There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call Webcomic Time.

Webcomic Time is what we here at Screen Tones call the phenomenon when you think a scene will take a week, but ends up taking a year to get through, whether due to how the scene comes to life on the page or the posting frequency of your updates. Our hosts discuss the time-warping realities of making webcomics.

Delphina starts the episode off by asking fellow hosts how far they along they are in their current story. Varethane has made it completely through their first comic, Chirault, while their latest project, Wychwood, is three years along and a little over a third of the way through the planned story. Krispy recently celebrated the seven year anniversary of Ghost Junk Sickness and they are in the middle of book six of their planned eight book series. Clam originally planned Phantomarine to be ten chapters, which has expanded to fifteen planned, and is currently on chapter five and has been working on it for the past six years. For Delphina, Sombulus is two-thirds or three-quarters through the story and has been active for the past eleven years.

Expectations when going into a webcomic as a creator can often vary from the reality of the project. How did your expectations differ from the reality of your comic?

Varethane went into their first project with little planning and expectation and found their manga influences set an expectation for an epic journey of many long chapters. Five years in, the plot began to hit some huge points that would start off a huge epic arc and they realized they needed to sit and figure out where the story was actually going to go and how all of it would come together. A revamp of the plot set a clearer expectation of how long the story would go on for. This refreshed expectation followed over to their new project and resulted in a tighter outline and a clearer goal.

Krispy’s expectation changed significantly as they worked on their comic. Coming from a background in illustration, they assumed their speed and process for a standalone illustration would follow over to creating a comic. Their comic went through a few iterations, including the first, inspiration driven attempt at just making the comic without much planning until around 600 pages when they stopped to read the story and realized there wasn’t much of a cohesive story. On their latest iteration, things have evolved to fit a two person team and the process became more cohesive and planned out. They found that the reality that hit them throughout this is that just having inspiration to drive you will only get you so far. You’ll want to take the time to plan a bit more so the story can come together in its best form.

Boredom drove Clam to start her project. Her expectation began with ‘let’s make a one shot webcomic’ and as her love for the story and her characters grew, the story evolved and became so much more, the common pitfall for anyone thinking of starting a “short, one shot, webcomic”. She knows the main plot and how the story will end and finds that her process has become a sort of sculpting towards the final product. As she’s worked on her comic she’s been able to find the way to move the story from one plot point to the other.

Delphina’s comic is a worldhopping story and, based on her familiarity with manga of the time, planned for her story to consist of 20 books long and each book would cover the arc of a new world. Her first chapter took a year and a half, causing her to reevaluate the long term plan. The next few years found her limiting the characters and the side stories to have more focus, which still took a similar time frame. A lot of her evolution has been a discovery of where her strengths are, the things that work and aspects that she enjoys. She’s had opportunities to try shorter stories in some anthologies she’s been a part of.

Once you have a webcomic started, the question becomes how do you decide when to wrap it up, whether by finishing the story, rebooting, or just dropping the project.

Varethane decided on the ending of Chirault about five years into the process because they decided they needed a game plan for the future. In having decided that they’ve found the comic naturally found it’s ending. They also found when preparing for the printed version of Chirault that they did a few reboots to update the art and clean it up to make the story more clear.

Krispy notes that webcomics are a live process. When you post, you have instant feedback available to help you identify anything that may need some tweaking to improve the reading experience. With how long webcomics are, it’s possible to become disconnected with the story you are telling. It’s always okay to take a step back and reevaluate how you want to move forward. If it’s something that isn’t resonating with you, it’s okay to let it go and move on to a new venture. An excellent aspect of being a webcomic creator, is whether you finish a story or not, whether you’ve been working on it for six months or seven years, your experience on that project will carry on to future endeavors and your time will never be wasted.

Claire agrees that you should never feel obligated to continue a webcomic. Sometimes things happen, from getting a new job to just falling out of love with the story, and you should never feel like you have to keep telling the story. A good audience will care about you and rather have you be happy with your work than be stuck working on something you hate. Life changes and your feelings may change with it. You can also always take a hiatus when needed. Taking a break and going with the flow can end up making your project stronger in the long run.

Delphina brings up another good point that often the content being provided is free, so you shouldn’t feel obligated to do anything if you’re not enjoying it. Don’t be afraid to take a step back and let yourself refocus or re-center and find a way to move forward that will positively add to your experience.

How do you keep yourself engaged with a project that takes years to complete?

Varethane suggests rereading your comic regularly to stay in touch with your story and keep it consistent. Another suggestion is to touch base with what inspired you and diving back into the themes that drove you to create the story you did. If a scene feels like it’s boring as you’re writing it, you can consider cutting it to get you closer to a scene you’re excited and actually looking forward to writing. Often your passion or dislike will carry into your work and readers will be able to tell and that can affect your readership more than a stray plot hole could. It never hurts to evaluate if a scene is actually needed. Krispy seconds that you should reread your comic often so you can stay in touch with your work. Readers can often see when the passion leaves your story, so if you find moments like that in your story, you can take that as a sign to reevaluate. You need to be your biggest fan because with the amount of effort that goes into a webcomic, if you don’t love it, you may find yourself struggling. That also carries over into your social media and advertisement. If you’re not passionate about what you’re pushing to the world, it will be hard to get others passionate about it as well. Claire takes a craft perspective in tackling this question because each page takes a longer time with her style so she has to find ways to keep herself entertained. From chapter one to two of Phantomarine, we go from exciting, fun pages to a lot of worldbuilding that is a bit slower paced. From that she found a strategy that in the midst of a “job” scene, a scene with a purpose, you need to find ways to add fun moments into the middle of those scenes, both for your readers and for yourself as a creator. Having moments to look forward to and be spaced out enough can help you stay motivated. Another possibility to help with stagnancy is to move scenes around. If it won’t hurt to have some fun payoff sooner, don’t be afraid to make some changes.

Most importantly, remember that webcomics can take up a lot of time and effort. Be your biggest fan because you will be the one stuck with it for the longest time. Don’t be afraid to reevaluate and make changes that will make the project exciting and enjoyable for you!

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Episode Release Date: October 20, 2021

Episode Credits:

Kristen Lee (@feathernotes) - she/they, ghostjunksickness.com lunarblight.com

Ally Rom Colthoff (@varethane) - she/they, chirault.sevensmith.net wychwoodcomic.com

Claire Niebergall (@phantomarine) - she/her, phantomarine.com

Christina Major (@delphina2k) - she/her, sombulus.com

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The Intro "DO IT (feat. Shia LaBeouf)", and the Outro "It's Good To See You Again!!", both by Adrianwave, have been used and modified in good faith under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licensed. Edits include: Fade IN/OUT, and a repeat added to the beginning of "It's Good To See You Again!!". For more information on this creative commons use, please reference https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.