Give me your Opinion on this please!

I asked this to other coh comic makers but I wanted to open it up and see what you guys think of it. I'll just quote the entire original post.

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Originally Posted by Sin_Stalker So I finally sorted out everything for the comic I've been working towards. It kind of all fell into place. I was struggling with making this comic and had about 25 to 30 issues planned for it. I cant do that many and have been trying to figure out what to cut. So I cut a few things and the rest kind of fell into place again. So I felt like sharing Introductions (Completed) Obey (Pending) Cyril (still working on a better title) The Return ( possibly naming it something comic book cheezy like "Attack of the Mermen" ) Nexus (another working title) Flashback Rikti Wars (or Rikti War Chronicles ) Enemy Within Crazy (possibly naming it Crazy Me or Crazy You) Anyways it will all then come together in... Injustice Now that I am more experienced with writting issues, I have caculated all these and how many I'd need to write them. I am looking at about 14 to 20 issues, this does not count Injustice or Introductions. Only Obey to Crazy... and that means I only have 2 and half of the 14 to 20 issues done. Lolz. After Sparky and I are done with this team up comic, I am soooo going to focus on these sooooo strongly. Anyways, I also had a question for you guys. I know there will be varying opinions on the subject so please give your reasoning behind it so I can take into consideration all points. Now it takes me about a year to make 6 issues. This means I'll be doing this for about the next 2 or 3 years at least... Should I sacrifice quality to speed these things out or should I continue how I am going? Hm, I think I'll ask this in another section of the forums and see what alot of people think... ugh... I just keep hoping someone will want to help me out with the comics and help me crack these things out quicker. Oh well, one can only dream. -Sin

So there you have it. Let me know what you guys think please?

-Sin

If you satisfy quality the comics might lose something. That being said however, you may find a good balance that still works for you.

Personally, I've found that when I cut corners to save time, I end up dissatisfied with what I've produced.

Recently I've been giving myself a set time to produce a piece, simply to improve my working speed, and caring less about the actual results. The process being the most important aspect. Having said that, it bugs me tremendously when I run out of time and that piece isn't finished to my satisfaction. What that process has done though, is to have sped up my drawing speed tremendously, and I think that if you continue to work towards your original goals, your speed will naturally increase, without sacrificing content.

You're only producing this to please yourself really, so why not take your time?

For myself yes but also hopefully to entertain others...

Just take your time. Rushing things generally creates more disappointment than waiting for good work.

Well what would be more dissapointing would be if coh died (god forbid) and then i cant finish the comic...

Or it really does take me 3+ years to make this comic...

here is what someone else said to me.

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Originally Posted by LegendaryJMan I say bust them out. Quality does not have to suffer for quantity. We are making screenshot comics, you know everything there is to know about CoH, the environment and where you can take a picture. All you have to do is write the story, which you have. What you gotta do is switch from "oh goodness I have 3 years worth of comics" to "pie this next issue needs x y and z lets go get it"

And this is my response in that thread.

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Originally Posted by Sin_Stalker Its the shooting that takes me longer. Getting the right shots. An example is this. For the Sparky/Sin issue. I have a shot where Sin is chasing Madcap. I just did this the other day. Now after I was done with the demo (since I was working alone with 2 accounts and couldnt press both runs and the screen shot button at same time... the camera angle is too far back. I am trying to move the camera put forward but I suck balls... big hairy sweaty balls.... BALLZ!!!!!! Anyways... So do I retake the entire demo shot and stuff with another camera angle or do I just use the one I have and zoom in extra... making it more pixelated than normal and thereby having a lower quality shot. do I really take the extra time to avoid the pixelation of a single frame or do I just accept that? Another example is another shot I have to do for this issue. It has Sin being hit over the head by a gun. Now to fully get what is going on I have several shots happening here. The close up of the gun moving forward. A shot of the bad guy in "after swing" and Sin being hit back in the same shot... Now that is ALOT of work right there. Going in, getting the right shots at the right angle to convay all this. Then doing the demo edits and the timing just right.... going into the demo, taking out several frames a second and then looking through anywhere from 5k to 100k or more screen shots to find the best one. Or do I just find one thats... okay. Questions questions questions.... where's Vic Sage when ya need em.

