webtoons is when they go for hundreds of chapters and the art just never improves. Some people don't have that autistic passion and just want to get their ideas out as quickly and easily as possible. They use every shortcut they can and are completely satisfied being mid their whole lives. Baffling stuff.

[Anonymous No.7059670]

>>7059649
>Whenever anyone uses the pre-made bubbles with a tool it's always stood out to me like a sore thumb
Lol assclown opinion, just because you're too stupid to use the tool properly doesn't mean other people are

[Anonymous No.7059702]

>>7059649
You're right, Webtoons Originals are all about consoooming shit quickly. They make shit as fast as possible for their weekly release and always have to have 3 fast pass episodes available, too. That's probably why the episodes are just copy pasted panels and acon3d backgrounds. Webtoons has a bad reputation for how it treats its Originals creators (the ones with the contracts, not the Canvas people)
I read some stat a few years ago that the average reader on Webtoons spends 10 seconds "reading" a chapter. You know that background you spent days on? Average webtoon reader don't give a shit

[Anonymous No.7059708]

>>7059649
because sometimes actual good shit falls through the cracks of obscurity and gets the popularity it deserves. BLAME! comes to mind. I strive to make good shit with the small chance I'll get an audience.

[Anonymous No.7059710]

>>7059702
This begs the question of how long the average manga reader looks at a page (assuming it's not just a pure talking head), for those of us drawing in a more traditional format. I tried a quick internet search but didn't turn up any results.

[Anonymous No.7059713]

>>7059668
>>7059702
yeah... its depressing, but they got their ideas out in a presentable form. unlike me that only get like 1 chapter out a year because I kept getting depressed since nobody reads them.

[Anonymous No.7059714]

>>7059668
They don't improve because the entire comic is traced over 3d. And most of the time backgrounds aren't even traced the sketchup/csp model is just drag & dropped directly onto the panel.

[Anonymous No.7059717]

>>7059713
If you don't have marketing behind you, you're not likely to ever get popular no matter how good your product is. It will be buried under a mountain of shit and the majority of people are not discerning enough to dig through it for quality, they simply want to be able to talk about what all their friends are talking about and fit in.

You'll need something unique and to cultivate a small fanbase like Oi-kun, and build it over many years. You're either missing the self-marketing, or your comic just isn't interesting to anyone at all.

[Anonymous No.7059723]

>>7059714
>model is just drag and dropped directly onto the panel
Wow, I thought they at least just selected the lines and then drew over it with a brush, but that's even lazier than I thought. No wonder I can tell right away when 3d assets are used in those manhwas. Christ, working on those must be absolute hell on earth. All that work just to make stuff for Koreans to scroll by in 10 seconds while taking a bathroom break.

>>7059713
My turnaround is the same per chapter anon, don't worry about it. I've read your manga, but I'm afraid I only add single digit view counts to each chapter lol.

>>7059717
How are you defining self-marketing here?

[Anonymous No.7059729]

>>7059723
https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/boy-girlfriend/list?title_no=656579

Most popular comic on canvas from a quick search, see for yourself.

[Anonymous No.7059730]

>>7059723
>Wow, I thought they at least just selected the lines and then drew over it with a brush
kek no way, maybe some people do that but they just load it up in Sketchup (or Abler), get the right angle and that's it. Maybe some light editing and adding a background (if not included) but that's it.
Here's what it looks like. I got it free from one of Acon3d's promotions a few years back

[Anonymous No.7059735]

>>7059723
>How are you defining self-marketing here
Sharing your comic directly with the potential audience, interacting with them, being a real person rather than just a name on the cover. If you have a whole chapter, storytime it even if you get negative responses or none at all.

[Anonymous No.7059738]

>>7059713
>>7059717
"Nobody reads them" because you're barely making them dude.
Put yourself in a reader's shoes: say you see a page of a webcomic you think looks cool. You go to their site or whatever to read more. You catch up quickly, and notice the dates on the pages, and see that they only make like a page a month and haven't updated it in half a year. You'd lose interest immediately.
You don't start out with readers, you need to build that readership by creating consistently and frequently. If the work is any good at all (and I do mean "at all") then you'll slowly (over the course of years) build a readership. You need to either stick with one series over a long time or make sure to end a series conclusively when you want to go on to the next, randomly dropping series on a whim is only going to frustrate and shake off the readers you do build.

It's only with a publisher that you can start with an initial boost of readers, but you still have to build that audience by releasing consistently and frequently.

>You'll need something unique
There's no evidence to support this at all. If anything most popular stuff is not unique at all. Even the work you use as an example, Oi, is heavily derivative and not trying to hide it.

>>7059723
>Wow, I thought they at least just selected the lines and then drew over it with a brush
Don't trust random anons on /ic/ when it comes to generalization comic artist's workflows. For example, I dunno if he's still around but there was one guy floating around /ic/ who'd parrot the same "99.9% of manga is traced 3d and photos". He'd keep repeating it because anons would consistently seem to believe it totally uncritically. Maybe the anon saying that really believes it, or maybe they just find it hard to believe that there are people out there who work hard to deliver absolute dreck, but claims like it should not be taken at face value because the simple fact is that a generalization like that is not a true representation of reality.

[Anonymous No.7059744]

>>7059735
I'm sorry, I am a dumb-dumb and need more hand-holding. When you say sharing your comic with the intended audience or doing storytime, you mean like contacting the right subreddit, or going to a comic-con, or......?

[Anonymous No.7059748]

>>7059744
He means identifying whatever you want your audience to be, going to places that audience hangs out and showing them your work. Best to do so if you can avoid seeming like an outside coming to shill your comic.
When he says storytime, he's referring to the practice here on 4chan of making a thread for a comic and posting each page in sequence in the thread, for others to read. People do it with full manga on /a/, and people do it with full comics on /co/. It can also just be a chapter of a manga/comic.
Because of the nature of this place, if you have to ask what a storytime is then it's likely to blow up in your face if you tried to make one yourself, for the aforementioned reason of avoiding seeming like an outsider.

[Anonymous No.7059750]

>>7059748
nta but thank you I had no idea what storytime was

[Anonymous No.7059753]

Which plataform is better for a comic artist, Insta or twitter?

[Anonymous No.7059755]

>>7059753
Both. It won't kill you to spend 1 minute posting your comic in 2 places instead of only 30 seconds posting it in one.

[Anonymous No.7059757]

>>7059714
Bro, imagine cheating your whole art career, waking up 40 years old, telling your friends and family you're a professional artist and when they ask you to draw something, you can't because you have no knowledge on lighting, perspective or any fundamentals. How do they live with themselves.

