The beginning hooks of your webcomic are what's going to inspire a reader to keep reading, and there are lots of approaches to starting out, depending on the story you're trying to tell. Today, we're going to talk about the many ways to begin a beginning.

In This Episode:

• What was on your mind when writing the beginning of your comic? Have you ever revised it or wanted to change it later?
• What are your favorite examples (from your work or others) of engaging beginning techniques? What kinds of approaches have you seen that are disengaging?
• What is your advice to someone who is trying to write (or rewrite) an engaging beginning but doesn't know how to go about matching it to their story?

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Episode Release Date: August 27, 2025

Episode Credits:

Rae Baade - they/them, https://empyreancomic.com

Claire Niebergall (Clam) - she/her, https://phantomarine.com

Bob Appavu - any, https://intothesmokecomic.com https://www.demonoftheunderground.com

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The Intro "DO IT (feat. Shia LaBeouf)", and the Outro "It's Good To See You Again!!", both by Adrianwave, have been used and modified in good faith under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licensed. Edits include: Fade IN/OUT, and a repeat added to the beginning of "It's Good To See You Again!!". For more information on this creative commons use, please reference https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.

Transcription

This transcript is auto generated by our recording software.

00:15.00

Rae

Hello and welcome to Screen Tones, where we talk anything and everything webcomics. Today we are going to be talking about types of beginnings and when to use them. I'm Rae; they/them pronouns. I do the webcomics on Empyrean High and Overlord of Ravenfell.

00:33.33

Bob

I'm Bob, any pronouns, and I do the webcomics Into the Smoke and Demon of the Underground.

00:39.83

Claire

I'm Claire, also known as Clam. My pronouns are she/her. I make the webcomic Phantomarine.

00:47.70

Rae

The beginning hooks for your webcomics are what are going to inspire the reader to keep reading. And there's a lot of approaches to starting out, depending on the story that you're trying to tell. So to start off, Bob, what was on your mind when writing the beginning of your comic? Have you ever revised it or do you want to change it later? And so tell us your story.

01:11.03

Bob

Well, I just recently started my second webcomic, Into the Smoke, and it kind of starts with a flashback to a very, very brief flashback, to eight years ago where the main character who is a medium is speaking to his mentor and his mentor basically gives him like the three cardinal rules of being a spirit medium.

01:33.92

Bob

And then we cut eight years later and immediately he's breaking all three rules at once. So that is the opening. it's you know. It's a vertical scroll, so it's all one episode.

01:46.77

Bob

And the reason I wanted to start that way is because ah it's a supernatural mystery and with fantasy genre, it can sometimes be difficult to establish stakes right up front because you need a little bit of context and world building before you really understand what matters to the story.

02:05.30

Bob

And I'm a pretty character driven creator. So I like to... ah lead with something that says something about the character, as a little bit of humor to set the tone, and um also sneaks in a little bit of exposition so that um in a way that doesn't feel as much like exposition.

02:25.63

Bob

So that's kind of what my mindset was when I was going into it.

02:33.07

Rae

Yeah, I think that's a good approach to it because you don't really want exposition to be boring. And, you know, a lot of the fantasy does go like, okay, we need to go through their daily lives.

02:48.09

Rae

Oh, no, something happens and their world is upended. So sometimes getting right into it can make things a bit more interesting.

03:00.81

Rae

Okay, what about you, Clam?

03:03.64

Claire

I kind of had maybe the opposite situation where I jumped in originally too quickly. And in my mind, I thought basically like dropping people into a scene that was kind of mysterious and like, oh, what's going on here? Who are these characters? What's happening?

03:27.18

Claire

I thought that that was going to be something that was kind of a fun initial mystery to unravel. And I think some readers liked that at the start. But what I found and kind of what I found later as I was, I guess, analyzing how I read webcomics is depending on how, I guess, accessible your world is and how, I guess, easily understood your characters are,

03:54.95

Claire

You can't start too quickly sometimes. I found that... um Because my first pass that I did of Chapter 1 of Phantomarine was basically... um It was before I added any sort of a prologue. And the prologue came later because I did have people be like, what's happening? I don't understand.

