Hiya everyone! Yeah, with Red String being primarily a romance story, how can I NOT do Valentine’s day art? I think I might even be obligated by law or something XD Just kidding! It’s rated G (or E for Everyone) and all you have to do is click on the thumbnail below.

I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a while, but have never been able to find a way to position my webcam to do it. Well, I found out that it perches itself wonderfully on my shoulder! So, here you have it, SHOULDER CAM! Watch me ink the next RS chapter cover on YouTube! If you guys like this, I might be doing live streaming drawing sessions in the future.

++ watch it on You Tube.

I have been creating comics for over fifteen years now and I have learned everything the hard way. More than half the time that translates as expensive and time-consuming. One of the hardest things to do when you start your adventure in the addictive habit of comic creation is remembering to avoid certain pitfalls that could ultimately result in its untimely demise. That’s not to say that all stories will succeed or that all people who attempt to create a comic will succeed. I just think there are ways to even the odds, giving you a fighting chance of getting there.

Success of a comic, in my opinion, is not about getting picked up by a publisher or making tons of money from your comic (though that sort of thing is most welcome). What I think of as success is bringing a story to life and maintaining it to its conclusion. This article is not about getting readers or upping your popularity. This is more of a friendly guide so you can keep an eye out for warning signs that you might be falling into a comic pit-fall.

First things first. Completing your story idea.

The creative process is not an exact science. It’s actually very messy and it’s also very easy to rush into an idea before you have a clear path set. I know you’ve got your basic idea and you’re really excited to dive right in. Stop right now! In my experience, not having your story mapped out can lead to slippery paths. A story that is not well thought out can lead to your downfall. You find yourself patching up and fixing loop-holes to make your story work. Suddenly, you find that your story is not so tight-knitted as you thought. There are gaps. Granted, with a webcomic, you can always go in and “fix” those things, but honestly it really makes your readers angry. Don’t force yourself into a corner where you have to change the very matrix of reality for your readers. Have a beginning, middle, and end mapped out for your story so you know what direction you’re headed. Also try to fill in as much detail as you can in the story and work out most or all of the bugs before you proceed. You can always modify your plans as the story unfolds, but at least you’ll know where you’re headed and what needs to be changed should you decide to take a different path with your comic.

You can start in the middle.

There is no worse feeling than being bored with your own story, especially when you are fond of it. There have been places in my own stories where I didn’t want to draw things out too long. I usually cut the scenes in question and elude to these details throughout the story. If the beginning is boring and you want to get right into the middle, start there. Don’t hold back. The start of your story needs to grab attention of possible readers and you don’t have many pages to do it. Readers judge your comic in the first few pages so make sure it’s catchy! If it’s boring to you, chances are that it will be to others. Start in the middle of your story and introduce the beginning through artful flashbacks and hinted references. It makes the reader have to learn about the characters and plot rather than having it all handed to them on a platter. It makes for a bit of a mystery and the characters intriguing. People will want to get to know your characters.

Be realistic about the length of your story.

Epics are tempting, very tempting. When I started my first comic, I envisioned three separate story arcs each running at least twenty chapter long. As time went on, at least half the chapters were cut for the first arc, making events in and between chapters choppy and almost random. Yeah, that was bad. If you are creating your very first comic, heed this warning now and save yourself a lot of pain. Start small. Try creating a story no more than one to four chapters in length (or even just a few one-off stories) and finish it. If you succeed, you then know you can focus long enough to finish a comic. Then move on to larger ideas if you like. Creating smaller stories first will also help in finding your specific style.

Redrawing older chapters of a comic.

Print only comics don’t really have this option, but in the world of webcomics, it’s happens. I am guilty of this….. really guilty. It’s in an artist’s nature to loathe older works. You look back and wonder how you ever did “something that awful.” If you keep redrawing older chapters, you’re going to wear yourself out, plain and simple. This can lead to boredom of a comic project. It happens. The only suggestion I have is to keep pushing forward with your current pages and try to forgive yourself for your older pages. That’s not to say you should never redraw old chapters or pages. In some cases it really is a good idea to rework your older stuff, especially if you’ve made leaps and bounds in your art and you want to go to print.