In my opinion i would just bust them out and get them all set up and done. Then go back and refine, refine and refine. This way you are getting a look at the story/comic as a whole. Rather than spending 2 months doing each one, spend 4 months doing quick throw togethers and then go over everything as a whole.

But that is just my opinion.

Do it at your own pace. If you try to rush it, you may burn out on it or not like the end result. On the other hand, if you go to slow, other things may get in the way and it never gets finished. You just need to find what works Best for you.

When talking about years of time, best not to trivialize the changes that can happen to you as a person and as an artist in that time. What works for you now can easily fall by the wayside over 12 months. As you tackle this project, you should possibly attempt to anticipate how you want your own skill to evolve over this time.

In the comic industry, the most highly prized artists are ones that can deliver high quality on deadlines tighter than Invincibelle's brapieces. If you value artistic workmanship in the same way you should probably be trying to evolve as much simultaneous quality and speed as you can muster, rather than expecting to be satisfied with just one or the other.

In any case, if I were in grasp of your pencils, I might simply evaluate what approach might suit each individual issue. Some issues might be planned to be replete with stock or cliche imagery, and offer little in the way of opportunity for artistically-enhanced impact. Quality might be easily assured and thus a focus on practicing speed for that issue is useful. And then some other issues might be of great interest, having very curious or inspirational environments or plots, or might include some incredible single moments I really want expressed to their fullest. For those issues I might want to set speed aside and labor carefully and at length. It seems to me that if you can make each issue it's own complete object, even if it isn't exactly the same template as all the others, you can avoid chaining your artistic evolution to the limited bounds of your initial plan.

In the end it's hard to advise what to do. Just be the artist you are and stretch out your talents to their limits for as long as you can keep it up. Look at the plan in front of you, and look at yourself honestly, and then get to work.

It'll end up being great.

You are going to be putting your name on this. Speaking for myself, I can safely say I want something to be up to a certain standard when I put my name on it. I believe in quality over quantity myself. If you need to cut corners to save time, perhaps you should look at the number of issues rather than the quality of the issues. Even then, you need to be careful not to cut anything which is crucial to the story or which makes it more difficult to understand why something is occurring in the story.

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Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

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As with most things, there is a balance to be struck. I don't think you should just concentrate on quality, nor on speed. If you don't put out a good product, niether you or your readers will be happy. But if you have too few issues, readers will lose interest in following the complete project.

My only constructive advice would be to consider scaling back either the number of issues, or panels per issue, so that you can have a good quality product that tells a story in a reasonable amount of time.

I have to agree with Bionic Flea. 25-35 issues sounds like a whole heck of alot. No offense, but fan fiction is invariably more enjoyable and when it's in short, easy to digest, formats. Most readers who take the time to read fan fiction are going to get bored pretty easily if they can't read a story in one sitting.

Well yeah, thats why its been scaled back as I said. It went from 25+ and will now be about 15 to 20 issues. I've already edited stuff out and condensed stuff down. Stuff that was going to be 3 issues is now 2 issues and such.

Number of panels on page doesnt change anything either since if I tried to make more frames and less pages, I still have the same amount of screen shots. Besides, I want each issue to be a normal length comic book.
I could lessen frames for each page but then thats a massive huge quality turn to the ground. If that occures than dialogue piles up (which people dont tend to like) and then you have the story not fully being told, the key moments, turns, etc.


My main thing right now is the picture quality. Its really the only thing left I can compromise but then the question is how much? I have a shot with Sin Stalker chasing Madcap. My original camera angle is a bit too far back... so I have two choices now. Spend the time redoing that entire shot or use the shot and zoom in more to get the proper framing, etc. This however means pixelation to a greater degree than what would be if the camera was better...

Another area not yet compromised would be editing. I could just not worry about edits and typoes and stuff as much, leave them in there?

Just not sure what to do. Helps hearing these opinions though. Helps to get me thinking on the subject with all the angles and such that comes with it.

I still think 15-20 is still alot. There are plenty of good comic book stories that are contained in 3-6 issues.