Welcome to Gaia! ::

Whee!
I have ideas for 2.
And the first one, I have the Script written out for the first Chapter.
And drawn the first page. =D
Although the first page is exceedingly Text-heavy, and since I have no proper programs for editing images, it doesn't look very professional.
However!
I like it and its rustic charm! O<
Try and stop me!

My advice is, don't make one page at a time. Do a bunch of pages at a time... two, or four, or whatever (I usually do four). Sketch them all at the same time, ink them all at the same time, color them all at the same time. It ends up saving so much time, and updating in blocks like that leaves whole weeks free for relaxing or doing other art projects.

I didn't mean posting them on the webpage all at once, I meant stuffing them all into the queue at once, since most comics have an automatic updater that will post the comics on the update days for them. Sorry, I wasn't very clear. D:

I'm just going to write everything that comes to mind, so this might get a little long and confusing.

Experiences
Here's some advice for artists and writers out there who are partnering with someone else to do their writing or drawing. Don't let that person jerk you around. It's a partnership. You also need to respect them. The person doing the writing is doing just as much work as the person who is drawing-- at least... if that person is a good writer. If that person is giving you empty dialogue like "Jill: ::walks to bar:: Hey baby. Joe: What?" then slap them and ask them to give you proper descriptions and some notes on what they have in mind.

"HOW does she walk to the bar? What does the bar look like? Is the bar empty? Is there are a bartender? What is Joe doing before she got there?" If you don't ask those questions-- or if that person doesn't supply you with that information-- you'll end up with problems later on. "What?! That's not how I wanted it! She was supposed to bounce up to him cutely, and he's supposed to be the only guy there!" cries your writer at your finished page that took seven hours.

Communicate. Respect each other. Make sure you guys both know each other's mediums. A person who does not know how to draw is more likely to drive you like a slave and expect you to churn out full-colored CG pages at print size every single day plus pin-ups and cover pages. Do not let this happen to you. A person who does not know how to write will have trouble with placing the dialogue on the page or formatting it correctly-- or maybe they won't do the inflection correctly. Each is just as bad for the either, though one of them does sound more painful...

For the artist, even though you're not writing, this is still your project. Talk to your writer if you think the costume designs they want are hilariously bad or just too much to ask of you. Voice your opinions if you think something sucks and want them to fix it. If it sucks, you can't just shrug it off as "Well, I didn't write it." It'll still drag your rep down. Writers, if you think the artist is bringing your story towards the wrong direction or doing the wrong tone or emotions for things, talk to them. Just because you feel like they're doing you a big favor by drawing your idea out for you doesn't mean you let them do whatever they want. COMMUNICATE. RESPECT EACH OTHER.

For a short while I was doing chapter illustrations for a literary novel, and the writer and I had lots of fun together. We talked a bit about her thoughts on what she wanted for the mermaids, and she ended up going towards my direction-- which was great because what she wanted was way too much work for me. Before I started, I approached her with to talk about what she wants her novel to feel like.

I gave her ten thumbnail sketches that each demonstrated a style I thought was suitable to her story-- varying from a dreamy, misty look with watercolors to a hard, thick CG with crisp edges and ending on a collage note with textures and magazine tears. She loved all of them, gave me feedback on how I was protraying her characters and gave a thumbs up to most of the more ethereal ones. The product was downright sexy and was a perfect blend. We had just met, but we knew we had a job to do and that in order to meet our deadlines we had to buckle down, be honest, and do our best. Being polite is nice, but when you want to be productive... don't hold back.

Or else you'll end up spending forty minutes inking unneccesary chainmail and miserably watching the clock, thinking "God damn I have to finish this entire page in four hours just because I was too scared to tell her that I thought her designs were ridiculous."

Hints

Learn to be as human as possible and cram it into your comic. We are very expressive. We gesture, shift our balance, tilt our heads, and vocalize with deep emotion. Get that in your comic and make your characters feel more believable while giving them motion. Subtle actions build character. A girl who always cocks her hips and fixes her hair will look high-maintenence. Dialogue is not always enough. A guy who slumps and bends his knees will look uncomfident.