[Anonymous No.7059772]

>>7059729
Nta but this shit is so horrendous. The first chapter was a middle schooler's ugly deviantart posts but the latest is comically bad, the author is trying all the usual manhwa artist tricks of soft blush and highlights but the proportions are fucking hilarious. And it has 100 million readers fucking KEK

[Anonymous No.7059786]

>>7059748
Oh, that's what you meant by storytime - thought you meant outside the site. Yeah, I've seen those, I just never followed suit because my impression of /a/ and /co/ was that those threads get deleted by the mods. But if it's apparently tolerated then I might do it one day, potential reception there be damned.

[Anonymous No.7059809]

>>7059772
>It's just an advertisement for gay porn
Why even bother.

[Anonymous No.7059823]

I'm having a realization that what I'm drawing is just too fucking stupid, but I want to keep going anyways
do I reign it in or go full retard?

[Anonymous No.7059824]

>>7059823
embrace the cringe

[Anonymous No.7059827]

>>7059823
Depends on the goal. Are you just making a comic for yourself? Are you trying to appeal to an audience? Are you trying to tell a clear story?
There are times where it's good to follow your whim and draw stupid stuff (eg Robert Crumb's work) and there are times where it's better to be editorial about your work and change things when you realize it's dumb or incongruent. Doesn't mean you can't make something weird though, a little bit of weirdness can help you stand out.
Personally, I had points where I was drawing something and realized it was fucking stupid but finished drawing it anyway. It never stopped being stupid is hell, and when I read those comics back I realized I should have listened to my instinct and cut it out/changed it even if it would have been more work.

[Anonymous No.7059843]

>>7059827
I'm definitely making it for myself, but I guess I'm trying to tell a story too. this specific dumb bullshit doesn't get in the way of that, I suppose. maybe this will be a chapter I'll think I should have changed.
>>7059824
I'm doing it

[Anonymous No.7060794]

I'm embracing cringe and drawing stuff that I really liked back in the day, it might not be what's popular now, but right now I'm having the fun I forgot I felt once while drawing, so that's good enough for me.

[Anonymous No.7061082]

>>7059753
>Which plataform is better for a comic artist, Insta or twitter?
I like twitter better, it just seems to be easier to use. easier to find others to follow as well. Can't really judge which is better for exposure because I'm getting 2 likes on a good day, heh.

[Anonymous No.7061113]

>>7059753
twitter by far, if only because insta has really restrictive limits on upload dimensions and will crop the shit out of anything else.

[Anonymous No.7061692]

>>7061082
>>Which plataform is better
There is also Pixiv. They have a comic upload format. It's a Japanese site though.

[Anonymous No.7061700]

>>7059753
>Insta: completely killed hashtags rendering them useless. discoverability is now impossible unless you gamble on boosting your posts
>xitter: pay2win system implemented burying comments under the mountain of mouth breathing scammers whose only goal is to shill
There is no good social media for artists or writers.

[Anonymous No.7061742]

>>7055655
Cool comic! But is it just me or is the perpective of some of the items on the table seem incorrect?

[Anonymous No.7061764]

>>7061700
Wait, they killed hashtags? Then why on earth do they still allow people to use them? What a stupid business decision.

[Anonymous No.7061770]

>>7059268
Look up wholesale/return/ liqudation auctions in your area. A lot of decent chairs up for grabs if your willing to spend a couple hundred and buy before you test it.
>this is how i got a comfy orthepedic chair for 200$, hospital liqudation action.

[Anonymous No.7061774]

>>7059519
>ENTIRE chapter is just people talking in the same location with absolutely nothing noteworthy happening
>People actually read this shit?? And it's POPULAR??
That is like every chapter inbetween arks for one piece. People are already invested.

[Anonymous No.7061812]

>>7061692
pixiv has been completely hosed down with a sea of AI lol good fucking luck.

[Anonymous No.7061847]

>>7061764
They basically made it so only famous people can use them, which is the same thing as killing it. If you were to use the tag #cumfarts for example, nobody will be able to search that tag, sort by new and see your latest post. Instead, every celebrity who used #cumfarts in their post will show up on that page, sorted by decending popularity. It's the absolute worst business decision I've ever seen and I've been keeping up with elon's ketamine-induced ramblings.

[Anonymous No.7061851]

>>7061847
Oh my god. I give up on social media. I fucking give up. They keep making the goddamn algorithm have this and that rule so that you have to abide by them to get anywhere, then they slowly strip out all the other avenues in which you might organically get discovered. What the actual fuck.

[Anonymous No.7061860]

>>7059757
They don't, and also they usually quit early after realising webtoon treats them like garbage and that their 12 year old tween 'fans' are usually self aware enough to treat their works like a trashy guilty pleasure rather then art

[Anonymous No.7061865]

>>7059738
this anons got it. this is why manga continues to shit all over comics and manhuas in terms of overall fan loyalty and population, cuz 1. arts gotta be good 2. storys gotta be atleast ok 3. jap work culture makes sure these starving mangaka never miss that sweet 1 week deadline

if u can somewhat replicate and upkeep these basic factors (which is fucking hard solo) you have a good shot at getting atleast semi big, even with subpar marketing strength

[Anonymous No.7061880]

>>7061851
We've entered the pay2win internet landscape. Now the only way to get noticed is to either pay the monthly subscription toll or be good enough to have a company back you.

>>7061865
Not necessarily true in the current western market. There's a mountain of actual good manga being posted for free online right now that gets crickets. Why? There are many reasons, but for starters it's the difference between being published in Japan and not being published in Japan. People don't give a single FUCK about amateur manga. They barely give a fuck about the endless sea of published manga in circulation, only the top most popular WSJ stuff that already has an airing anime. The only way to notoriety via the internet is to play the webtoon game, which is FULL color in SCROLLING FORMAT with FREQUENT & LONG UPDATES on a CONSISTENT SCHEDULE because that's what gen alpha has grown to expect. And this all falls on the single amateur, when back in the 1980's this used to be a full time job assigned to an entire team of people from penciler/inker/colorist/letterer/editor/etc. We have the benefit of having platforms to self-publish at the expense of everything else.

Done ranting...gonna work on my manga. I suggest you do the same. Didn't mean to doompost.

[Anonymous No.7061923]

I get that it does suck even if you do to want the bare minimum of getting feedback from people who are interested. But if you're at all familiar with the miserable realm of "webcomics" you'll already know how much of a losing game it was from the start. Even before the painful introduction of algorithms, your chances of gaining ground were never spectacular since you were always up against a sea of trash.

