Get Better

I love to read webcomics I haven't read before. It's always an experience, always a discovery to be made. It's not always a good experience, but I'm usually glad I did it.

I like to give every comic a fair chance, so I have a method. I read the most recent strip/page and then a few more before that. If it still looks interesting, I go to the first comic and read it all the way through in order.

When I read through a comic, I notice one of two things usually happens. Either it starts very interestingly and gets boring, or it starts very rough and unfocused and gets cleaner and tighter. There are always exceptions, but this is the generality I've found.

I wondered why this might be. For those who start strong, but peter out, I think it is a matter of having a good idea, and then not getting any more ideas (or not realizing that the new ideas are lousy). For thohse who start unfocused, I think tat the comic is an experiment. It's like, the creator sees all these other comics online and wants to join the collective, or somebody who doodles a lot and wants to share them, or at least offer to share them. They are the people who are used to drawing pictures, but not writing characters, drawing scenes, but not telling stories.

If your style is going to change over time, it's much better to get better than get worse. Whatever you are uncomfortable with, you should do it. Do it a lot. Get better at it so that you aren't uncomfortable anymore. Let your old works serve as a reminder of where you came from and how far you've gone. Hopefully, you've gone far uphill and not down.