Dealing with the death of a project can be a terrible thing. It can leave you empty inside and guilty. You’ve tried to find the motivation to complete your story, but can’t. You find yourself overwhelmed or unhappy with your work. If you avoid some of the common pitfalls of creating comics, you might just save yourself the heartache. You might succeed!

So, it has been an extremely long time since I last did a reading recommendation list. So, this time around I am recommending two different series. One is a novel, one a manga series.

The Southern Vampire Mysteries, aka the Sookie Stackhouse Books, by Charlaine Harris are the origin of the True Blood HBO series. I am not going to discuss the TV show. I’m just staying focused on my reading angle here. Like all vampire series, I found the early Sookie books a fun little indulgence. They’re great for curling up on the couch and spoiling yourself with a good romantic, sexy, mystery book. The first four books in the series are by far my favorites. I am still following the series, but so far the first four are the tightest as the cast hasn’t expanded too far at this point.

The main character is an incredibly strong, self-reliant woman with a disability that makes it troublesome to interact with normal people. She reads minds whether she wants to or not and that leads to a frustrating life of ALWAYS knowing what something is thinking, even if it’s about her. Imagine dating someone and knowing what they were thinking all the time. Vampires have just come out and are intergrating with society. It just so happens that one moves into Sookie’s town and the quiet of their minds is a fantastic relief. It’s no wonder she quickly finds herself involved with all of the supernatural world. She’s not always waiting for someone to come and rescue her, but instead, will try to take you down herself. She’s also not afraid to dump a guy who treats her poorly. That’s an extremely respectable trait for a fantasy heroine!

The rest of cast is also marvelously fun to read. Pam, for instance, works at a bar where she is required to show up once a week in full on “vampire” clothes for the customers looking for authentic vampires. However, on her days off, this tough ancient vampire much prefers to wear pastel and suits.

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Pretty Guardian Sailormoon has always been one of my favorite manga series and now it is being rereleased with a new translation by Kodansha. Saying these books are gorgeous is an understatement. Kodansha is doing this series right with the full color opening pages and translations that are spot on compared to the releases by TokyoPop. Now that my gushing for the book itself is done, let me talk about the series a bit for people who don’t know what it is.

This is the story of a not so average Japanese middle school student named Usagi Tsukino. Her grades are terrible, she’s lazy, and a bit of a glutton. She meets a little cat with a crescent bald spot on it’s forehead and is shocked to find out not only does the cat talk, but that it is telling her she is a champion of justice. It is her job to beat back the evil that is reawakening on Earth before it can claim the legendary Silver Crystal and destroy everything. A mysterious masked man comes to her aide while also becoming her rival in the quest to find the crystal. Time and again, the two are drawn together by destiny. Little do they realize the truth of their meeting.

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Manga to avoid!!
I don’t normally talk about books I didn’t like, but this series made me so upset, I felt I had to warn others. The series is called Hot Gimmick and it is one of the worst series I have come across. It started out fantastic and really pulled me in with the characters’ stories and pretty artwork. It convinced me to ask for the rest of the series for my birthday. Read them and was disgusted. The main female lead is so subserviant, she continues to be friends with a guy who tried to have a gang of his friends… er, take advantage of her against her will. She dates a guy who keeps belittling her and abuses her physically and emotionally (at one point he drops her on her tailbone just because, he kicked her down the stairs when they were younger, slaps her in the face). It’s scary when the ONLY good suitor for the main female lead is the brother character that by shoujo law can never happen in the end. The female lead NEVER grows as a character. In fact, she just becomes MORE subserviant and accepting of abuse as the series goes on. Let me save you the rage-dump you will have after reading it and just tell you that you’re way better off avoiding it.