I think the real issue at heart is how general audiences have become trained to want and consume content. It's not just that the internet had changed to make competition unfair, but the most important thing, PEOPLE, have changed now that they have no incentive to delay gratification and few if any pressures or guides to show them that it is unhealthy. I think eventually trying to cater to this demographic will be unsustainable.

I can't stress how important it is to just bury your head and put your nose to the grindstone for a while. With genuine passion for your work, it will always be there to fall back on. If what you do is worth your salt, it will get notice it deserves eventually one way or another.
Happened to me.

[Anonymous No.7061964]

okay ive read everything so far in the thread about the amatuer comic/manga scene. so the only solution i can really see here is to kms. what do i do?

>inb4 make it for urself bro

i was always more of an entertainer more then an artist, thats why i like making videos and shit too, just that i happened to be alright at drawing. i've seen alot of amatuers alike share this sentiment. even then, comics and manga are meant to be read and enjoyed by others, its part of the art. WHAT DO I DO

[Anonymous No.7061966]

>>7061964
I happen to be a good singer, but I'm not going out and writing songs for people to hear.
Either try it out or dont. Dont feel obligated.
If you don't have a story to tell, don't force yourself. If you want, do short one shot. Dip your toes, nigger. No one says you have to make a 1000 chapter saga off the bat

[Anonymous No.7062000]

>>7061964
The only solution to what, exactly?
You can make stuff, you can show it to an audience, you can build a readership. Lots of people have. Obviously, that's not going to make you a household name or anything, but people can and do get by just by plugging away at their webcomic for years and years. If it's money you're looking for, people with the skills to go pro can and do. People who are more skilled than the average amateur but not ready to go pro absolutely can find pro-am gigs. So I am sincerely asking: what is it that you want out of making comics? What's your goal? What do you want out of making comics that you think you can't get?

[Anonymous No.7062015]

>>7061966
>>7062000
sorry for bitching, i get what u guys mean
its the same cycle whenever i get into a graphic novel industry doom thread
ive been making comics and manga my whole life. its my passion and i love it
but most importantly,

I WANT PEOPLE TO FEEL THE SAME WONDER AND JOY AND CONNECTION WHEN I READ A GOOD MANGA

I WANT MY STORY TO CHANGE THE STORY OF OTHERS

I ALSO WANT TO BE FAMOUS SO I WARRANT MY UNEARNED SENSE OF SUPERIORITY

I WANT TO MAKE THE BEST MANGA!!!! AND I WANT PEOPLE TO READ IT!THATS ALL I WANT!! sorry for being corny but i really feel like giving up sometimes. and that makes me wonder if i even like it enough to stick to it if i would have thoughts like that. then i suddenly realise i do want to do it and i do love it. its just that the odds feel so stacked against us that it gets overwhelming

[Anonymous No.7062035]

>>7061700
>>Insta: completely killed hashtags rendering them useless. discoverability is now impossible unless you gamble on boosting your posts
there is also threads, which is the instagram like platform. It's a lot like twitter x. Not sure how good it is for dicoverability though, it's fairly new.

[Anonymous No.7062049]

>>7062015
I don't want to sound too combative or anything, but now that I'm seeing some success myself, I see it a little differently. I've experienced the dreadful grind of making things and posting it into the void for many years. I often wondered "what's the point? Nobody's reading this and would care if I just stopped and never started again". But I didn't, and if I had I never would have seen the light at the end of the tunnel. It's not impossible, so from my perspective I can only assume people venting in those doomer threads are simply people who are in the middle of their journey.

When I was drawing and posting Quickdraw, I saw consistent growth. It was not explosive, but even over the 4 or 5 months I was drawing it, I went from like 30 twitter followers to around 200. I didn't do any tiresome social media shit, I just made the comic and posted it everywhere I could be bothered to. The work wasn't even that great. I mean there were eyecatching pages, but I was constantly worried that the hook wasn't clear enough, that I wasn't conveying the character's motivations very well, that sequences were too quick or rough or unclear etc. But I gained readers anyway, because I was consistent in posting pages (not perfect, I missed days) and the pacing was reasonable. People could see a page, think "cool, what's this", read it and see that it updates frequently, so they stick around. Even if not everything was perfectly clear, they could feel the story progressing as they read it, rather than having to sit through endless backstories and exposition. I like to think that it felt like a real story, rather than just a playground for somebody's OCs or an all-lore-no-plot world building exercise. I think if I continued to make Quickdraw, my readership would have continued to grow.
It took me 8 years of experience to make something even as flawed as Quickdraw. How many years of experience do most people posting comics online have, do you think?

1/3

[Anonymous No.7062050]

>>7062015
I think that there are plenty of people even ITT who could do something similar. The Roccoco guy for example, I stand by what I said here >>7059738. His work could be more successful, if he just released it more consistently. Even flawed and kinda all over the place as it is, it could still be enjoyed by readers if it just went somewhere in a reasonable amount of time. I get that he has to make money. That's why I ended up stopping Quickdraw, because I had to make money. I don't think that's a good excuse, because you can make money AND comics. Roccoco guy is a better illustrator than me, and I managed to land a pro-am gig. He could too. That way he can get paid to make comics. Maybe he's like me and hates working with clients... well guess what? I don't work with clients anymore, so somebody more skilled than me doesn't have to either. Publishers are there, and if you can demonstrate that you can put out a book of decent quality in a decent timeframe, I'm sure you can find one that is willing to work with you.

What I'm trying to say is that when you have skills, you CAN make money drawing comics. You don't need to be super popular, you can just do client work, or you can go to a publisher. He's french (right? correct me if I'm wrong) so he has to option of going to a french publisher in addition to english language publishers.
But then, doesn't everyone? I now know from experience that it's absolutely possible to work with a foreign publisher without needing to speak their language perfectly (or at all). This is the age of the internet. This is an age where not only are your options for self-publishing better than ever before, but so are your options for working with publishers. If american publishers suck, go french. If french publishers suck, go italian. Or japanese. Or south american. Is language really a problem anymore? With a bit of brushing up on the target language/culture, you can communicate just fine with MTL. Editors can bridge the gap.

