The most important part of making comics is coming back to them. Comics are big projects. A short one will take at least a few days. A long one? Well, I spent 4.5 years on Rita.
Some days were good days. I’d have easy, fun pages to do next and I’d tear through it. Other days? Complicated pages, or distractions, or winter depression could cut sharply into my output. There were times I get nothing drawn for several days in a row.
I didn’t berate myself when it happened. And if all I got done on the comic was a half hour’s work? That was still a half hour of progress that wasn’t there when I woke up. And I felt good about that.
Solo comics are a Sysiphean effort. You will have to figure out ways to keep on coming back to them. Especially if you are a distractable slacker like me.
Of course, there are lots of other important parts. Learning how to tell a story, learning how to draw, how to promote it, how to get it printed, all kinds of stuff. But the biggest thing I had to learn was how to just keep on working on it.
Some people will tell you to set a schedule and stick to it. Me? I set one of “aim for two pages a week, don’t fret if life gets in the way”.
Oh yeah. And never draw apologies for being late with a page. If you only have a half hour to work, put it towards the next page instead of to drawing a pretty “sorry no page today”. People who care enough to subscribe to the rss/twitter/fb/tumblr feed will see new pages when they happen with no work on their part; the days when you had to train people to check your site themselves are long gone. If your time and energy is ultra limited, spend it on something that counts.
Thanks, this is really good advice that I really need to follow and understand.