04:14.07

Claire

Like, please tell me where we are. And I was like, valid. Okay, we can rewind like five minutes and I can explain kind of general things about like, what is the tone of the world? What rough time periods are we kind of looking at?

04:30.32

Claire

What's the vibe rather than just like, wham, here we are, situation, go! And yeah, initially, I now I notice whenever a webcomic starts too quickly, I'm usually, it's so funny, like, I usually kind of, I'm like, no, no, let's, let's slow down, because you got a lot of information to, I guess, initialize in the reader's mind, you have to kind of bring them into not just the world itself, but your art style and your writing style and all of these things where I guess, especially if you're working in like fantasy or sci fi, I think you need to give people a little bit more time to just breathe and be like, okay, what am I here for?

05:16.19

Claire

What's initially happening? oh Kind of what, What have I gotten myself into a little bit? And I think going too quickly and just kind of assuming like, yeah, people will figure it out. It can be okay. But even I find that for myself, like taking a little bit of extra time, a few more panels, pages, just to be like, here's the world. Here's some breathing room to get into it. Okay, now let's go.

05:43.46

Claire

Yeah, I started too quickly. But I think because my world needs a little bit more explanation, I think not everybody needs to be super slow. But for me, that was a benefit, slowing it down.

05:57.66

Claire

And yeah, establishing some things very clearly.

06:03.40

Rae

Yeah, I think in your case, because I did see it before you added the prologue, with your main character, it's kind of an ensemble.

06:14.02

Rae

So that really helped in fleshing out their dynamics before the inciting incident and such happened. So that that was definitely a good choice, in my opinion, because you get to see a bit more of how they are in their natural habitat so to speak before things happen um yeah so that's definitely one thing for me I'm the kind of person that thinks chronologically which makes me want to be begin my stories at the beginning like right before the inciting incident

06:36.03

Claire

Exactly.

06:55.01

Rae

I know, shocking. The beginning is, but the beginning is at the beginning.

06:58.86

Bob

Yeah.

07:01.31

Rae

Yeah. But we all know the beginning isn't always the best place to actually start the story. So I often go through my plot beats and I try to find where would be the good place to hook the audience.

07:17.40

Rae

And I like to envision the plot as like a kind of pie or maybe a brownie. And you just slice out where you're going to have the story. Because I do a lot of world building and all that. So it's like you have this history ah for both the characters and the world.

07:38.60

Rae

And you just got to figure out where to start. And sometimes that's in the middle. Sometimes... you start at the end or, you know, the last part.

07:51.57

Rae

So yeah, I pretty much have to revise all my scripts before I actually start because I often don't find the best beginning right off.

08:01.60

Claire

I think a lot of times it also depends on like, you discover what the hook is a little bit later in the process. Like you look at that slice that you've taken out and you're like, this is the story.

08:09.70

Rae

Yeah.

08:13.50

Claire

I know this is the story. But to find that one spot where you're like, oh, this is what's going to make people read. And that that can be at the end. It can be in the middle. like

08:23.79

Claire

It's, yeah, it's kind of deceptive. Like, it's not always the beginning. And I know for me, I felt I found the hook at the wrong spot.

08:22.94

Rae

It can be ah and that and that can yeah and that can that can definitely also be a lot of where the creator is interested in starting too because you know showing that mundane normal life isn't all isn't for everyone

08:48.79

Rae

too because it doesn't it's not interesting to draw for a lot of people and sometimes it's not interesting to write I find it a little bit easier to write it than I do draw it personally but that's that can also set me up for failure when I actually get to doing pages if I'm not doing ah prose rather than comics so you know um okay so

08:54.20

Claire

Mm-hmm.

09:16.61

Rae

Our next question is, what are your favorite examples, from your work or others, of engaging beginning techniques? And what kind of approaches have you seen that you find disengaging?

09:31.51

Rae

What about you, Bob?

09:34.41

Bob

You know It's actually pretty hard for me to narrow down what I think are the best or you know the most engaging approaches I've seen because there are actually so many different ways that you can do it and be engaging. I feel like it's so dependent on the genre you're writing and also what you kind of value and want to show as a creator. Like what what you guys are talking about just recently about hooks, I feel like a lot of people think that a hook has to be like a plot element that kind of, you know, sets off the story and sets things in motion. But a lot of times a hook can be, you know, the thing that makes you latch onto a character or like just a joke that is so funny that you're like, oh, well I really like this writer's vibe and I want to see more of it.