2/3

[Anonymous No.7062051]

>>7062015
Well, that's all well and good if you're at the skill level where you can go pro or pro-am, but what if you're not? What if you don't realize you're not ready for it, but try anyway? You'd have the feedback of simply not landing the jobs. You can clearly see that you applied to a bunch of job calls, and was accepted by none of them. So you know that you might not be ready, and can continue working to improve.
But what if you're not applying for jobs? What if you're trying to self-publish and build a readership? Wouldn't that give you the impression that nobody wants to read your (in your eyes) just-as-good-as-pro comics? I think this is where the notion that "there are good self-published comics that get no attention" comes from, that or people just having unrealistic standards for what counts as an appropriate amount of attention for a self-published work. Often, the work simply isn't that good, or isn't consistent enough in its release, or is simply too new, or the author is doing too little to get it out there.
This why I think it's a bit silly to expect to get much out of self-publishing comics. Yeah, it can be done, but comics are a medium where it takes years and years of building skills just to be able to do something as simple as communicating an idea. It's a field where you can explore what you want to make and build your skills, but it shouldn't be viewed as where you're going to make your living, at least not when you're starting out. When you're an established and skilled author, that's when it makes sense to try and make a living out of self-publishing, but that's totally different from a relative newbie trying to do it.
So use self-publishing to build your skills, and optionally to build your audience. Take those skills, and possibly that audience, to pro-am or pro gigs. Remember, it's the skills that matter. That's what you should be focusing on, not social media numbers. Skills will pay the bills.

3/3, Dingle out.

[Anonymous No.7062057]

>>7062051
>It's a field where you can explore what you want to make and build your skills, but it shouldn't be viewed as where you're going to make your living, at least not when you're starting out.
*Self-publishing is a field where(...)
Even after spending an hour editing this wall of text I managed to cock it up, lol.

[Anonymous No.7062260]

>>7062049
>>7062050
>>7062051
Comics as a medium is something I've come to realize as creatively one of the highest highs and lowest lows. They are incredibly rewarding to create when everything is right, when you are making what you love and what is creatively fulfilling for you. But it can easily become your most daunting and disillusioning task, quickly scraping away any and all passion you have for the artform and as a creator. It can be one of the biggest reality checks to tell you "If you aren't doing this for yourself, then what's the point?"

>that or people just having unrealistic standards for what counts as an appropriate amount of attention for a self-published work.
This is why I think it is so important (especially starting out) to love your work above all else. It seems so simple yet it is often overlooked when thinking too far ahead in the grand scheme of things that "could" happen. If you aren't making work that *you* want to make and want to see in the world, then you are fighting a futile battle and your ulterior motives will get the best of you. You can't expect anything in return when you are just starting out so oftentimes, that personal passion will be the only thing you have to fall back on. So you better make sure it is strong enough to pull you through even the hardest of times as a creator. It will put that passion to the test to see whether or not you have what it takes to "make it" because ultimately, that will be the deciding factor.

All that being said, you seem to have a decent amount of experience with this sort of thing. Would you mind sharing a link to some of your work that you experienced all of this with?

[Anonymous No.7062310]

>>7062260
>Would you mind sharing a link to some of your work that you experienced all of this with?
This is way more than you asked for but I figured I might as well take the opportunity to put links to all my work in one easy copy/pasta.

>2015-2016
https://mega.nz/folder/9gcxWaDY#RMewn69ejwWtM9eH06d2kw
My first comic, though technically it's my second since it's a reboot of, my first attempt at a comic in 2014 which was 65 pages long (pic related).
>2016-2017
just a handful of MSPA ripoff /qst/ threads under the trip wilba !!IluPhJ1egxg and some projects that I never finished or uploaded anywhere.
>2018-2019
nothing lol
>2020
From The Wizard Tower (Tezuka entry)
https://medibang.com/mpc/titles/5f2208151858006670015659108/
Escape From The Wizard's Realm (unrelated to ^) (a /qst/ style thread on /a/, the 37 pages were drawn in 1 week)
https://mega.nz/folder/R9dVxZKD#EgSuuH_5XWBzaWImWvffSg
King's Harem (ch 0.5 & 1) (porn with plot)
https://e-hentai.org/g/1821548/0420323106/
https://e-hentai.org/g/1821550/31b7e09563/
>2021
Dingle's All-Hole POV Review Show (porn)
https://e-hentai.org/g/1845483/f2c9a459ae/
I Finally Met My Girlfriend's Parents (one-shot as part of a spur-of the moment /a/ challenge to draw a ~20 page chapter in a week)
https://mega.nz/folder/x5dmBLgD#SiNO7dMkRCsbEbAVAlGJpg
Quickdraw!
https://quickdraw.the-comic.org/comics/first
Dream Cat/夢ねこ (porn)
https://e-hentai.org/g/2127760/c7a07461d2/
>2022
Quickdraw chapter 2(unfinished)
Bunch of porn comms, as seen here https://twitter.com/dinglewizard
Indra's Net (client work, didn't write it and had assistants to draw most of the backgrounds/tones)
https://medibang.com/mpc/titles/sp2301091233403250023967674/
>2023
Indra's Net
A porno manga I drew after Indra's net that I haven't uploaded anywhere (until now) that I applied to my current publisher with. A remake of King's Harem from 2020.
https://mega.nz/folder/899nzSAI#1koA936ayamiRd4QeL6R0g

[Anonymous No.7062577]

striving panel

[Anonymous No.7062598]

pls no bully but im wondering what manga fans think of my character Lustless. Top right two are from friends, not me, rest are mine. She is for a comic im making and im not into anime or manga but I grew up being into western comics. I also am learning to draw for this story so not claiming to be good or anything just curious what people think of her.
She is sailor moon inspired obv but she is not in high school or Earth based, and she is actually mentally slow in the storyline so it is distinct from most anime ive seen.

[Anonymous No.7062612]

>she is actually mentally slow in the storyline so it is distinct from most anime ive seen
well the way you draw her she truly does look mentally slow so good job on that i guess, but i have a feeling all of your characters are gonna look mentally slow

[Anonymous No.7062618]

Which part of the manga making process do you find most difficult? Personally I'm always fighting trying to come up with interesting page layouts when storyboarding. That's even more the case when the pacing slows down and the only thing going on is two people talking.

[Anonymous No.7062630]

>>7062612
ah, that hurts. I did not mean to insult anyone who may be mentally challenged irl.

[Anonymous No.7062636]

what do you think is a good average number of panels per page

[Anonymous No.7062640]

>>7061964
You already make videos, that's one of the best ways to advertise you comic bro. Just make a channel where you critique random amateur comics those are popular right now.

[Anonymous No.7062647]

>>7062636
5

[Anonymous No.7062703]

>>7062618
Toning. The tedium is just filling areas and it doesn't require any work from my brain, which is boring for me so I end up putting it off. Some days it's like moving a mountain.

