How do I make a successful webcomic?

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Webcomics come down to three things.
One, you need a minimum standard of quality. This can mean a lot of things. Could be art. Could be story. Could be relatability. Point is, you have to do some part of your comic very well. Achewood isn't exactly drawn well, but it's just that damn funny so it got popular.
Two, there's consistency. Most webcomics seem to update completely at random, whenever the author finds the time or the energy. If you want a popular webcomic, make a schedule and STICK to it. Doesn't matter if it's once a week on a tuesday, you update every week on that tuesday as best you can. Obviously, the more often you update the quicker you'll get noticed.
Three, and this is the most bitter pill to swallow, you need time. The grim reality of webcomics is that it takes a few years of consistent updates to build an audience. Many of the more popular "modern" webcomics started 5-7 years ago. The most popular ones started 15-20 years ago. You've got to be willing to gut it out in relative obscurity for a while.

As long as you can do those things, and you make sure to post your webcomic wherever you can, you CAN find an audience.
Also put in some fat sloppy titties. People love titties.

>FRRRRT

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>People love titties.
I prefer a GF sucking my ass everyday only for love

Just draw porn with plot lol. Honestly, it's fucking disgusting how the most popular webcomics are just straight up porn (they even shamelessly market themselves as such).

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make something which panders exclusively to a certain and also has "comfortable mediocrity"

>How do I make a successful webcomic?

Have lots of cute girls. And maybe a few traps. Tease people with sex, but never show it for years on end.

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Lol Neokosmos reference

>no webcomic has been successful
Financially, untrue.

That position of the effect clues you in to the fact that you are hearing a queef. Farts go towards the rear.

Successful how? If you mean financially successful, there's not very many webcomics that are by themselves profitable. Off the top of my head, Unsounded is the only case where the author's primary income is derived from the comic. and not something else, and even then it's not sales of the printed volumes as much as it is patreon keeping Ashley afloat.

Other famous comics like xkcd, the creator has a day job and is a published author, or with Penny Arcade, that was basically an extreme case of "right place right time" for the creators to become super influential as critics of the then-nascent gaming industry, so much so that they were able to carve themselves a more or less permanent throne at the top of the gaming social scene where now people pay them tribute.

Or if you just want flash in the pan popularity with internet weirdos you can emulate Andrew Hussie, but personally I don't think that's worth it.

Make gay comic with boys kissing on the cover and post it on Webtoon

Just do one thing over and over again and you'll build up an audience pretty quickly.

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This comic is specifically about doing one thing ad nauseam. The author began with a specific goal of "how far can I take this single joke?"

Hot

MODS = FAGGOTS

This.

Consistency. Most of the big webcomics got there by being shit and consistent. Only Nedroid still has fans despite being inconsistent and that's because it's the best by a sizeable margin.

Become based and redpilled.

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>successful

You know him, that's what counts.

I want to make a successful comic!

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>Two guys, one girl, some kind of creature or perhaps a pet.
>First male protagonist should be caring, kind and have one goal in mind no matter how dumb it is. They might be too goofy to function in society.
>Second male protagonist is calm, collected and puts up with the first male's bullshit. Despite that, they're the best of friends even if the second male protagonist hates the first.
>Female protagonist could develop a relationship with the first male because he has goals. She's almost always annoyed. Try to draw her like you WANT people to draw rule 34 of her.
>Make comics that are social commentary to current world events. Doesn't matter if you strawman or ad hom it, someone's going to argue with you either way.
>Don't be afraid to use bright colors! How will people know your comic is creative if it isn't colorful?
>Make most of the conversations about how convenient something is. People appreciate comic characters having inconveniences of their own, no matter how silly they are.

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save yourself troubles and start up porn comic.

probably the most right post ITT

Fuuck, the whole consistency thing is whats going to mess with me.
I'm a pretty slow artist, so I'd probably be unable to make consistent updates.

That and I want to be able to do animation projects on the side along with any commissions I may get. But then where does that leave time for where I don't feel like drawing? I'm sitting on a backlog of shit I want to watch,read or play.

That depends if you wanna create for popularity or create just to create. The consistency thing could be circumvented by making a big backlog before you start. By time it's over then you can tell people you'll be taking a short break as by then you'll most likely have a small group of readers watching. It all depends on how seriously you wanna take this.