10:20.58

Claire

Mm-hmm.

10:31.28

Bob

I've also, I mean, a hook can even just be really gorgeous atmospheric panels that, you know, establish that you're really like amazing artist and someone just wants to see more. And that's a little tricky because, um you know, and,

10:48.16

Bob

A lead in with a lot of atmospheric panels where you're not necessarily seeing something happen. Ah It can be tricky because in a webcomic format, if you are releasing pages one at a time and nothing is quote unquote happening, then a lot of readers will lose interest. But at the same time,

11:08.52

Bob

If you're reading all those pages in one sitting, they go by in a flash and that's the experience that binge readers have. So a lot of times a good way to mitigate that that I've seen is people just, you know, doing like a 15 page dump at the beginning where they release, you know, if they have an opening that runs a little slower,

11:28.02

Bob

They just release more pages with their initial update and then all of a sudden the reading experience is entirely different. So what could have been a disengaging opening with this really slow buildup where nothing is necessarily happening suddenly becomes something that sets the tone, sets the mood and actually goes by really quickly for a reader.

11:48.76

Bob

So I think there are a lot of different ways that an opening can be approached. Those are just some of my initial thoughts. I'm kind of curious to hear what you all have to say about that too.

12:02.81

Rae

All right. What about you, Claire?

12:05.72

Claire

Gosh, my two go-to examples are polar opposites of each other in terms of like tone and method and kind of the general feel.

12:18.38

Claire

The first is it's a webcomic called Necropolis. Um, it's, it's been on hiatus for a very long time now and I miss it dearly, but the way that it starts is actually kind of like the polar opposite of what I usually like, which is again, like, and in the beginning there was a world a sort of like a lore dump thing.

12:40.30

Claire

But the way that it's drawn is so beautiful. Like, it's less about the information, I guess, being conveyed by the words and the fact that, like, this is an exposition dump.

12:52.79

Claire

And it's more just, like, we're bringing you into this art style and this general feeling of, like, this is a world that is, like... It's a world that's kind of on the borderline between the living and the dead. There's lots of mystery, magic, um I guess, a lot of necromancy.

13:14.16

Claire

So you're looking at this art style and you're getting this sense of like, everything is kind of old and faded and very important and powerful. And it feels grand just from that initial page. And like, I'm not one to normally be like, Oh, yeah, you can start your story with like, here's the legends of the world. Like you, you can do that. But I think, I think it's the way that you do it, that makes it particularly interesting. like Anybody can do it, and most of us do need to at least establish like some backstory as we go along.

13:53.80

Claire

But I find that if you can do one thing with it that's really unique, like either... I guess who's telling the story or what kind of art style is being used to convey it.

14:05.57

Claire

If it's a different art style than the rest of the comic, if the tone suddenly shifts as soon as it comes out of the exposition, like you can do so many different things with it. I think playing it straight is probably a little bit more boring, but sometimes you also just need to be like, Hey, This is the world. This is how it works.

14:26.27

Claire

Anyway, let's continue. But I do always think there is a way to jazz it up. um So that's one example. The other one, polar opposite, I've talked about this comic on this podcast before, but um it's called The Meek.

14:40.30

Claire

And it begins with kind of this serene jungle scene. Everything is quiet and beautiful and the art style is... very painterly and oh, it's so calm and nice and then a girl just runs butt naked through the scene and you're just like, what?

14:58.15

Claire

Oh my god. What just happened? Two too complete polar opposite sort of situations where one one is taking itself very seriously, the other one also eventually takes itself seriously, but kind of like slaps you awake is like, hey, wake up, this is going to be weird and different. And you're like, oh, okay, I'm here.

15:18.22

Claire

I'm here for it. So I think, kind of like Bob said, like, there's, there's a lot of different ways to start. And you can do the same thing wrong both ways.

15:30.12

Claire

A lot of it will just depend on kind of the story surrounding it, the tone that you want to set up, And I guess even, yeah, kind of more physical elements like art style and writing style and all of these other things. So I love those two. It's just like, I love them both equally, but for completely different reasons. And yeah, I find that comics that start, again, way too quickly, like you don't you don't even have an establishing shot. You don't know where you are.