There's a couple of terms in cinema, "blocking" and "business". Blocking is setting the scene for viewers to understand where characters are in a space. Business is what characters are doing when they're talking. If you give them "business" (which is even fidgeting, emoting or doing small things or any activity) I think that can help guide ideas for storyboarding panels. Also, you can splice conversations with visual eyecandy, like using figurative imagery in addition to pillow shots. That keeps a simple dialogue entertaining to read.

One of my favorite manga, Wanitokagegisu, would sometimes just inject random drawings of animals.
There's really a lot of room to get creative.

[Anonymous No.7062796]

>>7062703
>random animals
Excuse me, what?

[Anonymous No.7062884]

>>7062618
This seems very atmospheric! The only thing I would say is the characters' hands look a little too small. Also on the page on the right, the reaction shot with the short-haired character feels a little awkwardly overlayed over the close-up of the flowers. Maybe move it partially below (but still in front of) that panel instead.

[Anonymous No.7062941]

>>7056638
>o everyone that basic shapes are all that matter, in terms of quality manga art
I challenge someone here to make a 1-page with just geometric basic shapes

[Anonymous No.7062964]

>>7062310
>Indra's Net
Half a million views? Nice

[Anonymous No.7062967]

>>7062630
That guys a fag, don't be one too.
If that's how the character is, don't change it unless your goal is to appeal to everyone. This isn't really a OC discussion thread, so I'm not gonna comment on your character, but if you've got a page done post it

[Anonymous No.7063004]

>>7062941
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aGDCE6Nrz0
Your challenge reminds me of this, lol.

[Anonymous No.7063133]

>>7062941
That's basically BLAME!

[Anonymous No.7063181]

>>7055659
Wtf???

[Anonymous No.7063366]

>>7055658
>>7055659
A few questions:

1) Since she's albino, does that mean when she wears her paint like that, she's completely naked???

2) Is there a canon reason for why she is so thick?

[Anonymous No.7063537]

WIP

It is manga related btw. She's lead heroine of my story, I wanna work on some illustration stuff whilst fleshing out the latest version of the opening chapters.

[Anonymous No.7063557]

>>7061742
Thanks. No it's not just you, I thought I got the perspective right on the drawing stage but in hindsight it looks sloppy and several of the cups look off. Ug! Perspective is something I really need to level up.
>>7055740
You're right. Atleast that hand will be easy to fix and change in the future.
>>7055952
I like all my characters but at this point, it's hard to deny. I like Rhiannon and Aideen too.
>>7056019
I'm not Irish at all, it's all researched for the comic. I knew Dana Bas means Mother of the End because a historian who read the comic told me that a few months ago. I knew Pogue Mahone because one of my favorite bands since highschool is an Irish trad band called the Pogues and one of their albums is called Pogue Mahone.
>>7055724
>>7063181
Yes.
>>7063366
>1) Since she's albino, does that mean when she wears her paint like that, she's completely naked???
Yes. She is very lewd, but also it's her Irish witch culture so don't judge her.
>2) Is there a canon reason for why she is so thick?
Her fairy Tuatha de Danaan ancestry+ Banshee Vale aren't starving. They get free food shipments from the capital and there's plenty of bugs and mushrooms in their cave.

[Anonymous No.7063559]

>>7063366
>2) Is there a canon reason for why she is so thick?
Also her best friend Rhoddy likes baking pastries and cakes.

[Anonymous No.7063632]

>>7063537
this looks great! Is this for the contest?

[Anonymous No.7063675]

>>7063632
Nah. I finished contest hell already, thankfully.

Rn I'm working with an editor to prepare a story for serialization.

[Anonymous No.7063686]

>>7063675
Congrats! Sounds amazing. Hearing people making it is always nice

[Anonymous No.7063736]

>>7062967
Yea theres 1 page colored (by colorist friend not me) and im on page 16 of linework now. I think the art gets better as it goes on so ill have to go iron out rough panels when finished.

[Anonymous No.7063742]

>>7063736
also here is page 14 which was more recent

[Anonymous No.7063772]

>>7063686
Thanks! Hopefully I can get rensai this year. I'll share the news if I do.

[Anonymous No.7063833]

>>7063772
Not that anon, what is rensai?

[Anonymous No.7063876]

>>7063742
Art looks much better in this panel, how long did that take?

[Anonymous No.7063879]

>>7063876
a good two or three weeks desu I really took my time on the posing and angles. im glad it payed off :) thanks for noticing man

[Anonymous No.7063886]

>>7063742
So is this comic a porno, or.......? Because I could just as easily see it going the way of a gag.

[Anonymous No.7063897]

>>7063742
>>7063876
Agreed with him

[Anonymous No.7063904]

>>7063886
haha its just heavy on sexual comedy. She is the princess of the universe and her sidekick is a junkie who she relies on for help.

[Anonymous No.7063918]

After months of procrastination, I finally finished (aside from screentones) my first page of 9.
It's not much, but it's a start.
It took about 4 hours, but I hope to be able to move much faster when I don't have to do establishing shots.
Hopefully toning wont take too long, but >>7062703 isn't giving me hope. I'm bad with color, and toning is essentially color.

[Anonymous No.7063939]

>>7063918
Hey, good job on getting started. At this point, don't worry about the amount of time spent per page. It varies wildly depending on what's going on per panel and also on what you, the artist, want to show. Just focus on getting the product done, panel by panel. Being anxious about trying to go faster (as opposed to naturally and subconsciously becoming faster with more experience) will make you want to rush things, and there's no reason to rush. It's not like this is your day job.

[Anonymous No.7063964]

>>7063939
>Just focus on getting the product done
That's what I'll work on, thanks!

[Anonymous No.7064001]

>>7063918
excited for your next post m8

[Anonymous No.7064041]

When I'm making a double page, it has to measure 28 cm x 21 cm, that is a A4?

[Anonymous No.7064043]

Here are the edges, when cutting, which one is correct: 1st edge or 2nd edge?

[Anonymous No.7064048]

>>7063918
It's not at all like coloring. I'm speaking as someone who hates using color, because you don't need to factor in the laundry list of things related to color its almost a separate skill altogether trying to figure out how to make it look good as opposed to looking "right". Most of the time lighting is fairly flat on characters to save time and effort (some exceptions). What I do is just fill areas and clip them to a tone sheet, thats why it's essentially drone work.

[Anonymous No.7064151]

>>7063537
Welcome back.

>>7064041
Not sure what you're trying to ask here.

