Webcomics, hobby or business?

[awarriorwench]

This is what random Googling brings me. (sci-fi, traveller and webcomics)

I'm been working on a webcomic with a friend for the past few months. For us, it's very much just a hobby right now. It takes 20 - 30 hours to do 2 strips a week. To get the kind of readership that would launch it beyond a hobby would take at least 3 strips. And we just don't have that kind of time to invest at this point.

JH has covered just about all aspects of it. There are people who make a living off of it, but I don't personally know of any who hit it big immediately. The guy who does xkcd quit a job at NASA to do his comic full-time. Girl Genius makes money, but Phil Foglio has been in the business since the 80s. Also CTRL+ALT+DEL and those listed earlier by JH. The modestly popular ones make *some* money from online advertising.

For us, our immediate, first-year goal is just to do a decent little webcomic. The stories are planned well in advance, we plot out each segment, work on character development and, of course, try to make it funny. We don't always hit the mark, but we keep at it. It's a lot of work but great fun.

Lots of good sources out there on how to go about doing a webcomic, but a great place to start is with Joel Fagin's Webcomic Tutorials

Whew! Way too long for a new kid on the block. My apologies.

[DAlillama]

Let me be the first to say welcome to the Fora. I like your comic, incidentally.

[awarriorwench]

Originally Posted by DAlillama

Let me be the first to say welcome to the Fora. I like your comic, incidentally.

Thanks for the welcome. First posts on any board are always tricky.

Glad you like the strip. I don't do any of the drawing, though. My friend gets credit for the art and original story concept. I get to harp on details until his head explodes. <g>

[Mailanka]

I think Sluggy Freelance has managed to become self-sustaining, though Pete seems to struggle for cash sometimes. In general, I think, if you're one of the "well known" web comics and you're willing to put alot of time and energy into it, and you don't have huge ambitions of great wealth, a web-comic is doable as a source of income.

Which is kinda nice, if you think about it. One of the things I love the most about the internet is that anybody can publish and become well known (in certain circles, anyway), instead of waiting for that big, corporate sponsored break.

[t!nkrf@y]

I have great respect for those who can put in the dedication to work on a comic full time. I frequently thought about starting a webcomic, but that is not going to happen anytime soon. It is hard enough trying to get my side animations done. I figure webcomics is not much different than any other art related field. You NEED to build up "clientel" first. The only web-comic artists I can think of who were successful overnight, often started in print media first. (Phil Foglio for eaxample.) Another trend I notice is that most web comics have more then one creator working on the comic.

[LateCustomer]

I have a lot of respect for those who can crank out a strip 5 days a week by themselves. Even more so for those who do so in addition to their 9-5 job, if they're lucky to have such stable employment that pays the bills.

The rest of us need to make concessions to get something out at all, one of the most common of which is to simply have someone write while having someone else draw.

With all that said, t!nkfrf@y (or anyone else who's entertaining such ideas), if you have an idea that sounds good to you, then take a few baby steps to see if it's something you can handle. Maybe get someone you know to cover the writing aspect (assuming you're the artist from your post), or if you really want to do it yourself, then try a tri-weekly deal. You don't have to even post it up yet, just do it for yourself for a few weeks and see if you can keep yourself to a schedual. Heck, if you can keep it up, then you'd have the added bonus of having a nice buffer of strips to hold you over in case life throws you a curve ball.

Anyway, just putting in my 2 cents. You never know where the next "Teh Awesome Sauce" strip will creep up, so I like to see people at least give it a go if the have any inclination for it.