16:00.32

Claire

You don't know who these characters are, but there they are. I don't know... anything about them. Like, yeah I think, I think you can get away with it sometimes, but I think taking that time focusing on kind of what, why are you making this comic? What's, what's a part of it you really want to highlight at the start and kind of focus on that as like, it doesn't necessarily need to be a hook for the reader, but for you, it can kind of be like,

16:30.82

Claire

I'm bringing you into this idea of mine. And this is, in my mind, the best way to start it. So, yeah, those are my examples.

16:43.69

Rae

See, I personally am a sucker for openings that make you ask questions, personally. Because I think that's a good way to garner interest and have the hook.

16:57.44

Rae

And it's just... and also it's just it tickles my brain in a nice way, I think. So like a couple of comics I've read recently, there is Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.

17:15.03

Rae

And how does it start? It starts at the end of an adventure where the main characters have already defeated the Demon King.

17:26.08

Rae

So you have to ask the question, well, what comes after that? And that's essentially the start of the actual story. And then there's this horror manga.

17:40.69

Rae

It actually started out as a online manga and then eventually got published. And it's called The Summer Hikaru Died. And it actually starts out with your typical mundane mundane life and conversation and stuff.

17:57.96

Rae

And then...one of the things I found interesting is it's actually after the inciting and incident which spoilers hikaru died. The main character just turns to hikaru and asks you're not really hikaru are you and this gives an immediate tone shift and that's where the story starts and I think it's just absolutely amazing. And probably another one that most people are probably familiar with is Madoka Magica, which starts off at the climax of the story.

18:42.43

Rae

And you're just like, what's going on? And then it goes to the actual beginning where the main characters are going through their mundane lives. And I think that just sets the question ah well, how does it get to what it was at the start?

19:00.83

Rae

So that immediately sets up for intrigue. And then it goes to the mundane, to show what their lives were like before.

19:13.38

Rae

So I do, those are the kinds of beginnings that I really like because it gets you asking questions, wondering what's going on and just kinda, it really helps you pull into the story.

19:30.16

Bob

Yeah, really love that example because it's one of the things that I think is super effective in long form storytelling in general, which is that element of contrast, which we kind of talked about a little bit before, just the whole like, this is what the mundane looks like versus this is what's going on and why it's different and why you should care.

19:52.46

Bob

And I feel like seeing characters exist in both of those contexts tells you a lot about what makes them tick and what's important to them and and you know just really says a lot in a very simple frame.

20:09.19

Bob

So yeah, that's also an example of an opening that I love and think is very effective.

20:17.33

Rae

Yeah, it's that unexpectedness, I think, because it catches the reader off balance it makes you want to know more, essentially. And that is probably one of the things that I found interesting about Claire's original opening is it got you to ask those questions.

20:39.54

Rae

I can see why the prologue is perhaps perhaps more effective in being added to it but I did really like that well this character is dead how did she die we don't know so yeah

20:55.37

Claire

Yeah, I thought initially that it would be a little bit clearer. And I guess I guess if you are making a webcomic, there are a lot of things that you're... It's probably best to ask somebody just to be like, hey, is this clear to you?

21:13.33

Claire

Am I losing my mind? Is this not perfectly understandable? Because there are some times that... like you think that it's perfectly clear and then somebody's just like, actually, I have no idea what's going on. And oh you don't know that right off the bat. And sometimes, you'll have somebody be like, oh, I yes, I totally understand it. Sometimes they just won't. I think what the prologue did for me was it opened up the world to more readers because I think you'll, you'll have some readers that engage with,

21:48.64

Claire

Again, that mystery element, like, how did we get here? Who are these characters? You'll have some people engage with that. But I've learned far more that, like, you have those people, then you have ones that are like, ooh, pretty art.

22:00.51

Claire

Then you have ones that are like, ah oh, gosh, are there characters that I can see kiss someday? Like, they... There are all sorts.