>>7064043
The 2nd edge is closest to where it'll be cut, but you should keep everything important (text, expressions) within the borders of the 1st edge.

[Anonymous No.7064177]

>>7064151
Example, please?

[Anonymous No.7064186]

>>7064177
Not that anon but you need to be more specific by what exanples you want. If you're asking about cuts, then >>7064151 is correct. Just keep everything important within the first box. That is your live area - everything in there is guaranteed to print.

[Anonymous No.7064188]

>>7064177
The lines that are intended to go all the way off the page, but the text needs to be clear and readable a healthy distance from the edge of the page. The inner box is called the "safe zone", because it's where you know that everything in that box will be a healthy distance from wherever the page is trimmed.

[Anonymous No.7064204]

>>7064188
I wanna say a double page with 1 cm for each side.

[Anonymous No.7064224]

>>7064188
This a manga page with 21 cm x 14 cm, is a single manga page with 1 cm for each side.

[Anonymous No.7064292]

>>7063833
Rensai is the Japanese word for serialization.

[Anonymous No.7064298]

>>7063772
I'm curious, why did you go straight for Jump? Why not ease into going pro with a smaller publication first? That's what I'm doing, and it's working out okay so far. At the very least, I'm getting published now rather than be stuck in 持ち込み limbo for years. I'm sure you considered it, so I want to ask why you chose not to?

[Anonymous No.7064330]

>>7064298
Well, ultimately I ended up going with Shounen Magazine actually.

I went with Jump to see if I could do it. Was given a fair chance, so that was encouraging. Ultimately the choice to go with Magazine over Jump came out of circumstance mostly. I entered a one shot that had lost a contest into a Magazine contest after a Japanese friend of mine suggested it, as he said my writing style was more suitable for Magazine than Jump. And then I got a call from one of the editors there who really liked it. I've developed a close bond with said editor working together the last couple years. I entered several contests. He then suggested I make a story draft for a MagaPoke competition, as he was going to be in charge of that, and he thought my style would be a good fit for what they wanted. He said he wanted "a battle manga overflowing with Romance" to be the headliner for the new app.

So I made what could effectively be described as "Bloodborne the battle manga."

He liked it so much that showed the two chapter draft to his boss, the EiC, at a serialization meeting for the print magazine. And the EiC really liked the idea. But he wanted to see it refined and polished further. Go deeper into the characters so readers can really sympathize, etc... but he said he was "willing to look at it as many times as it took" to be perfected. Which is really encouraging, especially considering he was the former editor of Isayama and worked on Attack on Titan.

So that's where I'm at now. To more directly answer your question I'll quote what my editor said to me when urging me to present the story draft for a serialization meeting he said "I feel that on the weekly magazine, this could have much bigger impact."

That's definitely not how I felt about my work the last couple years when I was stuck in contest hell, but then making something that can get people really excited, that they believe could potentially be a big hit... Well, that's kinda the dream isn't it?

[Anonymous No.7064357]

>>7064330
Fair enough. And yeah, if there's anything these veteran editors are great at it's encouraging us sad sack artists, lol.

[Anonymous No.7064363]

>>7064330
This is very inspiring anon, hearing your story makes me want to try my best in the one-shot I'm currently working at, your stuff looks solid and I would love to read it some day.

[Anonymous No.7064471]

>>7059717
I don't have the relentless fortitude of Oi, I always admire that about him. in terms of marketing, I always had the mentality of that I needed to make sure the product is worth it before I try to spread it around, but for a long time I just get the feel that it is both marketing and the fact that it wasn't interesting, so I kept trying something else that didn't work. lol

>>7059723
still, that turn around time is not good. Its probably better to get your ideas out at a more regular pace than to agonize over every little details or trying to correct pass mistakes, I learn it the hard way, and still I can't resist.

>>7059738
maan, that's fair. In theory I can probably finish a page of something similar to this quality every 5-10 hours, but I can rarely keep up with this sort of pace. Unfortunately I needed a lot of feedback to kept myself engaged, and I couldn't keep it up for very long when I felt the audience isn't there, so I tended to want to try something else. The most I was able to keep a regular schedule was probably 3 months.

[Anonymous No.7064575]

Is it viable to draw 99% of my manga traditional and scan it to just touch up and do screentones?

Also recommend scanners for scanning manga paper; pre-trimmed or trimmed, both are okay.

[Anonymous No.7064649]

>>7064330
How are you able to stay in Japan for that long? And say that you got serialized, does the publisher even bother to sponsor you a work Visa?

[Anonymous No.7064657]

>>7064330
>>7064649
>does the publisher even bother to sponsor you a work Visa?
Good question actually. I want to know too since that might end up being something I pursue myself.

[Anonymous No.7064872]

>>7064575
Yes
And scanner choices are really pretty limited these days. I use a Workforce scanner/printer combo, as long as you're not using some meme shit like a phone app "scanner" you should be fine, they all work the same.

[Anonymous No.7064916]

>>7064471
I absolutely agree with you and the other anons regarding how important it is to get a faster turnaround time (for many obvious reasons), but I can't help myself; I like doing little details, especially for cool background panels. I tried going rough and hard at the beginning, but it left me deeply unhappy with the final product. Ah well, I'll just try to go faster where I can.

[Anonymous No.7064966]

>>7064575
>Is it viable to draw 99% of my manga traditional and scan it to just touch up and do screentones?
probably. That's what I do, except I touch up the inks and then color it in photoshop.
>>7064575
>Also recommend scanners for scanning manga paper; pre-trimmed or trimmed, both are okay.
I use a Plustek OpticSlim 1180 , it seems pretty good. barely have to mess with the image after scanning it.

[Anonymous No.7065081]

>>7064966
>I use a Plustek OpticSlim 1180 , it seems pretty good
That's the same one I use, it scans over A3 size pages and hasn't failed me yet.

[Anonymous No.7065085]

>>7064916
>I like doing little details, especially for cool background panels.
I admire your effort but most readers won't notice all the background details they add in. Your comic is likely one of many they read, so they will probably miss the little things you add.

[Anonymous No.7065121]

>>7064966
man your thumbnail has way better gesture than the final page, you should try preserving that motion in the characters poses

[Anonymous No.7065133]

This is an odd question, but do any of you have experience/advice on designing the parents or children of existing characters? I've recently realized I have a couple in my work with subtly different but very, very different features, and they have a kid who's important to the story but I've yet to design. He's an adult at this point, so his genetic features should be fully developed.

[Anonymous No.7065137]

>>7065133

>>7010561

[Anonymous No.7065138]

>>7065137
>He's an adult at this point, so his genetic features should be fully developed.

