Creating a Comic, Manga or Webtoon: Thing to Prepare Before Starting

So you have a story in mind? You want to made it into a comics, either by yourself or commission an artist to do one for you. Either way there are things you need to have on hand before actually starting to work on the pages itself to tell your story.

Here are some basic things you need to have to make your comic creation more seamless and consistent:

• Summary of your story: A one short paragraph that can your story's premise. While writing the script this will help you keep the theme of the story consistent.... and sort of a reminder. Or if you are having someone else to draw it for you this will give your potential artist an idea of how to proceed to working on your story.

• Design Sheet of your Main Character, Props, Important Locations - Protagonist, Antagonist, any character, props (weapons/vehicles) or location that will be a part of the story. Ideally this should be done by either you or your artist of choice but the great thing about having this on hand is if you decided someone else to do other artworks or continue the comics they have a consistent reference they can use to refer how the characters would look like without having to look at other panels of the previously done pages.

• Comic Script - You can do this in two ways. You can go with the text-type of script or (and most commission-based comic artist) a rough draft of your comic on a per page and panel basis.

  • Text-version sample of a script in comparison with the finished page.

• Rough draft version (from a client) of the page in comparison with the finished page.

• Last and most important of all is Financing the creation your comics. Let us be honest that comic creation is a lot of work which consumes energy, resources, time. And along with time is the years an artist invested to gain the skills to draw a comic. Asking an artist you commission to do the hard work for a fraction of royalty-based income or pay-later scheme WHEN it sells (which is a big IF let's be honest, with the number of multimedia out there, regardless of how awesome you think your story is) is wrong, inconsiderate and undermining the efforts the artist would invest to make your story come to life. Be considerate and pay them accordingly. If you want a professional work then you need to approach this professionally as well. In the end comic creation is a business and should be treated as such. If paying for a comic artist is not possible you can either do it yourself (which is if you have a knack for it you really should go for it!) or just don't do it at all. Not paying is UNFAIR as time is a resource that can't be taken back and comic creation takes so much time. Nobody wants to do a work you are not paid, and that goes to all types of profession.

To fellow comic artist (aspiring or already in the business) - I implore you to NEVER ACCEPT commission-based work with a pay-later scheme WHEN IT SELLS. That is a sure-fire-way to get scammed. Signing a work contract between you and the potential client can protect you. You can make it yourself, there are tons of templates you can use as a basis for your contract if your client can't provided it. You can also use this if there might be some dispute regarding while in the middle of a project. Ideally nothing of that sorts every happen but always armed yourself.

If someone ask you to do something you're not comfortable or possible can't due to workload, time constraints, etc... It's okay to say No. You are doing you and your potential client a favor for not giving expectations that can't be met. If it's workload-related, be honest with your client and discuss a work schedule with them. That way both of you can manage expectations and load. Most of the time clients are very understanding as long as you can deliver in their expected deadline.

Always respect your client's deadline. Nothing says unprofessional more than being delayed all the time. It can happen, and quite a lot to be honest being sick or having emergencies, but make sure if it does happen to inform them days ahead. If not days ahead, as soon as you figured out it could happen. That way they would have enough time to decide how to move forward with the work.

To potential clients - Be honest with your artist when it comes to financing your work. You can always work around with scheduling and payment scheme in installments which, in my case, I do accept as well. It could be very expensive and that goes to any creation. After-all a comic is an investment that can be ,potentially, your passive-income and could be more.

If you have a preferred art-stye for your story it would be better to request an artist that does that art-style instead of asking someone else who clearly uses a different one. Not only you could probably get a sub-par quality of work forcing someone else do something else, but it is a disrespect to the artist you are working with, which some will not voice-out but it is what most of us would feel. If the reason is because you can't afford the artist you preferred... unfortunately, and you could probably figure out that, there is a reason why that said artist's rate is such. You can always find someone who can do it as close to it in their own art-style and it would be best to request that artist instead. Just don't request it to someone who is totally opposite in art-style, which I'm sure, is easy to figure out.