22:09.89

Claire

And I think you don't have to cater to everybody. But I think if your story has enough elements where you're like, I could probably convey like several different things with this particular opening, like anything that can do double if not triple duty, I think is giving you the best chance of... like It's not even a matter of like making your webcomic successful or anything. it's just It's just opening it up to more kinds of people where you're like, if you like this, here's a little example of this. If you like that, here's a little example of that. like

22:46.66

Claire

I think I had locked it off to the mystery element, which I think is still like the driving force of the comics. So it was not like the wrong choice, necessarily.

22:58.25

Claire

But I do think it is a better choice to... like the new prologue still presents mysteries, but it also presents characters and it presents an actual like outer view of what the world is like rather than just like, bam, we're underwater.

23:13.10

Claire

This girl's dead. What's going on? Like, we can see what happened to her and how she got there. Like, even just the tiniest rewind. And I, yeah, ah I still I'm still fond of where I started because to me that made sense. But it doesn't make sense to everybody. And that's totally okay.

23:34.31

Bob

Yeah.

23:34.60

Rae

Yeah, it's like exactly who you want to be your audience can affect that.

23:39.68

Claire

Mm-hmm.

23:43.54

Bob

Yeah, I also think one of the interesting things about the mystery opening is that if you have found a way to kind of establish trust with the reader base, you can kind of get away with more and leave more questions unanswered right up front. So for example, if this isn't your first webcomic, if people have read you before and know that you can tell a story and follow through,

24:06.37

Bob

Or if there's if you have like a big readership already and people are saying, oh, you got to read this webcomic, it's so good, then everyone new coming in will say, well, even if I don't understand everything right off the bat, I've been told this webcomic is good, so I'm going to trust it and give it a little bit more time.

24:26.51

Bob

I think it's a little more challenging when it's your first. And so sometimes ah it helps to just take a little bit of a different approach depending on whether it is your first, whether you do have that established trust already. And the nice thing is that you can build trust pretty quickly. so So once once you've shown that you followed through on some interesting plot points, um you know or just you know hooked the reader in some way, then a lot of times,

24:55.38

Bob

you have a little bit more leeway to take risks.

25:00.53

Rae

Yeah, that's a good point. It's all about establishing trust with the reader. And some of that does come from word of mouth. Like, I know a lot of people read Unsounded and recommend it every time.

25:16.40

Rae

But it does have a rather slow start, all things considered. The main plot isn't even really, like, like all that apparent in the first chapter so you really have to trust that the creator knows what they're doing and that your friends know what kind of story you like and so on so

25:40.06

Bob

You have to trust your friends too, yeah.

25:42.98

Rae

I have learned that I don't trust certain friends to have the same taste as me, so that's definitely a thing.

25:51.18

Bob

That's fair.

25:56.04

Rae

Alright, so... Our final question is, what is your advice to someone who is trying to write or rewrite an engaging beginning that doesn't know how to go about matching it to their story?

26:17.55

Bob

Well, I think there are a few things that someone can think about. One of them I would say is, and I think this is kind of the most important thing, is what is it that you want to say with your story and what is it that you want your readers to care about?

26:36.91

Bob

And whatever your beginning is, if you have that goal in mind of what do I want my readers to care about, then I think it can become a little easier to figure out what elements you want to focus on in your opening. One of the things that I kind of like to say is that an opening is as much about drawing in the readers you want as it is about pushing away the readers you don't want.

27:07.80

Bob

My webcomic opens in a pretty gay way.

27:07.88

Claire

Mm-hmm.

27:13.29

Bob

And I do that on purpose because it's kind of an important element of the plot. And I would rather have people know what they're getting into upfront. And for a lot of people, it's a big selling point. And then for a lot of people, you know you don't end up with people sticking by you and then suddenly realizing, oh, this isn't what I thought it was going to be and I hate it.

27:32.30

Bob

So I think that in the same way, if you're having a slower kind of literary type opening, you're, you're probably going to push away some people who want a light and fluffy genre story. And that's a good thing because you actually maybe don't want those readers.

27:48.98

Bob

I think the other thing, which I kind of touched on before, but I would just mention it one more time, which is that um a release schedule is part of the pacing of a webcomic, and you can always um tweak it to make your opening, you know, feel faster maybe than it really is. And just always consider both your weekly readers and your binge readers. And I think, you know, making sure that the experience is going to be enjoyable and intriguing and feel at an appropriate pace for both types of readers is generally a good idea for webcomics.