[Anonymous No.7065145]

>>7065085
Again, no disagreement here. Despite the crazy detail of some published mangas (Berserk, Otoyomegatari, certain OPM panels, etc.) I would guess that the average viewer looks at any panel for 5 to 10 seconds at most, and that's being generous. I know that your average person wont care. That said, several anons on /mmg/ have always in the past let me know that they like my background design, so I can be happy that others who are in the "craft" appreciate the little details. I'll take that as the small win.

>>7064966
I like your linework process here. Some of the soul of your work seems to get lost along the way at two points: when you go from thumbnail to pencil, and when you go from final lineart to coloring. As >>7065121 has said, if you could keep the gesturing of your thumbnail intact, I think that would help your work shine more.

[Anonymous No.7065656]

>>7064649
>>7064657
>How are you able to stay in Japan for that long?
I teach English at an Eikaiwa, and that company sponsors my Visa.
>And say that you got serialized, does the publisher even bother to sponsor you a work Visa?
I presume they'd help me, but iirc the Artist visa is self sponsored. That said, the artist visa is relatively easy to get, as you simply need to prove that a) your work requires you be in Japan, and b) you make enough money to sustain yourself. Either way, I'm not too worried. Kodansha had no problem working with Felipe Smith back in the day, and I'm sure at the very least my editor is aware of my situation, as he knows I'm a foreigner. Also, way back with my interview at Jump I recall the editor there saying it wasn't an issue.

Worst case scenario, I get married.

[Anonymous No.7065941]

>>7065656
You dont have to answer this, but what race are you? I know what you aren't, but I'm curious if you're a happa, full white, or a beanbro

[Anonymous No.7066130]

>>7065941
European/White. Spanish.

[Anonymous No.7066162]

what the fuck am I drawing
layout or word bubble flow is really bad, I confused myself reading these pages after scanning them

[Anonymous No.7066282]

>>7066162
I think that makes you Spaniard #2 if not #3 lol, if my recollection of anons in /mmg/ is correct. Given how small /mmg/ is, that's a surprising amount of people from Spain.

[Anonymous No.7066349]

>>7066162
I recognize your comic and remembered that it's read in-columns, yonkoma-style. When you know to do that, it's not that bad to read. Is there any specific reason that you chose that layout as opposed to a more-traditional comic-strip format?

In terms of bubble-layout across each panel, my biggest recommendation would be to reference other comic strips that have a similar layout to yours, to see how they handle dialogue-heavy panels.

[Anonymous No.7066403]

>>7066349
Whats that infamous manga again? The one where a character had an internal dialogue but its just pretty much a dense wall of text? Always makes me laugh.

[Anonymous No.7066409]

>>7066403
HxH? There's moments in plenty of manga that are like what you describe, but for some reason people only got buttmad over HxH doing it.

[Anonymous No.7066425]

>>7066409
There are others with nothing but an almost complete page of text? If so, that confuses me because everyone here and elsewhere says not to do it because it makes reading that much a slog (obviously), but if there are several popular manga that do it anyway is it really that big of a problem?

[Anonymous No.7066485]

>>7066162
write a script out beforehand and plan what sentences will fill the bubbles and before you even start drawing read it out loud to see if the sentences flow like they did in your head or imagination. It feels silly to do but try it.

[Anonymous No.7066489]

>>7066425
Dont think of it as hard rules just think "how do I convey this information in the most economical way" and make sure its enjoyable to read. Doesnt matter if you check all the boxes on some list if its not entertaining to read because its dragging.

[Anonymous No.7066511]

>>7066349
>Is there any specific reason that you chose that layout
I think 4 panel columns have better pacing than 6 or 8 panels going l->r t->b, and it fits on a page nicely unlike full horizontal
I should be referencing other 4koma more often, thanks

>>7066485
I do all that, I usually write my scripts pretty meticulously too... does it read like I don't?

>>7066282
wrong post hombre, I'm just a burger

[Anonymous No.7066540]

>>7066162
>>7066349
Same, I had asked about this 1 or 2 threads ago to clarify. It's fine to read when you get it.
I would maybe make the middle margin black to help remind the readers, and keep the smaller rows white

[Anonymous No.7066576]

>>7066403
There's that one page of Medaka Box with Mukae's monologue, but it's moreso for the purpose of showing that she's a chatterbox, and so it communicates more than just what the text is actually saying. It would be like a character in a film speakingreallyfastlikethiswithoutpausingortakingabreathsuchthatyoucanstilltellthattheyaresayingwordsbutcan'tacutallymakeoutwhattheyare.

In other words, even if you don't actually read it, it still achieves the same effect.

Picrel is from Hunter x Hunter and probably what you are thinking of. I think the reason this particular example gets so much hate is because it is from one of the more popular mangas so more people are familiar with it, and it's just wall after wall of text in each panel over a white background without bubbles or even effects. This gives the impression of the text taking up so much space so that there wouldn't have to be any art.

>>7066425
It's not the most ideal way of communicating information in a visual medium such as manga, but if you ever have a situation where it is unavoidable, it is best used sparingly. One of the most basic rules of lettering is to "trim the fat"and get rid of any unnecessary words to make the sentence flow better and more natural to read. On top of that, sequential art has the obvious advantage of being able to "show" rather than "tell", so doing this isn't really using the medium to its fullest potential.

[Anonymous No.7066631]

>>7066540
>I would maybe make the middle margin black to help remind the readers
like a black bar down the center gutter? sounds awful desu but thank you for the suggestion

[Anonymous No.7066647]

>>7066576
Is HxH known for this generally or is it just the one time they did it and everyone freaked out? Sorry, never read that particular manga.

[Anonymous No.7066661]

>>7066647
The later parts do get wordy, but this is a rare page to see.

[Anonymous No.7066732]

>>7066647
Togashi also has some physical ailments, so I'd have to wager part of it might be him also avoiding drawing in some instances, as there was a time when HxH was literally on hiatus for like 3 years, but in some instances, his artwork is horridly bad. Though, I do believe the egregiously bad pages like this were fixed for the tanks.

[Anonymous No.7066755]

>>7066732
>Though, I do believe the egregiously bad pages like this were fixed for the tanks.
He was publishing outside of set tankobons?

[Anonymous No.7066791]

I might just give up on art for the time being.
I feel like my story and characters are good enough. But I haven't progressed for months it seems. I just want to get SOMETHING out of my head onto some sort of "finished" format.

[Anonymous No.7066798]

>>7066791
Can I see what you have regarding the characters? What seems to be the hang-up?