I see this problem the most in shoujo comics. All the friends are standing in a circle and talking to each other. They gesticulate very blandly-- hands either raised halfway up, across their chests, or in their pockets. Their faces are so blanking and they're looking directly at each other. Gah! Meh. Gross. Come on, people! Give me some attitude. Have the confident girl rock back and forth on her heels, showing the energy bursting out of her. Have the quiet guy avoid eye contact and fumble with his shirt hem. The distracted girl who's worried about the textbook she left behind in the band room? Have her nervously twirl her hair and bite her lips.

By the by, dialogue can be sooooo boring. You realize that everyone has different diction, right? An outgoing guy is more likely to say "sah-weeeet!" The trendy girl will pop her shoulder up and say "You guys chillax!" The pedantic a*****e will use SAT words in every sentence to prove that he's better. Here's an example of dialogue that builds character. First one is the bland dialogue I see in most online comics.

Babs: "Samantha, I'm going to go get some ice cream from the fridge. You want some?"
Samantha: "Yes, that would be great!"

Good, but not strong. This dialogue tells me very little. I can see a bazillion scenes with this dialogue. Samantha is a troubled girl who was wandering around in front of Babs' house. Babs saw her on the way home and let her in. After they sat around awkwardly, she decided to offer Sam some ice cream to help her relax. Here's another scene: Babs and Samanta are best friends and are having a movie night. It's commercial break, so Babs gets up to grab some of their favorite flavors from the fridge. Alright, now let's mess with this. One:

Babs: "Umm... oh! Hey, uh, I have an extra pint of ice cream in the fridge. Would you like to...?"
Samantha: "Oh! Y-yeah. That would be great. ::breathes in deeply:: Th-thank you. Really."

Two:

Babs: "Gonna grab some ol' ice cream from the fridge, Sam. Ya want?"
Samantha: "Yeah sure! You better not forget my spoon this time or else I'll burn your underwear."

So much more power from that. Also, pleeeease stop with the constant headshots. They're so boring. Switching to a bust shot doesn't help. Switch it up-- show the back of them, go for a different angle, only show the movements of their hands, or don't even have them in the panel. But make it meaningful. Give me a headshot when one's needed. Go for the angle when introducing the background. Show me their hands if there's something I need to notice about them.

Know what you're getting into. A lot of people who draw gorgeous can't grasp how to comic, since it's a storytelling medium and thus needs to be studied and observed. Realize that you'll be drawing things that you usually don't draw. That's the hardest part for people who always draw posing pictures that are frontal. They start drawing a comic and can't figure out how to place a pouting prince slumping on the royal dining table properly. Especially not from the back view. Egads, no!

Read comics other than manga, like American, Candadian, British, and especially French. I know this is a generalization, but typically American comics make more use of other elements in their comics than Asian ones. If you want me to suggest issues to read that have artists that really are really awesome with panelling, meaningful content, perspective, and so on, I'll gladly give you a list based on your interests. In fact, I could even send comics to you since I like to save things.

Also, learn to be open. I see too many people go "manga is the best everything else sucks" and it just makes you look annoying. The lines are blurring anyways, which is the main reason why I just say "comics" and go more indepth when I need to. I can barely keep up with the lingo these days. "Manwha," "Amerimanga," "Manhwa," "Animu," and so on. And even with "Western" comics. DC is an American company and Superboy was written by an American writer for much of its run, but its main artist for most of the nineties was a Canadian penciller. So is the comic American, or Canadian? It's equal. I'll go with "American" since the company is American, but what the hell so complicated. COMICS. Be open. Be accepting. Learn from everyone.

Okay. This is way too long. XD;;;; I'll just say more some other time. Ugh. By the way, I'm Chinese and grew up on a mixture of Japanese, Chinese and Superhero comics. My closet houses a monster that is lovingly called "THE TOWER OF MANGA" by my older sister. So, yanno, I'm really not biased for anything, and if I was-- it would seem logical that I would be waving banners and screaming "manga manga manga" like everyone else. So um. Yeah.

I've had mine going for a little bit now, but, I'm keeping myself at least three comics ahead of the updates.
At the moment, my comic is on update number 7 and I am drawing number 20.

You can delay updates on smackjeeves, so I set it up, let it to update a month from now, all is good.

My own comic,found here(http://kingdomotaku.smackjeeves.com)hasn't been updated since the spring,basically due to a lack of story ideas,character development and the fact that I have a full-time job.It doesn't even have a decent character bio page.I know what the personalities of the characters(11!)are,but my problem is in drawing them out the way I want.^_^;;

I do plan to update it someday.