Well, you've got to think about how bad you want it. Sure I might want to play video games or read comics some days, but instead I sit down and work on my art because it's more important.

Put some work into to learning how to structure a story, if you don't already know how.

Don't tap into the constant outrage culture we're always living in. Give an escape.

Consistency, waifus, and a fair amount of pandering.

I have like almost 40 pages already sitting on my harddrive but since i idiotically decided to make it story focused, I want to release all of them at once just so my potential readers have a sizeable amount to read and get invested in. But since its all story focused and all, I'd hate to do one page a week because you just wont get anything out of it. I also dont want to do one big update a month because then that might turn away some readers too.

I mean sure I could do another 40-some pages but I'd really like to release it now than later, as I've been putting it off for too long now.

True, but there are other aspects of my life that I can't and dont want to ignore trying to make consistent uploads happen. Such as, needing to take on more animation projects so that I can actually have a decent reel to show off when I go to apply as an animator for big companies.

I just dont know if my potential readers would put up with me. I'd hate to have them think I'm ignoring them cause I have things going on in my life other than the comic.

fuck im gonna have to have a backlog thats like half the total length of the entire planned story if im gonna at all keep to a release schedule of any sort, i find its already kinda hard and time consuming just making simpler single fanart comic pages so its gonna be a rude awakening to actually embark on making what would hopefully end up eventually becoming hundreds of pages over the years

I'm trying to decide if this is Two Guys and Guy or CAD

Yeah I did the 'release it all at once' with the first issue of my webcomic. I know that you wanna give people a big chunk to read so they can get invested but it's way better to do it page by page. Those updates, once or twice a week, usually get more people reading as there's more suspense/interest as the plot starts developing.

Don't forget lesbians
youtube.com/watch?v=x5zsxfhAh6Q

is it even possible to make a successful webcomic nowadays? seems like anything that's popular is old.

that answer can vary wildly tbdesu. in our english speaking realm i think i get what youre saying, but in the broader scope theres big potential for a very successful webcomic, the show Kingdom is a loose adaptation of the gook webcomic Kingdom of the Gods which is apparently quite popular on that side of the world

sauce

Produce a lot of pages at a consistent rate.

all that means is i'll be vaguely amused in five years when co/ screams about the fbi raiding his house and confiscating his child porn

Translation: Cater to a niche audience that most other people won't touch.

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You dont. Webcomics are an even lower form of comics, a medium already seen as mediocre & childish.

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you said niche tho

>people who dislike SJW culture
>niche

Maybe not niche, but if you want to "make it" in the big-bucks entertainment industry, anti-sjw and edgy political stuff will get you on a lot of influential people's bad side. Stonetoss will never get picked up by a major publication because of that, regardless of how good or truthful the comic ism

>anti-sjw and edgy political stuff will get you on a lot of influential people's bad side

I assure you there's plenty of people in Hollywood who sympathize with antifa. What you mean to say is "if you are too right wing they will hardwall you."

Oh hey, this thread's back!
everything I know offhand-
>there is (or was) a Patreon general on though I haven't seen it for a while
>apart from it being mathematically proven you get more out of one with tier rewards as opposed to using it as a tip jar,
>the secret to getting money out of it is audience 'engagement'-something a small number of people are desperate to see will get more than something a large number are so-so to see
eg, Val Salia/Out of Placers: is furry, gender bending, started with passably good art, has genuinely good comedy, has enough happening in the story that it can be talked about with other people, and the author is a genuinely likeable dude. He's being paid 1.1k(ish? I think he hired an artist) a page and I wish him all the best.
>also demographic appeal- furries, LGBT, rule 63, and possibly anime are tightly knit groups. If your story is about them, ballin'
>Kazerad/Prequel is very open about selling merch and has experience with it, and numbers. check the archives for his name
>write shit down while you're googling it, school didn't tell you to do that for nothing

>"comfortable mediocrity"
I've noticed this and thought on it before, if you even can I don't think you should mimic it. Assigned Male actually reads like satire, but trying to do that on purpose sounds like a bad plan- treating your audience like something you're conning or hold in contempt feels like it's going to be bad on your psyche. You rely on them.

sure, why not

What's a deuteragonist?

Secondary main character. Not as important as the main main character, but still has a lot of screen time and relevance to the plot. Han Solo could be seen as a deuteragonist to Luke Skywalker's protagonist.