28:36.25

Rae

That is a good idea. It just sets expectations. And I definitely think that opening things up in a gay way is good for a lot of us. I know that even though I was advertising one of my comics as a BL...

28:56.69

Rae

A lot of people got really upset when the guys were kissing the guys. So...

29:01.51

Bob

Oh, wow.

29:02.36

Rae

Yeah.

29:02.71

Claire

Really?

29:03.65

Rae

Yes. It baffled me. But I guess some people don't actually read.

29:10.25

Claire

Oh, gosh. so

29:13.13

Rae

And I do think that... Just setting those expectations right up front and center so they can hop as soon as possible is usually a good way to go.

29:30.12

Rae

All right. What about you, Claire? What would you give advice to someone who's trying to write or rewrite a beginning?

29:38.98

Claire

I think I want to highlight the thing Bob said in terms of, like, if you're just starting a webcomic and you don't have the trust of a readership, I actually would recommend either, like, saving your pages and working on them just on your own. Like, as soon as you finish page one, don't post it.

30:00.68

Claire

As soon as you finish page two, don't post it. Like, make, make kind of a mini episode just for you, because if you've never done this before, and this is what I did, and unfortunately, the first chapter took me three years, don't do that.

30:16.20

Claire

But it worked out eventually. But what was good about it was I I was able to, number one, go slowly, where I had this initial idea for,

30:28.38

Claire

chapter one for a first scene where I was like, I want to draw this. This is how I know I want it to be. But I also, I wanted to give myself time to think about the world because I had not thought about every aspect of it. And a lot of web comics is, it is kind of a figuring out process if you've never done it before. And if you've never written anything long form,

30:54.70

Claire

either professionally or even just as a hobby before. like You're going to be kind of discovering things as you're creating it. And I find that there's a lot of webcomics. Actually, oh I'll rephrase that.

31:09.29

Claire

Every webcomic has some element where the creator started it at the start, and then basically found something else in it that they either wanted to say or that they didn't realize, like, oh, the comic is actually saying this.

31:25.45

Claire

Or this character, I want them to actually end up like this and have it be a thematic thing. Like... giving giving yourself the ability to number one, like start slowly and please let your thoughts pickle, really, like you'll thank yourself later.

31:44.34

Claire

But then also giving yourself the ability to go back and kind of reinvestigate the beginning with new context of like, you know, even if you're 30 or 40 pages in, you could have discovered something brand new about what you want to do with the story.

32:04.89

Claire

So honestly, like people that are afraid of going back, changing the start, adding, removing things like, please don't be like if there's any medium that allows for this kind of editing it's web comics and you'll find like if even if you've got readers that did like the original opening like if you add a few pages just to add context about you know here's where we are here's more information about this character like people are

32:36.27

Claire

I don't think people are going to generally complain because they are they usually are just getting stuff that they already know, but more so they they know like, okay, now now people that don't think exactly like I do, they're going to be getting this information and then we can still talk about the webcomic. like You're opening it up to a new kind of audience and you're also solidifying it for yourself.

32:58.57

Claire

So I guess leaning into that sense of discovery writing, or drawing, as it were, like, that's something that really helped me. And I knew it was going to happen anyway, as I went along, just because, I don't know, I don't have everything figured out from the start. I have the basic big things, but not everything.

33:17.29

Claire

So allow yourself the ability to figure out what you're making later in the process. And I think going into it, knowing that you don't have to start out perfectly is freeing.

33:32.64

Claire

And there's nothing wrong with going back and basically just making it more of what you meant it to be.

33:43.23

Claire

i think that that's the best way of doing anything this long form and this kind of mysterious. So let the process guide you.

33:53.60

Claire

That's my advice.

33:57.58

Rae

I do think that's a good point as a lot of us are still evolving, especially since web comics take such a long time. So we have to essentially adapt to that and maybe what was initially a good beginning for your comic when you started is no longer so five years down the line you have different themes that you're exploring so you can just go and pop in a few pages in the beginning to recontextualize that your comic what what your comic is essentially now for me I think my advice is you need to be excited about your beginning

34:49.53

Rae

I've seen so many beginning creators go, oh, I just have to get past this boring part before the stuff in my comic starts.