[Anonymous No.7066811]

>>7058116
HOLY SHIT, absolute topkek

>>7058129
He already said WHY Anon, he's an IDEAS guy, he has lots of them!
If anything I admire the boldness to request such an outrageous level of support from any collaborators (aka ghostwriters)

[Anonymous No.7066915]

>>7066791
if you stop arting you are only going to get worse

[Anonymous No.7067056]

>13 panels left out of almost 350 in total
I never thought i would make it

[Anonymous No.7067069]

>>7066576
That manga page looks like it was drawn by the average /mmg/ poster. Except there's more drawings.

[Anonymous No.7067163]

>>7066425
>If so, that confuses me because everyone here and elsewhere says not to do it because it makes reading that much a slog
Not everyone. I say do what you gotta do to convey what you're trying to convey. There may very well be circumstances that call for a style of presentation that many find unpleasant, and if there's no other way then there's no other way.

>>7066576
Worth noting that he added backgrounds in the tankoubon. Though IMO it just makes it cluttered and more annoying to read, it's honestly probably better off just being text-only panels.

>>7066647
Yes and no. There are other pages that get wordy, but it's like 2 or 3 total out of a 400 chapter series. Most of it is very quick and easy to read, and as much as people rag on this series for the opposite, it's pretty adept at showing us development rather than telling.

>>7066755
Anon the only difference between his publishing circumstances is that he can take long breaks and return to the magazine when he has work to show. It hits the magazines first just like any other manga.

[Anonymous No.7067164]

>>7066162
Generally, 4-komas use to have a title above each stripe; you can add that (or just part 1, part 2). And I highly recommend you make your comic colored; it's simple and can attract more readers. You can paint the speech bubbles to distinguish one speech from another.

Another suggestion is to try making a horizontal stripe instead of a vertical one.

[Anonymous No.7067169]

>>7067056
Is this all at once or across seperate releases? Either way congrats anon! You're almost at the finish line!

[Anonymous No.7067235]

>>7067169
First chapter of 54 pages

[Anonymous No.7067249]

>>7067164
I wanted to do per-strip titles, I've come up with some good ones too, but I couldn't fit them comfortably on the page and keep the panel size reasonable. Maybe I'll say fuck it and put them at the top anyways.
I just don't like the horizontal format. Might try coloring the splash pages, but I'm not really thinking about getting readers right now.

[Anonymous No.7067284]

Almost done. Just gotta do the blood, the swords and the bg. Plus some final color correction and texture so it pops.

I was looking at the art of Reverse 1999 as inspiration. I like the moody grey backgrounds with bright colored accents on the characters. I think it's a good aesthetic for the type of manga I wanna make.

I want these illustrations to be very eye-catching, so when people see them on promotional material, the aesthetic alone is enough to get them interested.

[Anonymous No.7067317]

>>7067284
Gorgerous art anon. Hope one day it can get a anime

[Anonymous No.7067360]

>>7067317
Well animes aren't usually known for making the art better.
Let's hope the story is good

[Anonymous No.7067363]

>>7067284
hope you get to live the dream anon, rooting for you

[Anonymous No.7067484]

What's your scripting style for writing your manga? Do you just write an overview and then wing the dialogue? A play-style script? A detailed page-by-page or panel-by-panel breakdown?
I have a sibling that has a popular webtoon, and she does panel-by-panel, because it's a dialogue-heavy romance series

I'm planning on trying the script approach, over the "Fuck it, I wanna draw NOW" overview I've been doing. Since I find myself often getting stumped during dialogue, or unexpectedly finding myself needing a BIG speech bubble...

[Anonymous No.7067485]

>>7067484
I normally go straight to storyboarding, though with the current gig the editor wants pitches, so I gotta write out synopses and some notes for what I intend to do scene-wise. It's a pain, I'm used to figuring it all out in the storyboard, so I'm getting through these pitches way slower than I should.
I think I've only scripted comics a couple times before.

[Anonymous No.7067493]

>>7057153
Where did you get published anon? And how? Do I need to know Jap to be published? What about art skills?

[Anonymous No.7067509]

>>7067493
>Where did you get published anon?
https://web.mujin-ti.net/
This publisher. It's not published yet, but my work will debut in a couple of months.
>And how? Do I need to know Jap to be published?
Their website has a submission portal, I submitted some finished manga. The post you're responding to explains that I don't really know japanese, but any knowledge helps and of course it would be better if I could speak it. But it seems it's not an absolute requirement.
>What about art skills?
Look at their magazines and tell me. I don't think I'm that great (especially not for now being a pro author) but I think there are worse artists than me who make regular appearances in the magazine. I think more than illustration skill, you should be able to tell a story, even a simple one, clearly. It may be porn, but these magazine's aim is to tell erotic stories. For mindless wanks, doujinshi have that market cornered. Here, they want you to tell a story that can compliment or enhance the porn. Though yes, they do have standards for artwork.

[Anonymous No.7067522]

>>7067509
Does the site accept non ero manga?

[Anonymous No.7067524]

>>7067522
No, this is an eromanga publisher. I can't speak for non-ero publications.

[Anonymous No.7067603]

>>7067284
This is so cool, anon. I hope you can tell us whenever you're published, I'd love to support your work. Or if you have a blog thatd be great too

[Anonymous No.7067710]

digital comics: margins or no?

[Anonymous No.7067738]

>>7067484
>What's your scripting style for writing your manga? Do you just write an overview and then wing the dialogue? A play-style script? A detailed page-by-page or panel-by-panel breakdown?
I use an outline. its kinda vague though, so I have room to improvise a bit.

[Anonymous No.7068323]

>>7067738
I'm gonna try to upload a comic to medibang artstreet, but I noticed that it uses the MangaPlusCreators reader, so should I just upload to the Shueisha Creators app? to the medibang one? Both?
I do know Medibang has ties with Shueisha so I want to inform myself a little better before doing it.

I've noticed that the quality bar for MangaPlus Creators is way above webtoon's though, do you have to pass a test or something?

[Anonymous No.7068512]

I'm sure you guys saw the thread with the anon who made his own comic >>7068285
I'm fairly new to /mmg/, did he ever post here?

[Anonymous No.7068517]

>>7068512
Don't think so.

[Anonymous No.7068768]

>>7068512
I think he did once, I recognize the title, he was fielding ideas like "Children of the End: The Tale of Bert Johnson" or something
mighta been another thread

[Anonymous No.7068831]

New thread is at:

>>7068820
>>7068820
>>7068820
>>7068820
>>7068820