That's a good Yea Forums example...
I never can deduce if was Katara or Sokka the deuteragonist in Avatar

Oh, also some more I forgot
>while it's usually more of an art thing, you can pretend to be LGBT, female, or a minority online for attention. But, you know, psyche, wear down, living a lie, etc etc
>if your comic IS worth reading, stick a sequence up on imgur
>the webcomic subreddit has fuckers that will downvote you to keep themselves promoted. Assuming you have something worth reading, paid upvotes aren't cheating. No dishonor in lying to an automatic system

atla was more of a freudian trio dynamic

You don't you waste your life on it for a few years then sell the IP to a company trying to leech nerd bucks. They give you a job as supposed guy who still makes the comic while arthouse grads rake themselves over dumbing down their art to fit the diarrhea splatter of your comics.

Oh, and don't forget to get the merch shop running. Its all a failure if you can't push the shirts.

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Wow, i never thought about that.

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>Everyday

That can't be healthy.

Firstly, don't make it about the travails of 20-something hipsters.

... Unless you're going to update every day

>That can't be healthy.
Neither my mind

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bump

Ok, done.

Go full commie and fling shit at the "alt-right."
Go full nazi and fling shit at the "far-left."
Go full "wholesome" and draw fluffy saccharine bullshit.
These three are the easiest way to grab an audience.

This lol. I love lesbos but every webomic insets them in the most contrived and blatantly pandering manner.

>colors
(being serious; I can't think of any rich/top-of-list webcomics that are black and white)
>harem shit?
>'junk food' writing tropes?

I've spent about 5 years planning and drawing my comic, with the idea that I'd start releasing it after I got to 3 issues, which ended up being 70 pages. I knew it would be slow, but I also didn't want to wait forever.Since my comic is also story focused, I was tempted to release the first chapter all at once to give new readers more of an intro... But I just couldn't use up that much of my buffer, so I did one page a day for a week to start it off, and have posted one page weekly since then. I had some people already interested to read when I started, but one reader I picked up once underway has told me they like the weekly schedule because it doesn't get overwhelming and it's easy to catch up if they miss a post or two. I think they key to making weekly posting work with a long story is just make sure something worthwhile happens each page, and don't get bogged down in long fight scenes or such that take many weeks while not moving the story forward much or revealing new information about the characters. Readers are gonna have different preferences, but I think if you are posting weekly, those who would prefer a big pagedump every month or whatever will just tune back in once pages of accrued, but all readers will have a nice weekly reminder to check out your comic, and it'll keep your site more active.

I know I can't sustain a weekly posting rate indefinitely though because I work a day job, and even though this comic is my main art focus, the art is pretty detailed and pages often take more than a week to finish. However, I wanted to focus on quality over speed, and my backlog is sufficient to let me finish out the first arc of the story and allow me to post weekly for a little over 2 years straight. I decided to make it known from the start that I'd need to pause and rebuild the buffer at that point though, so I'm hoping that this strategy will assure readers that I am dedicated to the project and they can safely get invested in it.

>Since my comic is also story focused, I was tempted to release the first chapter all at once to give new readers more of an intro... But I just couldn't use up that much of my buffer, so I did one page a day for a week to start it off, and have posted one page weekly since then
As it happens I was just about to suggest that before I read the whole post. Beyond the Western Deep?

It needs one of three things
1. Relatability, usually in the form of jokes pertaining about minor inconveniences of everyday american life.

2. LGBT couples. Everyone loves shipping, and nothing gets people defending shit than having their ship be a minority demographic, AND be two of the same gender sucking face.

3. Titillation. Just draw something and SAY it's a hot girl wiggling her but at you and wait for the views to flood in.

Neat, I think it worked out well enough. Unless you already have a big following you can promote to though, I suspect the amount of pages at launch has less of an impact than consistent updates afterwards.