34:58.59

Claire

Mm-hmm.

35:02.26

Rae

It's like, no, you don't. Start where you think. think is best for you to start if that's in the middle of a battle and everyone is dying and everything that's going to get you excited but that might also get the reader excited you can always do a flashback to to potentially ground the readers where they are if you want even like five minutes after after the battle ends or whatever

35:35.72

Rae

But you really need to be interested in what is happening because usually often the reader can actually tell if you're just phoning in.

35:52.96

Bob

That is so true. And it's actually like a really important point that I, you know, hadn't really considered, which is, it's crazy that I hadn't considered it, but like the first person you have to hook is yourself essentially.

36:07.05

Bob

Because you're in it for the long haul. And um if you can't stick with it, it's hard to ask anyone else to. And, and you know, so much of webcomics is run on just how much passion do you have for this? How much do you love it? And that's what gets you through to the next section.

36:23.37

Bob

So yeah, 100%.

36:26.71

Claire

I think there is kind of a check that does need to happen in a case like that, because I do see some people start with just a character, but it's a character that they're really excited about, but either like they've had this character for a long time, they...

36:43.87

Claire

like they think this character is just like the coolest thing ever. And like, here he is, my Blarbo. But the audience might not know what's going on like with him or I guess anything about his story. Like you, I think as an author, you do have to like step back and say, okay, I want to start with this really cool thing. And I think that's extremely important too, because the reader can feel how excited you are about drawing or writing this particular thing.

37:14.13

Claire

But I think we're, there does need to be a little bit of a check of like, okay, does this make sense? Or am I just really excited about it? Like, I know I had that problem with stories that I was writing as a teenager where I couldn't really step outside of myself to be like, okay, if I were just some other person on the street, would I be able to understand what's going on?

37:38.41

Claire

Is there enough context of like, this is why this matters, or like, all these sorts of things where I, I would not want it to, like bog down the process at all.

37:49.10

Claire

But I do think there are some people that do start just with the thing that they think is coolest or most visually appealing but they they need to I guess consider maybe a sense ah a sense of like accessibility where like if you were not you what would you think is happening here and that's that's I think where you can get good things out of like critique or even just like running the first three pages by a family member just being like do you understand what's happening here even if it's not for you do you understand it

38:22.89

Claire

And I think the understanding part is a big part of it. So excitement plus clarity, that's a good opening.

38:31.50

Rae

Yeah, I definitely do think that it needs to be revealing in some way. You have to reveal something about the character, something about the world.

38:41.95

Rae

there There has to be some sort of grounding aspect to a beginning because otherwise the reader will just be confused and lost, so which I mean, while sometimes that is necessary for a story, especially depending on the genre, it does have to have some point where the reader can kind of rest and think about things.

39:08.42

Rae

with the information that they are gradually getting. So I definitely do think in this case an outside opinion does very much help having better readers or a community or critique and whatever. But um yeah, but the main thing is you do have to be excited. If you see that it's a mess later, just go back and clean it up a little bit while no one's looking.

39:39.38

Claire

yeah Bye.

39:40.94

Bob

Yeah, yeah, I think that the difference between a comic you write for yourself and a comic you write to share with others is always just, you should be excited in either case. It's just when you're sharing it with others, it's a matter of communication. It's like, how do I actually communicate ah to the reader that they should be excited too?

40:00.72

Bob

And um if you're able to do both things, I think it's the best of both worlds.

40:25.27

Rae

All right. Well, I think that is a goat cheese and roasted red pepper wrap. Thank you so much for listening. I've been your host, Rae, and you can check out my work at EmpyreanComic.com or Overlord of Ravenfell on Webtoon.

40:44.37

Bob

And I've been Bob and you can find me at intothesmokecomic.com and demonoftheunderground.com.

40:52.85

Claire

And I've been Claire/Clam. You can find my work at phantomarine.com.

40:58.44

Rae

All right. I would say that is a good end to beginnings.

41:03.50

Bob

I like that too.

41:03.44

Claire

I like that. That's good.

41:07.13

Rae

All right. Let us stop.