The title of my comic is Avania. Hadn't heard of Beyond the Western Deep before, but it looks pretty cool!

you don't

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Considering the the picture you chose I assume you want the version of success over quality. Putting aside that it's mostly luck, you need to hit a niche role that others can't or are unwilling to compete with. And I'm not just talking in all aspects of the comic it can just be one thing like the art style that drags people in if everything else is lacking (see Ava's Demon). Fetishes and pandering are easy. Aimless SOL or gag comics can also be continued forever as long as things are consistently updated (see Questionable Content and Dumbing of Age and Penny Arcade) though in that case it would have been better to hit the genre when there weren't giants around. Homestuck might have been a heavy hitter but it died a slow death until the momentum ended when it's story did. You can't drag an isolated webcomic/manga/western comic based on a narrative out for too long as eventually people are just going to get tired of the new bullshit arcs. Very few have managed to continue forever and the exceptions are only usually continuing to print money because they've become such icons that they're instantly recognizable and marketable.

As for the more 'quality' successes, have an endpoint, have a plan, have a script, write for the sake of the story, and for god's sake actually have something original and unique.

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>Avania
A while back I realized I've never seen a fantasy story with a 1950s tech level and I really really wanted to see that so if that actually is what the comic is about, kudos!

By the way I'm 24 pages in, why does every airplane look like an Ork Fighta-Bomma? They even have the New York Fries checks.

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Yeah I hadn't (and still haven't) seen another setting with a "magic vs. technology" theme where the highest tech is WW2 level... I suppose Lovecraftian stuff is closest, but the background of my story is a clash of an earth-like civilization and (as the story unfolds) a magic-using civilization culturally similar to 1800s Europe. I'm focusing on getting the cast assembled and getting the plot moving right now, but as it progresses you'll see plenty of both the ww2 tech and magical elements.

Thanks for checking it out! I think the Fighta-Bomma similarities are due to both 40k and I are drawing from the same source... Also, I like 40k a lot and really enjoyed Double Eagle and Deff Skwadron in particular.

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The last successful webcomic was probably One Punch Man.

There have been some solid pieces of advice so far ITT, but I think you need to define what you mean by success, because what might give you the best shot at success is going to depend on what that definition is for you personally.

Be sure to host it on Drunk Duck

knowledge bump

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Make it about cub porn. Worked for me.

I do kind of the same thing for my webcomic. The difference is that I'm a writer who works with an artist so pages don't come all that quick (the comic is an action/comedy one). I've already made it clear with my readers that when an issue is over it'll take around a month and a half to rebuild the buffer for next issue. This is usually good as the buffer lasts for around 3 - 4 months of the comic updating twice a week. There hasn't been any complaints so far but then again my webcomic is still in it's infancy just getting past 2nd issue.

Yeah, xkcd is an obvious exception, but other than that I can't think of another "successful" webcomic that is currently mostly black and white.

>Two Guys and Guy
>CAD
>Whomp
>Fanboys
>Scott Pilgrim
>Invader Zim
>SpongeBob SquarePants
>Pokemon
>Avatar: The Last Airbender
When will it end?

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Seriously, there's way too fucking many of these.

You're asking too much of human nature for people to not write what they know.

While true, that still doesn't mean I have to like it.

Lesbians are an overdone cliche to be sure. In of itself, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with it, but let's be honest that IRL lesbians are horrifying to behold and look nothing like the sexy female couples presented in most webcomics. If they admitted the characters were really bi and just experimenting, it would come across as more honest.

(just a head's up, "write what you know" means "write what you're knowledgeable about". We'd be running out of authors for WW2 stories otherwise.)

The way Jeff draws teeth will never fail to unnerve me.

Whatever you do, the most important thing to do, in my opinion, is to respect how long it will take. Whatever your timetable is, maybe double or triple. I just finished the first of a 9-12 chapter comic, 100 pages done in ~50 weeks. Two pages a week, every week. It will take you a long time to finish even a portion of your idea, let alone achieve anything like success.

Patience, consistency, patience, discipline, patience, and more patience.

I think the most important thing is that your comic makes fun of trannies.

Horde gf
>ugly and braaping constantly
Alliance gf
>actually just a twink
Make the choice, Yea Forums

Be funny, creative, and passionate. Same way you get a gf or a job or dodge the draught

>Same way you get a gf
Well, that's discouraging.

>Be funny, creative, and passionate
5% of successful webcomics are any of those things.

Or better, you could get a real job so you don't have to whore out and work at your own pace

TGAG Isn't even remotely like that. Wayne is a well-meaning moron, but the Frank is a sociopathic mad scientist monster in human form and Guy is a psychopathic cunt.